Ep. 3 “Elephant Searching for Mud” | Retrieving the Soul | Part One
The soul is a free agent, and when it’s unhappy with its environment or circumstance in our waking world, it leaves.
It’s still in the past, still stuck in time somewhere else, replaying this event over and over and over again, because it hasn’t got the update that we’ve moved on.
The unconscious and the conscious have different timelines. The conscious mind is on a linear timeline, and we can see linearly how things change and evolve. “Oh, I’m in a new place, I’m really in a new place.” But the unconscious isn’t necessarily updated in the same way. We have to remind our unconscious because it’s in the nonlinear timeline. It can be in the past replaying itself on a tape on a time loop. It can be in 1994—living in our parents house when we were six years old. And we’re still getting informed from that place. It’s still giving us information from that part of ourselves that’s unconscious, and thinks we’re there…
The title of this dream is “Elephant Searching For Mud”
I was an elephant. And I had to go travel to collect wet mud to eat. In the background of the dream, there was almost like an animal Discovery Channel, describing what I was doing, like a man’s voice over it. When I found the wet mud, I was mopping it up with a mop. And I kept mopping and mopping trying to find more wet mud under this tree. And suddenly, there were loads of other elephants. And they were all sitting in a circle. They said something about a man coming to capture us or taking mud. And then some elephant or person who was guiding me felt like a father figure told me to get the mud. And so I did. And I put it in a really small egg shaped container and hid it under a bench. I felt under pressure and scared. Then the men came and searched the area. They took us away and very randomly, the whole scene changed. I don’t know whether I entered into another dream. But it felt like they were connected. I was then at a netball court, and I was human again. I was guiding these people playing netball. Then they all started throwing the net balls back at me to clear up than I was kicking the balls back towards the edge of the court. And then this man came up to me holding a glass pot. And he started mixing all these powders and I asked him what he was doing. He said he was making soup. And then I woke up.
What was the feeling upon waking of the dream?
I felt confused and slightly scared.
Was there an intention for dreaming?
I didn’t make an intention before.
Could any part of this dream happen in your waking future?
It is possible that I could be helping people with playing netball because I’ve been thinking about getting back into the sport recently. But the rest of the dream where I was an elephant does not relate to a possible waking future.
What is the background context of the stream and how it relates to your waking life now?
I did not recognize anyone in the dream. The netball court I was in was the Netball court I used to play in in secondary school. I am now 22 and university.
What do you want to know about the dream?
I want to know more about the first part of the dream. Why it was an elephant? What was the purpose of me collecting mud? And who were the men coming to capture us?
MICHAELA: So, Sher, if this were your dream what do you think?
Welcome back to messages from the deep a podcast for dreams. I am your host Sher Kirti and your favorite co hosts Mikayla Costello from Dream party hotel rejoins me for our third episode. And in this stream. We explore symbols such as mud, elephant, and seeking nourishment at the origin whether that is the core essence of our soul, the beginning of time, or just the beginning of this lifetime. We discover different roles, different parts of our soul, as well as the practice of free capturing those parts of the soul, how to piece them back together, where they go, where we find them. And as well, we share some of our personal experiences with honoring the dream and how we can build that bridge from our dreams to this reality. So thank you for joining us again. And if you would like to have your dream featured on our next episode, please submit at Sharecare t.com/submit Your dream, the link will also be in the description wherever you’re listening or watching this. And if you don’t want it featured, you can let us know. You can just use it as a journal prompt. It’s a great tool. That’s an option as well. Feel free to share. And I hope you enjoy
SHER: If this was my dream… I mean, there’s so many parts. I really had to pull this one apart. But the thing is, the wet mud, a sea of the two elements, earth and water coming together to make mud, and it’s heavy and slow, like an elephant is elephant. It’s also big, heavy and slow. And elephants are also often trained in the circus. Because even though they’re really big creatures, and they could trample people, they also have a docile spirit, I feel and they’re easily like, they definitely have a history of being abused. And so that’s another layer of this, like, there’s this feminine essence of slow earthen water, slowness, emotions, this weight and the fact that she was mopping it up, I feel like there’s this these, this like messy contents I’m trying to gather. And I’m trying to keep it together. But it’s just a mess. And I’m feeling frightened. And there’s a man’s voice. So I feel like there’s a man’s voice like in my subconscious telling me what to do, driving me towards gathering this mud. And I’m trying to keep it together. I’m running scared. And there’s clearly a group of people around me that’s trying to help or maybe you’re in a similar situation, but I still feel that I am a part of something. And yet, in this process of gathering mud, I feel very alone. I sense panic. Like, when you make a mess, and you’re like, “I need to gather this right now. Oh my god, I’m in trouble.” And of course, that is expressed in the dream, where there’s a group of people coming to capture me and other people. And I’m being warned. So there’s a rush and like essence, and then putting all the mud in the egg. I feel like it’s so symbolic to because the egg is fragile. And putting the contents in there. It feels like my wet, messy, dense emotional content and this fragile thing that I’m hiding. And I have to put it away. So it feels like I’m protecting something very fragile. I don’t know exactly what to do. But it seems like I’m getting some help. So I’m not sure but I do feel like there’s some part of me that’s feeling at the same time pressured and yet I know I have support, but I feel weak and alone at the same time.
MICHAELA: I like what you said about packing all these messy things into a fragile container. If it were my dream… the first thing that came to mind was that it might be happening — everything that’s happening in the elephant scene — in my unconscious. Maybe with an unconscious memory. So something that’s happening right now or like a memory of something that is now unconscious to me that maybe happened when I was a child or a baby or something like that. And I say unconscious because in this part of the dream I am an elephant which is in the animal kingdom — the unconscious kingdom.
Then there’s this conflict between Elephant versus Man, unconscious versus conscious, where then the Animal Kingdom is my unconscious, and the man is my conscious. The conscious aspects of myself in conflict with unconscious aspects of myself, maybe in the form of a memory or maybe not.
I started out thinking about this dream in terms of literal versus symbolic content. It would seem like the first thing we would jump to in the first part of the dream is symbolism because I’m an animal. Obviously, that’s not literally possible. But is it, you know? In some cases, it is. The first thing it reminded me of is expanding consciousness to take on the forms of other creatures. In ability — perhaps the overlying theme of this dream is my expansion of consciousness to assume other forms, which is not symbolic. It might be now but in the archaic world, it was very much a literal sport. Shamans in ritual settings for medicinal purposes, for storytelling purposes, for ritual purposes, shape shift to assume the forms of other creatures to expand consciousness in order to have different skills and attributes and access different things in different worlds.
That was the first thing that came to mind. I’m like, oh, she dreamed I was an elephant. To me, that’s pretty unusual. I don’t hear that a lot. I don’t know that I’ve had a dream where I was an animal. I’ve had dreams where I was other people, or from different perspectives, but I don’t know if I’ve ever had a dream being in the body of an animal. That’s pretty unique, actually. The overall theme to me is this expansion of consciousness, and especially because elephants are known for being really intelligent, and being social and having good memory and all these attributes of higher consciousness.
In the expansion, I need to go back to the beginning. For some resources, for nourishment. When I think of mud, I think of an origin story from, I believe, aborigines in New Zealand, but I think there’s also an indigenous American story that’s very similar — where life started out of mud. Specifically, this kind of eel-like creature is sloshing around in the mud. So, whenever I think of mud, I think of the origins of life.
Elephants don’t eat mud, but they can intake it for mineral content, like extra nourishment. In this dream, I’m searching. I’ve expanded my consciousness, but I’m also searching to go back. I’m searching for this nourishment. Maybe this is an unconscious memory, a new experience that’s happening now but I’m searching for this resource. This resource that’s coveted both by both my unconscious and my conscious and has actually been fought over by my unconscious. They’re both fighting for this resource. The conscious aspect is trying to take the unconscious part away from it and starve it of this nourishment. The man is coming in and banishing the elephants from taking the mud but then part of my unconscious mind has taken it and put it in an egg, which symbolizes gestation, birth and new life. There is a lifeforce in this egg and it’s being tucked away and hidden — saved for later.
SHER: What you said with clay and returning to the origin for nourishment makes me think of ancient clay that people use now as a superfood. And as a healing mask. We put in our baths, our face and we put it into our smoothies, things like that. It’s like the more ancient it is, we assume, the more powerful and more nutrient packed it is. As you’re connecting all of this, it’s making me think of the egg, that there’s something about returning to the beginning, or returning to the origin, that that can be very nourishing, or can provide nutrients as we return to that place.
MICHAELA: It reminds me of vital energy, storing away vital energy for some time later down the road. There’s a lot of times where we have creative energy that we’re not able to use at that point in time, say, for example, hypothetically in childhood, if I have all this creative energy, but I’m not in an environment where that is encouraged or nourished or even allowed, then I’ll have to tuck it away in a safe space for later.
Oftentimes, we find in dreams that that’s a common theme for most people in their lives. We find in dreams, a lot of portals into places where we’ve stored or locked away vital energy that was not able to be, or safe to utilize at one point or another. But when circumstances change, we become adults and more autonomous over our environments. We see that these resources will come back to us when it’s safe to release them again, or to utilize them.
SHER: Something that crossed my mind when you’re talking about that — you mentioned earlier the origin of creation and mud. Mud is also clay, and I recently rewatched Wonder Woman, and her mom keeps telling her the story of where she’s from. When people asked her where she was from, she’d tell the same story. She would say, “I was shaped from clay, and Zeus brought me to life.” Creating life from clay.
You also mentioned the contrast between the unconscious and conscious world. The dream changes to where she’s human and a woman (herself), and I feel like there’s more control and containment in that next scene. As she moves into the court, with the balls and the structure, she’s guiding people. They’re looking to her for guidance, versus her running away in the previous scene. I noticed that there’s that transition, with what you’re saying, as she’s an elephant that’s the unconscious realm, and then she transitions more into a present conscious timeline.
MICHAELA: That to me, if it were my dream, I think they would relate. And I think they can relate in a pretty clear way. In the dream, I’m guiding others.
SHER: I had to look up ‘netball.’ I had never heard of netball in my life. And at first I was like, Well, it sounds like a court of some kind. So I looked it up and it looks like it’s mainly women-player sport.
MICHAELA: I think it’s played in the UK. It’s not really an American sport. It looks like some form of basketball. Yeah, basketball and volleyball.
SHER: It seems like, in a way, she’s a captain in this world. Because if they’re kicking it to her and she’s guiding them, she’s somewhat of a captain, I feel. The role shifts so much from the dream before where she was more in a victim role, more scared, and then going into a world where she’s way more in control.
MICHAELA: In the background context, she said that she’s been thinking this is a netball court from her waking life that she’s thinking of returning to. She’s thinking of returning to the sport and she used to play it in secondary school and now she’s thinking of returning. In the dream, she’s a guide, so like what you were saying, a captain or a coach, which is a leadership role.
If it were my dream, I would connect the two parts of the dream by saying that “now that I’m in this phase of my life, and I’m stepping more into roles that are leadership-based, there could be some vital energy available for me. Those tasks and endeavors that are stored away deep down in my unconscious that I saved for later, that at some point I put away, consciously or not, in this egg to transform, to gestate, grow and evolve… then if I believe the dream is showing me where I can go and recollect that energy and utilize it in my life and my pursuits currently.
SHER: It feels like there’s a lot of “returning to the origin.” Everything you’re saying now. Animal, mud, egg — everything seems to be about creation, and going back to the beginning. It’s like something that she’s returning to, to discover. Maybe there’s something that is wanting to be discovered, or to be hatched, or reopened.
MICHAELA: That’s what I would say. If it were my dream, I would definitely want to go back, and re-enter the first part of this dream, and see what was in the egg. Or see who the men were, see what the conflict was. Who’s being pursued? What’s so valuable about this resource, the mud? Why aren’t we allowed to have it? Are the men a part of myself? Were they a part of my memory? In the past? Were they a part of my childhood — that is, that which may be unconscious to me.
Could they simply be authority figures? Society is very masculine, mainly patriarchal. We grew up with authority and structure in school with our teachers, similar to law authorities. Maybe the essence, the innocence, or the emotions, was put away because of needing to follow structures or authority outside of oneself.
This is a theme for everyone, we all have to kind of dampened down and store for later… to let go of, either consciously or not, aspects of ourselves that don’t fit into the mold of a homogenized society and schooling system et cetera, et cetera. We are built perfectly as unique beings, and whatever doesn’t fit into that [structure] might not be able to be utilized in our early life, when we don’t really have autonomy over our environments, or the institutions we were participating in.
Later on, when we free ourselves from those restrictions, and limitations, we can reutilize these things. They’ll come back to us and our body doesn’t forget. The body knows everything we’ve ever had and left behind or forgotten, even when we forget along the way. Dreams are really great for that reason as they act as portals into the body, showing us where we can understand — through images, and a narrative — where we are able to re-access parts of ourselves that we’ve left behind in the past.
SHER: You said that dreaming as an animal is not very common. Do you feel that in a way the elephant could be a representation of some unique aspect of her?
MICHAELA: Of course. I had a dream where elephants were a part of it, but I was not an elephant. I was just in that part of the world and I was riding on an elephant and it was reading my fortune with its trunk. It wa touching me with its trunk and reading my fortune. That was a cool dream. But anyways, I would say yeah, I would consider then what her relationship with elephants is. She could have a personal relationship with that animal. I would definitely investigate that first. If there’s no personal relationship, I would go with anything you’ve ever read or seen, like a memory of a show or TV or documentary. And if not that, then I would look up the basic symbolism of the elephant to see what it says.
SHER: I wanted to look at it in the Book of Symbols really quickly to see what it says… “Elephants were written by kings. And first and foremost by Indra, Lord of the heavens, they therefore symbolize the power of kingship, Shiva being titled the elephant in the exercise of his kingly office. Since the effects of settled kingship are peace and prosperity, whoever invokes the power of the elephant is given their heart’s desire. In many regions, and particularly in monsoon countries, the gift they desire is rain, which is one of heaven’s blessings.”
There’s that water in the heart essence.
MICHAELA: Well, there you go. Also, we’re talking about potential leadership roles and re-accessing vital energy in order to step into a leadership role in life. That passage just had to do with kings and leadership, so that makes sense.
SHER: Yeah. And I feel like elephants do hold that power. When I think of these elephants rushing away from these captors, I can see that imagery so clearly of elephants being afraid and fleeing, but at the same time knowing that if an elephant decided to, it could turn around and trample everyone. It has so much power, if it wishes.
MICHAELA: Yeah, seriously. I would also like to re-state the fact that if it were my dream, and I’m looking for food, like the mud is food, or is equating to food for me, and I’m digging or mopping it up to try to find more underneath, there’s this call for nourishment, for substance, or something that can carry me through and make me stronger — give me strength.
SHER: Maybe returning to this sport can be a part of that, investing in herself. It could be the time now to do so.
MICHAELA: Yeah, and reclaiming vital energy that’s “mine.”
SHER: I’m curious about the soup. I didn’t think too much on it.
MICHAELA: It kind of threw me for a loop the first time I read it. But that happens all the time in dreams. They have kind of a narrative that’s connected, and then one random thing that seemingly makes no sense. It’s classic. But it does actually make sense to me once I gave it some consideration.
SHER: It usually happens right before you wake up because it’s so weird — that it wakes you up.
MICHAELA: Yeah, right. The dream just throws it in there — almost like soup.
Let’s read this part of the dream again. She’s at the netball courts. They’re clearing out, clearing away balls from the courts. Then a man comes up to me holding a glass pot, and he started mixing powders and I asked him what he was doing and he said he was making soup.
SHER: Dried mud is like powder. It’s almost like he’s giving her a recipe. It’s an ingredient. And mixing it with water. Again, it makes me think of mud. I would think I’m maybe receiving something or accessing some part of myself that’s coming back to life, telling me it’s time. I can utilize this egg I’ve stored.
MICHAELA: There’s a guide and the first part of the dream and there’s a guide in the second part of the dream. The guide in the first part of the dream is, again, unconscious — me, myself as an elephant. The guide in the second part of the dream is conscious, myself as me in my body, doing something that’s common in my life — playing netball. Then there’s a man, and that’s also in my conscious aspect.
To me, the soup is a perfect symbol for nourishment. Seeking the mud as nourishment or vital energy, the egg as life and vital energy, and then soup, which is very commonly associated with being very nourishing, connected to childhood and mothering and substance and medicine, all of these things. It also reminded me of the fact that the dream can be seen clearly as unconscious and conscious aspects of the same thing, coming together.
Metaphorically, when we’re dealing with soup, we’re blending things together, and harmonizing and balancing out different aspects to create this one whole thing that’s harmonious and balanced and nourishing — utilized, digested, and taken in.
SHER: Do you feel that when these things happen — because you’ve spoken about this in the past — where when we have experiential dreams, that in a way we are experiencing it, we are having an emotional integration of the experience… Would you take a dream like this to be restoring something unconsciously, that in a way it is putting a piece back in place? That we wake up and suddenly, it’s there? It’s reawakened because the unconscious returned a piece of it?
MICHAELA: Yeah, I think that’s a great way to put it. It is like a restoration of something that was either locked away, hidden away, or put somewhere else. Even outside of our energy field, that then can be retrieved or received.
Going all the way back to the beginning of the dream, and talking about shamanism and shapeshifting as a real and literal phenomenon. I mean, this was the point of doing that. In general, the point of being able to shapeshift into different forms, different animals, was primarily for the purpose of not only giving offerings to the higher heavens, but also to capture parts of the soul and put them back into the energy field of a sick person.
The overall concept of soul loss is that the soul is a free agent, so to speak, and can sequester off in percentages, and in parts and pieces, when it’s unhappy with its environment or circumstance in our waking world. So, for example, if we are a highly creative child, that is being beaten into homogenization, part of the creative part of the soul, the creative aspect of myself, might go live somewhere else, and go away from our energy field.
When that happens, part of our field gets lost. It’s almost like there’s a gaping hole in our energy field. And when that happens, then we’re vulnerable to foreign invasion of energy which can make us physically and or mentally sick. Under the archaic understanding of sickness, part of the soul is gone, and needs to be retrieved. A sick person would come to a shaman and the shaman would go into an ecstatic trance in a ritual and go into the dreaming, into the underworld, into the upper worlds, or parallel worlds, or what have you, and go and find the lost part of the soul that is missing, that is living somewhere else, and bring it back to the primary body that it left. In doing so, securing the energy field of that person and making them well.
>>> End of Part One <<<
Part II Coming Soon (View/Listen Here Now Starting at Time Stamp 35:10) THE → FULL EPISODE
