I'm in a drugstore and a lady friend is taking inventory of some cosmetics.  She cuts the heel of her palm.  The cut is in the form of tiny perfectly shaped crescent moon.  It does not bleed.  I am very solicitous of her injury and pick a small hair out of the cut.  When I try to remove another she stops me.  The wound becomes a wart out of which four long black hairs are growing.  They are strong and vital.  I take my friend to the cashier, who happens to be my girlfriend, to get a Band Aid but realize that she will be jealous if she thinks I know the injured woman so I just say, "This lady injured herself in the store."  

The last scene reveals shadow content, a tendency toward hypocricy; I want to help but not if it involves ego embarrassment.  But on a deeper level this interesting and elegant dream speaks about emotional wounding and the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious minds. 

 

The woman who receives the self-inflicted cut is my anima, my Unconscious self.  The ‘cut’ will be some kind of a self insulting action that causes emotional turmoil, guilt, for example.  The Unconscious is not unconscious.  It is very aware.  It is called the Unconscious, however, because we cannot see into it directly from the conscious level.   It can, however, access it inferentially level through the interpretation of speech, repetitive behavior and dreams.

 

A cut is a wound.  What kind of wound?  The dream presents the cut in the shape of a crescent moon.  The moon is a classic symbol of feelings.  So some part of me has been wounded emotionally.  At the same tie some other part  wants to heal the wound. The wound, however is not serious.  This is indicated by the fact that it does not bleed.  In fact I think the dream is saying that our wounds are spiritually valuable, an opportunity for growth.

Next the wound turns into a wart.  A wart is a self generating growth. My conscious mind, symbolized by the dream ego, views the tiny hair in the wound as an impurity and removes it.  But it grows back.  When I don’t understand the reason it regenerates the second time, the Anima lets it be known that she does not want this hair removed.  Why?  Because the small hair is the beginning of new emotional life.  It soon grows into four strong, vital black hairs.  According to Jung four represents the process of self-actualization so this symbol reinforces the idea that emotional wounds can lead to psychic integration and emotional regeneration.