Have you ever wondered how dreams and astrology are connected?

There are many ways we can connect dreams to astrology, and many don't require that you know all about your Natal Chart. In this column we will be exploring the symbolic rather than predictive aspects of astrology. Symbolic astrology attempts to use the images of astrological to give meaning to one's life and empower choices rather than predict paths. We do this by imaginal overlay. In this process we impleach, (poetically interweave) dream, image, feeling, life and symbol in a way to evoke a felt sense of the dream's imagery and its position in our life.

This year we are focusing each month on a different House. The inner circle of the Natal or Birth Chart is divided into 12 distinct regions know as Houses. They relate to everyday activates. One will be about physical appearances and temperament, while another relates to possessions, for example. Planets and signs fall within these Houses and influence the areas of focus. We will be watching for images of planets, signs and other celestial events and hopefully begin to see the emergence of an astrological chart that dips into birth charts, dreams, and our waking life.

The Fifth House traditionally includes such areas as pleasures and amusements, love affairs, children, creativity and self-expression, speculation and investments. What is the thread? Being Leo and the reflection of the Sun and thus conscious ego, it might be seen as the area where an individual can be uniquely and completely oneself. Feelings, desires, ideas and activities are all full of one=s own essence where there is no compromise with otherness. Through creative self-expression, the meaning of ones own identity can appear. Often the Fifth House is called the House of Love, but perhaps it would be better characterized as the House of Romance. Here we can project ourselves fully into the other and experience a love that reveals peeks at our own inner center.

Dream: "He came into my dark bedroom and I could clearly see only the red tulip he carried. I knew we would spend the night together. We began nibbling the tulip, bumping noses and laughing, both finding the game so funny. He was so easy to play with, I couldn't believe it, it was like we had always been playing together."

Perhaps the natural instincts in the dream are emblematic of the intuitive perception in this House, intuition of one's completeness or total psyche. There is that special kind of intuition that comes from reflecting on oneself and one's creations, though not an intellectual grasp. It is more the kind of understanding that brings us closer to the experience.

A problem in the Fifth House erects barriers between and individual and his/her self realization. Generally these will appear first as shadowy elements. Children may have dreams of bad animals, adults of intrusions of characters that seem morally inferior, who bug us and who we would rather die than think we are like. More abstract symbols might be circulations where the flow is block, like water not being able to circulate, or breaks in land and vehicular travel. More emotionally, dreams where the dreamer gives and gives, but doesn't receive may appear. Or audiences that don't respond, possible love encounters where there is rejection, being disconnected from one's creations or children.

Dream: I'm leading a team of archeologists and I push the team through many perils before reaching the ancient tomb. The team doesn't seem to appreciate how much I have helped them. We open the tomb and find many rooms of treasure, yet all the time I sense it is all worthless and pointless and feel no joy in all we have achieved. I'm repulsed at first at how the team is running around excited by all the treasure, but then become amused and begin to see them like kids in a candy store.

Salvation for those afflicted in the Fifth House will usually come from being able to shift their wounded self attention to the joy of others. This is difficult since envy can be very prevalent. In the above dream, the dreamer is pushy and achievement oriented, and all the treasures in the world cannot connect him (?) with himself. A glimmer of hope appears as the attention shifts to the joy of the others.

M.Aionia

Island (1997 May). Some Fifth House Rooms. Electric Dreams 4(5). Retrieved July 26, 2000 from Electric Dreams on the World Wide Web: http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams

When I meandered through the fifth house (Leo, Sun), I discovered a grand and impressive house, with many rooms. A living room where children, once born, whether a child of the imagination or womb, are its heart and soul, its reason for being. A den and casino-like game room, where diversions of all kinds take place; the bedroom, where romantic love may be kindled; the kitchen where laughter, good humor, and high spirits spill over and replenish the activities of the house; the study where decisions are made in a bear or bull market, with caution being thrown to the wind; the basement where artistry flourishes; the sundeck where happiness, contentment and joy reign. Yeats's judgement in Purgatory, "To kill a house I hereby declare a capital offense" haunts an unrealized fifth house. "Men without joy seem like corpses" [Kathe Kollwitz, East Prussian artist]. And in this house, there is one and only one player: "Me." What follows is a selection of quotations and dream fragments which is a further elaboration on the fifth house. Hopefully, an indelible impression of the fifth house remains so that any dream sharing fifth house concerns can be easily grasped. Some few questions posed by fifth house concerns are (and there are zillions others)...

What...
is my pleasure? values and lessons do I impart to my children? stages/arenas appear in my dreams? To what extent have I developed my abilities?

(How) Do I...
laugh a lot? receive applause? perform? transcend suffering and pain? celebrate? play, communicate from myself, create, procreate, speculate? bring a spirit of play to work? take risks? bring romance into my life? entertain myself?

Am I...
dramatic? popular? worshiped? spontaneous? Self-expressive? humorous?

Interestingly enough, an approach toward answering these questions are embedded in the dreams I dream.

A few quotes to give the tones of the vibrations that echo off and through the walls, carried by a Southern breeze or a Northern wind, no matter what activities are underway:

Quote 1: I celebrate myself and I sing myself. I dote on myself, there is that lot of me and all so luscious! [Walt Whitman]

Quote 2: When I walk out, I am a great event. [Sylvia Plath]

Quote 3: Always star in your own movie. [Ken Kesey]

Quote 4: All the world's crazy but me and thee, and I sometimes worry about thee. [My sometimes father, when drunk]

Quote 5: Everyone has a right to my opinion. [Anonymous]

Quote 6: I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard. [WL Garrison]

Drama is the Doorman...

Quote 1: A people without drama is a people without truth. [Rodolfo Usigli, Mexican writer]

Dream Fragment: A woman steps in for a famous male actor to play the last part of Hamlet the closing night. I think to myself, "How can a woman play the part of Hamlet with any credibility? Does she disguise herself as a man, or what?"

Children In The Wings...

Quote 1: The period of childhood is a stage on which time and space become entangled. [Yukio Mishima, Japanese Writer, Confessions of a Mask]

Dream Fragment: Two children, traveling on a beam of light, to the moon. At the moon's entrance, they look at each other, one falling to the right of the ray and the other moving to the left, and do a dance.

Dream Fragment: I'm to see this film. I do. The film begins. I'm amazed. It's absolutely wonderful. There's this huge, huge highway that you see immediately that's opening up. And the highway seems to have water flooding it. Going up the highway is a band of children, perhaps gypsy children. They are children who play and make their own way. You can hear them engaged in song and laughter and conversation. They remind me of the kind of children that Charles Dickens would write about. Or children in Les Miserables. A gang of ruffians.

Quote 2: Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. [Jesus Christ, somewhere in the New Testament]

Dream Fragment: Maybe we are drawn from out of his office to the party by a laughing, singing circle of children in a ring: ring around the posie style. But the entertainment is like a flash, it happens so quickly. When the circle breaks, a couple of kids dialogue in a scripted fashion. Long haired dogs spring to mind. Also adults are begging and coaxing the kids to come to them.

Quote 3: Let us return to the magic hour of our birth for which we mourn. [Kofi Awoonor, Ghanaian writer, "This Earth, My Brother"]

Dream Fragment: I watch a little boy being pushed out into the world to make it on his own. He couldn't have been more than two years old, and I see him struggling for language, for movement, and I do not do anything but observe. I see the baby on its own striking out for the beach, then heading directly for the water. In Andalusia someone who is to wait for me leaves me in the square. I walk around and am whisked by this man inside this makeshift theatre behind curtains. Looks like a gypsy setup. He begins to perform, he and his troupe, for me with all the gusto and assurance of a professional actor, then loses confidence and stops as if he does something absurd by even attempting to perform. I encourage him to continue, but he won't.

An Artist is Always Engaged Because Everything Is Done With Style and a Flair...

Quote 1: Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. [Erica Jong, american writer, The Artist as Housewife: The Housewife as Artist]

Dream fragment: We are going down a river together and see a group of musicians. One is a female flautist who plays effortlessly and beautifully. The group is reminiscent of former fraternity/sorority kids who decide to turn into hobo-artists. Perhaps it is a riverboat gig. Then they pile up together in the form of a pyramid, then dance. It reminds me of a cabaret pose, or a frieze from any modern musical. They are imitating keeping each other warm in the arctic cold.

Dream Fragment: I walk down a highway, or street, with both husband and stepson. I've been given a clarinet to play. As I begin to play, I'm upset because I cannot achieve the easy grace and flow and style achieved during my youth, when I played the clarinet. I keep complaining that something is wrong with the instrument because the wind isn't blowing through freely. There is much strain in playing. The sound is not fullbodied. It is as if I've lost my ability to be a musician.

Quote 2: In order to find reality, each must search in his own universe, look for the details that contribute to this reality that one feels under the surface of things. To be an artist means to search, to find and look at these realities. To be an artist means never to look away. [Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director]

Dream fragment: I am squeezed between a refrigerator and a wall. I am facing a wall and cannot, or do not want, to move. A woman behind me wants me to turn around and look at her. I do not want to. She finally gets me to do so by holding out a necklace that has a delicate art object on it, and it captures my attention. She herself is beautiful in every way, dressed elegantly without a care in the world, and very successful. Or gives that appearance. We go for a walk, and she tells me about her lifestyle. Makes plenty of money. Everything is easy. Inside a large apartment or house several females are gathered together for a reunion, as she's telling us about herself. I am in awe but still have a hanging question regarding whether or not she is really in an enviable position. We plan to leave for the movie. It is raining. She pulls out a huge green umbrella. I admire how not one drop of rain touches us, encircled in a magic circle of protection. I think of my paltry black umbrella. We enter a movie house and wait for a midnight performance. I look at the listings, and it is like Cable TV on display in a movie theatre. There are too many choices, and I cannot choose.

Joy, Pleasure, Laughter, Good Humor Abound...

Quote 1: After carrying and collecting like the ant, enjoy -- before the grave worm devours thee. [Sa'di of Shiraz, Persian poet]

Dream Fragment: She is not your usual supervisor. There is an air of careless abandonment about her and a country freshness that is rare. But there is also more a mystical quality about her, for she never says a word to me. We walk up a huge flight of stairs, very wide. The kind of stairs one might find in an institution or prison because they are iron stairs, yet grandiose due to their width. I say to her, "How can you stand this bureaucracy?" At that very moment, beautiful jazz music blares out, and she begins dancing to the music up the staircase with an enigmatic smile. I am getting frustrated because there is never the moment when I can air my grievance. When we reach the top of the stairs, a party is underway. Food is placed in an "L" shape, or at least it appears so with the wall. I see the food but I eat nothing.

Quote 2: Do anything, but let it produce joy. [Henry Miller]

Dream Fragment: I see this beautiful house. Opposite the house on a road is a huge lake. I wonder if the people ever go out and canoe or fish. It's wonderful. Then I'm with Daddy and we're travelling. I ask, "Daddy, have you ever seen this neighborhood?" He says, "No, I never have." It's like discovering something very surprising in this gorgeous neighborhood. I ask, "Please find out how much these houses are." He says, "I'm not going to ask anyone." I say, "Ask a teenager or someone who just happens to come up." We stop.... He sees a little kid who's playing. He gives the kid a whole bunch of change. The kid jumps up, ecstatic. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I say, "Daddy, that was really a generous to do." Daddy made him so happy! The joy is infectious. He says, "No, it wasn't. The change was right there before me, all the time. I didn't do anything. I just pointed it out to him." The feeling is as if it's happening right now, with Daddy full of life, spirit, fun and joy. Whole. Then I'm on a children's playground, a special kind of school where children play. A private school. Wide, open, spacious. How do I fit in, or what am I doing there?

Quote 3: (Wo)Men without joy seem like corpses. [Kathe Kollwitz, East Prussian artist]

Dream Fragment: I am sitting in a park, or garden, and mother, I think, sits beside me. But it's not exactly mother, yet it is. A woman tells me I may never see her again. She is laughing gaily, giggling but beautifully almost, like a little girl, bubbling over with joy.

Quote 4: The greatest happiness is to transform one's feelings into actions. [Madame de Stael, French writer]

Dream Fragment: Something strikes my eye. A rope coiled around in a circular fashion and something inside the coil, a smooth mound or something covered over with cloth. Lee and I take two separate sleds and go sledding in the snow -- a real joy ride! A very winding path where we careen through snow and ice. Actually it feels treacherous.

Quote 5: He deserves paradise who makes his companions laugh. [Qur'an, sacred book of Islam]

Dream Fragment: I felt like I was dying, of being in a stadium. I am part of a couple, or between a couple. We are there, observing. We look into the arena, and see night. A man and a woman have just been given an award for having each known that they are to die within the year and yet had lived completely and fully. While this is going on, there is repartee and wit abounding among the people that I am with, to the point that I am absolutely laughing hysterically. And I wake up, laughing hysterically. Should I die laughing? I have never laughed so hard in my life.

Lady Luck The Guardian Angel Always On Call...

Quote 1: Venture all; see what fate brings. [Vietnamese proverb]

Dream Fragment: On the spur of the moment a radio sweepstakes is announced. I respond immediately knowing I will win. My mind whirls with the winner's assurance only because the first who responds is the winner. But then they throw all the first responses together and at a later date draw the winning ticket. Now I am not so sure.

Eternally Swept away by Romance...

Quote 1: Clean is the autumn wind, splendid the autumn moon, the blown leaves are heaped and scattered, the ice-cold raven starts from its roost. Dreaming of you -- when shall I see you again? On this night sorrow fills my heart. [Li Po, Chinese poet, Verses]

Dream Fragment: Rock takes me out and to my surprise begins to treat me in a highly romantic fashion. We kiss at length and he is gentle and tender. Furthermore, knowing how solid as a "rock" he is, I have no fears about allowing intimacy to develop. Being with him feels wonderful and is a relationship with a man I always hoped to have.

Dream Fragment: He says he's been wanting to meet me all my life. The meeting transforms him because, typically, he's incredibly shy, though when he meets me, he's not shy at all. So spend the better part of the evening together. We kiss. He looks into my eyes, and I his. Very intense, powerful. He needs to return to his own home, doing so without me.

Dream Fragment: I whisper in his ear, "You are mine." I immediately wish to take back these words, as if I am afraid I will scare him off. I don't mean it in the sense I wish to own him. We kiss forever. I get lost inside them.

The Roof and Sky Overhead: Spirit of Giving and Receiving...

Quote 1: If Heaven above lets fall a plum, open your mouth. [Chinese proverb]

Dream Fragment: As he looks at the window, seeing the water, a beautiful view, he says, "How lucky I am to enjoy God's world." And I agree with him. I point out, "You shouldn't be concerned about anyone taking over this particular vacation spot."