Dreams about bears

[Smallwood]

Back in the dream section after a long while. I rarely remember my dreams these days (I've had some trouble keeping up the EE, I'll probably have to do it in parts because the uncovered emotions can be so scary and overwhelming), but these few left some stronger than normal impressions on me.

I've recently had two strange dreams, both with bears, also some bear-related synchronicity. Dreamdictionary already helped:

Bear

To see a bear in your dream, symbolizes independence, the cycle of life, death and renewal. It may signal of period of introspection and thinking. The dream may also be a pun on "bare". Perhaps you need to bare your soul and let everything out into the open.

To dream that you are being pursued or attacked by a bear, denotes aggression, overwhelming obstacles and competition. You may find yourself in a threatening situation.

In case I might be missing something in my interpretation, I'll describe the two dreams here.

The first one I saw around the 26th or so. In it, I was on a car, on my way to our summer cottage with my sister's husband. As we were near it, we saw a bear cross the road. As it saw us, it started to run with immense speed towards the summer cottage (it ran something like 500km/per hour, so way faster than we were driving the car... maybe it's important, probably not). We saw it getting inside it with ease, it was like it entered through a door like a human would. We were afraid to enter the summer cottage then, so instead we decided to get inside another building nearby, that in real life is someone else's summer cottage. We decided to go lay down in a two story bed as if we were on sleep, he on the bottom bunk me above. Well, that didn't help as the bear got inside and when it did it immediately came near me and when it did, it started to lick my face! That was odd to say the least because there was a sense of hidden danger in the dream and I was expecting to get mauled. That was the first dream.

The second one I think I saw yesterday (29th). In it I was in a building that was our home in the dream but didn't resemble my parent's house very much as it is in real life. We had guests visiting, my brother and one of his friends. It was probably some holiday, atleast everyone seemed to be in good spirits. People talked with eachother about their comings and goings and so on, for a while. Then, my brother left the house for business of some sort. That was when everything exploded. His friend immediately started to berate me, accusing me of lying to my brother and family, stealing from them and other kinds of bad behaviour that I knew I had not done. I yelled back, explained why I couldn't have done the things that I was accused of and that I knew that he was lying himself. The athmosphere was very violent and about to erupt. Then my father stepped in and said that I was being absolutely impossible with our guest. This was the worst thing! He was willing to take a near stranger's side over his own son in a completely stupid and baseless "debate". I remember exactly what I said to my father: "What the hell is up with YOU? You are as bad as this liar! Why you do this?! I'm going to the forest and I will never return!". And the next thing I did just that, I decided to go a forest and just walk away from all the filth in that place and I knew I would never want to return. I saw high snow-laden mountains in the distance and I decided to walk towards them, but I didn't get far until, yup, you guessed it, a BEAR! It stood on it's legs, scanning the forest with it's sight and when it saw me it rushed towards me, again with such speed that was unnatural. In terror I tried to take cover beneath a rock that was behind me, but it wasn't big or high enough for me to do so, and this time the bear DID maul me. And I woke up.



Okay, those were the dreams, I'm almost positive of their meaning because they certainly relate to my daily life today, but I may not be seeing something important, or I may have a wrong idea about something so I still ask for your opinions and mirror.

In the first dream, the bear is my "loving" father. He shows "affection" by licking my face, but it is clear from my emotions that it is very manipulative, only done to keep me back in line and be submissive, be food. I don't know how my sister's husband relates to this, but in real life he is a person who is basicly good with his own particular insecurities (that don't mix well with my insecurities), we try to get along but don't always succeed as we tend to be paranoid of eachother (always my fault, it is some emotional program that gets activated when I'm with him). Also, I don't know what to make of the summer cottage, it doesn't seem very significant, but I suspect there are things in my past that I am suppressing and it could be hinting at those.

The first part of the second dream seems straightforward and I'm think I'm mostly certain of the bear, forest, mountain and rock symbols in and the way they relate in the second part, but I could be mistaken.

The first part reminds me a lot of the kind of dynamics that are at work in our family unit. When there are guests visiting, my dad in his extreme neediness does everything to ensure that the guests get the perfect "experience", always at the expense of me and mom. It's not that I am THAT lazy that I couldn't help with house chores, it's just that I'm tired of living in a dollhouse. The different looking home in the dream probably signifies the fact that our house has been renovated during this past year. The fact that my brother was there is significant because he is the person in my life so far who has given me most help regarding my mental health (he knows a lot about these things though not on any deep analytical level). The friend of my brother's I don't really know in real life, but I suspect that in the dream he is my dad in disguise, those things that in the dream are his attributes are really my father's attributes (atleast that's how I see him, everytime that I try to stand up to my basic rights as a twenty year old human being I get that kind of treatment). It probably means that I idealize my father, ala the survival strategy as wrote about in "The Drama of the Gifted Child".

The second part, the forest, most likely signifies the beginnings of my independent life away from mother and father. I'm at the forest, the wilderness, the Life in other words. In the distance I see the mountains, something to be achieved ie. the "spiritual development". I try to make my way to them but at once I encounter an obstacle, getting attacked by a bear. I'm confident in my feelings that it denotes a big power struggle over my soul with my dad, but it could also mean other things like my own predator and/or programs that also are big parts dictating my life that I can't get a hold of. When I try to take cover from the bear behind a rock, it probably means that I try to hide in my stubborn false personality and ego that doesn't extend to the requirements of Life.

I mentioned also the synchronicity. When I woke up after the second dream (which I already understood after waking up at some basic level, the feelings I felt then about my dad were that strong), I went downstairs to read the day's papers. When I picked up an ads paper, the first thing that my eyes hit upon was a picture of a baby bear (an advertisement for a zoo), thought "hey, that's funny". Then I picked up the second paper for news and one of the first headlines that I read was about a bear attacking a man (this article but in a paper version: _http://www.ilkka.fi/Article.jsp?article=471280). I know it's dated 27th, which by the way is my birthday in January, so it was laying around, not that day's paper. I think it is the kind of synchronicity that affirms the realization.

I'm very distraughted, but not because of the dreams per se, but because I have only just begun to really allow myself to feel again (being afraid of my emotions for so long), so I'm sorry if this is jumpy and hard to read. I will try to be more externally considerate when I know how, but for now I just wish to hear if there is something that I'm not seeing or understanding. I think it might be helpful to talk about the underlying thoughts and feelings in The Swamp...

I'm sure now that this is a prison and I am in it. I hope I can soon utilize EE and therapy to their best effect.

edit: edited the link.

 

[truth seeker]

I would classify (I may be wrong) this dream (and any dream where you are being pursued) as a dark man dream. I'm not sure if what's coming after you in the dream is as important as the fact that you are being pursued. I did a search and found this thread. Hopefully this helps a bit:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=14035.0

 

[realitybugll]

I just had a bear dream. In the dream I am walking around a park near my house. The park is different though. there is a lot of snow which is not normal. Anyways I am walking with my Mom and my brother and for some reason I turn and there is a bear, a brown bear, like 20 feet away from me! I turn my head away fast and we all slowly walk away hoping it does not come after us. After we are about 200 feet away at an open clearly I feel something touch my hand and I turn around and its the bear. I'm really confused but I realize it doesn't want to harm us, but I am still scared somewhat. It lays down eventually next to me and I pet its head. I get the feeling that this bear had a child, a bear cub, but this child isn't with her any longer.

I forget sort of but I remember I have to make a decision. Like, to stay with the bear or leave it. I remember at least me and my mom walking with the bear for a while but that's all. I wake up but I forget exactly how.

This is the native american symbolism of the bear (doesn't pertain to dreams specifically).

"When we walk the Path with the bear, this animal will inevitably tell us about its long history with the First People of North America.

As a Native American symbol, the bear is as free in spirit as the great wind; and grander than its mass. To match that magnitude is the quality of unpredictability in the bear. A massive animal who forages seemingly peacefully in the woods on berries and bush. when provoked in certain ways, the First Peoples witnessed a ferocity expressed from the bear that (understandably) could elicited terror.

Because of this potentially furious storm brewing just under the surface of bears spirit, our native forebears were extremely cautious and respectful of this animal. Even tribes inclined to peace honored the spirit of a warrior, and witnessing the bear seemed to embody that kind of blind, powerful surge of courage and strength that every warrior is want to tap into.

Bear meanings were enhanced by observations made tribal sages. These vital tribal figures were inclined to pensive and deeper understanding of how nature communicated intent in all her forms. These sages found connections between human and beast and from these associations would interpret profound meanings that propelled the community into direction, action, and wisdom.

One such connection to bear meaning comes from a Shoshone sage who, set about bridging worlds in a manner of trance walking. During his trance walk, he was gifted with the site of a clan of bears who were performing what seemed to be a ritual dance.

These were not spirit bears, but real bears, on their hind legs, dancing in the golden rays of the sun. The Shoshone sage understood this to be a dance of gratitude as well as a prayer for the healing and protection of their young. From that point further the Shoshone have instigated their own Sun Dance where the bear is a central figure of the ritual symbolizing protection, strength and continuation of the progeny of the tribe.

We see a lot of connections with bear and man in the Native mind. We can intuit these bear meanings to come from the human-like appearance of the bear when it’s posed on hind legs. Further, the natives observed the bear looks remarkably human when skinned of its fur.

Bear meanings of motherhood and child protection continue in the Aleut and Haida minds where legend indicates the bear would take a tribal woman as its wife. From this union, man and bear strengthened their greatest aspects, combining the best (and sometimes worst) traits.

As a Sioux symbol, the bear also has healing symbolism. Sioux legend indicates mother bear was weary from carrying her heavy babies in her belly. She was having trouble walking and feared she could not make the journey to the great foraging fields to feed during her final days of pregnancy. She rested against redwood sorrel plant and the plant spoke to her, telling her that if she ate of its leaves her body would be able to sustain her load. Mother bear did as the sorrel advised to discover the treatment worked. She knew her Sioux sisters would have the same troubles when they were heavy with their own babies, so she shared the medicinal advice with the Sioux medicine woman.

The bear is a strong Native American symbol to the Cree who are powerfully connected with the bear. Recognizing its girth, and amazingly effective teeth and claws, the Cree adopted the bear as a symbol for successful hunt. Intricate preparations were made prior to a hunt. These preparations featured the bear as the guest of honor. Every aspect of pre-hunting ritual was designed to honor the bear. Even after the ritual bear skulls would hang in the lodge overnight to induce dreams of bears that provided good luck in the hunt. That is, if the bear was pleased, the dreams would come, and the hunt would be a success.

Above all, bear meaning holds incredible influence and magnitude to the North American tribes. And although the bear is a profound Native American symbol of majesty, freedom and power it is far more. The spiritual connections made with the bear makes it a brother to the First People.