I had two strong dreams within a three-day period...

Dream 1:

I was burying a horse. I was digging the grave with someone else but there were worms all over my feet so I stopped digging. When I turned around, the horse was buried and all you could see was the fresh dirt and a wooden plank path—built upon its grave. Then I woke up. I remember also having some kind of healing dream that night where I was healing people...

Dream 2:

I was a man with a tribe from the Middle Ages in today’s society. I was recalling our story to the ‘president’ (not Bush; kind of looked like Picard on the Enterprise). Anyway, the story I was recalling was of our tribe and how we came to be. We were in a field and at first our people would only wound each other in battle. Then the King decided that it was okay to behead in battle. So after a battle in which I beheaded about 10 men with one swoop, the field was full of heads but they were alive and talking. The heads were praising the King for his decision to behead and were happy. I finally agreed that we should burn the bodies of these heads so to clean the field.

Then I was back in ‘today’ and the tribe was asking me if we were now to listen to the current King or the President (Picard). I told them that England now had a Queen and we were to listen to both since they were all wise. Then Picard proceeded to heal the people in our tribe with disfigurements or illnesses, including a monkey that was disfigured. Then I awoke. Throughout this whole dream we were in some kind of medieval attire, as if we’d just been through some time warp or something.

I have no idea what these dreams mean. I have been struggling with a decision to terminate a relationship with my boyfriend, but it doesn’t all seem to stem from this. Also, I am a single divorced mom with a 2 year old and a 10 year old, both boys.

—Anonymous, Age 31, Divorced (10 yrs), USA

Hi Anonymous—

Horses in dreams are symbols of vitality. They often are masculine symbols, owing to their strength and visible sexual organs (“strong as a horse,” “he’s a stud”), but they also can represent aspects of our selves—of our own personal strength and vitality. In your case, the pervasive theme of death that envelops this dream certainly lets us know that a death—a change and separation (burial) —is on your mind. Not only is death on your mind, you literally are “stepping in it.” In the dream the worms and the process of burial is so gruesome that it forces you to stop.

If this dream is a metaphor for your feelings about the relationship you are planning to “terminate,” then your dream shows us two things. First, you already know the relationship, which formerly was a source of strength and vitality (the horse), is over. It is dead. Second, you may be avoiding decisive action to end the relationship because the process of resolution (burial) is emotionally difficult and unpleasant. Significantly, however, the burial is completed in your dream. At the end of the dream you see the buried horse, with a small narrow pathway left to “walk over it.” Are you “walking delicately” over a relationship that inside you know is over?

Your second dream makes extensive use of masculine versus feminine symbolism, and indicates a need for a balance of energy between these different aspects of the psyche.

Because you are represented as a man in this dream, the dream lets us know that you currently are calling upon masculine aspects of your character and personality. Masculine aspects of the psyche involve decision-making and taking action in the physical world. Feminine aspects of the psyche involve nurturing and receptivity.

In the story of your tribe (your family), the old King (your masculine sense of decision-making in the past) eventually allowed battles to progress from wounding (arguments) to beheading (divorce). The beheading is a final solution to wounding that may have gone on for years. Significantly, the heads that are chopped off do not die—they keep talking—which is a way the dream informs you that the death you commit in the dream (decision to divorce from your ex-husband) is not literal, but rather symbolic. What’s more, the heads are happier—yet another encouragement that “death” is not what it seems.

Your desire to clean the field by burning the bodies is a second important dream reference to resolution, an echo of the metaphor in the first dream in which you bury a dead horse. A need “clean up” and “bury” the past, so that you can move forward once again in your life, is indicated. By recalling your experience in the past (your decision to “behead” your first husband) and the positive results that accrued, the dream is encouraging you to take action, to make decisions, and to achieve closure in your present relationship.

At the end of the dream, however, you are back in the present time, and a balance of power between listening your masculine and feminine energies is indicated. Your tribe (family) seeks guidance and direction for the future. You report that England now has a queen, and you instruct the tribe that both the masculine and feminine rulers are wise, and should be listened to. This dream reflects your awareness that both the feminine and masculine aspects of your self need to be nurtured and developed. Upon recognition of this truth, a series of spontaneous healings proceeds to occur.

The message of your dreams, fortunately, is clear. Now is the time to call upon masculine aspects of your personality, to effect decisions that will bring resolution to the members of your tribe—your family. At the same time, you want to preserve the wisdom and guidance of the feminine, to help heal yourself and others around you. Your dreams show that if you act decisively, you can bring a healing to your family.

Dear Dream Doctor—

I have been remembering my dreams and trying to analyze them since I was in high school (12 yrs ago). Recently, I started logging my dreams to determine any patterns.

I didn’t see the relationship between the burial of the horse (terminating my relationship), the worms (breaking up with my boyfriend being hard to do), and the bridge I need to cross over. (In my dream I hadn’t crossed over it, but it was a relief to see it there). Thanks for your excellent analysis. Evidently I am in too deep in my relationship to notice some of these obvious things!