Pop-up Store and River Beetle Keepers
A dream in two parts:
I am outside, in a large alley. There is an outdoor pop-up store here. I am not interested in it. I’m not sure why I’m there. I am looking at my phone, scrolling through things, trying to pass the time. It feels a bit the way it does during waking life, a little mindless and obsessive. I hear a voice from my left say sarcastically: “Thanks for bringing your phone to the store!” I look up: There are two women at a long white folding table draped with a rust red cloth. This is the “checkout counter”. It has been quickly set up. The woman on the left is the one who made the biting remark. She continues: “Nice to have your money here!” This is also sarcastic. Which is strange, since this is a store, and isn’t that the whole point? I feel chastened by this, but then decide to confront these two women who are running this pop-up store. I walk purposefully up to their temporary counter space, intending to ask who said the remarks. However, when I get to the counter, I can’t see either woman. I know they are there. But when I look at either of them, they disappear. The counter is a mess, lots of stuff on it that feels disorganized. The cash register looks like it is made out of red clay, with little plastic white levers.
Now I am on a boat in the middle of a river. I am with two strong, butch looking women, both with dark hair and dramatic features. I am a little in awe of them and somewhat afraid of them. They are showing me beetles they have found in the river: Eight different beetles, all the same size, but varying in design. They are beautifully designed. Some have gold lining, some have red, silver. Most of them have a dark black matte base color with jewel-tone finish. They almost look more like jewelry than beetles. I think the women may actually be selling jewelry. But they seem like they throw the beetles back into the river, I think? Maybe not? Either way, they seem very intense and severe, and I don’t want to say or do anything that might raise their ire.
Analysis:
I contrasted the similarities and opposites with both sections.
Similarities:
Both scenes took place in the “middle” - middle of an alley, middle of a river.
Both featured two women.
Both appeared to have things (jewelry?) for sale.
Opposites:
The attitudes of the pairs of women - the first felt snipey and indirect, the second felt intense and direct even though nothing was said.
The first scene felt disorganized and scattered - jewelry everywhere, a mess on the table. The second scene’s beetles were laid out in two rows of four, very organized.
There was a desire not to be present in the first scene - disinterest on my part, scrolling my phone, and the shopkeepers did not remain present when I walked up to them, literally disappearing. The presence in the second scene felt deep, calm, intense, and somewhat frightening.
I did some active imagination with the shopkeepers from the first scene. I was annoyed with them and I told them as much. However, I asked them if they could let me know what was bothering them without taking pot shots from the sidelines. They eventually revealed that they felt frustrated and intimidated - they wanted to run a proper shop but they didn’t know how, and I wasn’t giving them the necessary attention and energy to do so. They felt confined to the “pop-up” role; temporary, afraid of being annoying to others, trying to sell things that they were afraid wouldn’t be needed, identified as a virus like a pop-up on a browser. While drawing the image of the pop-up store, I noticed that I wanted to draw good quality jewelry. The shopkeepers have something of value to sell, they just don’t know how and haven’t been given the resources to do so.
I tried to do some active imagination with the River Beetle Keepers, but the feelings of awe and fear remained, so I didn’t pursue it.
Some amplification research:
Scarab beetles are Egyptian symbols which are “associated with rebirth and eternal life” according to the Egypt Museum website. I brought this dream to my dream group; group members offered insights into how the scarab was used to protect the secrets of the heart when being weighed by the scales of justice, and provided protection to a soul’s journey into the afterlife. A group member shared this video of beetles taking flight in slow motion, which is mesmerizing.
The river made me think of the River Lethe and/or the River Styx. There was an element of mindfulness/mindlessness in the dream, a forgetting of sorts - I wonder about being in the middle of such a river like the River Lethe. Perhaps it’s not offering a forgetting, but a letting go, allowing things of the past to die.
The disappearing shopkeepers in the first scene reminded me of a function of social VR. If I recall correctly: In certain apps, if you approach someone you do not know and come within a certain threshold distance from them, their avatar will disappear, and from their point of view, your avatar will likewise disappear. This is used as a safety function to ward off harassment and/or unwanted interaction. This feels like what may have been going on with the shopkeepers. I may need to do an active imagination exercise where I send them a friend request so we can tolerate being near each other.
