The other night I had an odd dream. Now, a lot of dreams are odd and strange and sometimes there is no meaning behind them – you’re just wondering through a surreal landscape and everything is bizarre to say the least.
Othertimes, however, the dream has a meaning. You may be dreaming of a traumatic experience as a means to process what has happened, or it could just be haunting you until you resolve the situation – say by acceptance, or forgiveness, healing work, etc. Or it could be that the dream has a symbolic nature, a message from your subconscious, and you need to figure out what it’s really all about.
Salvador Dali, ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening’
In cases where your dream is symbolic in nature, and you want to find out more about it, or you can’t even figure out where to start, tarot can be of great help.
Quite simply, you can draw just one card and ask any one of the following: – What is this dream about? – What is the meaning of this dream? – What aspect of myself shows up in this dream?
etc etc. Really, it’s up to you – and also if you don’t think one card is enough, then draw 3 cards for your question, or alternatively, create a custom spread as I did further below.
So back to my odd dream. It goes something like this:
I am walking down the street, and someone starts shooting at me from an upper story window. I don’t recall anyone else being in my dream, other than me and the shooter. However, I cannot see who the shooter is. When I look up, I can see the window, it is open, it is dark inside the room, and I know someone is there, shooting at me. I dodge the bullets, and that’s as far as I got.
To find out a little bit more about this dream, I did a simple four card spread as follows:
Who was the shooter?
Why was he/she shooting at me?
What was this dream about?
What is the overall meaning of this dream?
This is the answer I received using the Sharman-Caselli deck:
Sharman-Caselli tarot deck
1) Who was the shooter?
Sharman-Caselli tarot
Queen of Pentacles – someone with the qualities of this card, which has the element of Earth – thus someone fairly grounded, pragmatic, business savvy, financially secure; this does not necessarily mean a woman, for it could be a man with the qualities described above. It definitely indicates someone I know. Could this be me (as in, self-sabotage) – I don’t think so, as I relate with the Queen of Wands as an archetype.
2) Why was he/she shooting at me?
Sharman-Caselli tarot
Knight of Swords – clearly, this is a card of attack. This is the most volatile of all the Knights in tarot, and there’s no stopping him. This person was definitely angry at me and wanted me out.
3) What was this dream about?
The Tower Sharman-Caselli tarot
The Tower – whoa, ok so this is one card that depicts fairly well what it would feel like to have such an experience – the whole scene is unsettling, sudden and abrupt. Here we have two people falling out of their man-made tower – so it’s about the disintegration of a relationship/friendship, about breaking apart (at least, that’s how it feels to me).
4) What is the overall meaning of this dream?
Sharman-Caselli tarot
5 of Swords – traditionally known as the card of ‘defeat’. I feel in this instance it is more than just that. It’s about someone having the upper hand, the vantage point (the shooter) and using this to try and undermine me. It is also a card where one person has won, but they have done so at any cost, often sacrificing their integrity in the process. This is a card of conflict, where the outcome is less than favourable – for all involved, even though one person looks like they are the winner, in reality it is a shallow victory that does not bring any satisfaction or rewards long-term. The last card under the deck was the 8 of Swords, which supports the
Sharman-Caselli tarot
energy of the dream in which I had something happen to me, over which I had no control, and the only thing I could do is to run and seek shelter. The 8 of Swords appears in readings where things are happening to you that you cannot really control, and often you are limited (bound) by circumstances beyond your control.