Dream: American Exile & Judgments on Society
October 4, 2023 6:36 PM
Lloyd Acree
This dream has an unusually large number of connected and yet totally separate experiences and images. At first I did not realize that it was from God because usually this kind of meandering in dreams suggests to me that it’s just a subconscious mirror of daily life. But as my reader will see, there’s a compelling consistency of metaphorical continuity throughout each of these images, so that even though they are completely separate they all speak to the same topic.
That topic is America, and the state of our society, and even further: what is to come.
Due to the complexity and longevity of this dream, I will interpret each picture immediately after describing it instead of saving it all for the end.
1. Departure from “My” Suburban House
The first part of this dream I was in the suburbs leaving in a car with a girl driving but I was worried about the condition of the house for some reason (such as leaving doors open). But I don’t know for sure, I was just looking anxiously at the house. It was a rather congested street and it felt incomplete, like it should have been a cul-de-sac but instead it was a dead end. The outgoing side of the road was blocked up by the houses on that side, as by their cars or even outcropping structures, which had all together somehow spilled into the road. We had to make a 3-point turn in a side drive to leave.
Interpretation (1): This part of the dream is quite vague in that I’m not really sure where I’m going, I don’t know why I’m anxious about leaving the house, and I don’t even know who I’m with, nor do I recognize the neighborhood. So the details are in what I do know: I am anxious, I am leaving, and there’s something wrong with the suburb. Further there is an issue with the outgoing road and the planning of the neighborhood which shows that this destination as a home has been pictured as a redundantly dead end. We had to use a small driveway for a turnaround because the street itself was a dead end and further the people or their contractors had clogged up the outgoing lane; not only is the road itself a dead end but it would be hard to leave. This is as if God were saying, “Beware of putting down roots here.” Last, a suburb itself speaks to the overall health of an entire community or country in that the suburb represents the reasonable goal of a safe, secure, reliable, and well-endowed lifestyle. The suburb is accommodated in every way and is safe from both the forces of human chaos and nature. Unlike fancier housing or mansions, the suburb represents the core population. It is therefore the ultimate litmus of a country’s health. With all this taken into consideration my faintly anxious departure certainly does not bode well.
2. Church Transfer to Barack Obama
Next I find myself in a church towards the end of the service because I see the singing team beginning to disperse and there is nothing else of note taking place except that we are now trickling out of the front entrance engaged in light conversations. Before I exit however, I see that Barack Obama has entered the church building wearing a stunning suit of some kind with what appeared to be a vest. I knew right away that he was not just coming as a guest to a preeminent church, but that he was also directly involved in its administration. I am not saying that he was a preacher or pastor or even a speaker but that he had control.
Interpretation (2): This part of the dream shows a transition from what is once again (like the suburbs) a metaphor of the safety and security of society in its highest form, into that of whatever Barack Obama’s version of church would be. And as with the suburbs, here too we have a negative sign in that politicians do not belong in the leadership of a church organization. Further I must emphasize that the church represents the safest place for personal and societal reform as through confessions in the expectation of confidentiality. Such a sacred place of mercy has little accord with government oversight, so we should ask why would Barack Obama want to take over this place.
3. Military Base with Hybrid Political Figure
Next I found myself walking through what appeared to be a foreign military base such as what the US has long maintained in austere environments like Kuwait. By that I mean I was walking between perfectly straight rows of odd structures which appeared to be high tech tents or something like that. At an intersection between these tents where there was regular foot traffic, I crossed paths with a famous politically active individual but I am not certain who he was even from the moment of waking from this dream. But I had the impression that he was of corporate origin rather than an elected official (he was someone like Bill Gates). And this is the only thing I saw during this segment, so this image points to the fact that:
Interpretation (3): There is an integration of all powers across society and government working together as one without checks and balances etc. so that there is no longer any distinction. I would like to invent a word for such a beast so for this dream I will call this Conglommunism, the combination of capitalism, politicians, and the military into what has already been dubbed “The Blob.”
4. The Obese Rat
Immediately next I found myself near what appeared to be a suburban public park, as to my left there were structures resembling stores or a school facing a large span of grass in which there was a somewhat sizable square building. This was like a barn but inside there was a stone or cinder block internal wall much like a public bathroom. I only saw that the building was mostly empty and I did not even see plumbing or signs or doors. The building was in a state of dilapidation and neglect and could barely be used at all. Maybe at least for walking through, but it was trashed. I could see that people had been negligent and were tossing all kinds of garbage in there; it had been used by whoever for whatever. I could also see that there was life inside the building, inside the wall, underneath the floor, down inside the underground or the tunnels or whatever else was down there: and this would be the rat that soon emerged.
I took a garden hose, clicked its nozzle to the high pressure jet setting, and began spraying down the building. As I was doing this the water hit the wall and its lower cracks and flooring from which emerged the irritated and very obese rat, about the size of an alligator, its head maybe 3 feet off the ground. It was so fat I kept thinking of Jabba the Hutt. The rat hobbled straight for me, so I sprayed it in the nose with the water and backed up the grassy hill onto the sidewalk behind me, which was only about 6 ft of elevation. The rat was so fat though that the incline gave it serious problems as soon as it reached the hill. And because I was spraying it in the nose it quickly gave up. I then took some kind of tool like a shovel and dispatched the rat. Somehow I also hung it upside down like a shark on a dock, and everyone walking past would see this.
Lastly, I re-entered the public park building and inside there were two different conversations happening in which both parties were independently discussing the fact that they were reading the book of Jeremiah.
Interpretation (4): The building is key to understanding the rat because it has a suburban public park style and so it speaks to what American society has done to their own welfare. Precisely, America has neglected this otherwise quaint and enjoyable public luxury to the point of it being nearly like a sewer, and they have littered and left it like a pile of garbage. Further, their trash became free food and has also fed this rat until it became a monster. I am using a hose with water to wash the building which shows the stewardship that has been absent. I believe it also points to the cleansing power of God who uses the purest waters of baptism. Regardless, as I attempted to do a public service the rat was irritated by this, and attempted to attack me.
Now, the rat is a specific animal, and was used as a singular monster for a precise metaphor:
• A rat has intelligence but only for glutting itself.
• A rat does not have venom or crafty traps, but is nonetheless a ferocious attacker of other animals and can even be lethal if allowed to chew on human beings.
This rat was fattened off of everyone’s negligence and free food trash. This shows it has a direct connection to America’s tendency to feed all kinds of gluttonous, lazy, and generally worthless people, those who are consumed night and day with selfish, self-centered, hedonistic engorgement of their own desires. And the rat lives in the suburban public park, which shows that it is right in everyone’s face even though it lurks in darkness. A prime example of this would be that the US could be the only country in the history of the world that enabled its absolute lowest members of society (who have no excuses for any of their uselessness) not only towards free obesity but even more to become immovably trapped in their homes, literally from just eating and eating and eating.
5. Detained by Iraqis
In the final episode of this dream, I found myself detained in Iraq by an Iraqi militia or military. I did not know if they were an extremist radical group or perhaps locals simply doing what was a public service in their minds. I also realized that I had not come here: that someone else had been in control of my body, and that that person believed God had told him to come to Iraq while in my body; only after this phenomenon was I quickly restored to my body as from being separated in the spirit (this fellow was kind of weird and very adamantly believe that he could hear from God and he was a Christian).
Now as I sat there, I looked around to see if I should try to make a run for it. But being surrounded by Iraqis playing soccer I saw that it was a stupid idea. Some of the militia stood very close by and eventually one of them began to speak to me. Now I don’t know what he said but I carefully studied his appearance because he appeared to be a European knight, but whose body was made of stone; his armor and even the sword on his chest were all one piece of what looked like tan sandstone, yet he was able to walk around. He also seemed to have some kind of authority (if not over the militants then an equal status with them). Finally I recall hearing a conversation amongst a small remnant of the coalition, which were still conducting some kind of side ops in the area pertaining to flying aircraft into the mountains and back, and they were saying that they needed to make a cut in the mountains for their planes apparently for an airstrip high up in the rocks.
Interpretation (5): As with all the other dream segments in this rapid montage, this final piece once again addresses America with respect to her condition in the grand scheme or as to her destiny. Here we have transitioned to the international community symbolized by the joint presence of both Iraqis and a European knight in Iraq together handling an American detainee. Now the knight is made of stone and stone symbolizes the sturdiest form of architecture, a structure that will not be moved; so that in contrast my American status has become inferior and shifting, as in unreliable: my security is gone but apparently Europe’s will be pivotal, strategic, and perhaps the ultimate authority in the near future at least concerning all three parties represented. His knighthood represents a leaning back into the old codes of honor and government which are rather foreign to America. The only feature of the knight which stood out besides his armor was even more prominently his sword. This positive dual symbolism shows that he is a serious force to be recognized; further, all here will cooperate with him. I simply do not know why coalition forces worried about their airplane traffic factor into this dream, but I suppose this must show that whatever business the West has in the Middle East will continue: but without America.
Finally, there is the matter of my bizarre out-of-body “quantum leap” into Iraq. Yet this is easy to explain in view of the fact that the man who took over my body and moved me there was a prophet. The prophet symbolizes God’s will and he took over my body as if I were asleep or also in another body, and he moved me against my will to a place I do not wish to go: moreover to a country which the USA invaded. This transition directly parallels the punitive exile of God’s people found in the biblical prophets by which they were removed from their homeland and sent to suffer servitude at the hands of their enemies and foreigners.
Not only was there nothing I could do either in planning or in strength to prevent myself from being moved to Iraq by the power of prophecy (as by the hand of God), but I was also powerless to escape their hands once I was there, and my destiny was subjected entirely to international authorities.
Hence, this directly parallels the Rat event in which the bystanders were reading Jeremiah: a harbinger of Israel’s punitive exile, and of lamentations, and the weeping prophet, all of which America now begins to experience as repeating history according to God’s wrath.
More could be said about Barack Obama’s interest in church administration, or the fate of America’s Conglommunist powers, and Iraq as well, but only through further prayer and revelation.
Lloyd Acree
Oct 4, 2023
Photos courtesy Depositphotos
