Antique

Anything old or ancient suggests it has existed for a long time, so it carries an enormous amount of experience, an enormous imprint of the past. This often links with wisdom or treasures of realisation, perhaps revealed by intuition.

But the dreamt of ancient or old thing may be pointing to a period of your life relating to the period the ‘old’ thing or person represents. It may also depict an attitude or way of life you have seen portrayed in historical drama. It can point to your past and the different lives you have lived – baby, youth, lover, parent, provider, or what is established and well worn, such as tradition and wisdom of folklore.

An old or antique building or place can sometimes relate to the incredible age of your mind. There is in each of us an intuition or sense that shows us or reveals to us if we care to be aware, that our mind is not simply new with our birth. Its contents, through language, inherited customs, and genetic material, are incredibly old. Exploring such dreams of antiquity can often bring to awareness this ancient heritage.

Old building: Past way of life; former life with family or another person.

Old people: Wisdom; mother or father; past experience; traditions; old age or feelings about ageing; death.

Old things or furniture: Past or outworn ways of life or activities. See: old house example under age.

Example: ‘I am standing in a book shop. It is a long established business. As I look at the books I find two which are about the life of Christ. They are leather bound and hand written – quite ancient. Both seem to me to be about the author’s own inner life. I believe one is written from a religious viewpoint and the other from a more occult one. I am not attracted to either.’ Bill O.

Bill is looking back on past attitudes, one religious, one occult, which had been big parts of his life.

ancient Usually suggests contact with parts of our being older than the development of the conscious self – such as cellular wisdom; life processes; accepted traditions or ways of life; wisdom of the unconscious.

antique Elements of our past experience which might be worth keeping; wisdom of unconscious.

See: age; ancient.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are there any lessons from my past hinted at here?

What is the old thing or person and what ties or links do I have or had with it?

If it is a person it would be helpful to use Talking As to clarify what it is about.

In any case using Processing Dreams can be of great help.

Comments

-Bebe 2017-02-21 6:40:00

I’ve always had these recurrent dreams of shopping for old, beautfully refurbished pianos. Victorian styles to be exact and they are very unique, not the every day pianos we see. Even the inside parts are very clean and glossy. But as a pianist, I feel reading up on the meaning of pianos may not be a precise interpretation for me. Strangely enough, the piano keys are never complete.. always around 60-70% equivalent of what we see nowadays. But nevertheless, very beautiful. What could this dream mean?

-Dawn 2016-01-09 15:03:37

Last night I had a dream I’ve never had before. I have had dreams of houses but not like this. I was on a friend’s property and we came upon a 3 story old Victorian style house. The paint on the outside was weathered and worn in places. There were many trees around the house and an old ornate metal fence that had “Princess” written on a small plaque in scrolling letters. My male host noticed my enthusiasm for the home and said I could go in and get a tour from the young lady inside that was the caretaker. I told my 4 year old son to come with me so we could ring the old doorbell. We excitedly ran up the porch and my son pushed the button but it didn’t work so I knocked. The young lady led us in and I awestruck. The inside was filled appropriately with period furnishings and decor. It was spotless. Exceptionally clean. I marveled at the most ornate structural elements and the furniture. I mentioned how well is was kept and that I can’t keep my real much smaller home half as clean. Beyond the foyer was a dining room, that merged into a tiny kitchen which was really a wetbar, then the kitchen was in the middle of the house and was like a work of art. As we went up the stairs that’s wear things shift. There are all sorts of trunks, boxes, and stuff all up the staircase, we have to walk carefully. We walk past bedrooms, simple in decor but the beds are covered in delicate floral lace. As we go some areas do not have doors just a piece of fabric, like the tiny bathroom. Before I wake up we walk past a bedroom, the door is half open, I peek inside. It is filled with Dusty dirty items of all sorts. It’s hard to make out what it all is. I am told it is left overs from my friends business. I have the urge to go in to clean and organize then I wake up.

    -Dawn 2016-01-09 15:05:52

    Also, I asked the young lady when the house was built and she said 1410.

      -Anna - Tony's Assistant 2016-01-15 13:33:37

      Dear Dawn – What I see in your important dream – and please explore it yourself as well http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-yoga/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson – is that you become aware of influences from the (long? see the article on past lives and dreams) past that are emerging in you at the moment; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/past-lives-and-dreams/
      In order to explore every part of the house, it might help to read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/ and go through the questions in this entry.
      Also by using “Being the person or thing” you can explore the different furnishings and décor that are part of your unconscious mind and that once made conscious can add to your inner resources; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/furniture/ These inner resources can aid you to clean out “the sorts of trunks, boxes, and stuff all up the staircase” and “the dusty dirty items of all sorts; the left-overs from your friends business”.
      The small plaque with the word Princess on it I see as referring to this part of you that loves to explore and it shows your strength to search for meaning and ways to positively deal with difficulties and personal problems.
      “It’s hard to make out what it all is” because in a relationship, whether a feeling relationship or one in which you are learning something, you often absorb things from the person or event. You might take in such things unconsciously, as you did many things from parents and from the culture you were raised in; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-conjuring-trick/
      A way to explore these “left-overs” is to pull the dream images that you see back into your body; literally making them one with you. Do this slowly and allow any feelings that arise.
      Merging with it makes it conscious again, and if any feelings are allowed expression you have a chance to really understand and sort out what is useful and what has to be let go of – exactly as our digestion does. This may sound strange but all the images in our dreams are projections from you inner world onto the screen of our sleeping mind; so taking them back into you is like owning them and integrating them. It is called honouring what we learned, bad or good, from the relationship. Think of it like digesting something.
      Let me know if you have any questions so far Dawn.
      Anna 🙂

        -Henna 2016-03-13 7:21:32

        I had a dream i was in my early teens. My parents bought an older house that was really well built. It had many rooms and my room was amazing. The room was split level but had a bathroom that was poorly done compared to the rest of the house. My sister and I went around the house to explore and it was full of antique furnature. I wouldent say that every piece was an antique but there were a good amount. We came across an old unit (looked like it was from China). This was white and was decorated with stone or marble (floweres or animals). We were trying to figure out how to open it and found out it was a storage cabinet. It had a lot of compartments and we were trying to open them. I woke up at that moment. Can you please tell me what it means.

          -Anna - Tony's Assistant 2016-03-19 11:58:58

          Dear Henna – It will help you better understand your dream symbol if you read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/
          In your dream you are exploring what you “inherited” or absorbed from having lived with your parents and every symbol reflects some part or content of your mind.
          While exploring the house you become aware that it is “well built”; that sounds like you feel you have a good inner foundation.
          You also become aware where some inner work could be helpful; “The room was split level but had a bathroom that was poorly done compared to the rest of the house”.
          This may refer that there is a part of you that you have “split off” and where you are not living your best yet; “bathroom that was poorly done compared to the rest of the house.”
          Integrating the bathroom/toilet in your life could mean that you learn to let go and be open to new experiences.
          As you could read in this entry old furniture may also reflect your past or outworn ways of life or activities; these ways may have been appropriate for your parents and are waiting for you to explore them and to sort out what you want to keep and what not; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/individuation/
          If you have a close relationship with your sister in your waking life, you could ask her to help you with your inner explorations; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/peer-dream-group/
          The storage cabinet from China sounds like an interesting discovery.
          In a Westerner’s dream China may represent urges or experiences the dreamer does not identify with. For instance in each of us there are things we repress, or do not have opportunity to express, emotionally, sexually or with our ambitions. China may depict these aspects of the dreamer, or urges at odds with what you inherited from your parents.
          Opening up these compartments and becoming aware and releasing what is in there may be the answer to your inner split level room with the bathroom that is poorly done.
          Much of the time we edit or control what we allow ourselves to think or feel. Dropping this form of judgment, if only for short periods while you open to the mystery you are, is important. At first it may cause some concern because you are unblocking part of the flow, and it may start pushing out some of the attitudes, past experiences and habits that have been blocking your greater flow. Usually those things would have been cleansed in the normal LifeStream, but unconscious tensions and resistances prevent the healing. This is why we have to consciously take in hand the work of dropping our self-control for periods of time;
          http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-lifestream/#Open
          Anna 🙂

        -Henna 2016-03-13 7:21:32

        I had a dream i was in my early teens. My parents bought an older house that was really well built. It had many rooms and my room was amazing. The room was split level but had a bathroom that was poorly done compared to the rest of the house. My sister and I went around the house to explore and it was full of antique furnature. I wouldent say that every piece was an antique but there were a good amount. We came across an old unit (looked like it was from China). This was white and was decorated with stone or marble (floweres or animals). We were trying to figure out how to open it and found out it was a storage cabinet. It had a lot of compartments and we were trying to open them. I woke up at that moment. Can you please tell me what it means.

-Gayle 2014-09-28 14:24:28

I often dream of black people/ African Americans… I have this intuitive feeling that I was once of this ethnicity in a past life. Maybe in the later part of the slavery period in America (I feel a connection to it and a deep sadness over what these human beings went through, how they were treated, etc). I dreamt last night that I was in a huge antique store and there were two black girls walking down the stairs with me. One girl said ‘you should get in to this, it’s fun’ and I suddenly realised that I was a black girl, in the 1920’s, dressed in the attire of that period (as were the two girls). I felt like I belonged, but yet felt a longing to fit in as well.

    -Tony Crisp 2014-10-02 8:52:26

    Gayle – I guess we were all there at one time in the long past. In our dreams we also carry all of the different races within us, although some people do have more black people in their dreams, as I have.

    But black people in the dreams of white’s often represent ones natural and easy expression without all the hang ups and repression.

    In your dream though you are deeply into it, and I suggest you learn more about why you belonged yet having a longing to fit in by using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson

    Tony

-Brei 2014-02-24 22:33:18

I have been in a relationship with my fiancée for a year and a half, and have known him for about six years. I am very happy with him and love him dearly. The other night I had a dream that I walked into an old antique store. It had a wide variety of things; nothing in particular stood out to me. There was a young man who owned the shop (I am a young woman) He seemed to take interest in me, and I flirted back. He ended up taking me to a farm of his where he had a bed swinging over the water of a lake. He ended up seducing me and we had sex. I then witnessed him hunting. I woke up after this and it scared me. I love my fiancée. This dream is bizarre. What on earth could this mean?

-deanna 2012-10-22 5:35:51

I had a dream that I went into an old store which looked like a cabin from the old days and I saw a store logo of where I used to work. What could this mean/

    -Tony Crisp 2012-10-28 11:30:33

    Deanna – Well, first of all it is dealing with the long past. It also links with the type of work you did in the past. So I think it is saying that the type of work is important to you, though not the actual company.

    Tony

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