Lizard Man Prison Break

The dream this morning was a simple and short one. I was in a desert country in North Africa. What country it is I am uncertain. It is probably Algeria. It is hot under a blazing noonday sun. Apparently, I have escaped from a prison and I am shackled with another prisoner. This other prisoner is no ordinary being. He is a lizard man!

Lizard man is one of the last of a vanishing race, that have inhabited the Sahara, since dinosaurs ruled the earth. This man is my friend. He was found alone in the wilderness when he was a child. He was adopted and raised by a kindhearted Tuareg woman. This woman is my mother-in-law. Lizard man is like a brother to me. He was arrested and put in prison for stealing food.

It is no accident that we are together in this prison. It seems I intentionally schemed to get us together in order to rescue and free him. The scene of this dream takes place in a railroad switching yard. Somehow, we have escaped from a work detail and we are on the run from the guards. I see us hopping aboard a rail way car. I can feel the heat and hear the "Clack! Clack!" on the railroad track as we roll through the desert.

Eventually, we manage to free ourselves somehow from the chains. Lizard man sheds off his prison uniform and in disgust throws it to the ground. The section of rail cars we are on was decoupled and left on an isolated section of track. We quickly say our goodbyes. I tell him, "You are is free my brother!"  Lizard man leaps wildly from the rail car and heads into the desert. His wish is to find others of his dying race. He hopes they will accept him and he can spend the rest of his days with his own people. It is at this point of the dream that I wake up.

Interesting how prison dreams play so much a part of my dreaming life. My present life feels like I am a prisoner. I live in a house for homeless veterans. So much of my day to day schedule revolves around completing tasks that are required of me. My personal freedoms are compromised. I'm sure this situation gets reflected in my dreams.

Lizard man is a very curious symbol in this dream. Reptiles, in general, are regarded as emotionally detached and are cold calculating predators. They are motivated by base instincts and primal drives. They simply kill, devour and reproduce, and they are not known for having much in the way of personality or having highly evolve intelligence. Our friend the Lizard man must be a new higher order of reptile capable of displaying emotion and operating intelligently.

I think of Lizard man as something like an alter-ego. There are two egos within this dream. One ego is my human self, who is willing to sacrifice to save a friend, and the other is an animal like ego that is living in the moment with not much regard to what my present predicament is or how I feel about it. My immediate concern is killing something to eat and looking for my next meal or a mate.  Funny how they end up working together to get what they both want! I am sure there is an instructive life lesson in this little revelation. So, as usual, I have something to ponder about for awhile. The moral of the dream might be that if my Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde could work together they might both get what they want. Hmmm!