"Season of Lent" (Night of Thursday, May 21, 2015)

Events of The Day:

Spent a lot of time with our pet birds. The bird man came and brought java sparrows and more African lovebirds. Some compound tenants came and bought sparrows from him.

In the afternoon, took a tricycle and moseyed over to Arayat Market to buy bird stuff.

Continued knitting Angelique's summer top.


The Dream:

It is the season of Lent. Rosel and her husband have moved house to Banahaw Street, in Cubao. There is a shortcut from their house to my house: a lane cuts through the residential block and leads to the back of our lot. They come and visit me. We sit on the ground-floor, covered veranda of a building, presumably part of my house, though it is a structure I have never seen before in waking life.

It is the Lenten season. Rosel and her husband have never actually been inside my house and seen the rest of it, and so I pledge to give them a tour someday. We talk about Lenten activities. I realize that the Good Friday procession will pass in front of our house, and I make a mental note to prepare our front balcony for the event. I think about the life-size statue of the Santo entierro that I used to own and that I sold off to a neighbor many years ago. Rosel's husband wants to know what other sorts of things are being organized in our neighborhood. I suggest that we proceed to Camp Panopio compound, which has a chapel and an office that distributes printed schedules.

Before leaving the veranda I open an antique tabernacle that I've been using as a repository with a key. I retrieve something--I no longer recall what--then lock the tabernacle door again. A security guard is standing behind us. I am worried that he or someone else will attempt to open the tabernacle door and make off with some treasure within.

Next Rosel, her husband, and I are standing at the main gain to our compound on P. Tuazon Boulevard. I point out that the Castle of Baking and Confectionery (a.k.a Chocolate Castle) is to our left, then quickly realize that I am wrong and point out that it is to our right. I also tell them that Ali Mall is to our left, across EDSA. Rosel's husband says that he is starving. I promise to serve a snack inside my house later.

We are now inside the Camp Panopio compound chapel office, which, in this dream, looks like a cozy library. We ask the male receptionist for copies of the printed schedule for Lent. I unfold my copy. I notice that Rosel and her husband are cutting off the top parts of their copies with pairs of scissors. I look at the corresponding part on my own copy, which contains only headings, and I wonder why they are doing that. [Bridge to a portion of Murder Most Foul a.k.a Mrs. McGinty's Dead that I saw on TCM the previous night, which had a scene in which pieces of printed text were reassembled to form a message.]


My Interpretation:

The first thing I note is that this dream is all about opposites: Self and Not Self (I am myself in this dream and I am also Rosel's husband), back and front (shortcut to back of house and front gate), left and right (TCOBAC and Ali Mall), unprinted and printed (the Good Friday procession and the printed schedule).

I am being called to engage as a proactive participant, rather than a passive observer, in deeper spirituality. The antique tabernacle that I've been using as a repository is my Unconscious. There is something there that I need to retrieve, and I have the key to the locked door.

The compound chapel office is the opposite of the tabernacle--it is the Social Realm of the Conscious. It indicates a necessity to conform to other people's norms and schedules in order for me to obtain what I aspire for.

I am starving (perhaps in terms of social interaction) and promise myself to have a snack later (during my escapade to Arayat Market I was actually delighted to be among crowds of people once again).

Cutting off headings from printed schedules indicates the necessity to revise previous "headings" I created for myself.

Good Friday is followed by Black Saturday and Easter Sunday, a day of resurrection.