DREAMCATCHER: Alex Hossack and Catherine Aubrey interpret your dreams

George’s Dream:

I was waiting on the inside of a large cathedral for my partner. We had decided to meet and visit the cathedral for a look around.

I was sitting down on a chair by a table when she arrived. We talked for a while before she got up to join the queue to pay our entrance fee. However, as she left I noticed that her coat belt had caught on the chair she had been sitting on. I released it, she laughed and went off to join the queue.

She had paid and gone through the barrier as I got up to join the queue.

A woman and her friend standing behind me tried to push past, I stopped them. Just then to the left of me a fight broke out between several people, then the fight focussed on two women. The fight became serious when one woman heavily punched the other and I could hear a crack as she struck her face.

Then she started to strangle her, hanging on tightly, I thought she was going to kill her but I don’t think she actually did.

While this was going on the two women still behind me pushed past and ran into the cathedral. As my turn to go through was coming up I became concerned that my partner had paid my entrance fee but that this would have been forgotten by the fee collectors, who would disregard me.

Dream Analysis:

The dream begins calmly but quickly moves into conflict. The tension that the dreamer feels is represented by the two women pushing past him and the subsequent violence.

His anxiety is symbolised by the possibility of being refused access to explore something. The cathedral is a representation of refuge and peace and he is having trouble entering this emotional state.

This dreamer has symbolically passed on responsibility to others, his partner in this case, to assist him to enter a state of relaxation and safety, probably about the future.

There may be some external resistance to this represented by the belt catching on the chair, but in spite of the above, he believes there is the potential for movement forward.

The queue indicates that the dreamer is comfortable with order, although it may also indicate some procrastination as he attempts to make order out of chaos. This may be a temporary solution to help him manage his rising anxiety.

In summary, the dream suggests that the dreamer is contemplating a move forward in his life.

At this point in time he is considering potential or real conflicts which he associates with the changes ahead. This is restricting his ability to move forward and increasing his anxiety as he feels that other people in his life are moving on and past him.

This dreamer struggles to access intense internal conflicting emotions, remaining fearful of ‘cracking’.

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.