Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’

Descend Descending Descent

To regress into earlier, more youthful ways of looking at things, or behaviour. This may mean you are meeting the effects of a childhood hurt or betrayal. It can indicate a period of depression, or feeling low. In some dreams where there is intense fear, it can show a fear of falling or descending from favour, power or authority. Coming down to earth from a more idealistic, fanciful, or visionary viewpoint.

Things can descend on us from above, and this can be frightening if we are afraid of change and the new; but it is often something of benefit like the descent of Grace, a big bird, or even the descent from a long line of forebears. So what is it descending and what do you feel about it?

Also we can descend into the ‘underworld’, the forces of Life within us.

In most cases an ascent is like the rising sun during the day or the summer, linked completely with the descent in the evening, night, or winter. Ascent is therefore part of a spiral which also descends, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Christianity tends to speak of a one time resurrection however, whereas the ancient beliefs saw it as a continuing cycle.

Descent, going down stairs or in a lift: Getting more down to earth or practical; a return to difficulties after living in our fantasies or escapism; depression; sexual restraint; a return from meta conception. In many dreams this appears to link either with a lowering of sexual excitement, or to coming down to earth. If it is stairs there may be some anxiety about falling involved – falling in love, failing to keep balance.

Descending into cave, cellar or hole: Meeting unconscious content such as repressed fears or wisdom carried unconsciously from family or culture.; experience of womb existence.

Going down a hill: Can mean loss of status, ageing, failure or death, but is also as shown in the second example, a positive sense of life within us. The life process within us is ever aware of the experience of living. This includes birth, change and death. This sometimes refers to the ending of youth, the beginning of old age. But it also can mean losing a wider view of things, getting back to everyday life.

Something below us: As in Rita’s dream below, where there is fear, can depict past trauma which is not being faced. Literally run away from. Something we have left behind or we now feel ‘above’.

Idioms: Feel down; down and out; down in the dumps; down to earth.

Example: ‘I look down and the stairs and banister rail are swarming alive with a black moving wave of crawling things, like some awful insects; and in the hallway is a swamp with crocodiles and other hideous things. My terror is terrible and I cry out to stop dreaming this nightmare. The person who actually lived in this part of the house was the owners mother. She treated me badly but no one knew as she was artful in her abuse. She pulled me along by my hair, locked me in a cupboard, and once locked me in the orchard – four high walls and a hidden door.’ Rita.

Example: ‘Then I was climbing down a steep hill. Arriving at the foot I found rippling sparkling water. I stopped and looked around and found everything incredibly beautiful – the green fields and the pebbles in the water, the soft fresh air; then I looked up and the sky was a glorious picture, the sun so warm and the clouds fluffy and soft and pretty. I felt at peace and so happy, and thanked God with all my heart for giving us so much beauty.’ Mrs R. E.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was I descending into or what was I seeing descending?

Did I feel any particular feelings?

Was it a feeling of wonder or remorse, even fear?

See The Slow Breath – Characters and People in Dreams – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Desecrate

To belittle or scoff at our deepest intuitions about the purpose of our life, our spiritual directions, our deepest feelings and needs. It is to deny ourselves things for which we may deeply hunger in an inner sense.

Desert Wilderness

Loneliness – literally being deserted. It can also point to feelings you have of that you lack emotion or satisfaction, that there is no creativity or growth in your life; or you are a dry intellectual. Dry intellectualism; social isolation or sexual barrenness.

In some dreams it shows you feeling social isolation. In some women’s dreams it indicates whether the fear or reality of sexual barrenness. But the desert can be a warm and quiet place for a retreat from the ‘noise’ of work and society.

Occasionally, as the image in the bible of wandering in the wilderness suggests, it depicts both the sense of having no real meaning or direction and of being a wanderer in the infinity of time and decision. It shows the difficulty of being self responsible and making decisions in the infinity of choices, and of honouring your core feelings in such decisions.

Example: One day I was investigating a troublesome anxiety. As I followed it, the emotion grew and intensified until it finally became almost intolerable. Suddenly I found myself standing on a desert of white sand and ashen rocks. The sky was burned to a metallic gray by the, blinding sun. The dusty cactus, the lifeless sage, the very air seemed to wither at its touch. The stillness itself was a horror. No leaf would ever stir; no rain would fall; no scream of anguish would change that pitiless silence of heat and shimmering light. I seemed to face a doom of slow attrition, of agonized waiting for something that would never occur. I realized then that the much-touted eternity of the experience is a dubious blessing.

The dreamer, W. V. Caldwell, on exploring his dream eventually saw that all his life he had been taught not to complain, not to indulge in self-pity and not to cry out in pain. With wonderful feelings he saw that his desert was the death of his feeling in non-expression. A passage from the Bible came to him, “I will make a loud noise unto my Maker.” Then, as if a dam had broken, he was crying, not as loudly and vociferously as he felt, but loudly and vociferously enough for a male of twentieth-century America. There was joy in the wash of bitter hot tears, joy in the voice raised in outrage and anguish at the pain of life, joy in announcing to my fellow men, whether they liked it or not, that he hurt.

Now there appeared before me a baby. Face and eyes red, his cheeks stained with tears, his little mouth contorted in sublime release, he bellowed and howled. Instead of the distress and anger I usually felt when my own children did this, I looked at him with sympathy and enthusiasm “Yell, you little beggar,” I howled.  And yell he did! He screamed and bellowed. He would not stop. Gradually my exultation subsided to annoyance and then distress as his angry screams sank into sobs and then into silent heaves and snuffies. Finally, anguished silence reigned and the anxiety I thought I had conquered returned again, more intense than before.

The child stood in the timeless desert of anxiety—about him the white sands and burning rocks, above him the blinding sun. Nothing stirred. It would go on that way forever.

Slowly, like the imperceptible movement of stifling desert air, the anxiety enclosed and smothered me also. I could not speak, I could not scream; I was paralyzed by it. Just as slowly, like the subtle dissolution of forms in a shimmering mirage, the child and I fused into one being; and the giant cactus before us, stretching its long arms upward, melted and reformed into the slats of a baby bed. Only the sun remained, casting its merciless light on my face. I was standing in a crib, waiting in helpless anxiety for a bottle that might never come.  Here was the core of the trauma. As understanding dawned and the ghostly anxiety gradually vanished I realized I had carried this painful memory from my childhood wherever I went. Moments of peak anxiety triggered not only the anguish associated with the trauma but the infantile orientation which had made it so terrifying. As a baby l had not yet developed a sense of time. I had not learned  to break into days, hours, and minutes the unqualified eternity of my infant mind. “Now” for me was “forever,” and I could conceive of no end to my agony until mother ended it. Whatever the reason for the delay in feeding, I had no idea why or how long I would wait. If my mother had notions of schedules and four-hour periods, I had none.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Was the desert a friendly place or a place of loneliness and desertion?

Were there any emotions in the dream – if so what?

Have you live in or near a desert – what do you feel about it?

Do I feel there is nothing alive and growing in my life?

Have I been wandering in uncertainty and lack of direction?

Have I a real or felt situation of being infertile?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Associations Working With

 

 

 

 

Desk

This suggests work of some sort. It might also indicate authority or discipline – the discipline of a task or work to be done. A deask can be about a centre of mental activity, of study, concentration, or computing. Maybe you are contemplating something, or creativity in writing something. Are you involved in bringing your accounts up to date? Are you at a desk to figure out problems? Or are you there as an authority or to confront and authority?

A desk is also often a place where you communicate either by telephone, computer or writing. It could be a project you are dealing with, or refer to the sort of ‘office work’ necessary to run your life or home well.

A check-in desk could mean a change you are making or a new opportunity; perhaps a break or time away, even a love affair. Registration desk is slightly different to a check-in desk. It suggests something you are aiming for or hope to be involved in; may be a test to see if you would like the direction.

School desk could have many associations with it – school, teachers, study, feelings of success. See Associations Working With to explore you own associations.

Flight desk can indicate a big change of scene or of life you are considering. Is it for business,work or pleasure?

The following example points out issues of change, work, being judged and also presentation.

Example: I am very busy working at someone else’s desk.  We are in the process of moving our desks to another area.  Once the desks are moved we are interviewed or have to present our desks.  There are two other desks on either side of mine.  The woman who interviews us judges us on how well we’ve personalised or decorated our desks and wants to know what we’ve named them.  I believe there are others with her.  The other two women go first.  When it’s my turn I explain that I haven’t had time to name my desk because I’ve been filling in for someone in addition to doing my own job.  However, I suppose I’ll give it some type of pet name.  The woman can’t hear me very well and misunderstands.  She thinks I’ve named my desk “Pet.”  I explain that what I meant was I would give it the type of name one would give a pet.  The desk arrangement looks like an inverted L with my desk at the point of the angle.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you work at a desk – if so what does it involve?

Have been in front of any type of desk recently?

Do I need to be paying more attention to the mundane tasks of life?

See Martial Art of the Mind – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions

Destination

Your unconscious is able to summarise your abilities and desires, and present them as a destination you are moving toward, or hoping for.

Detective

The search for clues as to ones own identity and meaning in life. The techniques or skill you use to follow information and clues to discover insight or meaning. Suspicion as to your own actions and motives.

Example: I am a detective following clues regarding some sort of crime. They lead me in a large cellar, and within the cellar I come across the entrances of two tunnels. These are nearly the size of underground train tunnels, and are side by side leading away into pitch blackness. I decide to explore the tunnels and start to walk into one. I was overwhelmed by terror, as if the very darkness of the tunnel was a living force of fear that entered and consumed me. I screamed and screamed, writhing in uncontrollable fit like contractions. Nevertheless a part of me was observing what was happening and was amazed, realising I had found something of great importance. Andrew P.

Because Andrew explored this dream with me, I know the darkness was depicting fear he experienced while a 9 year old in hospital. He was given a rectal anaesthetic because he was about to have a nose operation. He fought and begged for the nurses to stop, but to no avail. This led to a very real feeling that humans were terrifyingly dangerous animals who would not respond even if you were on your knees begging. So trauma was the fear in the darkness.

It can also indicate your curiosity or persistence in trying to understand something or questions you ask about your past, your guilt over your guilt over dream murders, or the truth in what you are meeting.

There is an aspect of ones unconscious that is always following clues as to the origins of the pains and hesitations we feel, and this is often shown as a detective.  “Dreams also pinpointed exactly where I was in my growth process. Sometimes, the dreams would uncover unconscious fears and intuitions. Often, they also held important clues and offered solutions to my problems. It was like doing detective’s work – arduous at times, but rewarding beyond belief.” Quoted from Meeting Shiva by Tiziana Stupia.

Being questioned by a detective is about feelings you might have about guilt, or also a pinpointed search into your self.

Useful questions:

What is the detective investigating and what do I feel and think about that?

Are there issues in my life that I consciously seek to understand?

If no resolution occurs in the dream what happens if I imagine it forward?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Associations Working With

Devil Demon Lucifer

The devil or demon in our dreams usually represents the parts of our own urges and emotions we have repressed or do not feel in control of. The angers, fears or urges may even feel to us as if they are strong enough to control us, so we represent them as an external force pushing us to some sort of evil. In each of us there is also the potential for creativity or destruction. This is especially noticeable in connection with our fears, such as fear of illness. Such a fear, if based on imagination rather than a real cause, can still cause illness. In this sense our own mind can turn against us. The enemy of our own undirected fear may be pictured as the devil or an evil entity. See: archetype of the devil under ; demons; evil; aboriginal. See also: active/passive.

“The succubus, a female demon who seduced male dreamers. References to seductive demons, such as Lilith, had appeared in the Talmud but had not previously appeared in Christian writings. The Commentary – by Macrobius – became an extremely influential book and thirty-seven printed editions appeared before 1700. It was the most important and well-known dream book in medieval Europe. Its inclusion of the fear-inspiring sexual demons was to play a role in supporting the paranoia about evil spirits that developed during the later centuries.”  Quoted from Our Dreaming Mind by Robert van de Castle.

Example: I’m 18 and recurrently dream my house is haunted or possessed by the devil. I am not religious, but in the dreams with the devil I try to remember prayers to scare him away. In every dream my family and I have to pack our bags and move back to the old house I lived in as a baby until seven. The dreams really frighten me and I can’t sleep. E. F. Teletext.

The struggle with something that appears exterior can be clearly seen in this dream. The influence of religion in giving ready made symbols to suggest there is an exterior evil that is invisible, but can powerfully influence one, is also clearly shown. And in actually facing the devil in ones dreams it turns out to be ones own emotions and desires that are not allowed or tuned back on themselves – thus devil spelt backwards is lived. It is the unlived or repressed urges that take on the image of a devil. “All you may know of heaven or hell is within your own self.” EC

Example: I was going mad. I was crawling around on my hands and knees and wailing and behaving in a most peculiar manner. I actually felt mad. But inside my head a tiny voice kept saying, ‘You aren’t completely insane yet – there’s still a chance.’ People around me kept saying to each other, ‘We think she’s possessed by devils.’ My sane voice then said ‘Make the sign of the cross, cast out the evil spirit.’ I kept trying to do that but my hands wouldn’t or couldn’t complete the sign. I woke still feeling disturbed. Margaret F.

The power and sense of being out of control is dramatised here, along with the resulting fear arising from feeling the controlling force as alien. If you take the images away and simply look at the situation, what is apparent is a huge conflict that Margaret is facing. The conflict clothes itself in imagery of the Devil because Margaret is afraid of whatever it is that is trying to express. This is a powerful internal conflict that is simply a struggle between the conscious self and the person’s own unexpressed potential.

Example: I was walking toward a house. It was quite dark, but not night. As I neared the house a number of demons or devils came at me menacingly, trying to stop me getting near the house. Although they made all the ghostly noises I wasn’t at all afraid of them. I felt they were a damned nuisance, and to show them I meant business I grabbed one and with my right hand I gripped its flesh and squeezed. It started to squeak in pain and I squeezed harder. At that point I was woken by my wife. I had hold of her belly and was squeezing madly with my right hand. Ben. C.

In this dream Ben shows a completely different response to the stereotype of fear. He is not afraid of his own anxieties or internal urges, but he hasn’t actually transformed them.

Example: Tell me where was the Devil? I do not understand. Jesus, why have we not been tempted?  There is no answer – at least, not from outside. But something within me speaks. It . . – says – – . wait, I begin to hear. It says. . – You . . . were . . . the Devil. It was. . . you – – . who tempted me. Your fear, your loneliness, your dependence on things of the world, on people’s opinion, on wealth as a means of self-respect, on hate as a means to love – all these you tempted me with. Now you have left me for a season, for with God’s wider view given with the descent of the Dove, I showed you the illusion of your gods – the emptiness of your fears, the powerlessness of your determinations. The shadow cast by the knots tied in your heart, your head and your belly, was the Devil. Like children’s hands held between a candle and the wall, your pains, desolation’s, and terrors have cast grotesque shadows upon your consciousness, which you took to be real, and you lived according to their demands. By these shadows men are led to war, murder, theft, terrible ambition, lust, even madness. All mankind is possessed by these shadows – by this absence of the Light, the Life and the Love. I come, not to condemn them but to redeem. For you are your own devil, and your own angel. But my hour is not yet come; when it does I will redeem.

Example: Devil Snivel Havel – They are just words to describe human fears, fears put into us by a church thousands of years ago speaking of things it only had primitive words to describe what it saw. I have met the devil myself several times, sometimes in great fear, and then slowly in wonder and direct insight. In such meeting I saw and realise that devil was ‘lived’ spelt backwards. In other word it is the Light we are all born with that through fear or ignorance we have turned back on ourselves. In doing so we have created great chunks of stuff blocking the light causing depression, suicidal impulses, and all the many human pains and suffering. But it is not some evil person ‘doing it to us’ it is our own misguided actions that can be undone by understanding them.

Such feelings, such entrance of foreign and destructive forces, is seen by our unconscious as the devil, demons or even a vampire. They suck away the life force and create illness in your body. Recognising them is very important for your health and person wholeness. This is called a dybbuk in Jewish folklore. Remember that devil is lived spelled backwards, and evil is live backwards. They both suggest the turning of your life force back on itself.

Example: The Devil attacked a woman. He was invisible. The woman turned black as he raped her. She didn’t die. At this point I woke and went to the toilet. On returning to bed I continued the dream, particularly wondering what I was in conflict with in the image of the Devil. I found it disturbing and frightening to be confronted by such a powerful opponent. Partly because of the rape, I realised it was held back sexuality. I then approached the ‘black’ woman with tenderness and this transformed the Devil into available energy, sexual or emotional. I tried this again and again. Each time it worked, and I could observe the connection between the Devil and how they were repressed sexual feelings.

Fears of dream devils and demons are completely unfounded. That is because the dream is only a virtual reality that are self created images that can be changed. The following example shows how lack of fear changes the way we relate to our dreams – and of course how fear creates our awful images.

Example: Had a very unusual dream last night. I was in an outdoor environment. It seemed a bit dark, or maybe morbid is the right word. I was with other people but none of them stood out to remain in memory. There was a definite awareness though of being near to a place that was haunted, and that a man was in trouble in the haunted place.

I decided to go and see if I could sort out the problem. I walked down a slope to where the centre of the haunting existed. It was an open space with an old double-decker bus in it. The only person on the bus was a middle-aged man who was sitting on the top deck leaning out of a window on the right hand side of the bus. I stood beneath him and looked up. He was staring in a glazed way and didn’t see me. I could see and feel that he was being hit by fantasies or hallucinations by whatever was the source of the haunting. This invasion of his mind was grabbing his attention so fully that he wasn’t aware of his surrounding or of me. I was sure that if he went any deeper into this mind stuff he wouldn’t be able to pull out. I waved my hand in his line of vision and banged my hand on the bus to make a noise and get his attention. At first it didn’t seem as if I would bring him out of it, but after a while he looked at me.

I shouted at him to pull out. I said that he had a wife and some more years of his life to live, so why lose himself into this entrancement. This didn’t seem to grab him so I shouted again and said that he would eventually slip into this empty mind world anyway – at death – so why not live with his wife the remaining years of his life. I was sure that if he lost awareness he would let himself starve.

I was aware that what he desired was to slip away into the void, into the awareness of the one life in which he lost any awareness of self. But I banged and shouted and he became more ‘present’. I then felt I had to confront whatever was the source of the powerful ‘haunting’ that was pulling him into the inner mind. I turned away from the man and saw just to my right a short distance from the bus an animal that was the ‘haunter’. It was a mammal of no particular type – a bit like a mixture of dog, rat and guinea pig. It seemed very ordinary and tame, and stood looking at me. I walked toward it and stretched out my hand. It was a tan colour with short fur and gave a feeling of being okay to approach, so I touched it to stroke. This was okay and I was thinking there was no problem when the creature leapt at my throat in a flash of movement and ripped my throat out.

This sounds disturbing but I simply observed this and thought to myself that stroking and trying to be friendly was no way of dealing with this thing. It was as if I was in command of the imagery in that I simply formed another body. The only way that felt as if I might deal with the creature was to have the meditative state of holding on to the nothingness that was my centre, and not feeling panic at it’s attacks. In fact apart from the gory imagery, there was nothing to be frightened of, as the creature was only attacking my dream image of myself. As I wasn’t identified with this, it couldn’t hurt me. That was the end of the dream.

Here a woman comes face to face with the devil –

Recently I sat with a woman, Beth, while she explored her usually unconscious feelings and beliefs. Our unconscious dream action often portrays such inner feelings as an object or person, and in her exploration Beth met the Devil. When we dared to face and closely look at this image of evil, what she discovered was that her ancestors had lived in times of great persecution. Being people who had questioning minds, they wondered whether the persecution was in fact justified. Maybe there was something about them that was inferior and detestable. Those self doubts, and the negative feelings that arose from them, created an open door for what has been called the Devil – destructive emotions and urges, negative comparisons, and feelings of being an outsider. Once this is understood it is easy to see other things that leave a door open for evil to enter. They are childhood trauma or abuse, the attitudes and standards we often pick up – rather like infections – from others around us, and the cultural attitudes we live amidst. When this ‘devil’ enters us it can lead to self criticism, the denial of ones own talents and ‘light’, and in bad cases, crime, murder and the infliction of child abuse and trauma.

Knowing this, we can see that much advertising attempts to call these demons into action – Are wrinkles making you look old? – Can you no longer make love like you used to? – Lacking energy, zest, confidence, take this fantastic new formula – What will happen if you die leaving your loved ones uncared for? – What is holding you back – why not completely change your life by signing on to this $2000 guaranteed three day course? Defeat ageing, get rich, have fantastic sex, leave failure behind – you know the story. But what the adverts are reaching are the beliefs, fears or feelings that you are ageing, you no longer or never did have fantastic sex, you are childless or a failure. They are grabbing hold of the imagination already working in us that tells us we are doomed, failures, unloved and lonely. See Integration – Meeting yourself

Useful questions:

What relationship do I have with my own natural urges such as sex or eating?

Have I turned my own urges back on themselves, transforming ‘lived’ into ‘devil’ by a reverse process?

Can I dare to meet this devil and release the repressed energy as living flows of personal life and love?

See – Masters of Nightmares – Dreams are Virtual Realities – Take Everything into You – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – The Secret of Time and Satan 

 

Devour Devoured Devouring

If you are being eaten by a creature of some sort, this shows you being deeply influenced by urges that you feel will rob you of your will or direction. In English we often use the phrase devoured by worries, and your dream will use just this imagery to show what is harming you. Being swallowed by something huge may be something quite different. We all have a sense of universal life around us. This is so huge that when we become aware of it we sometimes feel threatened, as if it will take away our personal identity.

If you are devouring something or someone, it suggests you are being possessive, overbearing, or deeply insensitive to another being’s needs. You might, of course, be absorbing something very fully.

To exist, living forms devour each other. We are predators like every other life form. We live on other life, and are part and parcel of the whole critur eat critur. I remembered a friend Pauline apologising about feeding meat to her cats. She was trying to avoid recognising she was in no way different to a cat, killing its food, scavenging – what is shopping? What is devouring and shitting? It is no excuse to say we are a vegan or vegetarian. All life arose from the same source, whether a plant or tree or fish. Everything has a right to live, but Life itself is the giver of itself so all life forms can live together – unless we are greedy.

Conversely, experiencing the effect of the devouring mother, a woman might hold fast to her children, using every bonding and binding force she can.

A baby often seizes upon its mother’s breast with this feeling, so it may represent the desire to posses or devour others.

Any emotion or desire that devours the strength or purpose of your life. Fear is such a feeling, and so many people have irrational fears about them.  Devoured by jealousy.

Example: S is trying to integrate A through sexual intercourse, but that is not the way this unification can come about. As A, that kind of union is no longer there for me to give and as A I am not honest in even this attempt to give her what she keeps hounding me for, so my anger takes over and I am not entering her in a loving way. This is not who I am, so as A I am violently ill with the contact of our bodies and souls, and this horrible green jealousy and envy of S grabs me and attacks me. I recoil violently as it wants to consume me, but I am an old soul and very strong and experienced, so I am able to wretch and expel it from my body. Now I have been able to get this horrible thing out of S, and out of me, so, while the dream ended I can take it further and have us both lie together hand in hand, resting peacefully. P no longer needs to devour A, to smother him and make him her own, we can hold hands and simply be friends, be brother and sister and share a more innocent and less selfish love.  We fall asleep and rest in a garden of lovely, healing dreams. There is an integration that does not require possession or control, but an acceptance of the way things are.

Being eaten by dogs or creatures: Losing your sense of identity, or what you think or want, in meeting other people’s will, anger or ideas; being ‘consumed’ by fear, emotion or a drive; fear of death.

Swallowed by large creature or fish: Opening to awareness of unconscious content. See Archetype of the Search for Self

Devouring: Being possessive; hungering for something.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What strong feelings are expressed or suggested in the drama of this dream?

What am I consumed by at times?

Were you devoured or th devourer?

If I am attacked, what am I trying to avoid feeling at the moment?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets – Dream Yoga

Diamond – Body

This is the hardest known material. It lasts forever, so the advertisements tell us. It represents the eternity of spirit, the gem or jewel at the centre of being, your Spiritual consciousness. It can also represent human greed, hardness, cold as ice, anything for power. But is not often used as such in dreams. See: Jewels.

Diamonds in dreams can indicate success, also wealth and happiness. They can represent the power of care and love that hold men and women together in marriage.

They can also indicate clear ideas and sometimes beauty of the soul. The jewel if is worn near the throat in a dream can suggest the ability to speak truly or sing with beauty. It acts as an amplification of the abilities of whatever part of the body of the wearer. So worn on the ear can indicate the possibility of psychic hearing.

Diamond Body: Is a more permanent body or identity which is formed by the transformation of sensory experience into a body or identity that has connections with the unchanging and eternal aspect of oneself. Buddhism calls this the diamond body, the imperishable self.

It shows that the person has the ability to perceive beyond the physical body and is capable of experiencing bodiless awareness. See Bodyless Awareness

It is also known in other different spiritual traditions: “the most sacred body” (wujud al-aqdas) and “true and genuine body” (jism asli haqiqi) in Sufism, “the diamond body” in Taoism and Vajrayana, “the light body” or “rainbow body” in Tibetan Buddhism, “the body of bliss” in Kriya Yoga, and “the immortal body” (soma athanaton) in Hermeticism.^[2] The various attributes of the subtle body are frequently described in terms of often obscure symbolism: Tantra features references to the sun and moon as well as various Indian rivers and deities, while Taoist alchemy speaks of cauldrons and cinnabar fields. See – Opening to Life

The caterpillar, while changing into a butterfly, closes the delicate fluids of its within, inside a hard crust, but the hard crust drops away as the butterfly emerges. So, in a sense, one’s outer disciplines, even if imperfect, protects, and gives a receptacle within which our formless nature shapes itself. Within us the imperishable diamond body is taking form. This is the eternal of our nature realising itself in common life, in time. For as Blake says, “The Eternal is in love with the creations of Time.” Our diamond body is our personal awareness, now conscious of the self beyond form, time and space. Thus, our individual self is deathless for it has found union with the core self.

The spiritual exercises/practices then, are there as a womb about the infant body of the divine child within us. Without them we could not face and bring to consciousness, our own fears, ambitions, sins, passions, without being carried away by them.

Example: In a lucid semi sleep state, I felt as if I had died, not the death of my body, but a blotting out of my waking personality. A memory arose of another similar experience where a beautiful slightly see through woman came to me and told me she was the spirit of my whole life, my female counterpart. She took me into her to form the essence of both my male and female self to form a baby uniting us both in its being.

Then I wondered, because the memory was of an event some time previous, where the child was, what was it like? Then it appeared before me as a small child covered by diamonds, as if the gems clothed it. But I could not see any body behind the gems, and it arose in me that I was looking at the diamond body, which was invisible to our eyes.

Example: My friend burned sage and asked the spirit of his wife to move on. (After 7 years of her presence). That night he dreamt that she was with him in a room looking so grand, the way that he liked her to dress and look. They talked and then she took off a ring (a big diamond), placed it on the night-stand…then she left. They really loved each other in life.

It is said there is no marriage or giving in marriage after death, so the dead wife was saying there is no longer marriage after death and here is the ring you gave. That was not a rejection of their years of marriage but a way of showing she had successfully moved on.

Example: I had a dream I have a diamond ring with 3 stone’s. This is not engagement or wedding ring. Sitting in a group, suddenly I noticed I have lost one stone. I and my husband searched and I found the stone on the table. Later we went to someplace and I found that I had forgotten to take the diamond. We went back, but could not find it. We found something but it turned out to be not diamond – something white, but stretchable thing – not very hard. What does this mean?

I have an intuition that the ring with the three diamonds actually represent the three aspect of love, one of which is loving without possessing. But the one that was lost was about a tragic thing that you forgot – a hurt to your love that you tried to forget. But you have met more of yourself as you have grown and the memory of the loss has come back.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was the diamond used for in the dream?

Does the diamond or the jewellery have any memories of associations for you?

Were there any emotions in the dream – if so what about?

See Associations Working With – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions

Diary

Memories; insights into yourself; looking within and discovering things you might not otherwise know, remember, not otherwise know or have forgotten.

Also a diary or journal can also be a wonderful way of seeing how the future developed out of thoughts, failures and decisions taken years before. Maybe even an exposure of your secrets.

A diary can also be a trail, a pathway taken by a beautiful mind and its investigation into life, oneself or even the universe.

Example: I say haughtily, “I’ll read my diary, if he was there, it will be in my diary.” I realize my diary and journal could be an embarrassment to me if people read it. I walk past a field of corn, touching the plants as I walk by.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If I keep a diary, what do I associate with it – what of me is in it?

Do I find insights or understanding in the diary – is so what?

What of myself or my past are revealed?

See Inner World – Associations Working With – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Dice

Fate, chance, luck, or a gamble. There might be a suggestion here that you are ready to take chances, or that you are gambling a situation on spontaneous events rather than planning.

Sometimes people might use dice to make a decision – high number yes, low no.

Example: At the shopping center they are selling trick stuff – magic – false poop, that sort of thing and there is gambling – dice are thrown and the crowd shifts with the throw of the dice as if to see it better or to make it look as if they are really not participating in this gambling. The young man seems fascinated and seems to fall further and further behind me in the crowd of people that is here.

Idioms: The die is cast; it’s in the dice; no dice.

Useful questions and hints:

What am I taking a chance on?

Do the dice in the dream represent chance or luck or even a decision?

Is there a win or lose situation in my life?

See Avoid Being Victims – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions

Die Died Dying

See: Death.

Dig Digging Excavation

Digging usually depicts delving into hidden or buried areas of ourselves. We may uncover feelings from our childhood – creative realisations – features of the unconscious – even dead bodies or ancient creatures. If it is dead bodies, these need to be understood, as they are parts of your life that were buried under forgetfulness. As one dreamer said, “I was digging and found some potatoes, but they were too hot to handle.” In that case what was being uncovered was difficult to face. See: Delve

Any dead bodies we uncover depicts a whole set of personality traits or attitudes, very often potentials, that have been denied life or expression. For some reason we have not allowed them expression. A person hurt in love might kill out any feelings towards the opposite sex. This ‘dead’ part of them can be shown as a body. For more information see dead body

Example: I was in a land something like America. People were digging an area with care, like archaeologists. They were uncovering body after body, one under the other. All the people had been murdered, and I was implicated. I watched, amazed at the amount of bodies – bones really. I felt no guilt, just amazement.

We can also dig as with our garden, to clean out weeds and to replan or plant. But it also if it is a garden being dug or new land, it usually indicates your work on yourelf, the work to help your growth as a person and not a body. Sometimes the change is one of achieving new realisations. There appears to be a drive from the unconscious to gather and integrate experience to thereby expand the sense of self. A means of renovating our attitudes, personality structure or habits.

We can be digging for a new building, so here digging represents effort to change your life or circumstances. This suggest that you are or are thinking of creating something new, a new idea or project. Our imagination and mind are constantly building things which show in our dreams as images. Our ideas and beliefs are the main builders in our dreams, and it is a world we then live in. We build an inner world that few people realise they have. See Inner World

If it is a well you are digging, then you are searching purposefully for the source of life, or for something you have a thirst for. Also access to ones deepest resources of life – therefore personal spiritual wisdom or information from the unconscious; the source of ones ‘well-being’.

If you are digging up treasure or ancient things, this is an uncovering of your past, or your ancestral past. This can sometimes relate to the incredible age of your mind. There is in each of us an intuition or sense that shows us or reveals to us if we care to be aware, that our mind is not simply new with our birth. Its contents, through language, inherited customs, and genetic material, are incredibly old. Exploring such dreams of antiquity can often bring to awareness this ancient heritage. See ancestors.

If you area digging your own grave, then it is an obviously statement about the life you are leading. This might be a warning that your habits or thoughts are a source of negative energy that can cause illness.

Example: ‘I entered a neglected garden adjoining a house I had formerly lived in. I was astonished that I had never noticed this garden before. I took a spade and hoe and began to vigorously work in order to put things right, digging like a navy. But wherever I put my spade I turned up live shells and hand grenades – highly explosive and very dangerous. I was terrified I would be blown to pieces and hurried away.’ From Organism of The Mind, G. R. Heyer, Kegan Paul, 1933.

The dreamer was a man in his forties who had taken up meditation on the suggestion of a friend. It shows him discovering and uncovering a part of himself he had not known before. In doing so he meets explosive emotions and conflicts he is not used to dealing with. See: garden; fork.

Idioms: dig a little deeper; dig deep; dig in; dig in their heels; dig it up; dig me; dig it; dig your own grave; dig yourself in; digs

Useful Questions and Hints:

Why is the digging being undertaken and how does that relate to me?

Is anything uncovered and what does it suggest?

Is this cultivating the land, and if so what results are shown?

See Associations Working With – Martial Art of the Mind – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

Digest

To absorb, to make use of, to understand and incorporate into your way of life. To accept. See: Food.

Digestion is a very important function not just for our body but also for our mind and spirit. I have seen people become very ill in mind because they have not digested their experience or what they have learnt at school or the lessons and experience of a relationship long gone. And digestion is a Life function. Life in us is often greatly overlooked and our dreams are one way of showing us how we have not surrendered our life experience to that function. See Life’s Little Secrets and Dreaming of an ex.

There is a double signification. It is to “consume” and to “con­summate.” It means – both in a literal and a figurative sense – to take something into ourselves and make it part of ourselves, either for our substance or satisfaction, or for our completion or perfecting in some way.

When we digest, whether it is an idea, something we have read or learned, it has to be first surrendered to the life process. We can see this in our body – it is first chewed and swallowed, then broken down into parts and the useful stuff, the building stuff, can be taken into us and the rest is passed out. The important thing is that even if it is dead or living food, it is transformed into our own living being – in other words our living understanding. If it has not been transformed through digestion it is like something dead inside us. But to be capable of such digestion we must swallow the experience and allow our unknown self to do its work, as described in Life’s Little Secrets. See: absorb; eating; food.

We transform it by giving it to the fire within us that burns as our life process. So if you are troubled by dreams of your ex or a past experience, the best way to deal with them is to work on integrating the influence left in you from it. You can do this by thinking about the dreams about your experience and drawing on all you got from him or her or it. So I would suggest you integrate all the good and bad things.

Try doing this by taking the dream images of your experience or person and pulling them back into your body. Yes, literally making them one with you. Do this slowly and allow any feelings that arise. I know you may feel, why should I merge with something or someone who gave me so much trouble. Well, I have found that we take into our memory everyone and everything we experience. So merging with it makes it conscious again, and if any feelings are allowed expression you have a chance to really understand and sort out what is useful and what has to be let go of – exactly as our digestion does. This may sound strange but all the images in our dreams are projections from you inner world onto the screen of our sleeping mind; so taking them back into you is like owning them and integrating them. It is called honouring what we learned, bad or good, from the relationship. Think of it like digesting something. In a relationship, whether a feeling relationship or one in which you are learning something, you often absorb things from the person or event. You might take in such things unconsciously, as you did many things from parents and from the culture you were raised in. So the process of absorption in a dream may refer to such influences you are taking in.’

Example: It was very real and I had a spontaneous image of standing in a great garden, an immense place of creation and unity – the Garden of Eden feeling. As this happened I had an insight that most of the people in the world do not have, and perhaps do not want to be a part of this unity. This thought, in the way it was experienced was completely new to me. I couldn’t understand why anyone would not want to experience this wonder and communion. I knew I was at the wedding feast, the celebration of life or creation. It was a wonderful feeling to be a part of this mystery. Therefore the realisation that many people did not want this was slightly shocking or unnerving. It made me ask myself the question of whether I was naive, perhaps not seeing or realising something. This realisation went on to the sense that in fact a sort of battle was going on between those who were part of the celebration, and those who didn’t want it. I thought that those who didn’t want it were perhaps frightened of losing the control they thought they had over their life and the world. I knew I was playing a part in this battle or struggle.

Here the person is meeting and digesting a part of him he had never met before. It was done by allowing spontaneous movement and feelings. See Methods of Awakening – Arm Circling Meditation

Useful Questions and Hints:

What was the experience or person you need to absorb?

What stops you from meeting it – is it because you believe your dream images are separate from you and not a part of you?

Can you own that a dream is a projection of your own memories and experience?

See What we Need to Remember About Us – Dreams are a reflection of your inner world – What do You bring to Your Dreams?

Dinner

Taking in life; absorbing something of life and the world and being enriched. If you are with others, then it might reflect something about the way you relate socially to others. It could also be a sharing of life and experience with others.

Sharing a meal: Sharing sustenance with others. In the ritual of the mass, it shows the recognition of sharing life with all others – being sustained by the flow of life as substance and energy. See: meals under food.

Example: I’m cooking hamburgers at my mother’s house. I come in with 4 little ones. She sneers and says that there should be more. I feel hurt and angry and then I go out. I look and there are lots more but they’ve fallen on the floor, the messy greasy floor. I’m crying as I pick them up because I know if she sees, I’m in trouble. I have a hard time picking them up. Finally I get them into the house, and she comes up to me and growls, “Hurry up. They’re in there, hungry, tired and fighting,” (My father and the rest of the family). I say, “I have to cook the potatoes first,” and she says, “No! Do something about the hamburgers first. Feed them the hamburgers and then come cook the potatoes.” She walks out. I’m crying and angry and I get stubborn. I look for the potato peeler in the sink of dirty dish water. All I keep coming up with are sharp knives. I’m careful with them. I peel the potatoes and get them into a pan and take them to the stove, move another pot off the burner to make room for the potatoes and see that a cooked steak is there. There are lots of them, 3. She comes back in. I say, “Look! You had a good dinner already cooked and you had me out there working and crying and you weren’t even going to let me have a good dinner.” She yells at me about finding some other place to live. I say, “Yes, sure, I’ll get out.” She storms out. My father says to me (he’s standing behind me), “7-6-5-4 yeah, you could be packed and out by 5.” I know he means a.m. and I don’t get up early, and I get furious at him and I turn and yell, “You little short runt!” D. is standing nearby. My father is about 4 feet tall. I yell, “You always take her side!” I am angry and hurt.

Example: We are sitting at TABLE. Table is very important you understand – for a family that is. Table has all the right knives and forks. It has all the correct glasses. Table has manners. Into this ‘table’ comes a little kid. He is about three. Mother is on the left. Next to her is her eldest son. He is a shattered person. Daughter is successful. She is like Mum – Who is ’successful’. The daughter is an attractive girl. Mum has ‘made it’ – So everything Mum says goes.

Husband, across the way, Is shut out. HE is not even at the table. But is standing by the outside door, not allowed at table, And barely existing. His task was to fuck her
for her to have a baby. This is the woman.

As can be seen from the two examples dinner and the family gathering it sometimes is can be far from harmonious. Bit what follows is a ver different scene involving dinner.

Example: I dreamt that my mom cut her left hand off and cooked it as dinner for us because she doesn’t want us to starve and there was nothing else to eat. I didn’t see my mom cuting her hand off but just her hand in a dinner dish on the dinner table right next to a whole steamed corn. I asked my mom why would she do that and she said because she doesn’t want us to starved.

If alone, it suggests independence; loss of family ties; lack of social relationships or outside stimulus.

If you are with others, then it might reflect something about the way you relate socially to others. It could also be a sharing of life and experience with others. Sharing a meal shows you sharing sustenance, what you have, with others; or taking in what others offer you.  See: Food; Meal.

Sharing a meal can also be about making a link with someone in a romantic or business way – or about trying to find out more about them. Many women dream of a romantic meal with aloving and caring partner.

Preparing a meal expresses the care or otherwise with which you ‘feed’ your needs, physical, emotional and spiritual. But it might also show how you relate to supporting other people, such as your family.

Useful questions and Hints::

What situation is shown in this dream in regard to being alone or with others, and the quality of the meal?

What difficulties if any are shown and what can I gather from that?

Am I relating easily or uneasily to the meal and the people?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Simple Truths

Dinosaur

Your present personality and body has arisen from processes and experiences that are millions of years old. The dinosaur or a prehistoric animal often represents your sense of this primordial past out of which your present self has grown. The dinosaur can also depict deeply instinctive urges, or your feelings about being a devouring monster.

Life on the planet is also only an extension of processes active in the cosmos. So in dreams we often sense this primordial past out of which our present self has grown, and frequently depict this meeting as a prehistoric animal.

The dinosaur might also suggest something you are dealing with that is no longer alive or functioning in your life. Perhaps it is outmoded, clumsy or instinctive.

Exploring dreams is like uncovering different strata of human psychological history – history we all share. The dinosaur often depicts one of these deeply buried strata, linking with our very basic urges of survival such as fear, reproduction, and survival reactions to situations. This does not make these brutal. They are fundamental and necessary in today’s life. Because these aspects of ourselves are so old, and have survived so long, there is often great wisdom in them if we can bring it to consciousness. Such urges as fighting over our territory or mate – grabbing what is available for ourselves – striving aggressively to provide for family, also need to be integrated in a way that socialises them, otherwise they exist in a primitive form still, perhaps in conflict with our present needs. This is similar to most animal symbols, but the difference is that the dinosaur portrays them at their most basic or unsocialised. They can also depict something that has not survived or the will to survive; something, or some element of your attitudes or feelings that is outdated or has no survival value.

Example: I was walking past a large building site which had been excavated for foundations. Rain had filled the excavated pits and a large lake had formed. As I walked past I could see ancient primitive creatures rising out of the water. One of them, a large dinosaur, came toward me. I was scared and ran away. The dinosaur followed and started speaking to me. I couldn’t understand what it said. Don.

Don explored his dream and says – I realised that through my internal digging into myself I had uncovered some feelings I had never met consciously before. This was about anxiety, which I had suffered from a lot, and about the anger I felt toward my step children for not appreciating the work I was putting into building them a home and working to provide. Seeing these things helped me understand what was behind my difficult feelings and fears. For instance I saw that fear is fundamental to all human experience, and I needed to meet it and help it to enter into the modern world instead of be repressed and remain primitive.

Example: It was darkening and the street was very appealing to me. I could just discern a house at the end of the street, facing me, and I walked toward it. I was not far advanced along the street when I saw, coming from the direction of the house at the end, in my direction, a very large dinosaur – as high as the house itself. It was walking upright on its large hind feet and the front feet were quite small and held in front. I was very nervous and frightened, but thought, If I walked very slowly, it might not notice me and pass by me But as I was just past it passing me on my right I quickened my steps in fear. It turned and caught up with me, and I thought, If I talk to it in a gentle voice, it might know I was a friend. I talked to it in a soothing voice, saying Good evening, and what are you doing with your little feet in the air? It turned its head down to me and said something in a very sweet voice, and I knew at once it was a friend, but I couldn’t understand what it said. I asked again what it did with its small feet, and it repeated what it had said before, softly, while we were walking toward the house at the end of the street. But I could not understand, though I knew it was something nice. Mrs. G.A.

Here there is an obvious meeting with fear, but this is transformed through communication. As with the previous dream, fear is part of this primeval level of us, along with flight or fight, reproduction and ritualistic behaviour. This means behaviour that is deeply instinctive and not learned. Like the dancing mating rituals of birds, it is behaviour that arises through an external stimulus. For instance some lizards will nod their head and expand their size if something red is flashed in front of them. They cannot help but respond in this way as it is hardwired behaviour.

Example: I meet a beautiful female from Jupiter, she is wearing a white cheesecloth dress and is almost divine in nature, and I am very attracted to her. We walk towards an entrance to her world (Jupiter), through the entrance I can see strange other worldly creatures, some look like dinosaurs, I am in awe of what I am seeing, as we step into her world, she tells me to look up, which I do, the reason for this was, she was telling me not to be distracted by what I am seeing around me, as a great raptor/eagle was coming out of the sky to pick me up.

From what you say of your dream it seems to me you are moving into a new awareness of yourself and what you life is – and its possibilities.

Example: My sister gets through the gate and we are being chased by dinosaurs, they are everywhere. We are running through an office building where I work but we cant find a way out. I distinctly remember reaching back to hold my sisters hand to keep her with me. Eventually we hide in an office and hope the dinosaurs don’t find us. My boss appears and we start to calm down but we are still in danger. As though the responsibility to keep us alive has switched from me to my boss. 

Perhaps you have been digging into yourself to let them loose. If not that, then you are meeting a very primal level of anxiety. But remember the images of the dinosaur are an aspect of yourself, as is the boss. I will try to explain.

When you were conceived you were at the very beginning of life forms. In fact we have to go to the very primal to reproduce. That may not mean much to most people, but in the dream world it means an enormous amount. Because from there we go through the whole process of evolution as we are in our mother’s womb. Again, most people say, “So what. I don’t remember!” You remember not in ordinary memories, but in ancient feelings of fear, or religious wonder or even intuitions of life’s meaning. But of course we do remember and such memories are seen in our dreams. So when you learned language you forgot all the past. A new program was running that aided you to have the waking, self conscious awareness you have today. And that awareness is often at odds with what are the foundations of consciousness your present self is built upon. That is what is happening in the dream. You need to meet and be at ease with what is actually a part of your experience.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

How am I relating to the dinosaur – am I at ease or scared of it – and what does that show me about myself?

Is the dinosaur communicating anything to me, and if so what?

Am I caring for or injuring the dinosaur?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Being Person or thing – Facing Fear – Dreams are Like a Computer Game