I've had this dream many times, and I posted it on a dream message board perhaps 10 years ago but never got any kind of response.

Here it is:

I am at my grandfather's house. There is a staircase leading down from the garage into a basement.This is accurate of that actual building, it's more of a sub-basement, housing a furnace, freezer, extra kitchen, etc...

The door to this basement is open, and next to the door on the inside is a large grandfather clock laying down on it's back. The door of the clock is open. It resembles a piano, but it is a grandfather clock.

Through the side-door of the garage is the large back-yard. You can enter the side of the garage and proceed directly down the stairs into the basement. The atmosphere outside has the surreal feeling like just before a summer storm. Everything seems greenish, not fully bright, a slight updraft, warm.

There is an urgent voice in the air, the voice is from the clock but it seems to come from the sky. I don't know what the voice says, but it is urgent. We must find the keys, and bring them to the clock. There are supposedly many keys, not car or house keys, piano keys. They are white rectangular sticks. We need to find them and bring them to the clock, placing them inside the open clock door.

I am not sure why I know this, because in the dream we don't find any keys. When I say we, I am part of a group of frantic children (I am a child as well), we say nothing to one another, but we all are frantic searching for keys in the yard. We are all very afraid because time is running out, and we absolutely must find the keys before the time runs out.

We are also aware that a very large snake is chasing us. But this isn't the source of our concern. We are afraid of the clock and of the unknown consequence of the time running out. We don't know when time will run out, only that it is very soon.

The dream ends when one of the children tells the others that a very young child (whom I won't name, but is nearly a baby, and not in any other part of this dream) has caught the snake and threw it into the ditch. I know that last part makes no sense whatsoever. I have no idea how a baby threw a huge snake into a ditch, or how doing this defeats the snake. But the dream ends.

If you really want to know what is being represent , you need to find what each element of the dream symbolizes to you. Here's my interpretation: The grandfather clock represent's the passage of time and the piano keys are things that bring happiness to life(like music),the young children frantically search for happiness because in the dream they know time is running out. the snake means death and the very young kid obviously would thwart it. I feel I could go on since it's a dream which I feel is definitely conveying something but I'm typing with a PS3 to conclude I'll say again that you personally should interpret because symbols will mean different things to people.

If my interpretation is important, I'd say the keys don't represent music and happiness.

It feels like the key's only purpose is that they belong to the clock, if they don't return to the clock something terrible happens. I never really associated piano keys with music itself, or fun. To me they'd represent a struggle, or the work involved in making something.

As for the clock, I have no idea. I don't know why it's on it's side, why it has a voice, or why it's just inside the basement door. In fact, the only thing that's ever been by that door has been some coat hooks and a shoe mat.

I don't know the other children running around, but it feels like a storm is about to hit, and it feels like someone is very angry, looming in the sky.

As piano keys make music and in this dream music or piano keys isnt giving you a good feeling, I think of the saying "face the music" .. so maybe there is something in your life you need to face up to. Face up to something before time runs out?

Not being able to find the key is not being able to find the answer to something...

the back yard and the basement both are symbols of the subconsciousness. Hence it isnt surprising to me you are having trouble figuring this dream out. The answer to this dream is deep in your subconsciousness and probably not on surface for an easy answer/understanding.

Snakes.. I dont see these as death but rather as often a symbol for danger or trouble. eg you really need to figure out something fast or are going to have problems. The good thing is that baby in your dream. It seems you have had some new growth (represented by the baby) and with this very capable new growth, you will be able to face up to your problem and overcome it.

Is this dream now gone? (I'd kind of expect it to probably go seeing the baby threw the snake away)

Personal associations for particular dream symbols may vary greatly, but here are some of my suggestions.

Dreaming about going down stairs into a basement or cave, may refer to exploring distant, perhaps mostly forgotten, personal memories, or even deeper - archetypal images and themes in the collective unconscious (discussed by psychiatrist Carl Jung).

The children seem to be searching for important keys (facts, context, understanding ?) which may deal with the dreamer's interaction with a grandfather or other male authority (grand) figure.

The urgent emotion associated with the central image of the clock/male figure, strongly implies that NOW is the time for the dreamer to explore and come to terms with this situation. The snake may represent some sexual or other threatening concern involved in this challenge.

The dream ends with a very positive image. The baby (a healthy, emerging part of the personality ?), acts heroically by throwing the threatening snake into a ditch.

It's been a long time, but here is some more information about the dream:

I haven't experienced the dream in years, but it recurred for years throughout my childhood.

I may have mistakenly made the "snake and baby" theme seem overly important, but their context in the dream was very very vague...The snake was merely something we (the searchers) were aware of, something slow and distant. Not seen, and certainly of secondary concern.

Regarding "the baby". The baby was a sibling. Not necessary a baby during the years the dream recurred, but was at least known to be a baby during the dream.We'll refer to her as "Sally" for convenience.

Throughout the dream the searchers knew there was a giant (impossibly large) snake, somewhere in the distance.At the end of the dream, I have the afterthought: "Oh, what about the snake? Sally threw it in the ditch".

Strangely, and likely off-topic is that the theme of "throwing something" into, or over, something else, is a common theme of my other recurring dreams. Most of my recurring dreams involve require throwing something you don't normally throw, over or into something mundane.

The dream isn't short by any means, and it's dominated by the frantic, urgent, terrifying search for the keys.These keys that exist that no one can find.The impending doom, hopefully satiable by the return of the keys to the coffin-like piano-like clock.

If I had to hazzard my own interpretation, the clock represents authority, perhaps all authority figures in my life wrapped into one.The keys feel like accomplishments in some way, but not personal accomplishments (because I am one of many searching for the same keys, and the finding of the keys is a common goal, not a competition).The frantic search seems like life, in the sense that the impending doom feels like death.The searchers are simply others, people, peers, etc.

The end of the dream isn't the end of the search.The doom doesn't arrive in the dream.The dream does end with the odd afterthought, a waking realization that the snake (that no one was concerned with anyway) had been discarded.It feels like the dream is about life, in general. I don't really think my mind works in ways quite that grand, but, that's all I have.

I imagine the snake bit was simply something migrating in from other dreams.