Photo by Mihail Tregubov on Unsplash

The Context

I am finishing a paranormal novel based on a short story I wrote a long time ago. I like the world and characters, but have struggled a lot with the external plot. At the time of this dream, I was putting a lot of time into plot revisions and finishing the story very much on my mind. 

I was working on a nonfiction book, at the same time. The second book was a memoir but I was going conflicted about it at the time>unsure if it should focus on autism or spirituality. 

I wanted a new dream to share with my weekly dream group and something that would help guide my writing. So I incubated a dream for this purpose on a Friday night and remembered this

dream shortly after I woke up on Saturday morning. 

Two of my boys are in the dream . The third is not. The friend who once attended the festival in the dream is someone I reconnected with on Facebook. I haven’t seen her for a long time but always thought highly of her. I don’t know any of the other characters at all.

The Dream

I am attending some kind of festival at a big open-air arena. It is in the country in PA (possibly Lehigh county). There is a country vibe and I think the music is country or folk music. I'm aware of local people who are related to (sons of) the organizer standing on a hill overlooking the arena. I talk to them but can't remember what’s said. I sense that they and their mother are not good people and there is a vague sense of danger. 

Now I am dancing with the crowd in the arena. I am wearing a red dress. There are a lot of people but with space between them—not packed in like at a concert. No one else is wearing red and I know I stand out in the crowd. We are dancing away from the festival and out of the arena. There are numerous vendors, but I don’t recall any specifics.

The arena is part of a business compound with other buildings (possibly a welcome center and shop) between the arena and the road, all owned by the same family. I remember that an old school friend attended the festival in a previous year. 

I am supposed to drive home and pick up my younger sons James and Andrew so they can attend the event too, so I have to hurry. There is a downpour. A hard steady rain. I get wet but am relieved to think the festival will be cancelled and I don’t have to drive to pick up my sons and bring them back. Then the sky clears and I realize I still have to go get them.

I leave the venue. I’m in a car and there is an elderly man (I would say 80s or older) with me. He is tall w gray thinning hair. I have previously agreed to give him a ride home. I have a newer car, possibly silver, and have borrowed from someone (I think James). The elderly man insists on driving, saying he knows the way. We leave together.

The car is an automatic with a console shift. The man is shifting it like it is a standard, using all three forward gears. It is annoying. I tell him he doesn't have to shift like that, that he can just leave the car in Drive and he makes fun of that manner of driving. He is a bad driver in other ways too, having trouble handling the car in general. We go up a hill, left through a business district and then left again, going back in the direction we came from. We then pull into a gas station. 

I know we have come back close to where we started. I'm upset because I can actually see the venue, which is a short way down what appears to be a state highway. I am stressed about being late to pick up James and Andrew. Especially Andrew, who really wants to attend the event. I am stressed about the amount of driving (1 or 2 hours each way) I still have to do.

I point out the venue to the elderly man and tell him we have wasted an hour going in a circuit. He is unpleasant. We are out of the car. I tell him to take his things and get his own ride home. He has lots of stuff in the trunk of the car (shopping bags, containers, etc). I pile it all up on a bench. Then I see that he is having an issue with balance and cognition. I end up taking his arm to help him walk.

The man and his things are back in my car. I am at the edge of the gas station parking lot now trying to talk a group of people into taking the man where he needs to go. They seem judgmental about my lack of compassion for the elderly, but I feel if they knew him, they would think otherwise. A woman gracious woman with a southern accent is talking to the man sweetly, but after a while I sense she is getting exasperated too.

My Take Away

I am part of a small dream group that interprets dreams along Jungian lines. I took this dream to the group having no idea what it meant or what it had to do with the guidance I requested. What follows is a combination of suggestions I received and some insights I arrived at on my own after talking to the group.

Most dream don't advise us on aspects of our waking life, but I deliberately asked for information regarding my writing. I think this dream gave me info on my writing strengths and weaknesses and a bit of advice on my current projects.

My Weaknesses

My Strengths

Outcome

One outcome of this dream is that I making more allowances for myself in my fiction writing. I am going to finish the vampire story and publish it, even if it isn't perfect. I am also looking into some of the things I have packed away and trying to better understand my challenges. 

Because of this dream I decided that I was overthinking the memoir and that toggling back and forth between autism and metaphysics was unnecessary. So I’ve decided to just tell my story. The title (The Spirit Dream) will stay the same but it will include content on both autism and metaphysics.

St. Brigid's Cross (made by me)