Posts Tagged ‘dreaming’

Blockage Blocked

Usually depicts restrained or held back emotions, energy or thoughts. Common areas of blockage are the throat, where words or feelings can be blocked by tension or restraints such as anger or helplessness; the chest, most often the store of emotions perhaps from many years ago; the genitals where we might block desire, hunger and the basic movement of our body toward pleasure.

The blockage might be shown in our dreams as a river being dammed, a traffic jam, a piece of machinery clogged, or some part of our body not functioning smoothly. Talking about the dream images and feelings associated with the dream with a sympathetic friend can help to release the block. Occasionally such a dream shows a problem in the body itself. So if the dream has that sort of feeling have a health check. See the example under blister.

The following description illustrates the origins and way to release such a blockage.

A friend told me he had a discomfort in his throat that had lasted for some weeks. He had been to the doctor, fearing cancer of his throat, but had been told there was no physical problem there. So we decided to sit together and see if we could penetrate what the discomfort was about.

I suggested he feel the discomfort and then make any sound that expressed what he felt. He slowly began to cough and moan. Gradually he began to experience emotions that led him to shout and express anger. As the feelings and anger mounted he could see what it was he was holding in his throat. He told me that his father had worked all his life at a gasworks shovelling coal to produce gas. This exposed him to excessive coal dust, and eventually he died from the lung problem this produced. So his anger was about how a man could be used in that way in an uncaring industry. But also, as his father was dying, the doctor asked him if he should give his father an injection that would lessen his pain and that would cause him to sleep till he died. He agreed to this, but his personal pain was that he had not told his father how much he loved him before he died, and all those feelings had been blocked in his throat. So with much crying and many declarations of love, he felt the blockage clear.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Where does the dream show the blockage is – and where in my body or mind does that point to? See body.

Does my dream suggest any way I can free the blockage?

If I imagine myself clearing the blockage while awake, can I feel a change in myself?

To help with this see carry the dream forward also Arm Circling Meditation.

Blood

Very often it links with a feeling of being hurt or injured and of losing energy or the strength that enlivens you. But blood can represent pain, but also passions, deep feelings. It can refer to things that are deeply felt. We have passionate involvement with things. There are certain things that enter into us and cut us deeply. In some relationships we are opened up and we bleed even if the relationship is largely joyful, there still may be deeply felt and painful feelings in it.

Blood can also mean fertility as when it is connected with menstruation. It can be a painful cleansing and difficult period of releasing the old. The old dies away and leaves space for the new to grow. But blood give life and feeling to every partof our body. The inner meanning is that the Power of Life flows through every living creaure giving it/us consciousness.

In a more general sense blood can indicate one’s energy and sense of existence. In common language we link it with our family through feelings of connection or bonding, inherited tendencies – what we now call genes. It therefore includes inherited strengths and weaknesses of character. We say of such things – its in my blood.

Blood is often used as a symbol of universal life or power in ones life, therefore connection with humanity. Through this it depicts the universal pain or struggle met in human life, along with the possibility of injury and death. In ancient times blood was used as the first ritual sacrament. Later this was symbolised by red wine or red ochre. It was noticed that at times of great change, such as birth or death, blood often preceded the change. Blood was seen as the carrier of the spirit of life and character that lived in a person or animal. If we think of what genes now are known to carry, the untold generations of human life, with all its pain, tragedy and wonder, then blood was seen as carrying this collective human experience.

Blood is sometimes felt as a link with the unconscious forces and sub-personalities within. It is a doorway to the subtle world of the unconscious. This connection is perhaps obvious in that for thousands of years, the blood was seen as the substance that carried in it the mystery of inheritance of physical and psychological features. What we now call genes was represented by the blood, and this is still true in some dreams. The blood in a dream can be the doorway through which you touch your racial and family past. The blood brings to life within you the past lives of those who gave you your body. In quite a real sense they live within you as a great group of people, or influences that need to be integrated for you to become a true individual.

When we see blood on the earth or on someone’s clothes, it suggests great injury or death. Blood on the earth therefore marked the spot of either a great battle, a death or a deep wounding. As such it was a marker, a memorial or sign of the act. So this aspect of blood in our dreams must be remembered.

In cultures such as the Macedonian, where symbols were often thought of in terms of good or bad luck, light blood represented good news, dark blood bad news.

For women there is obviously a strong link between bleeding and menstruation. Therefore in women’s dreams involving blood, the blood may depict whatever feelings, pleasure, difficulties are associated with menstruation and the power of female fertility for the dreamer. But you need to look to the theme and drama of the dream to see if this is a correct connection.

Bleeding: Most often relates to emotional or psychological hurt, but can also depict physical injury, or presentiment of it. Emotional hurt could mean hurtful remarks, for instance being told we are not loved – these can sap our motive to live and may be depicted as blood. The bleeding might show a psychological injury, often from past trauma, which is causing you to lose energy or motivation.

Sometimes, as mentioned above, the blood can be a sacrament. As such it is not shown as emerging from an injury or wound but as nourishment, wine or bloody meat.

Blood flowing from a crack: Possibly menstruation or loss of virginity.

Blood on your hands: Shows you have hurt or even killed an aspect of yourself. See Blood on Hands

Blood on the ground: Someone hurt or dead.

Bloody clothes: Personal emotional hurt or injury, perhaps even death of someone.

Blood Sample: This can represent many things depending upon the rest of the dream. It could suggest and illness, a way of tracing your identity with DNA, or it could be a drug test.

Blood sucked from you or sucking from another: Feeling that you are losing your very life force to someone, or taking energy and life from someone else. Sometimes sex is felt as this. The umbilical connection in the womb is sometimes felt as the life giving connection that if cut off prematurely, is such a loss that expenditure of energy in sex may be felt as vampirism.

In sexual dreams: May refer to loss of virginity, menstruation or fertility; or hurt to sexual drive.

Menstrual blood: All women’s blood, flowing onto the earth, during her menstruation, is the miracle of Life, creation and death. Every woman who allows her blood to flow, takes part in the life of the Great Mother, as she and every menstruating woman, allows the death if the old and the birth of a new possibility for the continuance of life on Earth – a great and miraculous act. See archetype of blood; bleeding; Great Mother.

Old or dark blood: Can sometimes be understood as ‘bad blood’ existing in the dreamer – bad feelings or old grudges.

Transfusion of blood: In dreams such transfusion can show the fusion or atking on of the  physical forces of the body from which the blood was given. Also indicates the taking on of the relative level of health or imbalance, even the ideas and ideals of a person. It suggests a very strong link or love from one person to another.

This is similar to taking in your thoughts, impressions and feelings about the other person. So many people do not realise that they have an inner person equally as powerful as the external person you know. You have taken in millions of bits of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings or problems met by meeting or living with them, and they change you and make you the person you are. The memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. Such an inner person can appear in dreams because you still carry the memories or impressions of them, and so they influenced what you hold within you.

One way of understanding such links as can happen in a dreamt of  blood transfusion, is to see it as  a direct linkg with theinner quality of the donor. If you had a transfusion from a sick person whose blood was full of viruses and toxins it would pull down your own system. If you yourself were lacking blood, then the transfusion could be life giving. But of course we are speaking of emotional, mental and spiritual factors that pass through this link. So the toxins that pass are not of viruses, but of greed, lies, anger and violence, or even insidious desire to control. Or on the positive side, the expanded awareness that lifts us from shadows into a greater vision and experience of life.

Pak Subuh, an Eastern spiritual teacher, says that when a couple have sex the inner psychic content of one passes to the other. He says that whatever forces of mind and emotion exist in the one pass to the other. In this way if we have many sexual partners we take from them influences from their inner life. He suggests that having sex with a prostitute who has absorbed the inner life of many men of dubious character is like opening ones subtle self to the dross and influence of those lives. Just as one needs to thoroughly wash ones body if you had worked in a sewer, you would need to clean your soul of such influences.

But transfusions have been known to link people in strange ways. In recent years people who shared blood  through a transfusion shared thoughts, dreams and information.

A woman used the Seed Group method describes what she experienced.

Example: Then I started to tremble and shake. My whole upper body was shaking uncontrollably. I let it happen. I wasn’t frightened, I felt safe in knowing that this is what my body needed to do. It continued for what seemed several minutes. As I shook, I recalled that shortly after birth, I was given a blood transfusion. My parents’ blood types weren’t compatible – three earlier siblings of mine had been born and died a day or two after birth. Convulsions now, more then mere shaking. The coming into life, but not being compatible with my interior chemical make-up. Shaking as they transfused my blood – draining me of my blood, my own blood which fought against itself, being replaced with a foreign blood that would give me life. No wonder I was scared in that shell. The process of life and death innate in me from the moment of my conception. Fighting against myself. That which would fight for my life (the antibodies) would be the death of it.

The shaking stopped. A sense of peace pervaded my physical self. I was still positioned on my knees, but the sense of having put those roots down first gave me the foundation to withstand the shaking. I had no idea of what this experience would be like (and definitely not like this), but I seem to have gotten rid of something stored in muscle memory.

Idioms: After ones blood; bleeding heart; bleed someone white; blood boil/run cold; blood brother; blood is thicker than water; blood letting; blood money; blood on ones hands; blood out of a stone; blood relative; blood sucker; blue blood; cold/hot blood; draw blood; fresh blood; in the blood; in my blood; ones heart bleeds; out for blood; sweat blood; taste blood; young blood.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

What part of my body – or the body – is the blood coming from, and what does that suggest about any hurt I may be suffering? (Look up part of body).

What is my relationship with the blood in terms of what I feel, my interaction or how I deal with it?

What can I understand from the theme and drama of the dream in terms of my life giving processes?

See: drama; Acting on your dream

Blossom

The unfolding and expression of what was latent within from the beginning.

Blow-Out

See: Puncture.

Blue

Dark blues: In many women’s dreams threatening men appear dressed in dark blue or navy blue overalls. This suggests the woman is meeting her own male/animus side with anxiety. So there is a need to work with this and find a way to express your power and energy in the world. See Facing Fear

Dark blue can also suggest mature personal insights into life, or if it is a muddy or murky blue, it indicates depression, negative thoughts or intuitions, and being gloomy.

Light blues: Your sense of intuition, or achieving a wide awareness of life. Blue also links with religious feelings and experience of the holy – i.e. an awareness of those things that are universal – such as birth, caring relationship, parenthood – and so recognised as transcending ones own small life. This comes from our feelings about the blue sky.

Light blue can also indicate coolness of nature. Often seen in visions of the womb as a blue grotto or woman with halo of blue, so connects with prenatal and infant relationship with mother.

Blue-gray: Religious feelings produced by depression, fear or gloominess.

Blue skin: Because we go blue when suffocating or having breathing difficulties, it can be used to show what a struggle we are having with life, how bruised we are with experience, or how cold we feel. But as with Krishna and his blue skin, it might show how you are being pervaded by a sense of the universal, of a wider and beautiful life.

Blue-green: Healing or the ability to heal arising from attunement to the forces transcending your own limited awareness and abilities.

Blue-violet: Great attunement with insights and powers transcending normal human ability.

Idioms: the air was blue; baby blues; blue film; blue funk; blue in the face; blue moon; bolt from the blue; once in a blue moon; blue pencil; blue stocking; feel blue; out of the blue; vanish into the blue; blue-blood; true-blue.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What do I feel when I hold this colour in mind, and where is that feeling or association fitting into my life at the moment?

Am I feeling tuned into a wider view of things at the moment, and if so what am I realising?

Am I feeling blue – or do I feel like blue skies are here?

Try imagining the colour and see what feelings it provokes – or try Being the Person or Thing

Boat Ship

This probably depicts our journey through the seas of life and how we meet the rough and smooth experiences, as with example below. In many dreams boats and ships appear to depict a situation, environment or relationship the dreamer is in – as in the saying, ‘in the same boat’.

Because of the fact that once in the water it is difficult to leave the boat, the situation is often one that has certain bonds or commitments which may not be easy to leave or break away from – such as occurs in a close relationship or a work situation. The condition the boat depicts may relate to a physical one, such as a work opportunity, a place we live in, a relationship that, like any relationship, offers certain opportunities and restrictions – or it might be an attitude a feeling or a belief, such as pride or love, which places you in a certain connection with the world – i.e. ‘at sea’ or lost; in a stormy situation; in dry dock, etc. The boat can also be a place of safety amidst the storms of life. Thus attitudes or strengths enabling the dreamer to meet difficulties.

A boat is the thing that keeps you afloat in a different element than you are used to. As such it depicts the attitudes that enable you to have a clear boundary and certainty of who you are. It is your confidence and the threshold that separates your waking self from the massive and deep unconscious – the ocean of collective awareness. This is clear in the following example.

Example: Opened a paper at the comic strip. Began to read and become involved in the story. A small speed boat was at sea. But the sea dissolved anybody who fell in. One man fell in but held himself together as a blob of water and jumped back to the speedboat. I remember the words “The sea is a great solvent.” Anthony.

This dream pictures Anthony’s identity or ability to be an individual amidst the great ocean of life or consciousness. So the boat probably represents how he sees his body, as a thing separate from the rest of the world.

The various environments boats may be in show the condition or feelings surrounding the basic life situation the boat depicts. For instance being ‘at sea’ – depending upon calmness or rough seas – shows the dreamer being away from a familiar base or in difficult or uncertain times.

Example: I am in a large glass boat with my wife. The sea is very rough and I am afraid the boat will sink.’ Ron D.

The dream occurred a few weeks before a breakdown occurred in which the dreamer’s wife left him.

Example: I was inside a large boat, probably a tanker. There were a lot of passengers, but it appeared as if we were imprisoned in a huge room. It was very dingy and dismal. I am not sure though whether people realised they were prisoners. Maybe one only realised one was imprisoned if one tried to escape. Bob. A.

This boat obviously represents a situation Bob finds it difficult to get out of, and is only just realising he is trapped in. It also shows him involved with other people.

Example: I’m a young woman standing on a sea shore. I am waiting for my man. I hear the oars in the row locks of a boat, then it comes into view. A man comes to me, and puts his arms around me like he’s known me all my life. My man pauses, turns his head to a man still in the boat and says – Tell them this is it. Phillipa.

Here the boat holds the suggestion of being an event bringing Phillipa a love she has been waiting for.

Anchored boat: Security; stable relationship or situation; opposite of drifting.

Beached boat: Possibly suggests a situation in which you are ‘on dry land’ not subject to many changes or uncertainties. But it could also relate to a project, relationship or endeavour that cannot be got underway, or has got stuck in some way. However if you beach the boat and get out, then it shows the end of a journey, project or relationship.

Boat without oars: Ill equipped to deal with the situation you are in. A loss of motivation and being subject to external events to direct your life. So this might point to indecisiveness or lack of initiative.

Bows: One’s strength to meet life’s changes.

Canoe: Much like a small boat, but with overtones of nature, of being in the wild, of surviving. It is sometimes in testing surroundings or ones in which you feel the presence of nature, which can be wonderful or scary.

Disembarking: Leaving a phase of life, such as motherhood, marriage or a job. Ending a relationship or arriving at a new phase of life, a new possibility or great change.

Dock: A feeling of security when you have left an inner journey. Also because a dock is a permanent feature boats or ships can be moored to, it might indicate a safe ending to a relationship. A secure though public place to be. The end or beginning of a journey or a life change and the beginning of another phase of life.

If you are leaving the dock in a boat/ship, it suggests facing going out into the world and putting out something of oneself into the world through your relationships and life with people.

Dry dock: Necessary changes being made; circumstances not conducive to being actively involved in a project or relationship; delays. There might be a link with ill health here also.

Embarking alone: Independence or loneliness. Entering a new situation and perhaps unknown events or possibilities. Opportunity for new relationships.

Ferry boat: If across a river, end of a relationship; transition from one phase of life to another or one life situation to another; the emotional connections in a relationship. Sometimes links with death or the loss of someone.

Going on a cruise: Desiring relationship with others; or to be a part of other peoples life. Leaving ones everyday life behind.

Boat journey by night: Classic archetype of searching for one’s roots in life; the journey into ones unconscious experience. See: night sea journey under archetypes.

Keel: Basic personal strengths. The foundation of your personality or identity.

Leaving boat but leaving bag on it: Losing confidence or self value, such as might happen when children have gone or job ended.

Lots of small boats: Other peoples relationships.

Missing a boat: Missing opportunity; not grasping significance of events; not ‘making it’ in a relationship.

Motor boat: Similar to car but more sense of isolation or aloneness. The motor boat also shows the powerful feelings and drives which impel us into action, or give us a direction in life, as in the following example. For instance a strong anxiety can be a power, an engine, which motivates us to do or avoid certain things, such a taking risks, entering a relationship. So too can love, dependence, desire for wealth, loneliness, and the struggle to survive.

Person leaving the boat: A boat often represents a relationship, so leaving the boat or ship  suggests someone leaving what was a group or personal relationship,

Example: My wife, H and I were on a large and beautiful motor boat, about thirty feet long. We were speeding along a river about hundred yards wide. I didn’t seem to be steering with a wheel, but there was no problem. Instead of water the river appeared to be a thick slurry of some kind. We were passing through countryside and suddenly H dropped what I felt might be an important envelope overboard. It lay on the top of the river. I wanted to stop and retrieve it. Other boats were coming along some way behind and I wondered if one of them would go over it. There was a lever which was the accelerator. I pushed it right back and the boat slowly reduced speed, but we were a long way from the envelope/package. The further away we got the less important it seemed, although I had wondered if it contained documents important to where we were going – which I felt was to do with some sort of work or teaching an official or business group.

Suddenly H was on the right bank of the river. I am not sure why, but she had left the boat. I wasn’t sure how she could get back on board again as the river was now full of debris and weeds – tree stumps, metal poles, cans, really full – and the banks were shallow and difficult to approach. I found a place where I could pull in, and there were steps in the earthy or limestone type bank that had been worn in with use. I managed to stop the boat – I still couldn’t find controls to guide or stop the craft – by holding on to the bank, and H got on. I was very pleased and felt love and pleasure that she had got on again. I kissed her warmly. We pulled away from the bank, avoiding a big metal post and chain low in the water. I felt if we went slowly we could get through all the debris okay. Roy.

This dream occurred during a period of separation in the marriage and shows how Roy is not really guiding the boat. He is being impelled by drives he doesn’t have full control over. Parting and coming together again are clearly depicted in the dream.

Rowing a boat: Personal skill or effort to achieve a goal. Whether you are succeeding well or not shows how you are assessing your own efforts to reach goals or take a direction in life.

Rudder: Sureness about direction in life; ability to take a direction in life and maintain it against other influences.

Shared journey on boat or ship: A situation we are involved in with other people or person, such as marriage, business partnership, armed forces; this is the relation-ship, a shared journey in which you ‘are all in the same boat’.

Sinking ship/boat: Fear of relationship ending; difficult events or circumstances are occurring; could be children leaving mother, so the collective ‘boat journey’ has finished; also occasionally threat of illness or death.

Small Boat with one other person: One’s relationship with that person.

Idioms: Burn one’s boats; in the same boat; miss the boat; rock the boat; ships that pass; ship comes in; a tight ship; in a boat without a paddle. See: anchor; submarine.

Useful questions:

If I am not alone on this boat, what is the dream saying about my shared journey with the person or people I am with?

What is the situation depicted – storm, calm, etc – and how does that relate to my life?

Am I directing the boat or am I a passenger – and in what way am I alone or going along with somebody in life?

Bog

Feelings that undermine confidence and well being; might depict feelings about a relationship, perhaps with mother. Feeling stuck in a situation or relationship or feelings of depression.

When the earth is like a bog, or does not support you, it is usually because you are feeling very insecure at the time of the dream. Ask yourself how you find or maintain confidence, and move back to firmer ground.

It can suggest you are in an emotional bog, uncertain ground, having loose footing, and feeling insecure. Bogs and swamps are like a dark and formless power that can rob you of all you will and suck you down into darkness. But they are also a promise of rebirth if you are not afraid. See Nothing Can Hurt You in Your Dreams

If it is someone else’s body:  It usually a part of you that you are unaware of that need attention and help.

If the body is of the opposite sex: It can represent your own longings or sexual needs tat have been lost in negative emotions or having lost our way in uncertainty.

If it is  dead body: It may be showing that a part of you has been neglected so long it is shown in your dream as dead. You have probably repressed a side of you or been frightened of expressing it.

If in you are up to your waist in a bog or marsh: There is always a way out of such situations. You can call for help to any individual or hero figure or saint. Or use carry the dream forward

Example: I am now in the countryside. The landscape is pale watery green. It is bright and sunny. I am at a raised bog. Part of the bog has been cut away and the sods of turf laid out in a semi circle on the grass to dry out in the sun. Beneath the green grassy top the sods are dark brown peaty colour.

The dreamer says of this – Here goes my interpretation: This is about trying to uncover all the issues in my life that have built up and left me confused and depressed – the bog. By exposing them to the sun – awareness – they can be come fuel /energy?

Example: The following dream has a very deep meaning and a clear guidance-message: The dreamer is in a dark, swampy forest. It is night. He has lost his way and is desperate, not knowing where to go, wallowing in the morass . . . He is not religious, but he falls on his knees and begins to pray, imploring the Higher Forces to help him out of this predicament and to show him the way!. . Suddenly a clear ray of light appears from the black sky, moving and showing a stable way among the boggyness. He rushes forward! But after several steps on the right path — he loses it and feels very frightened and lonely. He falls on his knees again, praying and begging for guidance and help. . . The golden ray reappears from above, leading him out of the dark and swampy dangerous forest. . Three or four times he goes astray, losing the right way. The helpful golden beam always reappears after he offers a sincere and deep prayer to be shown the right direction, where to go, the way out of the darkness and bog. . . His prayer was right: he asked no favors, no gifts, only the right way.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Have I felt ‘bogged down’ in any way lately?

Do I feel stuck and not known how to change?

Have I asked Life for help as in the example?

See Facing Fear and  Life Changes

Boil

If this refers to water or things boiling, then it suggests something very powerful happening or coming to a head. Perhaps there are ‘boiling’ emotions about something.

If it is about a boil on a body –  see: cyst; Abscess

Useful Questions and Hints:

Are you trying to cook or sterilise something?

What is causing the liquid or substance to boil?

In what way are you involved in what it boiling?

Try using Acting on your dream and Being the Person or Thing

Bomb Bombing

These often depict an explosive situation that has either happened in the past or is happening at the moment. Other possibilities are of sudden anxiety producing events – as when we say something occurred out of the blue. Such events, past or present, are felt to be devastating and often destroy or change old patterns of behaviour and ways of living. This is shown by the bombs destroying buildings or ones house.

Bombs in dreams can also indicate aggression, fear of death, remembered anxieties of war experience or social bombshells – such as being criticised in the press.

Example: We could hear bombs dropping and exploding. We were just carrying on with our normal activities though. Then I was standing near a big floor to ceiling glass window. I heard a bomb whistling down and it landed just outside. It exploded and the whole house disintegrated, glass was flying around and I was flying through the air from the explosion. I felt like the explosion had taken place in my head and blasted my brains, and I thought although the people near me had got it pretty badly too, that the children, being nearer to the ground, would have avoided the worst of the blast. It was a horrific mess and I knew I had been killed. This didn’t seem to worry me though. At this point I was waking from sleep and found myself thinking I had kept awareness through the whole situation, so there was part of me – an awareness – which did not or had not died. I was left wondering – is that what happens after death, and can one communicate with others in that state? H. C.

This interesting bomb dream occurred just as HC was entering menopause and great changes occurred in herself and her life. A break-up began to occur with her husband as well as external changes in work. So the death suggests the end of the life she knew up till then. The awareness that did not die shows HC experiencing her central self, her core self, that does not die and is not the external personality or body that constantly changes and can die – in other words undergo massive change.

Bomb site: This usually shows major emotional trauma has happened. The bomb site indicates what the trauma has done – devastated some aspect of your feelings or ability to relate easily or deal well with external situations. The example below shows this.

Example: Dreamt I was on a bomb site. I found old shells from the war. I was interested in them and dug them up, but felt that they might explode. Throwing them to one-sided I crawled away sheltering from expected explosions. None came, only smoke. Then a friend offered a basement to Chinese restaurant owner. It was enormous, with great possibilities. I began to work in the basement. Brian.

As Brian explores his inner life through his dreams he comes across damage that occurred in his childhood and youth. The war was the personal inner conflicts he experienced. Meeting these was not as difficult as he had expected. Then, in doing this a whole new area of possibility opened up – the basement, an area of himself that had previously remained unconscious. See: air raid; airplane; Mines; war; .

Idioms: a smart bomb; came as a bombshell; earn a bomb; go down like a bomb; go like a bomb; I feel blitzed; put a bomb under someone.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does the dream suggest this is in the past or present?

If in the present what are you facing that is either creating anxiety or bringing about great life changes?

If in the past what anxiety or emotional disturbance are you meeting that has its origin in the past?

What do the other parts of the dream suggest this connects with?

Bone

We may associate several things with a bone, strength for instance. So a broken bone can be a loss of strength and ability. Also something giving structure and support. So a broken bone could suggest that ones arm – your ability to reach out, to act on and make real your desires and ideas – has been injured or a functional difficulty has arisen; or it has developed new strength.

We often associate bones or a skeleton with death. So bones can be the remaining material sign of a life, as with archaeology. The bone dug up can be a source of information or memory, and is worth exploring.

Conversely, our bones are a part of us that have the possibility of lasting way into the future, and being a witness to our life. So could represent what will remain after the death of your body.

Burying a bone: Hiding something from someone or from yourself, especially if guilt is felt in connection with the hiding. It might also suggest storing something for the future.

Digging up bones: Remembering something from the long past. Looking at the memory of something you repressed in the past.

Backbone: Strength; moral power; support.

Useful Questions and Hints:

If this is my bone, what is being said about my strength or supportive system?

If this is someone else’s bone what am I seeing or feeling about it that I can gain information from?

What do I feel if I imagine myself as the bone and describe myself as it?

For help doing this see Stand in role and Talking As

Book Books Bookshop

Especially if old, a book can suggest your life experience or memories; therefore experience you have learned from. They can also indicate other people’s experience and ideas that you are considering, learning from or in disagreement with. In this sense they are acquired information – or information received from other people.

A rejection or acceptance of a book could point to your attitudes toward learning or to other peoples opinions. In some dreams the books, while suggesting past experience or phases of your life, show you either still involved with them or moving on to something new.

Old books: These can also link with inherited wisdom and learning or awareness of the synthesised overview you have gained form your life.

Bookshop: Your gathered experience, even from the long past. An attempt to find a solution to something, to find answers. It could also suggest a confrontation with the many and varied opinions and standpoints people have, or a search for who you are and what the meaning of your life is.

Pages of a book: If it is one that has been torn out and kept, it is probably a reminder of something important or a reference to something. A page marked is probably similar as that of a page torn out, or an important part of a story, or even where you have got up to in your life story. A page is only representing a whole book, and so needs to be part of a whole.

Then there are different coloured  pages indicating things like ‘yellow pages’. Or look at colours to see any other meaning.

Reading a book: Sometimes this points to your searching for something, your curiosity or desire to learn, or a search for your own meaning. It might also, depending on the feelings in the dream, shows you discovering something new, a new approach or standpoint. It can also indicate the way you escape from the world and your own anxieties or fears, as in the example.

Example: I dreamt I was sitting at home in my armchair reading a book. It’s something I do quite often, so the dream seemed very real. Then I looked up from the book and I was high up in the air flying, still in the armchair. It was wonderful but I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to get down again. Why does one have strong feelings about such strange things? Sara.

Sara experiences flying because reading has taken her away from her down to earth everyday experience. It has helped her escape from the difficulties or loneliness of her life. Then, when she feels what it is like to be at a remove from such difficulties she is feels scared of re-entering her normal life.

Example: It was a being from another planet, completely human, but with a furry body and tail. It had a son with it. I slammed the door because I was afraid, but the catch did not connect and the door opened again. I threw a book in for the aliens to read. They threw out a book for me to read. It had loose pages – like my ready reckoner. I put them in order and read the story and lived some of it. As I read some of the words were in alien symbols, but I could understand them. Gradually the book changed to alien words. I/it progressed. All the lines sloped down from left to right. Now the sky was like a vaulted or squared ceiling. The two aliens looked down from one of the open squares and called. There was an answering call from two others of their kind. I knew these were the only ones on our planet. I also knew that they had to completely be themselves. I wondered why, and they told me it was because their whole race was within them. Peter M.

This dream of Peter’s that he explored shows his religious feelings, the church, directly presenting him with something alien. This new experience is gradually seen as himself – ‘I now looked within myself and also began to see all of them within, and was becoming like one of them’. Not only is Peter accepting this aspect of himself more fully, thus not seeing it as completely alien or different, but also it presents him with a new type of awareness – a feeling of connection with all of his race. In fact Peter had been a loner and very independent, feeling disconnected from society as a whole. This was a massive change, with very deeply felt fears and joy.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the book in my dream suggesting I am learning, escaping my life situation, or looking back on my own experience – whatever it is, what can I gather from that?

Do I get particular ideas or feelings from the book(s) – if so what are they?

If this is a very old book, what do I feel if I imagine holding and opening it?

Try Talking As or Processing Dreams

Boot

See: Shoes.

Or for boot of car see Car boot/trunk under car.

Boot Trunk of Car

The memories, the karma, or influences from past actions and experiences that we still carry with us. Also the necessary things we carry about with us, such as shopping, that would connect with caring for personal or family needs. Occasionally something you want to hide or get rid of.

The boot might also suggest the ‘baggage’ of anxieties and thoughts that you carry in the back of your mind; or tools for dealing with difficult life situations.

The boot is a storage place too, so can relate to things you have such as qualities or values, that are not being used, but are at hand if needed.

Useful Questions and Hints:

What is in the boot/trunk in the dream, and what do I connect with them? i.e. are they things connected with work, holidaying, clothes (social attitudes), leisure things such as golf clubs.

Is this something I am hiding in the boot, or am I okay about it?

What resources do I have in the boot?

Please see Processing Dreams and Role

Border

You are probably meeting some sort of barrier or hesitation. A point in your growth where you may have to prove yourself or make changes. If you cross the border you may be facing a different way of life, or a different experience of life. Hesitations and uncertainties may prevent you making the crossing. See: Frontier.

Boss

The prevailing major driving force in your life, as ambition, desire, love. There is also a possibility here of the boss figure representing authority, and so the dream of the boss dramatising your relationship with an authority figure.

The boss can also stand in the place of father or mother, and depict some of the less apparent aspects of your relationship with them. Any suggestions in the dream that the dream boss links with an actual person who is or has been your boss could obviously be about the way you relate to that person, and feelings, difficulties or emotional ties revealed.

Whatever of these most fits your dream and feelings, it is still useful to stand in the role of your dream boss and explore what is felt and observed from his/her standpoint. This is because such characters in our dreams often incorporate perceptions about them you may not be aware of consciously. See the entry on characters or people for more information on this.

Sometimes dreams deal with a sexual relationship with the boss. Such dreams need exploring as in the characters link above. But sometimes a boss in a dream can represent an example of a helper who knows you and can guide your process of growth, spiritual or otherwise.

Example: The owner was gruff. He was ordering his help around in a mean way. They were pissed at him. There was a commotion at the door. Some blacks were crashing, and the whites got up to leave. It was riot city. I jumped up and said, “Wait. We can all work it out.” I ran to the stage. The men grabbed me and started to pick me up and carry me up the stairs. I pleaded, “No please, don’t! You’ll hurt me! You’re all angry; I can do it myself.” The men said, “The boss told us we have to. We don’t want to, believe me.” I started ordering everyone. I told the boss he’d better shape up and treat people nicely and he might get better results. He was shocked and started to argue. I stopped him. He glowered and then agreed. I told the men to carry me to the stage and I’d introduce them to a nice blonde woman, “Sandra,” who was rich. They were surprised and then got nice and agreed. They got me up on stage. People were walking out. I got the mike and said, “Wait. You’re gonna miss something neat if you leave.” I started belting out “I am woman.” I pushed the curtain back so I could play to the whole club (arena-like stage). I saw on the left, a red plush banquet set up. No one was there. Everyone started dancing and enjoying themselves. Blacks, whites, men, and women, all together. I was the pivotal peace maker. Barb

Barb is obviously a woman with spirit and doesn’t bow down to authority but manages to make it work through her own power.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is this suggesting a struggle or conflict in any way – if so is it showing an authority or personality conflict?

What is the essence of the relationship with the boss in the dream?

Is there any love connection here?

Is the boss directing or encouraging me to do something – if so what, and how does that tie in with my life?

Please try Stand in role and also carry the dream forward.

Bottle

A bottle can depict many things depending on how it is presented in the dream. Fundamentally it is a container so can represent the vagina, or the function in you of holding – perhaps as we might hold on to an idea or a resentment, which we later ‘uncork’ and pour out. But because it can contain things it may often link with what is in it. As such it suggests the quality of what can be poured out of. In this sense you need to wonder what you are pouring out or holding onto in your life. If the bottle is corked or difficult to open it is suggesting that you have resources or feelings that you are not expressing or accessing easily. Maybe you are ‘bottled up’ in some way.

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

If something in it: Resources you have.

With wine, spirits or beer: Sometimes an influence that changes the way you feel, just as alcohol does.

If red wine: Similar to above, but with the added possibility of depicting a sense you have of there being more in life than your own ego, its worries and desires; a sense of sharing life. See: alcohol.

Hot water bottle: A real comfort if you feel cold and cannot give warmth. If it is cold then ‘cold comfort’ would apply.

Example: Some of the huge limitations that exist for most of us during physical life are to do with how small our range of sensory awareness is. We might feel almost as if our body is a bottle and we are encased in it; or that we are the bottle, separated in time and space from all other bottles. If the bottle is black we think we as a person are black. If the bottle is female we believe that fundamentally we are female. If the bottle is damaged, we may feel certain that as a person we too are inadequate in some way.

Example: I picked up a bottle marked Mr. Crisp – or so I thought – but I can’t quite read the name. Maybe it was Mrs. Crisp, or Mr. Christ, or something. It was a bottle of vitamin C, and said on the label that it was for inflamed or red eyes.

Example: Suddenly a bottle in the bag she was carrying the picnic lunch in, fell over and spilled a sticky brown liquid on the floor and on me. It was a large cider bottle. I tried to stand it upright. The bottle is the pouring out of your own soul, the love you find it hard to let pour out of you. Being sticky means you do not enjoy the feeling of this.

Idioms: bottle drive; bottle man; bottle up; chief cook and bottle washer; hit the bottle; new wine and old bottles; spin the bottle.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Is the bottle empty – if so what might it have held or what has been ‘poured out’?

Does the bottle contain anything – if so what do I associate with it?

Am I holding onto anything in myself that needs to come out?

Is there any indication or analogy with sex in my dream – is so what is it suggesting?

Try using Being the Person or Thing and LifeStream.