A Mystical Dream
I’m a vivid dreamer. My dreams are complex, highly symbolic and often rather psychedelic. But they leave me so swiftly that I am usually only left with a vague impression. I have tried writing them down when I first wake up. But these scribbles, done while still waking up, never make any sense.
The exception to this was the three recurring dreams I had as a child. One stood out above the others. I had this dream hundreds of times.
I am playing in my garden, by the swing when I hear the loud sound of wingbeats.
I look up and a massive pelican is flying overhead. It’s 12 to 20 feet long.
As I watch it falls from the sky and lands partly on the lawn and partly on the path.
I rush over. It has a very substantial wound in its neck and is struggling to breathe.
I try to help it but it is fading from life.
I see my mum and dad standing by the house and I shout for them to come and help me.
But they just gaze into the distance.
I go back to trying to save it but feel I am failing.
Then I wake up.
I’d love to hear what any of you make of this as I have never really worked out what it was trying to tell me.
Have you ever had the same dream over and over? What do you think your dream meant?
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Yes I had recurring dreams as a child but less so as an adult, at least not that I remember very easily. My dreams a vivid and involving though, even now. I often wake up and want to get back into the dream, craving to see how it turns out. I feel that doing that affects whatever the outcome might have been though, prior to waking up. I don’t have nightmares. I actually enjoy my dreams. The older recurring dreams as a child could be considered nightmares though, but if I had the same ones now I might find them more comforting perhaps. Sorry I can’t help you with yours, I can’t even understand mine but I do relish them now.
Hi @dj and thanks for responding to my blog. I do exactly the same thing – squeeze my eyes shut and try to get back into the dream but sadly that rarely works for me. Thankfully I don’t have many nightmares. When I gave up smoking 20 years ago, I used strong nicotine patches and they gave me CRAZY dreams!
Wow! I don’t recall anything like that happening. I don’t know why I’ve more recently had such interesting dreams again. I haven’t been able to identify a cause, but I don’t mind that it’s happened.
I also think that my fondness for dreams – and how they seem mostly abstract and imaginative – emulates the way my mind works as a whole, extracting and being attracted by fictional things rather than factual ones. I’ve heard it said that dreams are part of real things, like real worries concerns or actual life, but I don’t think that’s how mine are. They might use a real life event that’s in my mind as a catalyst but the story which unfolds is pure fiction and fantasy. Perhaps this is also why I’m drawn to the same thing with movies. Fantasy and fiction are my favourite watches.
@dj That’s very interesting that you see dreams as so much more than just a regurgitation of the day’s events. I think they are amazing manifestations so that is as it should be. Have you ever managed to go one step further and engage in Lucid Dreaming where you control parts of the dream? I’ve never managed that but it does appeal to me.
I’ve time only that I can be sure of as a young teenager when I dreamt I was drowning, and I told myself that I could pinch myself and wake up. So I did it and awoke with my face buried into the pillow pinching my leg. Apart from that I don’t remember actually having any control or impact on dreams, or going to sleep and dreaming about what I wanted to.
@dj Wow! your drowning dream sounds very scary. It was clever of you to find a way to wake up. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the film White Squall but one of the characters tells himself he just has to say ”1-2-3 wake up!” to get out of a bad dream.
No but I watched something else with the same idea, except that the guy thought he was waking up whereas in fact he was dreaming that he woke up – each time! 😂
Fascinating stuff. I used to work with a Psychiatrist who was big on dreams. He believed only the dreamer can interpret. He always asked the patient to explain the emotion of the dream in detail. Then the significance for them of the people/beings and again the emotions. Then he would ask what the story might be telling them. He always got the patient sharing some interesting thoughts
@tjay That’s a very unique way of looking at it. I always felt sadness, regret and helplessness with the pelican. And quite alone.
I like you Rain and Dj have such interesting complex and busy dreams. I so want to finish, remember & understand but very rarely do.
But I have two themes amongst the chaos. One fairly easy to read sequence of imposter syndrome dreams. Im always at work, stark naked and hiding behind a chair or a door about to be discovered. Not had one of those since I retired.
The other is more interesting. Many different dreams always about massive houses with more and more rooms to discover or show people. But I know Im dreaming. I recognises houses from other dreams in the dreams. One particular house I have owned and worked on and sold and visted many times. I know exactly where it is not far from my last home. But of course its not there in reality. But this is the only sequence of dreams where I know Im dreaming and recognise things from previous dreams.
The first sequence the naked dreams were terrifying. No real emotions re the houses, its just interesting. Particularly the one I feel as if Ive maybe owned in another life
@tjay I did laugh at your naked, behind the door at work dream! The house ones, I have heard that the state of the house represents one’s own self. So if the house was tidy and cosy, you are probably ‘together’ and calm. But if the house is messy and chaotic, you could be going through some challenging times. I often dream I’m in an unstable house that sways about and is dark and has a spongey floor. Maybe this represents difficult times.
Brilliant. Nothing tidy and cosy about my houses. Huge rambling work in progress places with huge potential. Yep bit like your unstable one with the spongey floor. Bugger 🫣
@tjay One of my other recurring childhood dreams was a flying dream. I dreamt that I ran along the grass outside my house at night and discovered I could fly. I flew to my friend’s house and woke him up. But when I went to demonstrate the flying – I couldn’t do it anymore.
Brilliant but how disappointing 😂
Wish Id had the pinching yourself to wake up tip for the naked dreams. Not had one I wanted to get out of for a while now.
I don’t know if you have any siblings @Rain but, if so, it might be the simple explanation “the stork brought them”. 😊
@scorpio One older sister, but she was already there when the stork brought me! I always thought it was strange that I was dreaming about a pelican in a country that doesn’t have any.
My theory @Rain obviously wouldn’t apply re siblings but you probably didn’t know, as a small child, that there were no pelicans in Ireland. How about Herons ?
We do have herons. I have always regarded the heron as my lucky omen bird. When I see one I feel something good is going to happen. I have never linked it to my dream before though. I have two plastic herons in my garden, guarding my shed!
It is not unusual to be unable to recollect a dream upon awakening, but there has to be some significance in the recurring dream you had. Our sub-concious is a mysterious place and sometimes it is better to simply accept the situation rather than try to analyse it.
@bob_deb Yes. The mind is an amazing generator of pictures, feelings and symbols. It’s a wonderful thing.
If sleep were (as they say) a truce,
a pure repose of the mind,
why is it that, when you’re woken suddenly,
you feel as though a fortune has been stolen from you?
Why is waking early so sad? That hour
strips us of an inconceivable gift,
so intimate that it can only be translated
into a drowsiness that wakefulness gilds
with dreams—perhaps broken reflections
of the treasures of the shadow,
of a timeless realm that has no name
and that the day distorts in its mirrors.
Who will you be tonight in the dark
dream, on the other side of its wall?
JL Borges – El otro, el mismo (1964)
@Luciana Goodness ~ That’s a beautiful poem and describes very well the feeling of dreaming and waking. I love the line ‘who will you be tonight in the dark.’ Thanks so much for responding. It’s lovely to meet you.
lovely to meet you too. I looked up this author as I remember readinging that our life is a dream, our life’s whatever someone else is dreaming. Interesting hey?
I have always had crazy dreams, and I dream in color. My late husband Norman used to say my dreams were like movies. . . he rarely remembered his dreams.
Hi @JoyElaine Hmm, that’s a very interesting thing to ponder. I THINK I dream in colour. I’ll be looking out for that now! Thanks for replying.
I’ve always been interested in dreams, I had a group at one time for dreams but no one else seemed interested so I closed the group. I was in a group many years ago for dreams. I have often wondered why we dream and what the mean. One that I could never make any sense of was me operating a helicopter so I could find and save my sister. I got to where she was being held – She had been turned into green jello and the people holding her was taking big bites out of her. Figure that one out!!! lol
@Rain my husband never dreamed in color. After we had discussed dreams he did have one he remembered about very intelligent evil cows. Norman I believe always lived in larger cities. I’ve always lived around animals. Norman was afraid of cows and chickens and farm animals. I have never considered animals to be evil. lol
I often have reoccurring dreams. A pelican in a dream can symbolize themes of nurturing, sacrifice, and provision, representing both generosity and the need for self-sacrifice. The fact that you are trying to save it’s life seems to go along with that thought. Was there someone your were concerned about while you were having this dream???
That’s interesting @JoyElaine . I was just a child when I used to dream this but I did go on to be a veterinary nurse.
@Rain it sounds like you made some sacrifices to help little beings who need your help. Those are just my thoughts.