Sea Ocean

Life began in the sea, at the depths. Our blood is salt in the same degree as the ancient sea, and thus we have an inner sea. In your dreams it represents the universal and fundamental processes of life in you.

Awareness of these processes are not easily accessible to your conscious mind, but are nevertheless constantly influencing you and what you do. When you do at times have some consciousness of this level of yourself, it is often experienced as a huge ocean of mind, the collective unconscious as Jung called it. It feels like nature’s memory, where all experience is stored. So in your dreams about the sea, you may be accessing some aspect of this immensity, stretching from today to the primeval depths of your existence.

Most of the activities that underlie our physical and mental life are beyond our awareness. For an immensely important period of development your being existed in a pre-conscious, pre-verbal state as it grew from the single cells of sperm and ovum to the foetus and new born child. But even after birth there was a timeless period before speech and self-awareness were achieved. Therefore a great deal of your experience and drives lie outside of, or underneath, the clear conceptualisations gained with speech, and your sense of self. Occasionally something – an ache in the chest, a strange emotion that unsettles you – may emerge into consciousness, then disappear. See Wild Side

The sea, with its surface and hidden depths, lends itself to depicting this human experience of known and unknown regarding yourself. The enormity of the sea is also a visible image of the enormity of your own inner world – much of it unknown and lying in pre-birth or pre-speech – and also the relationship you have with the processes underlying your existence, that you exist by yet know so little about. The sea holds vast treasures, curiosities, and your history. Not simply because life emerged from the sea, or your blood is as salt as the ancient sea, but because so many ships and shorelines are now beneath the waves. Sometimes these can be recovered, and this too is an image reflecting your relationship with your own deeps.

Therefore the sea may depict a strange environment in which you might have no skill in surviving; something new or strange that confronts you; the boundary between unconscious and conscious; the processes and the origins of your life; the wisdom, still unverbalised because locked in process rather than insight, of your existence; source of the huge life drives, such as that urging you toward independence, mating and parenthood; a symbol of infinite energy, potential or consciousness, in which human existence is only a tiny part; The waves of experience we face in life, some acceptable, some threatening.

Although some writers say the sea may represent one’s mother, and the situation one meets in becoming independent of her, it is probably better to think of the sea representing the state of being and awareness we emerged from in our mother’s womb. That is, a non striving, non demanding existence in which our needs were usually met without a personal struggle or without any defined sense of self. Therefore a sinking into the sea could be seen as a sinking back into this loss of personality or personal striving and independence. A struggle to survive could be partly a difficulty with existing by one’s personal effort and work – the difficulty of ‘keeping one’s head above water’ in life and being independent. See Individuation

Going under the sea: Remember we were conceived and grew in the waters of our mother’s womb, and amount of salt in our blood is the same as that in the ancient sea at the time life began as single celled creatures. So, it suggests bringing internal contents to consciousness; remembering the womb experience; letting our ego surrender a little; looking at death.

Also it shows that we, our conscious self, has entered more deeply into the enormous depths of our consciousness; we have literally dipped below the level of our conscious self. See My Body is a Moving Sea

If there is a sense of hugeness or depth: Going beyond the boundaries of experience usually set up by our conscious self or ego. See Our Reaction to meeting the Huge that we Are

Learning to swim: Learning to survive in a new environment, such as happens when we emerge from childhood into adult sexual drives, or the school or work environment. At such times anxiety or uncertainty may threaten to engulf us just as it does when we learn to swim. Dealing with life needs us to be able to meet such feelings without turning back. See: swimming.

 Rescued from the sea: See: air sea rescue.

Sea shore: This is similar to beach if you are on the shoreline, the border between everyday life and your unconscious sources of motivation energy and life. But if you are looking at the beach from a distance, it could suggest a different way of life, somewhere you haven’t reached yet, or are leaving behind. So it could depict change or somewhere you are trying to get to or reach.

 Example: I dreamt I am standing on a steep hillside that slopes into the sea. I look across the sea, and the air is so clear I can see the far coast twenty miles away with amazing clarity. In fact, it is so clear it seems to me I can see every detail of a rocky cove across the water. The clarity amazes me and it seems the cove is only a few hundred yards away. It stands out with all its many colours. I find it so impressive I want to run back to get my camera. I hesitate from doing this though because I wonder if the scene will disappear.

I explored this dream many times but I could not get a clear insight into what the beach arose from in my experience. Then, with the help of a friend, I reached it. When I came to exploring the beach again, at first it seemed as subtle and unreachable as ever. Then I began to define what I was as the beach – a meeting place for water, earth, air and sun – earth, air, fire and water. But the beach is not any one of them. It changes with the seasons and with the action of storms, of erosion and temperature. It isn’t the air, or the sea or the earth. It changes yet stays the same – the beach. Suddenly I felt this in myself, saying, “I am not anything. I change yet am unchanged. I am all things but nothing.” This gave me a very powerful sense of my own eternal spirit underlying all the changes of my body and personality. Robert.

The shore/beach can therefore also depict the spirit that underlies all things. This is because if you were to say what a beach is, you could not say the sea was the beach, or the sky, or the land. None of them separately is the beach. The beach is the indefinable amalgam of them all. In just that way the spirit is the indefinable everything that underlies the particulars of life.

Tide: Rising and falling of feelings such as love, pleasure or sexuality; may refer to ageing when going out; tide in our affairs. See: beach; fish; water.

Tidal wave: Any release of emotional or sexual energy. The reason this image is used is that when we feel enormous release of emotions such as might happen when we fall in love, have a baby, or are publicly condemned, our ego often feels carried along by the experience rather than in control.

But huge waves cause many people enormous fear or terror. Often this is because of a past experience such as attack or rape. But dreams are not simply replays of the awful emotions, but are ways you can meet and transform them into healing. See Tsunami; Life’s Little Secrets; Secrets of Power Dreaming; Summing Up

We may have learned how to ride such waves as surfers do. This requires confidence, daring and balance. If we can do it we can open ourselves to much greater range of feeling or change than if we felt threatened. Even happiness may be repressed due to feeling threatened. Anxiety or depression is one of these enormous waves that may threaten to engulf us, and so is one of the human conditions the tidal wave represents. Yet if we face it and meet it can be an enormously transformative influence. See Yoga in Dreaming.

 As a tsunami it is saying that some tremendous change has happened deep in you and in the world. Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes on the sea bed, or massive earh changes. So many people are dreaming about them at the moment because of the enormous change going on around us and within us. So learn to face them without fear and be ready to meet change in your life and in your family.

 Example: I could see in the distance a Tsunami coming towards us. I found Collette to tell her, and we went to see if we could find a way out for everyone. At the back of the building there was an open area that had an opening with big rocks like a gully, Collette and I agreed it was a way out. Collette went to get the others but as she did my arm went over the boundary and my hand felt water and I knew it was too late. I went to tell Collette. I felt fear and acceptance that there was nothing I could do.

Working on this dream with Tony who invited me to be the Tsunami, which I did.

As the Tsunami I felt expansions in myself wider higher boundless, full of charged energy. Staying with what I was sensing I felt my attention was drawn to something pushing from behind me. I followed that sensation of what was pushing me and it went down my body and continued to go down deep into the earth like a root. As this continued the image came to mind of being in an umbilical cord. I was it and in it and I felt sick between my throat and belly.

Staying with what was happening I felt a black tar like substance, it felt like it lined part if the inside of the cord and it was thick and dense. I felt it was something I had been dealing with all my life and it felt like it came from my mother, but as I became aware of that thought I knew that it went a long way back, ancestral or beyond. I felt emotional, staying with the image the dense heavy blackness, something started to move in my belly, a bubble type ball of energy came out from the blackness into my hands and it felt like I was like a baby inside.

Holding the energy bringing it out up my body, then it was taken back in through my mouth, like eating my own tail, a complete circle moving slowing down my body transforming the blackness as it went.

I became the Tsunami again and it I saw that it was like an LSD trip, levels of attachments of what you identify with; like being in a room but you are not a room. Having things in the room, but they are not you having emotional attachment to them, but you are not those emotions and it washed away what we/I am attached to, letting go of stories of my self, because I am not the story, but have lived through it. I am the energy of the Tsunami, the energy of everything. As I made my way home I felt very much in the moment, with waves of people of all colours, cultures, shapes and sizes. On the bus the conversations, behaviours I noticed, I could see myself in it all buildings cars traffic lights all connected.

Waves: Impulses, feelings and emotions, such as sexuality, anxiety, anger. Waves can also indicate an impulse such as life in one that has its beginnings from a mysterious source.

 Example: ‘My husband, and I were standing looking at the sea’s surface. It was just falling night. I saw a mass of dark shapes, thought it would be a school of fish. Then we were looking at water birds, maybe ducks, again dark shapes as the light had almost gone. Then there was a hole in the sea, like a belly button, I was wondering what it was, how was it being made, was there something under the water? Something very big was coming up to the surface very close to me. It shot me to wake.’ Ginny Q.

Ginny and her husband had been exploring the content of their dreams. The image of the sea shows Ginny sensing there are enormous depths to her own being, and something big – a previously unconscious complex of insights and feelings – is becoming conscious.

 Example: ‘A small speed boat was at sea. But the sea dissolved anybody who fell in. One man fell in but held himself together as a blob of water and jumped back to the speedboat. I remember the words ‘The sea is a great solvent’.’ Tim P. 

Tim is aware of his unconscious sense of being a part of the huge ocean of life or energy. In it one might lose sense of identity. In the end, identity is ‘held together’ by one’s own belief in oneself.

 Example: ‘I am either standing at the edge of the sea or near, when suddenly enormous tidal waves appear in the distance and are coming closer. I know they will engulf me, I turn and run away. Sometimes they do overtake me, other times I wake up.’ Mrs A. V.

We can run from pleasure and wider insight, just as much as from pain or fear.

On the first night I slept with my present wife when she fell asleep I noticed she struggled with her breathing. While she was still asleep I spoke to her suggesting she would relax and allow her breathing to be easy. Within moments she responded. This encouraged me and I suggested her whole body would relax, and the barriers within her dissolve, allowing healing and well-being to be experienced. Within ten minutes she suddenly awoke and told me a dream.

She was at the rear of a house sunbathing with her family, feeling very relaxed and happy. As she sank into the enjoyment waves, like a tidal waves began to roll up her body. The pleasure was so intense she couldn’t take any more and woke up.

Idioms: All at sea; plenty more fish in the sea; lost at sea; stranger things happen at sea; between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does the sea represent the great collective unconscious and all the information we have at hand for the asking?

Is this about potential for creativity?

The emotions felt in in dreams are the real stuff underlying the images, what do they portray?

See Quick way to understand dreamsLife’s Little SecretsStreet WisdomPeople’s Experience of LifeStream

 

Comments

-Debra Rush 2014-08-01 22:23:12

I love your dream dictionary…I dreamt I was swimming in an ocean in the tropics and came up for air and when I came up I was like above the water looking down at quite a height!I saw great vivid colors and all depths of the water…I remember marveling at how colorful and beautiful the ocean was…what does this mean??thank you! Debbie

-Sanay 2014-07-31 5:36:30

I saw a pigeon in my house . I got very afraid since it was dark in my room so i hide myself in bathroom since fan was on i wanted the pigeon to fly out properly because i was afraid fan would kill pigeon.
Then later in dream i saw a beach full of rocks and water was coming and touching the rocks
What does all this interpretet

-Lucy 2014-07-25 23:58:49

I had a dream that I was walking on a small Jetty and small waves were washing over it. I wanted to get past the waves and keep walking but was being careful as I knew a big wave could suddenly sweep me off. So I walked slowly, watching them, and then a huge wave hit me from behind, and threw me high up into the air, I could see down to the jetty and water, and remember thinking, ‘there is no point yelling for help, no one could help or hear me u here anyway’, and then I fell down into the water with my eyes clenched shut as I didn’t want to see if I was going to hit any debris. I opened my eyes as I realised that wouldnt stop me getting hit by anything and then I was awake. I want to take the dream positively, but would you consider this to be a warning of some type or maybe an emotional resolution?
Thank you kindly for any advice 🙂

    -Tony Crisp 2014-08-03 15:01:01

    G’day Lucy – I think perhaps to is neither a warning or a resolution. What happens is than many of us get the inner world of dreams mixed up with the outer world of hard experience. The result is often fear – of being hurt – or misunderstanding. I have tried to sum up a few things that are helpful to know about dreams in http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing

    So dreams are simply an awareness of your inner world and inner energies put into pictures that our conscious mind has some sort of association with that might approximate what the dream is actually trying to show you. So going out on the jetty was meeting inner energies. For waves are energy and you can feel it pushing you; little ones only a small push, but a big one can be a mighty big push. But remembering that this is all about your inner world of dreams the push and energy is something that is not trying to hurt you but giving you a mighty good amount of inner energy.

    To give you an example of what I mean, ages ago I noticed my wife had difficulty breathing through her nose while asleep. While she still slept I spoke to her quietly, suggesting that the muscles in her nose and face would relax. I repeated this a few times and Hyone’s breathing became easy and normal. Seeing that she responded so well, I decided to try something else. So I quietly suggested that her whole body would drop unnecessary tensions, and emotional and mental stress would melt away. I went on to say that this would open all the doors of her being, allowing cleansing and healing throughout.

    There was no apparent response to this, so I lay quietly ready to sleep. But suddenly, about eight minutes later, Hyone woke, almost with a jerk, and said enthusiastically, “I just had the most amazing dream.” In the dream Hyone had been with her mother and sisters in a garden at the back of a house. Hyone was lying in the sun relaxing. As she relaxed she felt a wave of energy flow up her body to her head. Then, wave after wave moved up her body, giving her tremendous pleasure and feelings of well-being. But the waves got stronger and stronger, and she was frightened they would overwhelm her, and at that point she woke.

    This very important, because it shows how our good energy can be felt as threatening. I see this again and again with waves and tsunami, people resist what would have given them a new growth spurt, a growth toward wider awareness and becoming a whole person with all their potential.

    Tony

-joseph 2014-07-21 5:02:04

my dream is, I found sand of gold in the sea and at the end he came a person for the gold with his wife.

-Christina 2014-07-19 14:45:44

I had a dream and woke up this morning in tears. I went on a family vacation with all of MY side of the family and my husband was there as well. We were all in the house because of a storm and the water rose and broke the foundation and the house went under water. A lot of people were found dead but my husband was missing. All that was found was a journal I gave him and a blue coat he was wearing. Can anyone tell me what this means?

-Michael 2014-07-08 18:48:04

Hi Tony,

Last night, I experienced what felt like a rather complicated dream that I was hoping you could help me with. It seemed that I was on vacation with my mother and brother somewhere exotic. We were situated on a metal platform 300 feet above the ocean on a small sand beach. The views into the ocean/sea were beautiful. The water was a deep, azure blue. It seems the island of sand divided the body of water into two. One side was calm and the other side some breakers that I could see from above, but I wouldn’t describe it as “rough.”

There were other people on the platform as well – strangers, but friendly. (I never actually saw anyone in the dream only heard voices/sensed their presence) Anyways, the problem was an issue of balance. The platform seemed wobbly and it seemed like I couldn’t find the right place on the platform to stay balanced.

This caused the platform to somehow tip over. However, before the fall the strangers were able to lower to platform down to about half its original height so its severity was mitigated. I don’t remember falling, but I fell with the platform landing beside it in the wet sand on the edge of the sea that had the breakers. At first I was holding onto the platform, but then I sensed that it was sinking into the wet sand and I let go. Once I let go, I began to be carried out to be carried out to sea. I was still in the shallow portion of the water, but I could see the deeper waters and the surf was the same as it was when I was above, but now it appeared more intense because I was at eye level with it looking into it.

At this point, I felt completely powerless/helpless to prevent myself to be carried out to sea, which seemed dangerous. The voices strangers appeared again and they urged to grab back hold of the platform, which I did. I don’t think the platform ever fully became submerged in the sand, it just sank a little. And was it.

Right after that I had another dream about losing my car and being late for a job because I was with my family. I am not sure if that was related, but thought I’d share it briefly. Actually, that dream seemed bring me more anxiety then the dream about the platform and water. Thanks for your time Tony. I appreciate it.

-Amit 2014-07-07 8:48:39

My mom seen in her dream that she found a gold stick of my Bhabhi (aunt)
While everyone was searching for the gold stick my mom think in her dream that should she giver or hide it and she woke up what does this means?

-Triple.s 2014-07-06 14:50:23

Hallo,
i would like to know what my dream denotes.
i dream that me and my boyfriend was walking by in a hotel but all a sudden i lost him so i went to look for him but i had to pass and step in a sea with a lot of small fishes and sea this water like aquarium and i was afraid to step certain places cause im afraid of snakes. but finally i meet a friend and i told her she could make her back porch like a pool with a bar inside the water and a foot spa so the fishes could give foot massage. but by the end of the dream i finaly meet my boyfriend in a car accident but nothing happen to him. we get in a bus and the bus driver went all arround with us again on the opposte direction. and at the end of the dream i find my self sending kiss for my boyfriend but which appeard to be a woman with mustache. the end. (a strange dream to me)

-David 2014-07-02 0:57:54

recently I dreamt I was in prison and some of us were allowed to come out for a while,I looked around and noticed the prison was in the middle of the sea.2 days later I dreamt that some people were walking on the sea to land n I was on top of a storeybuilding,I looked down only to see the sea turned into green color.I was told to jump down but fear gripped into me,at last I jumped and i was landing slowly whilst walking fast in the air.I awoke from the dream and i slept again.In the dream i saw some of my high school gradutates talking about what’s happening at the sea.We went there and I saw that it was now light green and an uncompleted quarter building on the sea and not a storey building so I told them of mine dream in the dream.As we stood there for sometime it started drizzling some of us took to our heels,the rain rained on us.After it’s stopped I realized I was almost home.

-Abigail 2014-06-16 5:20:50

Today I had a dream of becoming a nun in training. At first, it was fun as I kept on seeing my friends and families. Then, the setting changed and all of us were at a beach house having something like a picnic (in the house). At some point, I remembered running along a road that leads to total darkness. I was terrified so I ran back to where I came. After that, the tides kept getting higher and higher that the sea water splashed into our beach house. That time I saw that sea water was crimson red and many incidents happen to my friends. None of them died in the dream though, just injured. It would help me so much if you can give me your opinion on my dream.

-nikita arora 2014-06-12 8:53:15

Two three days back I saw in my dreams that I am in the middle of the sea in a slow moving boat and the waves are so high that I fall from the boat..I was about to drown when I got up from my.sleep..then today I saw again myself on the boat but it was a fast moving one where the waves were again high and the boat was in high speed..everyone was falling from other boats but I was moving ahead..I want to know wat my dreams mean…

-dream 2014-06-02 13:23:38

I saw my late father in my dream , distributing his property , with me &my 2 elders sister , among them my fathergiving me extra , I was shockingly looking his face ? I refuse to take my share , bt he is asking me to keep it .in this time I can’t. See my mom &younger brother in this dream?

-Siddhita 2014-05-20 6:36:09

Thnq for the guidance 😀 Doing good work.. Keep it up

    -Tony Crisp 2014-05-20 12:58:16

    Thanks Siddhita.

    You keep on keeping on too.

    Tony

-Siddhita 2014-05-18 2:21:32

I saw a dream today in the night. I went to an amusement park. Its entrance was near a sea shore. I was with my father and mother. As we were just about to enter a flat wave came in and our feet got wet. I was frightened [But there was nothing big to be frightened about 🙂 ]. Then i entered the park and was just wandering there, not enjoying a singe ride. What is the meaning of this dream?

    -Tony Crisp 2014-05-18 14:27:53

    Siddhita – I can only give you my opinion of your dream.

    The amusement park is probably an indication of your desire for new experience and escape from routines of everyday life. There was an influence from you parent – your inner parents – to enter the sea. But the sea – the inner sea – is a huge experience and many are frightened of it. That is because the sea in dreams indicates something that we are only aware of the surface of. Like our mind, which we are only aware of a tiny part of, our awareness has tremendous depths. Because we are not aware of what is under the surface of our mind we are naturally cautious. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing

    The reason you found no enjoyment in the rides afterwards was because there is nothing as satisfying as knowing the wonders of the sea/you inner world. Nothing can compare with that adventure.

    Tony

-Amit manwani 2014-05-14 9:20:51

Today In my dream I have seen my fathers death and I kept him in my building garage what does it means?

    -Tony Crisp 2014-05-15 7:59:01

    Amit – This is not saying that your father will quickly die – although obviously he will die sometime.

    I believe it is a way of facing feelings you would feel when he dies. Dreams often do this so that we can get used to losing someone to death. But there is the part about keeping his body in you garage. I believe this means you want to keep a reminder if him near you, so you can look at him often.

    Tony

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