We are coming into the season of Winter Solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere (Southern Hemisphere is starting Summer Solstice), as well as a wealth of holiday celebrations. Winter Solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night. It is a time to go within, to review the year’s passing, and find renewal and peace.

Solstice literally means, “stand still of the sun.” There is usually a 3-day period where the sun seems to set into the same place on the horizon. These 3-days mark a period of time where many cultural and religious traditions, past and current, celebrate the Light. The number of traditions and their celebrations are too plentiful to discuss at length, but fires or candles are lit, lanterns made, trees decorated with food for animals and birds, stories shared, dances initiated, and new intentions made.

The dark is also part of the dreamtime. In some cultures, both Solstice and the dreamtime are referred to as “time out of time.” It is in the dark night of Solstice, in the dreamtime, and in the void that things are brought into existence. The old to review and release, the new to intend and manifest.

I chose this dream because to me, it speaks of going into one’s dark places for renewal and remembering the Light of who one really is.

THE DREAM:

I am driving in the dark. It is pitch black. I cannot see where I am going. I try to put the lights on full beam, but it doesn’t seem to work. I am grateful when I see the orange glow of streetlights up ahead that enable me to see the road.

I arrive at a house the place to park is precarious and rocky, the ground is broken with holes and ruts. It is difficult to park without damaging my car or going over the edge.

I go into the house I think I am visiting these people. There is a man and a woman, their child is playing with something. I can’t remember but think one of them is depressed and that’s why I am visiting.

Other people come? Kids party?

Offered something to eat by the man. 

Told at the end the dinner I was given it had fish in it. I say it is lucky that I do not have the same reaction to fish that I do to meat.

Next morning when I am getting ready to leave, I am taking half an orange from the fridge that I didn’t eat, for my journey. 

The Decoding:

I am driving in the dark. It is pitch black. I cannot see where I am going. I try to put the lights on full beam, but it doesn’t seem to work.

When you are driving, it suggests that you are in control of your life, and you know which direction to go in next. Cars sometimes also represent the physical body. In this case the dreamer cannot see where they are going. It is pitch black, even when they turn on their “inner light”, they don’t seem to have access to clarity. The black of night also evokes sadness and sometimes fear or anger. The blackness (like its reflection on the color spectrum), is the absences of light. Delving into it also offers power, magic, and wisdom but it can be scary to get there.

I am grateful when I see the orange glow of streetlights up ahead that enable me to see the road.

This sentence shows that there is light she can count on. And that her gratitude for life has been a saving grace.  It is outside of her but guiding her forward. She has gratitude because she has learned something in navigating the darkness. The street ahead of her is lit, there is a clear direction now that she can follow.

Lanterns in dreams suggests we will be shown the way. Sometimes they shine light on things we must work with, so they can bring up emotions as they highlight where there may be danger.  Orange on the Wisdom Wheels, taught by my Seneca mentor, Gram Twylah, represent learning, perseverance, memory-recall, and lessons that come through the sense of touch (keeping in mind touch is not always welcome).

I arrive at a house the place to park is precarious and rocky, the ground is broken with holes and ruts. It is difficult to park without damaging my car or going over the edge.

I go into the house I think I am visiting these people. There is a man and a woman, their child is playing with something. I can’t remember but think one of them is depressed and that’s why I am visiting.

A house can represent different components of ourselves. Each room saying something about our mind set or offering a way to examine a part of our life. For example, a kitchen can represent how we nurture ourselves, or weren’t nurtured. A bathroom, how we have to cleanse something or release something we’ve been holding on to. A living room, as a place where we might find comfort and safety, perhaps.

In this case, to bring herself to this place feels precarious, she is on rocky ground visiting these parts of herself, this inner dreamscape. Possibly her memory has “holes” or ‘ruts’ where she gets stuck in the past, not because she hasn’t done her work, but what’s back isn’t fully remembered or is better left in the past. This is because dwelling there too long, could put her “over the edge.”

A man and woman and child speak to me of a family. I would ask the dreamer here, what was her early family life like. Was one of her parents depressed when she was young? Or was she? A big piece (because this is the most important paragraph in the dream), is what was the child playing with. It tells me she needed a distraction. If the little girl represents the dreamer, then I would suggest that what ever she was playing with, was important for her to remember, as a release, an emotional addition, or an important representation of something she took away from her childhood or left behind in that childhood. I feel this little girl aspect of the dreamer has called her back through the dreamtime to show her something important for her to remember at her current age/stage.

Because everything in the dream is what it is and an aspect of us as well, the man and woman could represent her inner parents, not necessarily her outer parents. The man within, her divine masculine protector, and the woman within, her divine feminine nurturer-what she has had to learn on her own in some fashion.

Other people come? Kids party?

Offered something to eat by the man. 

Told at the end the dinner I was given it had fish in it. I say it is lucky that I do not have the same reaction to fish that I do to meat.

This is interesting as on the one hand she is drawn to this house and into this dream because someone is depressed and on the other, she is questioning if it is a ‘kid’s party.’ Perhaps a new way of playing with something in the past that can bring a surprise. The two don’t go together, and lots of people again represent a distraction.

She is offered something to eat at dinner. Eating dinner in a dream symbolizes that she is hungry for something. And although a need is being met through food, it is merely a basic need. She is told it is fish at the end. Another question I would ask is how she didn’t know what it was while eating. Was she fed a belief as a child that wasn’t her own or isn’t hers as an adult?

Fish in dreams often symbolize self-value, feelings of needing more emotional abundance. In work related matters it can mean you are deserving of a change, whose time has come. In personal matters it can suggest you need more passion, and yet fish are cold-blooded creatures, so the dreamer might be lacking that passionate energy in her private world.

In Christian belief, the fish represents Christ (and we all know the story of the fish and the loafs-creating abundance from nothing). In astrology the fish represents the sign of Pisces-highly sensitive, attuned to others, empathetic, but needing to build boundaries so they have some safety from others neediness or requests.

Next morning when I am getting ready to leave, I am taking half an orange from the fridge that I didn’t eat, for my journey. 

It is now a new day. She is reminded again of the color orange-this is important symbolically because it is mentioned twice. This time she is taking it from the fridge, where it again is shut in the dark (that’s what fridges do), and when we open them, the light turns on. Just like Solstice, just like the info coming to us from our dreamtime, just like uncovering something from the past so we can digest it and move further into our personal journey with more autonomy or empowerment. This is a brilliant ending her dreaming self has giving her as a memory upon waking.

Thank you, dreamer for sharing so deeply of yourself. Blessings in the light of renewal during this Solstice season.