Jungle

Today

Last night I had a dream about lions. The obvious trigger for this is the forthcoming event at which my brother David plans to say farewell to a loved stuffed lion, in a manner yet to be determined.

But the dream contained much that was fearful and involved eland in the back garden and trying to avoid the lion. It seems that many people have similar dreams, so what do they signify?

In My Day

I really only remember childhood dreaming as a fearful experience. I quite regularly dreamt of lions and tigers. While the details of the dreams varied, there were some common features.

Firstly, there was always the anxiety that the beast would get into the house. So it became very important to keep doors and windows shut and locked. If the dream contained tigers which were always much more ferocious than lions, there was an added fear that their strength and ferocity would enable them simply to smash through the windows.

Secondly, the other important issue was to ensure that they didn't see me. Seeing me would spark off their ferocity and put me in danger of attack. So I had to hide (if I was in the open it was very difficult) and try to ensure that I either got or stayed indoors. Sometimes, as in last night's dream, there were sufficient distractions (eland etc) to divert the beast's attention, thus enabling me to get to safety.

From where, exactly, do such dreams emanate? Is it simply that we need a focus on which to act out our anxieties and, to modern western children, lions and tigers are familiar enough in concept but alien enough to be used to embody fear? If we lived in another time or place we might put wild boars or polar bears or the fairies into our dreams as object of fear.

And it's not just so that we can experience fear; it's so that we can outwit the object of terror. In none of my dreams to date has the beast entered the house or actually harmed me. I have always managed to avoid it so that the threat is more potential than actual. Interestingly, I also never dream about lions and tigers in their natural habitat; they always present their danger in an urban or domestic setting. They are out of place, which makes them simultaneously more threatening and at a disadvantage.

I don't suppose that the disposal of Abacus the lion will in any way affect the dreams I have, but I'll be there to say goodbye anyway.