Dream Interpretation – The Marten

Most of the time, I don’t remember much about my dreams. Flashes, impressions, feelings, maybe a short “flash fiction” style scene, is usually all I carry into my waking day.

But, once in a while, I’ll have a dream so vivid, so full of senses, that I not only remember it when I wake up, I carry it around in my head for days, until I figure out what it means for me.

(This happened shortly before Xmas, too, & the dream then led me to email the Dragon, which is another story entirely)

Anyway, the dream I had just a couple nights ago, was just as vivid & full of sensory detail, & I’ve been mulling it over inside my head ever since.

In the dream, I was told by someone that “the marten you saved is inside the barn, you should check on it”.

Which to me was a confusing statement in & of itself, because I don’t think about martens much, & haven’t ever seen one, except in pictures. What is a Marten, you ask?

Not something that would have registered in my waking mind as something important, as they aren’t native to ND, where I live, so I wasn’t sure, in the dream, why the person who told me this was so specific as to the kind of creature.

So, I went into the barn, & to the stall where this little critter was curled in a great pile of fresh straw, almost sleeping, & seemingly, very relaxed.

But, as soon as I crouched down near it, it jumped up, very excited, & rushed over to me, crawling up into my arms, nuzzling me, & chittering at me quite animatedly.

I just sat there, holding this warm, vibrating furry creature, & felt totally at peace, as though it were perfectly natural to have a wild animal, related to wolverines, badgers & weasels, snuggled in my arms like a house cat.

And then I woke up.

I did some research on martens, just to satisfy my curiosity about this unexpected dream, & in reading about martens as a totem animal, came upon some surprising information that sounded completely familiar & made me laugh at myself.

Taken quotes from Spirit Animal Personalities on blogspot

SOCIAL OVERVIEW:

♦ Introverted, independent
♦ Not manipulative of people
♦ Reputation as a bit of a quiet hermit
♦ Don’t make new friends easily or often
♦ Social activity can be stressful, awkward
♦ Reserved and reclusive, but playful around friends
♦ Uninterested in people and in opening up to people
♦ Do not recognise or place themselves within social hierarchies
♦ Make for non-commital but non-judgemental and truthful friends

INTELLECTUAL OVERVIEW

♦ Very inquisitive
♦ Not perfectionists
♦ Tend to procrastinate
♦ Likes to keep options open
♦ Healthy amount of cautious
♦ Always prefer to work alone
♦ Seem disorganised and easy-going
♦ Do not function well under a spotlight

EMOTIONAL OVERVIEW:

♦ Conflict avoidant
♦ Emotionally guarded
♦ Clear comfort zones
♦ Sometimes insensitive
♦ Capable of being vicious
♦ Often passive-aggrepeople

PERSONAL OVERVIEW:

♦ Adaptable
♦ Terrtorial and private
♦ Protective of things and ideas, not people

And while I agree completely with most of these traits, & see them very clearly inside myself, I don’t agree with the part about me being non-commital towards people, & not being protective of friends.

I am fiercely devoted to the people I care about, & will defend &/or protect them with all I have in me. This includes blood family And Chosen Family. 

I’m actually better at protecting & defending others than myself. Just ask my kids, or even better, my Nephew – he who knows all the nitty gritty.  I suck at backing myself up, & will usually be the first to take blame or lay guilt on myself in any situation.

So! *briskly rubbing my hands together*

What does this dream mean for me? Well, I’ve taken it to mean that I have a new totem animal, the marten, & I need to explore this some more. I’ve already been exploring my introvert nature, & I’ve been working on accepting it, instead of treating it as though it was a problem or deficit of character.

I think this is the next logical step, really, & look forward to learning more. 

I already feel there is another Goddess/God calling me as well.  Kwan Yin will always be my Boddhisatva, but she knows I have more room in my heart for love & devotion. Love multiplies itself & expands the boundaries of the heart to encompass all. That’s the main lesson She taught me.

I’m ready to learn more.

Bring on the Dreams.

Phriday Philosophy-Waking the Dreamer

I’ve been dreaming about mirrors lately.  Oddly enough, the rooms that I walk through are covered floor to ceiling in sliding mirrors, but I don’t see my own reflection in any of them.  As though I’m not really there, or as if I’m looking through someone else’s eyes.

So, being the research geek that I am, as well as being a pagan that sets a lot of store by the internal psychological meaning behind dreams, I went and looked up what it could mean, on a dream interpretation site.

Here’s what I found:

“Mirror To dream of your own reflection in the mirror, suggests that you are pondering thoughts about your inner self. The reflection in the mirror is how you perceive yourself or how you want others to see you. You may be contemplating on strengthening and changing aspects of your character. 

To see a fogged mirror in your dream, signifies a hazy concept of who you are and confusion in your life goals. You are lacking clarity and purpose and questioning your self-identity.

Reflection To see your reflection in your dream, represents your true self; it is time to look within. The reflection may highlight both your flaws and positive attributes. Learn from your flaws and how to improve them. At the same time, appreciate your good qualities. Alternatively, your reflection indicates how you want others to perceive you.

If you see a strange figure or something other than your own reflection, then it suggests that you are undergoing some identity crisis. You are not sure about who you are anymore.”

Basically, then, I’m being told that I’m cracked, and having an identity crisis, and I’m not sure how I want others to perceive me, with a sense of being watched, while I look for clarity and purpose.

Phew.

For a minute there, I thought I was going to find out I was in real trouble!

Actually, I know this stuff, that I’m searching for something, looking for a piece of my identity, one that I thought I had a pretty good grasp on. It slipped through my fingers while I was busy looking the other way, and forgot that I had some momentum going.  I put down what I was working on, to catch up with other things, and lost the groove I’d hit.

I’ve also been working on family issues that have me pretty tied up in knots.  Not because of obvious verbal sparring, but because in my family, it’s all done around corners, in undertones, posed in inuendo and sideways cracks that have been presented as backhanded humor.

BUT, that’s not the topic of the day.

The topic of the day is Dreams – and Interpretations.

Yeah, I believe that dreams are our brain’s way of working out issues while we sleep.  I also believe that we can get messages from other sources while we dream.  Including, but not limited to, Deity, and loved ones that have passed on. 

(There are times when I really wish I had stayed with my psychology major in college, and then I remember that… oh, yeah, they would’ve hated me, cause I mix science with magick and paganism) 

Ah well, it works for me. 

90% of my dreams I feel are mostly the GIGO effect.  Garbage in – Garbage out.  It’s the flotsam and jetsam of the day’s occurrences all glommed together in a story, or in simple flashes, that flit through my brain and don’t have anywhere to stick.  They don’t mean anything, it’s just my mind’s way of filing stuff away. 

Imagine a large warehouse, full of filing cabinets.  Rows and rows of them, but no people.  Simple paper airplanes, fluttery butterflies, swooping small birds,  and little dark thunder-boomer clouds hover in the air above the filing cabinets, and drops of ideas and pictures, flowers and parachutes, errant thoughts- fall into the open drawers of the cabinets.  Drawers open and close by themselves, as the drops fall in.  Making a soft clattering noise, rather like rain on a metal roof.  This is my dreaming brain.

But then there are the vivid dreams.  The full, technicolor, scene by scene, movie length visions – that feel so real.  When I wake up, I’m not quite sure where I am, because I’m still experiencing the tail end of the dream, and wishing I could get back into it, or shake it off completely, depending on the tone and quality of the dream/nightmare. 

These are not GIGO.

These are messages, and I have to figure out what it means for me, or it gnaws at me for days, until I either have the dream again, or I research it, or work it out in my head and heart, so that I can understand it. 

I think I almost have this one worked out, after writing this post.  It helps me to put my ideas down, this place is my sounding board.  Allowing me to bounce the ideas around, get them down, and out of my head.  When I can see them laid out before me, it’s easier to understand.

A friend and I talked about seeing things in the “Gestalt” tonight.  It means seeing the picture as a whole, not as the sum of its parts.  And as I’m writing this, the Gestalt is becoming clearer and clearer, and I’m not just looking at mirrors.

The Dreamer is beginning to wake.  Just a few more minutes, please? And then I’ll get up, promise.