Dream Entry #1: The Witch

While I am researching dreams, I will occasionally post personal dreams and dissect them to reveal their true meaning applicable to reality.

I will begin by extracting the more interesting ones from my hand-written dream journal.

This one I call The Witch, and I had this dream on July 17th 2009.

I was battling a rather vicious witch, who appeared to be made of flesh, yet she also had a very claymation/cartoon esthetic. The energy she gave off was horrifying, and her actions were possessed by a very fast, unearthly speed. Though humorous in appearance she was quite ugly, and definitely an embodiment of evil.

Digressing for a moment; In dreams there is much to say about feelings, rather than actual events. I have discovered the presence of evil in many dreams. Many people have an issue with the term evil, relating it to religion. I use the term in the literal meaning that accompanies the word when we employ it on a daily basis as part of the English language. It's more powerful to say "evil" than to say "bad" though bad has less religious connotations. In dreams I have been faced with entities, iconic figures, like angels or spirits that say they are my spirit guide (though I do not generally believe in spirit guides), that emit an extremely peaceful energy, that I can only describe as divine.

I believe that there is a power in the universe that encompasses all things, even if it is just proven scientific energy. This power can be manifested in good or bad, divinity or evil. The discovery that things were made up of atoms was a powerful one. This was knowledge derived from studying the universe that could have been used for good, and has been used for good. But when we use a powerful knowledge like this to create the atom bomb and create a massacre, we are using it for something extremely negative. I believe that it is the same with the energy that exists in the universe. When the physical realm is able to channel this energy, that which is imbalanced will have a sway toward one or the other extreme. I believe that this is where feelings of good and bad come from. When we have an intuitive inkling that someone we meet is bad, or untrustworthy, it is most likely that they are an imbalanced individual, whether psychologically or spiritually, and emitting a negative energy. On the other hand, someone who is too involved in spiritual matters may not be learning lessons that they need to from the physical world. This kind of imbalance results in someone becoming unable to function in society if they lose themselves to the study of immaterial things, though it may be an attempt to reach an ultimate goodness.

In this particular dream, the witch was fighting with a rather chaotic and relentless vehemence. I had attacked her and after this she had turned into my cat, though I could tell it was not actually my cat. Faced with a symbol of my beloved Widget (cat's name) I knew that I still had to kill the witch, whatever she was disguised as. It was extremely difficult to do this because I felt as though I would be murdering my cat. at this point I did not know if it was my cat or if it was still the witch. I did not trust the witch however, and played it safe. Upon stabbing the animal, she turned back into a witch. A voice from either within me or in my surroundings told me that I had to carve a cross into her forehead and pour holy water on the wound.

I did this, and the witch shriveled up and died, much like in The Wizard of Oz, which I am sure I subconsciously accessed upon dreaming the witch's death!

Break down of the symbolism in this dream: (according to dreammoods.com)

Witch
evil, destructive feminine forces, could represent my negative feelings or experiences with heartless women.
Cat
independent spirit, creativity, power, feminine sexuality. The cat could indicate that someone is being deceitful or treacherous towards me.
Cross
sacrifice, death, martyrdom, suffering
Holy water (water)
unconscious and emotional state of mind, spirituality, knowledge, healing, essence of the psyche
Voices
messages from the unconscious or spiritual realm

Considering the experiences of my personal life at the time (which I will most likely never discuss unless it a detail is important in the dream analysis), the witch I believe represents a negative feminine aspect of myself. Most likely the witch is a symbol of my animal/physical side, and the ability in me to resort to unfavorable actions. It is a resurfacing of old ways, negative emotions, and the desire to bring me down once again to a very superficial, atheistic and material view on life; to drag me back to a time when my fears and paranoia caused me to operate under extreme distrust and disdain for humanity, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, relationships, etc.

When the witch turned into a cat I had trouble attempting to destroy it. I believe that this represents the idea that we can change our negativity into positivity. Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to kill the cat, and it would have stayed that way. Instead I was again fearful, paranoid and mistrusting. My attempt at destroying something good, my inability to believe that this awful thing could have turned into something good, caused it to turn back into something evil, hence I had to continue fighting.

The voice I heard was possibly my unconscious or some kind of help from the astral/spiritual realm. Carving the cross on the witch's forehead is a possible symbol of sacrificing old ways, or the animal part of me (my materialistic, physical and earthly desires) to achieve a more peaceful state of mind. The water is clearly a symbol of healing this imbalance that I was experiencing at the time, causing the witch to shrivel up and disappear, that I may be free to explore things spiritually or at least to discover my true aspirations without negativity overpowering me.