Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’

Field

Field’s often appear with animals, and suggest the dreamer’s contact with what is natural in themselves. It can also suggest freedom from social pressure; one’s sense of oneself when away from other people, with one’s own natural inclinations; field of activity or study; feeling states – depending on condition of field, cloudy, bright, overgrown.

It can therefore indicate room to grow or to explore, space to expand and opportunity to explore new aspects of yourself. The natural field might also show your inner condition, what work you have done on your ‘nature’ – things growing and a good harvest, or a wild unkempt situation.

It might suggest a field of activity or study or feeling states – depending on the condition of the field – cloudy, bright, overgrown, etc. This type of field can also often reveal things if you dig below the surface – treasure, ancient artifacts or even bombs or difficulties.

A field can be place of safety; a place in which you are an obvious target; a place of opportunity because of its space, like a football field; a place to keep animals in and to act out ones drama in – sexual, fighting, hiding etc. or you can be conained in or held back by fences. You can live in a field in a tent or a caravan. You can be in a force field. You can grow or harvest things in a field, and be in various roles in it – farmer, hunter, lover, soldier and so on. See Characters and People in Dreams.

Field across river or very green fields: Death or the dreamers concept of spiritual realm. See: landscapes.

Example: Example: I saw a dark brown fertile field in which a plough was cutting large furrows. Suddenly I myself became the field and the sharp steel plough went easily through the length of my body and cut me into two halves. Although it hurt, it was indescribably beautiful. I experienced myself as the ploughed-up field, and the furrow as my own flesh, but it was not bleeding.

Medard Boss reports this dream of a woman who though experienced in sex, had not previously felt deep love. He says the richness and depth of her sexual feelings when in love, are depicted by the dream and being joyfully cut open.

Idioms: A level playing field; have a field day; lead the field; out in left field; play the field.

Useful questions and hints:

Does this show a particular area or activity and what I have done in it?

Am I feeling an opportunity to grow or explore my potential?

Could this represent ‘the playing field’ or staging of a situation in my life?

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

Fiesta

See: Carnival.

Fight Fighting

Most often this expresses feelings of anger you may have been holding back during waking. But it can also, like a war scene in a dream, point to an area of conflicting feelings or interests.

Occasionally a fight can express feelings not so much of aggression, but of struggle for what is right for you; a fight for your ‘space’, a fight against urges in yourself, or influence from other people. This could be a fight for independence. See: War.

Usually, as in the example below, the dreamer’s anger or frustration. A fight may express difficulties in regard to independence or self confidence or desire to hurt another person, or damage their reputation.

A fight also depict, as in the second example, fighting for our space; our values or honour. We may fight for survival – for our health or fight crime, resist criminal impulses. We may also feel attacked by another persons opinions, or be assaulted by sexual desire; fight against depression; have a conflict over moral issues. See: attack.

Example: ‘Some three years ago I had constant dreams with my mother. We were nearly always in some sort of argument or fight.’ Marjorie B.

This is about the way a person ‘fights’ for their independence, not because the mother is preventing them, but because to be independent needs a lot of skill; such as financial independence, ones own opinions not controlled by parents, and ability to meet ones parents without fighting them

Example: ‘I realised a door had been left open that should have been locked and I felt very vulnerable. Suddenly a sword of light appeared in my hand and a voice told me that it was my weapon to fight the evil.’ Mrs D. B.

But something many people overlook is that we are all life-forms, and so are created by the process of Life, and because life has a flow or current which carries you forward all the time, through babyhood, childhood, adolescence, and onwards, you could be trying to fight the current. See Opening to Life

Fight or flight response: See flight or fight

Idioms: Fight it out; fight like cat and dog; look for a fight.

Useful questions and hints:

What is the fight about, or what am I fighting for?

What inner conflict or turmoil am I experiencing and what does this dream say about it?

Am I struggling toward independence or to stand my ground in a relationship?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Characters and People in Dreams – Being in Control – Programmed – Conflicts

 

 

Film

Sometimes a way of looking at a part of your behaviour, or experimenting with feelings, as something outside of you, rather than confronting them as part of yourself. Therefore it might be a part your own past or character which you do not wish to acknowledge. The theme of the film is usually important, because it will illustrate something relevant to your own life. In some cases it a urge to escape from what is pressing in your life. See: cinema.

Example: When I looked at the film it was a carnival going on in the street, people with gay clothing and crowds watching. Two girls were going to sit in an old model type car, but someone said it would be better if they sat on the back of the car as they could been seen in the parade. Then I was looking into the crowd to find me and it was like looking at a snapshot, it felt very important that I find me, I saw my green slacks just showing, right at the back of the crowd. H. K.

Here the main feature in the dream is the effort to ‘find me’. So the dreamer is watching the film in order to clarify their own self image, or find out who they are and how they relate to other people – the crowd.

The film might be an attempt to view yourself objectively, so images of your behavior and character projected from your intuitions about yourself.

Films are one of our means of escaping from reality but also an expression of creativity. We often watch a film in company and so it could be saying something about a relationship. See: Cinema.

Example: Our house on top of a hill was flooded. I went to a building in town and had to say a password to get in. I met friends of mine who are in my favourite band. Buddhist monks were in the room. We watched a short animated film. An attractive male pop star started touching my thigh. I felt very happy and relaxed. I am 18 and a virgin.

Starting with the last scene, I think you would like to lose your virginity to a man who wasn’t a run of the mill type – someone who has some public recognition – recognition you also want for yourself. The rest of the dream is about your personality, an interesting mixture of creativity, music, Eastern philosophy, powerful emotional urges and sexuality; each aspect seeking expression and balance with the others. But this special blend that is you, keeps hidden. Maybe you haven’t recognised it yourself – thus the secret password. If so, take time to acknowledge your real interests and let them shape what you do in the external world. Here lies your power.

Example: In my dream I felt like a character from a film, changing my image to become a new character. I felt very sexy and attractive, but knew I was in disguise. My husbands relatives tried to get in but I slammed the door. I felt embarrassed and frightened they might see the clothes and wig. A comfortable presence was behind me. I’m single, early twenties.

A fascinating dream weaving together thoughts about future marriage, how you feel others might see you, and an emerging and attractive side to your personality.  Anything new feels strange. Established character traits are more like habits than essential aspects of yourself. Underneath the make-up we are all shape shifters. But you feel the new things you are trying out might be seen as outrageous or false. But looking at the vast range of character traits in people throughout the world, which ones are RIGHT or TRUE? Of course you might be seen as outrageous by some people. So will you risk developing the sexy and attractive facet of yourself? Or will you let your inner wisdom – the shadowy character – guide you? From being a she/he your wholeness comes. See Archetype of the Shapeshifter

Film characters: These often depict particular characteristics or feelings such as fear, love, practical efficiency etc. So it would be useful to define how you feel about the character. See Characters and People in Dreams

Film from camera: Mostly to do with memories or dreams. The old films were very sensitive to light and can be ruined; digital photos can be deleted by a magnet and suggests things you have been impressed by, perhaps almost unconsciously, that are still awaiting development but could be lost. Or if the film is developed or saved then they are memories.

Useful questions and hints:

What is the subject or theme of the film? See: plot.

If I am in the film what part am I playing?

When I describe the dream what words do I use?

See Characters and People in Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Associations Working With

Film Star

See: FamousPeople

Filth

See: Cesspool and Faeces.

Find Finding Found

Usually, as in the first example, to discover, realise, become aware of some aspect of oneself and gain access to or use of. One might be living with constant resentments about one’s past or present situation, and then ‘find’ release from this for a day, yet not be conscious how it was achieved. The dream might attempt to define this. Or it might be a new idea you realise unconsciously in sleep.

Example: ‘I went into a cellar. It was rather cave like. I had to scramble to get into it. The entrance was difficult to find, but I had discovered it many years before and been in lots of times. I found objects in the cellar and was looking for something.’ Tony C.

Example: ‘Then I was with my dead father and was showing him a handful of exotic bank notes I had found in the building. They were £100 notes. I wasn’t sure if the money was legal tender or not. The notes had unusual design.’ Andy LBC

Andy has found a sense of his own value – the money – but is not sure if other people also value him. The dream illustrates the attempt to ‘find a place’ in society. The effort to search and find is frequently to do with one’s own identity, and what one is searching through is one’s experience or inner sense of life, as in Tony’s cellar above, or the example below.

Example: ‘I was looking into the crowd in the film to find me and it was like looking at a snapshot, it felt very important that I find me, I saw my green slacks just showing, right at the back of the crowd.’ Trudy K.

See: digging – seeing-see-sight.

Idioms: Find oneself; find fault; find out; find one’s bearings.

Useful questions and hints:

What did you find – was it of value?

Did you succeed in finding what was sought?

What have you been looking for in life or  yourself?

See Inner World – Associations Working With – Secrets of Power Dreaming –Life’s Little Secrets

Finger Fingering

More than anything else it is through the fingers you feel and explore the things around you . Although your eyes allow you to see the world, it is with your fingers you take hold of it, work with it, create or destroy.

Fingers can be expressive of your feelings. It can be the finger of scorn; accusing finger; finger of suspicion; beckoning finger, or to put your finger on something and therefore know something about it.

Fingers represent your grasp on things, your method of materialising yourself, or leaving your mark upon the world; therefore your personal skills. The finger print also denotes your uniqueness.

The finger can represent the penis, as is common use in sex-play: or your means of sensing. or fingering things.

Fingers can, as the wedding ring finger, suggest something like marriage. The finger print also denotes your uniqueness.

Fingernails: These depict your ability to effect or change something, to grasp small things. They also reflect your way of life such as rough physical work or otherwise, suggesting whether life has been hard or kind – perhaps also your state of health. They might be weapons, or reflect your personal condition – i.e. dirty or cared for, whether you are ready to really use your hands, or whether, as with painted fingernails, you use them in a social sense.

Thumb: Indicates your identity, your uniqueness and what you have achieved in the world. The thumb sticks out from the other fingers and indicates independence. Means of identification or of getting a grip on things. Indicaates power and holding ability. You can express approval (thumbs up) or disapproval (thumbs down.

Index or first finger: This is a finger that indicates or points at things, so might be directing your attention or accusative in some way. It is an extension of the energy of your personality. It is The finger of authority, and giving direction. It can also often be judgemental. Can either make a point or point to solution.

Second finger: This may depict things that are where you have grown from as a person – your origins. It also links with the responsibilities you take on and your relationship with the law of the land.

Third or ring finger: This concerns your creativity, what talents you have and whether you are an artistic intellectual or physical type. In the west it has obvious connections with marriage and relationships. Can represent the finger of success, popularity or creativity, and art. It is obviously the finger indicating marriage.

Ring finger, Left Hand: Symbol of marriage, vows, promises, and commitments.

Rash Under Ring: Shows problems with commitment or the relationship in general.

Fourth finger Little Finger: This is about social interactions and communication. If it is damaged or very small it could suggest a childlike or immature manner. Sometimes seen to represent mental power, intellect, memory, diplomacy. Also power of communication, and expression of words. A power or lack of in communication, and expression of words in speaking or writing.

Example: In my childhood, aged between about five or ten, I used to dream about being on a roof with an archetypal witch figure bending over me. Pointing a very long finger-nailed hand at me – giving me an ‘I’m going to get you’ feeling. Simon.

Idioms: butter fingers; can’t put my finger on it; cross your fingers; fickle finger of fate; fingers the size of bananas; fucked by the fickle finger of fate; get the finger; get the bird; keep your fingers crossed; lift a finger; point a finger at; put my finger on it; work my fingers to the bone; wrap around her/his finger; get fingered; at your fingertips; finger; finger of suspicion; beckoning finger; green fingers; sticky fingers; burnt fingers; can’t put my finger on it; snapping his fingers; tapping fingers; intrusive fingers; slip through my fingers.

 

Useful questions and hints:

What is being done with the finger(s) and what can I gather from that?

What is being expressed in the dream?

What interaction between people is taking place with the fingers?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Dreams are Virtual Realities

Fire Fire station

More than anything else fire represents the process of life. Just as all living things do, fire needs to be fed to remain alive. So a fire burning low could show your life process at a low ebb.

A fire in dreams represent destroying the old, what was alive or lived in the past, and releasing their energy. The fire is the growing power within you consuming old forms of living.

Fire can also represent passion; sexuality; anger; desire; burning feelings such as resentment or frustration; our desire to destroy.

Fire can show the process of growth or change in us that radically alters our old dependencies and viewpoints. Fire completely alters much of what it touches, so can depict big changes. Beacon fires were also signs of warning or of something important happening.

It can indicate, depending on the rest of the dream, an emergency or calamitous change.

Our life process, often described as a flame which burns forever through different generations but leaves only ash behind. Like the fire, to exist our being burns other life forms as its fuel. Thus it destroys yet gives life, so is linked with our vital energy. We have the fire of life within us, we eat and feed the fire that consumes what we eat. It is the warmth of our body, the warmth, even passion, of our emotions and that is life – continuous through death.

Fire occasionally refers to physical illness or a warning of it.

House burnt down: Big changes in yourself and your attitudes; leaving old standards or dependencies behind or a sign of sickness.

The fireplace: Homeliness; the womb.

Underground flames: Unconscious emotions or desires which one may need to face for real growth. Illness that has not come to awareness yet.

Fire in the sky: Great changes in viewpoint; meeting the next step in maturity. Artemidorus said fire in the sky meant war or famine. For the Africans a bush fire meant war.

Fire going out or a cold burnt out fire: Suggests your life is low or showing illness. A fire out can indicate either a love or relationship that no longer has any warmth in it, or a life that was lived and is now only ashes.

Fire Station:  The central ability to deal with deal with destructive influences in you; and the power of using the life energy that can either injure or uplift.

Firewood: Gathering firewood may be to light the inner fire. More than anything else fire represents the process of life. Just as all living things do, fire needs to be fed to remain alive. We eat and breath to keep the fire alive – and if a huge part of you is only just waking up it needs feeding. Fire can also show the process of growth or change in us that radically alters our old dependencies and viewpoints. Fire completely alters much of what it touches, so can depict big changes.

Example: ‘I was in a small terraced house with a friend I had known years earlier. It was her house, there were two or three children in it. Suddenly, it caught fire, I wanted to stay and put the fire out but she did not. She dragged me outside and down the street. We saw the house burn down. I had this dream the day I got home from hospital, after undergoing a hysterectomy.’ Mrs G.

Here the fire depicts the consuming feelings of loss regarding Mrs G’s child bearing function. Also the loss of an area or era of her life.

Example: ‘I found quite a large old fire place. I asked my husband if he would like a fire. I thought it would be cosy if we both enjoyed the fire together. Woke up with warm feeling towards my husband, he reached out to me.’ Dinah Y.

Here fire is not only home making and human warmth, but also sexuality.

Idioms: Too hot to handle; you burn me up; old flame; the burning bush.

 

Useful questions and hints:

How is the fire portrayed in the dream?

Does it represent passion, burning love or consuming emotional fever of some kind?

Is it about purifying past hurts or mistakes?

Could this imply transformation of something?

Is this possibly a warning of illness?

See Dreams are Like a Computer Game – Facing Fear – Processing Dreams

Fireman Firemen

The ability to deal with our passions or outbursts of emotion or anger; dealing with misplaced energy or personal emergencies involving passion, burning pain or fiery feelings.

Firemen can also deal with personal difficulties, like a person’s cat up a tree, or people trapped somewhere. So it suggests help when you need it.

Useful questions and hints:

What pain, anger or passionate responses am I dealing with at present?

Is this about my own feelings or that I am dealing with a ‘fire’ in someone else?

What is burning, and what does this suggest is being consumed or cleansed?

See Characters and People in Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Associations Working With

Fish Sea Creatures

When we decide to speak or move, unconscious physical and psychological impulses and processes occur to produce the response. These deeply unconscious processes are often depicted by fish. The fish can therefore depict something arising from within us that could be nourishing or threatening, depending on ones dream. For instance a person might allow feelings from within to emerge that had been held back. As the feelings flow a new sense of self might emerge, and be depicted as a fish.

It can also show the attitudes and urges we have in common with humanity – the collective unconscious – and the impulses or insights arising therefrom – can therefore represent the Self or Christ – the collective unconscious. Also the sexual drive in connection with reproduction, the many little fishes being sperm. In this sense we are the fish which swam the incredible journey and grew into a human, but is still on the odyssey of life and death. The fish may be the wisdom we have not yet brought to consciousness, regarding our personal journey in time and eternity.

Example: ‘Last week I suddenly started having a recurring dream. In it I woke, walked downstairs, went into the kitchen and looked in the kettle. It was full of little fish.’ Karen LBC.

The fact that Karen goes ‘downstairs’, suggests the lower part of her body, and the shape of the kettle, which is a round container, make it likely this dream is about pregnancy.

Example: Dreamt I was standing in a location by the bench where the carpet begins. The carpeted area and the hall was nearly a foot deep in water. (I had seen the kitchen as cold and uninviting and had bought some carpet and put it down to make it a softer area for my children.) I had bought all three fish. They were wrapped up. I unwrapped them and dropped them in the water. They immediately revived and swam away making a threshing noise in the water.

We had guests in the sitting-room, and after a while I went to look for the fish. The guests were just leaving the sitting-room to go upstairs. I found the fish and a carpet near the sitting-room door. It looked like the fish had been pushed there like rubbish. The scales were worn off and I felt upset by seeing them in that condition. I picked them up and wash them. Their heads were cut off and I was going to put them in the freezer.

This extraordinary dream was explored by the dreamer. He said of it, “I worked on the fish dream alone for a while, and nothing at all came for ages. Then suddenly I remembered how I had been thinking about fish during the day. I had seen how I stood out for my desire for fish despite my wife’s protestations. This was something I had not done before. The fish were my statement of strength in my own home. The carpeted area I had already seen as my putting a carpet down as giving of self to family and home. I had remembered talking to a friend about this the day before. After this I couldn’t get anything. But in the evening I was listening to a record – John Denver –  and I thought of my impressions of self when I went to Mr. Markham’s house. I realised myself as a very unimportant, middle-aged, not very successful man. I felt very humbled, and also the deeply gentle love for others that comes from such humility.

Then the words in the songs said, “The fish in the water,” and like a flash I realised what the water meant. Throughout the weekend I had been saying to the group, “The fish in the water doesn’t know it’s in the water. We are often so immersed in an attitude or state of consciousness we don’t even know we are in it.” My growing strength and self giving is so immersed in some sort of attitude I am unable as yet even to know I am in it.

A lot of emotion came. I cried with a feeling of humility and love for my wife. But I cried about something the crying didn’t make clear. Yet in a certain sense I felt the crying was like a breaking down, dying process.

Then I realised that was probably what the fish dream meant. The thing I was immersed in is my home that I don’t want to see. “The waters of Life. Self giving. All that which flows out of a man into his family, his sperm, his care, his strength, flowing out to his family. That’s the waters. That’s the dream. In the dream I gave my fish into my family, and I swam away. They said to me, “What is this fear underneath your pride? What is the strength underneath your fear?”

“They swam. Then they were under the mat, broken. That’s what life is. A proud, beautiful flowing out of strength, and then, it’s just swept under the mat. Life just builds bodies and then breaks them. Broken bodies on the sea of life. Life once flowed through them, now they are just so much waste on the flow of life, just like empty tins discarded.”

Here I had pictures of a group of monkeys all children. I saw how the fear or shock felt was usually only if their parent or comrades felt that falling over, shouting, fighting, was something to cry about instead of enjoy, that they started feeling apprehensive about the tumble of life.

“They don’t care if they are a part of it, a part of the group, not excluded. If they are loved it doesn’t matter that a foot occasionally comes out of the wrestling match and hits you in the ear. We are just these animals, who look in on the fight, the shouting, the loving, and say, is it all right? What’s going on? Is it something to be frightened of or to enjoy? If we go up to them and say, “It’s OK. We love you.” We are like those monkeys in the book, The Shadow of Man, who hold each other’s hand if something frightening happens. Then we look at each other. “Is this something we’ve got to be frightened of? You don’t look as frightened as you were, so I’m not frightened.”

The little ones are looking to as for clues all the time. All the time looking. They’re asking, “Is it okay? Is it okay if I get knocked over? Is it okay if someone shouts?” “Yes, sure it okay. It’s all part of living and being human.”

“Oh that’s OK then. “Sure, roll about a bit.”

Then I began to shout, “Let me out please. Let me out of here,” banging my chest. As I cried out my head turned to the left and I felt I was a fish. The position was appropriate because my head had an eye each side of my body. I remembered my two fish dreams, one with the dead fish covered in flies.

“Stinking dead fish. Something really rotten. Something really stinking, right in their (in my left chest).” Suddenly I took on a very nose in the air, supercilious attitude toward this rotten thing in my chest. “Quite horrible. It’s a stinking thing. A stinking thing. It’s a stinking fish. Take it away.”

Now my superciliousness of voice and face went. “It’s a fish, like the fish under the carpet in the dream. It’s a bit of me. The wreckage of life. I am a bit of the wreckage of life. Dead fish – out of water – how does it all link up? Such a huge thing this dead fish.” Its fear of death – fish out of water – teenage – the pain in the chest – the weak? There’s something missing so I can’t link it all up.”

My father who had a all this bloody muck on top of him from our culture about tits and brassieres, and pictures of women with their legs open, as if that was womanhood. That’s not womanhood. It’s a part of a woman’s equipment, but a woman is something so different. Womanhood is a lovely thing. Why picture it as all those things? It’s not just a fairytale thing. A woman is a real animal who feels, behind all that from her body. There’s a real human being, with fears, hopes, love, weakness, strength, and we give our youngsters this bloody stupid image – of men too – part of the deadness.

As I held my wife and touched her body I wept at the depth of feeling between us. I also saw my hands upon her, and observed their strength. I felt the strength of my manhood.

“I have all my life fought and worked hard to gain strength, unconsciously fearing I was weak. Yet now I can see that I am a strong man. I am strong just through being myself. I am strong in my own right, not through doing anything to make me strong.”

After a long time of looking and touching and drawing closer, we got into bed and lay close together. There was no attempt to make love. My body at this point did not seek this and there was no direction. We talked about this. I felt that Life or God married/united couples through flowing through them, and we must wait for that. Gradually it happened and a very satisfying coming together occurred.

As we lay together afterwards many things arose into my awareness. I wondered what power intercourse had to do with a timeless or eternal, and a completely new (for me) view of our union and the eternal arose. Before we had come upstairs I had seen how mankind exteriorise everything. They exteriorise God, the Church, the eternal. Yet the altar, the Church, God, are our own being, our own everyday experience, and the act of love is the act of Creation, birth and death, the void, everything. Yet our union, after all, had been unspectacular. How was worship, sacrifice, God, all involved in it?

I saw that if we approached each other in reverence, care, gentleness, then we approached Life itself. There is no imagination needed to understand that. Our partner, our own being, is Life incarnate. It is only an attitude that causes us to approach without care, prayerfulness or reverence.”

The following was an inner insight the man received about a dream in which, “I seemed to be also see inside the tunnel looking down on the river and seeing many fish or fish shapes in the water flowing or moving to the tunnel end.”

Example: The river really lives within your soul; the fish are released from another reality beyond your own personal life. The reason you see living fish and shapes represents long-term benefits. Your present life brings into being factors that will not really live except in other lifetimes. These fish will nevertheless afford prizes in the form of bonus outflows from the one life. Your present life will release much that arises from the future. You are a gateway for the future to pour into the present. The past releases the living fish. Past and future are from the one source.

Dead fish: Non expression of basic urges. Non giving of self. No loving sexual giving.

Eaten by fish: Feeling threatened by irrational urges or emotions; threat of losing conscious or rational direction of life. It is an example of fear of Life in us and so repressing its urges.

Eating fish: Integrating our inner realisations. Partaking of Christ – i.e. feeling connected with society and the world, as in communion. Being a part of everyday life in giving and receiving.

Fishing: Creating a receptive state of consciousness which allows the deep insights or processes to become known; trying to find spiritual nourishment; ‘fishing’ for ideas; compliments or information; seeking intuition.

Many little fish in round container: Could be sperm or depict becoming, or wanting to become pregnant.

crab The shell of brittle emotions we guard ourselves with grasping or hurtful attitudes. Being nipped by crab: Physical or psychosomatic pain or even illness caused by being too tight or self protective.

Dolphin and porpoise Because dolphins are wild creatures of the sea that actively develop a relationship with humans, they are often taken to represent the contact and relationship we have with the deeply unconscious natural forces within. Such dreams suggest life is not simply operating blindly, but reaches out to us if we reach out to it; powerful unconscious energies in us; conscious awareness of one’s link with all life; contact with the one life within all things.

Example: About a month ago I decided to terminate a relationship which had lasted more than twenty years. Two nights after making this decision my body took over at night and started rocking, banging, pushing, the back arching. These alternated with rest and floods of soothing energy pulsating through my whole system. In the morning my back felt totally open and vulnerable. Soon after this event I had this dream – I was swimming in a broad river of clear, warm water full of life energy. It was deep and the river had rock cliffs rising either side of it, 40 meters high. Above that I could see the green of some trees in the sunlight. Further up stream the walls of rock joined and formed a tunnel.

I was swimming on my back when suddenly I saw a huge fish. It was about 4 meters long, coming out of a cave towards me. I panicked. Then I thought it might be harmless and went on swimming quietly. It was a dolphin, and very gently it swam behind my back and covered it, hugging me from behind. I lay absolutely quiet embraced by the powerful and gentle energy of this being. Energy was pouring into my back. Finally I reached round and touched the fin of the dolphin. It was like thick velvet. Rhea.

jellyfish – Feelings arising from the unconscious which might be painful / sting the dreamer, bring a sense of helplessness / spineless, or are from a non verbal level of memory.

octopus Feeling trapped by the influence of one’s mother; dependence upon mother; one’s own possessiveness or desire to cling to someone in a relationship. Hadfield in Dreams and Nightmares, says that a baby often seizes upon its mother’s breast with this feeling, so it may represent the desire to posses or devour others. The octopus can also symbolise any unconscious fear which may drag us into its realm of irrational terror, or any influence you fear will engulf you.

sea lion It is similar to seal described below, but has also the male has the charcter of a bull type creature, who has a tremendous fight to get a mate and to produce offspring. The female sea lion is seeing who is the more dominat male to mate with and produce her child. So it is very much about our own primal instinct to mate and carry on the next generation.

 Example: I was standing on top of a small mound or rock, about fifteen feet high. At the base of this mound my wife was bending down looking at something. Nearby was a buffalo which was a smooth skinned blue bull. It had the rounded body lines of a sea lion. I sensed that it was going to charge at my wife’s behind. I called to her. The bull was walking toward her, speeding up as it approached. Then she was on the rock beside me. The bull was now excited and running around. I was anxious it might get at us somehow. On my left, I could see the mound connected with a flat area of higher ground, and I hoped the bull would not get onto the higher level and attack us.

The dreamer, who had a habit of not having regular sex with his wife, realised that his standing on the rock represented his being independent from his wife. But the bull/sea lion in him saw his wife’s attractive behind was an excitement to his own instinctive urges. He was anxious that the animals side of him would get to him, which he felt as an attack.

seal As the seal can emerge from the water entirely and live on land, the seal is sometimes used to represent the emergence from the womb and the pleasures or difficulties of life as a ‘land animal’ physically independent of our mother. This is especially so if it is a baby seal. It can also depict the emergence into your conscious life of your deepest instincts and life energies – in Eastern terminology the kundalini. Otherwise the possible meanings are much the same as dolphin – see above.

shark Fear of death; fear of the collective unconscious, or loss of self in the impersonal Whole or All; the power of the unconscious – so its protectiveness; someone who is a ‘shark’ or unscrupulous.

shell fish Often the defensive shell we use to avoid hurt or sexual or emotional involvement; the female sexual organs.

Clam: Emotional withdrawal. Some part of your feelings may be closed up. The clam suggests there is some sort of outer hardness to protect a sensitivity or hurt. Often the defensive shell we use to avoid hurt or sexual or emotional involvement; the female sexual organs.

Oyster: A defensive shell, but may link with sexuality through common association of eating oysters as an aphrodisiac; tight lipped; secretive; frigidity. See: crab; pearl under jewels.

Lacking shell: Our naked vulnerability.

swordfish The same as fish but with the fear of being hurt by our realisations.

turtle There are so many different sizes of turtles it is difficult to be specific, but turtles are creatures that can live under water and also on land. They also have a protective shell they can withdraw into, and these are probably the main points your dream uses to depict something of yourself. So this part of your dream may link with feelings of deeply inner feelings or even vulnerabilities that are surfacing or being felt at present.

In other words you may feel vulnerable and withdraw into a protective shell – or are emerging from such vulnerability. It may be referring to a time in the past you did one or the other.

For women the turtle can appear in dreams about pregnancy, so you may dream this if you are, or are trying to become pregnant. See: Pregnancy and Dreams.

The turtle is a slow mover, but nevertheless is a survivor and can live easily in different environments. So the turtle might reflect a need for you to acknowledge these aspects of your own behaviour or character.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Am I feeling vulnerable at the moment, and if so what about?

Are there ways I withdraw sometimes, and in what way do I do that?

What am I feeling from deep within me?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Processing Dreams – Edgar Cayce

whale The powerful evolutionary drive involved in reproduction, which lies behind individual male or femaleness; the beneficent power of the collective unconscious. Also the ability to dive deeply into ones unconscious life process and awareness.

Example: ‘I was leaning over the settee with my hands cupped under my chin looking out of the window. The view was spectacular, in that it was as if the house was situated on top of a cliff overlooking a huge bay, shaped like a horseshoe, with the house in the middle. From the sea suddenly, coming into the bay I could see three enormous whales making their way toward me. As I was staring in amazement they began to transform themselves and come up out of the water as three giant Viking like figures. They were so huge, that the water came up only to their knees and everything was moving so slowly, as they waded towards me. It was the most awe inspiring thing I had ever seen in my life.’ Sue B.

The bay, the beautiful sea, the sperm? whales / men, show Sue touching the most primordial yet inspiring aspects of her own womanhood and urge to love.

See: Christ under archetypes; religion and dreams; sea. Idioms: Big fish; big fish in a small pond; cold fish; fish for compliments; fish out of water; queer fish; smell something fishy.

Useful Questions and Hints:

 

Am I meeting a deeper awareness of my relationship with the fundamental drives in me?

Has a change occurred where I am starting the inner journey into who I am beyond the surface personality?

Have I recently felt a wider awareness of what I am?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Processing Dreams – Edgar Cayce

Fishing

Creating a receptive state of consciousness which allows the deep insights or processes to become known; trying to find spiritual nourishment; ‘fishing’ for ideas; compliments or information; seeking intuition.

Fishing rod: Male sexuality; personal power, or feelings of impotence. Getting a new fishing rod: In a man’s dream might mean feeling anxious about his ability to ‘hook’ a woman. For a woman it could mean a desire to ‘catch’ a new man. In general the rod suggests the means of pulling something out of the unknown of life or your mind. So it could suggest intuition of skill in acquiring the new, or something that nourishes.

Fist

Graspingness, selfishness, anger, arrogance, aggressiveness. tension. See Hand

Five Fifth

The alchemists called this quintessence, because it arises from the other four elements. It symbolises the human, due to two arms, two legs and head, as in a five pointed star. It is the unity that arises from the four elements, or aspects of self. Five may also represent your hand or foot. Mostly the symbol of man incarnated in a physical body, and functioning therein. Here, all four aspects of being are expressing in a fifth quality, physical life and consciousness.

The astrological sign is Leo, the king. The fifth house of the horoscope relates to children or offspring, and Leo rules the heart. See: Numbers.

Because the five pointed star looks like the human body five is sometimes used to depict yourself or your body – either that or personal consciousness in your body. It might also link with the hand. Five is sometimes called the number of marriage because it unites all the previous numbers – 1+4 and 2+3. It could also refer to the five senses, which might appear in some form in your dreams.

Five may at times represent an immediate change in your situation, or something divided by five. Because it connects with our fingers and toes, five may be associated with expression of yourself into activity or movement.

Numbers can have a personal or symbolic significance. For instance you may have had three children, so the number three in a dream about children could be connected with your feelings or fears about them. So a number may refer to a particular year of your life; the number of a house; the months or years that have passed since an important event or relationship; your family group – or it could have a general significance such as indicated in language – i.e. three’s a crowd; seventh heaven; nine days wonder, etc.

Idioms: a fifth wheel; as useless as a fifth wheel; fifth business; fifth column; bat five hundred; five o’clock shadow; Group of Five; high five; in the pipe five by five; take five; The Group of Five/The Reginal; five star hotel; nine to five life

Useful questions:

What memories or associations do I have with five?

Are there memories of importance from my fifth year or fifth grade?

The pentacle usually has a circle around it, and this depicts separation – the human sense of isolation – do I feel this?

See Secrets of Power Dreaming – Processing Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets

Flag

This can represent pride, either as ones connection with the group as in nationalism, or as an individual. The flag is also used to depict occasions of rejoicing such as marriage or victory, or mourning as with someone’s death.

Flags can be used to signal a message or an event, and a white flag says ‘surrender’. But it depends what the flag is and what you associate with it.

Flag at half mast definitely has a connection with death or a project that doesn’t work well – but it can be the death of a project or hope as well as a person.

Flags are planted to show success as when reaching the top of Everest, or in claiming and occupying land, so this might suggest your experience of entering new territory in yourself or life, or succeeding in reaching a difficult goal. Flags are also used to give signals or when joining in a celebration.

Useful questions and hints:

What is the flag being used for or signifying in the dream?

What feelings do I experience or are suggested in the dream?

Do any events such as a gathering or celebration suggest the significance?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Edgar Cayce

Flames

Life itself – our life as it moves through experience leaving only memories; the mystery of consciousness underlying our personality. Flames can also indicate passion or anger. See: fire; candle; fireman.

Although a flame is very real you cannot grasp it. In a similar way you can’t grasp your own life or consciousness. So flames sometimes show the burning flame of personal awareness that leaves only ashes behind. Flames can also be an expression of love, passion or anger.

Sometimes a flame, a passion, a love, is passed on through the generations.

Flames can be warming or destructive, as can be your life. So a flame thrower could indicate destructive emotions directed at someone.

People like Victor, the young boy raised by animals in France, and studied by Dr. Itard, never attain self-awareness. Lacking human contact in childhood they do not develop a human personality. They have never been handed that mysterious gift that transforms them from an animal lacking self-awareness into a person. The absence of human contact meant they were never given that precious mystery that constitutes the human soul – i.e. conscious decision making and self-awareness..

This mysterious gift from one human to another is often symbolised by a flame or light. We are given a soul by those who share themselves with us. Perhaps through their act of accepting us a fellow human. This divine spark, like the flame from another lit candle, becomes ours personally as we live our life. We can pass that gift on to others by letting our light, or flame, fall into their lives. The Christian mystery of baptism is when we are ritually given a name and are accepted as a human person in the society of our birth. Of course this is a formalised dramatisation of the mysterious process of passing on the flame of self awareness – the soul. But the lit candle, lighting others is a beautiful symbol of this. The flame itself may represent the life, the mystery which, although we make it ours by living it, is beyond us, is universal, like the flame that can light a thousand other candles. It remains individual and collective all at the same time.

That mysterious flame is as old as human beings. It is a mystery no one really understands yet. So we represent it in religion with various symbols. Nevertheless it is the common daily bread of our life experience. If some care not to acknowledge that flame and its strangeness that is their loss. They never kneel before it and bathe in its depths, and gain from it the sharing in its eternal life. For beyond our personal colouring of the flame, it has a universal life, touching all beings, gathering them into itself. Without some wonder in us we never share, through it, the community with all other beings. This is the meaning of the sacrament of communion using the bread and wine.

Example: Now we are very close. His shirt is off. He has beautiful golden soft skin. I want to caress it. I’m laying very close to him. He says, “I see your candle. Is it the one I gave you?” I look at it. It’s a beautiful candle, a soft fragrance, pretty color, with lovely colored flames. I say, “No I burned your candle. It’s all gone. But I got this one because it’s like your candle and I liked it.” I am embarrassed because I am indirectly telling him I like him.

Flames coming from the head: We all have areas of the brain that are seldom developed – you know the old story of only 10% of our brain is used. The flames show that in some way you are awakening those higher brain functions. You may at times while awake feel a tickling or tingling feeling on the top of your head, and that may be a sign of the awakening.

Idioms: Baptism of fire; between two fires; fire up; go through fire and water; play with fire; under fire; add fuel to the flames; old flame; the old illness/love flared up.

 

Useful questions and hints:

Is this flame acting as light, as warmth or destruction?

In what was is the flame being used?

How am I responding to the flame?

See Colour and Energy in Dreams – Clicking On – The Dream as a Code