I had a dream that I was walking along the beach and found a rather large, orange, starfish. I pulled the starfish out of the sand with some resistance and held it in my hands. The starfish began to move and twist until it changed its shape into a bowl. I carried the starfish with me throughout my dream and showed it to my friends. The starfish would only move when placed back into my hands. The dream was so vivid that when I awoke I looked up the meaning of starfish in a dream dictionary. This is the meaning that I was given:
To see a starfish in your dream, suggests a period of healing and regeneration. Alternatively, indicates that you have many options to weigh and decisions to make.
My entire life, I have been drawn to symbols and their meanings. I believe that symbols are guideposts in life, meant to point us in the right direction. I will give some examples of how symbolism has effected my life.
I had a rough time as a teenager. I made a long string of bad decisions, landing myself in a lot of bad situations. I was a rebel, full of self-loathing, and terrified of everyone. During those years I was very drawn to dragonflies and it seemed that they were drawn to me. Whenever there were dragonflies around one would almost always land on me or seem to follow me around. I found myself constantly drawing dragonflies and choosing products with the insect in the pattern. Little did I know;
Dragonflies are reminders that we are light and can reflect the light in powerful ways if we chose to do so. Some people who have the dragonfly as their totem have had emotional and passionate early years, but as they get older they achieve balance with mental clarity and control. They gain an expression of the emotional and mental together.
You see, the light was always calling to me in those days but I was unable to reflect it!
At the height of what I call ‘the crazy years’ I decided to get a tattoo. Mind you, I was underage and therefore could not go to a professional. I was staying in a house with some rather unsavory characters and one of them offered to do the tattoo, jailhouse style. In other words, he fashioned a tattoo gun out of some things around the house and used india ink (not recommended). I was handed a tattoo magazine and told to choose. The only picture that caught my eye was a small dragonfly. Now, given that the guy was very intoxicated, I would say he did an ok job.
I ended up marrying one of the men present that night. After 10 years of dating off and on we were married. The last couple years we were together were filled with emotional and verbal abuse. I sank into a deep depression and began to make very poor and dangerous decisions. I began to notice Hawks about once a week where ever I went. On fences, light posts, in the sky and they seemed to be watching me. I had never noticed so many hawks before. Soon, I began to expect to see hawks on my way to work every morning and it never failed. At the time I felt comforted by their presence and now I know why.
Hawks are the symbolic protectors of mankind. (Boy did I need protection in those years!) When a hawk flies into your life it is time to rip away the self-created illusions that things are the way they should be. How true for me at the time!
Immediately following my divorce and liberation, I had a dream of a phoenix. For those of you who do not know the story of the phoenix here is a summary;
The phoenix is a mythological creature popular in Asian, Central American, European and Egyptian cultures. The phoenix is a bird which lives in Arabia for 500 years. At the end of the 500 years the phoenix burns itself and its nest only to be reborn from the ashes. The phoenix therefore symbolizes, rebirth.
I am still trying to think of a way to change my dragonfly tattoo into a phoenix tattoo. Sort of a rebirth told in ink.
As you can see the dream of the starfish has proven itself to be very accurate for my place in life. My husband also pointed out that while we were traveling on the East Coast I would always point out tin stars on people’s homes. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. In fact, I thought hanging a tin star on your house was sort of silly and I told my husband at the time that, “It must be an East Coast thing.”
It wasn’t until the last few months that I was shopping for Christmas presents with my husband and we stumbled across some tin stars. I picked one out and asked him if we should get it. He reminded me how silly I thought it had been when I spotted them on the road. That was when I realized how significant stars had become in my life. The tin stars that people seem to hang on their homes are the nautical star.
The nautical star is one of the most widely recognized symbols. Sailors would get tattoos of the star which represents true north in order to aid their journey home. Recent interpretation of the nautical star is that it represents following your true path in life despite all odds.
I think that my dream was not trying to point out that I am in a period of healing. I think that my dream was using the starfish as a literal, ‘nautical star’ or star from the water. My dream was telling me that my healing period is finally over! As a result of that healing, I have gained tremendous amounts of strength and courage and I am finally on my one, true path.
I encourage you to look back at your life and discover what symbols or animal totems have been guideposts for your life. What do you think they are pointing you toward today? On you on your one, true path?
Copyright © 2009 Positive Energy
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