Monday, December 20, 2010

Rat Dreams

I dreamt about rats again. I started with two rats, an older and younger one, but then a third, even younger, showed up in the cage of the original younger one. The older one was bigger and looked a little crotchety, and they were both in tiny cages that were way too small. Someone in the dream offered to build them a new cage. He started with the older rat, and used an aquarium. The problem was he actually took the aquarium concept literally and filled it with water, so the poor rat was swimming around with a pathetic look on his face. I knew he shouldn’t be in water, but I had to ask someone else in the dream just to be sure- “Rats can’t live in water, can they?” “No, you need to get him out of there.” So I drained the cage, which worked fine without the water. Then I worked on making a cage for the two younger ones, but I had to do homework as well. I was in school, and the classes seemed familiar. I think I dreamed about being behind in the homework for these same classes in another dream. The first class was for something related to history, or literature, or political history…protesting figured heavily. The political history of protesting? The literature of protest? Something like that. The homework was a combination of reading and watching documentaries. At some point someone from one of the documentaries, about farm workers, came out of the TV and tried to turn it off. I said, “Hey, I’m watching that for my homework!” He said, “You’re building a rat cage.” I said, “Yeah, that too.”

My parents were in this dream too. I was living with them. They didn’t figure prominently. My dad was annoyed that I was up late in the basement doing homework, and my mom was playing supportive. My dad was an additional stressor, but that was about it. I was hiding in the basement from him though. I was always afraid of the basement when I was a kid. I had dreams about being chased around down there.

Right now (in awake world) I’m eating a vegan breakfast in day one of my experimental vegan athlete diet (Vega). It is a twelve week diet from a book. I am trying it out. It is free from common allergens- gluten, soy, corn, as well as dairy, eggs, and meat. I am hoping I might get more energy, be sick less, and lose some weight. If I feel better in 12 weeks I’ll keep going, and if not, I’ll stop. It was time-consuming getting started. I spent several hours yesterday grocery shopping, on top of an hour last Thursday and many hours compiling my grocery list. There is a lot of fruit and vegetables, seeds and nuts, and things I’ve never bought before like hemp protein and brown rice miso paste. Then I spent about 3 hours last night preparing and cooking for today. I made yam pancakes (no flour), energy bars, a salad, salad dressing, and a smoothie. So far it tastes pretty good. I really, genuinely like vegetables and most “health” food, so I am lucky. It’s not such a stretch for me to switch to this diet. I do like preparing food too, although I hope it doesn’t take quite so long every time. This is a pretty serious diet.

3 comments:

Mechi Badb said...

The rats are you at differing stages in your life. The old crotchety ones represents your present self and the other ones are younger versions of yourself at different times in your life. Interesting that there are only three rats as many scholars believe we only have three stages of life. Infant, adolescent and adult. So by representation and metaphor, your I think subconscious realizes that you are no longer a child or teenager, but an adult. Or at least it recognizes these stages in your life. I suppose it's up to you which one truly represents yourself. The one you truly are, or the one you present to the world. Not to say you are an old and crotchety rat, but older and wiser and less likely to put up with any crap that the others two might. The cages are your own self imposed prisons (which you use to keep yourself cut off from the world, but still able to see out, hence why they are made of glass) and the water is all the problems you have encountered throughout your life. A rat (the animal you most relate to because of how they are looked upon by most of society) can swim in water quite well, but will drown like anyone else if constantly inundated with water (many problems). You asking for help from an unnamed source can be equated with your reaching out to therapists for help (even though as you said, you already knew the answer to your question) for the rats in the aquarium and the water issue are all metaphors that your subconscious is trying to relate to your conscious mind.
Once you drained the water (started to deal with your problems) the rat (yourself) felt more comfortable, but stayed in the cage (self-imposed exile).
The homework stuff is all the things in your life that you have wanted to do, but felt held back by your many problems in your life. So it feels as though you will always be behind in your "homework" or therapy. Interesting that homework is the word you used as it's work you do at home, i.e. things that you must do alone if you are to succeed. The history of protesting, to me is exactly what it seems to be, You protesting about the things that have gone on in your life and so you are writing an essay proclaiming all of it.
Because you still hold onto the anger and issues you have with your family, in essence you are still living at home. Someone coming out of the TV to change the channel, seems to be an inner fear you have that someone will unexpectedly come along and try to influence you somehow (and you don't want that). You're fine with what "channel" your life is "on".

Of course I could be full of crap too. :p Happy Holidays

Mechi Badb said...

the rats are you at differing stages in your life. The old crotchety ones represents your present self and the other ones are younger versions of yourself at different times in your life. Interesting that there are only three rats as many scholars believe we only have three stages of life. Infant, adolescent and adult. So by representation and metaphor, your I think subconscious realizes that you are no longer a child or teenager, but an adult. Or at least it recognizes these stages in your life. I suppose it's up to you which one truly represents yourself. The one you truly are, or the one you present to the world. Not to say you are an old and crotchety rat, but older and wiser and less likely to put up with any crap that the others two might. The cages are your own self imposed prisons (which you use to keep yourself cut off from the world, but still able to see out, hence why they are made of glass) and the water is all the problems you have encountered throughout your life. A rat (the animal you most relate to because of how they are looked upon by most of society) can swim in water quite well, but will drown like anyone else if constantly inundated with water (many problems). You asking for help from an unnamed source can be equated with your reaching out to therapists for help (even though as you said, you already knew the answer to your question) for the rats in the aquarium and the water issue are all metaphors that your subconscious is trying to relate to your conscious mind.
Once you drained the water (started to deal with your problems) the rat (yourself) felt more comfortable, but stayed in the cage (self-imposed exile).
The homework stuff is all the things in your life that you have wanted to do, but felt held back by your many problems in your life. So it feels as though you will always be behind in your "homework" or therapy. Interesting that homework is the word you used as it's work you do at home, i.e. things that you must do alone if you are to succeed. The history of protesting, to me is exactly what it seems to be, You protesting about the things that have gone on in your life and so you are writing an essay proclaiming all of it.
Because you still hold onto the anger and issues you have with your family, in essence you are still living at home. Someone coming out of the TV to change the channel, seems to be an inner fear you have that someone will unexpectedly come along and try to influence you somehow (and you don't want that). You're fine with what "channel" your life is "on".

Of course I could be full of crap too. :p Happy Holidays

Mechi Badb said...

Sorry for multiple posts, bot sure if you got it as I keep getting an error saying my post is too large . :(