House
For public buildings see Buildings or for other home things see Home. Also see house in my dream – parts 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 house – apartment or flat – attic – trapped in an attic – threat from attic – looking out from attic – hiding in attic –
Back of house – balcony/veranda – ballroom – bannister – basement – bedroom basement and cellar – snake in the cellar or cave – Bad smell – bathroom – big house – buying a house
childhood house – cellar – ceiling – chimney – corridor –
dining room – door – Back door – Black door – Door to strange landscape or world – Doorknob – front door – Leaving door open – glass door – shutting a door – side door – Someone at a door –
first floor – Floors of house – Floor – fortress – ground floor – Home – house – attackers or intruders from outside– house burnt or falling – cramped house – damage to structure – – Front of House – house known only in dream – haunted house – inside of house – kitchen in woman’s dream – kitchen – larder or fridge – living room – Looking back at a/your house – moving or new house – nursery
old or known house – other people in house – other person’s house – Outside the house and garden –
People or things coming from downstairs –
repairs enlargements or renovation – roof – Room – row of houses –
Secret or unknown room – Seeing your husband/wife/partner go in someone else’s house – Being 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
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 Dreams – Questions – Summing 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
I have dreamt of this same house various times, but my last dream included my deceased father. In all my dreams I have to break into the house or climb in a window. It looks to be surrounded by vines and weeds, like almost being swallowed by plants. The house is a mess and dark inside. I am scared to be inside even though I know my father is inside. I see a closed door and I know that he is in there. I wonder around the house and find myself back in the kitchen/dining room which is small and dirty. When I see my dad I get scared and try to make up a reason of why I am inside. I look down and see that I am not wearing my shoes, so I tell him I lost my shoes inside somewhere. He looks at me and then turns away. He looks so sad and depressed. He does not say anything. He just walks away. I have had other dreams about him before and he is never sad. This dream has really affected my sleep. I don’t want to sleep.
Miriam – The house is a part of your inner world. Also we often dream about the same place again and again. It is because we each have an inner life that is real in its own way. We built and revisit such placed again and again because we learnt or experienced something connected with it, and so gradually add to it or need to revisit it. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
Also the house sounds very old and scary. It is probably a link with your long past, the past that you inherit from you ancestors. It is scary not because there is anything you need to be frightened of, but because we have a natural reaction to pull our hand away from something hot. So scared feelings are a way of saying “If I know this I am scared it will be painful”. It is probably to do with something from your long past that needs to be experienced. That is why your father is sad, he feels something from the past is not good and needs to be dealt with. See http://dreamhawk.com/stories/the-house-of-the-ancestors/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/#TalkingAs
Tony
I had a dream that I came home and all of the doors and windows to my house were missing. I was a cold day outside and I went into the house and I just couldn’t get warm. As I tried to figure out why the windows and doors were gone people from my life kept coming in and telling me not to worry that it will be okay.
I dreamt about entering this house with my mother who is belated I had good feelings about the house each room we entered I remember it was a house of a family member of my mum but she also died and the house doesn’t exist anymore but at the end there was a lady in the house and I asked her if she wants to sell the house cos I want to buy it and she gave me a price then we left.pls can u tell me what this means thank you
r if
Sheila – The house is the House of Your Ancestors. In our dreams we often refer to this place that doesn’t actually exist in waking life, but in our inner life it is our contact with all our ancestral past. Most cultures venerate their ancestors, and in our dreams they can become a reality. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
As you say, the house doesn’t exist anymore – in waking life. You are asked to pay a price for the house, but there is no material thing in the inner world. What you have to pay for the house is the ability to enter the dream world and explore the house naked of symbols. You are very near to this otherwise you would not have dreamt of it. So try http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
Tony
In my dream I walked back into a house, though I was immediately on the top floor. It was both my house and the house of a man. The houses were attached, as though one side was mine and the other his. There were no walls. I didn’t know who he was but immediately knew he was my “type” and found myself interested in him. He looked a little bit older than me and had prematurely gray hair. His mother was there, and I told her about my interest in her son. I found myself in the kitchen doing the dishes til I finished cleaning up. At some point, either before or after, I was sitting with his mother, perhaps sleeping. I knew he saw me, he tried to make eye contact but I was being coy. At some point he smiled at me, but I was thrown off and didn’t smile back. I began wandering his part of the house and went to three bedrooms in a row. In all three, the bed was unmade and his mother told me that he would lay down in each bed until he decided which bed he wanted to sleep in. There were no bad feelings in my dream, though I remember thinking I might have to break up with my boyfriend if things worked out. Then I woke up.
Hi Tony,
I keep dreaming of moving house and that I’m very happy with the new house. I see my mother and my puppy with me .
This dream is repeating every night.
What does it say , Is it good or bad or ordinary ?
Thanks
Maria
Maria – I feel that your dreams are not actually about moving to a new house, but as a house often represent you, it is saying that you are going through a lot of personal changes, moving to a new way of being, a new you that will find more satisfaction with. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/
Tony
Hi Tony
last night I dreamed of a beautiful house at the top of a hill. It was a very beautiful sunny day. I walked up a large driveway and into the entrance of the house. The entrance was massive, like an elongated ballroom (with polished wood floor). There were two sets of fully opened glass doors held to the walls with magnetic handles which could have been closed to section the entrance into smaller rooms. I could see a small (in comparison) living room though glass doors at the end of the entrance. It looked bright and homely. There was light everywhere. The walls were bare and white but the yellow of the sun made them glow and appear heavenly. I was awestruck but also felt a sense of familiarity. I knew I had to buy the house, but I couldn’t afford it. I thought to myself that I would find a way, even if it meant waiting a long time, I would live there one day because it was meant to be. I walked around and found a room to the left which was quite large and there was a man lying on a large comfy couch. I saw that the room was disappointingly dark and I left immediately. I then walked around the substantial grounds and past a pool at the side of the house (also on the left if looking from the front) before walking back down the driveway. PLease could you help me understand this dream? Thanks.
Beverley – An amazing dream with so much to tell.
First of all it is your house – everything we dream about is our own See
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#YouProjector – so there is no need to save up for it. Nevertheless your feelings that you do not own it arises from the fact that you are thinking of the house as an external thing. It is actually a real place in your inner life – the life of dreams and death. You are not facing the fact that you have earned it from your past. In fact the house also depicts your long past.
You need to approach your house with the feeling it belongs to you, because you felt a sense of familiarity, memories though faint of your long past. So enter it and explore it using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/#TalkingA or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/
The pool outside, if you explore it and enter it, links with the very beginnings of you. Please explore it or find out how. If you miss it you will miss a treasure. It appeared heavenly because it is.
Tony
I realize that I have a reoccuring dream of me wondering a house. It is not the same house each time but in all the houses as I am walking the houses begin expanding, I keep finding more rooms or hallways-the house becomes a maze. One of the houses that I wandered around in-I did seem to keep repeatedly coming back to the kitchen cellar. In all my dreams there is a sense of foreboding as though I am trying to escape from something but I don’t necessarily feel fear in the dream. Just a presence of foreboding.
HI Tony,
I just had a dream where my enemy took me for a drive in a nice Ferrari car, then when we got to her home, her mom went out and told me that she bought my house for only $25,000 when it is valued at around $750,000.. What does this mean?
Thanks so much in advance for your interpretation. Wishing you all the best in the coming year! Happy Holidays!
Kind regards,
Gabby
I dream about houses at least once a month and I look forward to them with anticipation. I am guessing I dream about houses often because I’ve still to elicit the meaning behind the dream.
The common themes in my dreams are that all the houses are large, old and generally full of cobwebs or spiders. In the dreams I discover rooms and wonder why I haven’t seen or used these before. I always see huge potential. I often dream about specific rooms – attic, kitchen, bathroom and occasionally a bedroom. Sometimes I am outside the house with a garden which seems to go on into infinity. I often have to rid the house of spiders which are sometimes are swinging from the ceiling, moving really fast or are sometimes huge.
Recently I had a new version of the dream where I was in someone else’s house. I walked up a diamond encrusting stair carpet into a green front room with beautiful intricate cornices. I complimented the owner on his beautiful house. In the dream I didn’t like this man particularly.
Last night was back to the old, cobwebbed house with loads of potential – new rooms that I have discovered. I can’t stress enough how wonderful I feel when I wake having had one of these dreams. I so wish to go back into the dream and discover more! I wonder if you you would be kind enough perhaps to help me get to grips with what message I might be missing. My gut feeling is that the dreams are about potential opening up within me but I can’t seem to get more than that.
Thank you so much.
Donna
Donna – I think you know what the dream is about – your infinite potential, the discovery of wonderful new places. So that isn’t the problem, the problem is that you have not entered the dreams in an explorative way.
I feel that understanding your dream images in the right way can give you a wonderland of experience. This All the images we use in dreams are like the icons on computer screens. The front object is only a small indication of what lies hidden underneath. The symbols of our dreams and visions are the icons on the desktop of our awareness. We need to click on them if we wish to access the treasure of direct experience they connect with. They seem like they are real, but when you click on them they open up an entirely new experience.
How do we click on them? There are several ways. Here is an example of one of them: “I am at my original flat but come across an extra room or sometimes part of the flat no one knows about. I am always surprised when I find it, but inside myself I know of its existence. It is as though it belonged to me although I am unaware of ever having used it. It is usually a bedroom but sometimes a lounge with a bed in it. It’s obviously lived in. The bed is unmade and it’s a little untidy but comfortable. I feel very familiar with it but recognise none of the contents as mine.”
The dreamer explored this dream and discovered it held her artistic abilities left by her former father’s influence. Her ability had been shut up because her father left her mother and her mother told her he was no good and shouldn’t be influenced by him. So it is worth imagining yourself in the room and take on the attitude of watching what you feel when you enter one of the rooms. Do so with a blank screen in mind without expectations, and see what images or feelings arise. In fact use http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/the-keyboard-condition/ – The Keyboard Condition
That is one way. Another way is to use this one. It can be very powerful. When you do it you need to become the room and all in it. Practice feeling the walls and contents as your body and see how it feels. http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/peer-dream-group/#5inrole
I am interested in how you get on with it. Here is another dream showing its potential.
“I had moved into, and made my home in an ancient historical building, and gradually, bit by bit I was exploring its many rooms. As I moved through the rooms, one by one, discovering their history’s, (each room seemed to have its own history,) the huge rooms expanded and became even larger. I seemed to have an intuitive knowledge and understanding of the origins of each room and who they had belonged to. As I was wandering through the rooms I became aware of another presence following me. I could not really see the presence but identified it as God; of this I was quite sure. I began to tell Him the story of the room we were in and who it had belonged to. We then moved to the window to look at the view, and as we looked out it seemed such a long way down.”
Tony
Thank you for your very helpful reply to my original email on 26 November. I stopped having house dreams shortly after that funnily enough but I had my first one again last night. I dreamt that I walked into a room either a front room or a bedroom. I don’t recall whether I owned this house or not. At one end of the room there were huge windows but on the opposite side the windows were half the size and I was drawn to them. The view was far better from the smaller windows and I would have changed the orientation of the room so I could take advantage of the partial view of a lake through some trees even though the windows were smaller. I also recall the carpet being blue and the shape of the room had lots of angles as opposite to being square or rectangular.
In the next part of the dream I had rented a room from a family. I recall meeting a man who I assumed owned the house. It was a large room with high ceilings and the colour blue featured. My bed was in a central position against the wall opposite the windows and had a blue duvet cover. The bed was quite high up – I am looking up to it almost like I am the size of a child? I remember thinking I should move the bed but then having looked around realised that there was so much room it didn’t matter that the bed was central. The bed felt like the central point of the dream. I also remember turning around and seeing another double bed in the corner which was much lower down and had black duvet covers. Again there were windows in the room but the view wasn’t picturesque. It felt more industrial, like the house was situated somewhere where lots of people worked.
I have tried using the techniques you suggested in your email post but I really struggle for anything to come through. I agree that there are so much more to these dreams than the front object but I cannot seem to get there. It is frustrating because I believe there is a rich source of information which is there but unavailable. On an intellectual level I know I am going through changes and I am wondering whether the large window represents the larger, more acceptable view and the small window represents the view I prefer, not as popular perhaps but preferable to me. Alternatively perhaps it means that my view is too small but that doesn’t really accord with the fact that I liked the view out of the smaller window.
Are there any other ways I might try to tap into this material?
Many thanks
Donna
Donna – Another interesting dream.
You know that we are not simply one thing, but many things, often all at once. So you do not have to see things through the big window or the small window. Remember two phrases that were in your descriptions – infinite potential and there was so much room it didn’t matter!
Also in the first dream there were so many rooms – suggesting again that there are so many ways of being. Have a glance at http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/
“Are there any other ways I might try to tap into this material?”
It took me ages to learn to explore dreams, and looking back I think there were some things that have to be repeated over and over. So I would suggest trying several times http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/the-arm-circling-meditation/ – And come back to me whenever you need to for more information.
I also see that it took ages for me to learn not to keep trying but having asked let the question go. You need to trust that what causes your dreams can also cause spontaneous insights, feelings and emotions. Or may be this is a really good one to try first http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/#Opening
Tony
Dear Tony,
I write to you as I was invited & taken into someone elses house, that they wanted me to reside with them in. So is this a reflection of my personality or theirs?
Last night I dreamed my partner told me he had another house that we could live in as we did not have enough space in the one we were living in. I asked me why he hadn’t told me about it before as we had been struggling.
He told me that he just wanted it left, as it was part of the trust. In real life, we live in a very small flat with two three teenage boys. My partners wife died 5 years ago and left insurance money which helped him buy the small flat he is in now. So back in the dream, I was stunned when he took me to this other house. It was a mansion in the best area of town. It was all closed up, but well maintained. We went inside. It was huge. Fully furnished. The curtains were pulled over most of the windows & there was little light. I was amazed. Wow…I said to him. This place just needs light. Really? he said. I walked with him through the house, opening windows to get clean, fresh air & sunlight. We walked & walked. Upstairs, we came to collections of antiques, perfectly organised. Clothes on hangers colour coded. Look at all of this stuff! Who did this? I said. My wife, he said. She was going to open up a shop to raise money for the less fortunate. I looked at him. That is such a lovely thing to do. But there is no use for all of these things to just sit here. They are not helping anyone. They are just taking up space. Why don’t you sell or give most of it away. Look at all the space its taking up. Its just collecting dust. I know, he said. I just wanted to keep everything how it was. I understand I said, but if you sort this stuff out all of your problems will go away. Look I said. I found another door, to another room. Suprisingly John, his lawyer was living there, for free. The entire time without him knowing about it. He should shift out I said. He is free loading. Then I opened another door. Wow…this house has so many rooms. How many? I asked. I don’t know, he said, I have never counted. This house is amazing, I said. You have all the space, its in great condition, you are rich. You just need to open up the curtains, let the light in, change the windows. They are too small & outdated. That will open the whole place up. I then opened another door. Three samalians were living there. And…the free loaders can shift out. They have had it good for long enough. Charity served and over. Here you are working hard, struggling financially and you have everything here. Amazing! Then the boys ran in excited! Can we have anyroom we like they yelled happily. Yes, he said. Flower just said we should change the windows and get rid of some stuff that is just sitting there and we will be set. The boys ran off happily looking at all the rooms. I don’t want to get rid of this stuff he said to me, but I know what you are saying is right. Well, you have everything here to have an amazing life. I’m sure Lyndell would of wanted you to move this stuff. She was buddist. It’s up to you, but you have to know that everything is here for a good life. (I woke up. The house was the biggest house I have ever been in. it was built in the 1960’s. It was very solid & built of strong material. From the outside it was impressive, but it was astounding at how big it was on the inside & how many rooms it had.)
No reira
Ka kite
Flower
I had a dream that I was back in the house that I lived in as a child. I had just moved back in and about 40 people had come over to attend a meeting that, I guess, the previous tenant had. I kept trying to tell them that they were at the wrong place and to get out of my house but they just kept coming in. The more I tried to push them out and lock the doors the more they pushed back, unlocked the doors, and came in again. Eventually I did get everyone out of the house, locked all the doors, and closed the blinds on all the windows. I told them that there was an alarm system on the house and not to come back. What does this all mean??
I have had so many dreams of houses and it would be like no one can see me but I am always looking down at people….I feel like a silent intruder….I am not sure why I dream about houses so much….I finally own my own home for the last 10 years and haven’t had those dreams until the other night…..so now I am really wondering what this means….???? Hope this doesn’t mean I’am gong back to not having a house….my house is paid off….
Hi Tony,
I’ve just woken from another nightmare. I have two recurring nightmares, both involving my 4 yr old. In this one, I return to my mums house with all the family via the back patio doors, late at night after some kind of party. Everyone is in good spirits. I leave my son with my family while i go out of the room to get my sons pj’s. this is when i notice the stair gate that has been put in place at the bottom of the stairs. I didn’t put it there, so I’m confused. I go back in to my family and ask them why it is there, but none of them admit to knowing anything about it. I then get a very real sense that there is an intruder in the house. The whole house is searched and the police are called. When they arrive, myself and my son are sitting on the stairs and there is a party going on in the front garden but everyone is drunk. My brother sees one of his friends outside and is talking to him through the window but when he goes to invite him in, I stop him. These people are making me feel very nervous and scared and i dont want them to come in. They are strangers to me and I refuse to let them into the house. The police appearance makes the people outside angry and they all start shouting, which means the attention is then on them and the police start arresting people outside. They do not come into help with the intruder that I feel is inside the house. This is when i wake up. Please can you give me a reason behind this as I live alone with my child at the moment, and I’m starting to feel like this dream is a warning to get out of my house as I can’t protect my child from potential harm. It’s scaring the life out of me. Please help. Thank you.
Hi Tony,
I had a dream last night that I was in a strange house with a couple of of formerly-close friends that I have little contact with now. The house did not look like either of their homes in real life, but presumably it belonged to one of them. I was using the washroom facilities when the house started to shake, like in an earthquake. Then the house slowly rolled over so that it was upside down and started sliding down a hill. The rollover was slow enough that I didn’t fall, I just sort of braced myself and crawled along the walls until the ceiling was beneath my feet and the I could stand again. But it was shaking because it was sliding downhill. I came out of the bathroom and called to my friends to join me in holding on to the hopefully-sturdy metal spiral staircase in the centre of the house (which resembled the staircase at my grandmother’s house when I was a child -this grandmother does not acknowledge me or my brothers as her grandchildren though). The house came to a stop at the bottom of the hill and landed in front of somebody’s house. They had a silly sign on their fence that said ‘Beware of House’. No other houses in the neighbourhood were damaged, so it didn’t seem to really be an earthquake that caused the house to roll and fall.
What do you think this dream could mean?
Thanks very much for any ideas you have 🙂
Yvonne
Yvonne – The house is a representation of a way that you have lived, or would like to live – it is more than anything also a symbol of you. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-house-in-your-dream/
The earthquake is about a big change that is about to happen, or start to happen soon. It is a change that will happen inside you and will take time for you to settle. But as there was no harm to you it seems as if you are capable of meeting change and will survive okay.
The spiral staircase hints at a view of life you have, that you are in a process of continual growth, the spiral staircase of Life. So perhaps the change is part of your growth. The sign on the house is usually a way of telling you something – probably that the house/you that you live in at the moment is not a good place to be. It is probably referring to you attitudes to your life.
Tony
Erin – The three levels usually represent the three part of us – the body, the personal consciousness and our core self.
The imagery describes a situation that causes you anxiety and in the end you try to hide from. I think the young girl is probably the reappearance of an experience you had at that age – not the dream experience, but the feelings.
The shadow is the depression that could result from the reappearance, but it can be dealt with by recognising the signs and its cause. Try using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/#TalkingAs with the young girl and the shadow.
Tony