Can someone help with a dream interpretation?

[Sanity Claws]

I've tried to figure this one out but can't.

I went to an apartment door and my mother (who died when I was 13) answered. She said she can't let me in because her sister is sleeping on the floor. I was shocked and angry at my mother sending me away when I needed a place. I searched for an apartment. I remember finding one on the seventh floor. Each floor seemed to have a pool on it and I swam in the water to get where I needed to go.
I guess somehow this is connected to yesterday being Mother's Day and feeling abandoned by mother's death but the rest of the details just doesn't seem to fit anything.

In another part of the dream, I was searching for my car. I had parked it but couldn't remember where and there was snow around curb/ parking area. I knew the car was near some Spanish Consulate and remember there was supposed to be an El Greco painting on display. I went looking and found my car across the street from this beautiful building.

Weird huh?

[cassiepriam]

1. Search, I think you are correct.

It is a good possibility that Mother's Day stirred up old feelings of rage, disbelief and fear re: your mother's death. Taking you back to age 13 emotionally.

Also are you going through any current anxiety in your life?

There are anxiety components to your dream and I do not know if it is attached to the pain of your mother's death (fear would be a normal reaction for a 13 yr old when faced with the loss of a mother.) Or some current issue that is transposed on the loss/abandonment issues.

PS what do you think the piece about your mother's sister means?

[Sanity Claws]

3. Thank you

I appreciate your taking the time to help me.
I haven't been able to figure out what my aunt sleeping on the floor means. My mother was an immigrant and her sisters stayed at home so I never got to see her relating to any of her sisters. I just can't figure it out except to say that I seem to have come last in her list of priorities.
When I wrote the dream down yesterday, I was just puzzled about its meaning. Today I'm crying when reading your and the other response. This is not what I expected.

[cassiepriam]

6. I agree with Dem.

This is a dream about your feelings about being abandoned, but also about a deep need to find a safe haven. A soft place to land, a place where people take care of you.

I also thought that the sister was a symbol of your sense that other things or people were/are more important than you.

[DemExpat]

2. My thoughts.

Your Mom, needing an apartment, trying to find your car.....to me these are all symbols of your needing a safe place, protection, your needs for means for 'movement' and for safe settlement.

Fear of abandonment and not having your means for survival and for movement are very scary and vulnerable feelings, of course.
Shock and anger at your mother's death and abandonment clear here.
Going to look for an apartment elsewhere and having to go through elaborate motions (swimming on each floor) to reach the next step forward....degree of unusualiness or difficulty in having to go it alone without your Mom?

If your Mom's sister is alive then the part about her sleeping on the floor may not represent your Mom being in a place with her sister that you cannot enter yet, (although it still could - you can't join her there because you are still here in life), or perhaps your Mom's sister being there is simply showing the close relationship that they had here?

Movement (searching for your car) implying to me your soul's purpose/means to move ahead in this life, and towards something very beautiful.(Art, museum and beautiful building)

People need a safe place in order to be able to move forward, and this dream possibly symbolizes all of these aspects related to your mother's early death and its impact on your life.

I have always had many and elaborate dreams - many similar to your dream here - and this would be my interpretation if it were my own, so you'll need to look closely at what the elements there mean in your life.

:hug:

DemEx

[Sanity Claws]

4. Thank you

DemEx,
I think you hit the nail on the head.
While reading your response, the tears started to flow. I'm still crying.
It all makes sense - a search for a safe place. I have so many dreams where I'm trying to get somewhere or I'm traveling but could not figure out the overall reason. Your explanation makes so much sense.

My mother had several sisters, some of whom have passed on and some of whom are still alive. She did not identify which one it was. I think it just meant that she seemed to give more care and attention to someone other than me, her only daughter. I think it is just part of the abandonment issue.

Thank you taking the time to help me on this.

[DemExpat]

5. You are more than welcome, esos.....

I can recommend having a dream journal for dreams like this one - write down what happens, what the elements might be, how you feel....

It isn't necessary to be clear on all the elements, but on the general meaning. Once you understand and have felt what dreams are trying to say, they dissipate, although this can take many years of dreaming the same dream theme over and over.

It all helps tremendously in the processing of often buried feelings that need to be brought to light. They may be horribly painful, but recognizing and feeling them are what can help heal a person, while leaving them in the dark, so to speak, allows them to fester.

All IMHO and in my experience, of course. :-) I had a very special holistically-oriented Psychiatrist who taught me the value of dreams, and since I have always loved dreaming - even the unpleasant ones - I became very tuned to their messages.

:hug: :grouphug: :hug:

DemEx

[Sanity Claws]

7. DemEx

I just wanted to thank you again and let you know that I intend to follow your suggestion and keep a dream diary.
Your interpretation was so spot on that I cried. I have been pretty unproductive all day because I've been crying on and off.

[LiberalEsto]

8. Your mother may have been telling you

that it's not time for you to "cross over" into the afterlife. The sister has crossed over, or will cross over long before you do.

The seven pools might represent the waters of life that you must bathe in. This could mean that you have much more living to do and enjoy. Stop and experience things instead of hurrying to get where you want to go.

Water often symbolizes the unconscious as well, so perhaps there are areas of the unconscious you need to explore and experience.

Perhaps you could not find your car and go somewhere with it, because you were meant to slow down, stop, and experience something beautiful. The missing car and the snow are both obstacles designed to slow you down.

[Sanity Claws]

9. LiberalEsto

Thank you for helping me with this personal dream.
Your interpretation gives the dream more of a metaphysical quality and I hope that there is some of that in the dream. It certainly softens the reason for my mother not allowing me in. I also like the explanation for the water and the obstacles to finding my car.
However, DemEx's interpretation hit very close to home. As soon as I read it, I started to cry. My conscious mind had not even registered the full interpretation when I started to cry. I'm not a weeper and had not felt sad before I read DemEx's post.
If I had even thought that the dream's meaning was possibly so intensely personal and intensely upsetting, I never would have posted it.