DREAMCATCHER: We tell the vendors we want to buy their house - but then I get second thoughts

Jill’s Dream:

Bob, my partner, and I were in Cornwall. It was sunny blue skies and a warm day.

We were reviewing a house and decided to buy it and so we told the owners.

It was exciting and I envisaged going for walks on the beach and into the village in the sunshine.

As we stood in the house in the living room it seemed to be set up for the previous owners having had a baby.

I noticed a blue curtain surrounding something in the corner. When I opened it, it was a fridge. I thought that it should not be there, it should be in the kitchen where it belonged.

I said to Bob: “I don’t think we should have said we would buy the house yet, because we have not had a survey done. We don’t know the area, there may not be theatres, cinemas etc all the things we like doing”.

We needed to tell them that we were not ready to buy until we had done some research and checked things out.

Dream Analysis:

The initial stability felt when viewing the house in this dream represents a general sense of safety and security in the dreamer’s life.

The dream uses symbolic representations of a happy life, which is full of aspirations for the future and the start of something new.

However, this state is challenged when something is found out of place and she becomes aware of the former presence of a child, representing the vulnerable side of the dreamer and highlighting her underlying emotional fragility and anxiety about the future.

The anxiety is triggered when she notices something incongruous, for which she is unprepared. This is represented by the fridge in the corner of the living room, which she feels is in the wrong place, challenging her need for a sense of permanency which fuels her security.

In summary, the dreamer’s security is based on her sense of permanency about people and things in her life. This has been challenged by the occurrence of an unexpected life event which she is struggling to accommodate.

If the dreamer would like to provide feedback about the interpretation, please send it to ACDreamcatchers@mail.com.

Interestingly, we have found it is not always possible to interpret your own dream, probably because it often represents the sublimation of feelings or thoughts that we are trying to avoid in our waking lives. However, with a little assistance from the dream interpreter, the symbols and themes can start to make sense and help us to move forward.

If you are interested in having a particular dream analysed, please send us 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.