A dream about a volcano took place after the dreamer had been surprised by her husbands intense reaction.

THE DREAM In my awake life I am doing things in new and unfamiliar ways for me. This dream segment shows me how my dreaming mind is working through the new feelings and issues this is generating for me. I find a dream narrative helpful as I process new information and this dream helped me manage my new emotions.

In the dream I was talking on the telephone and trying to negotiate with a doctor to give a presentation to a small group because I knew he had good answers on a topic I was interested in knowing more about. He was very reluctant to do so saying he preferred private consultations as the issues were private and could be misconstrued.

I did not see how the doctors fears of the crowd were a problem as the people in the hotel lobby making up this crowd were very conservative and had very good manners. They were certainly not an unruly mob.

He came into the lobby area unannounced and quickly moved to the consultation room door. I recognised him. As I moved to greet him I alerted the group in the lobby that the doctor had arrived.

This signalled the crowd that he was there and suddenly they reacted as one. This small well mannered crowd immediately moved forward toward the doctor as a very controlled but determined mob terrifying the doctor. He quickly moved toward the consulting room and then slammed the consulting room door to protect himself. As he did he darted me a look which said I told you this would happen why did I let you talk me into this. The dream ended here.

Prior to this dream I had another dream in which I had been outside studying a gently erupting volcano vent on the opposite mountain. I was very interested in what the scientists there had to say as I noticed the consistency of the erupting debris was a porcelain white clay substance that crumbled when it hit the slope a little lower than the vent. I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of answers so this process was very satisfying for me.

In this part of the dream I felt totally safe and could study in detail this mini eruption from a very objective and scientific standpoint.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION The previous evening the dreamer wanted to talk to her husband about changes within her life particularly regards health and fitness. She had planned to discuss things in great detail. He reacted much more intensely to this than she expected. She recognised that moment was not the time to talk about anything and made a decision to make a strategic retreat. Instead she went to bed to allow the situation to defuse.

There are some obvious symbols here. The volcano is a symbol for her husband's temper which could erupt at any moment.

The doctor and consultation seems to be a symbol for the dreamer's wish to talk through her own health matters with her husband.

The doctor gives the dreamer a look as if to say "I told you this would happen." That probably links to the dreamer admitting that this was a mistake.