The Upwelling Empress & The Young Fool
Milfoil said:
I am running across a field which is surrounded by trees and bushes. There are several rivers ranging in size from small stream to 15/20 feet wide or so. None are very deep but some are running faster than others. Even though there are bridges across the rivers/streams, I am running across both the land and the rivers, jumping and hopping from stone to stone etc.
I recognise a boy on a bicycle as my son though he doesn't look like my sons did at 8. He looses his coat which is then swept away by one of the larger rivers which is now flowing backwards, almost like a tide coming in. He tries to cycle up the river bed (yes in the water!!!) to get his coat but it is too far away so I tell him to leave it and come back.
Now I know that rivers are all about our emotional life and crossing them means change, the boy is an aspect of me, a call to remember childlike ways and be more playful and the bicycle is possibly about duality or putting effort into my journey but what I don't understand is what the river running backwards means?
Hi Milfoil
I saw your post yesterday morning and was intrigued by this dream since it seemed so strongly archetypal. If I had this dream, this is what it would be saying to me...
I am looking at all these rivers and streams as a creative flow. This creativity engages your emotions, as well as the libido or psycho-sexual energy that is also characteristic of streams and rivers. But I see the emphasis being a creative flow.
The streams are many, but "none are very deep". Creativity is abundant, but there is difficulty channeling into two or three productive projects. Instead creativity spills across the personal landscape and it is not as effective as it could be.
Also, bridges need to be built, indicating an integration of the self that ties the land - your grounding - into a cohesive whole. Instead there is a "jumping and hopping from stone to stone", which is not an effective way to get around and accomplish the life purpose.
I also note the interesting expression about some of the larger and more significant rivers conveying a particular numerology, the "15/20". This may be a Tarot commentary on the dynamic between the Devil and Judgement. Actually I see the Devil as positive here, a grounding influence that brings things into materialization. However, if this dynamic is ignored then the inner landscape becomes disruptive and chaotic. There is a counter force at work also, an uplifting into Judgement. These two cards are made to work together, and bridges must be built between. In their present state they are divided, like a fraction. Instead of "15/20" they need to be more like "15=20".
(A completely irrelevant aside here - I was incredibly "lucky" to pick up the long OOP large format
Lover's Tarot last night, and for under $20. So I just broke the seal on the cards this morning so I could reflect on the Devil and Judgement
They are very large cards!)
I would agree that the boy, the son who doesn't look like the actual son, is a part of the self, the inner masculine child. His play is intended to help manifest the creative work. I would call him the proto-Beloved, he is the active masculine in an undeveloped but spontaneous state. The bicycle does suggest a duality that must be harnessed so that the libido is activated and going somewhere.
The loss of the boy's coat seems to be a stripping off from the persona level, so that I am beginning to recognize him for who is. But most fascinating of all is that he travels upriver with the incoming tide. Now this tide could represent an excess of overwhelming emotion, drowning the land and tainting the rivers. But that is not my sense at all. I see this as a creative flood: the ocean is full of fertility, and it is pouring itself out onto your psychic landscape. This is a salting of the rivers, just as the "salt of the earth" implies both a spiritual and practical seeding of reality. The inner male child is in synchronization with this upwelling of the grand feminine, and he masters the vehicle of creative self expression.
Seek his help, but don't forget to
focus your energy across the integrative linkages of those grounding bridges. If the left and right brains can be held in balanced communication, the benefits of this great inrush will be maximized, rather than being washed away or drowned. Be Rooted, yet flexible, and all the other elements will come into balance.
Deep Blessings - David