Had a weird dream
I was at my parent's house, in the yard. My dad was there, and so were several other people I did not know. All over the yard were glass tubes, 2 or 3 inches in diameter, standing 5 or 6 feet tall. Each had kind of a bulb at the top. It sounds phallic the way I describe it now, but in the dream it wasn't. They were all about half filled with lamp oil -- they were oil lamps, all lit about halfway down. Then something strange happened (as if that wasn't weird enough). They all separated about a third of the way from the bottom, the upper and lower parts smoothly sealing themselves without leaking any oil. The separated parts were now floating in the same positions they were in before. They all separated at the same point, as if a geometric plane cut through them all. This happened simultaneously, as if by an automated, robotic process. The trees all similarly separated and remained floating where they were as well. People were then carrying the floating lamps around, in a ritualistic looking way.
I was alarmed that something very strange and a little menacing had just happened. What was more alarming and menacing was that no one else seemed to think anything odd had happened at all. I was trying to get anyone's attention that something strange had just happened. I had the idea that they were all deliberately ignoring me, but was not sure if it was that or if they could not hear me. Finally I screamed "Can't anyone hear me?!?" Screaming at the top of my lungs, my voice came out muffled. At that point it became clear that they had all been ignoring me to some nefarious purpose, and my dad suddenly took notice of me and hit me over the back of my neck with the oil lamp he had been carrying, rendering me unconscious.
Now, my dreams usually do not seem to have much symbolic significance, but this one seems pregnant with things my subconscious is trying to tell me...
Ok I think I figured it out. A quick googelin' of dream dictionaries says that being unable to speak means I lack the skill to say something, and that being attacked means I haven't addressed a conflicting situation. With my dad. Well that's for damn sure.
I have no doubt about what this means now. The weirdness with the floating oil lamps was just the usual kind of stuff my dreams are made of. It was menacing because they were making themselves into weapons, but I did not realize that at all at the time.
