Ernest Hoffman, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Massachusetts, suggested in ​a 2006 Scientific American article that “…a possible (though certainly not proven) function of a dream is to be weaving new material into the memory system in a way that both reduces emotional arousal and is adaptive in helping us cope with further trauma or past stressful events.”

When learning how to “listen” to the dreamers cadence and dream imagery, Gram Twylah suggested that the dream becomes an important therapeutic emotional security mechanism of the dreamer because they are stimulated to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment (the dream).

Robert Moss, a well known dream author, postulates that “dreams are an experience into our alternate lives.” This concept is talked about at great length by a theoretical physicist named Michio Kaku in his book called, Parallel Universes. If this theory is true, then it stands to reason that we can be shown alternate images of our self, when we are ready to explore parts of our Greater Self , that might have been left behind, or not recognized/realized at all due to our childhood situation/s.

The dream offers a way for those parts of our Self to become known to us, when we are ready to explore them more actively, or embrace their potency more freely. I believe this is what this dreamer is wrestling with in the following dream.

THE DREAM:

I am in a house and the glass doors are open and there is a breeze. There is a young child with blond hair, may 4 years old. I am coloring my hair and I am about to rinse it out when I realize I have maybe 25 min before rinsing it out. The little girl wants to come into the house, but I am not ready and I want more time to be alone. The little girl goes and gets a woman and they try to get inside the house, but I am ahead of them and I close the door and lock it with a black wrought iron beautiful lock. I run to the different windows and doors so they won’t get in. It feels like they are taunting me to get in. I locked or closed everything I could. Only one door remained unlocked because I knew they were gone and I was safe.

I am in a house and the glass doors are open and there is a breeze.

Again dream symbology is both metaphoric and individual. I cannot stress this enough in my blogs. That said, houses often represent the physical body. Glass doors signify a need for a sense of openness, clarity, and a way to see past old obstructions.

Doors can be seen as a passage ways into a new phase, or level of consciousness. In a way they represent an ‘invitation.’ It is open and there is a breeze, which means that the dreamer wants to be open to something new, and the breeze is an indication of movement. It is not a howling wind, or a still-point. The breeze suggests this can be an inviting, easy, gentle opportunity.

There is a young child with blond hair, may 4 years old. I am coloring my hair and I am about to rinse it out when I realize I have maybe 25 min before rinsing it out.

Here I would ask the dreamer what happened around 4 years old in her life?  Little girls in dreams can mean happier times. They can also suggest there were fewer burdens at that time, or alternatively express a need to release burdens felt at that time. The blonde hair signifies a need to enjoy life or lighten up. Four (4) on the Wisdom Wheel is significant in terms of observing where you might be holding your self back from these experiences and learning to look at the past in a new , fresher way.

The dreamer is coloring her hair. The color and style or condition of the hair in a dream represents one’s thought process. Hair length in many traditions: Native, Samurai, Hawaiian, can signify your power. Coloring one’s hair means you wish to experience a change in how you are thinking about something, or the ideals you are currently living that may be holding you from a more empowered state of being. The dreamer does not state the color she is dying her hair, but I would ask her that in follow up questions as we decoded, as each color signifies what she is thinking or feeling.

She is also rinsing the dye (the change needed) out, which suggests that the changes or awareness she is awakening to is ready to take place, but she is not quite there yet. She has 25 minutes. So if I were to look at that numerologically, or even using the significator of the major arcane of the tarot, I would suggest two things. On the Wisdom Wheel, 2+5=7. The placement of 7 is about overcoming past injustices, and discovering where we place obstacles in the way of loving our self. The Chariot in the tarot signifies self generation, movement, moving toward a higher goal, but often that forward direction comes in fits and starts. Cheiro, a famous seer, as well as a palmist of the late 1800’s early 1900’s, gave an explanation of the vibration of the number 25, as a “frequency denoting strength gained through experience.”

The little girl wants to come into the house, but I am not ready and I want more time to be alone. The little girl goes and gets a woman and they try to get inside the house, but I am ahead of them and I close the door and lock it with a black wrought iron beautiful lock.

This aspect of the dreamer (the little blonde haired girl), is someone who is lighter, fun, possibly more trusting, and definitely more willing to help the dreamer empower her self moving forward. She is ready to return, but the dreamer still doesn’t trust this part of her inner pantheon. The dreamer still feels she is not ready; she still needs time. So the little girl gets an older woman. I see this alternate older woman, as the part of this adult woman dreamer; a part who wants to encourage the dreamer to let this little girl access for fresh experiences. She can add measure to the dreamer’s life. The little girl, knows she needs a higher authority for the adult dreamer to trust. They both try to get in, they wish to support the growth and experiences the dreamer has worked through.

Look what the dreamer does. She runs around locking all the doors and windows. There is a new direction in life that the dreamer is blocking, and further she locks the passageways towards a new path (door) and the awareness of her soul (windows), hence exposing her confusion and uncertainty to accept all the changes she has worked towards.

It’s a big black wrought iron “beautiful” lock. The block is a big one for the dreamer to overcome. It’s wrought iron, which says it’s a strong block, or a huge lack of self trust. It is black, which on the Wheel signifies she is not listening to herself (the aspects of the little girl and the woman). Although the choice is always our own, we can miss our soul’s opportunity for change, change we’ve spent years working towards under the illusion that it “beautiful and safe” to stay the way we are.

It feels like they are taunting me to get in. I locked or closed everything I could. Only one door remained unlocked because I knew they were gone and I was safe.

And here we have the illusion that the dream is trying to expose to herself through this dream. Yes, they are taunting her, because it is time to explore this part of her self. Even if she doesn’t know how to do that fully, intentionally dialoguing with them, or meditating with them, or being conscious of how they crop up in different scenarios in her waking life, will give her more information about herself. 

Gratefully she has left one door open, showing she is coming to a place where she will feel safe to be able to accept and trust these new ‘feelings’ and emotions that the little girl and the woman represent. They are not gone, that is an illusion. They simply receded to a place (her unconscious or subconscious), where they wouldn’t frighten her. They will be back, in other forms, through other symbols, in other dreams. And she will not experience ‘safe’ through how her past may still wish to control her emotions, until she allows them to enter her reality. It is what she has been working towards. It’s all in the timing.

Thank you dreamer for sharing.