"There are too many Gods!"

My dream takes me back to ancient China, a time before a united kingdom was formed.

Our tribe lives in a village which looks like a big open market. I notice that we all wear robes and the city square is where everyone hangs out.

To prepare from an attack from another tribe, our tribe selected ten people as warriors and I am one of them. From the beginning I do not have faith in defeating our enemies as I have serious doubt as to why we only choose ten people to defend ourselves apparently common sense tells me we need a bigger defence force.

I am assigned to be the rocket carrier. (In those days guns and bullets had not yet been invented.) The rocket is a very long piece of gadget and is relatively light. I point it to the ground and fire it to test if it works. The first three shots nothing happens to the ground. Just when I begin to think this rocket is faulty, from the fourth shot on it causes explosion. I fire another two shots which also end with explosion.

The invaders - another tribe duly arrive. They come in hordes and with weapons. I shoot my rocket at them for several times which cause big explosion. However, the numbers of the invaders don’t appear to have decreased and they are making their way further and further into our village aggressively. I decide to flee as I see no point in direct confrontation any more.

At the back of the city square there is a temple which usually is full of worshippers. As I enter the temple, I see Dennis Cook (the National Manager for my current company) standing there with his daughter and a few other family members. I can hear her daughter’s praying. She is praying for good luck in her car purchase. In her prayers she names the brand, model, specifications and ideal price of the car she is going to buy. I feel strange about this scene as to me her praying doesn’t sound like a genuine worship to the God which is what the temple is for.

As they are about to finish and I can tell from Dennis’ impatient look that he can’t wait for everyone to leave so he can shut the door, I hurriedly left the temple.

Back again in the city square, there is a some kind of surrender ceremony. Obviously the attack is over and our tribe has been defeated. People are marching towards the city square for the ceremony, amongst them include my sister, my mother and my girlfriend and colleague Christina.

I am having a conversation with Christina and mention to her what I saw in the temple earlier. I tell her that I don’t understand why the attack should happen and peace interrupted.

“It’s because there are too many Gods!” She says. “Can’t you see already that all wars start with obsession of their individual God?”

Suddenly, everything starts to make sense.

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There are a number of symbols in this dream, namely: war/attack, warrior, weapon, temple, God, family, friends and authority figures. I am yet to string these pieces together to interpret this dream, here are what the dream dictionaries say about these symbols:

Temple
Represents your spiritual thinking, meditation and growth. It is also symbolic of your physical body and the attention you give it.

Attack
Being attacked by someone, signifies questions on your character and the need for you to defend yourself. You are feeling stressed, vulnerable and helpless. You may also be faced with difficult changed in your waking life.

Warrior
Represents life's challenges and your ability to confront them.

God
To dream that you are worshipping God, signifies repentance of your actions and errors.

Weapons
To see or hold a weapon in your dream, indicates a need to defend and protect yourself emotionally and/or physically. You are experiencing some conflict in your waking life. Alternatively, it suggests a fear of sexuality.

Family
To see your own family in high spirits in your dream, symbolizes harmony and happiness. To see them gloomy, foretells of disappointment and sadness.

Friend
To see your friends in your dream, signifies aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to integrate these rejected part of yourself. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Additionally, this symbol foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news.

Dare to interpret this dream for me?

Dating

(My dream journal dated 4 October 2004)

I am dating my current husband. In China.

He is a tall, thin, handsome young Westerner. He lives in Hong Kong.

One day he invites me to visit his apartment in Hong Kong for the first time. I am very curious to find out what kind of life he lives in Hong Kong as I live in mainland China and have never been to Hong Kong.

We are walking on a crowded street. He holds my hands tight as if if he doesn’t do that he would lose me in the crowds.

There is a baby/toddler. For some reason we follow him and chase him. But he walks extremely fast and we can hardly keep up with him, especially in the crowded street. We lose him a few times and then find him again. Finally we have done a circle and the toddler comes home to his parents. My husband and I say to the parents: we have never seen a toddler walking so fast! His parents agreed.

We have arrived at the edge of a fault-line. There is a rift of around one meter wide between the two plates. We take a look in the rift. It is deep - so deep that you cannot see the bottom of it. We have to jump across the rift to reach the other plate. If we don’t jump through, we will fall into the core of the earth.

It is scary!

Although the rift is about one-metre wide and under normal circumstances I would have no problem jumping through, the thought of falling into the core of the earth imposes huge barriers in my minds. My husband has long legs. He jumps through and lands on the other side. He demonstrates to me that it is not that a difficult job. Encouraged by him, I take a deep breath. Like doing a long-distance jump, I jump through also.

We have almost arrived in front of his apartment building. But we can’t get in. Why? There is a flood. The flood is so bad that it is chest high. He is virtually swimming trying to get to the security door of the building. But the flood makes it very hard for him. He is struggling. And his clothes are washed away as I watch him.

He must have somehow reached his mailbox and checked his mail. When he is able to return to me, he tells me that he can’t take me to his apartment because of the flood. Also he has just found that he has lost his job.

“Never mind!” I said to him. “You can now move in with me!”

I take him to my small apartment. It is not luxurious, but it has basic furniture. It is safe and cosy enough for us.

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The following is my dream interpretation afterwards:

It is obvious what this dream is about.

It reflects what happened to me recently and the journey I went through with my husband.

The flood, losing apartment and job indicates that life is unpredictable and always surprises us. Misfortune happens beyond our control, like the operations I had to go through recently.

The fast walking toddler is a reflection of what we want in life - baby. However, despite we got close, we did not catch it eventually. It's beyond reach.

The rift between the plates shows my fear. Although it is a small gap to stride across safely, I was fearful that I might fall into the darkness and not make it.

Of course, despite flood, losing job and apartment, not catching the toddler... all is not lost and there is a happy ending: we still have each other at the end of the journey.

Injured Bird

I had some interesting dreams both last night and the night before. Let me start with the dream I woke up this morning first.

Hubby and I are out on a street, walking. Although the whole place looks like a small town in New Zealand, the moderate crowdedness actually makes it kind of like a small town in Asia. However, the place is very clean. We have to walk through a few concrete stairs to get to an upper level. When we get to the upper level we turn left and find a corner shop. We walk in. Hubby finds a table and sits down. The shop is like the ones in Hong Kong- very small but very neat and they serve good snack food with a combination of Asian and Western style. Hubby orders a big Kiwi Breakfast – sausages, eggs & toast. He asks me what I would like to have.

I am not in the mood to order anything. As a matter of fact, I don’t even pay any attention to what’s on the menu. With my mind on something else I tell him to get me a Danish and a hot chocolate drink made with soy milk. I say to him that I must go home to check on something.

When I get home, I find an injured bird. The bird has no wings and no feathers – just a bare body. It appears someone has ripped its wings and feathers off. The wings and feathers are actually on the floor, not too away from the body.

I feel terribly sorry for the bird. I want to save it but not sure how. At that time my childhood neighbour, Lee, happens to walk past by. I stop him and ask him if he thinks the bird is going to survive. He would be five or six years older than me. He tells me no.

This is all that I can remember although there must be much more.

Now coming back to the dream I had the night before.

It is very early in the morning. I leave home for work. It’s somewhat foggy and dark. As I walk past a village (the village has a big gate and a spacious concrete ground in front of the gate), one man beside a van stops me and asks: “hey Ella haven’t you applied for a job in my company? Would you like to have a quick interview with me before I go to work?”

He is a very tall, thin man. I have a peep in his van and see many cameras and studio gadgets. Apparently he is one of the two co-owners of a TV production company. I am a little confused and feel strange as I don’t think I know him. Neither do I remember that I have applied for a job in this company.

I can’t remember what I say to him but obviously I must have agreed to have this interview with him as he brings out a notebook from his van and asks me some interview questions from the notebook. I answer the questions. I don’t feel anxious or enthusiastic. I think the correct way to put would be: I go through the motions but not emotions.

When we have finished the questions and answers, he tells me that he has to leave but would let his colleague to take over the rest of the interview. I now begin to notice that his colleague, also a tall, thin man with very similar style is standing beside us…

I don’t remember the rest of the dream.

Foreigners In China

(My dream journal of 18 December 2004)

In a populated place, I see a few foreigners. They are all large and overweight. These men and women look like blue collar workers - not like most foreigners in China, who are sophisticated business people, students, scholars or travellers.

I see a young, thin, small Chinese lady. After talking to her, I find out that she is an interpreter for those foreigners. She tells me that these foreigners work for a local shipping company. They are all labourers. Since the shipping company handles large goods which are normally heavy, the company recruits large foreigners who are physically more capable for the job. She also tells me that this is a new trend in China - recruiting foreigners as labour workers. The world is changing. We no longer solely need foreign intellectual workers.

Her job at the moment is to meet a new foreigner who has just arrived and help him to settle. The new comer is a large, bold, forty something wearing an old wrinkly black T-shirt and shorts. She has arranged for a taxi to take him to the village where he is going to live.

At the reception of the company’s apartment, she is surprised to be told that there is no accommodation arrangement for the new comer. She talks to a person who appears a local senior management person about helping out this new comer. He says he owns two apartments - one with one bedroom and one with two bedrooms. However, if he lets this new comer stay in his place, he might get himself in trouble. According to the local law, one cannot offer accommodation to a foreigner without informing the local authority. He regrets not being able to help and blames the complicated communist law.

When she returns to the taxi, she is surprised that the taxi driver charges her ¥200. She thinks that the taxi driver could have turned the engine off so the meter would snooze during his waiting for her to sort out things for the foreigner at the village which takes a few hours rather than charging her for the waiting. The waiting costs more than the mileage.

………………………

My husband and I come to the village. We think we might find some fun and things to do, since we understand it’s a village with a lot of foreigners. To our disappointment this village is far from modern and clean and the residents are not the kind of people we feel comfortable socialising with. There is an entertainment room for the foreign residents where they can chat, watch TV, or singing Karaoke, but it is far too shabby. We decide to leave.

There is a foreign woman just returning to the village. She appears drunk or sick. She stumbles and tries to get hold of a tree. We think she’s going to vomit. When she is a little better, she regroups herself and walks away.

……………

We are still in the village. My husband enters a building to sort something and I am waiting at the entrance. I get bored waiting in the same spot and wander around but not too far away from where I was. I wait for a long time until the day is almost over and few people are left in the building. I gather that my husband must have finished his business and since he didn’t see me at the entrance, he left without me.

I am angry with him. He should have looked for me. He should have known that I’ve been waiting for him. He shouldn’t have taken off without checking thoroughly.

……. ………….

My husband and I are on a ferry. I am so tired and desperately wanting to get some sleep. I lean to him and he holds me. Very understandingly, he says to me: Go to sleep, baby! I’ll hold you.

Baby Died

Last night I had a nightmare:

We have a new born baby. The baby is very tiny as I can put him on my palm. I wash him diligently every day on my palm with warm water. He seems to be happy with that. Then he dies, suddenly. I don’t understand.

After some reflection, it is believed that my baby died of severe burn. Basically I boiled him to death gradually by washing him everyday in what I believed as ‘warm water’. While the water temperature was right for me, it was too hot for my baby but I didn’t know. I had never thought that my baby had such delicate skin as such he was not supposed to endure the same water temperature. My realisation came far too late.