Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Don't fear the reaper

Now, about those dreams . . .

Yesterday in the comments, Lynn Rush mentioned having a nightmare about her hubby dying.

In hopes to put her mind at ease, I quickly sent her an e-mail that (I hope) explained what I'd learned about death in dreams. (It also gave me the idea to do an extended blog feature on sleep. Way to go, Lynn! Hopefully it doesn't put anyone to sleep.)
I, too, have dreams about losing loved ones. In fact, it was a death dream that prompted me to start looking into dream interpretation.

I'd been fascinated with the subject since I was a child. My fascination grew when I read the Old Testament story about Joseph interpretting dreams about skinny calves eating fat calves. But I never thought to research dream interpretation until I was in college and had a nightmare about my sister.

In the dream, my sister committed suicide. I woke up bawling, and I quickly called my sister to make sure she was okay.

Of course, she was.

And at the risk of sounding foolish, I never told her the reason for my call. But I told my husband (then boyfriend). Seeing how rattled I was by the nightmare, he encouraged me to "look into it."

As it turns out, I discovered that dreams about the death of a loved one are rarely premonitions.

Rather, these dreams signify mental preparation for change.

It made sense. At the time, I was attending the same college from which my (very successful) sister had graduated. Without any real goals for my future, I felt I was wasting my time, money and talent continuing my education there, but leaving that school made me feel as if I was failing, throwing in the towel or committing educational suicide.

I found comfort in the realization that my sister wasn't suicidal. It also helped dive into dream analysis which, I believe, has given me a great sense of knowledge and understanding about myself.

Tomorrow: Snakes, tornadoes and demons. Oh my! What could these dreams mean for you?

6 comments:

KM Wilsher said...

Wow, what a great post, Kat! I have not had a death dream, but what a comforting thing to have read this before or after such a dream.

Love this dream theme! I'll keep my eye on you these next few days! Can't wait for snakes, tornadoes and demons.

I bet this will be helpful to a lot of people.:)

About Me said...

Death dreams are horrible. I always wake up very sad from them, but it takes me only a short time to realize it was dream and I feel better.

Oh no, not the snake dreams! I've had a lot of them in the past. I would be interested to find out what they mean.

Kate Karyus Quinn said...

The scariest dreams for me are ones that I occasionally have where all my teeth are falling out. They feel so real that when I wake up I have to make sure that they are still all there. The weirdest thing is that I have never had a tooth removed (I even still have my wisdom teeth) or even a cavity.

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

Kate -- Teeth dreams are icky. I've had those before. They generally indicate a subconscious guilt we feel over ignoring health concerns. Maybe you weren't eating the way you know you should be or weren't listening to your body's signals when it needed rest.

It doesn't necessarily mean physical health either. It could be a subconscious guilt over bad spending practices creating an unhealthy bottom line. It could also be an indicator of guilt you might have felt for doing something you know you shouldn't have. (Maybe gossipping or something. I don't know. Just like I don't know how to spell gossipping. :-) )

As for wisdom teeth, I once said I'd rather go through childbirth without drugs than have my wisdom teeth removed again. I still stand by that statement. :-)


And gzusfreek, you mentioned wolves the other day. After looking it up in my dream reference guide last night, I discovered that in the context of a peaceful dream, wolves can be a metaphor for the confidence you find in grace and beauty. In the context of an unsettling dream, it can be an indicator of worries you have over uncontrolled hostility or aggression.

Unknown said...

Hi Kat, I've heard teeth falling out dreams signify preparing for big changes too. Have had those a couple of times. Dreams = freaky, but cool.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I guess I'll be on my toes when/if I have that dream again. I'm trying to think of the last time I had that dream to see if anything major happened (change). But, I'm brain dead lately. LOL Can't remember anything. LOL