Honey, I caught a fish!

                                   

Yesterday night a strange thing happened. Although I’m not usually the type to jot down all the unusual and strange things that happen to us, but I thought this one deserved a mention. It also meant I would be doing what I keep promising myself – Write! And write more frequently! So what better excuse than to revisit a dream that I had on two consecutive days, and yesterday, it was husband’s turn – same dream, with different ambiance. Although I am not great at looking for signs and signifiers or interpreting dreams (even if for the sake of a good story), I sure am an obsessive-compulsive analyzer. So I just couldn’t have let this pass. Might have been disappointed even, had it not whetted the Mrs. Freud in me, and had the images been dismissed as just incoherent dreams that play on like a bad flick. But these ones lasted for just few minutes and were pretty coherent for me to have remembered it rather vividly (I’m not known for remembering dreams). So here I go.

For a husband who sleeps like a log for most parts of the night, it was strange for him to have woken up in the middle of the night (2:30 or so) yesterday. There was no question of me not knowing since for the last few days, my sleep cycle has gone for a toss, for yet another time! So while I fiddled back and forth with my phone and the ipad, I caught him mumbling something at first and then in his usual boardroom meeting voice in the dead hour of the night, he declared, he had a dream! I turned to the other side since I did not want to encourage a minimum of 10 minutes long story around some dream he had had that wouldn’t make sense anyway (famous for telling long, winding stories, kid you not!); but this time he just said, “I caught a fish,” “a tiny one” but a fish! And there, with those innocent words, he curled back to sleep, leaving behind a riddle for me to solve for as long as I could remain awake. It got me curious for precisely two reasons; firstly, this must have been his shortest and the most coherent dream, and more importantly, for two consecutive nights, I have been “catching fish” myself!! Not eventually frying and eating them, as I would have liked, but catching! Not bad, eh? Come to think of it, I must have played with a fish rope and a stringer for just once or twice in my insignificant life, if my wobbly mind is not failing me. But in my first dream, I was catching fish with a big ass fish net! Don’t ask me how I got the assembling and the technique part of it right, but the point is I was a true blue fisherwoman in my dream for all I care! And the following night, somewhat gory, unpleasant images of fish, and an assembly of them, lying on a beach of some sea. To avoid any discomforting thoughts I quickly concluded I have seen such images on social media, and it has always left a disturbing image in my mind, so must be the residue of some such picture. And after those two dreams, the husband’s. So without much adieu, Dr. Google, in the absence of Dr Freud, was summoned in the middle of the night for a session on psychoanalysis! Hope Dr G. forgives me for such unwarranted demands. But I had no choice!

It is not unknown that animals like the fish, the snail, the cat, the mouse, are interpreted as genital symbols in mythology and folklore and they imply similar meanings in dream interpretations. But since we were “catching” ‘fish’ (God Forbid! ;) I sought to dig deeper for meaning, and I came across many interesting takes on it. Below are the copy-pasted comments of experts and people who have interpreted it depending on their cultural backgrounds and qualifications. One even went to the length of interpreting it based on what type of fish you caught; now that was something! I had a hearty laugh and quickly skipped that page. In my first dream, I at first caught a baby penguin for the love of God! My friend, behind whose house in California we were catching fish in a stream, asked me to let go off the penguin. Wonder what I was going to do with it! Horrible! Anyhow, here are the interpretations:

Fish is a very powerful and positive image in many world traditions: - To the Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Assyrians, it was honored as a symbol of fertility. - In Native American tradition, the fish is a symbol for mystical secrets, for it can swim to the deepest regions of the ocean and explore its hidden knowledge. - In British lore, it was believed that eating fish before lovemaking could enable a couple to conceive a child. - To dream of catching a fish represents important insights about yourself and your life, which have been brought to the surface. - When you dream and discover you were catching fishes in a river or stream, it depicts prosperity in your business or in any area of your profession. As an evangelist, it signifies soul winning. As a businessperson it indicates breakthrough. - To dream of a fish-net, portends numerous small pleasures and gains. A torn one represents vexatious disappointments (I hope mine was brand new! ;) - Chinese interpretation: You catch fishes with fish net, you’ll soon win your own prize. There are, therefore, many possibilities if you dream of a fish – all good, even if the fish was a greatly feared one like the shark. If there is a possibility of a pregnancy, dreaming of a fish could mean that a child is on the way, and the pregnancy and birth will be uneventful and result in a healthy baby (AMEN!) :)