Dream

[ysobel]

I was running away from home (except home was for some reason this vacation place on the Sonoma coast that we used to go to sometimes when I was in jh/hs) by walking down the coast towards a small live volcano, where I met up with some people I knew who were in the area making hippo pancakes (like, pancake-art to do a hippo shape, starting with nostrils and then drawing the mouth and then the rest of the outline all in thicker batter and then filling in with a thinner batter that spread quickly, and it was specifically this cartoonish hippo shape), after which I felt ok again so went back towards home, walking northward with one food on land and one foot in the ocean, which was illegal for some reason I can't remember.

...any dream interpreters out there?

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Does the hippo symbolize an ambassador of helpfulness in fandom?

Live volcanoes are exciting, but potentially dangerous.

The vacation place could mean longing for a time and place that were better in a number of ways.

There are many ways in which you are spanning more than one world, and in some cases there's a potential fear of that being noticed by someone who has the power to make life unpleasant.

Absent any other information, I might suggest that it symbolizes wanting to reconnect with fannish friends?

[vass]

Okay, sure, I'll give it a go. Stipulating that this is just for fun, and that traditionally some dream interpreters believe that all the images and symbols in a dream represent parts of you, and anyway, what's really important (imo) is how you interpret the dream, not how anyone else does. So, like, pinch of salt and take what you like and leave the rest.

It's a nice dream, I like the hippo pancake art in particular, and the coastal setting is also nice.

I suspect this is about Ravelry, although my guess is biased by the fact that that's what you've been talking about where I can see it. :D

The site is an online home for you (a home away from home, like the vacation place), but the redesign made running away seem like a good idea. But meeting up with other people complaining about it (and in general with the off-topic forum there which is IIRC the part of the site where you feel most at home?) reconnected you with your anger (the volcano: not always something you feel safe feeling/permitted to feel) by talking with people who validated and shared it, and who also have crafts/making as an important part of their life and identity (the hippo pancake art) and that soothed you and made you feel safer returning there (or the dream expresses a hope that that's what will happen.) But you're still conflicted about/critical of the site, and that feels forbidden/disloyal/guilty (that it's illegal to walk with one foot on sea and one on shore.)

Some additional symbols/resonances there:

- the illegality of walking with one foot on land and one foot on the ocean also sounds like a disability image, like the Little Mermaid, or like a division/conflict between your online and offline lives.

- the hippo makes me wonder if the Ravelry upset is reminding you of other online conflicts past and present, adding to your anxiety and uncertainty about the Ravelry thing, e.g. criticism of AO3 going on currently: the hippo would in that context represent Yuletide.