Natalia Snider is a certified dream practitioner living in Carbondale. She works with people’s dreams and imaginations to facilitate self-healing. Every month, she will analyze someone’s dream in The Sopris Sun. Anyone can submit a dream for personal analysis or inclusion in this column by visiting: www.dreamhealings.com
Dream
I had a dream my dad came to pick me up so we could go to my granny’s house. My granny is pretty much the spiritual foundation of the family. So he picks me up, we chop it up about life, just different things that we struggle with, areas that we’ve improved on and improved in. Then we get about halfway, and he says, “Alright, son, you got to get out of the car. This is as far as I can take you. You got to walk the rest of the way.”
So I started walking, and as I’m walking, it was a little hot, so I took my shirt off. Then this owl flies toward me and I get a little scared. But then the owl lands on my left shoulder. I’m still kind of scared, but I’m like, “Why is he landing on me?” I was receptive to it, so I just kept walking with the owl on my shoulder.
Then, I finally reached the destination. Before I knock on the door, the owl flies away. I come inside. A couple of people are already there — pops, granny, grandpa, and a few others. I didn’t know that we were getting ready to have Bible study/discipleship classes. We go around the room, talking, sharing our story, our testimony, just getting to know each other. I realize then that that space, that house she created, was a house for those who need help or any type of service, spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, from a spiritual perspective.
Then my dad got up, said something, prayed and then turned to me and said, “Hey, alright, now come on, you get up there now. You got to teach us something, or impart something onto us,” and that’s all I remember.
Interpretation
This dream is powerfully layered with meaning. Layers in dreams aren’t often so clearly double-defined, so this is very interesting. Let’s get right into it.
You begin in the car with your father, which signifies your time growing up under his leadership. The highlights of your learning are what you discussed. Then he drops you off, even though he’s going to be at the same house later. This represents you having to find your own path without him. The double meaning here is that this is your time growing up as an adult. Your mission during this time is to find your own knowledge and bring it to the house. Then the owl comes to you.
Owls are most often recognized in dream symbolism as beings of great wisdom. This owl is your knowledge. Now here I could ask if you already have been bestowed with a great wisdom in your life, because the dream is not clear on where your waking self lands on this story timeline. However, I will proceed as if you have not gained this knowledge as I feel that will be most useful. So then, how do you gain this knowledge? Let’s look closely at the owl for clues.
First, right before the owl comes to you, you take off your shirt exposing your skin, which is the clearest metaphor for vulnerability there is in dream symbology. What this means for you is that to receive this knowledge you must be willing to take the walk alone, then to be open and vulnerable to however it may come, even if it scares you at first.
Second, the owl lands on your left shoulder. The left side of the body is recognized in many cultures across the earth dating all the way back to the Egyptians as the feminine side of the body. So, to me this reads that the knowledge that is coming to you has something to do with the feminine aspects of life. Let me be clear, I don’t think that the owl represents a woman that will teach you. It came as a symbol of knowledge — not to be mistaken for a human. So I believe that this knowledge instead is about the feminine aspects of being human – balancing your own masculine and feminine, perhaps. This will be clear to you when it happens.
Finally, at your granny’s you meet a group of spiritual elders. This house, first layered, represents crossing over from life to death, being greeted by your guides and loved ones. Sharing your knowledge here is sharing the knowledge of your life in retrospect. The second layered meaning is that this is also representative of a place in which you are going to be asked to share your wisdom during your lifetime — a spiritually-based place for healing and growth.
This is a highly significant dream for your life. I suggest reflecting on all the aspects of it over and over in various ways at various times. Let more meaning, messages and understandings come from it. I believe you were given this dream to learn as much from it as you can and that it is part of the wisdom you will gain.