The dream was in two parts. First I had an image of an old colleague of mine and she was being very negative about things, not anything in particular, but things in general. In the second part I was on an attractive beach, sandy but with large rocks jutting up. There was a dinosaur, a rather agile beast, trying to catch me and I was escaping by hiding behind the rocks.
The interpretation.
First I had an instant INTUITIVE feeling that both parts of the dream referred to the same thing but were, perhaps, showing it in a different light, looking at it from different perspectives. What that thing was, was easy to see from the first image and from my knowledge of myself: negativity.
I have, in the past, been a very negative person. It is something I have had to correct in myself, but, having done so, I still find myself, at times, being very negative. (NB part of correcting that negativity was becoming AWARE of it, of how negative I was, and aware of myself being negative at the time it was happening.) Recently I have been aware of myself being negative at times, and have wondered if I have been drifting back into old, bad habits. Notice, again, that in order to interpret the dream I had to be AWARE of, and remember, the thoughts and questions that have gone through my mind in the recent past.
In the first image, the colleague was someone who used negativity to gain status. She fancied herself as very cultured and expressed her superiority, or CLAIMED superiority, by being very negative, very scornful, about anything that did not accord with her notion, very middle-class, of High Culture. This is decidedly a misuse of negativity, using it to gain social status and to lord it over other, ‘lesser’ beings. It is how I used it in the past, or part of how I used it.
However, the second image shows negativity from a different perspective. Here is shown the CORRECT use of negativity, its use as a protection. To understand this you need another attribute vital to successful interpretation of dreams: a good knowledge of how the mind works — people one has known have a way of lodging in the subconscious, as sort of ‘living memories’, where they are able to influence how one thinks and feels. This is usually extremely damaging. One MUST, if one is to be healthy, defend oneself against this sort of intrusion. One way to do this is to be very negative about the people (and their ideas etc.) that cause you trouble.
So, if you are healthy and are therefore using negativity correctly, you will INSTINCTIVELY becomes very negative and scornful about aya person or idea that would be problematic or damaging if it got into your subconscious. This scorn does actually prevent the person/idea from lodging.
The second image, then, shows me that the negativity I have been experiencing recently has been of the healthy, defensive kind.
To realise this I also need to remember that dinosaurs gave me nightmares as a child, and represent things that I have been fearful of and have threatened me since childhood — though in recent times I have largely dealt with those fears. Nevertheless, they can still threaten my equanimity and distort my thinking if they can get into my subconscious. Other details of the dream I won’t go into, but again, understanding them requires a high degree of self-awareness and knowledge of the mind and how it works. (The sandy beach and the rocks behind which I hid represent the particular way I now use negativity and the circumstances under which I use it.)
The above is a classic dream interpretation involving INTUITION, a high degree of SELF-AWARENESS, a good memory for what has been going through your mind recently, and an extensive knowledge of the MIND and how it works.
One other thing: you must never try and force dreams. Do not make a huge effort to try and remember all the details of dreams. Trust them and your own mind. The things that linger in your memory are the things which are significant and want your attention. The rest is just padding, or is too much detail and would just cause confusion. (Lucid Dreaming is VERY DANGEROUS. It will lead you into all sorts of mental health and emotional problems.)