The dream is preceded by a number of circles.  First is a red circle in a metallic ring.  Then an orange.  Then a yellow.

I am at a lake, there is my partners fathers house by the lake.  There is a dock with a number of boats there.  I have been playing ice hockey in the local town.

I am allowed to use any of the boats, which is exciting because I can explore the lake, and find the place on the other side of the lake where I can propose to my partner.  There is a bright orange police boat with a closed cockpit that is built for speed that I have my eye on.

I look across the road to the real world and know that if I stole the boat from there, there could be large consequences, say if I tried to fly in it, I could die.  But I knew in the lake I was able to do pretty much anything.

I explore along the harbour.  There is a pipeline running along the outside of the harbour, blocking the boats from leaving.  As I follow the pipeline along the harbour I come to the edge of the harbour, where the pipeline runs up and over a tree.  Here there is a narrow gap where I could get the orange boat out.

Before we head out and explore the lake we must decide upon what my partner will wear.  There are a number of bathing suits laid out in the harbour.  There are several 'instances' of my partner picking out bikinis.  An older mother instance with stretch marks is choosing a bathing suit that is much too large for her and she has to hold the bottoms up.

A child instance is wearing a polka dot bikini, but is sitting on a tree in the water looking dejected and sad.  I go and ask her if she is upset because she is wearing a bikini and does not want to.  I tell her she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to.  She shakes her head, this is not why she is upset, but I do not know why she is.

The 3 circles preceding the dream to me indicate the first 3 chakras: root - red, orange - sacral and solar plexus - yellow. The pipeline in your dream would be your spine along which you travel to reach these chakras.

The dream itself in that sense seems to combine both the sacral and solar. There's the lake, a body of water.. water often means the emotional world, and so does the sacral chakra. The boat that attracts your eye and that you "desire" is the orange boat... another reference to the sacral chakra, both in colour and the emotion "desire".

However, the desire cannot be totally isolated from the solar plexus... to desire is to want something, to will something, and that involves the solar plexus. And the manner of confidence you display and sense in the dream - anything goes - is another aspect of a healthy solar being involved.

Ok, so why are the sacral and solar involved? A lake stands for your emotional state, and from the way you describe it, it seems that you feel it's a pleasant time, a little bit adventurous and daring, enjoying life. A boat is a tool to ride your emotions, and could be seen thus as a means to express your emotions. More particularly, you want to express your desires, and you want to do it quickly (speed boat). That it's a police boat indicates your desire is about honourable obligations, commitment... something that brings order and structure in society.

A marriage proposal is all that of course: a desire for your partner, it involves nerves and feelings of daring; it's a commitment, honourable and marriage is a social important given that brings regulated structure in society... not just in an emotional sense, but also a legal sense.

Although you're filled with a need to shout it from the roofs and look forward to the exhilerating feeling of speed of making a proposal, involving excitement, you're not reckless either. You don't just want to jump for it... You look back from your desire drives to "reality" (that would be the root). If you're gonna do it, you should do it the proper way. From the root starts the pipeline, following a harbour first. A harbour is like a refuge, a shelter to collect your thoughts and plans. Perhaps it's not just "blocking" the boats from leaving, but rather the proper starting place for boats to leave? It's imo indicative that you see the pipeline and the harbour more as a blockage rather than the logical start. Do you fear that if you stop for a minute to think it over that you won't have the courage to propose? Do you fear that if you're not quick about it your courage will fail you? That you will start to have doubts?

The pipeline passes over a tree. A tree, certainly when chakras are involved, can be seen as a symbol of your whole system... it has roots, going up to a crown of leaves and branches pouring over. (which is why the spine, aka pipeline, runs up and over the tree, and not around it ;) ) In most mythologies trees symbolize life, the hope for life, and knowledge. Its something that stands the test of time, is strong and stable. Of course, the pipeline and the tree of life reveal the channel from which your boat of desire can pass through and be expressed.

Then the dream focuses on your partner... picking out bikinis. Admittedly at first it seems odd, how all of a sudden your plans hinge on which bikini your partner is going to wear. A bikini is a clothing that can be barely called clothing as it's so revealing. Are you waiting for the right moment, depending on how much she exposes herself to you first? A bikini is also something flimsy, and in that sense a superficial thing. The picking of the bikini occurs in the harbor, and you see several instances of your partner doing the picking. It seems like you're doing one final check whether you truly wish to propose to her... imagining her when she's older, and her body would have gained weight and starts to give into gravity after she gave birth (the stretch marks). As if you're checking with yourself if you would still love her if she lost her outside beauty. You also see her as a child... as someone innocent and in need of care and protection. You're trying to make her feel better, but you don't succeed, nor does she tell you why she's sad. It's almost as if you're wondering, "am I the right person for her, if I can't solve her problems at the times when she's feeling helpless and powerless, and not telling me exactly what's wrong?"

In short, this dream is about your desires and plans to propose marriage to your partner, and all the natural reactions it involves: the excitement, but also a last check whether you truly want to do this... is she right for you (the older woman who lost her youth and outside beauty), and are you the right man for her (the helpless sad child you can't cheer up instantly)? And yet you realize these are almost superficial worries (bikini as superficial).

The image of the older woman version of your partner seems to show sympathy from your side: so she's not her youthful self anymore... but in your dream you seem to project that she seems to feel it even more acutely than you do... she's picking a bathing suit that's bigger than the one she needs. That you note that it's too big thus imo indcates you feel it's an exaggeration, that you still think her beautiful and not grotesque. Kinda like when women ask their partner whether the dress doesn't make their ass appear too big, and the partner is puzzled because her bottom looks ok to him. You seem to watch the instance of your older partner in the same puzzlement: what's to worry about, you look fine.

Likewise with the girl, you reach out to her, because you seem to care and be there for her. Trying to make her feel better by offering a superficial solution, is just a way of showing that you care, more than being disappointed if the offered solution does not work. It's a symbolic offer of caring, because you hardly even seem to expect it to be the solution.

Wow SweetSunRay.

Again you blow my mind with insights.  You are bang on the money.  That is exactly what is going on in my life.

I am considering proposing.  I was going to do it earlier this year but my partner is pregnant and she must have suspected something because she told me not to, to wait until she could knock back a couple and celebrate it.  I feel an outward pressure from others in the social circle who wonder why  it has taken so long to propose (when we have already had kids).  But for me I am looking at the right time to do it, and how I will go about it.  Like you say, it is something in my mind I only do once in my life, so I don't want to rush into it, I want to do it right and make it something 'memorable' in a positive way.

This is a big part why I have not caved to that external pressure.  Previously we were in tight financial circumstances, and I didn't feel capable of providing the sort of celebration that my partner deserved.  She has been proposed to in the past, and she told me how that proposal came.  Let me just say it must have made her feel so unvalued.  It was terrible.  A very nice and expensive ring, but tossed at her, not as a question, but a statement "We are getting married."  She deserves better and I am committed to providing that.  Also the outward pressure is "You should marry her because you knocked her up."  To me a negative.  Not a celebration of us finding love, but a 'sacrifice' for what is in their eyes, an accident.  The truth behind that is far different, and a big part of the story of my life, a private story that I love.  This is the continuation of that.  Thus why I want to make it a positive celebration, why I want to 'do it the right way'.

The fear I have is whether I can deliver such a meaningful moment.  My partner is an expert at making me feel special.  She is great at it.  I feel not quite so skilled at this, and I worry about whether or not my proposal will deliver the special, romantic, loving atmosphere that I desire.  That is where my fear lies.  I am also feeling the urgency to do it though.  I feel that it is getting to the 'right time' to do it. That now or never moment.  We will be together forever, and I can see three sorts of periods in my eyes.  There is the time when the marriage would be that sacrifice because of my son, which I feel is passing to the next period (which may be short) where we marry for each other, which is how I feel, but I suppose for some reason I am also considering these things through other peoples eyes and an external atmosphere.  Then after I percieve a point where it becomes "I should have done this long ago and now it sort  of feels weird".  So that is where my timing is important to me.  I want that middle zone.  I wonder if that is all just in my head...

The part about picking out bikinis could very well be observations of my partner.  The first, the older woman, I think is more regarding her opinions of herself now.  She has body image issues, which have been present since she was a teenager.  I have tried to help her which has a lot to do with the younger girl as well.  As expressed in the dream my view of her is very different to hers of herself.  I feel she does exaggerate these image issues.  She has watched a show called "How to look good naked" which shows her issues so clearly.  Women tend to put extra weight on automatically in their mind.  She does this.  But even when this is displayed right before her on a regular basis she does not see it.

I also asked her how she felt about her body when she was a teen.  She thought she was fat and ugly.  How does she feel about her body back then, now.  She would kill for it.  How does she feel about her body now?  She is fat and ugly.  How will she feel about her body now, when she is a wrinkly granny.  She would kill for it.  She acknowledged this phenomenon, but it did not help.

I try to make her feel beautiful, but to be honest, I don't think I can convince her she is beautiful (something I think is semi-universal for women in that they look to men to make them feel beautiful but they percieve these compliments as just 'being nice'.)  Hence I have come to the conclusion that only she can confront this issue and find her own feminine beauty, all I can do is lend that superficial support that will not present the solution.  I think that knight in shining armour that would sweep this problem away is something within herself.  I don't know that it will be me.

The idea of her as being part child (I also feel the same about myself, in many ways I am still 'young') is also true in some respects.  I think we both deal with some issues in an immature way, usually in high stress situations.  And the behaivour is on both sides.  I think it is a result of issues developed in childhood.  I am defensive, and passive aggressive.  I try to avoid conflict at all costs.  When in high stress situations she can become aggressive.  That doesn't meld well with my defensive nature and hence conflict arises.  I thought this was our relationship being in difficulty, but to be honest I feel it is more associated with our youth.  We have both grown a lot since we met each other, and we are both aware of this.  I am highly confident that we will overcome this issue in time, as we grow together, but in the mean time it does sometimes make me feel a little sad.

Do you think that the pipeline running into the tree could be an expression off my perception (or hope) that this 'pipeline of thought' revolving around the marriage proposal will lead to a firm, strong, stable life of knowledge?

Thanks again,
Rook

I would even go farther... I think the pipeline is equal to a healthy treetrunk... you already have the knowledge, you know how to use and aplly it, and it is already strong and stable.

Best wishes for your marriage plans

8D

Thanks!