Door Doors
Freud felt that a door, a keyhole, a handle, a knocker, all depicted sex and sexual organs. The first example shows this clearly. Knocking refers to the sex act, the cul-de-sac is the woman’s legs.
But the image of a door has so many other ways of being expressed in dreams and is used very frequently. In the first example it represents the experience of discovering a new feeling state. For instance if one had always been apologetic and now became affirmative, ‘new doors’ of experience could well open.
Example: Dreamt I run away from police into a cul-de-sac. It is night and I cannot see a thing. I feel my way to a door, and knocked. An old woman of about 60 comes to the door. Although old she is healthy and well preserved. Without a word I grab her in my arms and embrace her sexually. Then she is naked and I feel her cold flesh against mine and I have intercourse with her. As I do so, she moans in apprehension and pleasure. I know that she has had no sexual life for 20 years, and I have now awoken her passions again. She takes me to an upstairs room, and I believe her husband comes back, but she gets rid of him somehow, I think for good. When she’s back upstairs, she notices the window is open, and a strong wind blows the curtains apart. This terrifies her into feelings of guilt and shame, and she makes me hide behind the bed while she tries to close the window. She leans out of the window to push her neighbour’s curtains back also, and falls to her death. I then wander in gardens outside.
This is a description of the whole Oedipus complex as stated by Freud.
General meanings depending on dream: Remember that context is everything in understanding your dream. So depending on context it can indicate a boundary; the difference between one feeling state and another, such as depression and feeling motivated. A barrier to change or growth or the passing from inside oneself to exterior life. The feelings or attitudes, such as aloofness, we use to shut others out of our life to remain independent or private and being open or inviting. See Context Theme
A sense of leaving an environment or relationship – or escape. A door can be an entering into a new work or relationship situation; entrance to a new life style, or a new phase of one’s life. Or conversely, an exit from one situation into another. The door can also show how you are open or inviting, or how you leave or enter an environment or relationship a life style, or a phase of your life. This is usually shown by the place, room or environment the door leads to or from.
In each of our lives there are initiations into new experiences or maturity. These are often shown as doors. So at puberty we are initiated into sexual development and a wider sympathy. At marriage we may face a door to parenthood and an initiation into motherhood. Do you enter those doors, and if so with what feelings? Why not walk beyond the door and see who, what, is on the other side.
An actual example of this is of a woman who wrote telling of a recurring dream in which she discovered a door in her house she had never seen before. Beyond it was a whole apartment she has never known or used. It was obviously an area of her life she had never lived in, but she had no idea what it was. So, the technique of exploring the dream while awake was explained, and she imagined walking into the new apartment and observing what she felt and what memories arose. A soon as she entered the apartment she began to remember and feel again things that had happened in her childhood. Her mother and father had separated when she was very young and her mother had constantly presented her father as weak and of no value. But the feelings that arose were of the love of beauty and art that her father had shared and helped unfold in her. But she had kept that part of her closed because of what her mother had said. Now it was open to her again and she could allow it to unfold further in her life. An important point here is that the woman did this working alone on her dream, not with professional help or supervision. See Dreams – Practical Techniques – Potential
I see that we have created a great screen of our mind onto which we have projected all these images. Out of our own need, out of our own hopes, out of our own fear we have played all these images onto the screen. What grabs us beyond the door is the power of the suppressed desires and fantasies, our fears, our hopes for love, a longing for beautiful sex. They seem to have a life of their own – which they have – because they have been denied so long that when one allows them they are full of suppressed energy. The more one has suppressed oneself the more power that image has – the more power it has in ones life.
Back door: Our private, family life; our more secret activities; the anus.
Black door: The barrier that ones fears or apprehensions set up; the unknown, but perhaps imagined in a way that does not relate to reality. Going through the black door may therefore lead to a freedom from the limiting fears.
To close a door: To be closed emotionally, or to end or shut something out. Often this requires a decision or strong feeling. Or it might be a response to protect yourself or someone/something else.
Door to strange landscape of world: Finding entrance into unconscious, a way into wonderland – in other words the infinite world of our mind or consciousness.
Doorknob – See: knob.
Front door: Public self; confidence; our relationship with people in general; a vagina.
Leaving door open: this can suggest that you remain ready and sympathetic to new ideas, a relationship, or to move in and out of a situation. It can also mean you are leaving the door open to a new relationship or sexual activity.
Glass doors: Invisible barriers in the way of your goals or possibilities; being able to see through to the possibility of change.
Opening a door: Is a very powerful thing in a dream and it depends what you are opening the door to – is it the unknown; is it a lover; a business opportunity; something frightening; a new experience and a new room; or is it an old room full of memories, associations, things long forgotten that you can reclaim? Is it someone else’s dwelling and you are unsure of a welcome. Whatever it is look it up in the rest of the dictionary, or explore for yourself using Techniques for Working your Dreams
Opening a door for me: If someone opens a door for you in a positive way, it suggests the person has, through meeting you, helped you to find or develop a very new experience, skill or method that is helpful to you.
Room with no doors: This can represent a feeling of being trapped with no way out of a situation. Or if you are outside the room a feeling of being excluded.
Shutting a door: Privacy; trying to find ‘space’ for oneself; the dismissing attitudes or tension we use to shut others out of intimate contact; repressing memories or feelings; decisively ending something.
Side door: Escaping from a situation or being indirect.
Someone at a door: Opportunity; the unexpected; new experience or relationship.
Waiting outside a door: Waiting outside the door – what a wonderful symbol that is. What a beautiful symbol. It represents all that we have as humanity placed behind the door. All of the gods, all of the images, all of the dreams, all opportunity, all of our fears, the devil, the angels. All that we place behind the door within ourselves. And they are only available to us if we walk through the door.
Car doors: Your way of letting other people share you life. The passenger door in particular refers to the people you let near you or push away if you do not let them in your car.
The car door can also suggest allowing something to be seen or as access to things you have ‘within you’. The door is a barrier, a protective shield against people trying to harm you, or against other influences. The lock on the door links with how confident you feel about your own strength. Not being able to open your car doors shows you feeling a loss, or at a loss. It is a loss of power to be able to go where you want, or to access what you have in the car. This is like being pushed right back onto your very personal resources.
Example: ‘I am being strangled from behind by a faceless man! I had gone down to lock my flat door for the night when I noticed the door was open. I hastily bolted it and ran upstairs, but unknown to me the intruder was already in the flat.’ Miss H.
Here the door represents the censorship the dreamer places between her conscious self and her sexual drives. In ‘strangling’ our own life drive, we ourselves feel cut off from life.
Door never seen before or hidden: Or it can be an unknown or newly discovered door, and is a common theme. It can mean the recognition or discovery of previously unnoticed aspects, abilities, fears, or traits in oneself. If the discovery is distressing, this may reflect a feeling of a change in ones status quo which is disturbing.
Often it is about the discovery of a huge new area of your mind, or the possibility of a new dimension of your being. See Dimensions of Human Experience
Example: I had no sensation of it other than space, hugeness. Then I lost my left arm, and – my whole body. It was like falling through a trap-door into the stars. I had been taken through the magic doors of sleep into a universe it seldom ever sees – deep dreamless sleep.
Example: I own a house. Its a big old I guess Victorian place and I love it. But there is a place “in” the house that I try to forget exists. You get to it through a hidden door and go down a corridor which takes you under the road outside into another house and a sort of separate studio room, which is light and bright and its a kind of arty place where people (me?) work. I feel I’ve been there before in reality, and I don’t know why I’m frightened of it.
In this dream the person is constantly forgetting that she has a part of her that is light and bright where she could work at art and creativity.
Wrong door: . This shows you wish to do things in the wrong way – the wrong door.
Example: I own a house. Its a big old I guess Victorian place and I love it. But there is a place “in” the house that I try to forget exists. You get to it through a hidden door and go down a corridor which takes you under the road outside into another house and a sort of separate studio room, which is light and bright and its a kind of arty place where people (me?) work. I feel I’ve been there before in reality, and I don’t know why I’m frightened of it.
In this dream the person is constantly forgetting that she has a part of her that is light and bright where she could work at art and creativity.
Useful questions:
What does this door stand between – indoors outdoors – me and someone else – a bedroom?
Am I in control of how I let people into my life or let go of them?
What way am I relating to the door?
See Dreams are Like a Computer Game – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions
Comments
Hi Tony,
Sorry just a few corrections to my ealier post
The one solitare ring combined with four rings to form a beautiful blue star.5 rings total 7 stones.
I think you can figure out the other two misspelled words.
Thank you so much for your help
I walked down the short corridor in front of my office see a women, Mary Pat exit my office and close the door behind her. A former part time employee of our group.
I thought she shouldn’t be in there. Wondered if I should be suspicious or ask her not to enter my office when I’ve left the door closed. My last thought was that her being in there didn’t make a matter.
I than noticed a display of rings on Marisa’s desk an open cubicle that shares a wall with my office. The replacement part timer for our group when aforementioned Mary Pat left to take a full time job at the company.
I sat down at Marisa’s desk to examine the rings more closely. Small solitary rubies, diamonds but the blue topaz could be combined and surrounded with 5 other rings. The rings where in a white gold setting. One each top and bottom a long blue beveled topez on each side rings with two beveled topez offset one on top of the other. Fit together they formed a beautiful blue star.
They were offered to me for sales by a person with dwarfism standing next to another member of our group, Susan. My thought was I knew this person and I wished she would answer my question about how she was doing in life before she explained the purchase price of the rings.
I woke up
Rose – First of all, what I say will make a lot more sense if you read this first – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
It starts off with something you have been working on, probably something you have noticed about yourself and have been wondering about.
It connects with feelings you experienced in regard to Mary Pat. That was the first clue that led to realising that the rings and their beauty were connected with a part of you that was hindered in its growth, but can be released – the dwarf. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/characters-or-people-in-dreams/
Tony
Tony,
I had a very vivid dream about holding a door shut while a tornado was overhead.
I could see the tornado form over a school and held the door shut while it passed, I was in a blue house. I witnessed the distruction of the storm across the street from where I was but it seemed that holding the doors shut kept me safe.
I’ve Had Two Dreams Where I Go Outside To Find That The Driver Side Door On My Truck Is Open. Nobody Is Inside And Everything Is Still There.
I had a dream that I was sleeping in my bedroom and was surprised to see an old man whom use to be an associate when I was in the military. This associate was a civilian contractor who came to drop off some movies. The way he reacted in my dream was just weird cause I asked him how he got into my house and better yet, in my bedroom. He then told me that my brother in law let him in. The weird thing was he put the movies in my coach purse and handed it to me. Then I told him that I would swing by to pay a visit at where he worked. I told him if it wasn’t for their help and support while I was turning all the equipment I signed for I would of been f#**ed. As I was walking him out of my bedroom, I noticed that there was something beyond weird with my bedroom door. There were huge dents in it and the base that would hold the door shut was slightly wider than the door. I noticed my door was opening in both directions but just wouldn’t shut due to the base of the doorway being slightly wider than the door. I then hurried to push the dents out of it in fear. Not knowing why my door was the way it was with huge dents. I had a gut feeling in my dream that I knew who had done it and if my husband was to see it, all hell was going to break loose…
My sister and I have discovered that we have the same reoccurring dream. We are at our childhood home and discover that the front door is unlocked. No matter how many times we try, the door won’t lock. There are people outside approaching the house but they never get to the door. How strange is it for sisters 6 years apart to have the same dream?
I dreamt that I entered my back yard and saw a white door on the ground and I lift it up as if opening a door and I sqw my son lying there as if he is in a coffin. What des this mean
Heather – To answer properly I would need a lot more information, such as what age if your son? What do you associate with him, for it is not him in your dream but your thoughts and feelings about him? Most people we know in waking life, and then dream about, are an inner person we carry within us and use in our dreams. An inner person is the collection of all the memories and experiences of them – not them as a person.
So to really understand your dream you would need to know what you associate with him, whether he is becoming independent or whether you harbour fears about your son – a natural thing for mothers to do. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/association-of-ideas-with-dreams/#Working and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#ChildKill
Tony
Hi for the past two days I’ve been having dreams both different dreams but 1 similar part I always tend to go to a door to either open or close it but its always hard to do it it feels like someone is pushing against it but there’s nothing there in my dream I feel like its a ghost because I don’t see anything but I can feel the pressure against the door what does this mean?
Sheila – It means this is a test to see whether you react positively. You have perhaps failed to recognise the difference between your inner dream life and the demands of their waking life. But in dreams we are nearly always facing ourselves, and what we do is always a virtual reality that we can experiment in and try out all manner of behaviour. Our dream images such as the door must therefore not be seen as exterior to you but are ways you create stories about yourself. The following example shows someone breaking through their dream images and seeing what they are really about. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
‘In my dream I was watching a fern grow. It was small but opened out very rapidly. As I watched I became aware that the fern was simply an image representing a process occurring within myself which I grew increasingly aware of as I watched. Then I was fully awake in my dream and realised that my dream, perhaps any dream, was an expression of actual and real events occurring in my body and mind. I felt enormous excitement, as if I were witnessing something of great importance.’ Francis P.
So what in actual fact were you or are you fighting with of? You dream it because you cannot admit your fear to your conscious self. But a door is a tremendous indication of something or someone you can let into your life or close out. So I believe this is a test to see whether you can allow something into your life that is bigger than you are used to. It is not a destructive thing but life giving if you dare to stop fighting it. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Unconscious – See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Tony
I had a dream that I woke up in the middle of the night and went to my kitchen and notice light. I kept walking to my living room and notice my front door was wide open. At that point fear just took over me. I walked slowly to the door and nobody was there then I started to search the whole house (in closets, and under beds and sofas) I found nobody. I’ve had this dream several times for the past 3 months. It’s always the same way. I wake up and my front door is wide open…. Can someone tell me what they think about it? Thanks.
Bela – It seems from your dream that you are open for a new person to enter your life – a friend or lover.
But because of past experiences when someone entered your life you are afraid and even in conflict. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/secrets-power-dreaming/
Tony
Roxanne – Don’t worry about dream cats. In your dreams nothing can hurt you and you cannot die in your dreams either.
But of course you can feel things such as fear if you do not understand your dreams. The floods were all the emotions you felt. Pity, because a dream tiger is a great friend to have – they are only threatening if you are afraid. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us/#Victims and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#FaceFear
Tony
Hi, i had this dream today that i was sleeping near my window, and well a familiar voice was at my window and told me to open the window, while gently touching my arm to get my attention. I have no idea why my window was open, but i immediately woke up and walked out of my room and was about to open the door to my house until i realized that i was dreaming. It honestly creeped me out because it felt to real to me. I never have dreams like this most of the time i never dream about anything.
I want to know what this dream meant
I also want to note that the arm felt cold when it touched me, which doesn’t make sense since i live in Texas its never cold outside here
I was in a room, looking at a white wall, and I saw a white door that didn’t have any of the hinges, or a doorknob. It looked as if it had been placed in a door opening in the wall, and was screwed, or bolted, on either side in the middle, in place.
Hi..
I dreamed that our sister that we didn’t get along with was outside the door wearing black.
What does this mean,sir?
Hi Tony,
I had recently a dream about doors, because there were so many. The thing is I was running from policemen I think; with me was David Duchovny (I don’t know if this detail is important or not; I just had 3 dreams with three different famous people); anyway, we were running through this building that had so many doors; finally I got in front of this light brown door that was closed; I wasn’t sure if I should enter or not; I knew that doors dream usually bring me to a scary place, so in the end I decide to get up; I had before dreams about buildings with many doors, is not the first time; what do you think is all this about? Thank you.
hi tony, i dreamy i was being given a lift home from a male friend and i was sleeping in the back of the car and was afraid as he was driving very fast, i dont remember arriving home but 45 mins later i woke to find i was in my childhood house (but it was still my now home) i decided to lock up but couldnt shut the back door, i had no strength in my arms and the door just wouldnt close so i asked my teenage son to help…..then the same happened with the front door but this time he struggled too so i told him to open the door fully and then close it but as he did so i seen a face and im not sure if it was another male friend, my best friend….then my son disappeared and i was calling him but my voice was weak then i was calling my daughter and my voice was weak still…..i felt powerless like i couldnt protect my children an then i woke up, petrified 🙁
also while i was in the car i reached out from under my duvet to lock the car door to feel safe and to shut the window so i couldnt hear just how fast we were travelling
Bex – It seems from your dream that you are not feeling secure in what is happening to you generally. So imagine yourself in the car with the windows shut and feel the security it brings.
Tony
Bex – See facing fear – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#FaceFear
Tony
I had a dream I was on a cruise and the bia2 started dining so every body got off and head to swim to shore. I walked into some place to use their phone. this mash about 60, who was really creepy, told me I www stuck i’m the year 2030 and head to find the right door to get out. I was in a building with doors to different rooms Everywhere and one room was a play room for people who were supposed to be kids but never found their door and were stuck there. after searching for a while, a kind lady finally told new all I head to do was to sign in to find out what for to go to. what does this mean?