In 2003, a dream of being in a dimly lit old castle, seeing a little blond haired, blue eyed 5 yr old girl (unclothed) walk in front of me from left to right. As she passed in front of me, her eyes seemed full of terror, and pleading for help. I wanted to help her, but seemed to be stuck in place. I thought to myself, "That's Kelly! What's she doing here?!" When I looked down at myself, I was clothed, but my clothes were half falling off of me and I was trying to pull them back onto my shoulders, etc.
When I woke up, I prayed for this little girl. I felt so connected to this child, like she was someone I needed to help. I kept praying. A week passed and it was still weighing on me so I called a friend to as her to pray. She informed me.... "You've had this dream before." I flat denied it bc I should remember having a dream so vivid and disturbing. But she insisted that the heat before, I had told her about this dream. (I don't remember it to this day, but I believe her.) I kept praying, and after a few months, I was looking through a box of childhood photos sent by my mother. And in the box if photos, I found "Kelly." It was a photo of myself at age 5. I was the child in my dream. This was God beginning the process of reconnecting, mending my brokenness, rejoining the shattered parts of my humanity.
Now ...Kelly was me (part of me that was shattered off by trauma). A lot of that trauma actually took place inside castles that I was taken to. So ...that part of me was "stuck" in that trauma memory inside an internal castle that was fashioned after a real castle.
The sense of feeling exposed, my clothes half falling off ....the sense of vulnerability at facing the traumas of my past. But God was in it all the way. We have to be willing to be uncomfortable, vulnerable, for God to do deep work within us.
So ....just explaining how dreams can have many purposes and meanings are not always what you think.