Hated this dream!  Woke up feeling terrible, so must translate to feel better.

In the dream, my daughter had died and it was two months later.  I was not aware of why she had died, just that she had.  I was told by a woman that it was time to go through her effects.  The woman had several books my daughter had owned.  We opened each one and looked through them.  We were surprised to find that in each book were several red snake/worm like creatures.  At least five or six in each. My daughter had not needed to keep them, but for some reason she had.  While she was alive, they had been alive.  I presumed because she fed them.  But once she had died, enough time had passed, they had died as well. We went through each book, one by one, and shook the snake/worm creatures out.  The last book was a Driver’s Instructional book, but it looked the same as the others.  All of them were hard-bound and in dark, muted colors of red, black, brown, and blue.  When I opened the Driver’s Ed book, I saw my daughter had written in it as she worked her way through the reading and questions.  Her handwriting was large and childish.  I could see she had passed the course and earned her driver’s license.  There were the snake/worm creatures here as well, but one was still alive.  We shook it out, and as it fell it faded out as it finished dying.  I knew there would be no problems from it or from any of the other worms.  We were done then and I walked away.  As I did, I thought to myself, “I haven’t cried yet in the two months since she died.”   I knew it was because I was in shock, but now the shock was finally wearing off and the reality was setting in.  I began to cry and feel that terrible grief you feel when someone you dearly love passes away.

SIGNIFICANT SYMBOLS:

Daughter-Can represent relationship with actual daughter or a warning about daughter.  That part of one’s self that might need direction.  Might represent someone else who is like your daughter in personality or relationship.

Dead-the end of an idea, an experience, a project or relationship.  Symbolic of a transition or change.

Books-associated with knowledge or lessons that may be gained or that are already in one’s possession.

Driver’s Education Class-learning to take control of one’s destiny and/or the direction your life is going

Red-Desire (lust), energy, trouble, misunderstanding or anger.

Snake-Wisdom, energy, temptation, or power.

Worm-that which is earthy or even a despicable person.

Grief-corresponds to the release of emotions.  A severe disappointment.

In this dream, I have several directions in which I can try to interpret it.  The first direction is the most obvious-literal.  In the literal interpretation, my daughter dies in real life and after a few months I go through her things and make certain observations about what I find there (looking through her books and finding the snake/worm creatures).  After that, I begin the deep grieving that accompanies the loss of someone we love with our whole heart.

In the next interpretation, which is probably the most likely, the dream is entirely about me and has nothing to do with my daughter.  In this interpretation, there is a part of myself which has needed direction (daughter).  It dies (transitions into something else or ceases to be).  After some time, I review what knowledge or lessons were gained in this part of myself (going through the books).  I find that I kept a specific type of desirous, earthy wisdom (red snake/worm) there because I wanted to and not because I needed to.  But with the death of this part of myself, this desirous earthy wisdom also dies and will no longer be able to effect me.  It is indicated I have also finally learned enough to be able to control my own destiny (passing the driver’s ed course and earning license).  This has been a very recent development, and I find myself releasing great emotion (grief) due to the loss or change (death) of this part of myself.  This must be coming soon, as I am not in this state of mind yet.

The last interpretation I would consider is that the dream is not about me at all but about my literal daughter, concerning spiritual change within her.  Not her literal death but the death and rebirth of something new within her.  The same interpretation would apply if the dream were about me but instead the meaning is applied towards her.  If I view her as being like me, then I might see her in the dream as being me.

It is also possible for the dream to be symbolic of both of us- meaning it applies to both of us at the same time because our personal spiritual journeys are similar in growth and development.  This would be wonderful, as it clearly indicates an evolution in our spiritual journey where we have finally matured enough to control our own destiny and no longer be subject to the effects of karma.  It is clearly indicated by the handwriting that our maturity level here is still more childish than adult (the handwriting in the driver’s ed book), and so there is still much room left for growth and development.