Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’
Aerobics
A possible reference to your attempts to keep healthy – lose weight – remain sexually attractive. How the dream presents the action will define whether this is a suggestion for more activity in that area, for less, for a change in attitude, etc. Occasionally this might be giving you the experience of how it feels to be really flowing and alive. If so nurture the feeling and replay it often.
Useful questions:
Do I need to take more exercise and is this dream suggesting it?
Are there aspects of the dream showing new information about health or giving health suggestions – if so do they apply to me?
As a piece of drama what is the dream depicting?
Advocate
An advocate in your dream is a part of you, or a feeling, that supports and argue for you. Often it is a demonstration of qualities you are not aware of.
If you are the advocate for someone else it suggests you are feeling strong and clear about a situation or person.
See Lawyer
Adversary
The person or group you are pitted against represent something, probably within you that you are in conflict with. Such dreams show parts of your nature you struggle with. Jung called this the Shadow, the aspects of yourself you are frightened of, or repress for one reason or another. Enemies in dreams usually refer to some facet of this. Though it may simply depict something you are struggling with, a relationship for instance, or feelings about work.
Because the enemy is usually an aspect of yourself, real change can occur by relating differently to each other. For instance if you are lucid in your dream you can become them so fully there is no problem.
Useful questions:
What is it in me that I am in conflict with?
If I imagine myself in the dream is there any way I can resolve the enmity?
What is the action in the dream and what does this show of the details of the conflict?
Adult
If you are a young person dreaming of an adult it may be indicating your potential, what you can become if you continue your present direction in life. But most frequently it is about the influence of an adult or adults.
To be an adult is not an easy task or achievement. There are two very different sides to it. Most of us achieve an adult body, but very few of us achieve emotional, sexual or spiritual adulthood. The story of this is told in all the old myths and legends – after all the greatest meaning is life and what we can achieve in it. So in becoming an adult we brave great dangers, face monsters, pass through difficult initiations. Fundamental to the whole drama of our life is the evolution of our own identity from the depths of unconsciousness in the physical process of conception, through to developing self awareness as an adult – from the great ocean of collective culture, language and society, to the emergence of ourselves as a mature individual. To do this we face death and rebirth several times when we metamorphose from baby to child; from child to adolescent; from adolescent to adult; from adult with youthful body to ageing body. It is such an incredible journey, so heroic, so impossible of achievement, so fraught with dangers and triumphs. It is the greatest story in the world.
The modern western adult is often very much out of touch with the life giving processes within them and feel isolated and often ill at ease in the world. The black figure in dreams, or the native can give us a much needed connection and balance.
Even if we feel we are an adult, there are usually still enormous potential remaining unexpressed, stil a great deal of unmet childhood or baby needs. See Beware of Love
Example: I was in a very loving relationship in which I had developed powerful emotional links with D. We communicated many times each day while apart at work, etc. But one day there was no communication. I felt tremendous anxiety and emotional pain and shock, really frightened that she had dropped me. In fact she hadn’t, but my fears were very real and difficult to deal with. A real shock.
If you are an adult facing feelings of abandonment, it may be helpful to recognise that such feelings usually connect with the realisation in childhood that if your parents died, abandoned you, or you were left and felt abandoned you would not have the skills or maturity to obtain your own needs. Although, as an adult, you might now be capable of gaining your needs, such powerful feelings of helplessness, anxiety or sense of abandonment, can be stimulated by any situation reminiscent of the childhood situation that first called them into play. Therefore, it can help to carefully look at your life situation to see what changes are producing these feelings. You also need to decide whether there is real cause for fear, or whether you are suffering anxiety due to past experience.
During adolescence we move from youth to becoming a mature adult. This means learning in some measure to be independent of the work energy, the money and time given by parents. It means making your own decisions, earning your own keep and establishing yourself in the community and world in some way. Sometimes the break from parents is made by establishing a relationship. However it is achieved the change needs a level of heroism in many ways, and if you succeed the difficulties change and deepen you.
Adult love:
This means a growing sense of recognising the needs of your partner yet not denying your own. It means the ability to be something for the partner’s sake without losing your own independence or will. It means becoming aware of the issues that colour or influence relationship, and meeting them as partners. Independence and closeness together. You become caring sexual partners through discovering each others needs and vulnerability. It is emerging from the dependence of parents and what they provided or failed to provide. That it is difficult is shown by the number or people who never manage it – never move from wanting to be handed food and money as a child does – never moves beyond being angry with others for not supplying their needs – never manage a love relationship with the opposite sex – or a love relator’s with anybody.
When we move beyond the processes of growth faced in adolescence we journey into adulthood, during which we face relationships, work, parenthood or creativity, with more independence. However, there is no age at which we can say we have arrived at adulthood. Sometimes elements of babyhood, childhood or adolescence have not been outgrown even in old age. Dreams sometimes illustrate this when we see ourselves in the dream with an adult head on a baby body. Or we have an adult body but the genitals of a child, and so on. But in general, in this period of our life we dream about the issues of relationship, of finding our own strength to deal with life creatively and satisfyingly. There is an attempt on the part of our dream process to release and deal with early traumas or situations that occurred and led to blocking or trapping our potential energy and creativity. Without this clearance much of our energy to express and achieve is tied up in the past, or in non productive habits. At this time too our dreams explore the challenges and difficulties we face in outer life.
Unfortunately meeting challenges with a reasonable amount of our potential means a real and honest self-assessment and meeting with areas of feeling that have not been healed in the past. As Freud so clearly pointed out, there is enormous resistance to this. It is much easier to explore the controlled world of lucid dreams, or see ones dreams in the light of inspiration rather than confrontation. Of course, dreams are all these things.
Useful questions:
What is the character, the strengths or weaknesses of this person and what part do they play in my life?
What is happening between this person and me, and how do I connect with that?
If I imagine myself as this person what do I feel or realise? (See Dream Visualisation for help with this.)
Adore Adoration
Anything that we adored deeply influences or penetrates us. Therefore we open ourselves to the influence of what is being adored.
If you are being adored:
Being loved is a very healing feeling. You might be experiencing this in your dream because you need it. Or perhaps you have achieved a greater ability to love and this is a result of that. There is of course a possibility you have an inflated sense of yourself.
What is it I adore, and what possible influence will it have on me?
If I am observing this in someone else, what is the object of love and how do I feel about it?
If this is an uplifting experience, can I observe this in my waking life at any time?
Worshipping:
Opening oneself to the influence of what is being worshipped – an idea, a person, an object.
Worshipped:
Inflated sense of self, unless you are meeting your own core self and feel it is holy.
Admit or Admitting
This might be showing something you have found difficult to recognise about yourself or another person, therefore it might be about arriving at new insight. Sometimes admitting something arises through a confrontation of some sort. It might be in connection with your need for someone. This might be difficult to accept because of dependence. In some dreams it shows new levels of self acceptance.
Useful questions:
What relevance does what is being admitted have on your waking life?
If there was difficulty in admitting, can you recognise what the difficulty was or is?
Can you consciously accept what was revealed?
It can help if you use Processing Dreams.
Admiration
As a child we need our parents admiration and praise in order to unfold our potential. Also, admiring qualities in others is one of the ways we shape our own direction and choices. So it is useful to take note of what is being admired in yourself or another person, and how that is reflected in your life.
Admiring someone else:
This may be a straight forward awareness of your feelings about that person or a recognition of those qualities in yourself. It might be a sign of personal success and confidence; probably indicating qualities in the person you either have yourself but may not be recognising, or else qualities you would like or need to have.
Being admired:
Feeling good about yourself; recognising things about yourself you may have overlooked; positive self-image; confidence. On the other hand it might be a compensatory dream expressing the need to be admired due to your low self esteem. If the dream stresses the situation making you a figure of great admiration, it may suggest an inflated opinion of yourself or a strong need for approval and acclaim from others. See: emotions and mood.
Idioms: Lost in admiration.
In some dreams, and in some fantasy work, a sense of enormous appreciation or admiration often arises. June Dunlap, in her book Exploring Inner Space, describes such a feeling of admiration – experienced while feeling herself to be a fly – in the following way – ‘At frequent intervals I would swoop down, alight, rub my graceful back legs together, and admire the opalescence of my delicate sunlit wings. Totally without egotism but with deep satisfaction, I stated repeatedly, ‘I’m beautiful. No one else thinks so, but I really am.’’ Such feelings of admiration and awareness of beauty about oneself are often more direct, and arise as a sense of enormous appreciation of what has been achieved or met in your life. The admiration often results in feelings of love for yourself, which is very healing.
Useful questions:
What is it that is being admired, and am I aware of those qualities in myself?
Can I allow the good feelings about myself or another person?
Am I feeling low at this time and needing appreciation?
Is this a recognition of an emerging quality, or am I compensating for not receiving enough attention?
Adjacent – Adjoining
This suggests a strong connection with the dreamer, or what is wanted or being worked toward. For instance in Japan, rocks or trees that are close together are sometimes seen as married or linked. Dreams use the same sort of symbology to suggest a more than surface connection with someone or some aspect of life. There could also be the suggestion of confrontation or discovery – being near something in this case meaning that we can no longer escape meeting it, or it is near at hand in the sense of being discovered or experienced. The example below shows adjacent as depicting difficult feelings near at hand that the dreamer meets.
Example: I had a dream in which my best friend, her 4-year-old daughter, and myself were staying in this huge old, Victorian style house. My friend put her daughter to bed in another room, and we went in the adjoining room to watch a movie. My friend fell asleep and then all of the sudden, her daughter came screaming into the room, covered in blood. I didn’t actually see what happened, but I knew instantly that a crocodile had attacked her and bitten her legs off. I tried waking up her mother and I was holding her (the child) in my arms and crying. Then I woke up. The dream was so realistic, and when I awoke I was covered in sweat and shaking really bad. The dream upset me so much that I didn’t tell anyone about it. A week later, I found out two other friends had dreams in which this little girl was also attacked by a crocodile. What could this possibly mean? A.R.E. dream.
The dream suggests a close and perhaps psychic connection with the girl and her mother.
Useful questions:
What or who am I feeling connected to or near at this time?
What is the influence of this connection?
Adhesive
See Glue
Address
This represents your present life situation and all it links to. It also may depict the way you live and what you feel about your way of life, your living area, and the locality of it. It therefore indicates feelings about your present style of life.
Another person’s address: The condition or life situation of the person as it applies to you. You will need to look for clues as to what your dream is telling you about this. It might be suggesting contact.
New address: A change; – or hopes for or fear of a change.
Past address: The person you were, the traits you developed, what you faced in life at that time.
To forget or lose your address: To lose sight of your goals or standards in life, or who you are. This suggests a loss of connection with, or a break down of, the feelings and motivations that usually give you purpose and drive. Thus one would experience a sort of confusion about ‘where you live’ i.e. your place in life and connection with others. See: house; home.
Useful questions:
What address is this…home, work…someone else’s address?
Does the situation or quality of the address describe something in my own life?
If I said I was going home, what situation would I be going home to – happiness; loneliness?
What is the quality of the locality in which I live, and what do I feel about it?