Anchors Aweigh!

Brian T

01-12-2009 | 10:04 AM EST

I'm at some sort of party. Friends and family are there. It's in some imaginary place--sort of a cross between San Francisco, rural Marin, Monterey and Santa Cruz. Pretty far into the party, an old friend of mine and I go for a short hike in the woods. To get to the trailhead, we leave the house, and walk a short way down a quiet country lane.

When we get to the trailhead, we start hiking up an easy grade through a meadow. We've only hiked a little ways when we come to an old, abandoned school bus in the middle of the meadow. As we're checking it out, we spot a mountain line stalking along the ridge above us. We can't tell if it smells or sees us yet, but it's coming our way, and we see it leave the ridge and start down the hill in our direction. So, naturally, we climb into the abandoned bus for protection. We close the old rickety door behind us, but we're not convinced it will hold back a full-grown mountain line. So, we climb onto the roof of the bus, which turns out to be the deck of a ship.

Not feeling safe yet, we climb up the mast of the ship. When we get to the top, we have nowhere else to go, so we stop and wait for the mountain lion to leave.

While we're waiting, we fall asleep. And when we awake, we're at sea.

We're clearly no longer on the bus that transformed into a ship. This ship is immensely bigger. It's roughly the size of a luxury cruise ship, but it's definitely not a cruise ship. It's a working ship. No luxury here. It's not unpleasant, but it's definitely a place where hard work gets done.

My friend and I climb down from our perch and find ourselves surrounded by a crowd of people. It turns out the ship is rather densely populated. Beyond the group that has gathered to greet us, there are clearly hundreds (thousands?) more, elewhere on the ship. It has the vibe of a bustling city.

The people are not hostile, but they're clearly surprised to see us. They're many weeks into their journey, far out at sea, and here we are--poof!--magically appearing.

They welcome us and begin integrating us into the crew. It's strange and a little frightening, but also exciting and fun. They're not overly friendly, but they're not hostile either. And there are so many people! It's like a city at sea. And it's quite the motley crew. This isn't a scrubbed and clean, professional crew. Instead it seems to be made up of all sorts of people from all walks of life, thrown more or less randomly together. It also has a bit of a Rainbow Gathering / Burning Man kind of vibe to it. But in work-mode. Everyone's getting stuff done and running the ship, but there are no uniforms, and the sense of purpose in the air is mingled with a sense of play.

My friend jumped over board (for a swim, not to escape), and climbed back aboard looking happy, relaxed and refreshed. We become separated at that point. I'm content to explore on my own, and the last I see him, he's joining the buffet line for dinner.

I'm hungry too, after our mysterious journey through space and possibly time. The buffet is very impressive. There are dozens and dozens of different kinds of food. I wander along the aisles of food, filling two plates with all sorts of strange food I've never seen before. As I browse, people explain the customs of the ship, which are complex and strange. Once my plates are full, I start to eat.

As I eat, I mingle with the crew. I have long conversations with each person I meet. (I wish I could remember the conversations now. There were many, and each seemed long and interesting. All I can remember now is that one of them was about the novel, Sea Wolf, by Jack London.)

Everyone I meet is fascinating in his or her own way. Colorful characters. I thoroughly enjoy eating and moving from conversation to conversation. It's clear that everyone on board has a job to do--there are no idle passengers. But everyone seems happy or at least reasonably content.

This dream was remarkable for its depth of detail and complexity. Sadly, I can only remember the portion I've described above. I wish I could fully relate the rich nuances and dialogues, but they're lost to me. Also, I believe the story of the sea voyage continued in some significant way, but that too is slipping away as I become ever more awake.

It seems like this dream is loaded with symbolism. I'd love to hear what you all think. Interpretations, anyone?

INTERPRETATIONS

02-07-2009 | 12:34 AM EST

Posted By: Dave

Like you yourself said, this is one complex and detailed dream! Because there was so much detail, I feel like it would almost be too overwhelming to try to interpret the possible meaning behind each and every little piece. But, I'm also wondering if because there was so much detail, the most significant elements weren't just the ones that stuck with you after the dream? So, I've been trying to think about your dream in a "big picture" way, and I do have some ideas. On an emotional level, it seems like your dream goes: neutral (at the party and the initial walk in the woods), fear/anxiety (the mountain lion), neutral/re-orientation (the sudden and dramatic shift of venue to the ship), and finally acceptance, curiosity, and interest. To me, it really kind of feels like two dreams. The first half (up through falling asleep and waking up on the ship) might even have been residue from the day or the regular fears that plague us all. I couldn't find specific references to mountain lions as symbols in any of my dream interpretation books, but mountains and hills seem to be described as really big awarenesses or situation in your life--things outside of daily anxiety. I know that you were only going up a gentle grade, but it sounds like you were on some sort of hill, and there's definitely the feeling of climbing higher and higher as you go up to the top of the bus and then up the mast. In that light, I could imagine the mountain lion being small daily fears and anxieties eventually disappearing into the background as you tackle the bigger issue. So,maybe the second half of the dream, the part that takes place on the ship, is a symbol of the bigger life issue that you were climbing up to? Here again, though, you have so many individual images: the ship, the sea, the crowd of people, food, eating, etc. Freud suggested that ships were symbols of femininity while religious texts often use them as symbols of rescue. Some interpretations of just being out on the water at all suggest a "change of course" in your life. In general, though, it would seem that because you ultimately were accepted by and felt comfortable with your shipmates, one possible meaning is just to accept the course you're on and everything else will fall into place.

GIVE US YOUR INTERPRETATION

Posting interpretations to PillowPatter is quick and easy. Just login to your account or take a few seconds to register, and then let the world hear your interpretation of this dream.