A dream where the dreamer explores her grandfathers house took place as she had been thinking about her own ancestry. She had recently found out she was part jewish.

THE DREAM last night I dreamt that my sister and I had the address to a house where my father's real father lived. (As far as I know, my father was raised by his real father) anyway, when we got there, there was a woman who said the guy was dead now but that he knew he was our dad's dad and he kept close watch on him and all his kids. She got out this big book (it had Braille pages in it and she had lots of pictures of us from when we were kids stapled to the pages). In real life my grandmother is blind and the picture book looked a lot like her Braille Bible books. I thought for a second that the woman had been to my grandma's house and that was were she got the book. She gave me a pair of gloves to put on before I looked at the book. My sister wanted to explore the house (which was huge!) but I wanted to look at the book. The woman went to get us something to drink and my sister and I went to explore a little. We ended up on a little boat that had a wire bottom. We had to move some cleaning supplies around the bottom of the boat for some reason but the boat sank anyway. We were swimming across this lake to get back to the house. We ended up a good bit away from the house but we got back. While I was swimming I noticed that I still had the ladies gloves on so I had to swim without getting the gloves wet. Then the woman wanted some money for the gloves and I didn't have any so she said she would take my sisters jacket instead. She kept saying the 'green breaker' and I didn't know what she was talking about. I refused because I couldn't give away something that didn't belong to me. But the woman took it anyway. And then she demanded that my sister write an $8 check to cover the expenses of the drinks she gave us. It was weird. My sister got mad and I got mad and we left. I don't know how the woman was related to the man who was supposed to be my dad's dad. There were other people there like a man and some young girls. I thought they might have been my step sisters when they were little but they are all grown now.

THE REALITY The day before the dream the dreamer had a conversation with a woman. Just as the dreamer was falling asleep she thought "how can she not know that she is part Asian?" Then the dreamer thought about herself and how she had recently found out that she was part Jewish. She knew her fathers mothers family were Jewish and that somehow they converted.

The dreamer had found this out through a cousin. She dislikes this cousin as he is very racist and she suspects that he was trying to hide his Jewish background.

DREAM INTERPRETATION The dream starts off with the dreamer exploring her fathers home. This can symbolise lots of things but the way he is exploring the home suggests a connection with her father and his roots. This is at least consistent with the dreamer exploring her own family tree. In this case the dreamer had thought about her own roots shortly before going to bed. The things on our minds before we go to bed are extremely important. Dreams are mirrors - they concentrate on the day before and very much focus on new feelings forming. They also will home in on little intuitions that stick in our mind - the dreamer clearly thought about how this woman did not know she was part Asian.

Boats in dreams often symbolise issues which we able to build up some emotional momentum on. The boat in this case sinks though so it shows its an issue that she is unable to build up some momentum on. That is clearly relevant in this case. In real life the dreamer was thinking about her Jewish ancestry but was unable to build up a sense of journey into her past. She was unable to emotionally connect with her distant relatives. She did not have enough information to build up an accurate picture. She simply knew that in the past she had Jewish relatives and that they converted. They must have converted because she now goes to church and not to synagogue. Its as simple as that. But she was unable to understand the process about how this took place. It shows that the dreamer was wanting to relate to her Jewish relatives story. But she knew nothing of their time during the holocaust. She was therefore unable to really explore her past. Perhaps the Braille books are symbols of this past that she is blind to and unable to explore.

The dream features the dreamers sister. In dreams sisters often represent moments when we are exploring new feelings. They capture moments when we are trying to explore new ways of thinking and opening our minds. Exploring a past that she knows little of is very much linked to this.

The dream also features cleaning products. Maybe this suggests that the dreamer was trying to show how she was OK with her Jewish ancestry. She felt that her cousin was anti Semitic and also had thoughts about the holocaust. Perhaps the cleaning products link to the need to explore the pain her relatives may have suffered.

Swimming is often a symbol of real effort in an emotional sense. It shows that you are trying to move to some new emotional situation. In this case it captures the efforts the dreamer was making to explore her ancestry.

Overall the dream captures the dreamers thoughst at the time - "I keep thinking of my jewish past but in many ways I cannot really understand it in any meaningful way. I want to be able to understand the story of how they converted and understand the horrors they faced in the holocaust. Yet all I really now is that they converted. After all they must have converted because we all go to church not synogogue".

Symbolic Meanings
BOAT : "trying to explore and connect with her own past - relate to her ancestors in a meaningful way"
BOAT SINKS : "Unable to explore her ancestry because she has so little real factual knowledge to explore"
EXPLORE GRANDFATHERS HOUSE : "her families ancestry and jewish roots "
SISTER : "exploring some new issue and opening your mind"
SWIMMING : "emotional effort "

DREAM MEANING The dream captures the following feeling within the dreamer - "I recently found out that I have some jewish ancestry. I have been trying to explore this past but its all a bit pointless as I do not really know much behind this. I have tried to get excited but all I know is that I have some jewish ancestors and that sometime in the past they converted. The only reason I know they converted was because we are all christians".