This occurred after waking up and then deciding to sleep an extra hour or two, either yesterday or today. I had a kind of abstract dream, in which I am in an extensive, large shallow swimming pool, holding a pot containing a very lovely pink/red lotus with a yellow center disk, which I place in the pool. The water is only the height of my knees. There is also a large red waterlily with very vivid dark green and red leaves, not unlike a prayer plant. The leaves are dense and spread out around the flower, making the plant seem very imposing. The lily has a dark, almost menacing feeling to it, while the lotus is very pure and beautiful. (I know the differences between the two types of plant, so while it may seem like the same thing, the two are actually different.) Now, in this dream, I am in fairly shallow water once placing the potted lotus and seeing the waterlily. As time goes on, I am in water almost up to my neck, rearranging the lotus and sometimes the lily. I find a very small, pale blue lotus, it is very pretty and looks kind of angelic. The water rising makes me very nervous and I flounder a little. The red lily starts to seem almost horrifying to be near and has a kind of pulling feeling similar to a drain, while the lotuses are barely enough to balance the menace of the lily. I wake up at this point, feeling a little disturbed. Now...I really should post these dreams sooner, BEFORE something goes down in the waking world. There's been some difficulty with my friend (who is almost always featured in the dreams I've previously posted) regarding ME. He wants us to end our relationship, at least temporarily, because he seems to think that I am too attached to him in a romantic way and that I am not even "fully conscious" to Real Love. Despite all the times I felt like he's hurt me, even wanted to hate him, despite all the humanly negative emotions I've had toward him...I still feel a kind of light, pure, loving feeling toward him. It wants nothing more than to love and share joy, but my ego and perceived needs cloud it over. I feel like this light kind of feeling is divine love trying to manifest. I feel like the lily and the lotuses are very representative, maybe the lily moreso than the lotus, as the feeling was very strong from it. The rising water...I'm not sure. Sink or learn to swim? I've heard of the lily representing bereavement and loss, and the lotus representing purity, enlightenment, love, compassion, fortune, wisdom...Water has so many different meanings. It feels like I have a choice of paths right now, but how many paths are there and how do I know which one I want to take? Can anyone interpret the symbolism here? REFERENCES OF FLOWERS: Red waterlily: http://www.redlotusmassage.com/Images/Photos/redlotusreflect.jpg Pink/red lotus: http://imgs.mi9.com/uploads/flower/1108/pink-lotus-wallpaper_422_16265.jpg Blue lotus: Blue Lotus Flower - IMGP3373 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
You seem to have a good handle on your own interpretation. I will add only a couple thoughts. Water, as you say, has so many interpretations, but I think the simplest one of "emotion" fits here. Emotion is rising until it becomes a threat and causes you to flounder. I will give you the meanings I believe for the colors of the flowers as they seem in this dream. The red represents passion of a physical type. Pink is a higher love. The blue represents spirituality. These are nothing but a confirmation of what you have already sensed from the dream. You already understand that you are being urged to consider and foster the issues of love and spirituality, although physical passions continue to suck at you, pulling you under the flood of emotion. Good luck and blessings to you.
Taking up where Morningangel left off, I'd only add that emotion need not mean only physical passion. I assume this is the same friend you and I exchanged posts about a week or two ago; and it's obvious that your attraction to him is not merely physical. It seems to me that one message to be taken from your dream is that it's time to balance your emotional approach to this ongoing situation with a more objective, rational, thinking and judging one. (Note: I said balance, not replace.) In this respect, and especially in loving relationships, our emotions lead us to think we can control another's behavior, our more objective faculties remind us that we can only influence, and hope that that influence leads to good results. I must admit, I'm somewhat annoyed at your friend. Not so long ago he was talking about suicide because of how he'd hurt others, now he's on a pedestal because others are not "'fully concious' to Pure Love." This is a roundabout way of admitting that he has the same problem he says you do - and, for that matter, that every member of the human race except Jesus Christ and, possibly, Francis of Asisi has. How human of us to demand from others what the slightest self-examination would show us we lack in ourselves! Related to this, you might want to ask yourself: "What am I projecting on to my friend that he (and no human) cannot possibly fulfill?" As a happy veteran of just shy of 40 married years, I can tell you that lasting love - true love - comes from knowing and accepting - indeed, celebrating someone for who they really are, not who they seemed to be when the relationship was new. Some Zen master once said that, when you achieve enlightenment, the only thing to do is "have a good laugh." The same might be true of self knowledge. I'm not suggesting that your friend is unlovable; but perhaps neither you nor he should be asking too much of him.
If my note above implied that I meant the water to mean physical passions (possibly sexual), I did not communicate well. I meant to say that I read the dream to include planes of human experience as physical (the red flower), emotional (the water) and spiritual (the pink flower of Love as an Ideal in the sense of Plato or Cayce, and the blue flower as, perhaps, divinity, but definitely of the spirit). Forgive me if I was misleading in the first place by writing too briefly. Many blessings to you.