Public Dream Journal, Vol. 2 (12/26/21) Bear on the Loose
Dear Cara,
Bears have been appearing in my dreams lately. What do you think it means? I can’t remember in detail all of the times they’ve popped up, but I’m sending you the dream that I remember with the most detail below. Do bears represent something specific in the dream world?
Jordan from Portland, Oregon USA
Bear on the Loose
I am traveling somewhere abroad. I am alone. The language is Spanish and the village I’m in is bustling with activity. The time feels old, before electricity, Renaissance maybe. I see colors of many fabrics and food vendors on the street. I am watching all this activity from down below in an underground cave-like dwelling. I spot my ex standing there looking sad, defeated. I feel a yearning to comfort him, to hold and kiss him passionately. We watch the many people above through a little sliver of a window. It’s almost as though we are spying from the sewer below the village- but not dirty, just dark and secret.
I spot a girl I recognize from high-school. She was a popular blonde girl. Suddenly a bear confronts her and pushes her with full force. I see her fly through the air and land somewhere…I don’t see where. I am intrigued and feel an urgent need to find her body and make sure she’s OK. All the while I am aware there’s this bear on the loose. The bear’s energy feels playful, like it didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but was just playing. I feel a strength from this animal and am excited to have witnessed it.
*********
Hi there Jordan!
The truth is, there’s no simple answer for what bears mean in dreams. In my opinion, it matters more what bears mean to you. I’m glad you sent a dream because it provides some context for how the bear is showing up for you at this specific juncture in your life. I’ve included prompts in the form of questions within my analysis for your further exploration. It would certainly enrich this process to know if you have any associations or personal experience with bears. Since you haven’t provided this level of detail, let’s look at what the dream itself is presenting.
As your dream opens, you find yourself out of your element in more ways than one; you’re in a different country where a foreign language is spoken during a bygone era. You think you’re traveling, but actually you are inside of a cave. Fascinating that before the bear even appears, your dream has set you up in a place that very much resembles a bear’s habitat! All of these details are worth noting as they describe the position from which you, as dreamer, are experiencing the dream. It is likely that the dream, by setting up this particular scenario, is making an invitation for you to come into this position (i.e., away from outside noise) to receive the rest of the wisdom it contains.
In this space, although you say that you’re ‘alone’, you soon notice that your ex is also present. You describe him as sad and defeated. ‘Defeated’ is an interesting word choice in that it has backstory that we don’t actually see in this dream. In other words, there is nothing in the dream to prove that your ex has suffered defeat. To me, this indicates that the idea of defeat is likely a story your ego is bringing to the dream rather than a product of the dream itself. Is defeat a familiar feeling for you Jordan? Perhaps shining a spotlight on what you are actually experiencing in this part of the dream will give us some more info.
When you ‘spot’ your ex, you say that you feel a yearning to comfort him. In the dream, after feeling this, you immediately express wanting to move towards action; to kiss and to hold him. In doing so you also move away, at least in your mind, from the potency of being with the feeling, the yearning, that’s arising in you as a result of seeing him this way. Yearning connotes an unmet desire. With images and feelings paramount to understanding the message of the dream, would you say your ex was a good choice, on your dream’s part, for evoking a sense of unmet desire? What’s it like now to be with your own unmet desires here in this den-like dwelling space of the dream? Is there any part of what is coming up for you, as you revisit this encounter, that has been kept underground, in the dark or, secret?
If you haven’t gotten enough clarity from the reflection questions I’ve included in my analysis thus far, you might use the figure of your ex as a model for personal exploration. Can you feel what it would be like to stand as he does? What comes up in your body as you do this? Standing in his shoes, what do you see?
The invitation is to explore all the parts of the dream as if they’re meant to shine a light deep within yourself. I can’t help but think Jordan, that part of the medicine this dream is bringing you is the invitation to turn inward, like a bear does during hibernation. To go deep within in order to reconnect with the feelings that underly your relational actions, for the chance to uncover something that in daily life, might be unconsciously buried or overlooked by a habitual orientation towards the soothing of other(s).
Now let’s move on to the second half of the dream.
A popular blonde girl, who you remember from high school, appears. Perhaps the dream is now evoking that time period of your life and it is in this context that the bear comes into view. Maybe here, we’ll learn something about the source for the emotional patterning that was explored in the dream’s first half.
What is most noticeable for me about the confrontation between the blonde and the bear is the variety of responses the encounter brings up for you. First, you say that the bear’s energy is playful, that it didn’t intend harm, but you also express an urgent concern for the girl’s wellbeing. Your consideration for the girl is then outweighed by your deep appreciation for the bear’s strength. It’s like mental gymnastics! You seem to be fractured into many minds at once.
The bottom line however, is that something shocking has taken place here and your response is to try to reason it into making sense, not an uncommon reaction for someone experiencing something as frightening as a wild animal attack. While you don’t exactly mention fear, you do say that you’re aware, all the while, of a bear on the loose. An ongoing state of awareness like this rings of hypervigilance, a state often brought on and/or sustained by fear. Your use of the word ‘spot’ as the way both of the other characters in the dream come into view for you also suggests you are surveilling your surroundings, just as a creature who is afraid might do. So on this more instinctual, unconscious level, it seems fear has registered.
In truth, whether or not the bear was playing doesn’t mitigate any actual harm that may have been caused by its actions. Who do you relate to in this scene? The girl? The bear? Both? How does the idea of unbridled force causing unintended harm sit with you? If you were to revisit this scene and witness the bear pushing the girl with full force again and this time, try to stay with your feelings rather than explain what’s happened, what comes up? Feeling what’s here is something you’re likely going to want to titrate as there may be some tender or painful feelings that arise. I encourage you to take note of what comes up for ongoing exploration.
Ultimately the bear’s force wounds or, one might say defeats the girl, but she’s only truly lost because you don’t follow your instinct to go looking for her. I believe the appearance of the bear in your dreams is a call from deep within to find her again, even if reconnecting with her feelings is scary. Maybe the way to find the strength you so admire in the bear is to seek the wounded part(s) of yourself that this girl is a stand-in for and make space to tend her unmet desires.
There will likely be multiple layers of feeling that arise as you enter into this process. Extend the care you yearn to administer towards yourself. Remember that there is strength in vulnerability. Be heartened by the idea you have, that this dream might be taking place during the Renaissance. It suggests that a period of deep reflection, while potentially unearthing some uncomfortable feelings, could also catalyze a kind of personal rebirth, reconnecting you to your inner power and the elemental self embodied by the bear. The fact that bears have been appearing for you across multiple dreams only further underscores the determination with which your psyche is attempting to have you heal this inner wound.
I hope this brief analysis invites you into working more deeply with the medicine that bear is trying to bring into your life. Depending on the way you responded to the questions embedded in the writing, there may have been some sensitive material come up for you. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you need any support. I also encourage you to learn the history of your ancestors in relationship to bear medicine. Perhaps there are shamanic traditions from your lineage that will support your healing journey.
Keep Dreaming.
Cara
Cara Liguori has been learning from her own dreams for a lifetime and has been a student/practitioner of Natural Dreamwork since 2019. You can book a Natural Dreamwork session with her here.
