ABOUT SMOKE AND CLOSED CURTAINS

Angelina from North Carolina asked me to interpret her dream.  As background, she explained that she’s a real-estate agent and has helped her neighbors (Jay and Maggie) buy a new house.  The new house needs a lot of work and the previous owners were smokers.  She’s happy that they’ve found a new house, but sad that they’re no longer her neighbors.

In the dream I could still smell the smoke and I was standing close to a window with closed brown curtains in the family room and the kitchen was very visible.  Looking around, I had the "OH NO" feeling because I was in there without them knowing and freaking out on what they would do if they found me.

In this portion of the dream, a few things stand out to me.  First, she can still “smell the smoke.”  What does smoke do?  If you’ve watched TV cop shows, you’ll know it creates a screen.  Next, our dreamer notes the “closed brown curtains.”  Closed means “inability to access” so Jay and Maggie are very strong about people not knowing details of their private lives.  Brown is a neutral color (not black or white, which are dramatic colors), so what Jay and Maggie want to present to the world is that they’re ordinary people with ordinary lives.  Finally, Angelina is aghast to discover that she is INSIDE the house without Jay and Maggie’s permission.

Since this is Angelina’s dream, it’s from her perspective.  Being neighborly friends with Jay and Maggie, she’s probably privy to many aspects of their private lives.  A NEW house symbolizes a new life environment so probably Jay and Maggie want to change some elements of their lives.  If there have been problems in their marriage, they want to fix those problems.

In reality, our dreamer, Angelina, who has helped Jay and Maggie purchase the new house, knows already the house reeks of smoke and needs a lot of work.  In other words, she already knows the couple’s personal problems and that perhaps the marriage “needs a lot of work.”  Deep down, Angelina feels guilty that (“oh no”) she’s aware of too much private information about the couple’s lives.

Then the dream takes me to the center of the house and I can recall the white carpet it had ALL over and I still have a visual of kitchen, family room on my right, and to my left, I can see the stairway going up, the closed front door and behind me is the hallway to the hall bathroom, office and master bedroom, when out of nowhere Jay shows up.  I’m still mortified that I’m in their house without their knowledge, but Jay isn’t freaked out that he caught me.  He seems cool with it.  However, I think Maggie would be upset and I really don’t want him to tell her.  Dream ends.  I wake-up feeling horrible, because I actually got caught being at my friends’ house without their knowledge.

Again, we note the “white” carpet all over the house.  This suggests that Jay and Maggie want a fresh, new foundation for their life together.  The fact that our dreamer can see the entire layout of the house implies that white carpet and all, Angelina can still see the basic components of it.  In other words, she understands the basic marital layout of Jay’s and Maggie’s life.  She inherently knows their personalities and what elements in their characters generate the problems in their marriage. 

Angelina’s psyche is telling her that Jay is okay with her knowing about the secrets and problems he and his wife are having.  But the fact that Angelina doesn’t want Maggie to know about her presence inside their “house” suggests that she is intuitively picking up that Maggie isn’t too happy that Angelina knows so much.  Perhaps Maggie feels that Angelina is “judging” her in unflattering ways.  People want their friends to see them in a positive (white) light.  They want to be admired, affirmed and considered perfect.

In this situation, Jay apparently doesn’t care what Angelina knows or thinks.  Maggie, however, cares too much and Angelina senses it.

This is a powerful message from the dreamer’s psyche.  Angelina, I give you kudos for having such a strong ethical code (or you wouldn’t be horrified at knowing so many private aspects of people’s lives).  However, it seems to me that this dream is suggesting that you keep some thoughts to yourself.  Don’t remind Maggie that she will be taking her issues with her into the “new” house.  Don’t be the trigger that spotlights her flaws and weaknesses.  Don’t give her unwanted advice which undoubtedly reflects her mistakes.  Just flood her with light and love so that she won’t be afraid to open the curtains in her new house.  Only then can sunlight flood in to show her the joys of life.