One huge yellow ring springs off the London Eye into the Thames. From a flat on the opposite side of the river Ra's sister (although she is not) and I clutch hands and watch with horror. People leap off in an attempt to save themselves. I am shouting "Jump jump!" although they can't hear me. As the construction (it is made up of concentric circles so looks nothing like the actual Eye) collapses further, there are electric sparks. The people are carried away by the now fast flowing water.
I know this was always going to happen. It was such a crazy thing to build it by the water.
This was such an extraordinary dream I think I have to write a little about it. I had the dream on the last night at the conference for Dreams and Culture in Lincoln and was fortunate to be able to tell it to a group there.
It was a very frightening dream and left me quite troubled. Recently I have been feeling positive and happy, convinced that connecting to my dreamlife is a way of building some kind of inner strength and that it is something our society needs to embrace. A real way of learning more about who we are.
One of the main thoughts going through my mind following this terrifying dream was a questioning of this whole business of looking into my dream life. Had it got too intense? Is it, as one man had suggested, like opening a can of worms? Should it all be left well alone?
I really wanted to understand this dream. I am convinced we can use dreams to help us, and that when the dream is so urgent then we need to heed it. There were two psychoanalysts running the group workshop. They used what is known as the Montagu-Ullman technique, which does not aim to interpret the dream, more asks the other members of the group to imagine the dream was their own and to PROJECT their own feelings and understanding of the dream back to the dreamer. So treating it like a story if you like.
I won't go into everything that came up as the session lasted for an hour and a half . Just to say firstly that it was the most amazing experience and I walked out on cloud nine.
The group suggested meanings within the dream. Some didn't seem quite right but the majority clicked and I was able to see the dream clearly and realise the extraordinary complexity within it.
To give a couple of examples: one person recognised from the start the double meaning of the "Eye" and "I". This had completely missed me, but immediately it was said I realised of course yes that feels right.
"Ra" is actually the name of a good friend of mine, but someone suggested that there is also an EGYPTIAN SUNGOD by the name of Ra and could that have any significance?! It felt right again- so weird - I know very little about the sungod but have read something about him in my past. And the yellow rings somehow seemed to tie in with that. And the sun is a symbol for the self. These are not just academic notes but things that felt emotionally right.
The "London I" now made a bit more sense. I had this dream on the night of the day I was returning to my home in London after having been away in Ireland for two and a bit months. I was anxious about returning. I feel I have learnt so much from a concentrated time there exploring my and other peoples' dreams that I was scared about returning to my old humdrum life in the city.
One person suggested that because the woman I was with in the dream was someone I scarcely knew I was getting very little support in the face of this tragedy happening before me. She suggested that's what I needed - more support in London. And that just really hit home. I had so much wonderful support in Carrick in Ireland whereas in London my friends are all dotted about and we see each other too seldom.
There was a lot more to it. But suffice to say I felt something lift and was invigorated by the whole thing. So I will heed this dream. I want to set up a regular dream group in London as a starter. So if you are interested let me know.
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