Please don't get any dirty thoughts from the title. :P

I was visiting relatives earlier, and it turns out my aunt is a dream
consaltant. In other words, she breaks down hidden symbols in dreams.
Well, I had her watch Simba's Pride during Simba's nightmare sequence
and here is what she had to say:

Objects, characters, and emotions we commonly see in our sleep, most
likely do not carry symbolic refrences.  If there is something our
mind is trying to tell us, it does so with a megaphone.  In the case
of your lion (Simba), we will only concentrate on whats been
emphisized.

* He is standing on a cliff.  A cliff is a critical decision that he
must make.  A Cliff also is the end of a level, or on a larger scale 
the end of a certain lifestyle that could be an effect of the fore
mentioned decision.

* Now he sees the death of his father.  The father fugure is a sign
of experiance and past situtaions. Most commonly a father stars in a
time of utter trama in a young male's life.  This is not meant to be a
scary episode, but one to advise and help.  

* There is a lot of red in these scenes.  It really depends how the
dreamer felt when they encountered this color.  Danger, anger,
revolution, life, and death could be some of the meanings.

* A stampede is chaos to the mind. Much like the real event, we are
confused becaused we are frightened.  This confusion can harm others
and swallow up what was once a happy life.

* I notice the villan lion (Scar) is of dark colors.  Because Simba
is dreaming of himself as a participant, the villan is not an outside
force but a damaged part of Simba that must be pulled in front of him
like a banner.  Darkness in this case is not of evil, but of neglect. 
It is a part of Simba that he has been trying to hide and now that he
faces it will fall into internal chaos.

* Morphing.  the "villan lion changes shape into another one.  the
second lion (Kovu) is a direct relfection of Simba. In the outside
world, Simba might be afraid of this other lion, because he is soo
much like himself.  dreams like this often occur with the fear of
aging or life changing decisions. 

* falling.  Simba is thrown off the cliff into the stampede.  Because
this is a direct result of the second lion, we can conlude that Simba
has a fear of change or letting go. This fall is a deadly one,
representing surpressed emotions or natural instincts that are
literaly eating him from within.

She also added: "Of course Micki, you do realise it's just a
cartoon."

Perhaps you found this as interesting as I did.  
-Caji- (Who now knows she has some pretty funky emtional problems
dealing with her lion king dreams ;) )




mwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmwmw
"...Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn shall follow them."
 -William Cullen Bryant
(Micki Moran Caji@postmark.net)