Dream analysis: I'm at the airport and about to fly to New York but I can't find my passport

Psychoanalyst Michael Murphy explores the meaning of your dreams 

Picture; iStock 

I'm due to take a flight to New York, one of my favourite cities. Once I get to the airport everything goes wrong: I can't find my boarding pass or passport and I keep getting lost. I ask for help from the staff but they don't seem to care. I start to panic as I realise I'm about to miss my flight.

This is a warning dream. The drama shows that this woman is unprepared: she can’t find her boarding pass or passport, and she keeps getting lost. She appeals to others for help, but the responsibility is clearly hers. She’s not managing properly. Panic begins to set in when she realises the flight will go without her.

Negotiating an airport is demanding, with every step of the way needing to be completed properly: arrive on time, have correct identification, submit luggage for a thorough examination, find the designated waiting area for boarding, and so on. No latitude is given for getting these requirements wrong. 

So what’s the reason this woman is having such an airport nightmare about a journey to one of her favourite cities? Could there be a job interview in the offing, or does she have to make a presentation, and she hasn’t put in the necessary preparation? Is she being too casual or careless in managing her responsibilities at home, or in dealing with her emotional life? The dream says she needs to up her skills and prepare diligently for whatever test is coming.

The dream isn’t a prediction, just a video of what’s going on in her unconscious at the moment, and she has time to put in the required effort. Otherwise, she’ll fail, and failure makes people panic.

I'm at a point in my life where I'm very content, so I was surprised to have this dream: A young baby is lying down on a large double bed and is about to give birth to another baby. I’m with two older sisters. At one point my father comes into the room and suggests the baby's nappy needs to be changed. None of this strikes me as strange. 

You’re with two older sisters, so you’re the baby here. To give birth is the most creative function a woman can fulfil, not strange or unfamiliar to the women gathered around the double bed. The dream indicates you’re about to bring something wonderful and life-giving into the world, even on a metaphorical level. So now is a fruitful time to let the artist within have free rein to display your talents in design, cookery, music, painting, writing, gardening, dance and relationships.  The father figure grounds this creative feminine with his practicality by suggesting the baby’s nappy needs to be changed. 

This dream is immensely positive, with a doubling up of the baby to emphasise its creative importance, so continue to be “very content”, which comes from Latin 'contentus' meaning self-contained, even restrained, and holding it together as creative women have always done.

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