DREAMCATCHER: A woman starts rummaging through my holdall

Today’s Dream from Adam:

I was walking down the street carrying a ‘holdall’. I stopped to stand in a shop doorway where there were two young women chatting.

The slightly old looking woman came over to me, opened my holdall and started rummaging around.I objected and she said she was authorised to do so. I said she wasn’t but she said she was.

I pulled my bag away and zipped it up. I then told her she hadn’t shown me her authorisation pass. She looked humiliated. I felt smug and walked off.

Dream Interpretation:

The dreamer has been moving forward in his life, but was recently halted by something. He ‘stops’ in a protected area, a shop doorway, perhaps symbolising the need to protect himself or conceal something.

He interestingly uses the word ‘holdall’ to describe the bag he carries, which may suggest that he feels he is carrying a lot of emotional baggage.

This is significant when the dreamer describes an attempted intrusion into the ‘holdall’ which he actively obstructs and resists.

Life is going on around him normally, but he is protective of any perceived or real legitimate attempts to open him up and find out things about the dreamer that he is trying to keep hidden.

The dreamer almost aggressively thwarts the attempt to ‘rummage through the bag’, suggesting that the ‘holdall’ contains fears and anxieties that the dreamer is unwilling to share and fiercely and arrogantly protects from revealing to others.

This is represented by questioning the authority of others to know what’s in the bag and feeling ‘smug’ as he moves on.

The dream raises these themes to consciousness and may be a message to the dreamer that there are issues in his life which do need to be shared and he needs to let others in to support and assist resolution.

After this interpretation appeared, the dreamer contacted Dreamcatcher with the following comment:

I recently retired and feel I have lost control in my life and status professionally. I had a high ranking position and due to recent medical problems which I also choose not to share outside the family, I feel a huge sense of loss. Although I share my fears with my partner, I do conceal my feelings generally. The medical profession have obviously been involved legitimately to examine the causes of my illness, however I resist to much interference. I have been unable to motivate myself to find alternative compensatory professional activities. This dream has highlighted the need to focus on developing new interests and letting medics, family and friends in to support and help me.

If anyone else is interested in having a particular dream analysed, please send an account of your dream to the following email address: ACDreamcatchers@mail.com We only have space to interpret one dream a week which will be selected from those received. Please refer to the guidance provided to describe your dream as this will enable us to provide a full interpretation.

Guidance for the Dreamer:

• Record your dream in writing as soon as you wake up with as much detail as possible.

• First of all ask yourself who is in the dream.

• Where are you, what is happening to you and what is happening around you?

• Record how you are feeling about what you and/or others are doing.

• Are there particular symbols or objects in the dream that are unusual?

• Are there any sounds and is the dream in colour or black and white?

• Are you watching yourself in the dream or are you experiencing it first-hand ie: through your own eyes.

Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey are Public Service professionals with years of experience as practitioners and managers in the Criminal Justice System.