Last night, I had a crazy interesting dream. If you’re familiar with the Bible stories, you’ll remember learning about Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. (Queue singing: Jacooooob! Jacob and Sons! Da, Da da da, da, da – I forget- the- words) If you’re a Donny Osmond fan, you can enjoy this video segment from the 1999 production here:
If you don’t know about the story, I’ll give you a little summary now:
Jacob lived in the land of Canaan, said to be the ‘Promised Land’ with his family. Joseph was known to be Jacob’s favourite. He gave him a coat which had many colours. This was quite a big deal back then, as it was long before fashion stores were open and making multi-coloured clothing was costly and timely. Joseph’s brother saw this, learning that their father favoured Joseph and became jealous. (Wouldn’t anyone? Lesson no.1 Do NOT have a favourite child.)
Joseph had two notable dreams. (The kind you have while asleep, not aspirations) He told his brothers about these dreams and said he believed it meant he would rule over them. (Why would you do that Joseph? Lesson no.2 Do NOT share prophetic dreams that possibly mean you will rule over the people who are already jealous of you.) Naturally, upon hearing about these dreams, Joseph’s brothers hated him even more. (As a mother of three sons, I see the constant battle they have over who is the “top dog” so to speak. So I can kind of understand the contempt the brothers felt.)
It all becomes rather dramatic as the brothers take his coat off, throw him into a pit and then sell him as a slave. They put a goat to death and smear the goat’s blood onto Joseph’s coat to convince Jacob that his favourite son, Joseph was dead. It is written that Jacob cried and was sad for a very long time.
It didn’t turn out all bad for Joseph, he did work his way up the career ladder and find himself interpreting the Pharaoh’s dreams and ultimately ruling over Egypt. His brothers later bow down to him asking for food (there was a famine) which was a fulfilment of the dream that he had.
So today, I’m feeling a little like Joseph. (You know, except for the whole being cast out of my family, sold as a slave and all that jazz.) Ok, actually upon reflection, the only reasons I thought of Joseph are one: the song got stuck in my head and two: I had a dream that felt like it had some meaning to it. So, what’s the dream about? I hear you cry! Let’s get on with it shall we:
The air was cold and still as I looked up at the midnight sky. It was like someone put a blanket over the stars because there was no light, not even from the moon peering down on me. I looked around to see a glowing ember of candlelight coming from lanterns all around me. I was standing on a vast ship. In my dream-mind, I thought I was on the Titanic. (My kids are obsessed with the Titanic at the moment. The boat, not the movie. Of course.) I peered over the edge of the ship, leaning onto a steel bar. It was cold to touch and grainy, like bits of sand covered it. Instead of water, I saw a sea of Alligators under the ship and they were so still, I wondered if they were statues.
I turned to find some people I recognised from my waking life. People I knew at various times in my life, the past and present – and who know’s? Maybe some of the faces I did not recognise are in my future? There was a commotion. My boys came running past me, they were holding weapons. I heard shouting and laughter and small explosions.
The next thing I know, I morphed into another scene. I’m still in the ship but in a large room, sitting at an oak dining table with my family. Some of the people at the table were drinking and murmuring about how dramatic people can be. That everything will be fine. I looked to my right and saw that there were computers and figured this was where the captain would be. However, the Captain was nowhere to be seen and the computers were not working.
I sensed danger looming.
I morphed again, this time I’m stood on the lower deck and alligators have climbed onto the boat. I realise I’m wearing brown leather boots and have an axe in my hand. It never occurred to me to hurt these Alligators with the axe. But I looked up at the sky and a voice said this:
“Tell everyone to get back into the ship, stay quiet and wait. Help is coming.”
I turned around, an Alligator snaps my heels but I’m not afraid. As I run I noticed my kids had followed me and were laughing, I looked back to see that the Alligators moved every time they heard noise. I shushed the boys and told them to follow me. As I ran back to the upper deck of the ship, I met several people I knew and recognised. One man and his young son, decided not to follow me upstairs and instead, wanted to walk around a ghost maze (of sorts) They were screaming and laughing loudly, the alligators moved forward with each sound. I tried to persuade another man who was dangling a little girl over the edge of the ship and said “I’m just showing Laura the Alligators. She loves Alligators. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” I stared in horror and the man stood precariously holding out this child while alligators snapped at his legs. He appeared not to notice.
As I moved forward, I found my husband who was filling up a small boat with oil. “What are you doing? We need to get inside!” I whispered to him. He took the boat, now full and tipped the contents out to make a black oily barrier between the doorway and the alligators. “Behind you!” I shouted in horror as an Alligator appeared behind him, quick as a flash, Ross turned and stood on the Alligator’s head and grabbed it’s tail. A snapping noise filled the air and Ross looked up at me, smiled and said “We’ll I guess we know what we’ll be eating for dinner” then he marched into the ship with the alligator hanging over his shoulder.
I took a moment to look around and could see and hear many people outside on the deck playing games, laughing loudly and completely oblivious of all the Alligators that were now swarming the ship. There were now hundreds of Alligators and they were moving closer to the door of the ship. I felt a deep sadness and then I woke up.
The first thought that sprang to mind when I woke up was that this Earth is like that ship. No matter what people believe, we all live on the same planet. Some people are aware of global warming and try to reduce their carbon footprint. Other people are a little more oblivious and do not see it as an important thing. However, global warming affects us all.
I wont go as far as to say my dream meant anything for the “world” to know. However, I felt it’s a really interesting one for fellow dream-interpreters to read and think about what it might mean.
What are you thoughts on this? Have you ever had a dream that made you think about it’s meaning? Let me know in the comments below!
Laura
xoxo
Well I’m sure you woke up feeling well rested after that dream. Lol Or perhaps not?The dream certainly had an end of the world type vibe to me. So if the boat was our world, what world were the alligators coming from? And with intent to harm too.
I think if an entity wanted to destroy the happiness of a human population they would snap at their heels with encouraging reliance on addictions, increasing selfishness and hate, and causing identity crises and family breakdown. A bit sobering to think we see it all around us and not everyone appears to be aware of the dangers.
We all have a conscience though, even the man holding his daughter over the ship to see the alligators would have known deep down it was wrong. Not everyone chooses to pay attention to their conscience. At what risk? He thought he could keep her safe. He thought he had it under control. However, the alligators were gathering at his feet ready to attack any moment at which point he would have lost his child forever.
Great dream Laura. Thanks for sharing! 😀
Wow! Some incredibly points here. Thank you for the insight!
Wow I echo Carla’s sentiments. It is sobering to remember that things can sneak up on us. It makes me think how all the decisions and choices we make each day are so important. That was quite the dream! wowee. Was it as scary as it sounded?
It’s odd, because it was scary but in my dream I wasn’t afraid! Thanks for your comment! It’s a good point I didn’t consider. Here I am talking about Global Warming when there are possibly more profound meanings that affect us on a personal level!