DREAM SYMBOLS ARE ABOUT YOU How Dream Symbols Work
The Role of Symbols in Dreams A Dream Symbol is not the Main Message of the Dream Symbols are the building blocks of a dream, but do not always contain the whole message. Most of the time, the main meaning is in the story line rather than the symbol. As you work with dream symbols, you notice the same message can be repeated several times from different perspectives. The psyche wants you to get a message and repeats it several ways through symbols and the main story line, to get your attention. Dream Symbols areUnique to You and Unique to Your Personal Experience Keep in mind that symbols are unique to you and your own experience. For example, a red rose may remind one person of love because they received flowers from a loved one on Valentine’s Day. It may remind someone else of sorrow because roses were plentiful at the funeral of a loved one. Trust your own experience to get the meaning conveyed by your symbol. I am not an advocate of using dream dictionary books. Even the better ones tend to shut down your own thinking that relates back to your personal experience and tends to lead you in the wrong direction. Just take a playful attitude, and let the picture speak to you. Always check what a symbol or image specifically means to you, when was the last time you remember seeing it, how it affects you emotionally, and so on. Then see how that association sheds light in the context of the dream story. Check the DIY page for more information about how to explore your associations with a dream symbol.
Dream Symbols are Carefully Chosen Visual Messages
A question often asked is: “If I pass a field of pumpkins then dream about a pumpkin, is it just a coincidence or does it mean something?” The answer is: "Yes, it means something." During the day, you notice dozens of images. There are faces of people, pictures in books and magazines, scenes in movies, and your own thoughts and daydreams. All these sources bring images into your mind.But a dream contains onlya few images, which are carefully selected by your psyche because of the meaning you attach to it. The psyche is the aware part of you that never sleeps and is connected to all your thoughts, feelings and goals, past and present. The psyche chooses an image based on what it means to you, so that it will communicate just the right message back to you.
Collages and Word Play
Symbols are often a play on words, common expressions, or jingles. They are used by your psyche like a collage - a picture message made up of several picture pieces - to get a point across. One person saw someone in a dream with their head missing. The dream was using the expression, "he lost his head" to make the point that someone was acting rashly. Another had a dream of someone whose torso was turned backwards from the waist up, so that the bum was facing forward. In waking life, the dreamer was familiar with the expression "Doing something ass backwards" to mean something done poorly, and that was just what the dream meant to say!
Dream Symbols as a Game of Charades
Notice that even words are merely symbols.For example, the letters S U N R I S E ;the letters have no logical link to the actual event. In fact, most meanings come to us in this symbolic, indirect way. The expression "A picture is worth a thousand words" suggests we are able to conclude much more from an image than from a word. Allow yourself to feel at home with your dream symbols. They are as natural to your psyche as getting the punch line of a joke.
Common Dream Symbols Symbols are UNIQUE TO YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE but some have shared cultural factors that give similar meaning for everyone. Here is a list of common symbols and their shared cultural meanings.
HOUSES, BUILDINGS & ROOMS
Living spaces such as rooms, houses, and buildings often point out the "area of life" which the dream is bringing to your attention. An office can refer to a situation at work , or to something about work goals, skills or attitudes toward career. A kitchen can refer to actual eating habits, or to some bodily need.As a play on words, a kitchen can be also refer to "What you are cooking up in life". Details about the cooking going on in the dream may reflect how you are handling the real‑life counterpart.
DEATH
For most people, death is the biggest change they expect to encounter. That explains why almost all dreams about funerals, death and dying refer to CHANGE. Until recently death has been a taboo subject in our society, which is why, as a symbol, it has many frightening and threatening emotional links. Dying in a dream becomes the symbol for "the ultimate change". These can be changes in attitudes, career, periods of your life, lifestyle or relationships. Sometimes a dream about death can be there to confront your own fear of death. For example, a young woman had lost her father to whom she had been close. Months afterwards, she began to have recurring dreams about her mother dying, though her mother was in good health. In speaking with her, it was clear that she had no valid reason to think her mother was in danger of dying. The dream was about her fear of losing other loved ones.
Life is Eternal
In my vision of eternity, the next level of life is not oblivion. It’s an adventure of continued work, developing talents and character. It is a journey with loved ones as we continue to learn to love and help one another. This version strikes me as more real than harps and clouds. Most religions preach an afterlife though few dare to describe it. Eternity is a heritage to claim peacefully rather than fear.
Can a dream about death be true? On rare occasions, a dream about death can be an actual prediction. To recognize such dreams, read the chapter on ESP in Dreams inThe Bedside Guide to Dreams, or download the topic paper on ESP & Dreams.
CARS& VEHICLES
Cars and vehicles often refer to a person’s body (the vehicle with which we travel through life). Or it may reflect directions and paths in life we’re taking and how we are handling them. But, if you’re someone who deals with cars as a hobby or for a living, cars can take on more complex levels of meanings for you. Remember, we always go back to personal experience for final meanings.
CHILDREN
A child can be a new project, a new phase in your life, or a new activity. How the child fares in the dream is how the counterpart is doing, or where it is heading. A child can also refer to the open, innocent parts of yourself or the negative counterpart of immaturity and childishness, depending on your life context.
CLOTHES
Clothing is something we change often to suit moods, needs and changing styles. So clothes are a good symbol for our "attitudes; which also fluctuate daily according to moods and changes. And like clothes, attitudes are the masks and roles we put on in different life situations. One woman dreamed she was going through her wardrobe and found the styles no longer pleased her, and nothing seemed to fit any more. The dream was telling her she had "outgrown" old attitudes and perspectives (because the entire wardrobe was involved). It was suggesting that psychologically she was shedding a new skin. This meaning coincided well with major changes taking place in her life.
FACES & FEATURES
Parts of the body are often connected with what we use them for. For example, teeth that look hideous can refer to vicious or destructive use of words as what comes out of your mouth. A head that’s too large for its body can refer to a " swelled head”, in other words, thinking too highly of yourself. Hair that is stiff can be " rigid thinking". Hair and scalp generally refer to what is on your mind because the head is "where" you think, so to speak, and hair is the visible result. The state of your hair, head and scalp in a dream is a good analogy for the state of your mind. It can also be giving you feedback about how you are handling certain attitudes or ideas.
MONEY & JEWELS
These often refer to valuables and attitudes toward material possessions. Money and jewels may also refer to personal values. Someone dreamed of stacking dollar bills high on a shelf, yet felt in the dream that the money was unsafe there. He recognized a life situation where a reference to "keeping values and standards high" and the need to "secure" them made sense. The common dream of "winning a lottery" usually refers to progress made rather than actually winning money. Too bad. Except, on a rare occasion, it can be true (see ESP and Dreams).
ANIMALS
Our four‑footed and feathered friends are convenient stereotypes for your own traits, both positives and negatives. Almost always animals in dreams refer to a trait in yourself. It’s easier to see a negative trait in an animal, than to "own" it as part of yourself. This was the true for a woman who was beginning to sleep in more and more, and getting lazier every day to get out of bed. Then she dreamed of watching a huge, brown‑eyed cow lazily chewing cud in her bed. She realized her psyche was calling her “an old cow”. She had no more trouble getting out of bed.
DREAMS CAFE at interpretadream.com • Author Stase Michaels • THE BEDSIDE GUIDE TO DREAMS