Welcome to Dream Interpretation for Dummies, where Dear Abby meets Native Americana. Come to the campfire, peer into the yawning grave, and take a dive into the collective subconscious… or maybe just explore some weird clown imagery. We’ll wait for you here.
Howdy Note: This dream has been very lightly edited. Everything you are about to read has already happened, is happening, will happen…
Another Howdy Note: Next week, we’ll be switching to a bi-weekly (every two weeks) publication schedule. This will give me more time to simmer and luxuriate in the dreams, etc. Thank you so much for your support!!!
dear howdy,
i've been having this recurring dream for the past 6 months or more. i'm in a room full of jewelry boxes and i have to sort through and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. the jewelry boxes are ones i used to have or look like ones i used to have. the jewelry boxes are full of jewelry i have or had or would like to have and a lot of ~stone~ or ~rock~ jewelry too.
sometimes i'm looking for a specific necklace i had as kid, a pink candy heart on a silver chain that came with a copy of anne of green gables, and sometimes i just find it (or multiple copies of it) as i'm going through things.
there is usually always some sense of urgency, like i have a deadline but want to look at every piece, a feeling like there is something i'm missing that i would just find if i look in the right place, but i am constantly rushing through, trying to look at everything and failing, trying to sort things, but never really managing to.
when i started having the dream there was one or two jewelry boxes, but they multiply rapidly with every new dream--to a roomful, a building full, several buildings full.
i wake up and i *feel* like it's supposed to mean something, i'm supposed to understand, but i don't. i bought a necklace like the pink candy heart one, hoping to stop having the dream. it stopped for maybe a week or two but then i had it again. i'm not having it as frequently now, but it still comes up every now and again.
i would appreciate any insight you have!
thank you and sweet dreams,
drowning in dreamy neckware
Dear Dreamy,
Thank you for the gift of your dream. I am no stranger to the recurring dream. When I was still a little girl, I had a dream about walking up the hills (which I called mountains) around my father’s property to meet a woman in the corn. I had been to this place fewer than a handful of times and had spent less than an hour there each, but in Dreamland, I knew it intimately. I knew every rock under my feet as if they were my sisters, and I knew the wind by the sound of my name in its whipping, tremulous voice.
I have much to tell you. We shouldn’t dally here, in my memories. So, into your dream we go: recurring dreams are each important in their own ways, but recurring dreams themselves cannot be taken as universal truths. We could say that each dream tells us something and that could serve as our first marker in the approach of dream unraveling. However, that thing is not always applicable to life as we know it. For example, if I have a friend who dreams of their grandfather, and if I sense an “important” message or a warning, and interpret the rest as simply background noise, I could say he just wants you to know he loves you, and that would be the truth.
For your dream, I know it to be a message, a warning, and a truth all in one. You are sorting through the boxes and deciding what to get rid of. You have done this many times in life, but always emotionally. Whether or not you realize it, you have always felt deeply, and sometimes that depth has been categorized as too much. These boxes you are sorting through look like something you had or used to have, and they exist in the seeming vacuum of your mind. This is not so. Everything you once had you still have, it has not left you forever. The stone and the rocks in your jewelry represent your need for the earth, for grounding. Seek these things and you cannot go wrong.
I am most intrigued about the pink candy heart on a silver chain, and its copies. There is something of childhood in it—innocence, happiness (if there was any to be had), or perhaps the idea of a before and after. I think it is the idea of a before and an after. Before something happened is what you are seeking, whatever you had in the time before, and the after/aftermath is what you are left with. The pink candy heart on a silver chain, a recurrence within a recurrence, tells you not to lose hope. The things you will find may not look like the things you seek, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth the search.
Something is indeed missing, but the sense of urgency you feel is self-created. What is missing? I cannot tell you, seeker, only you can tell yourself. What is important to you? Who is important to you? What is salvageable? What is not? These are only some of the questions you can ask to find clarity, which I wish for you above all.
When you started having the dream there were only one or two boxes, and now they are innumerable. Now is the time to look inward. Now is the time to let go of your guilt, of your shame, of the deep-seated something that weighs you down. It will only feel more urgent the longer you wait, but I know you will find it. Whatever it is.
I hope this helped. I hope you are resting on something soft and blue-shaded. I’m sending you a dream about a golden chain, on which sit three rings, one from my great-grandmother, one from my grandmother, and one from my mother, let me know if you get it.
See you on the other side,
Sad Boy Howdy
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