Red River

The Dreamer is outside in his yard.

He sees a clear, gentle, stream that looks deep enough to swim in parts. Then the Dreamer exits an elevator and sees his employee Bala at a high table, working. The Dreamer remarks to Bala that he may enjoy the stream in the Dreamer’s yard.

Then the Dreamer is inside of a classroom with his college friend Christian Aglen. Christian is teaching a business class in Europe. He shows the students an instructional video. Then he turns on electronic dance music and the European students begin to dance. The Dreamer begins to dance, but barely. He looks behind him and an unknown woman is barely dancing too.

Then the Dreamer is inside of a train. People are seated two by two. Then there is a game being played involving money and people. Then the Dreamer sees Rosanna, a business acquaintance. Rosanna laughs at the Dreamer and tells him he is confused, that when he wins an item he has to pay, not get paid. Then the Dreamer sees that the game master is a lawyer and that he has won a contract with the descendants of Oppenheimer, the inventor of the nuclear bomb. Then the Dreamer says to Rosanna, “now that I know the rules, next time I’ll be ready for this game”. Then the Dreamer is outside and there is a river: raging and green. Then the river starts to bubble, and a streak of red appears throughout the water. The Dreamer tastes the red part of the water and it is bitter, like blood.

Context: I am morally ambivalent about nuclear energy, and also about some of our company’s contracts with the military and data centers. On the one hand, I am grateful for the financial stability from these opportunities and on the other hand I wonder if those projects are, in the end, bad for the environment.

Associations: I associate Christian Aglen with a clear-headed business-minded person from college who also liked dance music. I associate Rosanna with a cheeky woman, who tells things how they are. I associate the train with a train ride that my Wife and I took many years ago through rural Norway, and all of the natural beauty and waterfalls that we saw on that ride. I also associate Red River with the name of a military base that we do work at.

Motifs: This is the second dream with the character Bala, an Indian male, who is associated with senior level hard work. In the previous dream, Bala was associated with “getting high”, and now Bala is working at a “high table”.

Feelings: relief at the sight of the stream, awkwardness at the event of the classroom dance, embarrassment at having the game mechanics wrong, greed at the thought of being ready for the next round of the game, fear at the red river.

Interpretation: This is a dream about the judging function. The Dreamer is wrestling with a balance of enjoyment (as in the stream and dance and a game) and work (as in Bala, business class, and business contracts). In connection with Bala, perhaps the Dreamer needs to “get down off of his high”, or overcome an addiction to work that over-activates the judging function. It is interesting that the water in his backyard is clear, but the water in connection with this work contract is green and red. The Dreammaker could be suggesting that the Dreamer’s work-life is toxic.

Active Imagination: The Fool asked the Dreammaker to further investigate the red and green waters. The Dreammaker turned the Fool into a salmon, but then did not let the salmon get into the waters. Instead the salmon was sent into the college classroom with Christian Aglen. The salmon asked Christian Aglen what he had for him, and Christian just danced.