5/19/06 I'm part of a group of people who have been rounded up as heretics. The time period looks like the time of the Inquisitions. I'm wearing a long woolen brown skirt and orchid colored blouse. The clothing feels ratty as someone who is poverty stricken. I and the other "heretics" are in what appears to be a large basement or dungeon. There is a screen on the front wall projecting some sort of story about heresy and how to spot the people involved. We are sitting on bleachers and the judges are sitting facing the front wall. I'm on the back row when it is lifted up on ropes and swung around to the middle of the room. I fear falling out. I hang on tightly to the side of the seat that is now a solid long chair type of contraption holding me and about six other people. Then I'm waiting alone in the room when a grubby guard comes in and begins to rape me. An Asian man (who resembles Lt. Sulu from Star Trek) appears from a door way and stabs the guard. The man tells me to hide and throw away my blouse, that is now a red and white cotton striped shirt, because it has blood from the stabbing on the front. This could give us away. We both escape through a door. Then I'm in modern times, but still some sort of refugee or escapee. I'm in a house that's foundation is cracking. I'm in a bathroom and trying to brush my teeth and the plumbing is backing up. I realize I can't stay here because the place is rundown and on the verge of collapse. Then I'm observing some sort of lecture that is being given to a group of immigrant Asians. I'm learning something interesting but don't remember now what it is because the alarm clock wakes me up.
Do you write all your dreams down and go back over them? I think you said you have a dream circle or something, like a book club or writing circle? Do you think this dream is following a pattern that crops up in your other dreams this year?
Very interesting question Mal, I shared this with my dream group last Saturday. One of the members noticed a change in my symbols over the past several months. A lot of my dreams previously had things falling out of the sky, dead or dangerous animals and insects, and incidents involving me as the observer, not so much a participant. Lately, my dreams have had a lot of sexual encounters and incidents were I play an active part. They have also been quite adventerous and deal with things that could really happen. The group member felt that the sexual encounters could be a symbol of transformation, a blending of aspects of my personality to make me more whole. I've also had dramatic change in my personal life the last few years. I went back to college and go a degree in special education. I also shared this dream on another forum. It's called Dream Forum Network and you need to register and log in before reading the dreams. Another poster suggested a play on the word heresy as "hear say." That resonated because I do get paranoid that people are talking about me behind my back. That deals with old issues of self-confidence. The fact that I'm part of an "inquistition" fits this senario as well.
I'm not sure about the hear say bit, but I think most of it makes a lot of sense - although hear say and heresy do have similarities I guess, they can both be accusatory. I think the heresy part could be all wrapped in the changes in your thinking, like you're having new thoughts that weren't there before and you're being accused of having new ideas and feelings that go against the normal code of practice you've lived by up until recently. Also the thing about the Inquisition/s is that we know now how stupid they were, that the people being accused weren't doing anything wrong at all, and it was the Inquisitors themselves that were wrong.
Interestingly enough, a poster on the other dream forum suggested that there is a belief I'm harboring that goes in contrast to what others think. The answer is yes, and it goes along with the "inquisitor" symbol. I had a discussion with a co-worker about the old testament. I said that I thought it was about a vengeful and bloodthirsty god who was "smite" and "wrath." He vehemetaly disagreed and I wanted to say "go back and read it buddy!" I didn't because we work in a school setting and we must be respectful, etc. It's still unpopular to critize out loud ones unbelief about the bible and how it was written by men who wanted to control women and people's of other nations. In some countries even today, a person could be put to death for unbelief or a conversion (in the Islamic states). I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. I hate organized and dogmatic religion.