Volcanic Themes in Dreams

Mt St Helens in the American state of Washington erupted with cataclysmic force on Sunday morning, 18 May, 1980. The explosion created unimaginable havoc, taking lives, sending ash down upon the land and introducing a new uncertainty into the lives of the people surrounding the volcano. Until a few months before the eruption, the mountain loomed as a pristine white cone in the background of Portland, Oregon, where the authors of this paper arc engaged in analytically oriented clinical practice. Attentive to the manifestations of the unconscious, they took note of volcano images and themes in the dreams of their clients following the eruption of 18 May. Until this event, none of the authors recalled hearing volcano dreams from their patients.

Early in 1980, Mt St Helens began to awaken after a century of dormancy. There were mild earthquakes, then sporadic emissions of steam and smoke. Nobody really knew what to expect. Historical records indicated some eruptive activity during the mid-nineteenth century when white settlers first came to the region. Natives regarded the mountain and its environs as a place of evil spirits and tended to avoid the area. Significantly, the large lake at the foot of the mountain has retained the name, ‘Spirit Lake’ to this day.

For the usually cloudy Pacific North-west, the morning of 18 May was remarkably clear. At approximately 8.30 a.m. the growing bulge near the top of Mt St Helens finally gave way and released enormous pressures from deep in the earth. The mountain quite literally blew its top. Heavy pyroclastic materials formed an avalanche that destroyed everything around the base of the mountain and within the river systems draining the area. Unlike lava, which moves rather slowly, this mixture of mud and pulverised rock was ejected from the volcano at more than 100 miles per hour. Much of the material plummeted directly into Spirit Lake, where it displaced the water and created a devastating flood of silty muck, which