Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’

Emerald

Unless you have personal associations with this jewel, it suggests growth and connection with living things. See: Jewels.

Emergency

Something you are feeling anxious or stressed about. The dream might even be a warning, but check out the anxiety aspect first.

If this is an emergency call to the police or ambulance, then it is an important call for help or support, and you need to ask yourself what it is you are trying to get help or support for.

Emperor

Sometimes this figure, like king, represents feelings about your father. It may indicate your need for approval or parental blessing, or what feelings or needs you are ‘ruled’ by.

A ruling figure like this also can represent the whole, the will of collective humanity. See: king.

Father and mother are symbolized as king and queen or emperor and empress, children as little animals, death as a journey.

Useful questions and hints:

What is your relationship with the emperor or empress in your dream/

Do I relate to them in a childlike way?

Do you need approval or parental blessing for your decisions?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Processing Dreams – Being in Control

Emigration

The changing of habits, ideas. The search for self. A change of direction in life.

Perhaps a search for a better life, or the hope for a change in the future. See airplane

Useful questions and hints:

Have I been feeling restless and in need of change?

Are there signs of a life change at the moment?

Have my family got a history or immigration, and if so what has that left in me as lifestyle or viewpoints?

What is it you hope for?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Characters and People in Dreams

Empty

Lack of something or a receptive condition.   Lack of  pleasure, enthusiasm, good feelings or it can fear of loneliness or lack of relationship. Sometimes it indicate a sense of isolation. Or it can be  one’s potential; opportunity; space to be oneself. Depends on feeling quality in the dream.

Empty can refer to so many things such as empty or boastful talk, and empty house, empty of any feelings, life will appear empty and meaningless, empty room, empty periods, empty chair, empty fuel tank, empty plate, empty trivialities, in the end all is void and empty – and so on.

Emptiness can sometimes show how you limit yourself in your thinking or feeling. Feeling destitute and empty with no visible means of support or help can be changed into a place of rare beauty, depending on your associations. See Secrets of Power Dreaming

There is an inner emptiness that is often thought of as nothingness. But that nothing is everything; if it were something it would be some-thing and therefore could not be everything. As such it is your core self.

When people think of emptiness they usually see it as a destruction of everything – a death of self. But the nothingness of the void is part of the paradox of existence – for the nothingness is at the same time everything. But everything is all inclusive. As such it cannot have any defined characteristics or shape, otherwise it wouldn’t be everything. 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 Nothing is the indefinable everything that underlies the particulars of your life.  The Next Step.

Empty bottle: Resources you have used up, or that you are feeling empty or have nothing to offer others.

Empty house, buildings, shell: Outgrown habits or ways of life; old attitudes; death; depression or/and potential. See house.

Example: I was down in a low bit of a village, trying to get to a road high up on a hill where the sun was shining and was walking through dark, empty houses. Heather.

The use of empty in this dream can be understood by the comparisons existing between the ‘down low, empty houses’ feeling, and the ‘high up sunny hill’ feeling.

Emptying bag: Getting rid of attitudes or feelings one has been carrying about; unloading or looking at the thoughts and memories one has been ‘carrying’; leaving or dumping a lover.

Useful questions and hints:

What is it that is empty, and what loss, absence or potential does this suggest?

What do I feel about the emptiness?

How am I responding to the situation?

See Avoid Being Victims – Emotions and Mood in Dreams – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams

 

Enclosed Enclosure

The defences we use, such as pride, beliefs, anger, to protect ourselves from deeply feeling the impact of the world, relationship, love, anxiety or pain. These are often presented in dreams as traps or restraints, even though they are parts of our own personality. For instance one may feel trapped by one’s own feelings of dependence upon family.

Example: ‘I am trapped in a bricked room with no way out and I shout for somebody to help me. Then either a big bird or a creature with long arms tries to catch me, and I scream.’ Karen S.

Karen had previously lost a baby, been divorced, had an unsatisfying relationship with a man. She feels trapped by the defences she has herself built ‘brick by brick’, but is frightened of the opportunity of change represented by the bird. What encloses or traps us in our dream gives a clue to what constrains us in waking.

Example: ‘As I go through a tunnel it either gets smaller so I can’t get through, or it goes on so far there is no end to it. I am trapped and terrified.’ Don M.

This sort of enclosed dream is typical of trauma relating to a difficult birth. In fact Don’s mother was in labour for four days, and never had another child because of the pain.

An enclosure can be the way we preserve our own identity from the influences of the world. Or if it is an enclosure with animals in, it might show how you keep your own natural life processes protected or separated from the social and commercial influences surrounding you. But if we search with enough courage, trust in our inner process, then we will find a way as in the following dream.

Example: One person, “looking for herself, came upon a tightly closed box. Tearing it open she found inside a lovely rose, and realised that she had been enclosed in a box of Puritanism, of self denial and physical shame. The outer petals of the rose, pink and mauve, seemed to whirl and dance; they sent her fancy spinning off like a ballerina into flowered landscapes of delicious femininity. The inner petals were shaded from the light, obscure and mysterious. Here the colours darkened to deep crimson and velvet purple. They reflected her deep animality. These she avoided, until she realised that it took both the light and the dark to make a lovely rose. She could not have one without the other. Gradually the rose became a nourishing symbol in her life and growth.”

Sometimes we can be trapped and made ill by the very things we felt would free us.

Example: I was like Atlas, supporting a world upon my shoulders and arms. It was so heavy I swayed and stumbled, and eventually was crushed – falling over – lying on my back, arms and legs wide. My hands went back and tried to lift up this world but failed. Then they went into a prayerful position, high up, and afterwards seemed to spin the world up above my chest, then take it upon my shoulders again and gradually rise. I seem to remember that flickers of strength or energy had gradually arisen from within me to enable me to lift the world. Now my right hand began to swing round and round, fast and faster. My left hand joined in and I understood that I was whirling this world faster and faster. Suddenly, and with a mighty effort, out rushing breath, and a sense of finality, I let go and the world swung into space – in orbit. It was here that I saw it as a creation drama, and felt from within that all such dramas have great inner meaning.

It took me months to realise the truth behind that wonderful experience I had in LifeStream. The world was what I had created by my religious, beliefs I had inherited and that I now saw caused me years of illness. Then I had stood before a wonderful light. But I still felt I had manacles and chains of my wrists, and said with great passion, “Please take these chains off me!” And the Light replied, “Tony, I love you. I would never put chains on you, you put them on yourself.”

Useful questions:

What type of enclosure is it – a trap, a fence, a wall, a prison – and how does that reflect my life?

If I am enclosed by people, in what way am I held?

What do I feel about the situation?

Am I trapping myself through my own attitudes or beliefs?

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

Encrust

Things, ideas, habits, that have collected around, or overlaid whatever the symbol represents. A dirt encrusted mirror would represent the lack of ability to look at self, or to see yourself as you are, due to material or earthly desires and values.

Something encrusted with rust suggests not only age but also lack of use. An ornament encrusted with jewels indicates a very rich source of wisdom and connection with your core self.

Example: As the cleansing programme begins I become aware of a fibre glass or man-made structure, something like a Michelin man, riveted together.  There seems to be encrusted material caked on in places, rather like temporary dental filling or Polyfilla.  As it has been there for quite some time it is quite hard to remove and I become aware that to do so could mean the whole structure will fall apart.  My friend assures me that it is safe to let it die.   As the water continues to jet onto the filler I become aware of a new born life form which has been protected by the structure.  Its skin is slightly mottled and I become acutely aware of its breathing and the strong sense of magic pervading from and all around the creature.  The creature lies in a crib in the centre of a room, alert, curious, enchanted and I am fascinated by this incredible discovery.  From death new life miraculously arises!  Beneath the man made structure behold a faery child!  I reconnected with the magic that lies at my very core; the newness, the freshness, the playfulness and innocence. I am renewed!

Useful questions and hints:

What is it that is encrusted and what does that suggest or relate to in my life?

What do I feel about what is encrusted?

Is this something I owned and got left?

See Habits – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Dreams are Like a Computer Game

Encyclopaedia Encyclopedia

Memory, inner knowledge; collective human wisdom, so may depict connection with the collective unconscious. See: Book; collective unconscious.

Sometimes we use encyclopedia or records in dreams to reference past life memories, or memories from long past. Here are a series showing this.

Example: I was walking by a riverbank near a cemetery. As I walked and drew near to the cemetery, I saw submerged in the river a record player – in fact my record player. I walked into the river and pulled it out.

Prior to this I had experienced several dreams showing the river being blocked, or silted up, or made sluggish with reeds and weeds, and in this dream he was walking in the direction the river flowed, it being clear and free flowing. The river is the flow of his life, showing the energies of growth and creativity, the energies underlying emotions, thinking and sexuality. The dream shows him as consciously following their flow. The cemetery is the many past lives buried with him. The record player is the faculty of memory covered up by the emotions or flow of his inner life, but now he is bringing this faculty to the surface. He felt this dream had something to do with past lives, but was far from being sure.

Dream 2. About two weeks later I had the following dream: A friend and I entered an old empty house which had not been lived in for a long time, and we explored its rooms. In an upstairs room we came upon what looked at first like a baby grand-piano. When I opened the lid, however, it was seen to be a record player with a very large turntable, and I noticed behind the piano, stacked against the wall, a large number of records. They were as huge as the turntable, at least two feet across. I put one on; it was Cheiro (the palmist and prophet) speaking about prophecy. My friend was fascinated with the record player, and said he was going to renovate it, clean it up and use it.

 

Useful questions and hints:

What was I reading or seeing in connection with the encyclopedia?

Can I remember any associations with encylopedias?

Did I learn anything from my dream or  the encyclopedia?

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

End

Used in many different ways, depending on context. It can indicate reaching a goal, or the end of something pointing to change. It can be a release or death.

End of path or road: The end of one’s life; the boundary of what one already knows or has done; end of a relationship especially if walking with person.

End of tunnel or cave: Finding the way out of a difficult or depressed stage of life.

End of table or queue: Feeling left out, unconsidered, forgotten; putting oneself last.

End of garden, room, tunnel or road: Can be used to show polarity or opposites, as in following example in which the end of the tunnel suggests and opposite to the fear she is experiencing.

Example: I’m trapped in a long passageway or corridor. I can’t get out. I’m feeling my way along the wall – there is a small light at the end of the tunnel, I can’t get to it. I’m very frightened. I wake up before I get to the end. Then I feel afraid to go back to sleep. Margaret C.

Many people dream this ‘end of life’ theme. In virtually every one of these dreams, there is a highlighting of ‘things to do’. Such dreams are a way of deciding what is of most value in the dreamer’s life.

Example: ‘I found myself alone in the garden at the far end of the house near the stables.’ M.M.

Here ‘the end’ relates to being alone, as opposed to being in the house with people.

Example: We were flying over a big lake. I saw two ladies who trying to end their life. One was in casuals wearing red t-shirt n blue jeans and another one in grey Indian attire.

Idioms: At an end; end of one’s tether; wits end; end of the day; be the end of; a sticky end; dead end; the deep end; end it all; end of the line; both ends meet; not the end of the world; loose ends; to no end; light at the end of the tunnel. See: cul-de-sac.

Useful questions and hints:

What is it that is ending in my life?

Have I gone as far as I can go in this particular direction?

What am I at the end of?

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

End Of World Apocalypse

Certainties that the world was ending have been experienced by humans since the beginnings of their history. It is still a theme that frequently appears in dreams and in the way many people live their life today. Many sects have predicted precise dates for the end of the world. All of them so far have been victims of their own fears and hopes. Looked at from the point of view that dream images represent our own life and feelings in some way, the end of the world, and the fears that go with it, depict the powerful and threatening inner and outer changes that accompany major transitions.

Apocalyptic dreams can indicate that you have realised that the world you knew is so riddled with destructive and anti life feelings and thoughts you dream of seeing its logical conclusion – its death. Such dreams show you are going through radical inner changes and are seeking a different, life oriented way.

The transition from childhood to adolescence for instance is the end of the world that existed for the whole lifetime of the individual up until that point. Such points of transition occur several times in the life of anyone who dares to grow and adapt. Menopause for women, the leaving home of children, the loss of a job, retirement, can all be represented by the end of the world – or a world.Social changes also bring enormous stress and the ending of a way of life to many individuals. Supposing an individual had grown up in a welfare system and had, as many do, spent their entire life being supported by social welfare, never working. If the social welfare finished, it would be the end of the world for that individual.So inward and exterior changes can produce the feeling or dream of our world ending.

This can usually be met and passed through, although it does require a sort of death, a letting go of old traits and responses built in connection with the old way of life. This can produce anxiety. A new personality, one suited to present needs or situation can gradually emerge – be born – if we can pass through the anxiety and meet the experiences of the new world we are living in.

Several religions lived with the conviction that unless certain rites were performed with zeal, the end of the world would occur. The end was only delayed by the efforts of the devout. Peoples living in the uncertainty of seasonal changes and unreliable harvests, may have expressed their deep fears and hopes through such rituals and beliefs. Underlying such beliefs was the frequent idea that the gods or God had frequently destroyed the world in the past, to cleanse it of error. Such destructions had always been followed with a new world. Therefore rebirth always followed destruction. In the New Testament Peter reports Christ as saying – The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up’ (2 Peter 3.10) The parable of the separation of the goats and the sheep, the wheat from the tares, also suggests an ending and a time of change or judgement.

Considering that the early Christians were sure the end of the world was to happen in their own times, we can be certain it does not refer to the actual physical world, or that perhaps it depicts a constant fear that lives in humans concerning death or social insecurity. Research carried out by Ostow and Mortimer into the dreams and fantasies of schizophrenics suggests that the apocalyptic theme is common to the illness, and is almost exactly a reflection of the theme found in some religious teachings.

That people still frequently dream this theme show it is still a significant issue. Strangely enough, sometimes the dreams are not threatening, or there is a great deal of beauty involved. These are examples of the religious theme that at the end of the world there will be resurrection and a wonderful new life. Ostow and Mortimer see these as a hope that radical healing or change can come from an external and perhaps miraculous source, rather than from personal growth. These dreams are obviously not about anxiety, but show a feeling of wonder and pleasure at the dramatic changes. In both cases God, or a power other than that of the dreamer is included in the dream. We can see this as a realisation of the dreamers that the changes are beneficent, and arise from activities wider than the individual influence of the individual. See: First example under alien, and the example below.

Example: It was the end of the world. I was at work when we received the first signs; my computer suddenly showed beautiful pictures – but in the usual computer colour – all green. I said, ‘Oh God, if only we had colour!’ and immediately the pictures started flowing through the screen in beautiful breathtaking colours. I could hardly bear to leave their beauty. 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.

In trying to make sense of end of the world dreams at a personal level, this account from a man in his fifties helps to clarify what happens in connection with such dreams.

Example: About three years ago I experienced a number of dreams about catastrophic events such as earthquakes and the destruction of cities. In such dreams I was trying to find my way through the dangers. For instance in one dream I was walking up a hill in rocky country. Looking to my right I could see that a huge river of earth and boulders was flowing. I realised it was due to earthquakes and earth changes, and although I didn’t feel frightened, I did feel I must keep an eye on what was happening. During that period I also went through a powerful death experience. I wanted to die. It wasn’t that I felt suicidal, but the sources of satisfaction and pleasure in my life had dried up, leaving me feeling there was little to live for. This led to a real inner awareness of dying, and I realised this was really what religion was referring to in talking about dying and being reborn. It was difficult at the time to know exactly what this was about in terms of my normal life, but through the passage of time I have a clearer view of it, although it is still emerging. So I can be fairly sure that the changes and the sense of dying arose out of my having reached my middle fifties. At that time my children had all left home, and my sexual relationship with my wife was almost non-existent. I had never realised it before, but those two things had given me most of my satisfaction in life, my reason for living. Without them I felt empty of any motive to live as I couldn’t find things that were anywhere near as fulfilling. Around that time too, after I had actually felt a real sense of having died, I managed to make some big changes in my life. I moved with my wife from a house we had lived in for 17 years. In leaving it I also stepped out of roles that had provided me with a livelihood, social contact, and feelings of social value. This was difficult to do as I had a lot of dependent feelings about the house and the income involved.

The change was sometimes very painful, but overall the changes led me to feel more independent than I had ever been previously. In essence I would say I have gradually learned not to be so dependent on others – my wife and children – for my own feeling of well-being. And although the dreams and the death experience happened nearly three years ago, I believe I am still going through the process. I had thought at the time of the death that the birth would follow quickly. This doesn’t seem to be part of my own experience. It is a long process. So if someone who was going through such a process asked me how to meet it, I would say that you have to learn some measure of trust in ones own capability to emerge as a new person. Or one must have a view of life as being more than ones small concerns and inclinations, and that one is learning to integrate what is MORE than oneself. Nigel A.

Example: I looked to my right through the doors of the large room and saw strange alien type creatures. I felt a bit anxious. They were like skinless creatures. Now I was walking out of the town. It felt like the end of the world, or the end of society. I was walking through lots of churches standing on a hillside, surrounded by grass. They were of all types, strongly built but empty now. I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colours surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE SHEPHERD. Peter M.

Peter’s dream represent the coat of many colours in the Bible story.

Useful questions and hints:

What is it that is ending in my life, or that I fear is ending?

Do the events of the dream give me further insights into what I feel or fear?

What events or relationship situations in my life suggest radical change?

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

Enema

May be a memory of infant experiences that has left terrors within. Inner cleansing of unnecessary material and outworn habits.

Enemy

The person or group you are pitted against represent something, probably within yourself, that you are in conflict with. Such dreams show us parts of ourselves we struggle with. Jung called this the Shadow, the aspects of oneself we 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.

Example: When my husband was a child of about 8 years he often used to have an abstract nightmare. It consisted of him (a soft wavy line) being attacked by the enemy (a pointed zigzag line). As the enemy (zigzag) overcame him (soft waves) he would wake up in terror. The nightmares ended when his father died unexpectedly from a heart attack.

The enemy are nearly always the almost unseen horde of darkness we carry with us from the past; the depressed feelings; the feelings of failure amd hopelessness. The enemy are the many doubts and fears and conflicts that block you from knowing and using your real abilities. These are usually unknown a  nd in the unconscious. Of course it is a battle, and the threat is death of pain, which your supra conscious knows are empty threats. The battle is between the false beliefs, the pains and fears that have been grown as truths in our lives, and our own real self masked by such beliefs and experiences. It is a real battle.

If we face the facts of our dream life in which our usual morals are lost, we may dream of being a cannibal, for cannibalism is an attempt to take in the power of another. Cannibals eat their fallen enemies in an attempt to assume their virtues. They eat their enemies’ genitals to gain virility, their hearts to gain courage. It is a symbolic attempt to destroy their enemy and take on their power. The child or child aspect of self may dream of eating their mother. It reveals a desire to take in the mother, the source of all nourishment and life; it is an attempt by the infant to gain the source of power himself.

An inner or outer enemy can put massive obstacles in the way of what you what to achieve or the way you wish to live. With an outer enemy the attack can be very subtle. Because the unconscious will use any belief system or cultural symbols we have absorbed to express a theme, the powerful images of witches or evil characters we see This ‘cross wiring’ of associations could meaningfully be portrayed as a ‘spell’ which makes one feel frightened in the apparently loving situation. See: Victims; Dream Like a Computer Game; self hypnosis; spell.

I had two very powerful examples of outer enemies and their power. My wife and I were visiting my wife’s sister and her husband. Her husband’s brother visited and sat and talked to us and afterwards I felt strangely ill at ease. Being able to ask my unconscious – inner self – for help I was shown that in fact the brother had wanted to ‘have’ my wife and wanted me out of the way. He had said things to me that didn’t seem bad, but the hidden feelings in his words had caused me to react badly. When he came again I was watching and listening for any signs. He immediately said, “What is that silly hat you are wearing”? A simple enough remark, except I recognised it was his way of making me look stupid in my wife’s eyes.

So it is wise to recognise that someone is an enemy and take care how you react to them. An inner enemy is often harder to recognise than an outer one. See Defence Mechanisms and Resistances

Useful questions and hints:

Do you actually feel under attack by your emotions, evil or someone?

Is the dream giving any advice as to deal with the enemy?

You are important, and any enemy is an idiot, and can be conquered – no matter who it is – by love.

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Prison – Avoid Being Victims

Energy

See: Electricity – energy sex and dreams – snake .

Engine

One’s motivating drive or energy; the body’s energy and mechanical or automatic functioning; the sexual or natural urges; sometimes the heart.

For instance a strong anxiety can be a power, an engine, which motivates us to do or avoid certain things, such as taking risks, entering a relationship. So too can love, dependence, desire for wealth, loneliness, and the struggle to survive.

There is far more that goes on in the hidden places of our being than ever goes on in an engine. But dreams perform the same function as the gauges on the dashboard. They illustrate processes that are going on in the depths of our body and mind — and in fact often in the very deepest places of the unconscious. As with the gauges, we are not directly experiencing the processes displayed in images and drama. What we are witnessing is a process that puts into imagery, into emotions and drama, things that in themselves may be quite formless, that may never previously have come near to verbal definition or conscious conceptualisation. The word imagine has its root in the word image. We literally put into images those things that lie beyond our usual senses in the formless and timeless regions of our being.

If the car engine will not work, or is damaged, it doesn’t mean the driver does not exist, or that he or she does not know perfectly well where they want to go or what they want to do.

Car engine: This often represents your heart or your ability to motivate yourself. It therefore links with your personal energy or drive.

Because ones energy, courage and drive are so linked with how confident and expressive we feel, the engine, its size and performance are often indications of this. See: machine.

Train engine: The energy that takes us through life and carries us with other people, but usually to set destinations – unless the rails are missing. Also libido.

Example: I dreamt a dream that was a surprise. I was standing and viewing a massive railway area. I front of me were many tracks going across my view. Then suddenly there was an almighty great train coming toward me, cutting through and destroying all the tracks going crossways. It wasn’t running on any tracks. I wasn’t sure if it would explode and kill me, although I didn’t feel scared, in fact I stood wondering what it was all about.

This shows that the dreamer has broken free of the restrictions – the rails – and with tremendous force can direct his energy where he wants.

Example: In England, it was discovered that a couple of bolts in the engine were loose. An engineer came and tightened them, then discovered that the engine was “red hot” with radiation. This meant Graham and I were also a danger to others. Graham pushed the idea aside, choosing to ignore it, but I did not wish to endanger others

In this dream the man realises that he is giving of harmful emotions and must distance himself.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is my dream saying about my ability to motivate myself and get to where I want to go?

Do I feel adequate as a person, sexually or as a man/woman?

Does the dream suggest anything needs to be done to the engine – if so what is that pointing to?

See Processing Dreams – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Energy Sex and Dreams

Elephant

Although the elephant is much like any other animal in your dreams, it tends to represent the power and influence of the potent forces active in your body and mind, that if you relate to well bring about health and success, and if badly illness and ruin. For example the elephant can refer to the powerful responses in us such as fear, sex, survival, and the power of imagination to evoke great anxiety or great pleasure. Often our personality evokes these forces in a destructive and disorderly way. A person may have read an article about cancer for instance and develop a great fear they have the disease, causing much stress and actual physical illness in some degree.

So some elephant dreams revolve around how we relate to this power, and the attempt of the elephant to place us on its back to direct it. So in general it is your potential or energy. Also depicts your big self, or the power of the unconscious and your cosmic, eternal nature. The tremendous inner power of the unconscious, with a mahout, or conscious direc­tion or co-operation can achieve wonderful things. Ganesh, the Indian elephant god, represents the remover of all obstacles, the power of life manifesting. He is the god of good fortune.

So it is the totality of yourself rather than awareness of only the conscious ego. It is what is referred to in Christianity as the ‘spirit’, the influence that can heal or instruct, thus power from our unconscious; strength; unforgiveness from association of long memory; patience; fidelity; intelligence or wisdom of the unconscious. In some ways the elephant has similar qualities to the crocodile in its link with the collective unconscious. The difference is that the elephant does not usually in dreams seek to consume you like the crocodile or alligator. It therefore depicts a relationship with one’s incredible potential that can lead to directing or working with the potent forces of the unconscious. See: alligator.

If we run from the elephant: Being afraid of our own strength or inner power. The question is, can we meet this enormous energy in ourselves enough to direct it? Sometimes represents the collective unconscious.

Elephant’s trunk: Sometimes a sexual symbol, the penis. As such it is usually referring to how your sexual feelings are being influenced by the great spirit of Life acting on you – the cosmic power of the spirit. Also the trunk illustrates the ability to get or reach out for ones own needs – see example below.

Example: During an experience arising from the use of psilocybin, I had a very clear mental image of a baby elephant. It was like a bas-relief made out of clay, but mobile. I could see that the baby elephant had some problem with its trunk, and I wondered why my unconscious had produced this image so clearly and what it meant. Immediately the image disappeared and a series of associations arose unbidden. It was that the elephant actually ate with its mouth, but it had to reach out for everything with its trunk. As a baby the elephant would suckle, but as it matured it would have to learn to get its own needs with its trunk, therefore the problem was about me reaching out for my own needs. Danny.

Example: The I experienced the elephant as a powerful force which I intuitively sense and feel some anxiety about. I felt the elephant as a powerful influence which works below the level of normal consciousness, which acts upon masses, although it obviously influences individuals. But it influences individuals unconsciously, so they are inclined in a direction along with many others. As it enters my life I sense it seems to be an influence which might direct me into a communion with this deeper, more inclusive or integrative influence. Thus my personal activities might have added to them this influence which co-ordinates the processes of life, and adds to ones small endeavours the stamp or power of a grander life – the spirit. The life of the spirit I sensed here as the ‘company’ where I was accepted as a worker in this wider organisation behind life.

Example: I was on a road and noticed that a magnificent elephant had appeared. It had enormous tusks and ears, the latter being powdered with blue dust and adding tremendously to its impact. As it was coming in my direction I was frightened and began to run. I ran off the road, over a fence into a field. I thought the elephant would be stopped by the fence. It wasn’t. It walked straight through it after me. Then I tried to climb a low bank back to the road. The elephant was drawing nearer and I was so frightened I could hardly move to climb the bank. The elephant caught hold of me and I suddenly realised it wasn’t going to destroy me, but wanted, despite it being a magnificent and powerful beast, to sit me on its back. I was still frightened however and ran to a doctor’s surgery. The elephant came and, thrusting its trunk into the surgery, drew me out to it. AT.

Example: I looked out of a window and noticed a wild elephant in full charge. It ran past the end of the building and I went to the opposite window, seeing it charge another elephant. After the impact it seemed to be a strange mixture, in my mind, of elephant and rhinoceros. It then stood shaking with sexual motions, until a great deal of sperm came out and its tension was released. AT.

The above two examples illustrate firstly the enormous power of the elephant and how it is not usually an attacking or destructive power, and in the second example it shows the link between that power and the sexual drive.

 

Idioms: White elephant; pink elephants; rogue elephant. See: the self under archetypes.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

If I imagine myself as the elephant what do I experience?

What powerful influence am I meeting or directing at the moment?

Am I aware in any way of the enormous impact the collective power of society and my own unconscious has on me?

What is my relationship with the elephant and what does this depict in my life?

See Do you imagine that is a real creature – Avoid Being Victims – You are the Projector

 

Elk Moose

Like horse but wilder, less tamed – so the force of drives or emotions that carry us along or trample us. The moose or elk sometimes appears as a magical animal that brings a feeling of loving connection with the world. Generally a natural and instinctive urge you are meeting in yourself or others.

 Example: The horse stopped and I put my face close to its muzzle. In some way I felt connected, and as I looked up I saw it was a female moose not a horse. It lifted its head and because of my connection lifted me too. It felt very pleasant.  

Example: I see a bunch of these high school kids teasing a moose. The moose is laying down in a corner like it is hiding, or sick. I yell and run across the road to save the moose. I get it up, by petting and pulling at its rack. I begin to walk away from the field to the woods fuming about the stupidity of people and how dangerous these animals can be. A second larger moose comes from the woods to ask me what I was doing, and I explained it to her. That he was not a thing to be picked at and how dangerous his rack is, he bumped me in the back with his rack. Not to hurt me, but to show he was listening. I reached up and petted his cheek like you would a horse. I walked him to a bridge, still standing next to his head, petting his cheek, speaking to him like I was soothing him. Just as I was going to cross the bridge I woke up.  

Useful Questions and Hints:

Can I learn anything about what urges or feelings I am meeting from my interaction with the moose?

Is there conflict or harmony shown in my dream?

In my description of the dream what key words do I use. See: key words.

See Levels of the brain – Animals– Being the Person or Thing