Mirror

This has a great many levels of meaning. Basically it is a looking at yourself, a self examination; and the face in the mirror may not match your own. It may be better or worse. That is, in self examination you may come across, or see, parts of our nature that are the worst side or the best side of yourself. These re the things you do not usually see about yourself. You may, for instance, see innate possibilities as they would be in full bloom. But the mirror might only reflect your negative worries about yourself, or how you think you appear to others. Worries about ageing might be one of these. Nevertheless, the dream process usually tries to lead through worry to growth.

This can show concern over ones ‘image’ or how others feel about you, self examination, self love, negative only if the love is not shared with others. In some dreams it reflects anxiety about changing or ageing. There is the possibility of self assessment, so how you are judging yourself a the moment. But also being absorbed in yourself.

The mirror particularly depicts self awareness in the sense of insight into your behaviour or character traits.

The mirror appears in many religious symbols and in much folklore. Water was probably the first mirror, and as such represents human consciousness, soul, or self awareness. This looking at oneself can therefore be a way of depicting self awareness, your ‘I’, as a distinct individual.

Alice goes through the mirror to enter Wonderland, which is again symbolical of looking within self, and exploring unconscious contents.

Indian and Buddhist philosophy use it in a slightly different way, as also Yoga teachings. It is explained that when we look at a mirror we do not see its actual surface. We do not see the actual mirror, only the images reflected on its surface, which appear as reality. Likewise, mind or consciousness is like a mirror. In it we see the images of physical existence and life experience, which we take to be the only reality. But the Yogi asks himself, what is this that is conscious of all these images? What is this mirror we call consciousness? Who am I outside of the images?

 The mirror is also similar to water and can depict looking into the unconscious to see who you are. But like a crystal ball, sometimes you see things that your intuition is telling you. The following example illustrates this. 

Example: Was looking in a mirror. Suddenly a shadow appeared on it. At first the shadow seemed threatening or frightening. Then I saw it was only a directive, a figure with its arm and hand extended as if pointing. Looking behind me I saw the shadow was cast by a featureless cat or animal. Its head was completely smooth, without eyes or ears. At first I thought it could not see or hear, but then realised it must be able to, as it was pointing to a man out in the rough sea. The man had a lifejacket on, so was in no immediate danger. But the sea was very rough. I went out and brought him in, dried him off, put him in my house to recover.

Here the cat is the dreamer’s intuition telling him that inwardly he is experiencing some stormy weather, and needs to take care of that part of him. It also points out that his intuition does not depend upon having physical eyes.

Changed face in the mirror or multiple selves: Becoming aware of aspects of ones character which are usually unknown or not accepted.

 Example: ‘Getting ready for a wedding in an upstairs room, feeling a bit unsure of what to wear. I look in a mirror and see I have on stockings and suspender belt with a very short frilly petticoat. It looks very sexy. I am aware the door is open and have an urge to close it, but then feel okay about looking sexy and people seeing me.’ Nora LBC.

Nora is looking at how she may appear to others if she allows her natural feelings to show.

Cracked or broken mirror:  Distorted self image. A poor understanding of yourself, or perhaps a warning that your sense of self is cracking up.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is what I see in the mirror pleasnt or unpleasant?

Can I accept it may be a side of myself?

What can I do to meet the image I see?

See The Harvester – Resistances – Archetype of the Paradigm – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Comments

-chi 2018-06-18 0:11:17

Hi Tony, I had a very vivid dream that scared me. At first I was with my financee walking down a dark aisle/path with no others around. He is to my right hand side and we are holding each other closely, as we walked passed by a long standing mirror, I noticed he had no reflection in the mirror. We continued walking and I looked into another long standing mirror to the right side and confirmed that he really didn’t have a reflection, thus he is a ghost. Then somehow the dream jumped to myself looking into the mirror on my left as I was walking back down the same aisle/path, and i looked scary and ugly with my the bottom right corn of my mouth stretched downwards and lots of my teeth exposed. like I was angry and ugly and I felt scared, so I reconfirmed in the next mirror and next and I looked freakish. Is this dream saying I don’t think my fiancee is important and that I think I am a horrible and bad person inside?

    -Tony Crisp 2018-06-20 13:21:07

    Dear Chi – Virtually everything in dreams represent something other than the image, because all the people, animals, places you see in your dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images.

    Also, nearly always when people dream about someone they know or a strange new person or situation they automatically believe the dream is about that person, situation, or animal. But it is usually our thoughts or feelings that are portrayed as the person or even the animal; for when we think of our friend or partner our thoughts are not them – just our thoughts and feelings about them.

    So many people do not realise that they have an inner person equally as powerful as the external person you know. You have taken in millions of bits of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings or problems met by meeting or living with them, and these memories change you and make you the person you are. The memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. Such an inner person can appear in dreams because you still carry the memories or impressions of them, and so they influenced what you hold within you.

    So as the image of your fiancé is a dream image and not a ‘real’ person it is no surprise that he didn’t have a reflection.

    As for the distortions you saw of yourself, who in the world is perfect, for we all have parts of us that are not lovely.

    Here are some of my own dreams: “I looked in the mirror and saw that my face had certain `Mongol’ features, especially the lower lip. Realised that I had always had these, but they had remained latent.” – “I looked at myself in a mirror. My face and tongue were making uncontrolled idiotic movements.” – “This great thick arm I was seeing in the mirror is like the crab displaying his claw, saying look at my power. It’s like a wrench or spanner you hang on the side of your body.” – “Recently it is obvious from the mirror that my body is going through another period of rapid ageing. The dream was a dramatic representation of my feelings about this. Death was gradually creeping up on me.”

    So you are not perfect – join the club – but for goodness sake don’t start labelling yourself as horrible and a bad person.

-Desrine 2018-06-07 9:06:12

I am still confused
In my dream someone asked me to lend her my mirror. What does that mean.

    -Tony Crisp 2018-06-08 9:08:12

    Desrine – You have not given enough information for me to understand your dream. Things to remember when writing to us with your dream:

    1. Write down anything that you think might have triggered the dream or links with it in some way.
    2. Write down the whole dream; do not leave out parts because you consider them not important.
    3. Put in any insights you have about people or animals in your dream – it has to be the character of them as they appear in the dream.
    But your dream may suggest that you are not see who you really are for dreams often want to show areas of you that need attention.

-Elisa 2018-04-08 7:04:23

I had a dream a while ago, it was very vivid, the type where you even seem to feel what happens (like something touching you). It was about my crush, and while I know that a lot of people dream of the people their interested in, the part that made me curious was that, we were in my room, cuddling, he was hugging me from behind, kissing my neck I remember feeling very happy, but then seeing this big mirror in front of my bed and me looking right at it and seeing our reflection, and just smiling, and then he’d smile too and kiss my neck again, while I still looked at the mirror. Any thoughts?

-Jolene 2018-03-31 3:13:45

I had a vivid dream recently, so vivid in fact, I thought I was awake at first. In this dream I got up out of my bed and walked into the room just outside my bathroom and looked into the mirror there on the wall. I did not see my face I saw the back of my head. I remember not feeling scared, but actually looking at the back of my head. I didn’t want to look at my face and then I knew I was dreaming and I woke up. Any thoughts on this one?

-lota 2018-01-24 4:56:46

i had a dream last night that i was facing old mirror but the reflection was not me. and then i was dreaming that someone is using my body

-Olsi Marani 2017-06-27 19:02:01

I saw the moon in my dream. Moon was so beautiful and so near. Nearer than usually. It was just the time when sun got down and it was not dark yet. The sky was a little bit blue yet but without the sun. The moon was beautiful. And I saw the surface of moon. It was full of mountains. I saw the horisont in front of me in earth and the horisont was full of mountains. Mountains ribbet with just a bit of snow on them. The image of mountains in earth was mirrored in the surface of earth. In everyday life I am affraid to see the moon because I believe that moon brings me bad things and bad luck. In this dream I was affraid to see the moon too just because I was thinking it will bring me bad luck. The dream ended here. I was in these conditions for some time and then I woke up.

-Lee 2017-06-02 15:23:26

Hi
I can understand what you are describing but instead of clearing up my dream it makes it more confusing. I dreamed I was having drinks with family and they would hold the glass to their mirror reflections sort of like saying cheers, and they told me to do the same thing. When they left the room I got an uneasy feeling and looked in the mirror. It was just me looking back so I felt relieved, then suddenly I had an abnormally big smile on my face. I reached up to to touch the smile and my hands couldn’t move. Then it began to hurt, the smile grew wider and wider and I could see my gums starting to bleed. The mirror me had this insane look of satisfaction. I started crawling away but it dragged me back and made me look into the mirror again. That was the end of the dream

-Sheena 2016-12-29 1:02:15

I dreamed that I was looking at my back in the mirror. I was in disbelief that I was looking at my back because in my dream my back was well-defined muscular while in real life my back is clearly not. I was not feeling any distress. I was just shocked at what I saw in the mirror.

-Sabrina 2016-12-11 14:01:56

Hi tony, I remember a dream back when I was a kid. I was standing in my room(small room) in front of a full body mirror. I remember a girl who was around the same age as I,14 standing next to me. We both looked into the mirror and I did not see our reflection, instead I saw my street and house from birds eye view. It looked so beautiful and the day was clear. Then I remember walking through the mirror, but don’t remember what happened next. I awoke confused but happy?

I have not dreamt of a mirror since. Please help ?

-Sentinel 2016-09-10 16:24:42

For years I have not been able to remember any of my dreams… But recently this has started to change… This morning I woke up and I remember dreaming I was in my home, in the living room. I don’t remember what I was doing but I suddenly turned to face a full body mirror which is in my living room, and instead of seeing my reflection I see a shadow of a child. It moves pacing left and right in the mirror and I feel scared, threatened, and when I wake up I feel the same, except I now also have a bad vibe type of feel.. As it is 1:30am when I wake from the dream…

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