Dream animals

ANIMALS 

The animals in my dreams are very interesting - a lot more interesting than real life animals it seems sometimes. I remember one dream in particular where I was out in a field like an abandoned traveller caravan site. It was strewn with garbage and old cookers other things. Out of nowhere appeared a lion and a tiger coming from different directions. As they approached me I felt that these majestic creatures would not harm me unless I caused them want to harm me. As they got closer though it quickly became apparent that any of my notions of majesty and not killing-me-ness were misplaced. The tiger started to grip my arm in his mouth and began to apply pressure and pull on my arm. I thought I was done for in the dream but at that point a car came out of no where and smashed into the tiger which was holding my left arm. I puzzled over the brown Ford that had smashed into the tiger and caused a limb explosion but then it came to me. It was the car that had been driven by the aborigine in the Australian film Red Hill. The link with the film is interesting because the aborigine is starts out as a serial killer who comes back to devastate this rural outback community after his escape from prison. In this film the protagonist is a young cop who has moved to this community and is starting in the new police station. He is the butt of several jokes and is humiliated by being pressured to ride a horse while doing policing rather than driving a car. The sherriff of this community is depicted as a demagogic, no-nonsense sort of a character who immediately questions the motives of the young cop in applying for a transfer to his community. He suggests that only two motives exist either he is looking for a fast promotion or an easy ride.

The brutal approach of the sheriff elicits too much information from the young cop who reveals that his wife had a miscarriage and slightly later on that he had shot a teenager with a gun. The sheriff here seems quite invasive and not at all sensitive to this new material. Later on in the film when the plot is well under way it is revealed that the aborigine was not a serial killer at all but he had made a discovery which prevent building in the area. The sherriff burned the aborigine's house and left him for dead and had a mob rape and murder his wife. The protagonist witnesses the guilty suicide of one of those who shares in the town's collective guilt. The film ends with the sherriff at his feet and the young cop at his side. Back up arrives and the young cop urges him not to shoot the sherriff and suggests that the sherriff will be taken into custody. The aborigine shoots the sheriff and is killed in a hail of bullets. As the aborigine is dying he reveals that his late wife was going to have a new baby like the young cop's wife is going to now. Earlier in the film he had not killed the young cop and had left him tied up outside the town with a baby names book that he had found on his person.

The idea that this person's car which he had taken from one of the posse set up to kill him is interesting to me. The unlikely hero has associations to another figure from film. That figure is that of the Dark Knight. The idea of the 'hero that Gotham deserves' or being 'whatever Gotham needs me to be' is an image that appeals to me. It also brings me on to another idea of someone having to hate the haters and the destructive force of fighting evil. It reminds me of the Nietzsche quote about fighting monsters for long enough that you become a monster. The Dark Knight puts it this way -you either die a hero or you live to see yourself become a villain. It also reminds me of the speech given in A few good men where Jack Nicholson's character suggests that Tom Cruise's character needs people like him guarding freedom on a wall and that in dark places Tom Cruise's character doesn't want to admit to he in fact wants people on this wall. Another association then would be Agent 47 from the Hitman videogame series. He is a force of nature that rights wrongs. It also reminds me of the story in the Koran of Moses and the Khidr or green one. The Khidr says to Moses that he will depart from Moses if he is not ready to embrace what he, the Khidr is doing. The Khidr kills and man and damages a fishing vessel. Moses is indignant at the Khidr's actions and so the Khidr has to depart from him. Before he departs thought the Khidr explains to Moses that he damaged the vessel so that it would not be seized by force and killed the man who was going to become a terrible criminal and thus saved his family from the disgrace. It is only too late that Moses understands the actions of the Khidr who must then depart as he said he would.

In my dream then a character of this sort who cannot be seen destroys the tiger on my left and with the shock of the force I am free. The animals seems to represent primal forces although there a number of other more particular associations with each which may or may not be of some note. First of all the tiger a lot of the time seems to represent feminine energy for me. There is a pencil drawing in my house of a tiger's head emanating from the crown of a dark haired beautiful woman and I have seen pictures of Shiva the destroyer as a female with pelts of Tiger fur. Women having tiger fur associated with them particularly the scary ones is an association of mine. The Lion makes me think of the Tarot card of strength. The Tarot cards, for the major arcana represent, a kabbalistic journey through consciousness strength is number 8 on this journey from the conscious into the conscious and back out again. The lion in the card strength represents the animal forces of the unconscious and they are being tamed or domesticated by a women who is holding the lion's jaw. The association then in the dream could be to simply the unbridled forces of the unconscious because there is no woman holding the lion's jaw in the dream.


In another dream there is a cheetah cub which I have on a plane and I am bringing it home to add to a menagerie of animals that includes a big lion. Another association the cats seem to create for me is one of sexuality and predation. The young Cheetah cub is probably the most interesting of these animals and the one I find the most amiable image of the big cat series of images that I have in my dream it is the easiest to handle even though I know it will grow up to be a big cheetah it seems as though it will be more inclined towards me having grown up with me.


Another set of dream animals that uses to feature a lot in my dreams were snakes and rats. They share some of there symbolism and in Singapore for example snakes take the place of rats in everyday life. The snake and the rat are interesting images because they have many meanings. I mean often it is a simple as being sneaky or slithery or being generally roguish and self-serving. The rat is associated with the informant on criminals and the snake is associated with the temptation of Eve to eat from the tree to knowledge in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. 

The snake, however, gets a bad rap it forms the cadduceus with two snakes and is a symbol of healing and is associated with the trickster messenger God Hermes. In some gnostic versions of the Adam and Eve story the snake is the hero of the tale. The snake is associated with Kundalini energy and it also climbs the tree of life and is a symbol of intelligence and transcendence.

Nehushtan is a very interesting biblical snake in that Moses raises up this Bronze is raised up on a cross and become a thing of healing. This Mosaic serpent is then used by Jesus, possibly, to to refer to his own crucifixion. The snake and the cross then come to represent a spiritual healing from the curse of sin. In another dream I saw two snakes having sex and they produced a human baby. The snakes also then snapped at me when I was in the the corner. That image comes from seeing a pedestal/ statue with hermes on it and there was a phallus on one side. On side of the pedestal there were two conjoined snakes in a most unusual act of sexual congress. This image came from the man and his symbols book with an introduction from Carl Jung. The snake/ sexuality connection is another element that is of interest to me. Snakes employ internal fertilization and peculiar methods of sex and the way in which they have sex seems to very unusual.

The swan is another animal which has appeared in at least two of my dreams. It is another interesting image in that a swan once attacked my brother in a dream when I was annoyed at him. In another dream the swan was in a water feature. The swan is another dream image that is very interesting. The swans are monogamous creatures and they also feature in the story of the ugly duckling. They swan can also be very aggressive snap at times. The idea of unrealized beauty and faithful partnership is one that the swan evokes for me in dreams.