I had this dream last night and I am interested in what it may mean. Any input would be greatly appreciated. The dream started out with me as an observer hovering above an idyllic rural road like a Cul-de-sac or possibly a circle driveway at a farm. It was winter and night time, near morning but still dark. It had snowed several inches that night and it was still snowing lightly. Already I had the feeling that something was wrong, like the people who lived here were hiding for some reason. Soon I (still as an observer) saw a man on an old tractor plowing the road/driveway out to the main road, and I thought "Oh, that's a bad idea. Someone will see the plowed road/driveway and wonder who is back here... We'll be found." Sure enough, cars start going by on the main road and I had the feeling that they must be fleeing the fighting. We are found, and then I woke up. When I woke up I knew the dream would continue when I went back to sleep (that happens to me more than anybody I have ever talked to for some reason.) The dream did continue, though time has past and I am not in the same place anymore. I don't really know where I was just that the fighting had found me. What we, normal citizens, were fighting was demons or maybe demonic looking aliens half again as tall as me who we were no match for. It seemed hopeless to fight them as I knew that nobody had yet killed one of the demons, and they were not challenged by our best fighters. There didn't seem to be any military or police to rely upon, no help was going to come and help us, we had to fight or die. In this scene I am not fighting, I am running, hiding in the battlefield where I can, and watching others try to fight and dieing grizzly deaths, needless to say I am very scared but strangely calm throughout this scene Then I wake up again. Again I just know the dream will continue when I get back to sleep. The dream did continue again, more time has past and I am in another different location. Now the fighting seems to be over, the demons have control and I am part of a group that has been brought to a church for some sort of a meeting. Before the meeting starts I'm looking around I see several of the demons standing around the outside of the room all facing the pews of the church where me and the others, all of us in chains, have been seated. Time jumps forward several minutes, and a fight has broken out between the demon guards and my fellow prisoners. Once again I am focused on survival with no thought of my fellows, I am concerned only with my personal survival. I feel no guilt at not helping the others in the fight which they are loosing. Then somehow my chains are gone, and I see a shaft of light coming from above me shining directly on me. I know I am about to be given something, so I jump up into the shaft of light attracting attention to myself. As I reach the limit of how high I can jump which was two or three times the height I could have jumped in real life I thrust my right hand upward as if reaching for something, and it closes on the handle of a gigantic battle-ax The ax does not look like what I think a gift from G_d would look like. It has a black wooden handle with a spiral design like twisted tree roots and a black metal blade that looks crudely formed as if in a hurry. It is a single bladed ax and was already dripping with a viscus black fluid of some sort. As soon as I have the ax in my hands I KNOW I can win if i fight, I decide to fight, but only to save myself...saving everybody else will be nice for them but is of not concern to me. On the down side of my jump I make a chop at one of the demon guards that came at me when the shaft of light appeared, chopping it in two pieces. the ax went through the demon’s left shoulder/neck area and came out mid way between the armpit and hip on the right side, I felt no resistance on the stroke. After that I quickly dispatch all the rest of the demons like a scene out of some over-the-top barbarian movie thanks to the ax which never seems to be cleaned of the black viscus fluid dripping off it. As soon as all the demons in the church are killed I wake up knowing the dream is over. Sorry about how long this turned out to be, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible. Although this was no doubt a violent dream, I wouldn't call it a nightmare. It was so vivid though that it has had me wondering all day what it could have meant.
There is a lot of religious imagery in the dream, so it would help to know your views on religion. What do you think of things like demons, for exampe, in waking life?
I have a strong belief in the G_d of the Bible, though I am not a religious person. I think G_d answers our prayers but he does it in such a subtle way it is easy for us to overlook what he has done. I do believe that demons (as well as angels and other beings in between the two extremes) are real, but I'm not sure how involved in our lives they are/can be. At the same time, lately I am starting to incorporate more information from things like near death experiences, the occult, and science into how I think the world and the afterlife work. A good example is that I believe in Heaven and Hell, but looking at what people who have had near death experiences are saying, we may have several lives before we move on to Heaven. Hell on the other hand seems to be a possible destination after every life if you live that life wrong, hurting people and refusing to advance in your learning. Hopefully that helps.
Since the dream starts out being about people having to hide, it makes me think that is about something that you are repressing. The man in the tractor is the force inside you that is making you have to face these things. Snow can resent coldness/numbness/numbing of feelings. The demons in the next part of the dream (when you fell asleep the second time) sound to me like they represent the *demons* in you that you were hiding, that you now have to face. I would say that being in a church in the next part of the dream has to do with your ideas about morality and the kind of person you should be. This whole sequence of dreams seems to be like a battle between the perfect, ideal person you want to be and the imperfect person that you really are (and that everyone else is). Since you have a strong belief in G-d and the bible, this is probably related to your feelings about that in a spiritual sense. I think that the shaft of light has to do with being enlightened - understanding yourself better. I think that for you it also has a spiritual significance - not that it actually comes from G-d but it represents the awakening of a part of you that is spiritually strong. The battle ax not being what you think a gift from G-d would look like could be a message that you have the tools that you need, you just don't recognize their value.
That's very interesting, you have given me a lot to think about. I have been struggling with needing to do something that is against my beliefs of how I should act, so I think your on to something with your analysis. I never would have thought about it in this way without your analysis of my dream. Thank you for your help.