In my dream I am in some large building. I am with a group of people and we are all trying to hide away in a large room that is filled with various types of cushions. It is not clear what we are hiding from. I am about to hide myself by covering myself with cushion when into the room walks a very oversized unattractive woman with skimpy clothing. She leaves the room for a short period, and when she returns, the clothing from the waist down is missing. (You get the picture?) She begins to play with her privates pretty openly and with vigor. I feel disgusted that this would be so public, but what makes it worse is that there are children in the room who she is encouraging to disrobe. After a short period I go over to her and try to assertively tell her that she shouldn’t be doing what she is doing. Then she argues back and says it is perfectly fine what she is doing. Then I wake up.

So the first question I have about this dream is who does she represent metaphorically?

She represents the kind of self serving over-inflated egos of people in the world culture who are only interested in themselves and giving themselves pleasure with no regard for others. I don’t have to name “names” here. There are a fair number of these types trying to run things in the world. When confronted about their actions, they just don’t care or don’t get it or don’t want to get it. Obviously in the dream hiding from this kind of reality in a cushioned, comfortable way does not work either. So like most things with the ego, neither fighting nor fleeing works.

The key to this dream is to understand that the woman in the dream is trying to make everything about her. What we can say about her is that she is good at getting everyone to pay attention to her. So then the question for myself is centers around what I can do to change this situation. The key is in the cushions.

Cushions represent comfort and hiding in the cushions means that I am hiding in a comfortable situation. It turns out that where the attention, pleasure-seeking types will not go to is in the place where people feel the most discomfort, where people’s darkness is. Instead of hiding in my comfortable surroundings away from the attention seekers, I am being called to go forward to helping others deal with their darkness. Darkness is the place of great discomfort that we tend to run from. It is like a reminder to me that this is a place where I already have competence. The shock, however, of the self serving attention seekers makes me want to hide or confront. The truth is that when I go into the darkness with people to solve real issues, the attention seekers are nowhere to be seen. And this is because they are desperately hiding from their own inner demons.

The key to solving this dream for me is to be involved in the work that assists people in their change process. When I am doing that, the self serving types disappear because they will not go into darkness.

Love going to places where no one else will go and be confident in the effect that you can have. This is my mantra.

Practice: When faced with self serving energy around you or in yourself, think about how you can ignore what they are doing and focus on what your own gifts can do.