Dinosaur Dreams

  Last night I had another set of unusual dreams, most likely set off by stretching very late last night and releasing some old tensions.
   The first of the dreams involved dinosaurs, specifically running from and avoiding dinosaurs. I haven't spent time looking at or considering dinosaurs recently so it not a product of outside influence. Yesterday was a good day so terrified running was unlikely caused by any emotional fallout from life.
    The real source then must be the opening stretches., specifically the ones opening the hips. There is a pose in yoga called fixed firm, which involves kneeling and sitting between your heels, you then stretch out backwards on the ground. This is a difficult pose for me because of the hard floor on my knees and I spend most of the time when I go to class just trying to get my knees comfortable in this pose. Last night I did the pose on the bed (which incidentally is not recommended) and this allowed me to relax further into the pose without my knees protesting. This in turn opened up some areas of the pelvis. The pelvis is where much of early childhood armouring is stored, at least up to the age of 7. We are learning to walk, gaining control of our elimination systems and getting the hang of basically being upright all the time.
    When I was young I had a love of dinosaurs. I would collect the little plastic toys, pose them in fights and place small items in their fixed open mouths and imagine being around in dinosaur times. I was terribly disappointed when I discovered that man did not exist at the same time and that my dream of becoming a dinosaur scientist would only ever involve dusting off bones. I am not quite sure what I envisioned a dinosaur scientist would do, but it certainly seemed more exciting than the duties of a paleontologist. My walls were adorned with posters of fearsome T-rexes, Pteradactyls, Stegosauruses and Diplodoci(?) Most of the posters were pretty gruesome and a few may have had the carnivorous ones devouring the bodies of the less fortune leaf eaters.
    I don't recall the content of the dreams, but I do recall my parents telling me I would have constant nightmares about dinosaurs and they thought that if I took the posters down it might help. I, of course wanted no such thing, nightmares or not. I loved the dinosaurs regardless of whether they terrified me or devoured me in my dreams.
   I periodically have dreams with dinosaurs in them and they usually have the same kind of quality a Jurassic Park style running for survival. The connection to my childhood cannot be overlooked. I cannot access what caused me to have such terrifying nightmares, but as an adult I do not it is not likely it was not the posters. The symbolism of the dreams suggest running for survival from something much bigger, deadlier and fearsome than myself. Something that cannot be reasoned with, nor safely confronted...something beyond my scope to deal with. As a child one could imagine that the world must seem like that at times, as if one is confronted by fearsome forces that threaten our very survival and that as a child there is no way to deal with this without outside help.
    It is possible that there may well have been elements in my life at that time that felt very much like that. It is likely an encroachment from the adult world. I know my parents were young and worked very hard to support my sister and I, and the awareness of the danger of our situation may have imprinted itself on my young mind. As a youngster, my psyche may well have projected these fears onto other elements that appeared fearsome, terrifying and without mercy. An element that I was able to understand...dinosaurs. I know that when life seems merciless I have these dreams again. It provides a background of terror to my normal peaceful life, usually so slight as to be imperceptible. That there are elements to life that are still monstrous to me and they are usually connected to the idea of survival.
    The second part of the dream involved a figure so black that he appeared as a hole in which all light disappeared. Shadow is not strong enough to describe his essence and there was a feeling of foreboding about him. The context was a slideshow of images flashing before my consciousness, usually of houses and families, but I noticed this figure stood in the background, or at a window. It was scary and caused me to wake and there was a sense that his presence still remained. This element I have not fully examined, although it is possible that it is a being of some sort and/or a representation of the blackest part of my own shadow (in the Jungian sense).
    While I speak of dinosaurs and foreboding feelings there was a strange situation I would like to recount. A few years ago when I was living in the southwest of the UK, a friend went for a job interview in Bristol and I accompanied her for morale support. While she was interviewing I went for a walk and ended up at a museum there in the city, I went in primarily to see the Egyptian section. As typical museum style this section was closed for refurbishment and so I ended up looking at the dinosaur bones. The very first exhibit was a skull from a Liopleurodon, this is a massive sea predator was estimated to be over 30 foot in length.

       As I approached the exhibit I began to pick up on the energy of the skull. Usually I only sense energy if I chose to or if the signature is very powerful. There was a palpable sense of malevolence emanating from the skull, an almost malicious glee. I had never considered that these creatures may have been capable of anything but the most rudimentary instincts, but here I could sense this energy coming from the skull. It struck me as unusual that an energy residue would last for such a period of time, but then again I have hardly spent much time around skulls.
      I was intrigued and opened myself up to sensing such things and walked through the rest of the exhibit looking at the other bones. Strangely I felt nothing, all the other bones seemed inert. After I had looked at the rest of the displays I returned and still felt the malevolence from the original skull. With further examination I saw a small plaque by the other displays that stated that all the other "bones" in the displays were plaster replicas and that the only genuine article was the Liopleurodon skull in the display case.
    I am not sure what to think of this, only that these massive beasts may have been the equivalent to mass murdering dolphins and that they may have derived some murderous pleasure from being the greatest hunters of the sea.
 
 

8 of Swords. Bondage and the restricted self.

  The 8 of Swords is known as the card of bondage and one only has to glance at the card to see why. I have had a relatively chequered past with this card and it has come up with some regularity in my personal readings and those I have done readings for.
  Again there is symbolism related to covered eyes with the blindfold and this has been a regular theme in the recently drawn cards. This card is also usually viewed in a negative light, but again it is only an indicator and can actually be a blessing if the information is heeded. I see it like a flashing fuel gauge on your car, you might not like seeing it but it is there to warn you of a situation you should take note of.
   The woman in the card is blind, bound and entrapped by a circle of swords stuck in the swampy ground. Her surroundings appear drab and the situation hopeless. The swords in the ground symbolise the proliferance of thoughts that keep her in bondage. It is a situation that probably feels familiar to a great many people..stuck in the mud, surrounded on all sides by limitation and tied up to boot!
   Taking a closer look at the card one can actually see that things are not as bad as they seem. The fact that the card is minor arcana suggests that is an energy that is prevalent in the situation and not some divine punishment. The person is actually responsible for her thoughts and therefore just as capable of changing them. The bonds around her are loose and could be easily slipped off... if not there is a number of sharp swords close at hand! If she took off her blindfold she could see that the swords can be easily circumvented and that the castle lies not far off behind her. The castle itself suggests prosperity, security and shelter only a short distance away.
    This card is all about being imprisoned by your own thoughts or lack of perspective and this happens far too often. One thing to bear in mind is that although you as the viewer of the card can see all these possibilities, it is not on view to the one so bound. If you  have to deal with a person so trapped, one must be aware that their perspective of the situation is limited until they escape from their blindfold. Again we have all been in a situation in which the course seems obvious to one who can see and the other has fallen into hopelessness because of their perception of their situation. This kind of situation calls for compassion and a great deal of patience.
    This card urges me to have the same level of compassion and patience for my own bondage as well for others. I often find my patience stretched when having to deal with those from very limited perspectives and it reminds me that I have also been in those very situations and compassion and understanding not frustration and irritation was what I needed most.
    On a personal level this card is talking to me about my own bands of restriction. I have recently started a regular exercise regimen, involving weekly trips to the gym, yoga on occasion and football (soccer). I can feel bands of tension around my hips and shoulders where there is tightness. Wilhelm Reich talked about seven bands of tension that occur in the body and limit the flow of blood and vital energies. These seven bands correspond perfectly to the chakra system even though Reich preferred to keep other systems at arm's length.
      He postulated that the muscular tension was because of emotional charged memories stored within the body itself and that these suppressed memories could be released with bodywork. His ideas have formed the cornerstone of modern body-working and I have certainly encountered memories surfacing through massage or other bodywork. The idea is that when when our body organism feels threatened emotionally it responds by contracting the muscles to protect us. If this occurs on a regular enough basis the body will become chronically tense, even if the emotionally charged situation no longer threatens us. That is why as many people get stiffer and less flexible as they add more and more armouring to anything that even vaguely resembles the original causative factor.
     I do agree with Reich, although I believe if the emotional affectation can be reached and experienced, then the injured part will rise up in the consciousness bringing forth the memories for release. Once released they will lead the faulty or incorrect belief statement to awareness for examination. If this can be surmounted then the muscles will relax and will likely not relapse. I have directly experienced this myself.
    I don't believe physical manipulation is always necessary and if the belief structure is not altered then all it will do is relieve the current pressure until it builds up once more. I have made greater physical breakthroughs through meditation and depth introspection than I have in months of yoga. Yoga, exercise and body-work  is unparalleled for removing the toxins from the body and maintaining flexibility though and would thoroughly recommend it.
    I feel the bands around my hips slowly slipping away more and more each day...as for the bands around my shoulders..I have yet to understand their attribution.