Being Late

Dreams of being late are a distinctly modern preoccupation — they flourish in cultures organized by clocks. Jungian analysis reads them as time-anxiety in a deeper register: not merely the fear of missing an appointment but the fear of missing one’s own life. What you are late for matters. Late for a flight usually concerns a transition you feel unready for; late for an exam, a readiness being tested; late for a wedding, a commitment ambivalently approached. Many such dreams involve lost shoes, wrong directions, or a body that will not move quickly — all images of the psyche’s resistance. Notice whether you arrive at all, and whether anyone is waiting.