It's the 23rd today! If I'm a little late giving feedback it'll be because I'm trying to extinguish the conflagration raging around me.
My jaw dropped a little bit when I read Mell's dream as well. The chairs were sold at auction in the 1970s, I remember being told that there were telephone bidders from other countries interested in them. In his catalogue description my Godfather omitted to mention that he'd been letting two small children play in them in the garden.OMG! First of all, Mycroft, what incredible chairs those are! GORGEOUS!!! and then Mell, for you to dream such a dream as you did! Getting lawn chairs made of teak put away. I was astounded! Good job there, Mell!
As with Mellaenn's dream, I'm not going to do feedback just yet, but there is one real point of interest that occurred from mis-reading your dream at first. Initially I saw "It is a little pink envelope like one that would contain a card" as "envelope containing a pink card" and this immediately made me think of an old Lenormandesque 'Madame Signa' deck I have, because this contains pink cards. So, purely out of interest I drew the three cards which were most suggestive to me of the elements of your dream; the horse and rider, the parcel and the woman,
When I thought about your question and looked at the image to dream for you on day one, before dreaming I immediately got a vision of a brick fireplace. I don't think it is anything to do with the dream question but it was a brick fireplace and was thinking that it's not exactly beautiful in any way but at least it's a fireplace (!?!) anyway throwing it in hope these dreams make some sort of sense Mycroft 
'sMy question is: "What is the next step I need to take in order to progress in my life?" and I think that a couple of other people have helped to determine what my symbol and visual focus will be;
"Mysterious Mycroft"
And, of course, in the dream, I was very happy to do so. (They always accommodate me when I go back to visit the area--in their spare bedroom and truth be told, if this kid came to me, I would of course put him up). But, my family was shocked! They began arguing with me about putting him up and were very unhappy about it. I remember telling them it was "my house and he was the son of a very good friend of ours and of course I would accommodate him!" Nothing more was said, and he went upstairs to go to bed. End of the dream. I was a bit annoyed with them and they with me, but when I told them calmly and matter of factly that line above, it was teh end of it. And, the end of that dream. It did not kill me, and in fact, I even (somehow?) got the knife out and everyone who had walked out came in and were really shocked over this. I was hurt badly--but not to the point that I was going to die. (very wierd dream). I looked at the people just entering the room again and exclaimed, "she stabbed me!!!" and they didn't want to believe it. The woman was acting very non-chalant about it and turned to them and said, "no, I didn't", which I thought was ludicrous because the two of us were the only ones left in the room. But the others also were having a hard time understanding all this, and not wanting to accuse her or ask her why. End of that dream.Well, this was certainly a powerful start to my dream week, I must admit to being quite stunned by this dream for the reasons I outlined in my previous post, and I definitely feel that you tapped into something from my childhood Mell. Regarding your interpretation of the dream I find this part particularly interesting;
I have indeed been feeling for a while that it's now time to move on from things that are not serving my spiritual development and start being more serious about focusing on things that are of more benefit to me. The next part also resonated with me;
I personally think this may represent a lack of contact with some of my emotions, particularly the ones that we show quite naturally when we're children, but which we are conditioned by society to be afraid of using when we're adults. This for me is brought into greater clarity by the next part;
I definitely feel a 'get in touch with your inner child' sort of vibe from this dream, and I personally see an ambiguity that although the message here could be;
it might also be an exhortation to redefine things that are presently viewed as 'childish' and see the things contained in them that are still useful to me as an adult. In your second dream;
I definitely agree that;
This has been something that I've become more aware of over the last few years, and I have to mention that this scene reminds me of the 'Grail Question' - "Who serves the Grail, and who is served by the Grail."
"Food for thought" really seems to sum this part up, and I'm wondering if this is a prompt to do more with my dreams, both in the sense of working with them more, and then channeling them into more creative endeavours afterwards.
Interestingly for me, the first two parts of the dream seemed to have a 'long dark night of the soul' feel about them, with darkness and disappointment permeating the imagery. This is certainly something that I can empathize with at the moment. Interestingly, there are some myths where the Phoenix is represented as a winged horse that recreates itself out of it's own ashes.
For me, this part resonates strongly with a theme in Mellaenn's dream, the notion of societal conditioning preventing us from expressing emotions that we were able to as children.
This part certainly dovetails very nicely with my feelings about the underlying messages in both yours and Mellaenn's dreams, and makes me think that perhaps a little meditative regression to see if I can unlock some hidden memories from my childhood might be in order.
This is my mother, who is a Matriarchal figure par excellence and dominates the entire family (nephews and nieces as well) in a manner that we might term benevolent dictatorship. She's not a very good listener because she's a bit deaf in both ears now, but even prior to that she has always had a manner which consists of patiently listening to everyone's views and opinions, and then deciding that we're all going to do it her way after all.
that immediately brought to mind a scene from a particular movie;
At the end of the scene in the office, Hancock ends up trying to throttle John Le Mesurier, who's his boss, exclaiming; "You're killing me! I need an outlet for my creativity!" This, I think is at the heart of the first part of the dream. The snake to me may represent kundalini energy which is stifled and blocked due to not being channeled into projects which are sufficiently creative for me, or are creative but not in the areas that I am presently interested in. The second part of the dream made me think of the fact that insects are 'hive minds' and they operate by integrating all the aspects of the colony together. When we are working on ourselves it can often seem extremely difficult to reconcile apparently paradoxical aspects of our personality, but at some point we have to make a 'confrontation of contradiction' and see if we can bridge an apparently impossible gap. I feel that the point here is that we shouldn't be afraid of any aspect of our personality and repress it, because it will only burrow back to the surface and 'infest' us again later.
You're probably wondering where the fireplace comes in. Well, there are two;When I thought about your question and looked at the image to dream for you on day one, before dreaming I immediately got a vision of a brick fireplace. I don't think it is anything to do with the dream question but it was a brick fireplace and was thinking that it's not exactly beautiful in any way but at least it's a fireplace (!?!) anyway throwing it in
I can strongly identify with this CN, not so long ago I was discussing the subject of prayer with a woman who maintained that real prayer is focused concentration and requires meditation to be done effectively. "That's why Jesus told us to 'Enter into thine inner closet and close the door'" were her closing remarks on the subject.
Yes indeed, a clear idea of what you're praying for and a strong emotional connection to it, seem to be the prerequisites for prayer to be effective.
I'm wondering if this dream relates to societal norms, and the way some people are shocked by anything Occult or Psychic. I've encountered this kind of attitude many times, and perhaps it's a reminder that other people's doubts and fears are something for them to deal with, and that we mustn't allow ourselves to be put off or tainted by them.My next dream seemed to take place in my own home. I was sitting in the living room with 'family' and then the next thing I knew, my friends son came into the room and asked me if he could stay the night with me as he had a party to go to the next day in my area. His parents told him that I'd be happy to put him up for a night. (w/o my knowledge!)
I think this one may refer to something that happened recently with a family member (hence the kitchen setting) and sadly she has a history of it - but it's always a 'misunderstanding', and never her fault! This does resonate strongly with the nonchalant attitude and refusal to accept responsibility for her actions.My last dream was again with familiar people around me. family and friends. some sort of gathering, I believe--though I don't know what at this posting. A few of us were in a room--probably the kitchen--and then I was alone with one person who picked up a knife and stabbed me in the back.
