The train rolled onwards, through the mountains and down into the valley below. The curious houses of the inhabitants attracted my attention. Aboriginals, I thought, the original inhabitants of this land. Their houses took primitive forms yet were admirable for their beauty. One in particular caught my attention, built into the front of an enormous tree that must have been hundreds of years old.
As the train approached my destination. I prepared to exit, but the train did not stop. The conductor was denying us the ability to leave and demanding us to pay our fare a second time. I refused, speaking to him in a foreign tongue in which it seemed I possessed a preliminary grasp. The argument took us a few miles further down the line from my destination but eventually I won out and was let off the train without having to pay my fare twice.
I looked about and noticed a high bridge leading over the tracks and to a mountain pathway on the other side which doubled back in the direction from which I came. Not wanting to pay my fare again I started to climb towards the bridge. At the top of the ridge however, I was confronted by two old friends who asked me if I wanted to come eat with them somewhere along my intended path. I agreed but we were soon distracted by a young woman seated on the ground beside an enormous drum. She beckoned us to sit and handed me some sticks to try to use the drum. It was oddly shaped and unlike any drum I had played before but I soon began to get the hang of it. She took a stick and directed me, showing me the best way to hold it and where to strike it for the deepest sounds. The woman surprised me with her rhythm and the perfect phrasing of her beats. I awoke with praises still on my lips, and the rhythms in my fingertips.
A symbol of primordial sound, and a vehicle for the word, for tradition
and for magic (60). With the aid of drums, shamans can induce a state of ecstasy.
It is not only the rhythm and the timbre which are important in the symbolism of
the primitive drum, but, since it is made of the wood of ‘the Tree of the World’,
the mystic sense of the latter also adheres to it (18). According to Schneider, the
drum is, of all musical instruments, the most pregnant with mystic ideas; In
Africa, it is associated with the heart. In the most primitive cultures, as in the
most advanced, it is equated with the sacrificial altar and hence it acts as a
mediator between heaven and earth. However, given its bowl-shape and its skin,
it corresponds more properly to the symbolism of the Element of earth. A secondary meaning turns upon the shape of the instrument, and it should be noted
that it is in this respect that there is most variation in significance. The three
essential shapes are: the drum in the form of an hour-glass, symbolizing Inversion
and the ‘relationship between the two worlds’ (the Upper and the Lower); the
round drum, as an image of the world; and the barrel-shaped, associated with
thunder and lightning (50).
To hear the muffled beating of a drum, denotes that some absent friend is in distress and calls on you for aid.
To see a drum, foretells amiability of character and a great aversion to quarrels and dissensions. It is an omen of prosperity to the sailor, the farmer and the tradesman alike.
Dreaming that you are playing the drums indicates that you progress through life by your own terms. You are strong willed and stick by the decisions you make.
To see a train of cars moving in your dreams, you will soon have cause to make a journey.
To be on a train and it appears to move smoothly along, though there is no track, denotes that you will be much worried over some affair which will eventually prove a source of profit to you.
To see freight trains in your dreams, is an omen of changes which will tend to your elevation.
To find yourself, in a dream, on top of a sleeping car, denotes you will make a journey with an unpleasant companion, with whom you will spend money and time that could be used in a more profitable and congenial way, and whom you will seek to avoid.
To see a train in your dream, represents conformity. You are just going along with what everyone else is doing. Alternatively, a train means that you are very methodical. You need to lay things out specifically and do things in an orderly and sequential manner. In particular, if you see a freight train, then it refers to the burdens and problems that you are hauling around. It is also symbolic of manual labor. If you see a passenger train, then it relates to mental work. If you see or play with a model train in your dream, then it indicates that you want more control and power over your own life and where it is headed. Dreaming of trains may also be a metaphor that you are "in training" for some event, job or goal. According to Freud, a train is analogous to the male penis.
To dream that you are on a train, symbolizes your life's journey. It suggests that you are on the right track in life and headed in the right direction. Alternatively, the dream means that you have a tendency to worry needlessly over a situation that will work out in the end.
To see or dream that you are in a train wreck, suggests chaos. The path to your goals are not going according to the way you planned it out. You are lacking self-confidence and having doubt in your ability to reach your goals.
To dream that you are the engineer, signifies that you are in complete control of a particular situation in your waking life.
To dream that you miss a train, denotes missed opportunities. It also suggests that you are ill-prepared for a new phase in your life. You may be procrastinating or putting things off that should have already been completed.
Seeing a train in your dream, represents conformity and go along with what everyone else is doing. You have the need to do things in an orderly and sequential manner. In particular, if you see a freight train, then it refers to the burdens and problems that you are hauling around. Dreaming that you are on a train, is symbolic of your life's journey and suggests that you are on the right track in life and headed for the right direction. Alternatively, you have a tendency to worry needlessly over a situation that will prove to work out in the end. Seeing or dreaming that you are in a train wreck, suggests chaos. The path to goals are not going according to the way you planned it out. Or you may be lacking self-confidence and having doubt in your ability to reach your goals. Dreaming that you are the engineer means that you are in complete control of a particular situation in your waking life. Dreaming that you miss a train indicates missed opportunities or nearly escaping your death.
This dream symbol can be very complicated and its meaning is specific to the dreamer. If you normally take the train to work and it is a part of your daily experience, closer attention should be paid to the other details of the dream. Going on a train ride may be symbolic of your life's journey. If you are the driver, you may be reassuring yourself in the dream state that you are in control of a specific situation or life in general. The train could also be symbolic of your need to move on and to do things in an orderly and sequential manner.
To dream that you are paying a fare, represents the price you need to pay for success. You may be putting your work or ambition ahead of your loved ones. The dream may also be a pun on "fair" or "fairness".
According to Guénon, the Roman pontifex was literally a ‘builder of
bridges’, that is, of that which bridges two separate worlds. St. Bernard has said
that the Roman Pontiff, as the etymology of his name suggests, is a kind of bridge
between God and Man (Tractatus de Moribus et Officio Episcoporum, III, 9). For
this reason, the rainbow is a natural symbol of the pontificate. For the Israelites,
it was the sign of the Covenant between the Creator and his people, and, in China,
the sign denoting the union of heaven and earth. For the Greeks, it was Iris, a
messenger of the gods. And there are a great many cultures where the bridge
symbolizes the link between what can be perceived and what is beyond perception (28). Even when it lacks this mystic sense, the bridge is always symbolic of
a transition from one state to another—of change or the desire for change.
To dream that you are crossing a bridge, signifies an important decision or a critical junction in your life. This decision will prove to be a positive change filled with prosperity and wealth in the horizon. Bridges represent a transitional period in your life where you will be moving on to a new stage. If the bridge is over water, then it suggests that your transition will be an emotional one. If you fall off the bridge and into the water, then the dream indicates that you are letting your emotions hold you back and prevent you from moving forward. Alternatively, the bridge may indicate that you are trying to "bridge" or connect two things together.
To dream of a run-down bridge, indicates that you should not contemplate any major changes in your life at this time.
To see a bridge collapse in your dream, implies that you have let an important opportunity pass you by.
To see a long bridge dilapidated, and mysteriously winding into darkness, profound melancholy over the loss of dearest possessions and dismal situations will fall upon you. To the young and those in love, disappointment in the heart's fondest hopes, as the loved one will fall below your ideal.
To cross a bridge safely, a final surmounting of difficulties, though the means seem hardly safe to use. Any obstacle or delay denotes disaster.
To see a bridge give way before you, beware of treachery and false admirers. Affluence comes with clear waters. Sorrowful returns of best efforts are experienced after looking upon or coming in contact with muddy or turbid water in dreams.
Dreaming that you are crossing a bridge means an important decision or a critical junction in your life. This decision will prove to be a positive change with prosperity and wealth in the horizon. Bridges represent a transitional period in your life where you will be moving on to a new stage. Dreaming of a run-down bridge indicates that you should not contemplate any major changes in your life at this time. Dreaming of a bridge collapse indicates that you have let a great opportunity pass you by.
The first consideration should be given to how much you travel. The bridge can be interpreted literally if it is a part of your daily life
On a more theoretical level, bridges can symbolise transitions (e.g. transition from one stage to another, from one level of consciousness to another). Since most bridges are over water (i.e. emotions, unconscious), this dream could also be symbolic of your rising above your emotional difficulties or unconscious drives.
The material out of which the bridge is made can give an idea of the strength of your convictions. A wooden bridge can mean that you need more willpower, while a a bridge of concrete, stone or steel can mean that you have a very strong will.
In anthropology, woman corresponds to the passive principle of
nature. She has three basic aspects: first, as a siren, lamia or monstrous being who
enchants, diverts and entices men away from the path of evolution; second, as the
mother, or Magna mater (the motherland, the city or mother-nature) related in
turn to the formless aspect of the waters and of the unconscious; and third, as the
unknown damsel, the beloved or the anima in Jungian psychology. In his Symbols
of Transformation, Jung maintains that the ancients saw Woman as either Eve,
Helen, Sophia or Mary (corresponding to the impulsive, the emotional, the intellectual, and the moral) (33). One of the purest and all-embracing archetypes of
Woman as anima is Beatrice in Dante’s Commedia (32). All allegories based upon
the personification of Woman invariably retain all the implications of the three
basic aspects mentioned above. Of great interest are those symbols in which the
Woman appears in association with the figure of an animal—for example, the
swan-woman in Celtic and Germanic mythology, related to the woman with the
hoof of a goat in Hispanic folklore. In both cases the woman disappears once her
maternal mission has been completed and, similarly, the virgin qua virgin ‘dies’ in order to give way to the matron (31). In iconography it is common to find parts
of the female figure combined with that of a lion. The Egyptian goddess Sekhmet,
characterized by her destructiveness, had the body of a woman and the head (and
therefore the mind) of a lion. Conversely, a figure with a lion’s body and a
woman’s head appears in the Hieroglyphica of Valeriano as an emblem of the
hetaira (39). The inclusion of feminine, morphological elements in the composition of traditional symbols such as the sphinx always alludes to a background of
nature overlaid with the projection of a concept or of an entire complex of cosmic
intuitions. In consequence, the Woman is an archetypal image of great complexity
in which the decisive factor may be the superimposed symbolic aspects—for
example, the superior aspects of Woman as Sophia or Mary determine her function as a personification of science or of supreme virtue; and when presented as
an image of the anima, she is superior to the man because she is a reflection of the
loftiest and purest qualities of the man. In her baser forms as Eve or as Helen—
the instinctive and emotional aspects—Woman is on a lower level than the man.
It is here, perhaps, that she appears at her most characteristic—a temptress, the
Ewig Weibliche, who drags everything down with her, and a symbol comparable
with the volatile principle in alchemy, signifying all that is transitory, inconsistent, unfaithful and dissembling. See also The Loved One and Sophia.
To see a woman in your dream, represents nurturance, passivity, caring nature, and love. It refers to your own female aspects or your mother. Alternatively, a woman indicates temptation and guilt. If you know the woman, then it may reflect concerns and feelings you have about her.
To see an old woman in your dream, indicates your concerns about aging and growing old. Alternatively, the old woman may be an archetypal figure to symbolize feminine power.
To see a group of women talking in your dream, refers to some gossip.
To see a pregnant women in your dream, symbolizes abundant wealth.
Seeing a woman in your dream, represents nurturance, passivity, caring nature, and love. It refers to your own female aspects or may also represent your mother. Alternatively, it may indicate temptation and guilt. If you know the woman, then it may symbolize the concerns and feelings you have about her. Seeing an old woman in your dream indicates aging and growing old. Seeing a group of women talking in your dream, refers to some gossip. Seeing a pregnant women in your dream, symbolizes abundant wealth.
A woman or women generally represent intuition, creativity, nurturing, and love. At times they can also represent the negative attributes that are given to women and include physical and emotional weakness, gossip, martyrdom, passivity, moodiness, temptation, and guilt. The content of the dream is to be considered, as well as the emotional tone. If the dream is sexual in nature, look up sex. If the woman in your dream was a stranger and you are a man, she could be symbolic of your feminine side or your attitude about women. If you are a woman, this stranger may be symbolic of different parts of your character or personality. The woman is that force or current inside of you that nudges you on and inspires you. It is your intuition and the knowledge that in not necessarily attached to words.
To dream that you are going on strike, suggests that you are feeling under-appreciated. Perhaps you feel that you are being forced to do something that you don't really want to.
To dream that you are holding something, suggests that you are trying to control or manipulate this object. Consider the significance and symbolism of this object. Holding may also signify protection, responsibility, or possession.