Posts Tagged ‘dream’
Cyclone
Emotions and urges against which you feel powerless, and which may become obsessive.
See: tornado
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Cyst
A morbid collection of memories, emotions, energies, that are not harmonising or adding to your life in general.
A cyst on a certain part of the body can show a physical or psychological hurt connected with that area. So a cyst on the right leg could indicate weakness in your confidence in external activity. See: abscess boil.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What memories, emotions, energies are causing me problems at the moment? (Imagine going back into the dream and drain the cyst, or apply healing cream to it.)
Have I got a physical condition or pain in the area shown – if so might it be a good idea to have it checked?
Does my dream give me any clues to its cause?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming
Dagger
Aggressive urges, hatred, expression of force whether intellectual, moral or physical. Can denote male aggression or penis.
This is the sort of weapon that can be easily hidden and used in treachery or betrayal. It can depict the sort of attack we make on someone through criticism and underhanded remarks or rumours. In ones own hand it might suggest those things but can also depict defences, or being defensive. See: weapons. The following example clearly shows two defensive images – the castle and the dagger.
Example: I dreamed that it was a cold night in a castle and I had a dagger in my hand. Then a pale guy (with blood dripping from his mouth) attacked me and I stabbed him.
Daggers have often been used as an instrument of initiation or of rituals. In a dream where one is killed by a dagger, apart from the meaning suggested above, it can also be about the death of an old self, and the transition to another stage of life, an initiation. See: individuation.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What am I angry or defensive about?
Am I aiming my anger at someone in particular?
Can I see signs of defensiveness in how I relate to others?
Am I pressurising or threatening others, whether intellectually, morally or physically?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Background – Dreams are Virtual Realities
Dalai Lama
See: Guru.
Dam
This often indicates the way we ‘bottle up’ our emotions, and drives such as ambition or sex. There is often tremendous power or energy waiting to be used or directed in the dream of a dam. So it can depict the controlled release of such physical, emotional, mental and sexual energy.
The dam can show not just how you restrict, hold back or repress energy, but also how you direct or conserve it. The following dream shows another aspect of this.
Example: My boyfriend and I were at a local beach. I had been there before but he hadn’t. It was at a dam situated just up from the beach. I was floating in the air about ten feet above him, and he was dead. He had drowned. Since I had this dream we have broken-up. I still love him very much. T.H.
The dam here suggests the boyfriend was holding back his feelings, and so was shown as dead, drowned in his emotions that he kept dammed.
Building a dam shows you developing ways to control the way your emotions or sexual feelings express.
A dam bursting is an indication you either feel threatened that your emotions or sexual needs will overwhelm you, that you have no control over your feelings, or that you are experiencing tremendous release from repression or tension. See: river.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is this dream about holding back or releasing?
In what ways do I restrict or release my feelings and sexuality?
Am I holding back my flow o feelings and energy?
Is this about what I sense in someone else?
See People Animals and Objects of our Dreams are Projections – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – A Dream is Like a Seed
Damage Damaged
The suggestion here is of a hurt or stress that has done some sort of harm. What the harm is depends very much on the dream and surrounding events and people. Often the damage does not break or completely ruin what is shown. But it is information about what is being hurt or stressed.
For instance you can damage a relationship, your health, your work prospects, your respect for someone. So it is helpful to define what is being indicated in the dream. Is it bad diet, uncontrolled habits or anger? Is it lack of care or attention to detail? You can damage yourself or others by things you do or say, or even by what you do not do or say. In this way your mouth can be a deadly weapon.
Look up the thing that is damaged for more information. See: hurt; broken.
Useful questions and hints are:
What is it that is damaged and what in my life, body or relationships is that pointing to?
Is there any indication of how I or someone else is creating the damage?
Is stress or carelessness damaging my life, prospects or people I care about?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Life’s Little Secrets
Dance Dancing
If you are dancing with someone it shows feeling at one or in harmony with someone or others, or aspects of yourself; or unity, as seen in the cells working as a harmonious whole.
It can also express happiness, or a sexual mating dance. Sometimes getting closer or more intimate emotionally or sexually. In fact so many women love dancing and want to dance with a partner because it is a woman’s way to express her full female self and sexuality.
If dancing alone or watching someone dance, the meaning depends upon what you feel as you dance or watch. It often suggests enjoyment, self expression, release, allowing your creative or sexual feelings to flow.
Many figures dancing in time with each other is an expression of an insight into how life expresses through a multitude of creatures or people, and ones own part in it. This can mean cooperation or social integration. Some dances lead to a trance state in which one touches the divine.
Many women have an urge to dance, and in past ages this was a way of expressing her beauty to a man. Today it can be a means to express oneself, ones creativity or feelings.
We can communicate something to other people by our dancing.
Example: One evening I joined a free dance group. As I danced I had a strong impression somebody was watching me and getting something from it – feeling my spirit as it flowed in the dance. At the end I stood very still for some time, sunk in the stillness again. I felt that whoever it was watching and sharing with me wanted to speak to me, but nobody came to me, so I moved away. Then a while later Una, an elderly Irish lady came and told me how much she had got from my dance.
And ancient form of dancing is done by the Sufis who twirl, rotating on the spot. This can produce dizziness, which if continued can produce a faint. This causes the ratioinal mind to faint, and so brings about a condition in which one can contact one source, perhaos having a profound vision. This was the method of Jalal ad-Dīn Rumi.
“In Black Africa, many women traditionally pride themselves on being dancers and birthers – endeavours that require uncompromising physical strength, mental clarity, rhythmic integrity, and a direct link to forces greater than themselves. As dancers they give birth, bringing to the birth process the tremendous strength acquired over years of night long and sometimes week-long- ‘spirit dances’. Daily work, the honouring of womanhood, the deities, the ancestors, the darkness, and the celebration of birth itself are all depicted in the dance. And the dance is carried into the fibres of everyday life.”
Animals dancing: Harmony with unconscious drives and sexuality.
Dancing with someone usually shows a loving relationship, or even the prelude to a sexual relationship.
Circle dancing: And ancient form of dancing is done by the Sufis who twirl, rotating on the spot. This can produce dizziness, which if continued can produce a faint. This causes the ratioinal mind to faint, and so brings about a condition in which one can contact one source, perhaos having a profound vision. This was the method of Jalal ad-Dīn Rumi.
But also it relates to the nucleus of the human identity. Although we are, in our everyday life, the magical and mysterious process of life, it is difficult for us to actually answer the question ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What am I?’ with any lasting conviction. The mysterious essence of ourselves is met in dreams as a circular or square object or design. So circle dancing can show you getting closer to you own centre.
If the dance is awkward: Lack of harmony connected with what is depicted.
Skeletons or dark ‘things’ dancing: Developing a relationship with what we fear – meeting it; dancing with death – in life we always dance with death, meaning we have an intimate relationship with it, but might not be ready to recognise who our partner is.
Stepping on partners toes shows you upsetting others or being awkward in your relations with others.
Example: ‘We were both shy of each other but as the dance went on I found I could move so well to his steps that we felt like one, it was so effortless that it felt like floating.’ Heather.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What was expressed in the dance and what do I gain from that?
Am I expressing spontaneity, creativity or love in this dance?
Did I feel any connection with the divine?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Life’s Little Secrets
Danger Dangerous
This may be unfounded anxiety or a warning about possible outcomes. We may fear the danger of allowing our sexual urges – the danger of falling in love with its possible pain – the danger of failing if we take a risk. Even ideas, such as those of future peril cause enormous anxiety. These may be depicted as impending danger in a dream, or a sense of present danger. In such cases the real danger is of taking our anxieties as reality, instead of seeing them for what they are, feeling reactions to a situation. But in fact you cannot be hurt or die in dreams. See Nothing Can Hurt You in Your Dreams
But some dreams are very clear warnings and should be used to avoid or be aware of the situation shown. An example of this and how to deal with it is shown in the following dream.
“I awakened one morning with a sense of foreboding and the word `ETIWANDA’ ringing through my mind. Realizing that I had probably failed to remember all of the dream, I simply prayed about it.
“Although it was early November, I was prompted to get out my Christmas card list and addresses. One of the first addresses I saw was the street-name Etiwanda. I called the friend who lived there and learned she was about to take a mountain road trip to Big Bear, Calif. I warned her to be especially careful and to pray for protection. When she returned from the trip, she told me: `As I was coming around a sharp mountain curve, I heard brakes screeching. Because of your warning dream, I immediately drove completely off the highway onto the grass on the cliff side of the road. The next moment a sports car, out of control, came careening around the curve in my lane.'”
Awareness and seeking to stay open to ones core self can protect and guide when danger is imminent. In fact pray for help on avoiding danger.
A relative or loved one in danger: The temptation is to believe the dream is presaging a real event. Our concern for children and loved one’s, but more often our fears regarding them, create most of such dreams. A woman told me a dream in which her daughter was strangled while at university. In processing her dream the woman wept strongly as she met feelings of fear about her daughter leaving home and living independently at university. The daughter was in fact okay. See: Child Killed; attack; precognition.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is this danger to myself or someone else – and what can I do either to calm my anxiety or deal with the danger?
Is there any sign this is simply anxiety, and if so where does it arise from?
How can I remain aware of this impending danger?
See – Facing Fear – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Dark Darkness
Lack of understanding; difficult to grasp, obscure. Dark can also mean ancient, worn dark with age, and it can relate to sombre, or depressing feelings.
A woman with dark hair sometimes represents this intuition. Similarly, a dark skinned person in a dream can represent parts of yourself that are difficult to understand, or are only just becoming conscious and the way in which they influence your life and are obscure.
What is unknown, not defined by the intellect or conscious self. What is unconscious and perhaps only vaguely sensed. Some dreams of darkness depict depression or confusion, or something we are frightened or terrified of.
Darkness in some dreams illustrate forces of what we might feel overpowered by, secrets we hide from self or others, or things we do or sense that are done ‘under cover of darkness’.
Darkness can also represent age, the experience of prenatal life and feelings about death.
Universe/God was originally the darkness of night. Universe/God then created light. Science says that it look 300,000 years for light to finally shine in our Universe.
“And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. “And God said: Let there be light; and there was light.” Genesis is a scientific treatise
For the Creative force of our Universe was Everything and everything cannot take a shape or form, for then it would be something. The spiritual worship of light is misplaced, for we were all started in the darkness of Everything. Light is for the human recognition of what we sense in the Hugeness we hold within us in Darkness. If everything was light you would not be able to recognise yourself, for colour and shape exist because kight and darkneess mix to give us our experience in the world.
Dark water: Emotions that are felt and powerful but have not been defined or their source understood.
Dark colours: Feelings emanating from unconscious sources; depressed or unhappy feelings. See: Aboriginal; Black.
The following examples are given to show the many facets of darkness and its many meanings. In the first example the feeling is of being lost and trapped in depressing feelings.
Example: ‘I ran down very dark streets, like a maze, and could not find a way out of them. ‘ Mrs N.
The following dream depicts particular aspects of darkness.
Example: ‘It was a festival in this strange world, in which everything had a rather dark, dilapidated look.’ Tom.
Dark here is about ancient; things dating from times past. This may refer to ones sense of childhood which feels like the ancient past; or to our unconscious knowledge of family and cultural attitudes and experience. In general the ‘strange’ world of the unconscious or sleep.
Example: ‘I was overwhelmed by terror, as if the very darkness of the tunnel was a living force of fear which entered and consumed me. I screamed and screamed, writhing in uncontrollable fit like contractions. Nevertheless a part of me was observing what was happening and was amazed, realising I had found something of great importance.’ Andrew P.
Because the dreamer explored this dream with me, I know the darkness was depicting fear Andrew experienced while a 9 year old in hospital. He was given a rectal anaesthetic because he was about to have an operation on his nose. He fought and begged for the nurses to stop, but to no avail. This led to a very real feeling that humans were terrifyingly dangerous animals who would not respond even if you were on your knees begging. So this fear was the awful thing in the darkness. Darkness here is the unconscious area of experience.
Example: ‘I am back in time looking at an old cottage. I see the windows, walls and doors, everything about the place. It is dark and old and warm. I see the curtains and bedrooms, all the ornaments and I feel safe and comfortable.’ Mrs R.
Here dark expresses a feeling of comfort, perhaps because it is undemanding, or that one is not in any glare of attention or activity. It is the relaxed quiet of evening. This woman has a relaxed relationship with her unconscious.
Example: ‘I met a woman I know in a long, dark underground tunnel. She was waiting for me. We had sexual intercourse. She had a very formed vagina mouth, and a very large clitoris, like a small penis. I masturbated this.’ Norman.
Norman has no fear of the tunnel. It is his secret desire and pleasure which he admits to no one, often not even himself. Dark here is one’s secret self. It has the meaning of the saying, “Keep it dark.”
Idioms: A dark horse; in the dark; keep it dark; a shot in the dark.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What feeling or thoughts does the darkness in my dream provoke – can I define what they are?
Is this a warm comfortable darkness or one of foreboding and heavy feelings?
Are there things I am discovering in the darkness – if so what?
See Avoid Being Victims – Resistances – Face Fear
Darn
Healing of parts of your nature symbolised by the object being darned. Also a careful, saving attitude.
Dart
Hurtful thought, hatefulness, aggressive sexuality.
Date
Calendar date: This needs to be considered in connection with the other parts of the dream. It can relate to something that happened on that date in the past, and is still important to you in some way. If not that try looking for what you associate with the month, year and numbers in the date. In this way they are a reference point, usually for important experiences or relationships that occurred in the past.
If it is a future date, this may be about the way dreams tend to extrapolate a future from present and past events. It is like drawing a line on a graph from prior performance.
Idioms: bad date: blind date; dates you; up to date.
Romantic ‘date’: Hopes about or insight into a relationship. Release of pleasurable feelings about yourself.
Example: I was in a dorm room and saying goodbye to someone I had been dating. There was a corkboard with old pictures of me on it. I thought it was unusual for him to have these pictures of me. He really liked them, which made me feel like he was really going to miss me, which surprised me. He was trying to kiss me goodbye, but I hesitated because there was a carload of my friends looking at us, and they didn’t approve of our relationship. Then I went to my mom’s house, where I found my dog; she is actually dead in reality. Angie.
Angie’s dream is probably typical of ‘date’ dreams. In it she is assessing the relationship and realising that he really likes her. It also show how the pressure of her friends attitude interferes with her own natural feelings. Then the dog shows the coming alive again of warm feelings that were dead.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What was the dream telling me about the date?
Was it with and ex or a new friend?
Did it work out well or a complete disaster?
See Integrating an Ex – Difficult Relationship – Characters and People in Dreams – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Daughter
Dreaming about your child often relates to how you feel about her. Is she an adventurous creative person? If so then it will usually be depicting your own feelings of creativity and risk taking. Is she an introverted person, or anxious. Are you worried about her? If so then the dream is either about your own urges to withdraw, or your feelings of concern for her.
Any child is a fruit, an expression of the marriage or relationship from which she sprang. So she can represent what is happening, or what is being felt, about the relationship. So a sick child could represent problems in the relationship.
In a mother’s dream: Your daughter could represent the support you get from her; any ties you feel through being her parent; or even your own feelings and difficulties at her age, that might be surfacing at the time of the dream. You might even be feeling her as a competitor because of her youth.
A feelings of not being alone in the area of emotional bonds; or one’s feeling area. It can also represent the responsibility or the ties of parenthood.
Sometimes it is oneself at that age; one’s own urges, difficulties, hurts, which may still be operative.
A comparison. The mother might see the daughter’s youth, opportunity, and have feelings about that. So the daughter may represent her sense of lost opportunity and youth – even envy; competition in getting the desire of a man.
In a father’s dream: Your daughter usually represent your feelings, your more feminine or receptive side. So problems in the dream could suggest you are having difficult allowing your feelings to mature. She could also depict whatever difficult feelings you have about mistake you have made in the relationship, or self recriminations you experience. When she starts courting, dreaming of her might also point out the struggle you have to let go.
One’s relationship with the daughter – in other words what feelings you have had regartding her recently. The daughter, or son, can represent what happens in a marriage between husband and wife. The child is what has arisen from the bonding, however momentary, of two people.
In dreams the child therefore is sometimes used to depict how the relationship is faring. So a sick daughter might show the feelings in the relationship being ‘ill’. See Characters and People in Dreams this can help enormously in understanding your dream.
In a father’s dream: One’s feeling self; the feelings or difficulties about the relationship with daughter. Or it can illustrate the struggles one’s own feeling self goes through to mature; how the sexual feelings are dealt with in a family situation – occurs especially when she starts courting. It can also indicate ones sister; parental responsibility; one’s wife when younger.
Someone else’s daughter: Feelings about one’s own daughter; feelings about younger women.
Death of daughter: This can sometimes suggest you are losing your daughter because she is becoming independent. But it can signify feelings of great loss, or the end of something such as a relationship.
Example: ‘I am standing outside a supermarket with heavy bags wearing my Mac, though the sun is warm. My daughter and two friends are playing music and everyone stops to listen. I start to write a song for them, but they pack up and go on a bus whilst I am still writing. I am left alone at the bus stop with my heavy burden of shopping, feeling incredibly unwanted.’ Mrs F.
Such dreams of the daughter becoming independent can occur as soon as the child starts school, persisting until the mother finds a new attitude. See: child; woman.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What way do I describe my daughter to a stranger?
What are my secredt feelings about her?
What was my relationship with her in the dream?
See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Associations Working With
Dawn Dawning
dawn Beginning of understanding; illumination; a new beginning; hope. Our youth or the first part of our life; energy; enthusiasm.
The emergence from darkness, depression or confusion. Also the beginning of a new cycle, a new period that is lit by the sun. A healing because of a new approach, a fresh perspective or a breakthrough in understanding.
Idioms: crack of dawn; dawn of history; dawn on me; greet the dawn.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Does this show an illumination, or beginning of understanding?
Am I hopeful about something?
Am I embarking on a new phase of life?
See Associations Working With – Inner World – Learning to Allow Yourself
Day and Night
day: Mostly our mood. In the example Kim feels bright and cheerful. An overcast day would be the reverse. Also it means being conscious; ‘seeing’ what we are doing; our waking experience. See: light; Morning; Afternoon; Evening, where relevant.
Example: ‘It was a beautiful hot sunny day, and I was in a children’s playground talking to a woman I knew vaguely.’ Kim B.
night: Similar to dark. Usually the unconscious, dark, or little sensed areas of oneself. It can sometimes indicate loneliness or areas of subtly felt urges or feelings, or even fear of being attacked, or even fear of being attacked, or even fear of being attacked. See: Night.
Sometimes: Freedom. We may be constrained by the social or moral rules we apply to ourselves during the ‘day’ or waking consciousness. But on the edge of consciousness, or in sleep, we find a wonderful freedom which allows us escape. It might be shown by escaping from a house at night and running away. See: dark.
In the example the secrecy occurs because parts of Tom’s childhood experience were ‘hidden’ behind the forgetfulness or unconsciousness of emotional hurt.
Example: ‘I was creeping through a field at night. In darkness I and others were trying to accomplish some secret act, rather as spies or underground agents might.’ Tom.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Does the day express our mood or interest?
Could it mean that we are mpre conscious?
Am I finding a new life or freedom?
See Meditation with Seed – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Questions
Deaf
There may be a desire not to know what is happening to you, or something you are feeling. Or you might be frightened of hearing something that could hurt you, or to learn things about yourself you do not wish to face.