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Dream Interpretation – Example One
An example will be used to show how to arrive at a dream’s meaning from use of the Dream Dictionary entries. It is important to first write the dream down as fully as possible. Don’t stint on the use of words. Be descriptive. Then take the very opening scene of the dream and look it up in the appropriate entry.
Example: I was standing in the back garden of a house – one of a row of terraced houses. Each garden was fenced and ran down to a large drainage ditch. It seemed to be raining and water was filling the drainage ditch. The water was backing up into the gardens because something was blocking the ditch. It started rising up my legs. It was quite hot. I realised this was because hot water was running out of the baths and sinks in the houses. I felt I must get out of the gardens. Not only because of the water, but because of how people might feel if they saw me in their garden. I managed to find a way into a farm yard where I felt relaxed.’ Ted F.
The first scene here is Garden. On a piece of paper separate to the dream, write Garden, with space for notes to be put beside it. The entry on Garden in the Dictionary says - Your garden dream often reveals what you are doing with your latent possibilities. It is pointing out whether you have cultivated your abilities, or buried them. A garden is sometimes a place of love in a dream. In which case it can denote what is growing or dying in your relationship. Another garden theme is connected with activities we do in the garden, like pets we keep, or work done.
The words Houses – Raining – Hot water – Fences – Farmyard need to be looked up and relevant comments written down next to each word. In doing this with his dream, Ted ended up with the following. But it is important for you to see what you feelings are and whether any of what is said applies to you. It doesn’t matter if the entry on garden doesn’t contain what is said in your dream. Instead you can say, ‘None of those things apply, but the entry has made me remember my dream garden is a place of pain where a terrible incident happened to me.’
But Ted had other associations and wrote:
GARDEN – The growth and changes occurring in my life at present.
ROW OF HOUSES – Other people.
RAINING – Depressed feelings or difficulties; emotions which take away enthusiasm and act as a barrier to action; tears and emotional release – an outpouring; other peoples emotions ‘raining’ on me.
HOT WATER – Emotions. In the Idioms is ‘hot water’ suggesting I have got myself in trouble.
FENCES – Social boundaries.
FARMYARD – Where my natural drives such as sexuality, parenthood, love or fellowship, are cared for or expressed.
When Ted added his own associations to this the dream became fully understandable to him and read like this:
I am going through a lot of changes at the moment – the garden. These are to do with allowing myself to have a warm but non sexual relationship with women. I have always been too dragged along by my sexuality in the past. Just a few days before the dream I was in a ‘growth’ group. I had made friends with a woman there, Susan, who I was warm with, but not sexually. The group work required some close physical contact, and I and another man worked with Susan. It seemed to me to go without complications. A while afterwards a woman in the group came to me and with evident emotion, said I had made love publicly to my lover, meaning Susan. I had certainly been physically close to her and had felt at ease, but the viewpoint and feelings of the woman’s accusations, coupled with her threat to expose me to the authority figure in the group, bowled me over. This is the hot water in the dream. The fences are the boundaries people erect between their personal life and what is socially acceptable. For some days, up until understanding the dream, I felt really blocked up emotionally – the blocked drainage ditch. I cut off any friendship toward Susan. When I realised that in the Farmyard – the acceptance of natural feelings without neat little boundaries – I could feel at peace, I was able to allow my natural warmth again.
After writing the comments next to each dream image or setting, add any personal memories, feelings or associations, as Ted has. Put down anything which amplifies what has been dreamt. For instance a car is said to be ones drive and motivation in the entry on car. But it is helpful to add what personal feelings one has about ones car. Try imagining what the absence in ones life of the car, or house, etc., would mean.
A friend recently told me the absence of her car would mean loss of independence. So this was her personal association.
Comments
i often have dreams like i’m trying to talk even scream sometimes but there’s no voice coming out of my throat…and this gets me crazy…makes me freak out..i try screaming on top of my voice, but there’s no voice at all.. have had this point in dreams in variations..feels as if when i want someone to hear me out, i cant speak witha volume..
Akshada – There could be two reasons for this – or maybe the two are linked.
Firstly, when we dream our voluntary muscles are paralysed. As you use voluntary muscles to speak it is probably the cause. But if you were deeply in the dream state you would not be using your muscles in your mouth and throat. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/sleep-paralysis/ for an explanation of this.
However, it also suggests you are partly awake or lucid, and that is when the struggle begins. But it could also be that you have not developed the strength to stand before others and feel uncertain of yourself, your real passions. Here is the description a man said of his own struggle. Perhaps there is some truth in it for you.
It seemed my heart, in hearing my song of life, realised I was surrounded by souls who were the shipwrecks of society. Alan, Leicester, Kevin, Bill, myself, were crippled by other human beings. Why didn’t I speak up for them – tell the story – accuse society of this carelessness and crime? Life, in the form of my friends and my body, cried to me to stand up. I felt ready to do that, but felt that if Life wanted me to say these things – to stand and represent it – to be an adult witness for the wider life – then I needed to be treated as an adult by life. I needed to be given the key to the door, so I could find certainty of my link with eternity, and not simply say – I believe. If I was going to tell people there was a wider life, then I needed to be able to move in it and know it as a certainty – not as a conjecture.
When I asked about that, I felt as if energy was twisting and pulling deep in my being – showing and changing interior parts of me. Then I cried out in shock and my body twisted and struggled, because I felt as if a giant vista was opening before me. The vista was my last house in my eternal life – my previous life. I cried and struggled because I began to see myself as perhaps God sees me, a tiny, insignificant being, so full of his own importance and bragging. A person who hardly expressed anything of the qualities of the eternal life, yet thinks his life is so deserving of life’s preservation. I was humiliated and humbled by seeing myself as an Italian male – ready to shout and criticise anybody in authority; so full of his own opinions and feelings and being able to do things better, yet not daring ever to actually stand for anything, to take responsibility, to lead. I called him Brag.
Tony
Can you help me with a dream I had? I just can not make any since of it. I do not understand why it was so clear. Why it felt so real? I usually realize that I am dreaming but this felt real.
Gregg – All I can say is that dreams can present themselves in many ways, and one way is to be very real.
There are all sorts of options in this from sharing a dream with another person to out of body experiences. They are all real in their own way. But as you have not described your dream I cannot know.
Tony
I was standing next to a tall building and I saw some guy I know walking in it. He had 50 people following after him wearing white robes. I followed them up the building to the top. We were told to kill ourself and we would come back to life different than normal humans. So I was wrapped up in a blanket and jumped head first off the building. I hit the ground and I could feel intense pain every where. I thought ” I love you Thomas ” (my boyfriend). Then i died and everything went black. I then remember standing over my friend who jumped off same building but wasnt fully dead yet. I felt bad that he was in pain and was looking in his eyes. I then smushed him like a bug with my foot so he would be out of his misery. ‘Brooke P
Brooke – Thank you for sending this dream. As I tell people frequently – you cannot die in your dreams. I am intrigued by the White Robed figure. He sounds like your personal guru, talking a lot of sense – in dreams that is.
So I am wondering whether you see this as just an interesting dream, or whether it has changed the way you feel about death?
Tony
The first thing I can remember is walking into a cave. It wasn’t dark or scary, and I actually like caves. I walked down a tunnel for a while, but it was well-lit. I came to a sharp corner and I could hear music playing. I turned the corner to see a huge, open room filled with flashing lights and music. It was still a cave, but there was a disco ball, a DJ, and strobe lights. In the middle of the room there was a large crowd of people, say around a hundred or so, dancing to the music. On the other side of the music I saw a staircase made of rock, as if it were part of the cave, and at the top was a door. I was not at all interested in the dancing and walked immediately to the steps. I climbed all the way to the top, which wasn’t very far, but the door was locked. Out of nowhere, a rather attractive girl from school appeared. She said that she had the key and that all I had to do was kiss her in order to get it. The strange thing is that she hates me in real life. So I did, and she opened the door. I walked in and she followed. We walked over to a window overlooking the dance floor. She tried to persuade me to turn around and go dance, but I refused. I was more curious to see what was further into the room. I walked a bit farther and came to a complete drop-off. It led into complete darkness, which is something I will admit to being afraid of. Leading off of the edge was a bridge made of unsteady boards, no more than a few inches wide. They were simply nailed together and about to fall apart. I had a mad obsession with going farther and farther into the cave, so I continued. I don’t know what got into me. I followed the bridge for a long while until it emptied into a trailer park. Most of the rest is shady, but I do remember running from some zombie-like creatures and making it back to the original cave room where everybody had left.
This dream was from a few years ago, and nobody has been able to interpret it. I admit it is very far-fetched, but I want to know if it symbolizes anything. Thanks.
Jake – I feel you have a curiosity that has led you to wonder about life and its meaning. A cave is a representation of you looking under the surface of life – but only a little.
You went into what is called the dream world or unconscious, but only as far as it was brightly lit. In other words what you had already known. Then you come across the people dancing, which is a first level of what people think life is all about – having fun. But you pass by that to dig deeper – isn’t there anything else?
The stairs represent you beginning to move toward a shift of awareness, a higher viewpoint and you need to kiss the girl, an acknowledgement of how the energy of love and sex can be a way to go deeper. That is a key to open one door. But then you want to go even deeper into the mystery of Life – and you find a huge blackness. You were scared enough to avoid it, and fear is the way Life keeps its secrets from us. To go on despite fear is another key.
When Lewis Carrol wrote Alice in Wonderland he knew full well what it meant to fall down a hole – in this case a rabbit hole. Falling means losing your control – which is absolutely necessary if you are to explore the mysterious. You cannot hold on to your conscious control and go to sleep for instance. To remain awake in such depths takes courage and perseverance. So at some time I would suggest you drop into the dark space. You cannot ever be hurt, but you can feel fear.
The last part you meet those who are lost in such worlds.
Tony
this is a kind of a weird dream…or maybe a sequence of dreams..or lives of different births.first one was like my friend was a kid and i was his mother…he felt exactly the same as a kid would..the warmth,the protection,etc etc.but he didnt see his father anywhere in the dream.he told me that i was too protective for my child(ie.him)
what does this mean?
Ishita – Get rid of the idea that you are dreaming about your friend. That is like saying that when you think about your friend he is there with you. A dream is like thoughts and feelings put into living imagery.
So you have a little boy who looks like your friend – he is your little boy, a part of you that you are rearing; an inner psychological part of you. He doesn’t have a father because you created him from yourself, your own mind and feelings.
He doesn’t need too much protection because it is a part of you that wants to incorporate the male side of you, and be a bit more outgoing and active.
Tony
continuing further…second one that my friend saw was tht we both were kids.not siblings.but yes we were pretty close to each other. and he saw god and godess as our parents..all the heavenly world were saying like we kids are the purest form of luv.the ultimate form of luv(just like atom is the indivisible part of a particle).there is noone pure than us…he even saw someone blessing us.some almighty’s hand but couldnt see the face as it was illuminated…it all then vanished in a second
third one goes like this…he saw me and himself as waves.not the huge ones but the ones tht subside when it reaches the shore..he saw some children playing by the shore..jumping on us(the waves)..some ladies(probably their mothers) were keeping a watch on their kids..the children didnt want to leave us(the waves) and evn the fishes like very small ones didnt want to die on being seperated from us….but again everythng just disappeared…
fourth one is that he saw both of us as scorpions..both of us were protected by other scorpions in the group.we were just left alone in the group without knowing what to do with each other.but then all of a sudden he attacked me and with his sting tried to strangle me to death..i was about to die but then he let me free and then he himself went to a place where he knew he would die..something like you walk into a fire on your own…but in his last breaths say for 2 secs or more he was just visualising my face although i(the scorpion) wasnt around..but then he got the happiest death ever and thats what he felt.
and before all this i had a dream.it was like the same friend of mine had come to my place with his cousin in a car.and we had a talk with each other…later he kissed me..then all of a sudden my parents and my brother turned up at my place and so he preferred to leave.my bro started questioning him on general terms.since my bro had some work he agreed to drop my bro on the way.and i somehow didnt want that to happen.i tried contactin my friend and at that moment he himself called up to say i love you and then the call disconnected..later i heard that he had met with an accident and was no more…
Ishita – I can only try to comment on part of this dream because of its length and it has so many sides to it.
Carrying on from what I said last time, that this is your inner boy, this is an interesting dream because it deal with the feelings of your own divinity and twin souls.
You have to realise that you, your personality, is like a flower that grows from a bulb in the earth. It pushes up and produces a flower, and that flower – you – blooms, ages and dies. And all it experienced is drawn back into the bulb to create another flower.
That bulb is what we call our Spirit – the eternal part that doesn’t die and is all things – male and female. So your dream looks at the purest love, where the male and female that you are unites, as it does in the Spirit.
I feel as if you are trying to get through to a true vision of the Spirit but it is still a bit cloudy because of your beliefs – that all dream characters are real and represent things outside you.
As for the waves, I feel that they never break:
I am a wave on a shoreless sea.
From no beginning
I travel to no goal,
Making my movements stillness.
Constantly I am arriving
And departing,
Being born and dying.
I am always with you
And yet have never been.
Tony
evrything that u said makes complete sense..i respect your time constraints…but what about the other parts..i’d like to put them again for u if u dont mind….
fourth one is that he saw both of us as scorpions..both of us were protected by other scorpions in the group.we were just left alone in the group without knowing what to do with each other.but then all of a sudden he attacked me and with his sting tried to strangle me to death..i was about to die but then he let me free and then he himself went to a place where he knew he would die..something like you walk into a fire on your own…but in his last breaths say for 2 secs or more he was just visualising my face although i(the scorpion) wasnt around..but then he got the happiest death ever and thats what he felt.
and before all this i had a dream.it was like the same friend of mine had come to my place with his cousin in a car.and we had a talk with each other…later he kissed me..then all of a sudden my parents and my brother turned up at my place and so he preferred to leave.my bro started questioning him on general terms.since my bro had some work he agreed to drop my bro on the way.and i somehow didnt want that to happen.i tried contactin my friend and at that moment he himself called up to say i love you and then the call disconnected..later i heard that he had met with an accident and was no more…
all this is really bothering me and if u can get me out of this i’d be really thankful to u….
Ishita – In both these dreams death is the end of friendship. It sounds like, considering you are dreaming, a nice way of dropping any friendship.
The scorpions show a great circle of poisonous friends, who could with their inturned stingers, be very critical or hurtful. If that was happening, even if you were unaware of it, then such cortical or negative feelings it would be undermining you, shown as nearly being murdered.
Your brother probably represent a strong helpful side, and so the friend is carefully got rid of – in a loving way. I assume from this that you do not like and nasty things happening.
Tony
I had a dream that the guy that I like says I’m hot at school
Olivia – Well, it is your dream, and all the characters in your dreams are created by you – so obviously you need to know you are a hot number. Be careful though as being so hot you can burn yourself – and may be some others as well.
Tony
Sorry mine is long. I’m a female and 16 years old.
I was running with a friend through my school that was different. The school seemed like it had more money because we were on the second level. We were searching for another person for a long time. Then I remembered in my dream that I had this dream before and I remembered where the room we were searching for would be. We went to the side of the gym but didnt see the room. The gym was locked, but right were the room should have been was a gorgous olden-time gold elevator. The person we were looking for was in the elevator, but the doors closed too quickly for us to catch that person. There was another elevator next to it (it was grey and normal) and we pushed the button to go up. Then the gold elevator opened without the person inside. We both went in the elevator and then it took off upwards. The top was open. Then people in my painting class and my teacher in my painting class were in there and when it stopped mid-air everyone floated up and almost fell out of the elevator. All of us quickly started to hold on the the golden bars and the elevator went sideways (with the top still open) and rotated but no one fell out. We finally got to a pitstop then the elevator turned into a couple of tables and everyone was holding on for dear life when the tables started floating. The tables were flinging everywhere but no one fell off. The tables landed on a forest floor and we all got out. The painting teacher told us we could either leave or win a prize, then gave us books on how to make animals then left. I looked around for supplies but there were none. Someone found a box of toys and I started pulling off heads of the toys and put them on other toys. One was a black Darth Vader head that I put on a black Minnie the Mouse body and for the base was a black Nike shoe. These toys were all very vivid to me. I didn’t get a prize then I left. I was in a car talking with a funny guy with a beard. We were driving in a truck towards a beautiful forest and listening to the radio. We got out and started hiking towards the top of the hill. When we got halfway I saw a meditation spot and we stopped there and meditated. We looked out at the forest and I thought it was so beautiful that I had to take a picture. He didn’t want me to but I did it anyways. When we got back to the car I said “Well we have 10 hours of song to pass our time.” Then we drove away from the forest. Later, when I was home, I looked at the picture and the beautiful picture of the forest was actually a horrid picture of a gross, burnt forest. Then the guy was still at the forest and he was looking at the forest and knew it was horrible, gross and burnt.
Ellen – Well, in the first instance you are in a place of learning. You were running because you had glimpsed something and then lost sight of it but were seeking it – the man – again. You went to the gymnasium, a place that was originally for religious and physical pursuits.
The golden elevator is, in dreams, a means by which you can elevate your mind and awareness. And in there you see what you were seeking. But such things are tricky and can be lost sight of. The open top elevator can be a sign of losing a grip on reality; but in fact you had a hold of the ‘golden bars’ suggesting that you managed to keep true to the central truth of what you believe.
The forest floor suggests a return to the natural basis of your being after such a trip almost out of reality. There is so much information in your dream it has to be condensed. For the painting teacher is instructing you in the use of imagination and creativity. Obviously you didn’t quite succeed as there was no prize. Imagination is a vital part of creating your life; even more than that I believe that Imagination coupled with belief can create a hell on earth or a heaven here and now. It is what we believe as truth that creates our inner world. This is so obvious in dreams when people run in terror form the creations of their own imagination. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/travelling-your-dreams-the-wonder-of-imagination/
And the end of the dream is an example of that. What is real?
Tony
Hi Tony,
I often dream my fiancé’s ex wife – and I am really scared of her in my dreams, usually she tries to jeopardise our wedding (we are getting married in Summer in reality) by trying to hide or ruin my wedding dress or by showing shocking videos about the intimity they used to have. Thanks to your site in the last dream instead of running away from her I asked her what she wanted from us and she disappeared and we got married. But I am very anxious in my dreams when she appears. I wonder if you can help me understand the meaning of her presence in my dreams.
in reality I am very scared to not be up to her even though my fiancé do not want to hear talking about her since she hurt him very bad on suddenly leaving him after a few months of marriage and he never wanted to see her again – I’m very happy with him but I am as well very scared of the situation of silence and I do not know how to deal with these dreams and feelings. Is it too much to ask you advise please?
Alli – The dreams are all a sign of your anxiety about the other woman. Because he was married to her it is like you feel you have to live up to the image you have of her.
It isn’t an easy thing to let go of those worries, but if you can, as soon as you start to feel them stoop what you are doing and say to them, “I know you will ruin my marriage if I keep letting you bothering me. So I am closing the door on you. I know from experience where these thoughts lead, and I know if I let them they will lead me to the same place over And over – despair – and I do not want to keep going there.”
You will need to do this many times, but it will gradually ease and you will feel fine.
Tony