This is part of a larger, longer dream. It is the last part after which I woke up. I can't recall the preceeding parts at this time.
I’m at a long table with many other people. We are having dinner and talking. I’m feeling comfortable and having fun. HP, my co-worker, is on my left. She tells a dirty joke and has everyone laughing.
There are two women to my right. They have a book and they want to teach me to recognize various symbols. They show me page after page of pictures. On each they ask me to identify various archetypes.
For example, on one page there is a picture of an aircraft carrier on the ocean. The ocean is “Mother.” The aircraft carrier is “Phallus.”
In another there are two caves. One has stalagmites shooting up from the cave floor. The other is just a cave. The first is “Phallus.” The second is “Mother.”
Another page has a sword. It is “Phallus.”
Another page has a picture of a vista of mountains at dawn and the same picture in the evening. The first is “Sun.” The second is “Moon.”
Another has a picture of a man flank on both sides by several other men each of whom is wearing some type of helmet with a faceplate (a motorcycle helmet, an astronaut’s helmet, a policeman’s riot-gear helmet, etc.). The women tell me that each of the men wearing helmets are false selves and that only the man in the center who is not wearing a helmet is the real self.
I am able to pick out “Mother” and “Father” and “Phallus” easily in several pictures and the women are pleased with my progress.
“Father” is always a dangerous, powerful figure, one who is usually a powerful man who dominates a culture politically or religiously and generally not for the better.
“Mother” is often oppressed by “Father.” She sometimes shows up as a religious icon, sometimes as a force of nature (the ocean), sometimes as a part of nature (a cave).
There are others but, very sadly, I’m unable to recall them now.
