Throughout my childhood, I was periodically able to remember powerful dreams that felt as if they were marking of changes in my neural patterning.
One such powerfully memorable dream was the first time I remember having a nightmare. I believe it may have even been a recurring dream for a short time, but I only clearly remember the first of these.
I was about 4 or 5 years old. I dreamt that I was living in the Keebler Elves Tree, which in my dream was a short, cartoony shrub, illuminated by a spotlight at the edge of an otherwise pitch black forest. The sky was deep dusk, with a colorful ribbon of far-off horizon. The tree looked out over a massive cornfield that stretched out of sight.
I was on the same scale as the elves. One moment, we were mingling outside the tree, and the next, rapid panic broke out amongst us. There was a thundering in the ground below us and though I could not see him, I sensed the approach of the Jolly Green Giant. But in my dream, this Giant was not so Jolly. I didn't know what he intended, but I sensed imminent danger on the part of myself and the elves.
I remember nothing beyond the impending terror that lingered even after I woke.
I can only imagine that this may have followed up a spell of exposure to T.V. and commercials, which, in my childhood home was demonized vehemently.
I remember that I was 4 or 5 because my best friend at the time, Fritz, was with me and the elves in the dream. Perhaps my mother as well.
To remember something in your dream, indicates that you have learned something significant from your past mistakes or previous experiences. The dream may also serve as a reminder of something important that is occurring in your waking life. You are so worried that you will forget something that the preoccupation has made its way into your dream.
The tree is one of the most essential of traditional symbols. Very often
the symbolic tree is of no particular genus, although some peoples have singled
out one species as exemplifying par excellence the generic qualities. Thus, the oak
was sacred to the Celts; the ash to the Scandinavian peoples; the lime-tree in Germany; the fig-tree in India. Mythological associations between gods and trees
are extremely frequent: so, Attis and the pine; Osiris and the cedar; Jupiter and
the oak; Apollo and the laurel, etc. They express a kind of ‘elective correspondence’ (26, 17). In its most general sense, the symbolism of the tree denotes the
life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is therefore equivalent to a
symbol of immortality. According to Eliade, the concept of ‘life without death’
stands, ontologically speaking, for ‘absolute reality’ and, consequently, the tree
becomes a symbol of this absolute reality, that is, of the centre of the world.
Because a tree has a long, vertical shape, the centre-of-the-world symbolism is
expressed in terms of a world-axis (17). The tree, with its roots underground and
its branches rising to the sky, symbolizes an upward trend (3) and is therefore
related to other symbols, such as the ladder and the mountain, which stand for the
general relationship between the ‘three worlds’ (the lower world: the underworld,
hell; the middle world: earth; the upper world: heaven). Christian symbolism—
and especially Romanesque art—is fully aware of the primary significance of the
tree as an axis linking different worlds (14). According to Rabanus Maurus,
however, in his Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam (46), it also symbolizes human
nature (which follows from the equation of the macrocosm with the microcosm).
The tree also corresponds to the Cross of Redemption and the Cross is often
depicted, in Christian iconography, as the Tree of Life (17). It is, of course, the
vertical arm of the Cross which is identified with the tree, and hence with the
‘world-axis’. The world-axis symbolism (which goes back to pre-Neolithic times)
has a further symbolic implication: that of the central point in the cosmos. Clearly,
the tree (or the cross) can only be the axis linking the three worlds if it stands in
the centre of the cosmos they constitute. It is interesting to note that the three
worlds of tree-symbolism reflect the three main portions of the structure of the
tree: roots, trunk and foliage. Within the general significance of the tree as worldaxis and as a symbol of the inexhaustible life-process (growth and development),
different mythologies and folklores distinguish three or four different shades of
meaning. Some of these are merely aspects of the basic symbolism, but others are
of a subtlety which gives further enrichment to the symbol. At the most primitive
level, there are the ‘Tree of Life’ and the ‘Tree of Death’ (35), rather than, as in
later stages, the cosmic tree and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil; but
the two trees are merely two different representations of the same idea. The
arbor vitae is found frequently, in a variety of forms, in Eastern art. The—
apparently purely decorative—motif of hom (the central tree), placed between
two fabulous beings or two animals facing each other, is a theme of Mesopotamian origin, brought both to the West and to the Far East by Persians, Arabs and
Byzantines (6). In Romanesque decoration it is the labyrinthine foliage of the
Tree of Life which receives most emphasis (the symbolic meaning remaining
unchanged, but with the addition of the theme of Entanglement) (46). An important point in connexion with the ‘cosmic tree’ symbol is that it often appears
upside down, with its roots in heaven and its foliage on earth; here, the natural
symbolism based on the analogy with actual trees has been displaced by a meaning expressing the idea of involution, as derived from the doctrines of emanation:
namely, that every process of physical growth is a spiritual opus in reverse.
Thus, Blavatsky says: ‘In the beginning, its roots were generated in Heaven, and
grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being. . . . Its trunk grew and developed,
crossing the plains of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first
on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched
the terrestrial plane. Thus . . . (it) is said to grow with its roots above and its
branches below’ (9). This concept is already found in the Upanishads, where it is
said that the branches of the tree are: ether, air, fire, water and earth. In the Zohar
of Hebrew tradition it is also stated that ‘the Tree of Life spreads downwards
from above, and is entirely bathed in the light of the sun’. Dante, too, portrays the
pattern of the celestial spheres as the foliage of a tree whose roots (i.e. origin)
spread upwards (Uranus). In other traditions, on the other hand, no such inversion occurs, and this symbolic aspect gives way to the symbolism of vertical
upward growth. In Nordic mythology, the cosmic tree, called Yggdrasil, sends its
roots down into the very core of the earth, where hell lies (Völuspâ, 19;
Grimnismâl, 31) (17).
We can next consider the two-tree symbolism in the Bible. In Paradise there
were the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were
centrally placed in the Garden of Eden. In this connexion, Schneider says (50):
‘Why does God not mention the Tree of Life to Adam? Is it because it was a
second tree of knowledge or is it because it was hidden from the sight of Adam
until he came to recognize it with his new-found knowledge of good and evil—of
wisdom? We prefer the latter hypothesis. The Tree of Life, once discovered, can
confer immortality; but to discover it is not easy. It is “hidden”, like the herb of
immortality which Gilgamesh seeks at the bottom of the sea, or is guarded by
monsters, like the golden apples of the Hesperides. The two trees occur more
frequently than might be expected. At the East gate of the Babylonian heaven, for
instance, there grew the Tree of Truth and the Tree of Life.’ The doubling of the
tree does not modify the symbol’s fundamental significance, but it does add
further symbolic implications connected with the dual nature of the Gemini: the tree, under the influence of the symbolism of the number two, then reflects the
parallel worlds of living and knowing (the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge). As is often the case with symbols, many more specialized meanings have
been developed on the basis of the general tree-symbolism already outlined. Here
are a few: firstly, the triple tree. According to Schneider, the Tree of Life, when it
rises no higher than the mountain of Mars (the world of phenomena) is regarded
as a pillar supporting heaven. It is made up of three roots and three trunks—or
rather one central trunk with two large boughs corresponding to the two peaks of
the mountain of Mars (the two faces of Janus). Here the central trunk or axis
unifies the dualism expressed in the two-tree symbolism. In its lunar aspect, it is
the Tree of Life and emphasizes the moon’s identification with the realm of
phenomena; in its solar aspect it relates to knowledge and death (which, in symbolism, are often associated). In iconography, the Tree of Life (or the lunar side of
a double or triple tree) is depicted in bloom; the tree of death or knowledge (or the
solar side of a double or triple tree) is dry, and shows signs of fire (50). Psychology has interpreted this symbolic duality in sexual terms, Jung affirming that the
tree has a symbolic, bisexual nature, as can also be seen in the fact that, in Latin,
the endings of the names of trees are masculine even though their gender is
feminine (31). This conjunctio confirms the unifying significance of the cosmic
tree. Other symbols are often brought into association with the tree, sometimes
by analogy with real situations, sometimes through the juxtaposition of psychic
images and projections. The resulting composite symbolism is, of course, richer
and more complex, but also more specific, and consequently less spontaneous
and of less scope. The tree is frequently related to the rock or the mountain on
which it grows. On the other hand, the Tree of Life, as found in the celestial
Jerusalem, bears twelve fruits, or sun-shapes (symbols of the Zodiac, perhaps).
In many images, the sun, the moon and the stars are associated with the tree, thus
stressing its cosmic and astral character. In India we find a triple tree, with three
suns, the image of the Trimurti; and in China a tree with the twelve suns of the
Zodiac (25). In alchemy, a tree with moons denotes the lunar opus (the Lesser
Work) and the tree with suns the solar opus (the Great Work). The tree with the
signs of the seven planets (or metals) stands for prime matter (protohyle), from
which all differentiations emerge. Again, in alchemy, the Tree of Knowledge is
called arbor philosophica (a symbol of evolution, or of the growth of an idea, a
vocation or a force). ‘To plant the philosophers’ tree’ is tantamount to stimulating the creative imagination (32). Another interesting symbol is that of the ‘seatree’ or coral, related to the mythic sea king. The fountain, the dragon and the
snake are also frequently related to the tree. Symbol LVII of Bosch’s Ars Symbolica shows the dragon beside the tree of the Hesperides. As regards the symbolism of
levels, it is possible to establish a vertical scale of analogies: dragons and snakes
(primal forces) are associated with the roots; the lion, the unicorn, the stag and
other animals expressing the ideas of elevation, aggression and penetration, correspond to the trunk; and birds and heavenly bodies are brought into relation with
the foliage. Colour correspondences, are: roots/black; trunk/white; foliage/red.
The snake coiled round the tree introduces another symbol, that of the spiral. The
tree as world-axis is surrounded by the sequence of cycles which characterizes
the revealed world. This is an interpretation applicable to the serpent watching at
the foot of the tree on which the Golden Fleece is suspended (25). Endless
instances could be quoted of such associations of symbols, full of psychological
implications. Another typical combination of symbols, extremely frequent in
folktales, is that of the ‘singing tree’. In the Passio S. Perpetuae XI (Cambridge,
1891) we read that St. Saturius, a martyr alongside St. Perpetua, dreamed on the
eve of his martyrdom ‘that, having shed his mortal flesh, he was carried eastward
by four angels. Going up a gentle slope, they reached a spot bathed in the most
beautiful light: it was Paradise opening before us’, he adds, ‘like a garden, with
trees bearing roses and many other flower-blooms; trees tall as cypresses, singing
the while’ (46). The sacrificial stake, the harp-lyre, the ship-of-death and the
drum are all symbols derived from the tree seen as the path leading to the other
world (50) (Plate XXIX). Gershom G. Scholem, in Les Origines de la Kabbale,
speaks of the symbolism of the tree in connexion with hierarchical, vertical structures (such as the ‘sefirothic tree’ of the Cabbala, a theme that we cannot develop
here). He asks himself whether the ‘tree of Porphyry’, which was a widespread
symbol during the Middle Ages, was of a similar nature. In any case, it is reminiscent of the Arbor elementalis of Raymond Lull (1295), whose trunk symbolizes
the primordial substance of Creation, or hyle, and whose branches and leaves
represent its nine accidents. The figure ten has the same connotation as in the
sefiroth, the ‘sum of all the real which can be determined by numbers’.
The tree in your dream is you. The health, size and overall quality of the tree is indicative of how you feel about yourself. This interpretation is to be made only when the tree is the focal point of the dream. Also, consider whether the tree is alive with leaves, flowers or fruit, or if it's barren. You may see trees in your dream as a part of a landscape or as a secondary symbol. At those times, consider all of the details as they may have different interpretations than the one just given.
To dream that you are having a nightmare, suggests that you are being overly indulgent and living a life of excess. You need to tone it down and allow the mind and body to rest and heal. Alternatively, the dream may mean that you are experiencing a setback toward your goals. You need to learn to take a negative and turn it into a positive.
You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such people.
To dream of being attacked with this hideous sensation, denotes wrangling and failure in business. For a young woman, this is a dream prophetic of disappointment and unmerited slights. It may also warn the dreamer to be careful of her health, and food.
Dreaming that you are having a nightmare indicates failure in business, disappointments, or decline in health. You may have been indulgent in things and need to cut back on such activities. Allow the mind and body to rest and heal.
f you have nightmares, try to understand the fears and the events in those dreams. They suggest that you might be holding on to be traumatic or guilt based conflicts. You may have a lot of powerful negative feelings that require reconciliation. If nightmares continue for an extended period of time, the individual should consider obtaining professional counselling services. Nightmares are a direct result of overwhelming feelings of fear and helplessness, or a result of an unprocessed traumatic experience. A nightmare is any dream that wakes you up because of its frightening and overwhelming images.
To dream of your childhood, indicates your wish to return to a life where you had little responsibility and worries. It also represents innocence. Alternatively, it suggests that certain aspects of your childhood has not yet been integrated into your adult personality. On the other hand, some childhood anxiety has yet to be resolved in your adult life.
Dreaming of your childhood indicates your wish to return to a life where you had little responsibility and worries. It also represents innocence. Alternatively, it suggests that certain aspects of your childhood has not yet been integrated into your adult personality. Or on the other hand, some childhood anxiety has yet to be resolved in your adult life.
A return to childhood in our dreams is not uncommon and could merely represent a wish to return to a safe and happy place, free from responsibility. But perhaps the dream is warning us to look to the future instead of remaining trapped by rose-tinted memories of the past. However, if the dream childhood is lonely and despairing, there is a strong indication that we have still to resolve something from that part of our lives.
To dream that you feel jolly and are enjoying the merriment of companions, you will realize pleasure from the good behavior of children and have satisfying results in business. If there comes the least rift in the merriment, worry will intermingle with the success of the future.
The deepest and most ancient meaning of the myth of the giant alludes
to the supposed existence of an immense, primordial being, by whose sacrifice
creation was brought forth. This cosmogonic myth was very common among
primitive and ancient peoples, and it shows how rites involving the sacrifice of
humans are an attempt to revive the initial sacrifice and to resuscitate the cosmic
forces or to reawaken, at least, their favourable proclivities (17). Now, the giant
is, in himself, neither good nor bad, but merely a quantitative amplification of the
ordinary; hence, as the case may be, there are some legendary giants who are
protectors and others who are aggressive. This sense of the giant as ‘that which
surpasses’ human stature (here symbolic of power and strength), is also indicative of the broad significance of the giant. He may be an image of the ‘Terrible
Father’, arising from childhood memories—children see their parents as giants—
or an image of the unconscious, the ‘dark side’ of the personality menacing the
Jungian Selbst (21), etc. It is interesting to note that in folklore the giant is tutelar
in character: he is usually the defender of the common people against the overlord, upholding their liberties and rights. Without generalizing, one implication of
the giant may be said to be the personification of collective Man—as implied in
the maxim ‘united we stand’—or of the life of a community (16). But the general
myth of the giant is far from being confined to this specialized meaning. In nearly
all symbolic traditions, he tends to appear as an outcropping of the marvellous
and the terrible, even though he always has a certain quality of the inferior or the
subordinate about him. The Bible refers to Goliath and to Og, king of Bashan at
the time of the exodus (46). Samson has certain characteristics of the giant. In the
West, Bodo, Rübezahl, Geryon, Gargantua and Hercules are the most significant
in gigantomachy; in Greek tradition, there are the Titans and the Cyclops. Christian tradition has often seen Satan as a giant (50). The tragic hero is intimately
linked with the giant, although, at times, in inverse relation as his adversary (60).
Frazer describes the numerous cases in which giant figures in wood or wickerwork were set fire to during midsummer festivals, comparable with the Valencian
fallas (or bonfires). The ancients would fill these figures with animals and even
live men, who were burnt with the effigy. They were considered as representatives of the spirit of vegetation, or of the god sacrificed to the world—which
brings us back once again to our cosmogonic interpretation. The giant may be a
symbol of ‘everlasting rebellion’, of the forces of dissatisfaction which grow
within Man and determine his history and his destiny; it may, that is to say, be a
symbol of the Universal Man (Adam Kadmon, 21). Now, according to Jungian 119 GOG AND MAGOG
psychology, the giant’s essence—or his appearance, rather—seems to correspond to the father-symbol, representing the spirit that withstands the instincts,
or as the guardian of the treasure (that is, the mother—the unconscious), in which
case it is identical with the dragon-symbol. Reviewing all this, Jung quotes the
example of Humbaba, the guardian of the garden of Ishtar in the Gilgamesh epic
(31).
To see a giant in your dream, indicates a great struggle between you and your opponents. You are trying to overcome an overwhelming obstacle. Alternatively, a giant symbolizes an issue, a person or a feeling that is dominating you. You are having an inferiority complex.
To dream that you turn into a giant, indicates feelings of inferiority.
To dream of a giant appearing suddenly before you, denotes that there will be a great struggle between you and your opponents. If the giant succeeds in stopping your journey, you will be overcome by your enemy. If he runs from you, prosperity and good health will be yours.
Great difficulty to be encountered. But meet it with boldness. Then it will vanish.
This indicates that you will have an enemy of the most dreadful character.
Seeing a giant in your dream means of a great struggle between you and your opponents. This may prove to be a major and overwhelming obstacle for you to overcome. Alternatively, a giant may be symbolic of an issue or feeling that is dominating you. Dreaming that you turn into a giant indicates feelings of inferiority.
To dream that you feel terror at any object or happening, denotes that disappointments and loss will envelope you.
To see others in terror, means that unhappiness of friends will seriously affect you.
To dream that you are in terror, indicates unresolved fears or doubts that needs to be confronted.
Dreaming that you are in terror, represents your lost of trust in others.
To dream that you are in danger, suggests that you need to be more cautious in some aspect of your life. Alternatively, your negativity and pessimistic attitude is causing you to be depressed about the future.
To dream that you escape from danger, signifies that you will rise to a place of high position and honor in your business and social circle.
To dream of being in a perilous situation, and death seems iminent,{sic} denotes that you will emerge from obscurity into places of distinction and honor; but if you should not escape the impending danger, and suffer death or a wound, you will lose in business and be annoyed in your home, and by others. If you are in love, your prospects will grow discouraging.
Dreaming that you are in danger and are wounded or killed means substantial losses in business and discouraging prospects in love. You need to be more cautious in some aspect of your life. Dreaming that you escape from danger means that you will rise to a place of high position and honor in your business and social circle.
If you are in a dangerous situation in your dream, you may consider this a sign from your unconscious. Take the hint and pay closer attention to your finances, business matters, health, and things in general. If you faced the danger in your dream, it may be a positive sign and an indication that you are capable of overcoming current obstacles.