Musketeer

Dream by Mystique – Hi all Just wanted to know if anyone may have an idea as to what a Musketeer may represent in a dream? This happened in a dream the other night. I can’t remember most of the dream, but I remember the musketeer on waking up.

I think there were arrows involved somewhere in the story line too if that helps… Actually, come to think of it now, the musketeer may have been hit by an arrow.. upper left shoulder I think. Any ideas?

Reply By Sowelu – Hiya Mystique!! Dumas explores the eternal conflict between good and evil in the 3 Musketeers. Its heroes have become symbols for the spirit of youth, daring, and comradeship. Arrows in dreams typically represent the idea of targeting truth, aspiring toward a noble goal, or a swift and easy course toward accomplishment.

The left side of the body is the receiving side, the feminine, though the left brain is the masculine. In this dream the shoulder is the part that’s hit, so it likely refers to the feminine in you.

The shoulder is typically the place we bear burdens, while it’s also symbolic of strength and power. It can represent our ability to assume responsibility or push through resistance.

With all these clues and not knowing what you’re working on in your life currently, there may be a message here that in some way you’re emotionally attached to the noble idea of helping another, but it’s actually causing you harm.

Further, it may be saying that there’s a deeper truth to the cause for your motivation that is “all about you”, rather than actually being about helping another. The idea that came to me was the dysfunction of codependent love. This world most often sees loving another as giving in ways that actually don’t help but serve to further disable that other from finding their inner strength and learning to help themselves.

Are you attempting to do FOR another what they can actually do for themselves with a little guidance? Are you taking on another’s issue for them thinking it’s something you’re doing out of love? If so, could it be that you do this, in truth, for yourself? When we do for another in the dysfunctional ways we’re taught in this world, it really is a self-serving action, though we THINK we’re helping the other person. What often results from this type of action is resentment for you in the other person.

If any of this makes sense, the message would then be to search within yourself for your true emotional motivations for taking over another’s problems for them. What truly lies behind the desire to help (interestingly enough, there’s usually a fear in us that motivates us to do this, and it’s often personal somehow)?

Just the idea that got sparked from your post, Mystique.  Hope there’s something in it for you!

Love you! Sowelu

Reply By Mystique - Hi Sowelu Thanks for the reply to my post. Interestingly enough, I had finished reading Dumas’s 3 Musketeers the night before I had the dream. I assumed that because it was still fresh in my mind that it was being used as a primary source of imagery, I just wasn’t sure for what!

Taking into account your interpretation, while it makes sense and seems accurate, the dream seems a bit out of place. If it had happened at the beginning of the year, it  would have been 100% spot on, but I put an end to the scenario in question ages ago. There is currently nothing going on in my life that matches up with it. Either the dream is a very delayed “review” or an early warning.

Could it be a representation of something that I wish to achieve, but am being held back from? i.e. if the Musketeer were to represent faith/ strength/achievement/ whatever, being hit by an arrow may be holding them back. Just a thought. I thank you, however, for your input. Best regards

Reply By Sowelu – Hiya Mystique! In my own experience, ending a situation in the physical reality is often not quite the end of it… yet. In most instances, there is a need to review what occurred and my role in it, in order to discover the place in me that had a need, which created my part in the situation. By finding the root of, and releasing, this false need in self, I’m able to literally grow beyond it so that I never have need to “do it again”.

Do you think the arrow may represent the idea that the emotional burden still lies deep in you as a source or “at the heart of” the strength of your sense of self? In other words, is there a possibility that you still find worth or value for yourself by being a care-taker or rescuer of others? While that one particular situation may be gone, is there still something within you that might cause you to “do it again” in the future? If there is, it will act like a beacon, drawing to you a situation where it can again play out.

I’ve found that my own life is really an upward spiraling series of lessons that center around only a few themes, or my personal archetypes, we’ll say. Each time I face, feel and release the emotional energy around one of these archetypal situations, I gain insight and knowledge as a result. That then serves to propel me forward in my life until I hit a more refined version or situation that displays that same issue at a finer or lesser degree. I apply the knowledge I gained last time, and usually have to then face, feel and release yet more emotional energy around the new situation.

This continues over and over, in each archtypal theme. Sort of the onion peeling idea. The archetype is healed when I can fully recognize the situation for what it is when it appears on my personal world horizon, feel no judgement of self or other, no “push” or “pull” to engage, and comfortably choose not to invest myself at all. This is responding with ability… and that ability was gained through the repeated encountering of the archetype over and over, at more and more refined levels, until I understood every nuance of it for myself and no longer had a pull or push response when it arose in my world.

Considering your idea of being prevented from achieving something you desire, I would likely first look to that last situation you mentioned. Did IT arise out of a desire for something positive… that went sour? My thinking is that perhaps your idea and what I proposed are actually linked. The arrow entered his body near the heart. It may be a symbolic way of saying that your heart’s desire is still being prevented by a misunderstanding you still carry (I say ”misunderstanding” because the muskateer is a masculine figure, implying that the intellect or thinking patterns may be what prevents the heart desire).

Another prevention twist might stem from this concept that when we are still “hooked” by a trigger to react in old ways with others, THEY in turn are “stuck” in their own old patterns with us. Whether or not we ever see them again, as long as we haven’t fully cleared or healed our energies around that relationship pattern, both of us are still stuck, energetically.

When we truly learn and heal, and grow away from the old patterning in ourselves that equates to emotional reactions to life, all those connected to us are suddenly free to learn something new themselves. At the very least where we are concerned, in their own lives.

In essence then, we actually serve to hold others back when we remain stuck ourselves because it’s through interpersonal relationships with others that all of us grow and learn. Any emotional issue that has displayed in our lives with the involvement of others is like a tug of war. When we heal ourselves, we drop our end of the rope and the other person no longer struggles with us. By our choice to heal, we unconsciously present the same choice to those around us with whom we used to tango. They can either see that they are the only ones still holding onto that rope, or they can find someone else willing to pick up what used to be your end.

Like you, I’ve noticed that my psyche will use the fodder of my daily life to represent my inner imbalances in my dreams. It’s often happened that I’ve just seen a movie or read a book only to find my dreams using the characters or scenes from them as symbols to represent the parts of self in conflict or out of balance.

I’ve come to understand that the reason for this is because a film or literary work moves us emotionally and intellectually, and it is that very effect that our psyche draws upon to help us see our own issues. We have the experience of watching or reading fresh in our memory to draw upon, so we can quite easily plug in the character traits or sequence of events or whatever is applicable to help us understand ourselves better.

I’m wondering if you reading that book was seen by your psyche/guidance as a perfect opportunity to re-address the situation mentioned, so that you can truly clear any still-remaining bound up energies. In this way, it may serve as both a review AND a warning… because as mentioned earlier, if the false need still lies somewhere within, it will attract another similar situation somewhere down the road.

I realize I went on a bit here, but it flowed so I went with it.  Use your discernment, of course, to determine if any of it applies for you.

Namasté, Sowelu

Reply By Mystique –
Hi Sowelu real food for thought there! thank you for taking the time to put your thoughts into words.
Sowelu wrote “Is there a possibility that you still find worth or value for yourself by being a care-taker or rescuer of others”?

One of my things that I do is that I am a trained Complementary Health Professional and as such, I am a care-taker, and while I feel good being able to help others, I don’t necessarily think that I do it find self-worth or value. Although in the scenario I mentioned as the possible origin of this dream did have to do with feelings of self-worth and validation.

sowelu wrote “Did IT arise out of a desire for something positive… that went sour”?

Yes it did & it did go sour somewhat. The intention was originally pure but changed possibly through being naive on my part and by being taken for granted by the other person and led to the situation going (and remaining) sour. I did find it difficult to adjust because the situation brought about changes in the other persons’ character that I found hard to deal with. But I have made peace with it (as far as I am aware) and have accepted that that is the path that they have chosen and mine is a separate way, and that is ok.

Sowelu wrote “The arrow entered his body near the heart. It may be a symbolic way of saying that your heart’s desire is still being prevented by a misunderstanding”.

I have been concentrating hard on that segment of the dream to try and recall any further details that may be of assistance. Perhaps the extra details will shed more light on things. One was that I remembered the name of the Musketeer (from one of the 3), but ironically, it was the one with which I least identify – that of Porthos.

The other thing that I remembered was that while I did not see the arrow enter his body (i.e. the circumstances in which it occurred), I remember that he was carried in to my, to my room, and I was to take care of him. I woke up shortly after that. I have tried, but I can’t recall anything else. I feel that it may be unusual for my mind to choose Porthos, rather than Aramis or Athos (both of whom I identify well with), but I think that means that maybe it means that there something I need to pay attention to that is less obvious to me.

In the book, Porthos was always made out to be the ”least intelligent” and the slowest to catch on. He was also fairly vain and proud. I am neither of the latter 2 things although I can be slow at times and perhaps foolish in matters of the heart. Also that the idea of me having to care for him is either a literal representation or a suggestion that either I am “nurturing” what I need to be rid of or alternatively shows a need to nurture something else. What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you!  Regards Mystique

Reply By Sowelu – Hi Again, Mystique! It seems to me that Porthos symbolizes the ego or perhaps pride. My sense is that perhaps you’re being told that you’re nursing your pride in some matter of the heart. And the message might be further stated that this is the burden you carry, which requires true healing, rather than “nursing pride”?

Having him brought to you seems akin to this idea that you don’t actually identify with him much at all – in other words, this had to be brought to your attention because you haven’t recognized it yet on your own. (In my experience dreams do indeed attempt to bring to light those pieces we haven’t been able to see about ourselves in our efforts in daily life.)

And not having witnessed the moment of damage in the dream, but having to attend to the after-effects, seems to be analogous to you again not realizing that the circumstances that brought this situation about actually DID result in this way, or even that you ARE nursing pride, but you’re living with the effects nonetheless, and now it’s been brought to your attention.

For many of us, the ego is the shadow self; difficult to truly see in full light, masking itself as all sorts of noble beliefs or righteous actions. It is, in effect, our protector. A job it takes quite seriously because from the ego standpoint physical life is all there is, survival is paramount, and being discovered is akin to death. Emotions are considered weakness, and must be hidden at all costs, lest another discover them as the achille’s heel they are to the ego, and use them against…

Perhaps your ego self has stepped in and created a false bravado or armor of protection that even you haven’t yet detected, causing a wall to go up within your heart, rather than a true clearing from that past situation?Just some ideas you can perhaps work with.

Namasté, Sowelu