Interesting dream

Instead of reading tonight, I fell asleep in front of the TV after rapidly losing interest in the Olympics opening ceremony. A dream woke me up. It's the third time I've had this same dream in the last month, and it's bugged me every time I've had it. I'm sitting in a chair and I know that I'm waiting for something. The light around me dims rapidly, and the sense of expectation is high. In front of me, from left to right, walk four women, all wearing floor length hooded cloaks. Their faces and forms are not visible, but I know that they are women. From each one comes a sense of solidity, strength and power. Each one is carrying a candle. They disappear off to my right side, and I'm still waiting. In front of me, emerging from the darkness, candles start to light up, until I'm facing an endless field of lit white candles. I have neither an ominous nor comforting feeling hanging over from this dream, though my passivity in the dream bothers me. I'm also intensely curious about what this means.

In looking up the meanings of symbols, I found a few interesting things. A chair in a dream often indicates the need to contemplate and listen to the inner self. This is pretty much a natural for an introvert like me, but so much of my life lately has been about taking action. I've been so busy that I'm pretty much tired all of the time. At the same time, recognizing that my life is in serious transition right now, I know that I need more action, not less. It's that whole energy begets energy thing. An underground fear has been that I've been filling my time with motion which keeps me busy, rather than action which actually accomplishes something. Knowing myself though, I know that I will never give up my private, contemplative time, meditative time, even if, like tonight, it means giving up sleep.

I didn't look up the meaning of dimming lights, but my gut instinct here tells me that this was like lowering the house lights in a theater before a play begins, another symbol to pay attention. Women in dreams often represent the feminine side of ourselves, the nurturing, caring, comforting aspects and the mysterious, passive, and darker aspects. My dreams frequently remind of me of how powerful the traditional female attributes really are. Face concealing hoods and cloaks are a pretty basic symbol of something being hidden. Lit candles though are symbols of enlightenment, of intellectual and spiritual seeking, of hope and luck. The candles were white, and white is usually symbolic of purity. I'm wondering here if I'm going to receive some positive insight.

Since there were four women, the meaning of the number four feels particularly significant. What I found was that four has long been seen as a powerful number. It has represented to different cultures: the earth, the four cardinal directions, angels who stand at the "corners" of the earth holding back the winds, the four gospels of the New Testament, wholeness, totality, everything created, matter itself, creativity, perfection, the four rays of the cosmic wheel, the four pillars of the universe, the arms of the cross, women, infallible reason, the family, the Holy Trinity (three persons in one being, 3+1=4), the horsemen of the Apocalypse, things physical and not spiritual, choice as in a crossroads, and that was just the beginning.

I've got a lot of thinking to do on this one. This isn't a happy, little dream, but I have the feeling that it's a positive one, and getting a better sense of its meaning may be truly important.

dreams