Hello everyone! I came across this forum whilst searching for general info about dreams and such, since every now and then i'll have one with some quite vivid (albeit obscure) imagery that refuses to get out of my head for days. :/

So I thought maybe putting it into text would help me, and at the same time maybe get someone else's opinion on whatever it possibly means. :S

From my most recent dream, i can only really remember one scene clearly, but here goes;

I'm in an old-fashioned sorta room, dark wood details and furniture adorn the walls. There's a girl there too, waifish little thing with short strawberry blonde hair and deep purple lips (colour, no band reference >_>). She says something about me being adequate enough for the job and then leans in for a brief kiss, and then things go weird.

She wants me to clamber inside a metal frame, and then be lowered into a giant tank of water -- its like an aquarium full of different fish, built into the wall. I'm taken aback at this point, not scared of fish in real life, but the idea of being in their environment isn't exactly enticing. She seems to think its no big deal, and sure tropical fish aren't but the baby alligator and the giant angler fish monstrosity at the bottom of the tank aren't exactly compelling.

Afraid the rest has faded from memory, but it's a few days past since I had this dream. I think it was just the girl and then the shift in weirdness that kept that bit lodged in my head. Any thoughts?

The dream seems to be about suddenly being dropped into a new, and possibly dangerous, situation.

Does this relate to anything going on in your life - not necessarily a physical danger but an emotional or other type of risk?

Thank you for the reply.

As far as being dropped into anything emotionally or otherwise, the only recent event was exam results that I passed (scraped through, would be more appropriate). Other than that I've just been relaxing through my summer pretty typically, meeting up with friends and the like.

I guess the coming year might constitute something risky overall if I don't get my act together, but that doesn't really stress me in a serious emotional way; more just the time wasted would annoy me a bit.

The person in the dream bugged me a little, at least if it was someone I knew I could put it down to more specific reasons. :/

Had you by any chance been thinking about dreams and dreaming in the days leading up to this dream?
A possibility, based on my own experience, is that this is what I call "The Invitation to the Dance." The pioneer psychologist Carl Jung concluded that we often have a "Guide to the Unconcious," and that that figure is almost always contrasexual. He also noted that "under water" often refers to the unconcious mind generally.
Here, you are sized up and approved of, (that hug and kiss can hardly have been all that objectionable,) then sent down to be exposed to a new and different world, full of beauties and (possible) dangers you can only really meet and come to know in their own realm. Interestingly, though you're only in a metal frame, you seem to be at no risk of drowning. Unlike in the waking world, you can survive here without SCUBA or the enclosure of a submarine or diving bell.
If I'm on the right track, I'd suggest you accept any further invitations or adventures this strawberry blonde waif has to offer.

I don't remember necessarily thinking too much about dreams prior to the dream, but I suppose the nature of subconscious is to pick up on those things a little more than I would myself.

The idea of a guide is intriguing, and I admit it certainly wasn't objectionable.

Perhaps I was scared because I didn't want to accept or enter the dream world for some unconscious reason? If the water is representative of my unconscious mind then there seems to be some good reason I don't want to delve there (in this case shown by the fish I suppose).

I'll try to accept any further invitations, although lucidity tends to waver a lot. :/

Don't worry, it's not a matter of lucidity, just receptivity.

I think the dream world scares many of us. I don't know what's being taught in introductory psych courses these days. In my day, when Freud still reigned supreme, I think the common image of the unconcious was of savagery, violence, lust ... oh, just list the Seven Deadly Sins and let it go at that. The beauty, the vivid imagery, and the lessons we can learn from those thought processes we've been taught to ignore just weren't commonly recognized.

If you decide to follow your dreams, you'll find yourself on a personal journey of discovery which I've more then once thought of as a lot like our Lewis & Clark expedition of the early Nineteenth Century. I'm not specifically predicting this; but it's possible you'll learn that your dream alligator and anglerfish have wished just one thing all along: to be your friends!

Bob, your post made me think of this:

Garden of Earthly Delights

Except usually the only one naked is me.