dreams in which she is being attacked by snakes (indicating that the
power they represent is dangerous to the dreamer). In one such
dream, a poisonous snake darted at the dreamer’s heart; in another,
a snake sank its fangs into the dreamer’s leg and wouldn’t let go. In
real life, both women were trying to get over a betrayal (“snake in
the grass” behavior) and faced the danger of becoming overcome
by venomous feelings (like the dream of the savage dogs, this dream
had two levels of meaning; it was a metaphor about what was hap-
pening to her and in her).
When the danger to the dreamer comes in human form, as attack-
ing or ominous men or women, the danger often is from hostile cri-
ticism or a destructive role (while animals often seem to represent
feelings or instincts). For example, a woman had returned to college
once her children were in elementary school; she dreamed that “a
large prison matron” woman barred her way. The figure she had to
get by seemed to personify her mother’s negative judgments about
her, as well as the mother role she identified with; the dream com-
mented that this identification was imprisoning.
Hostile judgments from inner figures are often destructive; for
example, “You can’t do that because you are (bad, homely, incom-
petent, dumb, untalented).” Whatever the particular litany, they
say, “You have no right to aspire for more,” and are messages that
can defeat a woman and stifle her confidence or good intentions.
Such attacking critics are often pictured in dreams as threatening
men. The inner criticism usually parallels the opposition or hostility
that the woman encountered in her environment; the critics are
parroting the messages of her family or her culture.
Looked at psychologically, every enemy or demon faced by a
heroine in dream or myth represents something destructive, primit-
ive, undeveloped, distorted, or evil in the human psyche that seeks
to overpower and defeat her. The women who dreamed of savage
dogs and dangerous snakes saw that as they were struggling with
hurtful or hostile acts done to them by others, that they were also
equally threatened by what was happening inside of them. The enemy
or demon may be a negative part of her own psyche, a shadow ele-
ment that threatens to defeat what is compassionate and competent
in
The Heroine in Everywoman