What our Dreams Mean?

Chris: How can we know what our dreams mean?

Tony: Interpretation is not really useful if one simply thinks about a dream. You need to enter a dream in some way to find understanding. It is the difference between reading a book about swimming without ever getting into the water. You need to actually get into the water to understand.

Of course dream dictionaries are useful if they lead people to explore their dreams by getting ‘into the water’ – otherwise they are simply words.

I suggest several ways people can do this – by acting out a dream and watching any spontaneous insights and emotions that surface; by exploring a dream with help of a friend; by learning Waking Lucid Dreaming. See Getting at your Dreams Meaning – Being the Person or Thing and Life’s Little Secrets

But the most important experience I had about dreams was as follows:

In my dream I was watching a fern grow. It was small but opened very rapidly. As I watched I became aware that the fern was an image representing a process occurring within myself, one I grew increasingly aware of as I watched. Then I was fully awake in my dream and realised that my dream, perhaps any dream, was an expression in images of actual events occurring unconsciously in myself. I felt enormous excitement, as if I were witnessing something of great importance.

See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-exploring-your-dreams/

Since then I have been able to find fuller insight into my dream.