Earth

The earth is your body. It is all the things in nature that you take for granted, that enable you to exist. Just as the physical earth is made up of past events the trees and leaves, the plants and creatures that have lived and crumbled into the dust of the soil so the earth of your dream represents your past on which your present exists, and your future is built. Therefore, digging into it would uncover things you have buried there from your past; feelings that have lain buried. The earth is also your mother. It depicts the soil, the genetic material, and the background from which you have sprung. It is the womb of the past from which you have being born.

Are you growing things in the earth?

Anything growing from the earth in your dream shows something that has developed from the possibilities of your life, and who you are. From the point of view of dreams, everything you do think can feel is a creative act and things grow from them. Therefore, if you are planting something, then you are attempting to develop something you from your possibilities.

Are there things you are digging up from the earth?

If you are uncovering an object, or old bones, then you are probably becoming conscious of long buried memories and feelings from your past. If what you are taking from the earth is vegetables, or things to eat, these are the fruits of your past efforts, and suggest benefits arising in your life.

Is the earth muddy or dry?

If the earth is muddy and difficult to walk in, you are probably finding your present life hard to deal with. Negative emotions are bogging you down. But if the earth is dry and firm, then you are feeling of firm ground as far as relationships and creativity are concerned.

Are you under the earth?

The level of awareness prior to birth; the basis of consciousness out of which your personal self-awareness sprung. The unconscious processes of yourself, with its collective family influences, and racial memories.

In some way our exploration into humanness leads us to reach up against gravity until we break into cosmic identity. We leave the womb of the earth. We complete our birth cycle, like a caterpillar finishing its life, and the metamorphose into something else. We become free of gravity. Free of the body that gave us birth, and become a cosmic entity.

Being in a tunnel, cave, or mine, show you exploring what is usually beneath the surface of your mind and feelings. This is a journey into your unconscious. Remember the rules here are different to those in everyday life. Here you create your own environment, your own traps and freedom, out of your fears, hopes and love. See mine

This often represents the things you take for granted in life, like your body, the processes of life, your family or cultural background, the basics of belief upon which you stand. But earth also represents the past, the fallen leaves of your experience from which soil new structures of self are built.

Digging into the earth is digging into your history, and in its layers you find the story of the evolution of consciousness and life in matter or mother.

To come up out of the earth, or a grave, is to be born out of this mother’s womb, into new insights or period of your life.

Clods of earth: The stuff of life, of the past from which we grow and have our being. Clods can also represent the basic everyday thing we meet in life that are life lessons we learn from.

Soft earth or fields: Mother; the fundamental processes of life out of which you have your exist.

Off the ground: Losing connection with your roots of family or culture. Living in a state of mind that does not connect you with common reality. This may also be occasionally shown as being on a high building.

The things we take for granted which act as the supportive background to our life and activities, such as parental love, our own reality as a person, social order, the thousands of things which constitute ‘reality’ for us; the basic ‘taken for granted’ aspects of one’s nature. For instance language and culture are such. They give us the very basis for our personal and unique personality, yet we stand upon them just as the earth supports us.

The earth is your body. It is all the things in nature that you take for granted, that enable you to exist. Just as the physical earth is made up of past events – the trees and leaves, the plants and creatures that have lived and crumbled into the dust of the soil – so the earth of your dream represents your past on which your present exists, and your future is built. Therefore, digging into it would uncover things you have buried there from your past; feelings that have lain buried. The earth is also your mother. It depicts the soil, the genetic material, and the background from which you have sprung. It is the womb of the past from which you have being born.

The ‘ground we stand on’; attitudes and relationships we have taken for granted; everyday life; the past. The ground, like earth, holds in it all past experience, summarised as it is in culture and language. See Unconscious.

Example: In that darkness we were one as I had never been one before. For an age we remained, and then gradually arose, as I gave him the keys to new life. “All that was dead has become earth. It’s no longer sick or rotten, but bloody good earth. The new thing can grow in it now. It is been a hard winter, and it’s going to be a good summer. There is a good harvest coming.”

Idioms: Down to earth; go to earth; like nothing on earth; more things in heaven and earth; life on this earth; spirit of the Earth; under the earth.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

In what way am I relating to the earth in the dream – digging – planting – walking on?

Is the dream suggesting something about my background or heritage – if so in what way?

Is it about the soil, the symbolic nutrients of my growth?

See planets – Processing Dreams – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets