Posts Tagged ‘dream dictionary interpretation’
Piston
Sexual energy or expression, or powerful activity. The piston is often an expression of explosive force or power, often of a mechanical or habitual way.
The piston can rise and fall, usually in a hole, that is why it is an image of sex, but it can also indicate what lifts you or takes you down like an elevator, indicating your shifts in awareness or feelings.
Example: We went to what was his house, which was opposite where he actually lived. It had railings around a basement area. To get down Eddie stood on a large piston like column which acted as a lift. It went through a very narrow gap at street level and I wondered how I could get through especially as I was carrying a bottle of wine or champagne. There was also a shadowy man to my left. A young woman who at first appeared Chinese offered me a small ornamented cup of coffee. I took it and drank, offering her back the cup very courteously. She now appeared as a young English girl. She came straight to me and kissed me. It was very welcome and I held her and caressed her breasts. She then took her knickers off so we could make love. I was a bit taken aback at such speed but held her, though I made no attempt to make love.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is there any mention of a relationship or sex in the dream?
Was the action mechanical or forceful?
Where any feelings in the dream – if so what where they?
See Clicking On – Compensation Theory – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Pit
Trapped by events or outer circumstances, but due to attitudes and desires, that have led you to the pit. Problems, feelings of being imprisoned and buried by your life.
Feelings or situations you find it difficult to get out of, or that you might fall into. A pit sometimes appears in dreams in which you meet feelings about death, or to do with feelings trapped or forgotten.
Often relates to a mass of unconscious assumptions that have been taken in from our family and culture. These assumptions create a view of the world and life in which we can easily become trapped, and thus are depicted by the pit. See: Abyss; Falling; Void.
Falling and the big black hole are things we avoid in waking life, but should not be avoided in dream life.
Example: “I can remember being dressed as a heroic warrior running through crowds of people or soldiers who were trying to stop me. I pushed or knocked them aside and ran toward what was a huge caldera – the mouth of a volcano. It was hugely deep, and in its depths was a massive glow from volcanic lava. But I knew that this was the core of me, so I ran and leapt into the void falling into what I knew or felt sure was the light at the core of my being.”
The hole is an important part of you and should not be ignored. If you can enter it you realise that it is the way to your own center and power. It is often the hole described in Alice in the Wonderland and a way to explore your inner world.
But the hole and facing death are really gateways to discover who, or what, you are. Most people say, “I don’t believe in God. There is no evidence for His existence.” Some people say, “I believe in God with all my heart.” But both people are locked into only knowing a tiny part of them based on our conscious self, emotions, words and thoughts. They are so sure of themselves based on an almost infinitesimal small part of them. And the silly thing is that they are so sure of themselves from this small understanding.
The human personality – the You that you call yourself, with a name, is only a tiny thing. It is moved and tossed around by all manner of drives, ambitions, emotions, fears, temptations, worries, love and desire with its pains and hopes; it is something we take so seriously and get carried away into awful situations; we take many sorts of pain killers to deal with ourselves. Things such as alcohol, coffee, medical drugs and street drugs, and yet we are still prone to break down, as can be seen by the number of people who need antidepressants or are totally lost in themselves. Look around at the number of people who have to take anti depressant, or who have to use alcohol every day, or smoke or take other drugs – all means of not facing the difficulty of meeting self awareness.
But we have to remember that having a personality with self awareness is a very new thing and has only existed for a short time. Before that we were like animals that lived only in the Life Will – what we usually call instincts. So the development of self awareness was an immense step, and left us very vulnerable, and still does.
Many people as their awareness reaches beyond what they feel are their normal self feel scared. Such resistances cause us to create awful dreams and fears as a means of avoiding our own inner world and its wonders. We feel that we will be swallowed up and we will die. It is important to say that when we meet the experience of powerlessness through becoming aware of the hugeness of your Life, which we are usually unaware if, it feels like something alien or attacking, and it is a shock. See Programmed
Death pit: It may mean you are struggling to meet feelings about death.
Falling into an abyss or pit: Fear of failure or fear of meeting ones own depths of feeling and the hidden side of oneself. It could represent anxiety about some form of death. It can often be a way of facing fears involved in falling, and can be met by imagining yourself falling into the pit or abyss. See Falling – Secrets of Power Dreaming
Example: Court of Assembly, now stands, and into this pit they threw symbolic offerings of the fruits of the earth. Then each man took a small piece of earth of the land from which he came, and these were all thrown into the pit together.
Throwing things into a pit: Dead or murdered bodies are sometimes got rid of that way. In ancient times holes were seen to lead to the underworld – the unconscious – and were sometimes explored or people were sacrificed by being thrown in. In recent times they are often used as place to thrown refuse or things now longer useful. But a sink hole, because it swallows things can ‘lose’ even big things like cars in- – so suggests thing you do not want to deal with and want swallowed up forever.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Were you looking at or falling into the pit?
Did you throw anything into the pit?
Was the pit filled with water? See Pool
Were you climbing out of a pit?
See Inner World – Martial Art of the Mind – Magical Dream Machine – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Place Environment
The environment in which the action of the dream takes place signifies the background of experience or circumstances that support the situation dealt with in the foreground.
A helpful way of defining this is to give it a name, a name such as one does with dream people. You do this by trying to sense what your main feelings are about regarding the place, or what happened to you there, and how that left you feeling. You might have felt a lot of conflict in a certain town or while living in a particular road. So you could call that ‘My conflicts’. Or a place may be linked with a loving relationship, so could be called ‘My ability to Love’.
Example: I was near a lake in the countryside. Everything was frozen. I saw some horse droppings still steaming and this seemed to be the only living thing around. Kevin K.
Kevin’s comments on this are that the frozen lake and countryside express his feelings about the world around him. He sees it as cold and uninviting. It is frozen and there is no life in it for him. That is, he cannot find anything in life to excite him or have meaning. The horse dung he realised is the resources he can use to change his life. The dung can be manure or food for growth, or fuel to burn for energy and heat. This made him feel as if there is a way to transform his old unsatisfying patterns of ‘frozen’ emotions into something growing and satisfying.
So Kevin’s dream setting illustrates his view of the world – that it is a cold uninviting place. So it is the feeling state he lives within most of the time.
Placenta
Aftermath of deeply felt dependence. Our dependence on others, or theirs on us. Depending on someone else to nourish or support you in a very fundamental way. Dependence; being depended upon; how one gains nourishment from another.
Dreams about both of the placenta or the umbilical cord might well be showing you what your state of being was before you were born, and any problems that occurred at that period. Although you do not have self awareness at that time, you are certainly a living and responsive being that learns and is impressed by experience.
The placenta can be likened to roots that develop when a fertile seed is planted. It roots into the ‘soil’ of the mother’s body. The dreamt of placenta can also represent connection with other people other than ones mother. In a very real way, the umbilical cord is the flow of life. If it were cut without any substitute the baby would die, or if the link with another person were suddenly cut there can be emotional pain. So the cord is in a very real way, the umbilical cord that is the flow of life. This is true of lovers who make such powerful links with their partner, or mothers with their growing children.
You can often heal or change any difficulties by experimenting with you dream imagery. See Secrets of Power Dreaming
One of Stanislav Grof’s earliest insights, when working as a psychiatrist, was that many of his patients relived experiences connected with their birth and of life in the womb. At first he saw these as something the patient had imagined, or part of a fantasy dealing with their difficulties. But as these experiences continued he came to see that the knowledge the patients expressed far outstripped their education of embryology and the processes of foetal development and birth. Patients described specific details concerning blood circulation in the placenta, and even details about the various cellular and biochemical processes taking place. They often exhibited awareness of actual events, thoughts and feelings experienced by the mother during the pregnancy.
Here is an example of such a memory.
Example: I am expelled from the womb before my body and soul are mature enough or ready to be separated, ready enough to undertake life disconnected from the placenta. As I experience this I feel incredibly vulnerable. Each sound, whether a bird singing or a car going by, is a possible threat to my existence. I had been physically and psychically attached to my mother. I realise as I observe what is being felt that the broken bond, the feeling of life threatening isolation, enormously increased my sensitivity to threats as a child and as an adult.
Example: “Watch your children’s eyes when they are told about their birth. They want every detail, and they will remember it. If told things went smoothly they are barely satisfied, and if told of any trouble—if they were born in a taxi, or if they came wrong—they remember all details.”
Example: I was standing over my toilet and noticed a baby’s head emerging from my vagina. I reached down and grabbed hold and helped finish birthing him. It was a baby boy and he was healthy. I handed him off and then I remember birthing the placenta. What makes this all so strange is that when I gave birth to my real children I had C sections. I never birthed them “naturally”. And I also cannot have anymore children because I had hysterectomy a year ago. But it was vivid so real and I have thought about it ALL morning. What could it mean?
As a woman you have the power of creation, even though you had a hysterectomy. Of course you cannot create physically as you once did, but you can create an inner reality as you have with the baby you birthed. Because you do not have the equipment any more to have a physical baby does not mean your basic nature has lost is creativeness. Lots of women who have had a hysterectomy have dreams or giving birth. This is because it is a way of knowing that you are still a complete woman; after all, a man who losing a leg does not feel he has lost himself in the process. Your dreams know that you are more than body, and even though parts of the body have been lost, you are still whole. Also to give birth to a child in a dream shows you bringing forth a new part of you. It is vulnerable as any baby is, but this new ability will quickly grow into a recognisable part of you. See hysterectomy
Useful Questions and Hints:
Do I see any connections between the dreamt of placenta and myself?
Was there a problem in the dream, or did everything go well?
Was I told of my birth and mother’s pregnancy at any time – if not it is worth asking?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Magical Dream Machine
Plait
Plaited hair may suggest youth or girlhood.
The inner strength that comes from uniting parts of your being into one aim, one direction, one leader.
If this is a male dream it can have similar meanings, but in both male and female dreams it depends what the dreamer feels about plaiting their hair. What does it imply? See hair
Plaited hair: Girlhood. See: hair under body.
Plaiting rope etc.: Weaving different influences in ones life together; uniting conflicting feelings or people; maybe a personal relationship triangle situation.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Have you ever worn plaits?
What do feel when you see plaits?
Have you been bringing different things together?
See Creativity – Genius – Martial Art of the Mind
Plane
See airplane
Planet Planets
For a quick find, click on these links: Sun and Moon – Mercury – Venus – Mars – Earth – Jupiter – Saturn – Uranus – Neptune – Pluto – Alien planet
The influence of the abstract or subtle in your life. What this points to is the subtle but inbuilt things such as place of birth, historical period, financial situation, social level you were born into and that form almost unconscious motivations and hesitations in you.
The planet might portray a desire for the strange or alien. If you have any understanding of astrology, the planet can depict the traditional ‘planetary’ qualities.
A planet might also suggest a different style of life, a new world of experience.
But at a practical level the planets of our solar system are part of the influences that make up our own inner environment. Their subtle effects on gravity and us are the weaving of our own psyche. They are constantly moving and so creating an ever moving web or influence.
A planet very close to us: A marked influence that is effecting you. What the influence is might be revealed to you if oyu can imagine yourself as the palanet hanging in space near you. See Being the Person or Thing
Sun: Vital energy; the giver of all life on our planet. The Self, so consciousness or awareness.
Genesis gives a much fuller understanding of the sun and moon than is usually stated. I am indebted to F. J. Mayers and his book the Unknown God for this understanding.
They represent two aspects of the universe we know, Light and Darkness. They are the power of consciousness – the Light the sun – and the Lesser Light the moon of consciousness the unconscious. Also they are, to quote, “the moon and stars are definitely stated by the author of Genesis to have been created to be ‘symbolic signs of the future’ in that sense, it opens up a very wide subject.”
By this it does not mean a sort of psychic prediction of things, but a creator of seasons and a model of things to be. The movement of the planets around the sun and the movement of the moon provide an ever changing flow and pattern of forces which are also part of our own creation.
Genesis, when rightly understood, is not some religious fairy tale, a superstitious attempt to explain creation, but a careful record of the evolution of consciousness and humankind. Unfortunately it was translated by people who did not understand that Hebrew was a sign language and treated it like we do when translating words, as we have done with ancient Egyptian. Just as we accept that alpha, the Greek first letter means ‘beginning’ and omega means ‘ending’, so each letter of Hebrew had a recognised meaning. This makes Adam not a singular but a plural word – it is not the name of an individual but of all humankind, women and men.
And as for the planets being part of our own creation, the statement in Genesis says clearly that “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ….. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”
It does not say after my likeness but after ‘our likeness’. God is not a male figure but an unknown force behind creation, but when creating it become plural. “Elohim” is a plural name, and yet it is always treated as a “singular” one, and always used with a singular verb.” It was in the “image” of the manifold attributes of God that Adam was to be made.
If you find it hard to believe, realise I am dealing with the unconscious as it manifests in dreams, and it doesn’t matter that you believe or not, because this is how dreams, seen by those who can explore them and not interpret them through the thinking mind, see the sun, moon and planets.
The greater ‘light’ – the sun – is the fully conscious activity of the “thinking” mind. This is the last faculty to be developed in humans, and when fully developed, it completes the human constitution.
The ‘lesser’ light – the moon – is the unconscious mind, is a link between the animal and human. Humankind, in their ascent to the human state of being, was at first in a state of darkness. The unconscious mind alone was active in them. They could not “think for themselves”; but followed the promptings of instinct. The unconscious mind was their light and guide in the “night.” Its greatness and its latent possibilities have, however, scarcely been realised in modern times.
As the activity of the greater ‘light’ of reason and deductive thought commenced and developed in man the lesser ‘light’ of instinct fell more and more into obscurity, it became – unconscious. Its powers, however, will in time re-awaken, not to dominate, but to work cooperatively with Thought and Reason; the unity of intuition and reason.
Moon: See above and also – moon.
Mercury: Intuition and the mind. It represents universal “Mind” the collective unconscious. Because it is the function of intuition that accesses the massive resources of the unconscious it answers to whatever question, difficulty or interest the person has. It has been called “The Messenger of the Gods.
Its most physical activities affect the nervous system and through that, the disposition. So we speak of a mercurial” temperament, “up and down” and changeable as the mercury in a barometer.
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The Mercury symbol shows a semicircle over a circle, and the + under it. The + is the earth sign; its horizontal line denotes the present plane of human activity, the normal everyday level of life. The upward line represents the course of human evolution, beginning far down in chaos and darkness and passing upwards towards the light of the Spirit. The O is the sign of “Spirit.” In us it is the human spiritual individuality. |
The or semicircle is the moon or soul sign, a cup or chalice, open to the heavens to receive the influences that pour into it from above – just as the physical moon receives the light of the sun and reflects it to the earth. The moon has no light of itself – neither has the soul. Both receive and reflect. The Mercury sign is also given in the form of the “caduceus.”
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This shows the “rod” or “sceptre,” symbolising authority, rule, influence, around which are entwined two “serpents” – symbols of “wisdom” or “intelligence.” These two serpents represent the “conscious” and “subconscious” minds. The “orbit” of Mercury is near the sun. The “Sun” symbol represents any “centre” or focus of spiritual activity. |
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The caduceus can also represent the rising life energy as in the image – See kundalini |
Venus: Represents Love, Beauty, Harmony, in any sphere – either of spirit, thought, life, or physical being. Its hieroglyph represents the spiritual qualities dominating the material. Love, motherhood and femininity, also receptivity.
Mars: Outgoing energy, unrestricted activity either for good or evil. It is the sign of conflicting, warlike forces. In its hieroglyph the lower, earthly characteristics are shown above the spirit sign. Energetic activity, aggressive action or fire in ones life and feelings; masculinity ruled by passions.
Earth: See Earth
Jupiter: Represents increase, expansion, growth, preservation. Acting in the mind it denotes “Wisdom”; in the “disposition” it shows as generosity, goodwill, etc. Its hieroglyph represents the soul forces (moon) rising above the material plane – but remaining in ouch with it. It can indicate growth in self and activities, preservation in terms of ones inner qualities, freedom from limitations.
Saturn: Represents restraint, contraction, any defining, centralising, materialising influences. It is the most materialistic of the planets. Acting in the mind it produces narrow – mindedness – but at the same time very clear cut definite ideas. Acting on the general disposition, it “hardens” and leads to self – centredness, selfishness, etc., but also to “cautiousness,” carefulness and other useful qualities. It is also – in a narrow – sighted way strictly just. The hieroglyph represents the material sign dominating the soul sign. Fate or karma, the past catching up with us. A retarding influence, emotional coldness, the lessons of life that shape our growth and time.
Uranus: Its symbol represents spiritual force rising through the “Gemini” symbol of the twin minds. Mind in itself tends to grow only into Intellectualism. Uranus raises the level and extends the field of thought. It gives, at its best, great genius – and at its worst, eccentricity. It has much affinity with the Zodiacal sign Aquarius, and its action shows strongly in many of the most modern developments of Science and Art. It can in your dreams represent sudden changes and fluctuation, but the changes can be signs of genius or whimsy.
It is linked with the principles of genius, individuality, new and unconventional ideas, discoveries, electricity, inventions, and the beginnings of the industrial revolution. Uranus governs societies, clubs and any group dedicated to humanitarian or progressive ideals. Historically it was associated with the principles of the Enlightenment and radical political ideas of equality and freedom, among other things.
Uranus is known in astrology as the “Awakener,” since its aspects and transits bring sudden changes and shocks. It rules Aquarius, the quirky innovator, and sometimes these upheavals are a necessary break from restrictions in favour of a more liberated path. Uranus the planet of radical disruption, unpredictable events and liberating discontinuity. See Uranus under planets
Neptune: Influence most of the “mystic side of people in deep, vague, feelings and ideas and wider consciousness. Its hieroglyph, the Trident, represents the human spirit, mind, and emotions fishing in the great waters. It is at present little understood, and what its ultimate purpose in regard to human life and evolution may be, remains to be seen. One might mention as a very typical Neptunian personality – Madame Blavatsky. It certainly has much to do with the mediumistic faculty – a faculty which, in its present state of development, is still developing. So it can be seen in the unconscious influence in daily life, psychic impressions and awareness of death.
We may find a parallel in Irish god Nechtan, master of the well from which all the rivers of the world flow out and flow back to.
Pluto: Astronomers demoted Pluto in 2006, and it’s now considered a “dwarf planet,” but astrologers still reckon it to be a powerful force on a collective and individual level. It is an agent of change. There is a burning away of falsehoods, so that truth can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. Intuitive leaps can be made on a collective level that are life-affirming for all of humanity. The hieroglyph is very similar to Mercury, but the earth is in the same place but the receptiveness connects with the spirit – so it connects earth/death with spirit/life or resurrection. But resurrection should not be thought like the Christians present it as the rotten corpse being reconstituted, but of soul being given a chance of new life if it hasn’t found it place in the great consciousness,
Pluto is referred to mythologically by the Greeks and the Hindus. In Greek mythology he was nominated as Hades, the God of Death and Sovereign of the underworld. This concept of death is limited however, as Pluto’s deeper significance has as much to do with rebirth as it does with the traditional concept of death per se. Death is simply another transformative stage followed by rebirth. Pluto represents the decay and eventual disappearance of the old in preparation for the new. See rebirth or resurrection
In mythology, Pluto is god of the underworld, which is an otherworld where souls go after death. The original Greek idea of afterlife is that, at the moment of death, the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, and is transported to the entrance of the underworld. The underworld itself—sometimes known as Hades, after its patron god—is described as being either at the outer bounds of the ocean or beneath the depths or ends of the earth. In today’s terms, at death one’s consciousness can longer function in the body and so consciousness exists at another dimension, that is what we think of as the human unconscious. Because most people never gain awareness of their unconsciousness they lose awareness of those who die to body awareness. See Bodiless Awareness
Alien planet: A totally new experience of yourself, one that you feel is alien to you conscious self, but is part of the expanded universe of your inner self. See Inner World
Plants
Suggests areas of progressive change in one’s life, emerging personal qualities; occasionally one’s children being helped in their ‘growth’. Many people go through the different stages of plant life in their dreams, some experience the whole cycle of the plant’s life; some would find they grew to a certain place and stopped.
A plant cutting that you are going to plant may link with good and growing parts of yourself that you are looking for a life situation to ‘plant’ or experience them in. It may thus depict a search for a caring and ‘fertile’ relationship.
Plant substance is very important in human life. In medicine it is of utmost importance. In a real sense, human life processes transforms plant substance into self awareness, and all the expressions of consciousness shine out. In some dreams this transformation of earthy non-living substance into living sentience is shown by plants in our dreams. See: digest; Seed Meditation; Seed; cutting; flowers; trees; weeds.
Dreaming of plants can show the deeply unconscious physiological process, such as cell generation and digestion. Problems which cannot move more fully into consciousness and so are held at this level and so become psychosomatic pains or illness. This becomes clearer if we consider human life in relationship with other life forms. A plant for instance might have some sort of bacterial illness, but would not be able to bring that to awareness. In a sense many things which occur to us, although they are very real and definite, never become a part of our conscious life, but always remain in the ‘plant’ level. If they are to move from ‘deeply unconscious physiological process’ to becoming known consciously, there are stages such events go through – for example exploring the dream.
Like a plant which takes the varied minerals surrounding it, and through its living process transforms them into its own integrated being. The plant does not become the mineral. Neither is it shaped by the forms of what it takes up. It is influenced, it is coloured, but its process transforms. The healthy human being can do likewise. A major part of unconscious mental process is to do with taking experience and integrating it into a meaningful whole. If we could trace how the development of such mental activity arose, we might find that it is a reappearance at another level of the process of digestion and absorption. But events need to be experienced to become integrated. We are an enormously sensitive and responsive living process. Our whole being can respond to what we experience or learn – words too have tremendous power within us. Often, however, we have unconsciously deadened our emotions and sensitivities, and we do not therefore properly ‘take in’ what we have experienced. The cosmic figure of ancient China’s Pan Ku-shown covered in leaves to indicate ‘That Cosmic Man (or First Man) simply existed, like a plant, grown in nature.
Recently a man made himself a leader in veganism, claiming that we should avoid all killing to eat. Yet he as well as other vegans – he made a show if avoiding killing ants – kill millions of bacteria and continually act as predators on plants. Yet plants are now recognised as having a level of awareness. Plants possess receptors, microtubules, and sophisticated intercellular systems that likely facilitate a degree of spatio-temporal consciousness. It lies in this, that the being has an inner experience, and this is a new factor, over and above the mere reaction.
Recently a research scientist – J. Gunawardena – found evidence that even single celled organism are not completely without mind. “Maybe it’s not that they’re programmed to do something,” says corresponding author and systems biologist Jeremy Gunawardena, “but rather that the program provides them with the machinery for actually making their own minds up. But Gunawardena and his colleagues seem to have demonstrated that some cells have a say in picking their response to certain stimulants.”
Plants are way up the evolutioinay tree, so have more say than single cell creatures. But here is a mans exploratioin of this in a plant.
Example: I was dealing with a sick New Zealand tomato tree we had. It was in a large tub, well fed and watered, but had the greenfly, and was also wilting. We had sprayed, but the general debility of the plant seemed to attract the fly. Having spend years training myself to allow my unconscious level of mind to express more fully I wanted to see if my intuition could asses the condition of the plant.
The first thing I felt was an unexpected wave of love, as if the plant was wordlessly saying thank you for caring. Then I had the sense of my consciousness meshing with the awareness/being of the plant. My impression was that the plant was an entity, a form of life and awareness, but it did not have a focused consciousness which could formulate the idea in a human way of what caused its sickness? Because I could ask the question, and because I allowed my consciousness to consider the plant, a new situation arose; my awareness was added to the plant so it could in a way be aware of itself. The difficulty of the process was that everything was direct non-verbal experience. As the experience of plant life was new to me, I had to spend some time allowing the sensations to soak in and be analysed by my rational mind. What arose out of this was the understanding that the root system of the plant needed to spread sideways, not down. We therefore put the plant in a sack, with the same earth spread thin. Within a week the greenfly had all gone, without spraying, and the plant grew strong and luxuriant. I had a new respect for plant life.
I feel that as humans we are so locked in the tiny everyday awareness, we become crazily concentrated on death and killing, forgetting that all natural creatures at all levels eat each other to survive. We forget that we are all life forms which started from single celled creatures and so are different forms of the same process of life. LIFE gives itself to Life – for we are all expressions of that miraciulous process – and the process does not avoid living or dying in its great experiment. So, we are all killers – yes even vegans – but Life has its own amazing purpose.
At the time of Montezuma’s coronation peyote was passed around to enhance the pageantry and splendour of the occasion. Ololiuqui, a somewhat anemic-looking morning glory with a seed that contains lysergic acid amides, was used as a “divine plant” by the Aztecs well before the Conquistadores arrived in – Mexico. In north-eastern Asia, the Tungus, Yakuts, Chukches, Koryaks and Kamchadeles traditionally intoxicated themselves during the interminable winter months on a hallucinogenic fungus called “muchamor” (Amanita muscaria). Natives of the Amazon had access to another psychedelic-the caapi vine-before the white explorers first entered that region. As previously mentioned, the Greeks may have employed “mind-changing” mushrooms – in their “Mysteries,” and the witches of Europe made use of various hallucinogenic substances in ointments and brews during the Middle Ages. The mild psychedelic Cannabis sativa (hemp, hashish, kif, bhang, charas, gangha, dagga, djamba, marijuana, etc.) was described sympathetically by the Chinese Emperor Shen Neng as early as 2737 B.C., and has flourished throughout the world ever since. It presently is used in its varying forms by over 200 million people. By no means is the knowledge of psychedelic drugs confined to the twentieth century.
In contemporary American civilization, LSD and related drugs are being used in a variety of ways by people from many extremes of cultural heritage who are commonly enmeshed in a swiftly changing, mechanized civilization. The results which ensue from these multitudinous “sets” and “settings” bear little resemblance to those of Indians who sit all night in a tepee, using peyote in a highly ritualized religious ceremony. Quoted from LSD – The Problem Solving Psychedelic by P. J. Stafford. See LSD Psychotherapy.
Cutting down a plant or large plant: Killing out something that was growing in you or in life, such as a work situation or a relationship.
Dead or dying plants: Loss of vital enthusiasm; dying pleasure; lost love; a project that is not flourishing.
Evergreen plants: Represent immortality, because they do not shed their leaves, even in the coldest winter weather. Their connection with Christmas may also link with gift-giving and family.
Example: Until I became the seed I had never realised how hungry I was to have other people near me. I wanted to hold and touch in a way I had never allowed myself before. Since then it has been easy for me to hold people, babies, and my wife, with more giving than I could in the past. First I was just curled up. I felt comfortable, and relaxed into it while the others completely covered my body with theirs. It really was like being planted. After a while a flicker of movement arose pushing my head out. This came in waves, increasing in strength, until my head was pushing out and up like a plant growing. I didn’t try to think what I ought to do, just went with the pleasure of it. In the early stages this didn’t seem to involve the others, although I could feel them close. But by the time I was up on my knees there was such pleasure flowing through me, such joy at being close, being able to feel the soft skin of a face against mine, that my pleasure involved the others. It is the nearest thing to making love without sex I have ever come across. (A description of The Seed Group).
Example: A guru figure took me into very large greenhouses. Stretching away into the distance tiny seedlings were growing, most of them about four inches in height. As I watched some youths drove in on cross-country motorbikes and roared around the place. Faser Dan Li did nothing to prevent them. But when they had gone he looked at me and said, “Those are your emotions. They are wild and out of control. As such they could damage the tender growth of souls represented here by these little plants. Until your emotions are much more fully calmed and under control you cannot be given the keys of insight into other peoples being.”
Useful Questions and Hints:
Try being the plant in the dream – See Being the Person or Thing
What was the main point of the plant in the dream?
What was I doing in relationship with the plant?
Did I arrive at any conclusions or insight?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions – Magical Dream Machine – Summing Up
Plate
You can have plates showing diagrams or photos, or a condensing plate for research or revealing, a license plate; a breast plate; plate glass, a brass plate or a collection plate or even gold plating. So it is important to define what sort of plate it is. If possible look up what the plate refers to like eating – photos and gold.
To offer or serve up something. A way of presenting things in a clean and attractive way. Sometimes a special way of doing things, as with great or inherited plates. So a way of giving oneself to a person you like, honour or love.
In having a lot on ones plate, it means a lot to cope with or deal with, or get through. The plate with food on it can depict what is in front of you in life; what you have received or earned from life, what is yours.
A simple empty plate it is about receptivity, a condition that is ready to receive or be used to receive something. In general a plate connects with a major human instinct – to eat. But what is on the plate and the circumstances around the dreamed of plate indicates your relationship with food and social settings.
May also symbolise needs, hungers, and appetites. At one time the plate was a symbol of status, when only the rich afforded china or silver.
If food on plate: What one has a sense of ownership about; what one has received or hopes to receive from others, or from ones own efforts; what you have created or ‘cooked up’ for yourself and now face.
Communal plate: What is available to you but you may have to compete for or share – in work, relationship, life.
Empty plate: Ones needs; appetites; receptivity; perhaps status, as in the past only the rich had plates.
Example: I noticed that the brain was only an end organ, like a condensing plate, upon which memory and awareness played. The mind, I saw, was not in the brain, the brain was in the mind, like a radio in the play of signals.
Example: As I am jogging, I see a group of people, mostly men, all in a bunch, talking. They have plates that are valuable and are sales men or business men. I have a stack of 6-8 china plates myself, but I’m just carrying them, I’m not trying to sell them. They are looking for the rich old man to do business with.
Here is a woman dreamer who is walking in the business world and summing it up.
Example: “I am at a wedding at which we are being served a celebratory Chicken Lunch. Whilst my back is turned for a moment one of the other guests on the table who is female but whom I do not know removes my plate and substitutes it with a plate of food which doesn’t contain chicken. When I challenge this, I am told that there is no more. At this I rather petulantly decide to leave the wedding.” Brian Y.
Brian uses a plate of food to represent the good things he feels are rightfully his in life; but his negative emotions in a relationship with a female rob him of this.
Idioms: Handed to one on a plate; on ones plate; clean ones plate; a full plate; plate is full; on a silver platter; step up to the plate. See: food.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What do I have on my plate – food, work to do, a mess to clean up?
What do I hope for, my hopes and plans or my ability to receive?
What needs, hungers or appetites am I aware of?
See Active Imagination – Dreams are Like a Computer Game – Life Changes – Core
Plateau
Reaching a plateau in ones life – a place where things remain the same, where there is little change; a wider and calmer viewpoint of life, where one is neither climbing ambitiously or descending and losing what one has gained.
Sometimes people dream of racing to a plateau when they are middle aged. This is a summary of the journey they have undergone so far, and how they feel about the future. But the plateau might also indicate feelings of not getting anywhere or a desire for change.
Example: A woman dreamt she was standing alone on a plateau and she could see two worlds hanging in the sky. In talking about the dream she said her husband had died and she had met another man. This new man was very different to herself and her past husband. The world he lived in was new to her and she was cautious. This helped her to see she had the choice between two worlds, and her dream was simply illustrating her situation – she was alone, on a plateau facing choices.
Something I have met frequently in the dreams of those leaving their youthful life behind is the images of a race and the plateau. This dream from John describes this.
Example: I recently reached my fortieth birthday and dreamt I was walking uphill. It was quite tough going. When I got to the top I saw the road on the other side was very steep. I felt frightened of going down it. I looked around and saw that the top of the hill stretched away on each side, so there was plenty of space, like a plateau. I realised that I could walk around and there is no hurry to go down the hill.
This suggests that before John had the idea that ageing led directly to a fast decline into old age and death – going down hill. The dream shows a different view of this by saying that in fact he worked hard to climb to a plateau of ability and possibilities that he can now explore. Each portion of life has its rewards, and in fact John depicts this period of his life as more relaxed than the first half.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Was I striving to reach a plateau or did I reach it?
What happened in regard to the plateau?
Am I middle aged or approaching it?
See Every 7 Years You Change – Age and your Dreams – Being the Person or Thing
Play
As in a theatre: This is often a way of bringing a certain theme to your attention. The theme probably refers to something important in yourself. The play might also be a way of exploring things, as perhaps a relationship, or a dangerous situation. This allows you to practice dealing with it. Also the ‘play’ of your thoughts or emotions.
The play is usually something happening in the public eye, so may also include the theme of being see, being liked or judged, or admired.
Playing
Depends what the ‘game’ is. Whatever we ‘play’ at in a dream might just be fun or suggest great seriousness. As humans we use an enormous number of strategies to gain our ends, as explained in the book Games People Play. So play in a dream can depict a sense of relaxation; a way of practising something without responsibility; not taking something seriously, purposely lying to someone in order to get power over them – and dozens of other games played in order to get sex, money or even to injure someone.
Also: A game can be a way of playing creatively, exploring feelings, ideas and approaches in a safe way before trying them out in life. This sort of self allowing, of letting oneself ‘want’ something without too much serious overtones, can be very creative and the beginning of new developments in life.
I have seen it at work with meeting the opposite sex, where fooling about or play is a first way of meeting someone.
Playing or listening to music is also a way of communicating. It is a way of communicating some of the finest feelings and even philosophy of the musician, singer and listener. See music
Example: The old man loved playing the fiddle, and had spent many wonderful hours teaching his grandson how to play the instrument. Now, alone and with such joy ebbing from him he seemed to be sinking fast. But his young grandson arrived, sat with his grandpa and quietly took out his fiddle and played something. His grandpa’s eyes opened, and the miracle of renewed love and pleasure soon had the old man sitting on the edge of his bed joining in the music.
Playing a role is immensely important. By role play you can find out who or what the characters and animals in your dream are and what they are. Identify with the character, animal or place and discover its secrets. Whether peaceful or aggressive, wise of energetic, these are all parts of your potential. In our dreams we are all experts at acting in roles, but often we fail to really understand what enormous and varied potential we have because we believe all the characters and animals are not us. See Creating a New You; Actor Actress Acting
The enormous number of idioms on play defines some of these ‘games’.
Idioms: Come into play; fair play; foul play; make a play for; make play of; play a part in; play along with; play at; play cat and mouse; play dead/possum; play down; played out; play fair; play false; play for time; play hard to get; play it cool; play no part in it; play on words; play safe; play people off against each other; play something down; play the field; play up; play upon a weakness/fear; play up to someone; the state of play; play somebody at their own game; child’s play; play ball with; play it by ear; play fast and loose; play gooseberry; play havoc with; play merry hell; play into their hands; play ones ace; play ones cards right; play second fiddle; play the fool; play the game; play the white man; play to the gallery; play with fire; two can play at that game. See: games.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What was the game in the dream – can you define it?
Have you played this game or were you aware of having played it in waking?
Are you a playful person?
If the dream was about music what feelings were involved or suggested?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Conditioned Reflexes – Characters and People in Dreams
Plough Ploughing plowing ploughed
It suggests working at preparing or changing oneself or a situation or making way for new growth. It could indicate using past experience for enabling future growth. Also to break and change habits, opinions and attitudes of the past; to prepare for change or the reception and growth of new ideas and to make past experiences fertile.
If the ground is ploughed it can suggest the womb, and maybe preparing it for fertility. If the ground has not been touched it can indicate virginity and purity. Ploughing a force that cuts the earth in an effort to plant seeds so might be seen as a creative force. It is often representing sex, especially the planting of male seeds in a woman.
Ploughing or plough is often used in reference to reinvesting money in one’s business; A prominent formation of seven stars in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear), also called the Big Dipper; a yoga asana or posture; to plough on means to continue despite difficulties; to plough a lonely furrow is to go in ones independent and maybe isolated direction; plough through a subject indicates effort to study or to turn over new ideas. Other meanings, preparation, making ready, especially for mental faculties of thoughts and inspiration.
In dreams one often walks in a circle, or ploughs, or is moved in a circle. This means that one is enclosing, protecting or bringing the enclosed under the influence of the power that caused you to circle.
During conception the image of a ploughed field or the earth and the moon often occurs in drams.
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.
Example: ‘I see a little girl humming an innocent tune, plucking daisies in a vast lush green field. Suddenly a huge machine or monster comes ploughing through the field over the girl.’ Debbie H.
Debbie sees life itself as a machine, unfeeling, mechanical, and blind in its functioning. The word juggernaut is from Sanskrit Jaganatha, lord of the world. Devotees formerly threw themselves under a huge cart – a juggernaut – as it moved. Such a huge machine can represent the massive social organisation we are bound up in, or the apparently blind violence of life. Some of us relate well to this process that goes on its way blind to individuals; some are ground under by its demands.
Plough: Making the ground/mind or body ready for growth pr planting new ideas. A means of ‘ploughing’; male sexuality in its move toward parenthood – or sowing the seeds.
Plough under: To clear the way for the new, a type of cleansing, forgiving, letting go, and preparing the mind for the coming new seeds and plants. It may signal the end of one cycle and beginning of another.
But to understand the world effects of ploughing see – Kiss The Ground – YouTube
Useful Questions and Hints:
Can you identify with any definitions of plough or ploughing?
Did you note any feelings with the dream?
Was there any sexual activity or sexual feelings in the dream?
Is there any likelihood of conception or a new sexual partner?
See Growth/Personal – Sex and Dreams – Energy, Sex and Dreams – Being the Person or Thing
Plumbing
The way in which emotion and energy are directed. If you believe in free love, this belief directs the emotions differently than if you feel that sex is a sin. So each belief or set of attitudes is a different plumbing system. A burst water pipe would therefore represent a breaking out of previously controlled or directed energy or emotions – or it could suggest a problem physically, as it could refer to your internal ‘plumbing’ – intestines, colon bladder, kidneys, etc. Get a physical check if you feel discomfort anywhere in the abdomen. See: pipe; water; Tap.
Plumber repairing: It suggests a healing action is taking place.
Example: Images of water, plumbing, bathroom sinks or faucets show up in her dreams 24 to 48 hours before she comes down with a cold or congestion. “They say that while you’re sleeping your brain is doing a scan of your body. If there’s anything unusual, it can pick up on that.” Janet McCall
Example: A colleague’s elderly client was depressed about becoming incontinent. He began telling her about his uncle and aunt who had a lovely old country house, where some of the family lived and which everybody loved. And then gradually he started to introduce the metaphor – that as the house grew older, it got damper, and there were a few damp patches and plumbing problems, but nobody seemed to mind, everybody still loved the house and they kept bringing their families and their friends there. She came out of her depression without even having known that she had had help. Alison Motluk
Useful Questions and Hints:
Have I had any trouble with my internal plumbing?
Do your dreams show any water leaking, damp patches or water troubles?
When did you last have to call a plumber?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Being the Person or thing – Questions
Plumbline
A sense of rightness, of living according to what you know, deep within, to be the true upright.
Plunder
To abuse someone’s rights and feelings against their real wishes or to feel similarly abused. This might also indicate the way you misuse your own abilities or resources. If a man forces himself upon a girl, and despite her requests for him to leave her alone, uses her body for his own ends, then he has plundered. In lesser or other ways, we are often plundered by others who disregard our real feelings and use force, or vice versa.
The loss of things valued; the perhaps quiet or surreptitious taking of valuable time, energy, love, either by your own carelessness, or through relationship with others. Or perhaps you are taking these from someone else. It may also refer to feelings of resentment or anger. See: burglar or intruder.
Example: I screamed out that I wasn’t going to ever get that deep with the woman again, to be sucked dry. This was why the cut off occurred with my wife. I had never gone that deep sexually with a woman before, and I had hit this and resolved not to let any woman into my sexual life to plunder it against my will.
Example: I dream that I’m lying under a high tree in a dark wood. I want to climb, up, up to the top, and look round over the bright landscape where the sun is shining – plunder the bird’s nest up there where the golden eggs lie. And I climb and climb, but the trunk is so thick and slippery, and it’s so far to the first branch. But I know that if I could only get to that first branch, I’d climb my way to the top as though up a ladder. I haven’t reached it yet, but I shall reach it, even if it’s only in a dream.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Do I feel I am misusing my own abilities or resources against others for my own gain?
Is someone is abusing my rights and feelings against my wishes?
How do I act, as a passive or active person?
See Active Passive – Characters and People in Dreams – Being the Person or Thing – – Secrets of Power Dreaming