In my dream I am playing golf with my spouse. We have already played one hole, and we have just teed off on the second. We are walking north up the fairway looking for our balls. There are two or three other players off to the left, walking down the next fairway in the opposite direction. We can see them through some oak trees and rough.
I am a bit ahead of my spouse. At first I see one ball, which I believe is mine. Unexpectedly I find his within inches of mine. One of them looks like a regulation golf ball, and the other looks more like a ping pong ball – very smooth on the outside.
As I am trying to figure out how we can take the nest shot with the balls so close together, they turn into what look like coconuts, with the usual hairy brown textured skin. One has a big dent in the side, but I am sure we can hit it just fine, once we mark the position of the other one.
Sigmund Freud would have a field day with this dream! The sexual symbolism would leap to his mind and he would pursue it deep into the dark secret past of the dreamer, seeking to find a childhood wound to a budding sexual ego. Is that all there is to dreaming? Not in today’s psychological context. Let’s look at some other possibilities by considering the elements of the dream symbolically.
Here is a definition of North: “North is the direction of memory and the less conscious aspects of mind. Travelling there in a dream means you are seeking information from within yourself.” This suggests the tone of the dream, and also suggests the proper way to evaluate the dream contents – as a source of information coming from an inner source, in contrast with the Freudian, reductive, restricted sexual interpretation.
Oak Trees: The oak represents long life and seasonal growth, with a strong axis of energy connecting the earth to the sky. It obtains water to facilitate growth, and it grows in the light and heat of the sun. Thus it incorporates the four elements into its being. It indicates of the strength of the marriage relationship or of the game being played.
Golf balls: Any ball has a center, and can be understood as a symbol for the self, or the whole person. In the game the balls are not the same, but are close together. This may indicate that the dreamer feels close to his or her spouse in the “game” of life.
Coconuts: Coconuts are filled with pure white milk and white “fruit. The dreamer and spouse have found nourishment in their relationship. The dent in one of the coconuts suggests that it has sustained some damage from impact, or that as it grew, it was pressed against something else, and was therefore unable to assume its naturally rounded shape.
Metamorphosis: It may be significant to the dreamer to determine whether the transformation from golf ball into coconut is ascension into a higher form or a retreat to something more primitive. Either could be the case. If ascension, then the dreamer can think of his or her daily activities as moving in a more spiritual direction. If reversion, the result may not be totally negative. Sometimes we need to revert to a more practical view of life to get to the fruit of our activities.
Hair: The “hair” on the coconuts symbolizes spiritual forces at work. Because the coconuts are larger than the golf balls, we can conclude that the energy being considered is larger, or higher, than the ordinary energy used to play golf. The dark color reflects the earth itself. I would ask the dreamer this question: In your day-to-day activities, are you integrating your spiritual values into your work in some material (earth) way?
Close together (conjunctio): The ordinary golf ball is found close to the extraordinary ping pong ball. This suggests that the ordinary game is closely connected to higher spiritual forces.
How much more we discover when we look at the symbols in the dream! Only the dreamer can determine their ultimate significance. Each dream deepens as we consider the individual symbols and incorporate their meanings into the story the dream is telling.
Sources
Dreams: Working Interactive, by Stephanie Clement and Terry Rosen, published by Llewellyn
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