A time to dream dreams

Winter, with its long nights, is a good time for dreams-- if we want them and make some effort to remember them as we first wake. I think for dreams to become vivid takes practice and openness to them. Dreams are enjoyable as a simple experience, but they can also be our angels, spirit guides or inner self's method of talking to our waking self. It is like so many things in life-- we can take the same event at many levels. Look for meaning in life, and you find it everywhere.

Several days before Christmas I dreamed I looked out my window and three coyotes were chasing my sheep. Nobody else could help the sheep in time; so I climbed out the bedroom window in bare feet to scare off the coyotes.

In looking for possible meanings to this very vivid and detailed dream, I went to the dream dictionary. I dream every night, don't always remember them and don't bother to look most up as they are about daily living and seem obvious why I dreamed them. The dreams I seek to explore further are strong and have something about them that isn't normal. I dismissed both coyotes and sheep for having significance. Coyotes yodeled close to the house earlier that evening and I raise sheep. I was less sure whether the window mattered. While it's true I look out it frequently to check the sheep, I don't jump out of it.

So window, bare feet and three coyotes were the elements I went looking for in my favorite online dream dictionary. I have written about this before, but it bears repeating when assessing dreams. If the symbol is apparent to you in your life, you don't need any extra guides. Maybe snakes always symbolize something for you that no dream dictionary could know. But if a dream has things that aren't typical, then a good dream dictionary can provide some clues as to what your subconscious might be saying.

To dream you are looking out a window signifies your outlook on life, your point of view, intuition. To see your own feet in a dream symbolizes your foundation, stability and sense of understanding. It represents mobility, independence and freedom. Barefoot can represent you have a firm grasp and good understanding of the situation. (Incidentally feet are holy in India so could add a divine quality to the meaning of them in some dreams.)

Finally three signifies life, vitality, inner strength, completion, imagination, energy and self-exploration. Three also is a trilogy representing past, present, future or father, mother, child, etc. Where these three were threatening things I love and have responsibility for, they might yet have a meaning the dream dictionary didn't cover.

Although I am using one of my photos of a coyote (from Yellowstone National Park) to illustrate this dream, the significant part of going out that window was the risk to my bare feet. I take it to be a message to me in my personal life. Whoever gifts me with dreams, whether my subconscious or outside spiritual aide, I took the message to be encouraging that I am doing some risk taking and to trust it. Don't be afraid to take the risk, don't try to control the situation. You can trust yourself. Go out the window, don't go protected. Just go. You just need significant motivation and you will go!

Coyotes by the way are not generally dangerous to humans (unless rabid). I would do what I did in the dream to protect those sheep-- although since guns are handy near that window, I can't imagine going unarmed-- or barefoot. Yes, I could scare them off but more effective would be to shoot them!

These last weeks have been fruitful for my dreaming. Some have been scary (marauding bears, violent people), some enjoyable (good times with friends and family), some clearly out of my day, and many have had encouraging meanings when I stop to think on them-- a few warnings.

Next blog I will share a dream that I haven't been able to interpret for my personal life, but it was a interesting one with some 'different' symbols.