Furniture

Attitudes or habits developed from family or home life, especially if it is a piece of furniture from family home or a past dwelling. The beliefs or feelings we ‘furnish’ our mind with, perhaps from a past relationship. Domesticity – the disciplines and restraints we use in a relationship, or in our home life or notions about self, our self image.

Old furniture from family that has been inherited can mean things such as a karmic link that you are dealing with.

armchair Usually associated with rest or relaxation. A particular armchair might link with certain memories, such as courting or love-making. It might link with a person because of where a family member or friend sat. But any item or furniture can also associate with likes or dislikes, or a particular relationship or time of life.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What are my memories or associations with the armchair?

If I don’t not know this armchair, what do I feel about it in the dream?

What would I say is the function of an armchair, what is it for, and does that define it in the dream?

bed This is an important symbol to understand. It often shows exactly what you are doing in the subtle areas of relationship. So can link with your close relationships, intimacy – an intimacy in which the qualities of the other can become part of you and a blending take place. Such a blending is not only that of you and another, but your known and presently formed self with what you hold within and latent.

But a bed is the place you sleep, so in a spiritual sense might be depicting your sleeping self, the parts of you still unconscious and not awake to who you really are and the issues needing attention in your life.

The bed also obviously relates to sexual pleasure; rest; the holy place in which we meet oneself and or another person deeply and passionately. But it can also suggest desire to get away from the world, to withdraw into oneself, to be passive.

It can depict sensual rather than sexual contact; sickness; privacy; the testing place of the relationship. Sometimes it represents sleep and meeting our unconscious – or torture – because in bed we may be tortured by insomnia, worries, physical pain.

Our life situation – made your bed, now lie on it. Bed is one of the commonest symbols in dreams.

In the example below the man is wrestling with his desire for pleasure and his sense of commitment; but also, whether he will keep his pleasure for himself, or share it with his wife. See: Example in contraceptive; bed wetting.

Example: ‘I sit on a bed. Near me, looking at a book I am holding is a woman I know, Jane. I realise as we talk that her foot is touching mine. As my wife is on my left across the room I feel uncomfortable about this. Now Jane has her left hand on my penis. I have only underpants on. The contact is pleasant and undemanding, but I feel more and more ill at ease. I feel Jane is not having any respect for my relationship with my wife and start to tell her so.’ Mr B. S.

Idioms: Bed of nails; bed of roses; go to bed with; make one’s bed and lie on it; test bed.

carpet Sometimes depicts one’s financial state, bare floorboards being poverty; can be the colour or design that are important; comfort or lack of it in life – do you feel satisfied with self; a cover up; feeling of being walked on.

A carpet in a much used room can also indicate, like a swimming pool, your shared experience with another person or family, or your own collective experience, as it is on the carpet that so much takes place in your life. It is difficult to create an image that summarises the mass of time and events you share with family or loved ones – or even your own lonely existence, but a carpet does that.

Idioms: Sweep something under the carpet; on the carpet; roll out red carpet; rug pulled out from under ones feet.

chair Passive, relaxed attitude; inactivity; receptivity or openness; escapism.

A chair can be placed in a workplace, outdoors, in a doctor’s surgery or in a thousand different environments. The different environments change the feelings associated with the dream chair. See environment

Placing of chair in group: Sense of status.

Wheelchair: An in-valid situation; a sense of weakness.

If pushing someone else: Seeing self as carrying an invalid.

cupboard or wardrobe Memory; resources; different roles you play or attitudes and emotions expressed in wardrobe; hidden memories and emotions – such as skeleton in the cupboard; womb.

Open or closed or trapped in cupboard: Whether we are ‘open or closed’ to other people; trapped in old feelings; sense of isolation.

mattress Similar to bed – the situation, comfortable or otherwise, one has created in life. You made your bed, now lie on it. Comfort; sexuality; relaxed feelings. See: bed.

Jung sees the mattresses as a marriage. A matrees can also be where we hide things such a money, books or magazines.

Example: ‘I am sleeping rough in a garden with a woman I do not love. I think I should try to make the best of the situation, but my feelings against it are too strong. Then I decide I don’t ever want to live like that again and tear up the mattress we slept on. As I do this I realise, as if waking from amnesia, that Pat lives just across the road. She has specially moved there because of our love. I realise with horror I had forgotten and may have lost her.’

Example: I lifted up my mattress and under my bed there was a giant newborn dead babies and a coffin. I opened up the coffin and there inside was another dead baby.

Rotting mattress: Something very wrong with your life situation.

Uncomfortable mattress: This suggest either a relationship difficulties or that something is troubling you while asleep.

rug See: carpet in this section above.

table Social connection with others; communal activity; everyday certainties that support your activities, such as confidence you will get paid at the end of the week; your attitude toward the inner and exterior community; an area of work or expression; an altar or self giving – if table is bare, perhaps not giving much of self.

Coffee table: Relaxed social connections. A centre for people to sit around and talk or discuss. Sometimes it isimprtant issues. A table for children to play on, so suggestst something connected with childhood. Can also be a work surface.

Dressing table: One’s attempts to create a good social image.

Place at table: Self image of your status.

Quality of table: The quality of your relationship with others.

Idioms: Lay your cards on the table; tabling a motion; table talk; table hopping.

Example: ‘Then I was in a place where we were having a staff party. Not very big but people were sitting at tables eating, a party mood. I sat with my child, maybe youngest son, no one else at the table. I felt I didn’t wish to get involved with the others, the feeling I often get at parties, just alone in a crowd.’ Simeon T.

Simeon’s dream table shows him not feeling inclined to connect with others. So it shows how he relates socially.

Example: Several people are sitting around a coffee table having a discussion.  Bitsy’s husband, Phil, and Kent’s father are the main talkers.  They are discussing something about love.  I can’t remember their exact words but their position was that one must maintain a marriage and make it work no matter what.  Love for another person doesn’t matter and should be ignored.  There is a book sitting on the coffee table.  The cover of the book is partially obscured.  Something is on top of the book.  Somehow the obscuring item is removed and I can see the title of the book.  I can’t remember the title but it totally disagreed with everything they were saying.

Useful questions and hints:

What is the table being used for?

Is it a table you know?

Has itbeen a part of you life for ages?

See Associations Working With – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Summing Up