Posts Tagged ‘dream meanings’
Bathtub
See Bath
Exit
A way out of a situation; a way to escape or moving toward death. See: door.
An exit such as on a freeway/motorway suggests either branching off from a main flow in the direction you were taking in life, or perhaps a nearness to a goal you have been ‘driving’ toward.
An exit from a subway/underground is an emergence from being involved in unconscious habits and directions toward more awareness of what you are doing and where you are going. Above ground you can look around and choose direction – below ground you going to wherever the train is headed.
An exit can also be an entrance as in the example, or an exit from one situation into another
Example: I have come across a cave dug into a rocky cliff. A track sloped down from a hill or a mountain past the tunnel entrance, which was on my left. I saw a few men emerging from the tunnel. Small broken rock covered the exit to the cave forming a level surface to walk on. I knew the men had found treasure in the cave. I saw bits of gold, like chunks of rock, on the ground near the exit. I knew also that there was still a great treasure in the tunnel.
Example: Whilst walking home with a boy we reached the end of the path. However there was an exit leading to an empty dark fairground. My friend ran off, leaving me frightened. I ran away and found a church. Inside a service was underway and I sat down. I realised though that everyone around me were zombies. A man pointed a gun at me and I somehow escaped.
It seems the dreamer may have had a difficulty with a boyfriend leaving her, or the fear of it. This has made her doubt the ready made images about love and marriage. The dark fairground has in it the sense of looking behind the bright lights to see the reality back of the glamour of things. I don’t know what age she is, but she is wondering what life has to offer you without a male. Because of those feelings she wonders if there is comfort in traditional religion. But the people she sees using this approach are, in her mind, doing things automatically without questioning. But the end of the dream is important though. It suggests the whole dream arose out of her hidden fears of being hurt in a relationship.
Useful questions and hints:
What am I exiting from and what to?
Do I manage to find and make an exit?
Where am I heading when I take the exit?
Am I trying to escape from someone of something?
See The Dream as a Code – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming
Fleas Lice Parasites Worms
These can depict thoughts or sexual habits which are purely selfish or carry a health risk. In some dreams if you catch the parasites from another person they indicate a feeling your relationship with someone is parasitic.
Fleas can also suggest thoughts or feelings that sap resolves, energy, or ambition, and that detract from your sociability. Or they can be attitudes or beliefs or worries that draw strength from you, or even cause illness. They may be attitudes or feelings you have ‘caught’ from someone else through relationship of one form or another – perhaps in childhood or through watching films with negative messages.
A parasite can also be a fear, such as anxiety about illness that saps your health and well-being. Or it can point to weakness in you that leads to dependence in connection with sex, drugs or alcohol.
Dreaming of fleas or lice on the body can also suggest unclean habits, or parasitical relationships.
Lice, fleas, bugs, worms: Things said, thought or things done that make you feel uncomfortable or ashamed, or feelings that one is, or someone else is a parasite in a relationship.
While relaxing, a man saw a dark and frightening shape leave the region of his heart. The man had suffered an illness, and now felt a fear of weakness concerning his heart. The dark shape was the way his unconscious made a graphic image of his fear, and showed it sapping his energies like a parasite. Such fears can appear in dreams as a demon or incubus, and represent your own terrors, fears, thoughts and desires that are out of harmony with your own well-being. See: Fleas.
Example: ‘I was practising relaxation and went into a dream state. I saw a dark shape attached to my body near my heart. I felt very frightened as I saw it. But as I watched it broke away and left me.’ John W.
John had experienced a heart attack, and the dark shape was an embodiment of his fears about his heart, sucking at his energy and wellbeing. In relaxing he was able to let go of these feelings. Because the dream process shows such internal processes in imagery, the fears are shown as an incubus or dark parasite, which falls away.
Large parasites such as worms are something that has got into you somehow, and is living on your energy. It helps to get rid of them by recognising what it is.
Example: Now the whole pointless maggot situation arose again. It didn’t disturb me as it did in past sessions, but it was, if anything, stronger than before. Humans are just another eating, growing, dying, life form. Their intelligence doesn’t alter one whit the fact that they are simply a big germ, a parasite living on other life forms. We are predators like every other life form. We live on other life, and are part and parcel of the whole critter eat critter. I remembered Pauline apologising about feeding meat to her cats. She was trying to avoid recognising she was in no way different to a cat, killing its food, scavenging – what is shopping? What is devouring and shitting? Okay I accept that, but I needed to accept it more deeply.
Hey, that is hard to accept, but I’ve got to let it come, actually say it and admit it – I am a parasite. Not just a predator but a fucking parasite. I felt low and mean. I am a parasite. How, in what way? The view of mankind seen in Bideford came back. Men and women hiding from their own pointlessness, their own featureless existences, their life without any real meaning. They lived and ate, fucked, slept, and died. They laughed wept, but all without any overall direction or point to life. It was like my wife and I talking about working towards something. If one is not working together for something, even if it is to school the children, or go on a cruise, life can feel like an empty drudge.
A parasite? What sort of parasite? Ah yes, by continually destroying my body so I can be looked after. A parasite. If I keep failing, being in pain, then I will be cared for. And anyway, look at the parasitic way humans relate. They have compulsive built in sexual, social and physical needs that they satisfy wherever they can. They take from each other what they want. If they didn’t have those needs they wouldn’t live together as man and wife, child and parent, boss man and employee. Maggots – Parasite. I am a parasite. Something started to come up that I didn’t want to see. To secure my ends as a parasite in my relationship with my wife I was surreptitiously setting her against her children. Weren’t we all sucking like baby blind animals, pushing each other out of the way to get what we need? I could see it. I could feel it in myself and all around me. Suck, suck, push, push, and shove out of the way. Blindly, stealthily seek one’s own interests. Some babies died, some are pushed out of the nest. Its survival isn’t it?
That is a very clear explanation of what some maggot or parasite dreams are about.
Useful questions and hints:
What is it I feel sapping my energy and resolve?
What attitudes that are depleting me have I picked up from someone else?
Am I in some way being like a parasite in taking all and giving nothing back in life?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – The power of Habits – Secrets of Power Dreaming
Pink
This indicates softness, femininity, a baby girl, or babyhood in general, or perhaps tender love rather than passionate love, the sort one might have for a child. It can also suggest happiness, or having a joyful optimistic view of life. See: red .
Pink is the colour of healthy flesh, and suggests glowing feelings or warmth, something alive and with emotions. Because the inside of the mouth and vagina are pink occasionally the colour is linked with deeply sensual sexual feelings. Pinks are also part of sunrise and sunset, and in some dreams suggest a new dawning of something, a resurrection and so a new life – or the glorious ending. It sometimes appears in dreams of ecstasy or religious wonder.
Example: I was standing in a very beautifully carved chapel or religious place. There seemed to be shadowy nun or monk like figures around. But it was the exquisite colouring of the place which filled me with a sort of ecstasy. Everything was in the most delicate shell pink. JAS.
Example: Jesus was looking at me. There was a light all around him, beautiful colours of cream, pink and gold. I could hear the most wonderful music and singing. I said to a young couple standing near, “Look at the Heavenly Choir, Oh! just listen to them”. Tears streamed down my face as I watched and listened. Doris.
Pink and white: Suggests cleanliness and warmth.
Pink and red: Sometimes this includes in the dream, feelings about love and passion, love or pain, or love and real hurt.
Idioms: In the pink; tickled pink; rose coloured glasses.
Useful questions:
Are there clues in the rest of the dream as to what feelings this depicts?
Am I feeling gentle love for someone, or is this about just feeling good?
Are there any signs of spiritual wonder in my dream, if so what is it I am experiencing?
Brown
As a mood this can depict gloominess, dullness or even depression. But it depends what is brown in the dream so it can refer to the earth or earthiness and processes of the body. A muddy brown can suggest unclear or selfish emotions and thoughts.
Brown is in some ways black that has become more light, and so might refer to things that your bringing to awareness, or facets of yourself you have enabled to grow and express after being unconscious and unexpressed. So in some dreams brown transforms into other radiant colours, perhaps in a way a plant draws something from brown soil and transforms it into the colour of its flowers.
Excrement is brown and in some dreams the feelings show this depicting things that need to be left behind, recognised as not needed, or like manure something that is rich and needed for or holding in it the potential for growth.
Brown in regard to objects can show them as being old or worn, as leaves are that have served their purpose and are now ending their life. But brown can also relate to parts of you from the long past, or containing much experience – but also perhaps to do with feelings about ageing.
Brown animal: Your natural urges that you are probably comfortable with.
Brown clothes: Middle of the road and perhaps feelings that are a bit dull or conformist, but are easy to live with.
Brown eyes: Perhaps relates to feelings you have for someone you know with brown eyes.
Brown skin: Feelings about health and perhaps attractiveness. However, brown marks on the skin suggest either feelings about ageing, or that there is something wrong, or something has hurt your hand. See: hand.
Idioms: Brown study; browned off.
Useful questions:
Am I experiencing or moving from feelings lacking colour, vibrancy or life?
Do I seek a comfortable situation that allows me to relax and avoid the energetic processes of life?
Does my dream relate to feelings of ageing?
Is this an old thing – and if so what do I feel it contains in terms of past experience or information?
Indigo
Indicates the deep peace of the night.
Useful questions:
What are my immediate feelings and associations with this colour?
What feelings were linked with this colour in the dream, and what do I gather from those feelings?
Have I been thinking on or feeling things to do with the spiritual dimension of life – if so what?
Spring of Water
Free flowing feeling and rejuvenating energy. It often refers to your source of life and consciousness – the life that enlivens you that arises from unknown depths. This is especially so if the spring is in a cave or underground. It then suggests you are becoming more aware of your connection with universal life as in the following dream. See: Water
I and a number of other people were in a chapel or church. There was a holy spring arising in a basin such as are found containing holy water outside Catholic churches. I drank some of this water, only a small medicine glassful. It was powerfully healing. Most of the people there drank some water, seeking to be healed. A man came and told me not to be too frugal with the water, as, although there was only a basin full, you could never empty it. The spring was perpetually replenishing it. I believe I filled containers to give to other people who could not get to the spring. I then partially awoke from this dream, and was aware of a vibratory force acting on my body. My feet were actually trembling, not through tension, but through the passage of this force.
The Dream Mystery Explained
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Five
The method of interpretation dealt with in the last chapter is basic to all dream analysis as currently known. It can be summed up as remembering the dream; recording of dream; listing of symbols; and association of ideas. It was also seen that symbols must be interpreted in their right context, or can even be understood because of that context; which is rather like arriving at the meaning of an unknown word because of the way it is used in a sentence. Several other things were mentioned or hinted at while the dreams were being analysed. Some of these are so important or helpful, that they will now be further explained.
Main Phases Of The Dream
If we look at the structure of the last dream analysed, we see that it can be split into four main phases. These are (1) episode with the dwarf, (2) being saved by the couple and directed to London, (3) wandering, (4) the search for refreshment. In any long and difficult dream, especially where little or no associations or information have been forthcoming, it is worth breaking the dream into its phases. When this has been done, instead of associating ideas with the symbols, see whether the phases have any meaning. In the case of the last dream, we would have something like this:
(1) Episode with Dwarf I am captured and stripped. Do I feel imprisoned or restrained by anything? What has frightened me or uncovered phases of my life I wasn’t aware of or had kept covered or hidden before?
(2) Being saved by the couple and directed to London If I can find any sense of being imprisoned or captured, how did I deal with it? How did I ‘save’ myself from it? Having dealt with my restraint, what did the ideas or emotions I had used indicate I should do?
(3) Wandering Presumably, I could not accept this direction, and was left in a quandary, fearful of a possible blackness – depression. Is there any indication of this? Has there been a wandering or dithering over some decision?
(4) Search for Refreshment This suggests a need for some refreshing experience. A thirst for something – a hunger – but a doubt about the cost in effort. Has there been a desire for a ‘refreshing’ change – a hunger for something to satisfy my feelings? Is there a doubt about what we will have to sacrifice or give up in exchange?
It can be seen that dealing with the dream in this way is an enormous help in asking oneself the right questions. As previously suggested, when dealing with our own dreams, we have to be both patient and analyst. But not all dreams are as easily broken into the different parts. Some dreams cannot be segmented in this way, while others have far less phases. The next dream is an example of the latter.
‘I had gone to Sheila’s and Uncle Frank’s house at Spearing Road. They had promised I could have a room there, but I found all the rooms occupied and people were sleeping on the floor instead of in beds. Seeing there was no room I turned away and the next thing I knew I was in a train; it had rather luxurious blue leather seats but again was almost full. It contained, as far as I could see, all ladies, and I explained to them that I had been promised sleeping accommodation. Even while I was explaining this and expecting to occupy a length of three seats, I could see they had as much right there as I, and I took the single seat offered still protesting that we were promised sleeping room.
This dream can only be broken into two, or at the most, three parts. That is, the house, the train and possibly, accepting the seat. If this is set out as was the previous dream, we have a clearer idea what the dream is about.
The House – Searching for living space in a childhood setting. Found ‘no room’ – What have I been looking for in childhood attitudes? Was the ‘promise’ of childhood unfulfilled?
The Train – Exorbitant expectations, annoyance at the fact that these high expectations cannot be fulfilled. This in a setting of getting somewhere-train. Have my expectations in getting somewhere not been as great as hoped for?
The Single Seat – Grudging acceptance of practical offer. Can I see anything of this in real life?
The whole idea of using this method is to take the general events, implications and settings of a dream, and use these as a reference for asking oneself questions.
THE DREAM SEQUENCE
One of the things that is often overlooked in dreams is what we might call the ‘because’ factor. This factor is fairly noticeable when once pointed out, but difficult to see until much dream interpretation has been done. The because factor also applies in our everyday life, and can be seen when we say, ‘I was waiting for a bus and began to talk to a stranger who was also waiting. Our conversation became so interesting, that after a few minutes we went and sat in a restaurant, letting the bus go, because we had so much in common. Before he went he gave me his card because he wanted me to contact him again. I could see from what we had spoken about, that he was thinking of offering me a job in his firm. But I never followed it up because I didn’t think I could fill the post.’
If we look into this, we see that important events occur, directions followed, decisions taken, all because. The word ‘because’ in fact hides all our background, our feelings, our predisposing urges and thoughts. The word ‘disposition’ can in fact be used to sum up what lurks behind the because factor. A little thought will show that history is made up of this ‘disposition’, acting through the because factor.
I hope this doesn’t sound mysterious or complicated. This is such an important thing to understand. Our whole life, the events and outcome of it, rest upon it. Our life is what it is because of what we are – our disposition. We take an offer or reject it because of this. We succeed or fail in life because of the same factor – ourselves. ‘The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars/But in ourselves, that we be underlings.’ When understood, we can see that every move we make in life is conditioned by subtle feelings of fear or pleasure, pride or love. At every decision we are directed by intangible hopes, despairs, conflicts and ideals. So, dreams also, arise out of the because factor.
Two dreams illustrate this. ‘I was waiting for a visitor. Suddenly the man I had been expecting came round to the back window and peeped in. I didn’t see him clearly, but took an immediate aversion to him and refused to let him in.’
Here we see that something ‘waited’ for by the dreamer, when it actually arrives, is not admitted due to feelings of aversion. It is not admitted because of aversion.
A clearer example is this. ‘I was surrounded by a thick wall of briars, beyond which were wild animals. I was trapped and couldn’t get out. I wondered what to do. Suddenly I noticed a hole in the ground. I looked in and saw it was a tunnel. I was just about to explore it as a way of escape, when I saw a dirty animal-like man looking up at me. I drew back from the tunnel in disgust and woke up.
Here we see that the dreamer is trapped by his own tangle of problems, and destructive instinctive urges. A possible way out is shown in the tunnel of unconscious exploration (i.e. discovering one’s hidden contents), but the dreamer, on looking within, sees an undeveloped and repulsive part of himself which disgusts him. It is because of this disgust that he cannot get out through the tunnel. The whole dream revolves around that point. It is also because of this inability to explore further due to disgust, that the dream ends. The dream is showing that it is the feelings of disgust that are keeping him trapped in his unpromising situation. In real life, he is stuck in the middle of painful experiences because of his own feelings of disgust about a part of his nature. Thus, the because factor in dreams is very important, and is the central point in numerous dreams.
DREAM SERIES
If we fail to understand an individual dream, light can often be thrown upon its meaning by looking at the dreams that precede and follow it. In this way one sees that the symbols are used in a gradually evolving manner. A dream series of evolving symbols is also one of the most striking proofs that dreams are not mere nonsense. The dreams that follow were all dreamt within about a month.
(1) ‘Visit to M. Very nice house, high on the cliffs overlooking the sea. M. and others their usual welcoming selves. Met other pleasant friendly people, but we had to go down the hill to meet them and then some of them pointed out another way up the hill to another beautiful view, and came along to show us the way, which M. actually knew, but didn’t want to spoil their pleasure in showing me. A few of those in M.’s house were not quite as nice as I had believed from M.’s description, but I liked them anyway.
Here we start off with a house overlooking the sea – a state of looking over one’s hidden contents, one’s unconscious. Or we might – say the dreamer is ‘overlooking’ certain things about herself. These things she has overlooked begin to become known in the people, -parts of herself, that were not quite as nice as she had believed.
(2) ‘Met uncle George. Then he and I and a few relatives and friends went on to a small boat and began a journey. I didn’t know where we were going but others did, and it was such a new and pleasant experience for me that I didn’t bother to ask. As it grew dusk a strange but pleasant and friendly woman, who was obviously familiar with the boat, came and closed the curtains and put the light on, so that we could be comfortable during the night.’
Just previous to dream number one, the dreamer had begun, with the help of a friend who knew a little about interpretation, to analyse her own dreams. So we see that from ‘overlooking’ the sea she has quickly gone on a sea voyage. The dream sums up her situation wonderfully, ‘I didn’t know where we were going, but – others did.’ She didn’t at the time realise where the interpretations and dreams would lead her. Also, the sea is now much closer, and night is coming. That is, darkness and the unconscious are already making themselves felt, for the night sea journey is a classical dream of the exploration of one’s unconscious contents, as with Jonah and the whale.
(3) ‘Found myself in a place where I could go swimming every morning.’
Already she is beginning to enter the water, or her inner life.
(4) ‘Went into a church with someone who pointed out that I was facing the wrong way. I turned round and saw a bigger and lighter altar at the other end.’
Having begun to contact her inner life via swimming, immersing in it, she sees that her attitude to religion or her own innermost feelings had been wrong. This she corrects.
(5) ‘I was involved in a revolution. Everything around was collapsing, but I don’t remember being frightened.’
All her old ideas are being either revolutionised, or are collapsing.
(6) ‘I found myself being led in a particular direction by friendly pleasant people, who yet knew that on arrival I was to be executed. I had an immature woman of about twenty-five with me, and the same fate awaited her. I took her hand and tried to convey love and courage and to protect her from all her fears by behaving in a light-hearted manner.
As her old ideas collapse, her old self is to die. Also the immature twenty-five year-old part that still lives on in her is to die.
(7) ‘I found myself entering a tunnel where I encountered a rather frightening little animal, but we passed each other as he went out and I went in. Then I met a larger animal with the same results. Later I met a third, a real monster, rather like a 60ft caterpillar with a lion’s head and fore feet. I did not like the encounter as I continued to walk on the left side of the tunnel, into ever deepening darkness, and he passed me on the way out. Somehow I felt that Doctor (a friend and adviser) would not have been in the least afraid, and I borrowed his courage, and woke about half-way along this monster.’
Having been ready to die to her old way of life, she can begin the descent into her unconscious contents in earnest. The two frightening animals are two fears that come up and out. The third one is too big a fear to completely pass by at this time; and its shape shows its possible sexual nature.
Here, in just seven dreams, with very inadequate comments, can be seen how the symbols evolve as the dreamer discovers her real inner nature. The ‘overlooked’ sea becomes travelled upon. The coming darkness on the boat develops into the ‘deepening darkness’ of the tunnel; while each dream shows a development on the inward journey the dreamer was undertaking. Such a series need not be about the inward journey, however, but about commercial undertakings, health, ambitions, or even answers to intellectual queries.
These seven dreams were taken from about twice that many, dreamed during the period. The selection being based on how one can understand past dreams by seeing them in context with others occurring. The important point being that one might dream of looking at the sea for years, but never enter it. Then, with a change of ‘disposition’, a series of swimming and diving dreams take place. In interpreting our dreams in this way, we have to watch for similar symbols in changed conditions. The sea and darkness are obvious in the series. Also the crowd of people leading her, representative of her own desires to understand herself. The interpretation is arrived at by analysing the situations the dreamer finds herself in, and how the symbols change. Thus a seed seen in one dream, and a plant just growing in another suggest growth and development. A person scorned in one dream, and loved in another, would be a change of attitude and relationship.
These three methods, the Main Phase – the Because Factor, and the Series method, all help us to see the underlying meaning of the dream through looking at the dream as a whole. Particular symbols are not worked on in the same way as in the associated ideas method. It is the relationships the dream suggests that arouse questions. In turn, these questions themselves clarify the dream for us, and help us analyse our experience to see if the dream explains or explores it. As we advance in ability to deal with our dreams, these various methods are called upon and used as required.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Six
Tests of Analysis
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Nine
From all that has been said, a whole collection of methods present themselves suggesting how we can understand a dream. I suppose one could use all these methods on a single dream, and arrive at a whole spectrum of information. But the question now arises as to whether the interpretation is correct. After all the effort, is it right? It is not just a question of whether the answer satisfies us; it must also enlighten us. It must do even more than that. What we arrive at must fit the events and symbols of the dream, and unveil the characters of our inner life that have clothed themselves in the forms and events of the dream. The interpretation should make sense to other people also, so that if explained, they too can easily see the connection between dream and interpretation. The interpretation should be able to stand the test of time as well.
One of the biggest temptations in analysing our dreams, the thing that most often leads to a false interpretation, is to attempt a purely arbitrary translation of the symbols. By this is meant that because one dreams of a bag, a large key and a snake, one should not therefore immediately denominate these as ‘sexual symbols’. They may be; and we have to keep this possibility in mind. But the dreamer may be a locksmith who is having difficulty opening an important bag. In which case the symbols represent a problem and not sexual intercourse. And he may have a friend who keeps snakes, by one of which he was nearly bitten. So the snake might mean fear of death. This is why one has to be careful to find one’s own associations with the symbols. Only when we cannot find a personal association; or the dream setting does not point to the possible meaning, should we try a general interpretation. Jung has said that if the dreamer finds difficulty in arriving at an association, he would ask him to describe the symbol in his own words, as if Jung knew nothing about it. Therefore, if one dreamt of a table, one would say, ‘It is a thing usually made of wood and having four supports. Upon these a flat surface is fixed, so that one can place objects, food, books, etc., on it at a level nearer one’s hands or mouth.’ Or at least, one would describe it as one saw it.
As for how we can test the interpretation, dissatisfaction is the biggest clue to our inadequate understanding of the dream. If there are factors in the dream which we have not explained, or if the interpretation does not bring to light the inner feelings that shaped the dream, then one will always have a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is as if two parts of a puzzle have not been properly fitted together, or, although the pieces fit, the colours do not quite match. Thus arises the feeling of not having found the right solution.
On the other hand, when the right understanding is arrived at, a very profound thing happens. There is usually a feeling of thrill, a sudden pleasure of exaltation, a feeling of being on the track. This is usually accompanied by a sense of seeing deeply into yourself, sometimes into parts of your being never bared to view before. In all, there is a feeling of pleasure and achievement, of certainty. One is usually somewhat amazed at the wisdom of dreams, despite having felt the same many times before.
Another test of the interpretation’s accuracy, and a guard against arbitrariness, is to see whether it fits everyday experience. A dream nearly always deals with things one has experienced in one way or another. Therefore, if an interpretation does not fit or explain our actual experience, then it should be placed to one side. We must beware of using words we do not understand. For instance, we may read that Jung has said a dark-haired woman can represent a man’s anima, or female nature, while a dominant man in a woman’s dreams represents her animus. Or that Freud suggests that some cutting or scissors dreams might symbolise a fear of castration. But do we really, in our own experience, know what these mean? Can we see them in our own life? It is certainly not sufficient to label our dream symbols this, that or the other. If these ideas are true, then we shall see them in our own experience. We may not give them the same name even; but one that describes them to us! This is not to say that a knowledge of these ideas is not extremely helpful. It may even help us to see these things in our own experience. But we must beware of using such ideas without seeing them in ourselves. Therefore we have to look at ourselves and ask, ‘What part of me does this dream symbol represent? What experience is it dealing with?’ And when the word experience is used this does not simply mean events in the outer world. It means emotions, attitudes, ideas, response to people and events, relationships with others, with self, and with Life.
Sometimes, however, the dream deals with things that have not yet happened, but are about to happen. I am not here dealing with prophetic dreams. When a woman has a tummy ache and says, ‘Ah, my period is beginning’, she is not prophesying. She is speaking from past experience. In a similar way, the dream often sees that things are about to begin that are not outwardly obvious to us. For instance, a man dreamt that a bull broke loose and rushed into a field of cows. Shortly afterwards he was almost carried away by a release of sexual desires he had kept ‘chained up’. His inward feelings had warned of this in the dream. Yet outwardly he could see no sign of it. So with some dreams we have to see if ‘time’ reveals their meaning. Or to put it another way, we may interpret the dream satisfactorily but find no signs of it in our experience. Then it is for time to bring it into the realm of the real.
An example of arbitrary interpretation can be seen in this dream. ‘An unconventional looking postman delivered a registered package. But I didn’t open it.’ This was taken to mean that due to an Unconventional experience, the dreamer had realised something. Something had ‘registered’ on his consciousness, but he had not explored the possibilities of it. Although this seemed to fit the symbols, and no other ideas were forthcoming yet the dreamer could not, despite a lot of searching within, discover an experience of something registering that he had not explored. The registered package is a double symbol, because it also suggests something valuable contained in it. Therefore, despite a seemingly good interpretation, when it came down to testing it, no satisfaction was forthcoming. Which makes us realise that proper interpretation lies not only in reading the symbols, but in seeing the understanding applied to our life.
We can sum up the tests for interpretation then, as: Does it satisfy us? Does it explain us? Does it enlighten us? Can we see it as a part of our experience in the past, present or future? Above all, does it help us carry on with the business of living?
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Ten
Your Dream Interpreter
Your Dream Interpreter
In dreams you are freed from the usual restrictions of mind and body, of social rules and personal limitations. But beside meeting your wonderful creativity, you may also meet and transform the shadows of your fears and negative attitudes.
Your Dream Interpreter is available at Amazon USA and Amazon UK.
Sections Include
THE DREAMERS’ WORKBOOKINTRODUCTION – What are dreams? The Amazing experience of dreaming.
THE DREAM DICTIONARY – An A to Z of DreamsINDEX OF DREAM THEMES AND OBJECTSBIBLIOGRAPHY |
