House

For public buildings see Buildings or for other home things see Home. Also see house in my dreamparts of house like attic or windows.

A house nearly always refers to you, depicting your body and aspects of your personality. That is because it is what you live in – your body. This becomes obvious if, having visited friend’s houses you judge their character by the condition of the house. The following description of a man returning home gives a graphic example of this.

Example: When I arrived home and walked through the garden gate I noticed things about the garden I had never let myself see before. The untidiness and absence of care were no longer hidden by veils. Particularly the track I had worn across the small front lawn. It was worn because I used it as a shortcut instead of walking along the path. But then I arrived at the door, I knew suddenly that it was me. The door was me, and every scratch on its paint was a part of my life, reflecting my state. Opening the door I went into myself. The door and garden had already shocked me with my lack of attention to outer details. Now inside the house, the same things showed themselves in the state of my house, depicting my inner health.

We are all human animals trying to deal with and confronted by the complexities of modern life, with its subtle and ingeniously devastating values. A house is a modified cave. It is so easy to get lost in the jungle of values and forget that. As (primitive) humans, we may recognise what are the basic needs – food, shelter, and human and physical warmth. A cave without emotional warmth was deadly and even if it fitted the modern “values” was deadening. Love was a food that we all needed to face the outside world with outgoingness and pleasure. Without it there was no flowing radiating charge in us to transform the outer world into a place we could meet with courage. See Opening to Life

Thus if you take a large house with its many functional rooms, the library would represent the mind; the bathroom cleansing or renewal of good feelings; the bedrooms ones sexuality or intimacy; the roof your protectiveness or ‘coping mechanisms’. But these parts of the building may also be seen as different parts of your body. So going into any building suggests an entering into something within you, perhaps a searching or looking within yourself. So the structure of the building not only associates with your physical age and well-being, but also with the structure of attitudes and viewpoints built in your youth through your relationship with those around you. In a larger context, a house can represent a family tradition, the class the family is in the social hierarchy.

Example: When I identified with the house it took a while to really experience it as a living process rather than simply an intellectual interpretation.  But when I did become the structure and experienced the extent of the house, I realised it as my body.  But it was not my body as I had been taught to see it through my training as a nurse.  I did not experience it simply as a biological process, or a physiological machine.  I experienced it as an incredibly ancient thing, carrying or incorporating in its form and functions lessons of life gathered over millions of years of human and animal evolution.  I felt that it holds within its darkness – the presently unconscious areas developed and lived in the past – enormous amounts of information or memories.  We fail to be aware of these because our attention is so fixed on the world outside of us.  But of course, even there, if we look carefully, we can see we are the result, our culture and language are the result, of the events and lives stretching back into the ancient past.

The house can depict a way we allow the world into our life, or exclude it, and the love or attitudes, the pain or hidden secrets of relationships. But a house is a massive symbol and it can link with many aspects of you and your life. So to really get from your dream house what it refers to you also need to ask yourself what type of house it is. For instance how old is it and how does that refer to your age and what period of social attitudes your were born in and influenced by. What social strata does the house represent and what environment does it stand in?

Then, in what way are you influenced by or developed from that social background. If we then go into the house, what is happening inside, and whereabouts in the house? This indicates things, feelings, past influences you are presently dealing with. As a person you have many facets and possibilities, and the various parts of the house depict these. The interaction between these facets are what make you who you are. Understanding them enables you to find your way through the things you face in yourself and the world.

Example: I started to identify with the building, and realise that I am the building. My body is the building. As the building, as my body, I realised that I have been built by many different influences. Not only have my parents contributed by their genetic make up, but also the environment I have lived in, the food I have eaten, the society in which I lived and its many chemicals and waste products all have been influenced in the building and shaping of my being. In fact in the dream the building appears strong, solid and functional.

To quickly find an entry in this long section click on the following links: Parts of house

abandoned house – ancient houseapartment or flatattictrapped in an attic – threat from atticlooking out from attichiding in attic

Back of house – balcony/verandaballroom –  bannister – basement – bedroom basement and cellarsnake in the cellar or caveBad smellbathroom big house buying a house 

childhood house cellar – ceiling – chimney – corridor

dining room – doorBack doorBlack doorDoor to strange landscape or worldDoorknobfront doorLeaving door openglass doorshutting a doorside doorSomeone at a door

empty house

first floor – Floors of house – Floor –  fortressground floorHomehouse attackers or intruders from outside–  house burnt or falling –  cramped housedamage to structure –  – Front of House –  house known only in dreamhaunted houseinside of housekitchen in woman’s dreamkitchen larder or fridgeliving roomLooking back at a/your house – moving or new housenursery 

Grand house or stately home

old or known houseother people in houseother person’s house – Outside the house and garden

People or things coming from downstairs

repairs enlargements or renovationroof – Room – row of houses

Secret or unknown room – Seeing your husband/wife/partner go in someone else’s houseBeing in someone else’s  house – Shelf – Stairs – Study or library

Things in the house – Toilet – Top floor or attic upstairs –

people or things arriving from

Wall – Windows

Abandoned house: Suggests it was lived in at one time and was then no longer used or honoured. It also has suggestions in a dream of things that have left memories. There might be things left there that would be useful. Sometimes there have been things done there that you are frightened of or regret.

ancient house: A very old house, especially if it is large, can depict what could be called past dwellings, or past lives involved in or connected with your present life. In general it depicts the past from which your present life has emerged, and the influences from which it arises.

apartment or flat: In general the same as house or home – below – but may have a slightly different significance if you have lived in an apartment or flat. Therefore the questions need to be asked as to whether the dreamer lived/lives alone in the apartment? Does the dreamer share the apartment with others? What was living alone or sharing like? These form the associated feeling states connected with the dream apartment. See Settings in Dreams

attic: The mind, ideas, memories, past experience; things that are out of sight or forgotten. See larger entry on attic

If trapped in an attic: a purely intellectual approach to life.

Finding an attic: pleasure at new ideas, discovering potential or wisdom from past experience, or you are dealing with things you previously thought were not important in your everyday life.

Threat from attic: Disturbing thoughts, or something connected with what you have hidden or forgotten.

Window or turret looking out from attic: Our sense of connection with the cosmos; wider awareness; intellectual view.

Hiding in attic: Escape from other people; retreat from everyday life. See example below.

Example: I was sleeping in an attic. A large dog was with me – a wolfhound like I used to exercise a few years ago. I and the dog would go out together. The dog was wild and free. I enjoyed being with it. together we did things like hunting which felt very real in the sense of not being artificial behaviour. Although I never washed I felt clean and healthy. Leon.

When Leon explored his dream he felt the attic was a place where he could exist but not be involved with people. The attic reminded him of the attic in a childhood house, where his mother never went because of the steep ladder. So he could go there and be alone, free of other people’s presence and influence.

Back of house: Usually represent the less public of viewed or private area of ones life. Where one can be more of oneself out of the public eye.

balcony/veranda: It can mean an attitude of looking down on people, maybe superiority but it could also be about not wanting to get involved or express who one really is. A balcony in a theatre is also a special place for important people, and also a dangerous place for young children. Veranda can be an outdoor place for entertainment or socialising, so can suggest an ability to express yourself and be sociable.

ballroom: See: ballroom.

banister: A feeling of security against falling or being hurt. Something that protects you; a protective barrier. See: the section on stairs under house and buildings. It might at time be a link with childhood memories where hurt was involved.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part does the banister play in my dream, and what does that suggest?

Am I near a dangerous edge in my life?

Is this something I have built out of my attitudes?

See Techniques for Exploring your DreamsQuestionsSumming Up

basement and cellar: Usually the things we have hidden from awareness in our unconscious. The example shows how Mrs L. has killed or repressed a part of herself. We might ‘kill’ ambition, love, sexual drive, and these be pushed into our unconscious.

But the basement or cellar also is the entrance to personal and transpersonal memories, our biological ‘unconscious’ functions, archetypal patterns of behaviour, subliminal or psychic impressions, the collective unconscious. Frequently it is the place we keep memories of traumatic events in our life. So a dark shape or intruder might emerge from ‘downstairs’. Our dark deeds or guilty memories are also in the basement.

A snake in the cellar or cave: Our psychobiological drive; the energy behind our growth and motivation which includes sex drive. Often experienced as our emotional or feeling drive or zest for life. This connects us with awareness of our evolution as a person.

Bad smell: emotions which could cause depression or illness.

Example: ‘I know I have killed somebody and their body is walled up in the cellar. The strange thing is I haven’t a clue who this person is. Various people visit my home and I am terrified the body will be discovered. In one of these recurring dreams the police actually investigate the disappearance of ‘the person’ and go into the cellar. When I wake from these dreams I always have the most terrible guilty feeling.’ Mrs P. L.

bathroom: If you are from the USA going to the bathroom can mean you want to use the toilet, in which case see toilet – or maybe you need wash, or have a shower or a bath, in which case see bath/bathing.

buying a house: See: purchasing a house.

chimney: Smoking; the birth canal; sign of inner warmth. Belching black smoke: The grim mechanised side of our culture centred on production instead of humanity.

corridor: No man’s land; limbo; in between state; the process of going from one thing to another. The corridor, because of its shape directs ones progress along it. So it is both limiting and yet gives opportunity to traverse a building quickly.

So if it has this feel in your dream it links more with the expression of your potential or energy. As such it is a channel for the energy of potential to flow through you, into the many departments or ‘rooms’ of you. The example may refer to the experience of birth – the birth canal. Such a corridor can also depict a sense of not being able to get out of a dissatisfactory situation. It may refer to a direction in life produced by circumstances, or even the female genitals. See: white. Many corridors in a building might suggest the complications and barriers that stand in the way of simple effective action or expression.

Example: ‘I’m trapped in a long passageway or corridor. I can’t get out. I’m feeling my way along the wall – there is a small light at the end of the tunnel, I can’t get to it. I’m very frightened. I wake up before I get to the end. Then I feel afraid to go back to sleep.’ Margaret.

door: 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.

Door – General meanings depending on dream: A boundary; the difference between one feeling state and another, such as depression and feeling motivated; a barrier to change or growth; 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; being open or inviting; a sense of leaving an environment or relationship – escape; 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.

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.

Door to strange landscape of world: Finding entrance to unconscious.

Doorknob: Turning point in opportunity, sexual or otherwise. The ability to make a change or to enter into a new situation. 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.

Glass doors: Invisible barriers in the way of your goals or possibilities; being able to see through to the possibility of change.

Grand house or stately House: Possibly represents either your inherited tendencies from your ancestors or your logn past; or your vision or ambitions for something you would like to happen. Remember that great things have always developed from people’s great ideas that they then work at making real – for the real is only our vision of the future that we put our life energy into building. See The House of the Ancestors

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.

Example: ‘I find my way to a door and knock. It is at the end of the cul de sac. An old woman of about sixty comes to the door. Although old she is healthy and well preserved. Without a word I grab her in my arms and have sex with her.’ Patrick S.

Example: ‘I come up to a door which I’d never seen before, and on opening it, I came across another house fully furnished.’ Mrs R. F. 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.

empty house: Suggest that you are feeling empty of purpose and perhaps are slightly without purpose. Or it could mean that you have a completely new beginning to be very creative with your life and direction.

first floor: (In this dictionary the first floor is called the ground floor)

fortress: See: castle.

ground floor: For all the ‘floors’/levels of a house see Floor

Home: Ones basic needs such as shelter, warmth, nourishment – but usually in the sense of what we have created as our basic way of life; the values, standards, goals we have accepted as normal, or are ‘at home’ with; as in the first example – the situation or feeling state in our home, which here means family atmosphere and attitudes; the state of feeling relaxed, being oneself because away from other people and what we need to be in relationship with them. Thus a sense of being oneself, or absence of concern over other peoples criticism.

In clarifying this dream symbol, it needs to be defined as to what the state of feeling was in the home, and whether one shared the space with others, and what this was like.

In a past home: Depicts the parts of our character or experience which developed in that home environment.

Someone else’s home: What we sense as the attitudes and atmosphere – or the situation prevailing in that home. So a young woman going to the home of her lover and his wife, shows her facing the fact of her lover’s home situation and commitment in marriage.

Future home: The direction you would like your life to take, or fear it might. See: house below.

Idioms: Bring something home to someone; close to home; come home to roost; home and dry; broken home; home truth; home is where the heart is; feel at home.

Example: ‘I was sitting in the living room at home and my mum was sitting there; like we do when we’re relaxing in the evening. From nowhere in particular my dad was there. He held his girlfriend in his arms and displayed her in front of us. She was stark naked. My mum tensed up, tightened her lips, and tried to look away. I felt acutely embarrassed for me, mum, dad and his girlfriend.’ Lynsay S. Example: ‘I am walking down a busy street when I realise all I have on are my bra and pants. Everyone is staring at me and I try to appear unconcerned but feel more and more embarrassed as I go on. Eventually the street and the people fade and I am alone in my own home and a great sensation of relief comes over me. I do not bother to put any more clothes on but wander about the house secure in the comfort people are no longer looking at me. Mrs S. C. This depicts the home as absence of demands made on us by other people or social rules – so the ability to be oneself.

house: If the house is one we know, live in now or in the past, what is said about home applies.

Attackers or intruders from outside: Social pressures or response to criticisms.

Basement: See: basement.

Bedroom: See: bedroom

Big house: People often dream of a very big and grand house, and often feel it is not theirs, but everything in a dream is created by your own thoughts, fears, and genius. It depicts the many different departments and areas of yourself you could explore, also your ancient past can be open to you if you enter your dream house.

The big house is a sign that you are much bigger and have more space/potential than you presently believe or know. You need to explore that potential and develop it, for you are a miracle of life, and nobody fully understands what we are. So see Being the Person or Thing

While awake we often think we have a view of what we are based on other peoples opinion of us, our parents lack of interest in us and their comments, that may have made us feel small and insignificant, or even our own view of ourselves, what our body looks like. And so often we have a diminished view of ourselves. But being alive is a miraculous and amazing thing – probably the most amazing thing in the universe.

Our astronomers are searching everywhere to find life on other worlds. In one way that is ridiculous. We spend enormous amount of money and time in such searches on other planets and yet forget that we are living beings with enormous – even infinite  – potential and do nothing toward caring for and helping each and every one to unfold their potential.

Burning or falling down: Big changes in attitudes; leaving old standards or dependencies behind; sickness. See: Last example in falling.

Cellar: Similar to basement – what is unconscious or below ones usually level of awareness. Also may still have associations to do with ‘below stairs’ referring to what is beneath one or a lower class. Also in the cellar or basement one is near to the earth, the primordial forces of nature, what moves beneath ones ‘street level’ personality. The basement can also link with what your present personality has been built upon, your past or family and cultural influences. If there are no walls to the cellar, or tunnels leading from it, it shows an openness or connection with influences beyond your own personality.

Ceiling: Protection, security, against the life’s difficulties. Something above your head, or out of reach. The attitudes or beliefs you use to protect your identity, the height or range of your imagination, or your mental limit or boundary. If you live in a flat with people above you, the ceiling can mean the things other people do that enter your life, interfere with it, or even damage you in some way.

childhood house: It refers to feelings or incidents. sometimes traumatic, that occurred in your childhood years.

Remember that a house nearly always refers to you, depicting your body and aspects of your personality. This becomes obvious if, having visited friend’s houses you judge their character by the condition of the house. See Children’s Traumatic Fears

Chimney: Smoking; the birth canal; sign of inner warmth. If belching black smoke – the grim mechanised side of our culture centred on production instead of humanity.

Cramped house: Feeling of need for personal change; feeling restricted in home environment or in present personal attitudes.

Damage or structural faults: Faults in character structure; hurts such as broken relationship; bodily illness.

Dining room: Appetites; social or family contact; mental or psychological diet.

First, and other middle floors: Internal needs, rest, sleep, hungers; the trunk. See floor for fuller description.

Floor and floorboards: Basic attitudes and confidence; what supports you and you may take for granted, such as health, good will of others, the house you live in. The floor often appears without much emphasis in many dreams. This suggests it is depicting the present situation or environment you are in. For instance first floor or second floor would suggest a different situation in which the events of the dream are taking place. Front of house: Our persona; facade; social self; face.

Ground floor: Practical everyday life, sexuality; hips and legs. It can sometimes suggest real love because all live has to be grounded, it has to be expressed unless it is brought down to earth. See floor for fuller description.

If it is a house created by the dream: Ones body and personality in all its aspects.

Haunted house: This usually point to a troublesome memory or experience that still ‘haunts’ you. But sometimes it can be something very real met, as follows:

Example: I believe there were other people in the huge attic room with me. Then the scene changed and I was walking up the several flights of stairs to get to the attic room. I was holding a small dog in my arms – one of those rather flat nosed toy dogs. When I arrived at the attic I put the dog down. But now the attic was empty and dark. I could feel my hair stand on end and my skin ‘crawling’. Actually I feel it all again as I write this. The feeling arose because there was an unformed dark shape creeping around at the far end of the room. The dog was really afraid and came into my arms. Then the dark creature leapt at me, transforming into a massive mouth with huge fangs and awful demonic face. Immediately I leapt at it in the same way and smashed against its face with my own huge fangs. This utterly disarmed it because it had felt, in its primitive way, to terrify me. It surprised me too that I could so immediately transform into a monster when necessary. Then I approached the dark form, back in its original condition, trying to find out what it was and why I had met it in that way. Gradually I experienced its situation. It had originally been a human being, but had gradually lost its humanness and become this slinking darkness. I was slowly able to help it realise that it could once more take the path to become human if it wanted to. Then it asked me how that could be done. I told it that first of all it had to come out of this dark and empty place to mix with people. The human environment created a different surrounding and influence that would penetrate it and help it to change. It also asked me how I knew about its condition and how I could transform into its own monstrous form. I told it I had once experienced that condition, and that’s how I knew it was possible to come out of it.

Inside the house: Within oneself.

Kitchen in woman’s dream: May refer to pride in the ability to create a home and contribute something valuable to the family. See: cooking.

Kitchen: Creativity; nourishing oneself; mother role; diet.

Larder: Hungers; sensual satisfaction; your store of memories or feelings that satisfy or nourish you.

Living room: This is the mental and emotional space you live in. Your dream will usually give you a pictorial version of what you have created within yourself, what you exist in and its quality, space or despair. It might also refer to personal leisure or ‘space’ to be oneself and everyday life.

Looking back at a/your house: Shows you looking back upon yourself, upon your life. What you see if a summary of your life at that time/

Moving or new house: This can either refer to a radical change in the way your attitudes and feelings create a sense of the world around you, or that you are in process of being changed by circumstances and events, and therefore deals with the difficulties or excitement/plans in facing the change. Certainly it reflects some sort of personal change, most likely to do with the way you live your life.

Example: Joan had a dream as an 11 year old child and has had it 20 times over the past 40 years. When she was 11 her family moved from a wonderful big country home into a small city road. She didn’t want to move house and didn’t have anyone to share her difficult feelings about not wanting to move. So, never having expressed her feelings the dream kept recurring. Example: The difficulty of facing change is also reflected in the dreams Diana still has as an adult. She dreams her children are always young and her parents always as they were when she was young.

Nursery or child’s bedroom: Feelings about your children; ones own childhood feelings and memories.

Old House or house previously lived in: A previous set of values or way of life, sometimes even a suggestion of influences from lives previous to your present one. This can have very deep meaning, as it can show the influences from your past that are still active in you; it can mean influences from your ancestors and your far past.

Other people in house: Different facets of dreamer, or person or people involved quite deeply in your life. Therefore a stranger entering your house would suggest a new relationship.

Other person’s house: Another person’s life. If you go in the house, it shows you getting involved with that person, perhaps being a part of their life – as for instance entering a relationship. If you are watching someone else go in the house, it suggests an awareness of that person, or an aspect of self, being involved in another person’s life. See entry below on seeing partner go into someone else’s house.

Outside the house and garden: Extroversion or the relationship with environment.

People or things coming from downstairs: Influences, fears, impressions from unconscious or passions – or from everyday worries.

People or things from upstairs: Influence of rational self.

Purchasing a house: In general this may relate to making a decision to change, or wanting a change in your life or circumstances. Purchasing something in a dream also often involves the process of deciding or being uncertain. The decision making is to do with clarifying what you want, what you would like. See: purchasing.

Repairs, enlargement or renovation: Reassessment or change of attitudes or character; personal growth.

Roof: The philosophy, beliefs or coping strategies we use to protect yourself from stress. The roof can also suggest how you are dealing with the energies of emotion, and whether your ‘house’ or personality, is sound.

Standing on a roof: Heightened awareness. See: spiritual life in dreams

Mending roof: Developing new coping strategies; feeling vulnerable; developing the qualities on your life that lead to wholeness.

Leaking roof: Need for new coping strategies; a suggestion that you need to deal with personal problems.

No roof: If not a threatening dream, suggests no barrier between personality and psychic or spiritual awareness; a sense of connection with life or wider awareness. If threatening, feeling invaded by forces outside oneself, or disturbing emotions if raining.

Roof garden: Spiritual or mental growth or flowering of new ideas, insights or abilities. See: Last example in window.

Room: A particular feeling state – for instance the room might feel sinister, warm, spacious, cold, etc. – so depicts such; womb; your life situation if it is a room you are living in. In this sense the room can depict what difficulties, what traps, what poverty or richness of life you are living in. Sometimes a room, because of its spaciousness represents the amount of potential or opportunity one has. The ‘containing’ quality of a room may also depict involvement in ones mother. The décor of the room usually suggests how you feel about the quality of your life.

Bare room: This may suggest you feel your life lacks comfort, or the joy of your own created environment. It can also suggest potential.

Entering another room: Entering a new experience or phase of your life, a new feeling.

Room without doors or windows: May represent the womb and life in the womb. What is happening in the room may show the state of a pregnancy, or feelings about pregnancy; feeling trapped.

Secret room or finding of extra rooms: A common dream theme – 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.

Example: ‘There was a room in my house I had never been in before. It was filled with water and had three kittens submerged in it. While in the room I didn’t need to breath.’ Audrey P. The room here represents Audrey’s childbearing function – her womb. The room can therefore depict mother or qualities of mothering.

Row of houses: Other people. See: entries on room; roof; stairs; wall; attic.

Seeing your husband/wife/partner go in someone else’s house: This may suggest your partner has the tendency to move into another relationship. This may be only your fears, but it may show you sense a growing distance in your relationship, and the possibility of your partner going elsewhere.

Example: I was with my husband down some back alley ways – behind houses – all a bit grey looking and maybe evening light. We were looking for a way through and my husband suddenly took off down a very narrow alley through a wooden tumbled down fence and was gone. I tried to follow but when I got through the fence I felt my husband went through the house that was ahead. It was a strangers house and I just couldn’t make myself walk up to it, open the back door and go through it – what if someone saw me or asked me why I was in their home uninvited – I imagined that the owner was a young oriental woman – and I wasn’t sure IF my husband HAD gone that way or down another alley way. Kate.

Some months later Kate’s husband went to live with another woman. Shelf: Possibly your memories, of something that is a part of your everyday awareness; something that is accessible in terms of your using it or remembering what it represents. See: ledge.

Someone else’s house: Moving into it suggests you want to be like them or want to be near them or even love them in some manner.

Shelf: Possibly your memories, of something that is a part of your everyday awareness; something that is accessible in terms of your using it or remembering what it represents. But principally the way you display or store things that are either precious to you or things, memories you store that still have importance,

Stairs: See stairs

Study or library: Mental growth; mind.

Things in the house: Aspects of ones feelings and makeup.

Toilet: Privacy; release of tension; letting go of emotions, fantasies or desires which we need to discharge. See: toilet.

Top floor or attic: Thinking; the conscious mind; memory or memories, things that haunt you; the head. See: attic.

Walled garden: With high wall it is not only a defense about intruders, but also a private area where you can sunbathe with or without clothes, or be a private person. See wall

Windows: Ones outlook on life; how you see others. See larger entry on window.

Useful questions and hints:

What is happening to the house – changing – decorating – exploring – and how does that apply to me?

What does the quality, age and areas of this house describe about me?

If I describe myself as the house what do I say?

If I am exploring new areas of the house, what am I finding?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Using Symbols to Change Life Problems See: For fuller insight into house – House in Your Dream; Basement, Stairs, Window, Glass, Door, Furniture.

Comments

-Crystal 2012-05-14 22:57:28

Dream i moved into my own home

    -Tony Crisp 2012-05-16 8:42:32

    Crystal – the dream could mean you will move to a home of your own, but it is more likely to mean that this is a move toward independence, toward being at ease and not having to be influenced by other people’s needs or influence.

    Tony

-Marie 2012-05-07 12:46:18

Wow Tony. Thank you! 🙂

-Marie 2012-05-04 12:29:35

Last night I dreamt that I went into a dead man’s house. He had been living there with a girlfriend and the house had been reposessed. I obtained the house some where through the reposession and had first dibs on all the property left behind. I went from room to room rummaging through all kinds of weird spaces and closets. The only thing i kept was money that was stashed throughout the home and jewelery. I searched through that whole house and found many disturbing items that belonged to this man. Mostly items that portrayed a secret sex life. When i was done the house was a complete mess from me looking through it. I let his family and girlfriend go in after me to take what they wanted. Any comments or interpretations on THAT????

    -Tony Crisp 2012-05-07 9:15:57

    Marie – Well, let us look at this a part at a time.

    The dead man and his house – this is not an external man you are dreaming of but a part of you that has been denied life, and so is shown as dead. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-dreaming/ to remind you of that.

    His house is his way of life, even his body – your body that part of which has been repressed.

    Going through his house is a natural thing that goes on in our dream life – when we have the courage to look at what has been killed out of our waking life. We want to see if there is anything of value that we can integrate into our waking life. And what you found was that you have repressed a lot of your sexual longings. It is shown as belonging to a man because this represent the most active side of you – see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/male-man/

    The thing is that the dream shows a lot of what is found is money and jewellery. Those are precious things that are found, so the looking into yourself found a lot of value, which might be linked also with the secret sex life. From the dream it seems it was only secret and probably slightly ‘off’ because it was repressed. If you can admit it into you waking life it will become healthy energy and value. That is where the word devil comes from; it is lived spelled backwards – in other words repressed life.

    So think about accepting it all and making it whole. Maybe that was why the house was a mess when you left it. Our dream self has a very holistic view.

    Tony

-Fish 2012-05-02 20:50:55

Tony, i dream that i was playing with two old houses and i explain to my family that the hosuses where very old so they can fall at any time. I play with the roofs (im bigger than the houses) and i see that they are very fragile. The houses where like the houses of the united states like the normal houses in Coneticut, but im from South America i just visit CT a year ago. I feel that the dream is about complex that are in the family tradition but i dont understand why im bigger than the houses and why i can play with them

    -Tony Crisp 2012-05-04 12:26:07

    Fish – The house usually depicts the personality structure, all the habits, abilities and struggles you build into yourself. But as there were two of them it suggests it is not just yourself. They are fragile because the personality is not built strongly and so, according to your dream, can fall or fail at any time.

    The fact that you play with the houses and you are bigger, shows how you have grown beyond what they stood for, are what they are. Explore the dream by using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/

    Tony

-Amy 2012-04-16 1:24:03

I dreamt of I was in a small town and felt comfortable in this small town (which was completely unfamiliar). A blonde male, about my own age, came and spoke with me and I felt I responded with wit. I remember walking away thinking I must move to a small country town again. Not long after this, I was in this same male persons house, I was running through the hallway. I remember there being wooden floors, it was dark but very homely. We were rushing to escape something, and we got out just in time. I knew the male was near me, but I did not see him. I then was aware I had a baby in my arms. I was comforting the baby, and the baby spoke to me ( I cannot recall what the baby said ) but I remember feeling so surpised that this baby was talking so clearly and rationally at such a young age. I was proud. I had to change the baby’s nappy and found a change room, a woman followed me in there. There was a change table and I placed the baby on a plastic sheet on top of the table. I wanted to provide softer comfort but the nearby blanket was dirty. I changed the baby, although it did not need to be changed. I left the room and heard my mothers voice saying how odd it was that the woman had come in there with me. It hadn’t felt odd, but then I realised it was.

-Michelle 2012-04-08 23:44:56

I have a reoccurring dream. I see myself as an adult, with a desk in the middle of the playground that was adjacent to the childhood home I grew up in. In the background, I can see that my father is home, truck is in the driveway. I am busy managing my work responsibilities successfully, and interacting with colleagues and after a period of time he leaves. My father has been deceased for ten years now.

I have this dream often, where I am in the park in some capacity, with my childhood home / father home for brief periods although the activity that I am participating in , in the park changes and is not always work related.

Im not sure how to interpret this. I know that I am comforted that he is there when I wake. I never leave the park , or enter the house in this reoccurrence. However, when I do dream other times about things happening in my life, the events always unfold in this childhood home.

Any help appreciated? !

    -Tony Crisp 2012-04-10 12:02:09

    Michelle – I see your dream as showing the good feelings you have about your father. And I see them as something that gives you support in your everyday life. That is probably because you learned a lot of skills from him that you still use.

    When we are young we take so much from our parents to build our behaviour. But often we are unaware of it. And I think the dreams about your father are about drawing on all you got form him. That is why the dreams take place in or near the childhood home. So I would suggest you integrate all those good things. Try doing this by taking the dream images of your father and pulling them back into your body. Yes, literally making him one with you. Do this slowly and allow any feelings that arise. This may sound strange but all the images in our dreams are projections from us onto the screen of our sleeping mind; so taking them back into you is like owning them and integrating them. It is called honouring our father and mother.

    Tony

-vivianredb 2012-04-02 15:05:57

i still need help with my dream it been long time ago i say 15 year ago my house got burn down now in my dream last week i dream me and my mom when back they and the house was still they only half of it we when to back yard i saw my old cats they had kittens and they remeber me i need help with dream it some about i cant get out my my mind

-Trena 2012-03-23 0:57:45

Hello, I hope you can give me some insight on a recent dream….
I dreamed that I owned a very large home and the entry way was enclosed by a black wrought-iron fence however, I could not lock the door to the gate. People could come into my house even and there was no way for me to secure my home. A homeless looking couple came into my house and told me I could not be there because they lived there and my rebuttal was that I bought the house and all my belongings were in it. Not sure what happened to the couple in the dream…
I began to explore the huge home and discovered that I had people living underneath my home however, the floor plan was exact to an old church I attended as a child. As I walked down the hallway I observed families living in each room and I do not think they could see me walking in the hallway. At that point I realized what the couple meant that they lived there.

At that point I no longer wanted to lock the wrought-iron gate.

Please help me understand what this means 🙂

    -Tony Crisp 2012-03-23 11:04:07

    Trena – An interesting dream.

    I think the meaning is very simple. You must have come to a new feeling about yourself, or are just about to. It is that your body is the church, and with that understanding you do not need to shut people out of your life.

    Here is a dream sent to me: I was looking at a clear river. I could see the different coloured stones on the bed. The water was running out of a cave in the rock face. I was surprised to see a warm glow or light coming from deep in the cave, as if the sun was shining inside the mountain. Then I saw a big stone carved bust, head and shoulders of a woman, like a Buddha.

    I replied: One of the first things early human being worshipped was a woman with a baby in her arms. This was because seeing a woman produce a new person from out of her body produced great awe. Because of this some people believe that temples and churches represent this mystery of co-creation with life. The inside of the temple is the hidden mystery of the sexual organs. Your dream has similar symbolism. Thus the light shines from within the cave, showing how your body has the mystery of life and creation in it.

    So your dream is saying that you are the mystery which the church was built around.

    And within you is a hugeness you are only just becoming aware of, and there is within you much that needs accepting, with all the wonderful variety that is your potential.

    The people living underneath your home are probably links with your ancestors and your long past.

    Tony

-stephanie 2012-01-26 13:45:44

Hi i wonder if you could give me some guidance as to what me dream means, i have been looking at buying a house and i really quite like 1 house in particular although my mum doesnt like the area so would rather i didnt take it.
My dream was me going back to the house to see it again and buy it but when i got there there was a little lady in the house going about her business, i asked had she bought the property? she replied yes it was a good investment and went about her business.

My mum also had the same dream only there was a old man in the property he had a string vest on and she aasked are we too late have you bought the property? and he replied yes it was a good investment.

Can you tell me what these dreams mean?
Much appreciated

    -Tony Crisp 2012-01-27 9:54:36

    Stephanie – Remember that any character in a dream is your own mental process creating the image to describe something. So the old lady and old man are you, not someone else. The fact they are old is saying they have a lot of life experience. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/characters-or-people-in-dreams/

    So it seems your dream and you mother’s dream are advising you that it is a good investment.

    Tony

-Mia 2011-10-01 15:04:15

I had a strange dream last night and I cant really make out the meaning of it..
In the beginning I was at a supermarket with a friend of mine, I bought a candlestick (that looked like it were made of gingerbread) and eggs, 29 to be exact. the number of eggs was very important. I dont know why I just needed to have 29 eggs.. And on the cardboardbox was a BIG 6 written. As I bought these idioms I went to a house that looked like it was a mixture between old and new, most of it were quite modern. Anyway it was a big house with large windows. It was black paint around each and everyone of them and small pumpkins lay on the winsowsill.. My mother told me I could not keep them cause it wasnt good for me but she said it was ok to keep it until halloween. Then I place myself in a chair an thought to my self, so, this is were im going to live,,, I wanted to get back to my real house but at the same time i knew i could never go back there.. What does the blackpainted windows mean? And the eggs, I cant understand it…

-Gypsy 2011-09-28 17:59:22

I have been dreaming the same dream for several months now. I dream with buying a beautiful house and by the time we are going to be moving in the house is not the same, it is falling apart, it looks like an old house. My husband of 30 years passed away 9 years ago, and in all of my dreams he is always present, he is always leaving me or he is upset with me. I remarried, and I never dream with my new husband. I also dream with my dad (he also passed away 9 years ago). I wake up very depressed, and it seems that these dreams have some kind of message that I cannot understand. Please help me understand the message…Thank yu

    -Tony Crisp 2011-10-31 13:53:58

    Gypsy – Your dreams show a complicated dream life. The dream of the house that is beautiful but never becomes yours is about hopes you have for a better future, hopes that you never materialise. Dreams need to be materialised by making them real, by living them as fully as you can.

    Then the dream about your ex husband is something you have created out of your mixed feelings about him. It does not reflect him being dead. The dead do not leave anyone and feel upset by you. There is nowhere for the dead to go as they are constantly here in a timeless environment. So why do you still feel the anguish of him leaving you. Are you still feeling things relevant to the past?

    Tony

-Andrea 2011-07-27 20:32:11

Hello Tony,
I do not remember dreams for the most part, but this one stuck.
I dreamt of a desolate, empty house. The doors and windows were open and swinging a bit in the wind, really like in a horror movie. Out of the house I could sense coming a scary darkness and emptiness. The “garden” was surrounded by a stone-wall. The sky was heavy with dark clouds. I was totally scared of the house in my dream. I was just looking how to get away from that place. Looking around I saw that the entrance into the garden was standing open, swinging lonely in the wind like the windows and doors of the desolate house. I started running towards that garden-door. Then I woke up.
I may add that Im going through a very difficult period in my life for some month now.
Im not sure whether I want to hear what you have to say, but I felt led to ask.

Thank you for your time and effort!
Regards,
Andrea

    -Tony Crisp 2011-08-18 14:39:11

    Andrea – Many years ago I was present at a therapy session and had what amount to a waking dream/vision. The man who was the subject was lying on the floor and I could see he was dying – psychologically. This so drew my attention I went closer to him and saw that his whole American culture was plastered on him like so many layers of veneers. When I looked at it and saw how dead he was it scared me, so I went in search for anything alive.

    And there is was, like a small flame that had been covered but not extinguished. I saw that his culture had been learned and taken on without any of it being given to the small flame of life. Without the transformation life could bring, any knowledge was deadening rather that enlivening. I saw also that that flame needs to transform knowledge or our culture into life that grows. Like a plant take u0p nourishment form the soil and turns it into the living ti0ssues of its body, so we need to expose all of our experience and learning to the process of life, otherwise we start to die – as a plant does.

    This death we call depression, fear, loneliness, and all the other forms of disorder we see in our society.

    I feel certain you understand your dream. As for what you can do about it, it is difficult to communicate because people are so out of touch with Life.

    What I can suggest, and might be difficult for you to believe in it at first, is that living flame is there in everybody and can transform all our experience. But it doing so it burns through it, bringing it all to consciousness and making it alive. And when that happens it is wonderful thought it may take some time to complete.

    There are several ways to start. I think the simplest is as follows:

    This is not about a belief, such as a belief in God. Remember that dreams arise, your existence arises, from a process you may label in some way but barely know about. You do not have to believe in your existence. You are convinced of it because you exist.

    Do you think you know everything about whatever it is that causes you to exist? For instance although we now know a great deal about life processes in biological science, that science still sees life as a mystery. Can you take that attitude to your own origins? Can you accept that at the base of your being is a mystery?

    Try this simple approach to get closer to this. Sit quietly where you will not be disturbed for a minute or so. Close your eyes, become aware of your breathing, then put your hand under your clothes so you can feel your heart beating.

    There you have it. The conscious you is touching and directly experiencing in a quiet moment how that mystery we call life is right there in every moment of your being spontaneously giving you existence. You are touching the unconscious you. You can feel it moving right under your hand. You know it is not your conscious will, knowledge or beliefs that are pulsing that beautiful movement. Right now life is breathing you and beating your heart. And that is just the very evident surface signs of what it is doing. Feel it! Do you really fully understand that? Isn’t that an amazing miracle and mystery? Wouldn’t it be wise and wonderful to get to know that mystery directly and more fully?

    So open to that mystery that you are, without any preconceptions. Of course you will feel that nothing is happening. But it is an amazing moment, and journey has begun.

    Read also http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-lifestream/

    Tony

    Andrea – Sorry, I got carried away with what I was trying to say in my last post and forgot an important point about your dream.

    It is that an empty and deserted house is representing feelings about or fear of death. Please remember that change is coming and so do not enter that house without a friend beside you. And if you can get any help from what I mentioned then you will pass through that house; it is a necessary part of our growth toward understanding who we are.

    Tony

-Jose 2011-06-29 20:50:13

I have posted this dream in Yahoo answers and in my quest for more more explanations to my dream, I have tried to ask your explanation as well.

I was dreaming before of little houses. I was a bit worried of what it means but it just went off after few nights of dreaming of same house. The weird thing is that it happens a few minutes passed three a.m. no matter how early or late I may sleep.

Now, recently in two days, the same theme of house dream happens again in the same time-frame. The other night I was dreaming of seeing the house of my cousin which was newly-renovated with all the assess around. Then my sister went out of the house and we had a small conversation about what happened to the house. Then last night I was dreaming of exactly the same house but of different angle. Nobody was inside this time and I was meticulously looking at it. Finding out that I had the same dream the other night, I woke up worried of what is the meaning of my dream. I don’t know if I can get a more vivid answer that I have been looking.

Note: In my previous dreams I cannot recall what happened to my life but it was a bit different since, before, I was entering an old house, twice of a haunted house then another of passing by an old-gypsy home. And I cannot recall if it was part of my dream that I was informed before that house represents the soul. Does this new dreams represents the death of soul? Does this means the death of my business plans? Does this means the death of my work?

Your answer is greatly appreciated, thank you.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-07-13 9:09:31

    Jose – I cannot find any mention of death in any of the dreams you describe, so do not be anxious about that.

    The small houses are a reflection of yourself feeling that you do not have enough space and opportunity in your life at the time of the dreams. The dreams occur at regular patterns so this explains the time of the dreams.

    After approximately an hour and a half from falling into deep sleep, an exciting change occurs. We return to level two and REM’s occur. Suddenly the brain is alert and active, though the person is asleep and difficult to wake. This level has been called paradoxical sleep because of this fact. Voluntary muscular activity is suppressed and the body is essentially paralysed. Morrison has pointed out that although the brain is transmitting full muscular activity messages, these are usually suppressed by an area of the brain in the pons. But bursts of short actions occur, such as rapid eyeball jerks, twitches of the muscles, changes in the size of the pupil, contractions in the middle ear, and erection of the penis. It may be that similar excitation occurs in the vagina. Also, ‘autonomic storms’ occur, during which large erratic changes occur in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and in other autonomic nervous system functions. These are the changes accompanying our dreams.

    If we slept for eight hours, a typical pattern would be to pass into Delta sleep, stay there for about seventy to ninety minutes, then return to stage two and dream for about five minutes. We then move back into Delta sleep, stay for a short period and shift back to level two, but without dreaming, then back into level three. The next return to stage two is longer, almost an hour, with a period of dreaming lasting about nineteen minutes, and also a short period of return to waking. There is only one short period of return to stage three sleep that occurs nearly four hours after falling asleep. From there on we remain in level two sleep, with three or four lengthening periods of dreaming, and return to brief wakefulness. The average amount of body shifting is once every fifteen minutes.

    At the end when you are viewing another house from different angles it shows you ulooking at yourself trying to understand who you are and what you abilities are.

    Tony

-Tooshima 2011-06-16 6:17:34

Very well understood.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-06-24 9:40:42

    Tooshima – Thanks.

    It made me look at the entry again and I updated it by fixing some of the links that are now live.

    Tony

-shona 2010-12-07 18:08:58

Hello Tony I am puzzled by this recent dream as it seems so at odds with my conscious understanding :

I return to my home town ,a small seaside place and find that where the Church I used to attend, which was close to my mother’s retirement home, stood, my Mother had had it demolished and built a small supposed to be luxury but, actually in places ,a bit over the top modern hotel.
I went into the new place looking for my room but it was a new hotel room full of sports- wear.. in the dream it had the name of my second son …Roddy’s room. Although the space the hotel took up was large the 3 bedrooms were close almost crammed together at the end of a long hallway.
The hotel also fronted the main St and was being used as a venue for the student Prom .I looked around it and saw the two women in charge wearing maid type outfits …there were large openair spaces and a swimming pool and a part where the owners and their families could live. My actual mother was not in the dream but it definitely was her business venture. She is dead in outer reality.. I discovered they had also demolished a beautiful medieval building to build this
As I explored I came upon people building a strange boat type ark .It was ready to go to sea and after some indecision involving a man who said I could not go, I leapt on but all the doors were shut so I sat right at the front on a sort of step .The boat was on the promenade and then turned sharply onto a slipway and began to move quickly down the slip-way. I looked at the sea hoping it would be calm as I was on this exposed bit and as I looked I saw that the sea was a massive wave, tall as a skyscraper very dark and huge and we were racing towards it. I realised there was a young woman beside me and as I frantically thought how to escape she said” what a sadist to send us this wave.”
I woke myself up very frightened.

    -Tony Crisp 2010-12-10 9:45:39

    Shona – First of all thank you for posting the piece about the house. I think most people do not realise how much dreams offer if we really explore them.

    Now, your dream. Like the house it has a massive background of associations personal to you – such as the demolished church. So all I can do, ever, is to give an overall view that might be helpful.

    I have the impression of a transformation having taken place in your life, may be started by your mother. And I have to guess here and ask was she a woman who loved the ‘good’ things in life? I ask this because she – in your dream – demolished old attitudes and built a new over the top luxury place. This suggests an involvement with the current attitude of a society bend on getting everything at the cost of beauty and life principles. Maybe you are not deeply involved, but you can see it happening all around you.

    Also you see that despite all the promised luxury your actual living space is diminished – the three rooms at the end of a long hallway.

    The ark suggests a way out of the mess, based on old ideas of religion. But in fact the door is closed to you and as the young woman remarks, “What a sadist to send us this wave.”

    Yet I feel that the wave is the way out, even though frightening. This may not seem a very good idea, but you have to remember that when we dream we are creating images that clothe feelings and emotions. If you can see that facing what is an uncomfortable feeling and going through it frees you from it.

    Either that or you could visualise other alternatives.

    Anyway, do not give up.

    Tony

      -SHONA 2010-12-20 14:05:32

      Dear Tony,

      So many thanks for your interpretation and help with my dream.I am a psychotherapist with a Jungian /Transpersonal leaning and can usually get to the bottom of dreams but this one seemed so at odds with my conscious mind that it baffled me.I will take on board what you suggest and let you know in due course.
      With appreciation
      ps have had your book of symbols alongside my Coopers book of symbols for many years insightful and reliable resources

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