As always, the feelings that the dream’s images evoke in the dreamer become the most important information for the dreamer to assess. Short dreams have nothing to do with impactful or important dreams. Sometimes the dream’s brevity is way to inform a dreamer using clear symbolic associations to awaken them to information they’ve compartmentalized or simply forgotten.

I have chosen this dream to use it more as a lesson of the import of what brevity can impart, and  what childhood suggestions bubbling up, can illicit.

Dreams can be influenced by many things. Did you eat before you went to bed? Did you have a fight with someone? Are you stressed out? Did you watch something on television that is influence the dreams symbols? Is there unfinished business at work, with family, with partners? Have you been sleeping or not sleeping well lately? Are you ill? Did you take something to help you sleep? Etc.

In this dream it appears that there is a childhood memory trying to come to the surface that may be repeating in some fashion or another for the dreamer to associate in their current life experience. It doesn’t have to be bad, good, or indifferent. It can merely be information from the unconscious or super conscious to help resolve an issue one is re-experiencing.

Because this is a short dream, I am always curious about scent, colors, numbers, and expressions, as signposts to decode.

It’s interesting this dream was noted by the dreamer as happening on August 1, 2022. That was a huge astrological mashup between Mars (action/fiery/determined to move energy), Uranus (out of the blue/spontaneous/not planned realizations)) and the north node (a karmic push to grow/evolve/empower). Let’s see how this unfolds.

Dream: August 1, 2022

This is a very short dream without a lot of details, so I don’t know what you can make out of it. I remember two feelings. First, I knew I was little in the dream, but I was also watching it as the adult me. Second my dad has been dead for 33 years.

I am sitting on a couch, or maybe sitting up on my bed. I sense it is me, but when I was very young. I can’t see me in the dream, but I can just feel it’s me. There is a cupboard across the room, and as I look up, a rat and a mouse come out from under it. They are both brownish gray in color. The rat is eating something, maybe bread or cheese, but the mouse isn’t. The rat isn’t as big as a city rat, and in my mind, I know ‘they’ bred it or cloned it with the mouse to be that size. I don’t know who ‘they’ are. I am screaming for my dad to come help, that there is a rat and a mouse in the house.

The Decoding:

I am sitting on a couch, or maybe sitting up on my bed. I sense it is me, but when I was very young. I can’t see me in the dream, but I can just feel it’s me.

Sitting on a couch or bed is reminiscent of family, comfort and sometimes trust. Not all family situations obviously illicit trust, but normally a couch or bed symbolize the ability to relax.

The dreamer already recognizes this is something from childhood. She senses she is both the observer and the observed. The most important thing here is that the dreamer is aware of her younger self, meaning the younger self is trying to show her something. She can feel it.

This becomes some symbolic memory from her past that is trying to bring to the surface, possibly to help her in a current life situation or possibly to release an emotion that she has suppressed and now needs to deal with due to a current life situation.

There is a cupboard across the room, and as I look up, a rat and a mouse come out from under it.

A cupboard is a place of storage. It could be a place the dreamer has stored her good memories or things she never wanted to address. Cupboards are also places where many things are placed-plates, napkins, utensils, a buried family problem, things stored away until you can better deal with them or, or skill sets you can’t embrace until later in life. But essentially cupboards are old, not something used today, so signifying things from the past.

A rat and a mouse come out from underneath. Underneath suggests the unconscious. Rats are a loaded symbol. They can mean dirty, scary, jealousy, greedy, a warning, intrusive, debris, caution, unworthiness, deception, inner fears, etc.

According to Gram Twylah (who I often quote because she was such a strong mentor for me for so many years), mice also represent many things-scrutiny, inventiveness, family, security, instincts, curiosity, bravery, and adaptability.

They are both brownish gray in color. The rat is eating something, maybe bread or cheese, but the mouse isn’t.

Both symbols however point to two concepts or truths, one needs to assess or consider. On the Cycles of Truth, again something I often speak about, brown stands for organizing one’s truth and gray stands for assessing where one isn’t honoring oneself. Taken from another perspective, brown symbolizes the earth, something that is solid, dependable, and secure, Gray can be neutral, undefined, even under nourished in need of life force energy.

The rat is eating but the mouse is not. One is being sustained, the other is not. Did something in the family make this dreamer unsure of herself and her worth? Were there jealousies or deceptions in the family that were hidden to their outer appearance in the community? Did that make her feel secure, or undernourished; a need to be brave in the family situation or perhaps adapt to survive? These are questions I cannot ask the dreamer in the decoding process; I can only pose them for the dreamer to consider.

Ironically cheese symbolizes something that can make us sleep better (tryptophan) or can indicate happiness, and bread symbolizes something that is nurturing and satiates hunger. The mouse isn’t getting nourished, nurtured, and thus needs to adapt to survive.

The rat isn’t as big as a city rat, and in my mind, I know ‘they’ bred it or cloned it with the mouse to be that size. I don’t know who ‘they’ are.

This is an interesting part of the dream. The dreamer (both the child and the adult observer), know that in the family they are expected (bred) to be part of the family even though they don’t understand the circumstances of why things are like they are, nor in all likelihood the expectations imposed upon them.

This could indicate that they are going through a current situation where they do not know why things are happening the way they are, but feel compelled to be part of the family, group, job, friend group to feel safe. But are they? Are they being nurtured, or are they following a familiar role to be safe and not scrutinized?

They are unclear of this knowing about they action/reactions, like they are unclear of the ‘they’, but should they follow the known model or rebel against it? What do they gain and what do they lose?

I am screaming for my dad to come help, that there is a rat and a mouse in the house.

Dads are often seen as protectors. She is in distress and looking for a protector to take the rat and mouse away, but we never see the dad come to her rescue, or atleast she wakes up before he might have entered the scene. As an adult she is her own protector now. Whatever is happening in her outer world where she feels she needs protection, that is not coming externally, it must be cultivated internally.

What is happening in her current set of circumstances where she may need to assess a deception or perhaps learn to nurture herself by adapting something she is experiencing in her life to feel more self-respect (gray) and more grounded ness (brown)? Brave sometimes means jumping into the void with no net, until we land and realize it was a false childhood belief that kept us from leaping.

Security cannot arise if we do not acknowledge our childhood vulnerabilities or continue to store them in a ‘cupboard.’ Opportunities arise when we scrutinize where we deceive ourselves and develop a healthier way to ground and honor our needs, then that becomes our internal protection and not an external cry for help.

Thank you, dreamer for sharing,