Happy Imbolc everyone. I meant to post this dream last night, and well…that didn’t happen. Imbolc is a wonderful Gaelic holiday which is a renewal celebration of lights, and occurs at the mid-point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. It is a time in Ireland and Scotland of yore, when food was becoming scarce and seeds were being germinated for the coming spring to be put into the ground. It embraces the Goddess Brigid, she of new beginnings, birth and fire. Candles are lit and food is left to feed the Fae, the magical fairy folk.  

This dreamer offered two very similar dreams, both revolved around volcanoes and the same family members were present in both dreams. She indicated in her email, that there have been difficulties with these family members of late. Repeat dreams are often a warning or harbinger of things to come or emotions that need to be released. They ask the dreamer to pay attention to both the content and the emotions elicited by the dream’s symbols. These types of emotional ‘triggering’ dreams often reveal our fears or self-limiting belief patterns, so we can understand and restore balance in our world.

Where Imbolc is the mid-point between coming to the end of one season, the desolate winter and the beginning of another season, the birth of spring it maintains a balance through the cycling of the year. Where volcanoes bring destruction yet ironically their ash brings new life, there is again a balance of death and life, rage and restoration. Both the lighting of fires or candles during Imbolc celebrations and volcanoes bringing the fire from within Mother Earth to the surface, are fires of transformation. I chose this dream because the dreamer needs to restore balance within herself m through the transformation of the emotions she is dealing with. 

Dream One
I was in a resort town in the mountains and I was searching for my brother, Daniel. As I was going from place to place looking for him, the biggest mountain erupted, spewing lava and ash into the air. I didn’t know it was a volcano and I was surprised. I kept asking people: “Have you seen Daniel?” I was in such a panic to find him. Eventually I went into a restaurant and a man told me he’d seen my brother walking towards the hotel at the base of the mountain. I ran up there and now the whole place is shaking with tremors and I’m coughing from fumes and can hardly see for ash. I get into the hotel and it’s now apocalyptic outside. I find not only my brother, but his wife, and my parents. We run to the multi-story carpark and my brother is insisting he can drive us out of there. But I know it’s useless. The tires are literally melting in the heat. While in the car, molten lava starts to rain down on the roof dripping through the roof in places and dropping onto our skin. It’s excruciating and we know we’re going to all die. I wake up.

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Interpretation:

I was in a resort town in the mountains and I was searching for my brother, Daniel. As I was going from place to place looking for him, the biggest mountain erupted, spewing lava and ash into the air.

A resort town in the mountains suggests the dreamer needs to find some relief. Mountains can signify obstacles one must overcome or pressing matters one needs to address. Mountains can also suggest that the dreamer needs to go to a higher level of understanding to review the underlying conditions or situation.

She is looking for her brother Daniel. Daniel in Gaelic means ‘attractive’, but in Hebrew means, “God is my judge.” And let us not forget Daniel in the lion’s den. Daniel was raised to a high degree by his master, but jealous rivals tricked his master and the king was forced to throw him into the lion’s den. At dawn the king went back hoping God had spared his friend. Daniel was alive, he said the angels had shut the jaws of the lions because “he was found to be blameless” and because Daniel had also removed a thorn (a wounding issue) from a lion’s paw, that lion protected him. What is the take away for the dreamer…those who may be jealous of her and ‘thrown her to the lions’ do not stand true before the eyes of God, because she is blameless. To remove the wound she is feeling, she must ‘learn how to tame the beast’ and speak from a place of the heart. A powerful lesson to acquire during these times of conflict.

To do that she may need to directly deal with the biggest cause of this situation in which she finds herself, (the biggest mountain erupts spewing lava and ash). There is an instigator in this story that has made a big mountain-issue out of something. The dreamer needs to find a way to handle this to rebalance her own emotions. Sometimes controlled anger is justified, should one go into it without spewing  their own rage and accusations. The lava and ash is the fallout this significant agitator has caused.

I didn’t know it was a volcano and I was surprised. I kept asking people: “Have you seen Daniel?” I was in such a panic to find him.

This suggests the dreamer was taken off guard by this person or obstacle. She did not anticipate this reaction, and she is desperate to maintain some sort of balance with her brother. She doesn’t want him to judge her.

Eventually I went into a restaurant and a man told me he’d seen my brother walking towards the hotel at the base of the mountain. I ran up there and now the whole place is shaking with tremors and I’m coughing from fumes and can hardly see for ash.

It would appear that the dreamer needs to be nurtured in some way, by her brother or others-signified by going to the restaurant. Restaurants are about receiving nourishment. The man says he saw her brother walking to a hotel; in a dream a hotel signifies a temporary situation. It is at the base of a mountain suggesting she needs to get to some level of understanding with her brother, to get to the base or bottom of this. 

Timing is important before approaching him. Shaking with tremors and coughing from fumes can suggest two things. She is not ready yet to emotionally deal with this from a centered place, because the fumes are choking her ‘voice’ and the ash is ‘not having her see clearly.’ 

I get into the hotel and it’s now apocalyptic outside. I find not only my brother, but his wife, and my parents.

Now we see all the players in the dreamscape and potentially her disturbing waking life situation. It feels ‘apocalyptic outside’, like everything outside herself is coming to an end; that there is deep change; that it is uncomfortable, frightening and a huge loss. Her brother, his wife, and her parents are all involved in this deep emotional turmoil.

I would ask the dreamer to give one word for each of those players. That is because as I have often said, everyone in the dream is themselves as well as an aspect of oneself.  In any tumultuous situation we need to see our part as well, and those words would apply to something the dreamer may need to review within herself. 

We run to the multi-story carpark and my brother is insisting he can drive us out of there. But I know it’s useless. The tires are literally melting in the heat. While in the car, molten lava starts to rain down on the roof dripping through the roof in places and dropping onto our skin. It’s excruciating and we know we’re going to all die. I wake up.

Volcanic eruptions denote tempers and significant emotional confrontations have occurred. It also has shown up in this person’s dreamscape twice now (in the other dream  she sent too), which means she is feeling significant anger. With the other players, it could mean you are wrong or have been wronged and the emotions under the surface that you are harboring need to be released. Internalized anger is never good to carry around, it impacts the balance of the heart and impairs the adrenals.

A multi-story car park signifies that everyone has their own interpretation that continues to bind them all together to different interpretations of the event. They are all in the car park, the situation is going no where, it is stationary and confined. Cars often symbolize the physical body, individuality, and moving forward, but they are all in the same car which implies that no one is taking the initiative to change this situation. 

Now the lava, the anger, resentment, emotional turmoil is impacting all of them. It is raining down on them, suggesting it has gotten out of control. Dropping on their skin, and becoming excruciating, it is affecting their out worlds (skin is our largest outer organ), and it is painful for each of them. They each know this will cause something to die, be that their love for each other, their family dynamics, or their balanced emotional actions/reactions to and with each other.

She wakes up. It is significant for her to find resolution or offer forgiveness, that is the greatest gift we can give any circumstance. But who will make that first move?  

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them– Maya Angelou 

Thank you dreamer for sharing.