Whether it’s in a dream or in our waking life, there are moments where it feels as though we’re tumbling back through time and memory. The feelings and sensations can be overwhelming, disorienting us from the present. Images surface from our unconscious, seemingly out of nowhere, while driving down a familiar road, turning the corner on a well-worn path, or returning to long-ago places. These deep memories are stored away like items in a dusty old attic. But our unconscious is assuredly neither old, nor dusty. Dreams emerge from our unconscious mind to get our attention or get us to notice something we’ve been desperately trying to ignore. What arises in dreams can be a metaphorical tap on the shoulder, “remember this,” or, “did you forget about that?” It can be something we’ve tucked away in a memory, good or bad, for safe keeping, that can serve us now. But how?! Imagine this dream is your dream, holding it in your mind’s eye, and experiencing the dream as if it were your own.
As though I were watching film footage in reverse, I see myself tumbling backwards in time from one childhood room to another, spending time in each room, looking at the wallpaper, the photos and all the memories stored there. In the last room, I hear someone approaching and quickly seek a place to hide. But they find me and tell me that I can’t stay, that this place now belongs to others. They say, “you can take just one thing with you.” Looking around the room was like looking at old memories, the posters, the hand-me-down dresser, and a wind-up music box. As I’m about to leave empty handed, I spot my transistor radio. A feeling of wonder came over me at picking up this long-ago memory and imagining the excitement of turning the dial just to hear the static until finally landing on a station. Out the back window I went with radio in hand.
In most dreams, there is a great deal of energy around one or more elements. In this dream it was conveniently tucked away amidst an array of other memories. When our gaze in a dream focuses on one particular element over another, it becomes a point of reflection. “Why was I drawn to that image,” you might ask yourself. In this dream the energy was constellated around the transistor radio, a childhood toy loaded with memories. To better relate to this dream, or any dream, and the guidance it’s offering, we begin by reflecting on the images that have the most energy. Reflective questions I considered for this dream began with what was so special about the radio, how did it make me feel seeing it/holding it in the dream, and what do I associate with it either in memory or in the body. These reflections are a starting point that help to magnify both language and relationship around personal memory and imagery while also revealing how the symbolism of the images can serve us today.
In exploring this dream’s symbolism there is an immediate draw to the concept of static. In the dream itself there was mention of a “feeling of wonder…in turning the dial just to hear the static.” This is such a specific feeling and expression that, in any dream, would compell us to pay closer attention. In my own reflections, as I continued to explore the concept of static and the act of finding a station, I saw the relevance of the dream unfolding.
This back-through-time-and-memory kind of dream had me thinking about how I define the static in my own life, the in-between disquieting nature of not being tuned in to my place or purpose. I wondered, “haven’t I found my station already,” and, “when will I stop searching for the perfect frequency?” There is so much static in our lives. Often, it seems we spend more time in between metaphorical stations than we do on the stations themselves. Or we get stuck on a frequency we can’t get away from. Static becomes a metaphor for uncertainty, while also a symbol for searching and tuning in. The stations we attune to are often pre-defined narratives and information offered up by culture, or our social or ideological groups. We turn the dial (our inner dial) until we find the station that’s right for us. Other times we wander from station to station, never being entirely satisfied. Whichever we choose, both the static and the stations in our life journey shape us. The narratives especially and the uncertainty are not entirely our own. We’re shaped by many stations such as our origin story, peer groups, community, place, cultural practices, our economic status and on and on. The station as a symbol is a powerful narrative, sometimes positive and at other times manipulative. Our experiences of searching and uncertainty, as well as various life stations in memory, shape us personally and collectively. In reflecting on the collective meaning and our associations with this dream imagery, we might question both our cycles of uncertainty and the survival aspects of our ongoing search for our place of belonging. Is the static in our lives uncertainty or are we more accurately searching for who we are and our place of purpose? Consider how such dream symbolism calls us forward to reclaim our agency over the narratives in our life, giving voice to stations all our own.
Working with the symbolism of the dream even wider we might also consider how we’re both the transmitter and receiver. We must embody both for the symbolism of the radio to work. How many of us have difficulty receiving? We’re so often in giving mode that we overlook or deny our need to receive. How might we be missing out on life affirming frequencies because we’re too distracted with doing, pleasing, or giving to others? Do we transmit our needs? And are we listening to the physical transmissions from our body and unconscious that ask us to notice something important for our healing and personal growth? Tuning in to our dreams and the memories and images that arise, can offer us deep healing and guidance.
When certain themes, symbols, or narratives surface, we might wonder, “why this, why now.” Remember that dreams tell us things we don’t always want to know but need to know. When we’re feeling like our life is nothing but static and uncertainty in our emotional, physical, or spiritual stations, tuning in to what our unconscious is trying to transmit can help. What arrives to us through dreams serves our personal journey by helping us out of the static to create a path, story, narrative, or station that reflects more accurately who we are and our place of purpose and belonging.
