White Snake Dream Interpretation

ANONYMOUS DREAM SUBMISSION – WHITE SNAKE DREAM INTERPRETATION

Aloha Dr. Howard,
I just woke up and the last dream I can recall was I was walking through an airport with a piece of rolling carry on luggage; and the luggage was designed to hold this white snake. I was transporting it for a friend. And every time I looked down at the snake it had extended its body a little and was getting closer to my hand. I eventually dropped the suitcase for fear of being bitten.

Earlier in the night, I had another dream that contained a white snake; but I do not remember what I was doing in the dream.

So I guess the snake is the star here. What is that all about?

 

Snakes are one of the most important symbols of primal energy of the psyche. It is sacred to the divine healer, Asclepius of ancient Greece, who has embodied the daemon of “genius” intertwined with a black and white snake on his staff. Snakes are hidden forces, often dark and cold. They often accomplish the miracle of cure. They are an ominous warning, an awakening of a primal energy in your psyche. A serpent is an emblematic, primordial life force. Your psyche is asking you to not only transport some primal energy that your friend has, but also to take ownership of that quality in yourself that you are you are afraid of.

Bitting in a dream has a double meaning. It is your psyche insisting that you ingest and not be afraid of some primal instinct that is emerging in your life. It is like an imprint or seal of spirit that wants you to recognize its place in your life. Or it can signify a sudden and dangerous action of an instinct in your life.

A state of whiteness indicates that some part of us is not living and remains in an abstract or ideal state. That part wants to be embodied into your life. Baptism or initiates wear white vestments of rebirth, for simplicity and restoration. White can also mean a cold force, like that of the mythic Snow Queen of the north. In Moby Dick the Great White Whale conveys the indefiniteness and impersonal vastness of the universe and the human fears of annihilation. Yet the milky maternal ocean of Hindu myth speaks of the source of all the fundaments of the cosmos. In alchemy the whiteness or albedo was conceived as a state of illumination of the dawning the unknown personality into consciousness. Birth this part of yourself.

Hope this helps,
Dr. Howard Teich

Twinkling Shards Dream Interpretation

ANONYMOUS DREAM SUBMISSION

Hello Dr. Teich,
I can only remember a small part of my dream but I still wonder what it means:

There is a young man about 19-21 y.o. standing in a garden at night  a glass bottle hits him and there are twinkling shards everywhere. That’s the only part I can remember.
I would be glad if you could interpret my dream. Best wishes. P.S. I met that young man a week before

Hi [Anonymous],
Hitting in a dream is an attempt to activate, awaken something from the unconscious. Because it happens at night, it is something from the lunar modes of consciousness emotions, intuition etc. (See Solar Lunar Assessment Chart) :

A sparkling shard is a spiritual principle that emerges from the center of us, our soul/Self. In the Cabalistic tradition the soul scatters outwards its sparks to the world. Each sparkle is awakening from the great living fire. The multitude of twinkling shards in your dream attest to your fertility to animate you life and the life of others with your vital essence. Take your sparkling energy and explore what this energy is to your life.

Congratulation for this awakening,
Howard

Native American Moon Shield

Usually, the moon is personified in myths as a female deity, but it is also known in some cultures as a male figure. Lunar symbolism brings together powers associated with the cyclical patterns in nature: the tide, the fertility cycle of a woman, the shedding of the snake’s skin. All of these repetitive modes of change, death and rebirth, are associated in lunar symbolism. The moon represents a force that expresses itself indirectly and through endurance rather than through direct aggression and oppression. It is the power of water to wear away the stone, the survival of the snake that disappears into the earth as it flees the hungry eagle, and the power of healing that comes through a connection with deep, vegetative forces in the psyche.

The medicine shield of Chief Arapoosh of the Crow Indians offered physical and spiritual protection through the powers of the Moon, who is portrayed as he appeared to the chief during a vision quest.

A deer tail and eagle feathers wrapped in red trade-cloth are fastened at one side of the shield. The head and neck of a crane are tied to the opposite side, together with crow or raven feathers, a length of otter fur, and a cluster of hawk feathers. A narrow length of red trade-cloth is tied to the crane’s lower bill.

These shields had two primary functions among the Crow Indians: to protect the owner in battle against the enemy and to serve as a spiritual protector by embodying the sacred powers of the spirit-guardian of the warrior.

The shields were made from the thick hump section of the bison hide and could turn any arrow, even the Civil War musket balls of the white troops. It was not until the introduction of the carbine that they lost that effectiveness. But by far the greater power was inherent in the symbolism of the designs, which often stemmed from forms that appeared during a vision quest. Arapoosh said that on a vision quest in his youth, he had been visited by the figure in black, who was the spirit of the Moon. He was told to regard the visitor as his spirit-guardian–a supernatural protector who would watch over him, help him whenever called upon, and guide his life.

The vision quest was a major goal in life for all of the Plains Indian men, to such an extent that those who never achieved a vision felt they were failures; and this attitude was shared to a certain extent by the community. Therefore success and the creation of indicia to demonstrate success, as well as one’s belief in the powers that came with the vision, were very important. Anything that happened during the quest became critical. It might indicate the whole future way of life for the person. Perhaps it signalled the appearance of beneficial or harmful spirits to be attended to. Or it might even provide a view of the future to the supplicant. Symbols representing these benefits or dangers held an overriding role and were always respected, though they were never worshiped per se.

Normally, these shields were veiled by a second cover to show proper respect, to protect the powerful “medicine” from wasteful exposure (lest it lose its potency), and to hide the designs from uninitiated eyes.

On this shield the Moon was personified as an Above Person (one of the Above Ones) overseeing the activities of all creatures on earth, and most particularly Arapoosh, to whom he had appeared in the vision. This appearance established a close relationship between them that would endure for the balance of the man’s life. It also created a responsibility toward the spirit being that was not to be taken lightly. Among all Native Americans there is a strong spiritual bond between Sky Beings and mankind, which in many tribes surpasses even the kinship felt for those creatures that reside on the earth and in the underworld, and that includes the Water People.

The history of this shield has fortunately been preserved. Although Lewis and Clark met Chief Arapoosh–who was known to them by his English name, Rotten Belly (or Sour Belly)–during their expedition of 1804-1806, the shield was first described in detail by Jim Beckwourth, a legendary mountain man who saw it about 1830. He recounted the belief of the Crow in the medicinal powers of the designs. According to Beckwourth, it was brought out in times of trouble or just before a war party was to depart for battle. Arapoosh, the major tribal war chief, would ceremoniously roll the shield (as in bowling) down the row of lodges. When it fell over, if the designs were skyward, success was assured; but if it came to a stop facedown, the war party would be abandoned. While most people painted their own shields, often a holy man would be requested to make medicine objects, to increase their power. But since Arapoosh was also a medicine man, it may well be that he painted this shield himself.

Back Together with a Baby

ANONYMOUS DREAM SUBMISSION

Hello Dr.Howard. I hope you can reply to me. I would like to know a meaning of one of my dreams… I dreamed about my ex-boyfriend… he was holding a little baby (boy) and in the dream we were married. What does it mean? I often dream that we get back together.

Hi [Anonymous],
This is what to ask yourself – what part of you is still psychological married to your ex? What was the potential that the relationship activated that did not manifest in reality. The relationship activated some new part of you that was born. A child in a dream represents a creative spark, a symbol of the future. Take ownership of that part and bring it to life like you would a real child. Be a single parent to that aspect of you. I cannot stress the importance of a child being born in a dream. It has the same magnitude psychologically as a real child does physically in one’s life.

Hope this helps,
Howard

Cut Off

ANONYMOUS DREAM SUBMISSION

I had another nightmare about my ex-partner Jeremy last night. This time i was outside of my home. I was gonna go down to the store. He was in his car following me with his friends. I tried to run but he cut me off and I ended up in the car with him.

Hi [Anonymous],
There are two questions that you could start off answering to yourself. One question, is what part of your relationship can’t you get away from that has been a nightmare for you? Usually what is our nightmares are often repeated items that need to be emotionally resolved not only from that relationship but often some reaction that is emotionally lingering from a similar stimulus from the past. What is being triggered off from the past? Also, in dream work it is important to do some active with the dream…talk to someone about the dream, dance or draw the dynamic. When we are embodying the dream we will often activated associative images and energy that will help up be liberated. Don’t be afraid to go into an experience even a nightmares. New information processing systems
supersede the previous traumatic patterns.. Your unconscious is asking you
conscious mind to process unfinished emotional material.

Hope this helps,
Howard

Vision Quest

What is a vision quest? In any social group, certain symbols come to serve as points of orientation around which the culture develops. The axis mundi, or cosmic center, can be a geographical site, such as a sacred mountain. It can also be an artifact, such as a pole that is carried from place to place but represents at all times the center of the world. Essential is the experience of being connected to the archetypal realm, the numinous source of being and value.

Among nomadic tribes in North America, the vision has served a comparable function. Direct inner experience of the gods has been cultivated and has come to serve as an orientating and sanctifying force for both the Native American and his community. The interpretation of visions and the techniques for integrating the vision into the life of the person and the group are highly developed among these peoples.

The vision quest can take place at any time, but it is usually undertaken first by a young Native American male as a rite of puberty. Often the boy will be separated from the group, left in a womblike hole in the ground, and surrounded by sacred things (a rattle, a blanket). Without food and sleep, he awaits the appearance of spirits. If he has a vision, it will serve to define his identity and role in the tribe from then on.

The vision quest is a model for any inner journey:

“The individual undertakes his inner quest, without any show of heroic strength and achieves it, not as a triumph, but as a submission to powers higher than himself. He accomplishes nothing by guile, which would be merely another form of heroic trial of strength. He is essentially a suppliant, not a man of power. He can count only upon his own intrinsic human worth and is of necessity his own teacher. He may be allowed to see the object of the heroic quest but not to possess it, or he may possess it briefly before losing it again, or he may derive spiritual insight from it as a talisman which comes and goes” (Henderson, 141).

Axis Mundi

The axis mundi (also cosmic axis, world axis, world pillar, columna cerului, center of the world), in religion or mythology, is the world center and/or the connection between Heaven and Earth. As the celestial pole and geographic pole, it expresses a point of connection between sky and earth where the four compass directions meet. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world’s point of beginning.

Because the axis mundi is an idea that unites a number of concrete images, no contradiction exists in regarding multiple spots as “the center of the world”. The symbol can operate in a number of locales at once.

The human body can express the symbol of world axis. Some of the more abstract Tree of Life representations, such as the Sefirot in Kabbalism and in the Chakra system recognized by Hinduism and Buddhism, merge with the concept of the human body as a pillar between heaven and earth. Disciplines such as Yoga and Tai Chi begin from the premise of the human body as axis mundi. The Buddha represents a world centre in human form. Large statues of a meditating figure unite the human figure with the symbolism of temple and tower. Astrology in all its forms assumes a connection between human health and affairs and the orientation of these with celestial bodies. World religions regard the body itself as a temple and prayer as a column uniting earth to heaven. The ancient Colossus of Rhodes combined the role of human figure with those of portal and skyscraper. The image of a human being suspended on a tree or a cross locates the figure at the axis where heaven and earth meet. The Renaissance image known as the Vitruvian Man represented a symbolic and mathematical exploration of the human form as world axis.

A common shamanic concept, and a universally told story, is that of the healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world.

It is the essence of the journey described in The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The epic poem relates its hero’s descent and ascent through a series of spiral structures that take him from through the core of the earth, from the depths of Hell to celestial Paradise.

Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. A special status accrues to the thing suspended: a serpent, a victim of crucifixion or hanging, a rod, a fruit, mistletoe. Derivations of this idea find form in the Rod of Asclepius, an emblem of the medical profession, and in the caduceus, an emblem of correspondence and commercial professions. The staff in these emblems represents the axis mundi while the serpents act as guardians of, or guides to, knowledge.

Olmec Twins & Jaguar

Olmec Twins & Jaguar

Three of the sculptures at El Azuzul shown in situ, as they were discovered.

Olmec Twins & Jaguar – At El Azuzul another important monumental sculpture was found, a pair of twin males facing a Jaguar. This scene offers powerful image of duality and shamanic transformation as indicated by the postures of the twins.

The first pair of statues, described as “some of the greatest masterpieces of Olmec art”, are nearly identical seated human figures. When discovered the two statues were facing east, one behind the other. Some researchers have suggested that these “twins” are forerunners of the Maya Hero Twins from the Popul Vuh, although their headdresses have led others to describe them as priests. The twin’s headdresses have been mutilated, probably to erase identifying insignia.

Olmec Twins & Jaguar

Olmec Twins & Jaguar from the back

These photographs of the three sculptures at El Azuzul shown in situ, are as they were discovered. Researchers believe that these sculptures had not been moved since Olmec times.

This is a sculptural representation of two young Olmec rulers, twins, paying homage to a feline-jaguar deity.

Each twin, like the figure in San Martín Pajapan Monument 1, is grasping a ceremonial bar with his right hand under the bar and his left over, caught in the act of raising what has been described as an axis mundi or Mesoamerican world tree.

Facing these two humans was a feline-like statue, generally identified as a jaguar. Slightly larger than the humans it faced, the feline is roughly 1.2 meters high. A 1.6 meter version of this feline was found a few meters away, to the northeast. The jaguars show evidence of having been re-carved from earlier monuments.

Olmec TwinsThe humans are similar to other Olmec sculpture, in particular San Martin Pajapan Monument 1, where a young lord also attempts to lift a ceremonial bar. Despite its “tantalizing hints of [a] lost mythic cycle”, it is not known with any clarity what this four statue tableau illustrates.