I had similar experiences of shape-shifting in dreams during my college days. They started off simply with me as a wolf, running wild across grassy plains, experiencing a fierce joy of utter freedom and the wind blowing through my fur. Later I would find myself transforming in order to help get out of certain situations that demanded a greater degree of speed/strength/whatever that as a person I would lack.
One good example of this was a dream in which myself, and my family, were being chased by the people in the village in which we lived. I would find myself turning into a wolf in order to get away from the mob, and when we where cornered, I’d change into a bear in order to be able to turn and fight these people and buy some time so my family could escape.
At this point in my life I was just starting to get in to meditation, as well as just coming out of a time in my life where a lot had gone wrong, leaving me with some heafty emotional issues to deal with.
Knowing that emotional states and dreams were in some way connected, I decided to try and use the wolf and bear imagery during my meditations and see if I could somehow help my self understand better what was going on in my head. So I’d sit on my bed, get comfortable, and place myself into the image-scape I had developed for meditative purposes.
Once there I’d draw these creatures from my chest and had them sit facing me. As these animals had already been a part of some very vivid dreams it was easy to re-create them, the feeling of connection and the imagery was already written into my sub-consciousness. I doubt it would have worked if I’d just tried to create them from scratch.
Once they were formed in front of me, I would then imbue them with characteristics of myself, primarily the those attributes they seemed to represent from my dreams. I was sure to place both good and bad aspects, knowing that to make them into something shiney and nice would defeat the object of the exercise.
So, the wolf represented my loyalty to others as well as my need for personal freedom regardless of the costs. The bear represented my need to stand up for what was right, my strength to do so, as well as my stubbornness and my rage at the world in general.
These two were, in time, joined by others, again taken from dreams, and again imbued with often di-polar aspects of what I believed it was to be me. I found that by doing this it allowed me to become removed from myself, and I could watch how these different aspects would interact.
It became an invaluable tool to self understanding. Often when looking at ourselves we ignore the bits we don’t want to see, the parts we wouldn’t normally admit to. When you can distance yourself without losing the emotional content, it becomes easier to see the darker aspects, and then come to terms with them.
Don't know if thats any help, like. |
