In this post, I want to share a dream I came across in my journals from 2004. I was actually looking for another dream to share in relation to the work I want to do with dreams and as a coach (now that I have completed my coursework in grad school and earned my Master of Arts in Psychology degree) in the future. That being said, when I came across this dream earlier today, the location in the dream struck me.

Here’s the dream:

Date of Dream: February 6, 2004

Dream Title: Being Dropped by My Teacher

I am in school/college. I am going to a teacher’s classroom, so that I may drop his class. I get to the room. There are a few students in the room. I approach the teacher, telling him I need to drop his class. He goes to his desk, removing a sheet of paper from a stack. He hands it to me. As I read it, I see the teacher has already dropped me from his class! The sheet is like an evaluation sheet, and the end result is that the teacher thought I needed to withdraw from the class. I leave the room, paper in hand.

I proceed to go upstairs to the library. I just want to use the computers to check my e-mail. I realize as I climb the stairs, that I am barefoot. At first, I think this might present a problem, but I continue on anyway.

In looking at this dream, my attention first went to the date. In 2004, I was not in school. I had graduated with my Associate of Arts degree from community college a few years prior, and had not considered going on to undergrad school (I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and didn’t want to invest the time and energy until I was certain). With that, the location being a school/college is symbolic and not literal (although it could represent what I was thinking/feeling about the idea of going on to further my education, with regard of what was keeping me from doing so).

This is an important thing to note here. Dream material from the past is commentary on what was going on in the dreamer’s life at that time. So my interpretation now of the dream is relevant to my life as it was in February 2004. The useful purpose of working with dreams from the past is to see the progress the dreamer has made in life from that time to the present.

This is a nice segue into the subject matter of this particular dream. My process of dream analysis begins with looking at the location, as it is one way to determine the subject matter. A school, being a place of learning, symbolizes learning about yourself to improve yourself. A college or university indicates spirituality, so the dream has a spiritual emphasis to it.

The only dream character that is specifically highlighted in my dream is the teacher of the class. In a dream, a teacher can mean the dreamer is a spiritual teacher and/or leader. This suggests being able to teach others to express what is in their core, either by example or through instruction. A spiritual teacher empowers others to deal with their problems. This shows the potential I possess (everything in the dream is me, which is the number one rule of dream analysis), who I could become in the future.

Here’s the rub: I am there to drop the class, which means that I think I am not prepared to learn what subject this particular teacher teaches, which is not indicated in the dream. That being the case, I would then go with the idea of being a spiritual teacher/leader. Dropping a class can possibly indicate an issue regarding performance and a fear of failure (which is usually why students will drop a class). The teacher (who, in some sense, could be a spirit guide) is in agreement with me, by taking the action of dropping/withdrawing me from the class.

What happens next is very interesting. I leave the room, taking the stairs to go to the library. Going upstairs can either be about one’s spiritual side or one’s intellect. Since other symbols indicate the spiritual nature of the dream, going upstairs is about my spirituality. The library as the place I am going indicates the spiritual ability of counseling. A library contains books, which represents a depth of knowledge or inner wisdom. This knowledge/wisdom can be used to help others deepen their knowledge of themselves. The dream is saying I have this counseling ability regardless of whether or not I have had formal training. The fact that the library is in the university is important: the counselor does not seek to change individuals; the counselor seeks to educate individuals so they can understand why they are the way they are.

My intention is that I want to use the computers to check my e-mail. Computers symbolize logic, the brain, and conditioning (computers have programs, which represents my own “programming”). This is the other aspect of going upstairs (the intellect). This says that I have been conditioned to approach things intellectually (I am just “wired” that way). Wanting to check my e-mail, in the spiritual sense, indicates the ability to be a medium, which is the ability to communicate with spirits (the internet being a communications medium, and e-mail, which is electronic mail, is about checking the messages that have been sent to me). Moving up to another (higher) level in the building can indicate being what is known as a “mental medium,” which is the transference of information to the medium, either by sight or sound, and experienced telepathically, or in the mind of the medium.

So with this part of the dream, it is saying that I am to move forward with the counseling ability, and that mediumship will be a part of that ability. It is not yet the right time for me to assume the role of a spiritual teacher/leader.

The dream ends with the realization that I am barefoot. Being barefoot in a dream can indicate having cold feet, and could keep me from moving forward (this would be in connection to the roles of counselor and medium, since I realize this on the stairs, on my way to the library to check my e-mail). At first, I see this as a potential problem, but, in the end I continue up the stairs. This means taking the “steps” I need to take to develop both abilities.

So that is the analysis of the dream, and what was going on in my life at the time (February 2004). Fast forward 10 years later, I have, as I said at the top, completed my graduate degree program for my MA in Psychology. I read Tarot, and in that work, I relay messages from Spirit to my clients. And for the two and a half years, I have been working as an intuitive life strategist and career direction coach; in that work, I take people from where they are to where they want to be. I started this work while in grad school because I wanted the experience of working with clients without offering advice or therapy, since I was not licensed to do so. Coaching is a process of self-discovery, which means I get to help my clients understand why they are the way are, and how that sense of being shapes how they approach setting and achieving their life’s goals.

Now I’m thinking that since that work has been completed, it might be time to revisit the idea of becoming that spiritual teacher/leader I was not prepared to become in 2004.

For more about my work with dreams, whether past or present, please visit my Dream Decoder Coaching page.

Your partner in seeing your progress through your dreams,

James