I dream I am in a large room. There are four other men and one woman in the room with me. It seems to be both a dormitory and an office. Each of us sits at our own desk, working on some common project. The woman is bright, intelligent and attractive and seems to give invisible support and encouragement to all the men. I see a mat on the floor, and I wonder if there is un-swept dust under it. I turn it over to see all is nice and clean, but there are four round black spots on the back of the mat. I tip a spot with my finger to see if it will brush off, but I realise it is an insect (a big, flat, black, round beetle?). It scampers off into the middle of the floor along with its three companions. I wonder if I should try to kill them and look at my four companions, who are detached and neutral. Then the woman says, "What harm are they doing?" so I get on with my work and leave them be. Eventually, each of the four men get up to leave. I have to have a shower and go out as well, but the woman is still there. I start to take off my clothes anyway, because it is time to be going. She notices and says, "Oh, I should leave!" But I reply, "I don't mind if you stay, but I have to get ready."
Interpretation
The big room no doubt represents the whole of my psyche, where I myself am the ego, or conscious self. Since the room consists of both working space and sleeping space, it also represents the whole of life. The four other men are the "four corners" of my unconscious mind, four representing completeness or totality. So these are the totality of my unconscious mind. The woman is my anima. Since we are all working in harmony, there seem to be no unresolved conflicts in my psyche. The black beetles represent death, and since there are four, the totality of death. "What harm are they doing?" the anima advises me. Death is part of the cycle of life. It comes to us all. There is no point in living in terror of death. We should just accept that it will come at some time, sooner or later, and in the meantime, we all just get on with life. Leave it our of sight under the mat. The fact that I don't feel embarrassed stripping off in front of the woman, indicates a sort of acceptance between my conscious mind and my anima - my female side, soul and conscience.
It has since occurred to me that disturbing the death images and chasing them out into full view has a purpose. I recall one day when my father returned from a visit to his medical consultant, he busied himself about acquiring a grave, making his Will and setting his affairs in order. His doctor had warned him that he had limited time available to do these things. They are, in fact, things we all should attend to in good time. As it happened, the doctor was gone long before my father!
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