To provide some background, I am a 31 year old male. I've kept a dream journal for several years, and am usually pretty good at interpreting my own dreams, and when I'm not, can usually turn them over to friends who are no strangers to dream interpretation, who can figure them out. This one has me, and several of my friends baffled. So in my confusion, I am turning to the internet for help. Maybe somebody can figure out what I'm missing.

Dream 2/27/2012

The first thing I noticed about this dream is that the entire dream had a very strong sense of Earth and Air energy running through it, as well as a distinct feminine energy, goddess energy, throughout the whole dream. Those energies were present in the dream prior to any dream images, and undercut the entire dream with their energy and power. In this dream, I am younger, about 17 or so. I am also very distinctly female. I am in a hurry to be somewhere, and I have the sense that if I don’t hurry, I am going to be late. It is a bright, sunny day. I run out the back door, on to the porch and down the back steps. Then I stop, turn around, and look back at the house. The house looks like Ron and Trish Beers’ place in Franklin. Ron and Trish are one of my sets of “quasi-adoptive parents”, and their house has always been one of my homes away from home. When I stop and look back at the house, it strikes me that I’m on my menstrual period, and that I’m not carrying any tampons, nor do I have anything to carry them in, and I’m not wearing anything with pockets, or carrying a backpack, purse, or bag of any kind. I also get the sense that I don’t have any with me, save for the one that is currently in use. In the back of my head, I’m struck with the idea that I could, and should, go back in the house, and ask Alicia (my current roommate) if I can have some to get me through the day until I can buy more. I dismiss this notion, partially because I remember that she doesn’t use tampons, and partially because I’m already running late. My car is parked in the driveway, and I toy with the idea of driving to wherever I’m going, because it will get me there faster, and I might not be late, but for some reason I dismiss the idea, choosing to run there instead.

WAKING LIFE NOTES:

As I mentioned above, I am male, and I am happy with this. I have never had much interest in cross-dressing or becoming transgender, though I have always had a mild curiosity about "how the other half lives", on an intellectual level. Enough intellectual curiousity to have questions, wonder what would be the same, what would be different, and wonder about how certain physical, mental, emotional, biological and life experiences would be different, but nowhere near curious enough to try and find out.

My religion centers around elements and goddess worship, and I am devoted to the goddess Athena, though Artemis, Hecate, Hermes, Zeus, Hades, and Persephone have played significant roles in my life from time to time.

I have never had a dream where I was me, but a female version of myself. And it was in a familiar location, and even the little details, like my car, the house, the yard, appeared exactly as they do in waking life. It was only me that appeared to be different.

Invitation to slow down and rest

If you were a man in the dream, I'd say it might mirror a feeling of too much to do and not prepared to do it all, and it could be an invitation to slow down and simplify.

The strong feminine aspects makes me think it's a visit from or with the Anima, which is either an invitation to experience the feminine or an acknowledgment that you are already dancing with this energy. The feminine can be associated with slowing down and being as opposed to the masculine doing.

The house is a second home for you and you consider going back in but you're hurrying away. So I think this dream is an invitation to slow down, rest, and get back to a center place. Does this fit?

Not really. In Waking Life, I've been facing the opposite problem. I've been laid off for a month, so I have far too little to do, and I'm going crazy from the boredom. If anything, I need to get back up to speed, not slow down. So I'm not sure this fits. But I do appreciate the time and effort.

Have you tried reviewing your recent journal entries to establish an ongoing context? What has been the tone, how do recent dreams resonate with waking life?

Your dream certainly puts you in a position of having to "get back up to speed"; but the question seems to be: Where should you go? (Something I expect you're asking while awake.)

Given that mestruation is a necessary element in fertility, mayhap you should add Aphrodite to the pantheon.