Dream
Dear Ian I’ve had this dream many times during my treatment for cancer. I’m flying over a large lake towards snow tipped mountains I can see people waving to me from the tops of the mountains and my deceased mother is just beyond the top of the highest peak. She is holding out her arms to welcome me. I’m conscious that I’m dreaming and the colours are very clear. I can fly like a bird using my hands and arms to steer toward the mountains. I swoop down to the water and touch but sometimes I go right under the water and then am swimming and can go right up from the bottom of the sea into the sky again. Although I know I can fly anywhere I like I never reach the mountains and the water is always calm. Can you tell me if this dream is predicting my own death? Yours, Margaret
Meaning
When we dream of flying like a bird, it is an expression of pure freedom and a release from earthly constraints and physical limitations. The sky represents your thoughts and ideas, and the water reflects your feelings and emotions. This ability to swoop from the sky into the water and emerge again suggests that you enjoy using both your head and your heart to experience the world around you.
Your experience of a life threatening illness has given you a unique perspective on the world that goes beyond the mundane routines of everyday life. Rather then viewing your physical condition as a limitation, you are using your experiences to help you explore some higher thinking and to find a deeper peace within yourself. Your explorations elevate your own spirit and this gives a lot of inspiration to the people who are around you.
The mountains symbolise an awareness of the boundaries of your mortality, and some of the people with you in the dream, such as your mother, have already crossed that boundary and gone beyond the mountains. You know that you will pass on and go beyond your own physical existence one day, but that time is not now.