Alligator Dream

I am standing on the edge of the lake with my toes in the water. On the other side of the lake there is a swelling of water that is moving forward, headed in my direction. At first, I am curious, then I begin to get concerned, then a bit frightened. The height of the water headed towards me increases. I now can see it looks like an alligator. It is an alligator! I am scared and I run.

Understanding the Dream

The dreamer is standing at the edge of the water. Psychologically, he finds himself in a state between his conscious mind (indicated by his feet on the land) and his unconscious (feet partially in the water). This signifies that something that has been submerged in the unconscious may be getting ready to emerge. His ego may now be strong enough to handle what is emerging. The fact that what has been identified is an alligator is significant.

The alligator usually symbolically signifies the ancient primordial mother/woman. I believe this dream is urging the dreamer to examine his relationship to the famine. For all of us, our first contact with the famine is the mother.

There are many faces to the famine. Considering in understanding them would be helpful in understanding this dream 

      (Read the following)                         

Marie-Louise von Franz, in discussing Jung’s description of the enormous variety of expressions of the anima as the  Great Mother archetype stated,

On the personal level, she is the mother, the grandmother,  the stepmother, the wetnurse, the nanny, the ancestress, the goddess, the Virgin Mary, Sophia. She is the goal of the longing for salvation, paradise, the kingdom of god, the church, a piece of land, heaven, earth, the forest, the sea, and nonflowing bodies of water, matter, the underworld, the moon, the tilled field, the garden, the boulder, the cave, the springhole, the baptismal font, the flower, the mandala, the oven, the stove, the cow, the hare, and in a quiet general way, the helpful animal. Psychologically, it is whatever is kindly, sheltering, bearing, growing-fostering, fertility-bearing, nourishment-providing; places of transformation; rebirth; that which is secret, hidden, dark; the world of the\dead; that which devours, seduces, poisons, arouses fear; that which is inescapable. All these images belong to the archetype of the Great Mother.                       (von Franz, 1992, pp. 15-16)