The Lost Suitcase: Astrological Dreamwork

I had an anxiety dream last night about a lost suitcase. After the dream, I was shaken up and went to my office to distract myself with emails until I calmed down. About an hour later, because it was so early in the morning, I went back to bed to try to sleep. The result was about 4 hours of half-sleep because I kept jerking awake. I kept thinking I was falling down stairs or in a high speed car that was about to crash.

By the way, if you’d like a dream interpreted, I can help. I know how disturbing dreams can be and understanding them is a great source of comfort. Please see my products page to book an appointment.

There are a few other examples of dreamwork if you’d like to read:

Along Came A Spider

The Queen and Her Angry Spirit

Between a Sock and a Hard Place

The Dream

My dream was that I had been drinking at a pub with friends and then had to take a train home. In the dream, I knew the station I needed to get to but I got confused and ended up being on the wrong platform and missed my train. This delayed my return home and the next morning, I slept in late for work.

I then realised I had left a suitcase on the train platform. The suitcase contained my mobile phone and my laptop charger. My laptop was flat so there was no way for me to call school. For some reason, I was living with an old lady who may have been the landlady. What I was focused on was getting work but things kept happening to delay me further (I can’t remember all of them) and I was getting increasingly anxious. And then, this guy told me I had to make some sort of delivery. When I explained that I couldn’t, we ended up rowing and in the end, I just gave in and did what he wanted. I felt utterly defeated and certain I’d never make it to school to teach.

After the bout of difficult sleep, I eventually had my usual cup of tea and felt steady enough to try to analyse my dream. This was the chart:

The Main Symbols

The main symbols of the dream are:

–Drinking at the pub with friends

–Getting lost at the train station

–Being late for work

–Being unable to communicate

–Losing a suitcase with items that would help me alert the school to my tardiness (or at least set cover to offset problems)

–An older woman who was living with me

–A man who demanded that I do a delivery

The Dreamer

As the dreamer, the Moon in Virgo in the 11th house represents me. My progressed Venus as well as my Solar Return ascendant are on this degree. This seems to be very social and so represents the evening in the pub with friends. The 11th house represents wishes. What do I wish for? I wish for evening nights out with friends! But things go badly wrong after my wish is fulfilled in my dream. . .

The 9th house can represent the dream itself but in this case, the symbols don’t seem to work. Taurus rules the 9th and Venus in Gemini is the sole occupier. This is far too travel-pleasant for a nightmare of trying to get to work. However, Venus is square Neptune in the 6th. She is lost and confused and can’t get to work!

Mercury is the chart ruler as well as the ruler of the Moon and is located in Cancer which is intercepted in the 10th. The Moon and Mercury are in mutual reception. Cancer is “swallowed up” in the 10th (by the way, intercepted houses are one of the reasons I prefer whole signs). In my dream, I felt utterly helpless to control what was happening. I could not communicate. I had to get to work (10th house) but I woke up late and many things conspired to keep me from doing what I knew I should have been doing. But my lost suitcase was a major problem.

The Lost Suitcase

Possessions are found in the second house. Libra is the sign, Venus is the ruler. As we had seen, she is square to Neptune. Hence the lost suitcase!

The woman who lived with me did not have a particularly active role in my dream. But as the drama of the dream took place in my home, the fourth house is of interest. Jupiter is the ruler of the fourth and is part of the triple conjunction (with Jupiter and Saturn) which is opposite the Sun in the 10th. Here are the emotions of this dream! I can’t get to work! Jupiter in the dream is debilitated by essential dignity as he in his fall. In my natal chart, Jupiter in Cancer (16 degrees) could not be more dignified. In other words, in my dream I could not handle the fallen Jupiter.

As a former frequent traveller currently in lockdown, I think the symbol of my house represents my feelings of worry and frustration during lockdown.

The delivery man who demanded I deliver the items I had ordered is represented by Mars in Aries in the 7th. This Mars is aggressive, pushy and demanding. Perfect description for the man of my nightmare. Mars is square Mercury which seems an apt symbol for the row we had. Mars is also conjunct Chiron and so this seems to be the complete defeat that I felt so strongly. As it happens, I did have a rather unpleasant encounter with someone the day before and I can see how it may have disturbed my sense of peace. I felt “swallowed up” with the force of the other person’s nature.

The Aftermath

In my dream, I sort of blamed myself for my predicament because I had been drinking in the pub with friends, got lost, woke up late and launched a whole stream of events that caused me anxiety. Only the day before the dream, I had discussed with a friend that we need to be careful with our drinking habits. We agreed that many people are getting into the habit of drinking on their own during lockdown (I like to Zoom with friends with a drink). I said it was my intention to knock it on the head as my birthday was over. My friend agreed that he too could do with cutting down. I did not drink alcohol the day before the dream and have every intention of sticking with it.

I suppose this is a fairly standard anxiety dream but I always feel that understanding the symbols helps me find peace.