For those who have never participated in a "Dream Circle," I highly recommend the experience. To share images and symbols conjured in the oneiric state with a group of friends can offer unexpected insights into the way your friends' waking minds work -- never mind the Freudian.
Eight of us gathered at a friend's home recently to examine our dreams in this way. Our host shared a dream she had recorded recently where a pale green python (a global post-modern harbinger of spring, perhaps?) was in her house and encircling her dog, although she didn't feel the dog was threatened. The moment of decision in the dream was whether she or her husband, who had charged downstairs carrying a sword, should kill the python before it harmed their family pet. What was going on here?
A fellow dreamer immediately jumped in with her own interpretation -- this dream was clearly about Hillary Clinton and our conflicts about choosing a candidate in the coming election, she said. Immediately, others in our circle nodded their heads. Yes! More than one person recounted then that they had dreamt about Barack Obama, as had colleagues and acquaintances with whom they had discussed sleep or lack thereof since the primary season ramped up.
Wow, I would have thought the dream was about snake charmers, or something. Oh, but wait...
Ambivalence over this long presidential primary courtship has apparently crept into the collective subconscious and crawled into bed with us at night.
Hmm...I wonder what Freud might have to say about this.
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