Posts Tagged ‘dreams’
Age Aged Ageing Ageless
The age of characters, family, animals, objects or yourself in a dream often carry very definite associations or information. What these associations are depends a great deal on what age you are yourself.
Idioms: Act your age; age of consent; age before beauty; ages since; an age; at an advanced age; at an awkward age; come of age; ripe old age; show ones age; under age.
In general:
ageing; Moving toward death; a sense of inevitability; an identification with the body rather than with the process of life; passing of ones opportunities offered by the younger phases of your life, but the opening to a new relationship with life given by the new period.
ageless; Depicts the core of you that does not suffer from change; the spiritual aspect of your experience; the changeless core of self which has lived throughout time.
baby or child; Refers to your feelings of dependence or vulnerability, perhaps even helplessness or powerlessness; but often it suggests need for love, support and care; it may even represent actual memories of your own baby/child/hood. The bay or child also depict newness, new opportunity, a fresh approach. See: baby; youth.
extreme old age; Feelings about death; old way of life; some influence in yourself or surroundings that antedates your birth. Influences from ones family such as attitudes or fears may be generations old, and so be depicted as incredibly ancient; often represents something holding a lot of wisdom or experience. One may therefore feel the person is holy or revered in such dreams.
middle aged person; represents achievement, maturity, the ageing process. The elderly person may depict feelings about ones parents or a parent/authority figure; the wisdom gathered from many years of living; the declining power or creativity, or the feelings of decline and loss within oneself. Such feelings are often simply cultural and are not a real reflection of what is possible or opportune at this time of life. It is a time when you have to create your own world and life more fully than in previous ‘ages’. See: individuation.
new object or thing; Something that is just appearing in your life, like a new romance or opportunity. But sometimes it represents something that is just a new idea, something that has not got any physical reality yet.
old fashioned; An old way of doing things; something established as compared with something new or emerging; something accepted socially; time tested but perhaps now out of date.
something or someone as old as yourself; Usually refers to yourself in some way. Dreams often include houses which were built about the period of ones birth, and so refer to ones own lifetime and what has become of you. Thus an object the same age as yourself would depict some aspect of your life, depending on the object.
teenager; often points to whatever difficulties you faced, or are facing, in the process of meeting sexual drives, adult relationships, and the need to become an independent and motivated part of society. Thus there may be feelings of uncertainty, shyness, inexperience or idealism suggested in the dream teenager.
very old thing; Either an early part of ones lifetime, such as babyhood, or something that happened in the past and because you have changed so radically, appears to be a very long time ago; or refers to things that influence you which are from a time before your own birth. We are all influenced by the culture we live in for instance, and that is very ancient. But could also be a family trait, or even an influence or vitalising motivation with which one was born, and which appears to have arisen from a
distant past; something that represent wisdom or deep experience. This wisdom is usually not yet defined. It needs to be made conscious by exploring the symbol. This can be revelatory in that we become aware of massive information gathered but never before made conscious.
young adult; Yourself at your physical peak; yourself at that age; that period of your life; the period of worldly opportunity.
If one is a child or youth: most adult figures would suggest either a parent or authority figure; the possibilities of ones own maturity; a role model, or a target for admiration or sexual attraction; perhaps even some form of security in love and being cared for.
If you are already past mid-life: the younger people in your dream in general depict that period of your life and what was learned or experienced at that age. The different age groups also represent the opportunities commonly associated with that age. For instance a sixty year old women who falls in love might say ‘I feel like a young girl again.’ Or one might say to a young person, ‘You’ve got an old head on your shoulders.’ It is in precisely this way that dreams use age to represent feelings and situations.
Example: I dreamt I was on a garden with an old man, a young boy and a young man in his thirties. The plot of land had something of the feeling of an allotment. It was well tended, and I had the sense the young man had been doing most of the work on it. The soil was rich but at the moment dry. A few shoots were just breaking the ground from hundreds of bulbs which had just started shooting.
The old man was kneeling at the edge of one end of the oblong plot of land. He was digging up bulbs one at a time and looking at them, then putting them back in the soil again. As the soil was dry he had to dig the hole a bit bigger to get them back. The bulbs had good roots and the shoots were firm. I was agitated about the old man digging them up though, and felt he should let them be. This seemed to link with my own propensity to dig up seeds when I was younger, to see if they had germinated.
The young boy was simply watching and was quite shadowy. The younger man was getting on with whatever work he was doing. I spoke to him after leaving the old man. Henry G.
Henry, the dreamer is a man in his late fifties. He explored his dream and summarised what he realised as follows:
In connecting with the feelings in the dream the different aged males are all facets of myself. The old man is my own sense of ageing, and the feeling of dryness and being outside of the opportunities that I associate with those younger than myself. My feeling that nothing is growing in my life makes me want to dig under the surface of things to see if there are any new things that might arise. The younger man is the active and creative period of my life during which I did in fact ‘sow a lot of seeds’ which are now emerging into reality. The boy is my impatience but also the aspect of myself from which new ideas and directions can emerge.
He is that part of me which is still growing, like the bulbs. The garden is my soul/soil. It is all the work I have done to cultivate skills and attributes in myself and create things in the world. What is important is that even though I am in my fifties, these younger parts were skills and attributes I developed in the past and are still active in me today.
Example: Every night for the past six months at least, in my dream there is a baby. I seem to be neglecting the baby, i.e. I tell myself it is time I fed it or changed it etc., but the baby thrives in spite of my neglect. It is never the same baby – it looks different each time – but it seems quite content. Mrs. M. C.
Here the age of the baby reflects the level of feelings the dreamer is dealing with. The keyword is neglect. So Mrs. C. is being reminded by her dreams that she is neglecting either the needs arising from her own childhood emotional dependence or her need for warmth and love as a baby. The imagery of the dream suggest it is warmth and love she is not getting enough of, and most likely she didn’t get enough when she was actually a baby. That she is now a adult does not reduce the strength of her unfulfilled needs.
Example: I am in an unknown old building with unsafe floors. I vaguely feel it belongs to my long dead father. Around me are rats, which have young. I am hysterical because they keep multiplying. People with me, unknown, although my husband is there, I don’t seem to care about them. I usually wake shouting because one of the rats touches me. I am not frightened of rats when awake. Dorothy C.
The age of the building suggests there is some connection from a long time ago. The dream goes on to say the connection is with the long dead father. This is unclear because Dorothy has not yet made it conscious what the fear is that arose in herself from her relationship with her father.
Example: ‘I am packing for a holiday, surrounded by a lovely selection of all sorts of clothes. I am matching outfits, shoes, scarves, handbags to match. It gives me great pleasure. I am wearing an old navy blue dress which is too short for me. So short I feel panic because there will not be enough time to change. I am now on the top deck of a bus. I have one battered suitcase and am wearing the same dress, trying vainly to pull it down over my knees. Suitcase bursts open and it is full of old clothes fit for a jumble sale.’ Valerie H.
Example: From Dream Power by Ann Faraday page 163. I was being presented to a Persian king in the grounds of his palace. As we talked a group of happy, laughing young girls came into the garden, followed by a rather sad looking middle aged woman who I thought must be the King’s chief wife. This woman was obviously in charge of the harem and was sad, I felt, because the king no longer wanted her sexually and had relegated her to the role of household organiser. One of the girls came to Sally and said, ‘Don’t you recognise me? We were together in a previous incarnation’.
Ann Faraday’s comments on the dream are that she realised the king represented her husband, and she was the chief wife. This led her to realise that in the early years of their marriage there had been much joy in their sexual relationship. This had faded in the years preceding the dream, and they had grown apart sexually. The middle aged woman therefore represents her own sadness through feeling past her prime and unattractive. Such feelings do not mean she is actually unattractive, only that she feels she is.
See: age and dream; adolescent; baby; boy; girl; daughter; age and your dreams; ancient.
Idioms: Act your age; age of consent; age before beauty; ages since; an age; at an advanced age; at an awkward age; come of age; ripe old age; show ones age; under age.
Useful questions are:
What does the particular age represent to me?
Does this signify particular aspects of the age?
What were the main events or features of my life at that age?
Does this dream highlight special aspects of the thing or person. If so what are they?
Is there a difference between what I think about.
It might help if you use Processing Dreams.
Agenda
Things you want to do, or feel you out to do; feelings about your future; plans. The dream agenda may have arisen not because of your conscious decisions, but perhaps what your inner self knows would be useful to do.
The agenda could be there because you are deeply influenced by another person’s needs or decisions.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What is your present ‘agenda’ and how does it relate to the dream?
What is the dream showing as things you plan to do or be?
If this is someone else’s agenda, how much are you involved in fulfilling their needs?
Try using Talking As and also Processing Dreams to help find the meaning of your dream.
Aggression-Aggressiveness
Aggressive feelings are one of the main expressions of our energy, along with sex, ambition and survival. Generally speaking, it is not wise to hold them back even though they are in an awful and destructive phase. Wherever possible it helps to seek a more satisfying and constructive expression for them – beating a pillow with a rolled up newspaper for instance, while allowing your feelings to vent.
Many aggressive or hostile feelings arise from childhood experiences, and are, at their origin, directed toward one or both of our parents. But unfortunately in adult life they tend to fire toward someone we have an emotional link with, such as our partner or even ones child.
It often happens that held back sexual impulses turn to aggressive actions or intentions.
Perhaps you live in an environment where violence is a part of life, if so please read Dream Yoga.
It is fascinating to see how our cultural background stimulates or diminishes aggression. In his book The Dreaming Mind Robert van de Castle says, “During my eight visits among the Cunas, I never saw a child hit or heard one severely scolded. Nor did I ever see a young child on the ground, because the child was always being held on someone’s hip or sitting in someone’s lap. Such indulgence produced a secure and confident child who felt extremely accepted by every member of the tribe. As a consequence, there was an almost total absence of competition, rivalry, or Cuna-to-Cuna aggression in the dreams of Cuna adolescents. The aggressors in Cuna dreams consisted of the Panamanian National Guard, evil spirits, animals, and foreigners. By way of contrast, almost half of all American adolescent dreams involve aggression and it is generally with other Americans. (Kuna or Cuna is the name of an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia.)
We might displace our aggression in our dreams by dreaming that instead of killing our boss, we might dream that our employer’s automobile is crushed by a runaway garbage truck.
If you are aggressive in a dream it is most likely showing you your own aggressiveness, and will point out where it stems from. Is it from being ignored, given wrong goods and wrong price, being treated like a nobody or a fool, being lied to?
If you are the victim of aggression in your dreams ask yourself whether there is a part of your own nature which as directed anger inwardly instead of expressing it. Also look to see if there is a situation in your family, or in work that is threatening you – is so take steps to alter it.
Example: Lenox Lewis the boxer plus another man also a famous boxer were having a competition as to who was the strongest. Yet they were not fighting just moving boxes with pictures or building blocks around. You could see that they were very frustrated by the way they were lifting these boxes, attempting to utilise their strength. The feeling was that some do-gooder was trying to show that men who used aggression could turn this energy to something more constructive, such as, what set of blocks compliment each other or what large piece of jigsaw puzzle fits in what place. I could see the intention that the creator of this idea was trying to achieve. This was a way of turning raw energy and aggression into an intellectual and creative skills, still with a competitive spirit. Yet the whole concept was spoilt by such a childish approach. The mind that had dreamt the idea up had very little if any sense of his or her animal nature.
An interesting dream because it tries to solve the problem about the dreamer’s aggression, but it doesn’t take into account his animal tendencies. See Reptile and Mammal Brain in Humans.
Example: I was attending an adult class with about 20 or 30 people, mostly men. The teacher came in. He said something and a man asked a question or spoke back. The teacher got really angry and hit him with a walking stick. Someone else in the class remarked on the beating and was attacked also. A man sitting next to me on my left said that if the teacher hit him he wouldn’t sit and take it.
But as the second man was hit, my companion said something like – Bloody hell. The teacher landed two mighty blows on his arse, but he didn’t move. I said in horror “Good God!” whereupon the teacher moved to hit me. I stood up and said, “If you hit me with that thing I’ll whack you in the fucking ear.” I felt keyed up and ready to fight. He backed off and threatened to get the headmaster on me. I told him to try it. He said if I could do better try it. So I took over the class and it went really well. Then I seemed to be witnessing a young man making love with a girl in a room. A teacher burst into the room and got angry at the couple. The young man was not at all cowed. He said, “You burst into a private room without knocking. We happen to be adults. I want an apology.” The teacher was silent for a time then apologised. The young man said, “Thank you sir. I am proud to acknowledge you as my teacher.”
The dreamer was a man in his forties, and the dream, when he explored it was about the sort of violence he witnessed at school. It shows how he felt and what he wanted to do, to stand up for himself for taking such heavy blows – but at the time lived in the belief that it was normal. But he was now seeing it from a different viewpoint, and handled it very well. As you can see, you do not have to cower to aggressors in your dreams. See Dream Yoga.
Here is part of an interview with Stanislav Grof that is very interesting.
Jerry Snider: What about our current cultural period? The social climate today has a feeling of hopelessness, of being trapped. People have lost faith in most of our institutions, especially our political institutions. In our urban populations, the rampant crime keeps people feeling trapped. Are we in any single classic stage?
Stanislav Grof: Yes. Many people who have these inner experiences, take a larger look and see that we have now enacted in our world a lot of the elements you would encounter internally when you are in a transformation process. For example, you would encounter tremendous unleashing of aggression. You would confront destructive and self-destructive tendencies within yourself if you have an inner experience. There is also a liberation of repressed sexuality. This has been happening for years. Just about every aspect of sexual behaviour has been openly presented in the media. There are all kinds of very unusual sexual experiments such as S&M parlours, sexual slave markets, fist fucking – all these things have sprung up. So the sexual impulse is sort of being released and acted out, and also the aggressive. There is an increase not only in criminality but in terrorism as well, all over the world. Then you have satanic elements emerging from the collective unconscious. The deep levels of the psyche are now being ventilated.”
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is the anger in the dream directed toward me or someone else?
If it’s toward me, am I dealing here with anger in myself I am not recognising, or am I sensing the anger in someone I know?
Am I frightened of expressing anger or hostility?
Can I allow a safer expression of my anger?
It may be useful to use Carry the Dream Forward and us Processing Dreams. See: hostility.
It can help to deal with anger and aggression by using The Cushion Technique.
Agile
This shows you coping well with what life is confronting you with, and having adaptability or mental quickness.
If it is someone else who is agile it might still refer to you, as your dreams often use other people to illustrate some of your own strengths and weaknesses. See: movement; postures movement and body language.
Agility in your dreams can mean that you are mastering the ability to use all the movements, postures, gymnastics of dreams. In other words you can change from being in a body or out of it, you can meet and deal with images of fear and anger; you can fly into the awareness of greatness and genius, you have become a master in the realms of death. See: movement; postures movement and body language.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Is the agility accomplishing anything, and if so what does that suggest in my waking life?
What does the dream suggest I need to be agile in connection with?
Does this in any way show me needing to be more flexible about something – work – a relationship?
Depending on what you are doing it might help if you use to explore your dream.
To be really agile in your dreams you need to practice a form or Dream Yoga. There is a short version Here and the long version Here.
Agoraphobia
As with fear of falling, this may represent an actual fear. But as a symbol it means a fear of being exposed, of being seen, of possible attack, and of having nothing to hide behind or under. In general it is about anxiety. See: Anxiety.
Useful questions are:
What is it I am afraid of if I am in the open?
What might happen if I am exposed?
Is the fundamental fear that of death or something else?
Agreement
A harmony of previously unreconciled opinions, emotions, beliefs, etc. It is important to clarify what is being agreed in the dream, and what you feel you know about this.
Agreement or lack of it in dreams shows how easily or otherwise you relate to or work with others. It is worth considering how this reflects on your daily life.
Useful questions are:
Am I agreeing to be polite or do I really feel it?
Does the agreement lead to doing something together of parting ways, and what does this suggest in your waking life?
Is this agreement about an important decisions – if so what is it suggesting about my waking decisions?
Aim
Suggests directing attention desire or emotions toward what is represented by target or goal. Motivating toward something or the power of intention.
Edgar Cayce said that, “Mind is the builder” and so whatever you aim for or strive toward becomes real if you work at it
Aimless: Undecided; conflict; loss of pleasure or what gives pleasure and meaning to life; unacknowledged pain defeating pleasure and motivation; fear. But also it can be about trusting Life to guide you, and not being possessed by ambition and a way of life that constricts you.
Being aimed at: Feeling a target, perhaps of other people’s criticism or attack.
Being the target: Feeling as if you are being criticised or attacked.
Gun or weapon being aimed: Directing or directed anger or serious threat, sexuality or attention.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What am I aiming at?
Does this imply a goal or other important target?
Do I feel criticism or threats are being aimed at me?
Do I know what I am aiming at?
Get a fuller understanding by using Acting on Your Dream.
Air
Dreams use air in two ways. The first depicts the sort of feelings we have if we have ever struggled to breathe through illness or danger. So the lack of air could show a struggle you are having to survive in the present situation.
Air is the tangible opposite to physical life. In most dreams any mention of air is in regard to flying and ones ease or effort to do so. Therefore the air depicts the medium in which we express the pleasure or difficulty of flying. In these dreams the air probably represents the invisible but felt social atmosphere within which we unconsciously exist and strive. Therefore occasionally a dream shows the dreamer losing the air – wind out of the sails – that sustains their flight, suggesting a loss of the support usually gained from public or individual acceptance or approval, or ones own confidence. When we talk about ?clearing the atmosphere? – or there being ?something in the air? this is precisely what dreams of air often refer to.
In far fewer dreams air is mentioned in connection with breathing, as in the example, and depicts, in its absence, a fear of not surviving in connection with what one is facing at the time. In other words a strong sense of being overwhelmed by anxiety or some invading influence, or struggling to survive. See: breath; wind.
Floating on air: relates to ones mind and mental attitude, idealism or lack of it. This may show how we manage to escape from ‘reality’, or painful things such as shyness, by thinking beautiful thoughts, or creating a mental world inside ourselves through meditation. In a positive sense this shows an ability to change your state of mind at will.
Fresh air: Fresh ideas; new approach; mental attitude in which you can feel more alive or creative; an easy ‘atmosphere’ in which to survive.
Poisonous air: Ideas or atmosphere in which you find yourself losing your own identity or deepest motivations; a killing of your own vitality.
Something appearing out of the air: Intuitive perception.
Stuffy air: Mental emotional or social atmosphere in which you are not stimulated or free to think creative or individual thoughts; atmosphere of moral rigidity in which it is difficult to ?breathe?.
Idioms: Free as air; up in the air; light as air; a breathe of fresh air; in the air; a lot of hot air; the air was blue; clear the air; into thin air; put on airs; up in the air.
Example: I am in a cot and suddenly the bottom falls out and I find I am under water – I do not feel the wetness or the cold, I just know I am under water and must not breathe. I cannot hold my breath any longer and gasp for air – still under water – and am surprised I can breathe perfectly normally. Mrs. A. P.
Example: Gliding from a mountain top. Then I am with Pat Brown, a girl friend I knew at school. I am lying on top of her holding her breasts. Then I am led into rooms but avoiding them each time as I felt some sort of trap and threatened imprisonment. To avoid being caught I take a deep breath and this caused me to fly up into the air and away.
The first example illustrates the connection between breath hold and dealing with anxiety. The second shows how flying into the air is an escape mechanism.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Am I afraid of not surviving a situation, or losing support?
What is it I sense ‘in the air’ or atmosphere?
What is my relationship with the environment I am in?
Do the specific events or actions in the dream give a clue to what I am dealing with?
Am I escaping into airy feelings?
Do you problems with breathing, if so see The Slow Breath and The Breath of Life.
Use Acting on Your Dream to define what your dream is about.
Air Conditioner Conditioning
Perhaps ones lungs; methods or techniques you use to ‘cool down’ or calm your feelings or ‘blood pressure’, so a way of dealing with stress; relief. Ways you use to ‘clear the air’ in a disagreement or relationship.
This I believe obviously links with breathing and may be about the air we breath and its quality. See Breathing
Example: They carry me through the window to my basement room I shared with another woman who talks about her boyfriend. Then it is hard to breathe. Oh, I hear a motor and we guess it’s a VW bug or bus and it’s an old man’s wheelchair. Then it’s hard to breathe and we see yellow thin strips of confetti-like stuff all in the air and we are breathing it in. It is in the air conditioning so we all get up and go outside where it is a hot summer night.
But the media has shown other associated ideas we may have with air conditioning. Because air conditioning draws air from outside it may be illustrating that in some way. Also all rooms are linked and so it is often shown how people can get into someone else room/life; or even discover otherwise secret areas of oneself or an escape route.
Example: A couple of years ago I lived in an apartment on the second floor. A skunk had a made its nest on the ground outside, directly below the bedroom window. In the summer in Los Angeles with no air conditioning and the windows open, there were some terrible nights. That’s the only skunk experience I have had and it was pretty bad.
If felt as cold: Something causing emotional withdrawal or coldness. See: air.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What is the air conditioner doing, and how does this relate to you?
If the air conditioner is malfunctioning what does this suggest in your daily life?
If you stand in the role of the air conditioner, what do you arrive at?
Do you problems with breathing, if so see The Slow Breath and The Breath of Life.
For help understanding your dream see Acting on Your Dream.
Aircraft
See: Aeroplane
Airplane Plane
The plane in your dream shows all the amazing possibilities of change, of varied experience, of romance, business and discovery in life today. But it also holds all the possibilities of failure, of not being able to get your projects or relationship off the ground, along with delays, unexpected threats, and the possible tragedy and loss you might meet in life. Your dream airplane communicates this in the action your dream portrays. The plane journey, for instance, suggests a change in your life, leaving your ordinary affairs behind. It is a journey into the unknown, into taking risks. Perhaps you are making a move toward, or away from, love and opportunity. It is risky because the plane can fall from the sky, and you can meet feelings of failure or despair.
A plane can also attack, and this shows fears, anxiety about being exposed to attack from other people or events. This does not mean you will be attacked, only that you fear it.
To climb aboard a plane is to embark upon dramatic movement from one way of life, or one situation in life, to another; a leap into the unknown, into chance – so it is a powerful symbol of change. Perhaps that flight into chance, into life and its mysterious possibilities might be okay. But it might fall from the sky too. Meanwhile, on the plane you will not have your feet on the ground, you will not be secure, everything is ‘up in the air’. The plans, the love, the hopes and efforts might die, might lead to tragedy with all its rippling effects moving into the web of relationships and events connected with the flight of the plane.
In exploring a dream about a plane crash it took a long time to really connect with anything, but when I did the feelings were all about how there has been a crash of my dreams, ambitions, desire for love and the heightened feelings that arose or ‘took off’ in connection with a lover. In comments on planes above I say, “The plans, the love, the hopes and efforts might die, might lead to tragedy with all its rippling effects moving into the web of relationships and events connected with the flight of the plane.” This was true in my life.
An attacking aircraft: Feeling attacked either by your own doubts and self criticism, or that of others.
Being grounded: Sense of not getting anywhere and frustration; plans and hopes that haven’t connected with achievement or opportunity – maybe this isn’t the right time yet.
Biplane: It can represent a more full contact with flying in a plane, and needs a lot more courage to do.
Example: “I saw a biplane fly overhead. Its pilot was performing daring new stunts. I ran into a house to tell a man who was in bed to run out and see the plane. ” David R.
The example clearly shows one aspect of what a biplane means, being daring in a new area, taking risks in life, braving a new work area or relationship.
Difficulty landing: Difficulty achieving goal or making it real in a down to earth way; anxiety about where life events are taking you; feeling out of control or not being in control; difficulties or fears about being in someone else’s hands.
Falling out of plane: Usually anxiety, sometimes about death or failure of high hopes. It is also the opportunity to fly if you can overcome your anxieties.
Flight attendant: A part of you trained in dealing with personal problems, and also emergencies.
Pilot: The pilot is a part of you used to having a much wider and inclusive view of where you are going in your life, so trust their help.
Plane falling rapidly: ‘Pit’ feeling in stomach that one gets when feeling anxiety about the outcome of a situation; sense of failure or guilt; apprehension about the future of a project or direction; anxiety about something.
Plane journey: The plane is also a means of leaving things behind, rising above or finding a way of escaping difficulties or the past. It is a way we move beyond the limitations of any one locality, racial customs, family attitudes or religious environments. It is the power of the mind to move among and learn from or experience these many states of being. It offers a much wider or more inclusive view of where you are and where you are going in life.
Private plane: Ones personal activities and plans not deeply connected with other people.
The crashed or wrecked plane: Worry about failing. Can be anxiety bringing down your ambition or adventurousness; a loss of self confidence or mental equilibrium; warning about a business project; broken dreams and hopes. Sometimes shows or refers to a break up in a relationship or a failed endeavour, a hope, a journey that fails.
Watching a plane crash: A sense of emergency; feeling you are aware of an important social or national event. Sensing something difficult happening or having happened in your life, like a divorce or loss of business or love for instance. Can sometimes relate to childhood traumas that make it difficult for you to get your life taking flight.
The plane journey: Shows a move toward independence; leaving home or friends; success.
Watching a plane land safely: The arrival back to oneself of the actions, words and energies sent out into the world. As a simple example, we may have a carpet to give away because we are moving. We tell a neighbour who passes the information to someone else. This new person wants the carpet. A completely new person therefore lands, or arrives in our life. The landing plane may also mean coming down to earth again, or making something more applicable in an everyday sense.
The example below clearly shows one aspect of what a plane means, being daring in a new area, taking risks in life, braving a new work area or relationship. David is calling on a part of himself that is withdrawn and inactive to ‘get up’ and be involved in something daring. Sometimes the plane in the sky represents feeling threatened by something new or unknown. This is shown in the second example.
Example: I saw a biplane fly overhead. Its pilot was performing daring new stunts. I ran into a house to tell a man who was in bed to run out and see the plane. David R.
Example: A woman who was a radio researcher was offered the job of presenter. She was thrilled but dreamt she was in a road walking and planes flew overhead dropping bombs and shooting. She had to dive into a ditch to avoid being killed. When she explored the dream she realised she was afraid of facing the public directly, and this fear if left unconscious would have caused her to refuse the job. She accepted the fear and managed to press forward with the job.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Am I taking a ‘flight’ into a new or challenging situation or relationship?
What am I leaving behind or arriving at?
Are there radical shifts of life style I am involved in?
Do some events in my life feel like a ‘plane crash’?
It helps to read this Dreams Are Virtual Realities and also Processing Dreams and Acting on Your Dream.
Airport
Refers to making new departures; changes, hoped for or real; desire or need for adventure. This could be mentally, emotionally or sexually; achieving goals; being en-route to something, or something new in life; a checking of one’s own values, identity, a sort of self assessment in regard to independence and moving to new opportunities. Self doubts and uncertainties at this stage stop us from attempting the new; occasionally the departure point for ‘higher planes’; considering that a flight might take us to new places, opportunities or relationships, the airport can represent a terminus or change in connection with any of these.
This could be mentally, emotionally or sexually; achieving goals; being en-route to something, or something new in life; a checking of one’s own values, identity, a sort of self assessment in regard to independence and moving to new opportunities. Self doubts and uncertainties at this stage stop us from attempting the new; occasionally the departure point for ‘higher planes’; considering that a flight might take us to new places, opportunities or relationships, the airport can represent a terminus or change in connection with any of these.
Landing at airport: Meeting a new experience; arriving at a goal or ambition; coming down to earth after being involved in flights of fancy, creativity or change.
Missing a flight at airport: Feeling anxious about plans not working out, or failing to meet deadline; lost opportunity; warning that you are cutting things fine and might actually miss a plane, etc.
Picking someone up from airport: Meeting a change in your life; something arriving in your opportunities or experience that is out of the normal day to day events or routine.
If it is someone you know: it suggests a greater alliance with the aspect of yourself suggested by the person, or perhaps an alliance with that person.
Planning airport stops: Clarifying strategy for a goal you wish to reach, or change you are attempting to make.
Difficulties in realising: The route suggest things you sense stand in the way of realisation of goal. Stranded or delayed at airport:
Difficulties with changes going on; anxiety about changes.
Trying to get to airport: Attempting a change or to get to a goal; moving toward a new departure, or a change from the usual routine – unless flights are part of your usual routine.
See: aeroplane; foreign countries.
Useful Questions and Hints:
Where am I trying to arrive at in life?
Am I trying to escape or ‘fly/flee’ from something?
Is my present situation new territory or ‘foreign’ country to me?
What risks am I taking at the moment?
See Processing Dreams for help.
Air Raid
Feeling under attack, the severity depending on the dream damage. The attack might be emotional from people, or feelings we have about events around us. Things may be going badly at work, and comments be felt like bombshells. Very often though, the threats are purely emotional/mental. We may read of an illness such as AIDS and the anxiety we connect with the idea has a devastating effect.
Example: ‘I am in a house and planes are dropping bombs on it.’ Mrs S. M.
Example: I was in a room with my aunt and uncle. It was dark outside and there was some kind of air raid going on with glowing missiles flying through the sky. I was terrified and tried to draw the red curtain across the window to block them out. The window was a right angle shaped one in the corner of the room. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t cover the whole window. As fast as I pulled the curtain across, the other end would be exposed, showing the missiles. I was becoming more and more frantic and my aunt and uncle just sat at the table playing cards, completely unperturbed and indifferent to my fear. D. K.
This dream from a girl in her teens clearly shows how she is dealing with her fears concerning the world. Her distress is even more intense because the fears of external threats which appear very real to her, are totally ignored by her family. The curtains depict how much she tries to shut these feelings out of her mind, and how unsuccessful this is. The dream is probably dealing with her difficulties in facing life as an adult, and the demands it may place upon her.
Idioms: I feel blitzed; it come as a bombshell; go down like a bomb; go like a bomb; put a bomb under someone; earn a bomb. See: aeroplane; war.
Useful Questions and Hints:
What in my external life am I feeling threatened by?
Are things happening out of the blue that I feel threatened by?
Am I facing new things that I am still learning to deal with?
Can I put a name or situation to what threatens me?
You can gradually change any fear of anxiety you feel by using Carry the Dream Forward.
Air-Sea Rescue
To be rescued from the sea depicts a situation in which you are at the mercy of powerful natural forces – perhaps strong spontaneous emotions or fear – that you are not dealing with well, otherwise you would not need to be rescued.
Even if it is someone else rescued in most cases it still points to an aspect of you that needs help. This may refer to a difficulty in dealing with the demands of life generally, and a dangerous attraction to giving up, losing your identity as you withdraw inwardly. If you are seeing or actively helping in an air sea rescue, this suggests an action to deal with feelings that might otherwise engulf you or someone else. In this case it is showing what strengths or techniques you use to deal with difficulties and challenges. See: Sea.
Useful questions:
What powerful emotions or changes am I dealing with?
Am I feeling overwhelmed by something?
Can I define the strengths and ways I use to deal with threatening feelings?
Do I feel as if I am ‘drowning’ in a situation or relationship?
You can use Carry the Dream Forward to gradually change what you feel.
Aisle
The aisle as a part of a building or plane, represents the way between opposites; a way through. If you are in the aisle it suggests possibilities of being in public view if there are people about; moving between opposites; the experience of connection with other people, or being connected by a common purpose or link. Sitting near an aisle suggests you can get out of the connection with other people more easily, or are more open to whoever or whatever is in the aisle or what it is leading to or connected with.
The aisle often appears in dreams about marriage, and in such dreams probably depicts the powerful social and personal feelings and expectations connected with an approach to the decision making and commitment of marriage. It therefore might indicate the pressures holding you in that place. See: corridor.
Useful questions:
Where is this aisle leading, or what does it connect with?
What do my actions or feelings here suggest?
What is my relationship with the aisle?
Am I connecting with someone, and if so what does this suggest about my waking relationship with that person?
Alchemist
The magical and transformative aspect of mental and emotional action within you. The alchemist depicts the ability you have to transform your feelings, and in fact your nature, by changing your own experience and body. Mostly we do this unconsciously by changing our surroundings when we feel down, or perhaps reading a book or going to the movies. But the alchemist is about taking over the process consciously.
The symbol particularly points to the ability to change what you consider useless, painful or worthless, into something of great value. This links with the process in you that can present childhood trauma or negative family attitudes, and in doing so transform them into insight and useful energy.
Useful questions:
Am I aware of how I allow or work with this influence in my life?
What can I do to increase the power of this transforming influence?
Why am I dreaming of this at the moment?
What is it in myself or life that needs transforming?
Is somebody I know a transforming influence in my life?
See: alchemist archetype.