Adult Knick-Knack Store

Dear Peregrin,

Let me start this letter by saying, I think you have an awesome name :) I am hoping that you might have some insight into this beyond insane dream that I had!

I must apologize in advance because some of the details seem hazy or disjointed, but I will tell it to you as it appeared to me. I was in a store which was supposed to be an "adult" store, but nothing in the place seemed to be of that nature. In fact most of the merchandise was a random collection of knick-knacks, everything from chop sticks to baby items. I was in this store shopping for something for an evening with my boyfriend (in real life I am not seeing anyone), whose name was Steve. I somehow got the impression that my family did not approve of Steve so I was trying to keep my plans for the evening low key.

At some point I ran into Steve and we were walking around this same store and basically goofing around, I was pushing him around on something that looked like a cart for moving around large boxes, when I spotted someone from my family. I quickly tried to think of a way out of the impending argument, so I dressed Steve up in the uniform of my uncle Al, a dead baseball player, and tried to pass him off as my uncle. And it worked on some people. In fact it seemed the majority of the family believed it and wanted to bring "Al" over to my father. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me.

The rest of the dream I experienced from the point of view of Steve/Al. I was introduced to my father, who knew this was a farce and we were talking and he was telling me about the real Al and how sad he was that he had died. I became so emotional I said that I wished I could go back in time and die in his place. I was crying in the dream and woke up crying.

What in the heck is this all about?

Oh, two important notes. I do have a dead uncle Al, who I never met, but he was not a baseball player and he was not my father's brother. And my father in the dream, was not my father in real life, and he seemed much older than my real father. In fact, none of the family members in the dream were actually members of my family.

If you can make heads or tails of this I would be eternally grateful!

-Jenn

Good morning, Jenn.

When trying to understand any dream, it's important to focus upon the feelings experienced. In this context, most symbols take on at least some meaning.

You're shopping in an adult store for an evening with a boyfriend. Yet you're not seeing anyone in your waking life. This seems to point toward a feeling that you'd like to be seeing someone, but right now you're still "shopping around." This may be emphasized by the lack of "adult" items in the store, which is instead filled with knick-knacks with no cohesive theme.

Now, since you have no steady guy, Steve then must represent something else. Either he stands for the desire for someone in your life, or he represents something which takes up a great deal of your time and energy instead of a boyfriend - such as a job, or hobby, or pet. If you can think of something you do with your time, something that you think your family would disapprove of, then that may be the central them of this dream.

And this is where I would go with it, because the rest of the dream centers around a deception, one which you feel strong guilt over. The dream hints that the person you've lied to is not really fooled by the lie, which makes you feel even more guilty.

A father figure in a dream can represent your real father, no matter how the dream figure looks, or he can represent someone who feels fatherly to you. The same can be said of an entire family. It can be a close circle of friends, or coworkers, or anyone else who can commonly be said to be "family."

Try thinking on these ideas for a bit and see what you come up with. If nothing strikes a chord, then we'll give it another try.

Pleasant dreams,

Peregrin