Thursday, April 23, 2009

A Dream of Bees and Flies

I slept badly last night and so drifted eventually into a semi-sleep at around six thirty. I dreamt of a tiny man like a doll, some sort of alien creature, falling dead. His insides were stuffed with caraway seeds which burst out. On closer inspection they were tiny wriggling caterpillars and other insects; notably flies and honey bees. One of bees stung me and I knew that I was infected. The disease was visible in other people. They developed a fat tongue covered with grey fur and bees and flies would come out of their ears and mouth. When cut they were nothing but a bag of living flies and wasps that burst out. It was my job to track and kill these people by lethal injection, but eventually I noticed the same symptoms in me, and when I cut my arm open I was a mass of black flies and bees inside, which flew out. I awoke disturbed, concerned, a little afraid but not that much considering the horrific imagery.

For me honey bees are a generally positive symbol, and flies very negative (I am often haunted by the terrifying buzzing of house flies near my ears when semi-conscious). The caterpillars represent the seeds of change in me that have grown over the past year. Perhaps the symbols represent the good and bad in me that I see and judge in everyone else; and if so the dream is a warning about not becoming too "high and mighty".