A series of dreams
We are on a dock, moving down a ramp into the water, eyes fixed on a boat coming in. It approaches, and ropes up to a pier. We slide into the water purposefully, heading out like it’s a relay race, out in the direction the boat came from. We know there are guests coming on a tour, and it’s our job to go out into the water and make sure things are good. We have friends in the water out there, and they have ropes and buoys.
The dream changes. We are suddenly in a patch of murky water, terrified about what our feet might touch, just swimming, swimming. It’s a river, and deep, with large cargo ships. We can see the edges of the river but can’t reach them because of the ships. We just have to keep swimming, no matter what. After a while, we find that swimming becomes less frightening, because it’s the only option, we just keep going, keeping feet up, and head up, still not wanting to touch anything in the water.
One last change: we are on some warm sand, in a rainforest, at a crystal clear water’s edge. This water flows in a channel, a bit like a man-made swimming pool in a theme park. One of those ones that goes around in a loop. But this one is so perfect, so real, full of life. We walk into the water, and it is like a pool, straight sides, clean smooth surface, but fresh, with ferns, butterflies and magic. We float down, with friends, sliding down small waterfalls as we go.
This is a series of dreams, because I felt I couldn’t stop at just one way to experience swimming and water. Most of us will have had many types of dreams about swimming, whether enjoyable or panicky, in a swimming pool or ocean, or swimming somewhere we’d never get to, or want to, in waking life.
With such a broad, watery topic, where should we start?
Let’s first consider water, so we can be aware of the medium we are swimming in. In dreams, water has some almost universal meanings, which isn’t to say you can’t have your own meanings layered on top.
Some of the stronger associations with water include: water as emotion, water as the personal and collective unconscious, water as intelligence, water as life-giving.
Depending on what kind of water you are in in the dream, there’s also: water as power (waves, floods), water as cleansing (baths, floods, waterfalls), water as buoyancy (floating effortlessly or swimming on top), water as magnetic (a popular day at the beach), water as reflecting (either reflecting images, or in behaviour, reflecting your inner state).
Let’s explore a few more things about water before we dive in further. Swimming pools might indicate water (and its associations) in your home sphere, or under controlled circumstances. Rivers could indicate movement of life and emotion through your body (as they do on the earth). Oceans, with their waves and accompanying animal life, can show you big emotions (both wild and calm), and introduce to you animal allies such as dolphins, whales, sharks, rays and other sea creatures (with all their associations added in).
So whether you’re swimming in an island paradise, a neglected swimming pool, or fighting through waves at the beach, let’s jump in the water and see what these above example dreams could be saying.
One note about “swimming”: I’m going to proceed with swimming showing our attitude or movement through the scene. So how we move and our feelings while swimming, is a reflection of how we are approaching the dream scenario. If you are an athlete swimmer, a professional diver, or spend a lot of time in water, you might have further associations with swimming including those around your job, competing, or swimming as another way of life.
Let’s explore the first dream. In it, we swim out to where a boat came from. We start on the dock, which is a liminal space, between daylight and rational consciousness, to the emotional, intuitive and symbolic water. Moving down the dock into water willingly and purposefully shows empowerment and choice to enter this realm.
Boats can be seen as travellers from this realm, and often are temporary visitors, roping up for a short time before departing again. And on the inverse, they take passengers from land to be visitors into unfamiliar, deep water territory, before returning them home. They are a guide and threshold.
So, in the dream we are swimming out, scouting and preparing the space for some guests – perhaps ones who’ll come out on the boat. It suggests a familiarity and adeptness with the water, the emotional territory. While others travel out in a boat, escorted, we are going out by ourselves, to meet friends and create a safe space (with the ropes and buoys). This could suggest interconnectedness with other parts of ourselves, or with others in waking life with whom we work.
The overall feeling is of competence, awareness, ease moving through the water. We have assistance out there in the deeps, and we can navigate them. This could relate to a role we’re playing in our waking life, where we guide, escort, or prepare emotional or depth of space for others to visit.
From this dream, I’d take away a sense of ease, of smoothness, of being in a good place with the work I’m doing in waking life where I might be guiding people through emotional territory.
The second dream, where we are in the murky river, is quite different in tone. In this dream, we are swimming not from choice so much as from necessity. We don’t like the water, we don’t want to touch, see, feel, hear, or otherwise sense what is in the water (emotional realm), because we can’t see through the murky deep waters, and it’s scary. The scary things could be ignored emotions, trauma, or assumptions or experiences about the danger of engaging with emotional territory. We know the water is deep and may have danger in it, because there are large ships, which need deep water, and may also leave pollution or metal anchors or ropes in our way. We are therefore in a vulnerable position, with those ships also blocking exit from the water.
This dream may suggest reluctance to engage with the symbolic, emotional, intuitive realm – because of its obscurity, because we can’t see what’s in it with our normal senses, and because it feels dangerous. However, for whatever reason, whether as a counterpoint to waking life or a mirror to it, we are in the water, and we can’t get out that easily. We have to swim, we have to get comfortable with the discomfort, we have to keep going and start to feel okay even though we are scared. We can actually still trust that the murky water holds us up, even though we can’t see its depth, what is within it, or know how long we will be in the water. It is a teaching of surrender and movement through a situation without resistance.
We might say that this is an initiatory dream, and because it did not resolve (we did not exit the water), we are still partway through this initiation.
The ships in this dream present a bit differently to the boat in the previous dream. Because of their size and immovability, we could say they represent something like societal structures, life structures, responsibilities, or other seemingly large and immoveable elements in our life at this time. Importantly, they are blocking our path out of the water, but also helping us to stick with the initiation experience of swim and surrender.
Taking this attitude into waking life could continue the conversation with this dream, and start to create changes in your life and build comfort and calm around a new way of being around emotions or the unconscious.
You could consider where in life you are in a situation which feels similar to being caught out somewhere uncomfortable and just having to keep going. Where could you surrender a bit more to that journey, and perhaps gain expertise as you do?
Our third dream around swimming and water, ends this trio of dreams on a sweet note.
We find ourselves on a warm, sandy shore in a colourful jungle. This is another threshold space, between the land and the water. Warm sand is welcoming and relaxing, the sand symbolising the grains of all your experiences. The water this time is crystal clear, sparkling and showing perfect visibility. This place is like a perfect or sanctified place of nature. Jungles in dreams can show primal emotions, instinct and the depths of our psyches (a bit like deep water), but this jungle is heavenly, perhaps showing us how perfect things can be.
We enter the water by choice again. This crystal clear water is directional, with both waterfalls and a sense of channelled movement. It encourages us to progress through it with a sense of joy, lightness and no effort. Even the waterfalls are for delight, not difficulty. These clear waters can symbolise emotional clarity, and especially after an initiation in the previous murky water, can assist in showing us a transformation of our own perceptions and ability to start to reflect clearly.
In this dream, we are witnessed and supported by friends or other parts of ourselves, and the magic and transformation is reinforced by the butterflies and ancient graceful ferns. The wild nature in the jungle has been moved through a structured flow, allowing us to experience it in a microcosm.
This could be a time to celebrate yourself, relax and enjoy. Or perhaps the dream shows you a counterpoint to your waking life right now, and shows you a beautiful and flowing way is possible, a beacon of hope and direction.