Posts Tagged ‘dream interpretation’

Dreaming of Houses

Exploring how a house becomes a symbol.

In order for a house to exist, it had to have begun as a thought in the mind of a human being; it was an idea before it was an object. This is a great place to begin when we are defining the symbolic meaning of a physical, man-made item.

Imagine our ancient ancestors wandering the earth without a house. Why might they create a house? Perhaps they are lying under the stars and a huge animal attacks them. After fending off the beast, they think, “Ugh! Me need to keep beast out.  Me need to stack stones.  Me call it wall!”

While overly simplified, the scenario above could have been the first thought about a house – ever. An ordered series of thoughts would be required to bring that house into being. Something such as the following:

• What can I use to build a wall?
• How can I make it strong enough to withstand a beast?
• Can I do it with only my hands or will I need a tool?

The necessary tools may then be created, after they are imagined up, of course. Perhaps the tools began as simple chopping and carving tools, but they sufficed to build a simple house.

From then on, a house was no longer a thought in someone’s mind, it had become real; it existed.

The Birth of the Symbolism

We build a house around us for our safety, our protection, and our relief from the elements, among other things. Doesn’t it then stand to reason that when we dream of a house, it is our shelter from the storms of life; our protection from predators?

Although we don’t often stop to think about it in our fast-paced world, our hearts and our souls and our minds need protection as well as our bodies. After all, they are the true creators of our lives. As a house protects our physical body, a house in our dreams provides shelter for who we are inside. This is why it is a symbol for the self.

More Symbolism

Rooms in a house represent different parts of you. When you find yourself opening a door into a wonderfully amazing room, realize that you are opening a door into a part of yourself.

When you see a room that’s really messy, realize that it too is a part of who you are; where your inner thoughts and feelings are messy.

Sometimes the house you’re dreaming of actually represents someone else. Perhaps you’re at a friend’s house and having a wonderful visit. You note all the things you like and dislike about their house. In this case, the house in your dream would represent your friend or how you feel about your friend.

In some way, shape, or form the house in your dream is showing you some interaction that you are having with the world around you. On a completely “self” level it would represent how you are personally thinking and feeling about something.

Dream Phenomena and Remote Viewing

Perhaps you are remote viewing inside someone else’s house?

As an example: I was telling my best friend that I had a dream about her in which she was in her closet and there were extension cords and hangers and lights. I told her that her husband yelled something up the stairs to her.

She told me that all of those things actually happened that night. It was like I was in her house “seeing” what they were doing, even if only for a few minutes.

The only way to know if you are doing this is by speaking about your dream experiences. My advice is to share your dream with the person to find out if you were visiting them while you were dreaming.

Additional Notes

I’d like to end by letting you know I have a few posts and dictionary entries you may find helpful in understanding the symbolic meaning of the clues in your dreams with reference to a house.

Are you in the bathroom?

Are you opening a door or sitting in a closet?

A house is also a building.

If you were eating in the dream, you may want to see my post on food.

Did any of the following appear in the dream: kitchen, living room, cooking, eating or laundry?  If so, check out their meanings in my Dream Dictionary.

Squirrels in Dreams: Interpreting their meaning.

So, a squirrel came scampering into your dream world! What could the little guy be trying to tell you? I’ll cover what many people think about when they dream about squirrels; these are “universal definitions.”

Universal Definitions for Squirrels

A Squirrel’s Job: Preparing for winter.

The way squirrels prepare for the lean times ahead is something they are famous for. This is usually the way in which we use a squirrel symbol in our dream; to let us know we need to be prepared for a rainy day when things aren’t as abundant.

Squirrels are constantly finding and burying food for the winter ahead. This is their way to ensure they have plenty to get them through the hard times. The message is to do the necessary work and be prepared. For example:

A squirrel in your dreams could be about stocking the pantry with food or saving money for an emergency.

It could be about being prepared for your retirement. Have you buried enough to ensure your survival? Will you be prepared for a lean time ahead?

A squirrel in your dream could also be telling you to prepare yourself emotionally for a hard time to come. You could have plenty of money and food, but may have neglected other things, such as your physical or spiritual health.

Squirreling it away:

The old expression “squirreling it away” means “saving it for the future” or “hoarding it, little bits at a time, until it becomes something big.”

It’s easy to see how we can save physical things this way, but there are mental things that we hoard as well.

For instance:

A parent notices their child doing something really good, and instead of praising them at the moment, they wait for a time that seems more appropriate in order to praise them greatly. They were stockpiling the praise for a future time; “squirreling it away.”

You can substitute praise with anything else that doesn’t have a material value such as time and love.

Social-climbers:

Squirrels are social animals and they are climbers.

You could dream of a squirrel to mean climbing the corporate ladder.

You could dream of a squirrel to show how you feel about a particular person who wants to be associated with a certain crowd. You’d see this person as a social-climber.

To send a warning:

Squirrels will warn each other of danger. Is there an area of your life where you feel a warning is necessary?

Digging something up:

Squirrels always seem to be digging something up!

What are you digging up and finding out about?

Are you digging up something good to nourish your body or mind; something fruitful?

Are you digging up something bad; rehashing old thoughts; “digging up bones?”

A squirrel as a nut association:

Everyone knows squirrels love nuts, as strange as this may sound, you could be using the squirrel in your dream to represent a person you know who loves nuts. An unconscious thought in your head might be; that person loves nuts so much they remind me of a squirrel!

There is also the classic “nut” as slang. When someone calls you a nut, they generally mean you’re crazy. This could be used in a negative or positive manner.

Positive

A friend is generally over-the-top and outgoing, so you say, “I can’t believe you just did that; you’re such a nut,” to them all the time. If you see a squirrel doing back flips in your dream and generally acting “nutty”, it could be used to remind you of this person.

Negative

A friend needs committed to an insane asylum or “nuthouse.”  If you think negatively about squirrels, perhaps the squirrel in your dream is your insane friend.

A squirrel to a hunter:

Squirrels are abundant game animals. A squirrel in a dream could be about food.

A lot of you are saying “yuck”, but it is what it is. Dreams of squirrels to a hunter could be in anticipation of an upcoming hunting trip and a serving of squirrel pot pie.

An Example Dream

Last night I had a dream in which 2 squirrels were wrestling with a paper bag. They were really going at it, twirling around and around. The loud rustling of the bag was what first caught my attention. I moved closer to see what they were doing.

Just then a little grey squirrel’s foot poked thru the bag. There was a third squirrel inside! The two squirrels were helping the third get out of the bag. Then, they scampered off.

Determining what squirrel means in this dream:

My first thought about this dream was “who let the cat out of the bag?” But, it’s not a cat, it’s a squirrel. A squirrel is a rodent. When people “rat” on someone they’re usually telling a secret, so the message here is the same.

I thought to myself, “Does somebody have a secret that they want to let out? Are they hoarding this information away until they are ready to dig it up and use it?”

Then it hit me – I had recently learned of a work related secret. Two people, at the office tried to keep it to themselves, but a third person let it slip.  The two people were the two squirrels! After determining that the two “squirrels” in my dream were trying to hoard their secret, I realized that they weren’t trying to free the 3^rd squirrel from the bag, but instead were trying to contain their secret. The 3^rd squirrel poking its foot through the bag signified a third person letting the secret out.

This also takes in another meaning for the squirrel symbol; one of climbing (a corporate ladder). This secret involved a possible promotion for one of the squirrels, if they could keep a more qualified team member out of the loop.

I hope that my understanding of Squirrel as a symbol will help you when a squirrel climbs into your dreams.

As always, thanks for reading.

Creating a Dream Dictionary

Whenever you have a dream it is an opportunity to add every symbol in it to a dream dictionary. In part 3 of Dream Journaling, I guide you through the process of creating a dream symbol chart. That chart is a useful tool for creating your dream dictionary, so have it ready. Below, I will walk you through the steps to take when trying to define your dream symbols.

Learning how to work with an unknown symbol and define what it means to you:

Using a list of symbols, possibly from your dream symbol chart, pick one that you feel won’t be too hard to define.  Then, follow the steps below.

Step #1:

Ask the standard questions:

What is “the symbol”?

What does “the symbol” mean to you personally?

At this point you may understand how you’re using the symbol in your dream and be able to write your first entry in your dictionary. If so, jump to Step #4.

If not, continue to follow the steps below.

Step #2:

Research the symbol by looking it up in a dictionary, on the internet, in a book, etc.

Step #3:

Now that you understand this symbol better than you ever have before, you can examine the way you’re using it in your current dream.

Step #4:

Write your dream dictionary entry.

Choose a notebook or your computer for this purpose.

If you use a notebook, I suggest using the spiral kind and make a separate page for each entry. In this way you can insert new pages in alphabetical order whenever you choose.

I’ll go through the steps myself to show you how simple it can be.

I’ll use Water as my example symbol.

Step #1:

What is water?

It is essential to life. You need to drink water.

Without water you will die.

Water represents a key to life.

What does water mean to you personally?

I love the water. I love to swim.

I love sparkling clean water.

Represents happy times at the pool and the beach.

I am in awe of the vastness of the ocean.

I do not like water I cannot see through.

I fear things in the water that I cannot see.

Note: I didn’t have to go through steps 2 and 3, because I knew what the meaning of water was.  Had I not known, I would have researched, which is what steps 2 and 3 are about, and then hopefully come to the same conclusions that I have below in Step #4.

Step #4:

Your dream dictionary entry could look like this:

Water: Essential to life. A key to life. Without it you will die.

Water in a dream could represent life.

Clear water could speak about being able to see the things that are moving through your life. It could represent that childlike joy of seeing something in your life with clarity.

Water that you are unable to see through could speak of the inability to see things. It could also be about your fear of things you cannot see.

Continue the Process

Follow the steps above for each symbol that appears in your dreams and you’ll eventually have a substantial dream dictionary to pull from for assistance when interpreting and analyzing your dreams.

To get a feel for what your dream dictionary will look like, I have made my personal dictionary available for you – simply click here: Dream Dictionary. You can also find it in the navigation bar at the top of every page here at Dream Talker.

As always, thanks for reading!

Dream Dictionary Added

A few days ago I added a page to the navigation bar called Dream Dictionary.  It is an often updated copy of my own personal dream dictionary that I use when journaling my dreams.  I’ll be adding to that page quite frequently, and while it’s great for a short description about a symbol, it is also a link page to many previous posts where I’ve expanded upon some dream symbols.  I hope it comes in handy for you.

If you have a symbol that you’d like to see added to the dictionary, post a comment here or on that page and let me know.

As always, thanks for reading!

Fire in Dreams: Understanding the symbol.

Encountering Fire in a Dream

Fire generally signifies a burning away of something that you no longer need. This, in turn, makes way for something new to enter your life.

Fire transforms sand into glass and forest into ash. It is a “working” energy form. It signifies some type of transformation.

Fire is: flame, heat, light, burning, glowing, hot and/or blazing.

When fire is used for “cooking” it signifies that something is not yet ready to consume. When a particular trait is “cooking” inside of you, it means that it isn’t yet fully integrated as a part of you. The phrase, “What’s cooking?” means, “What’s happening? What’s going on?” Examine your dream for other clues as to what is cooking in your life.

Fire used as a source of heat in a dream is comparable to a children’s game where one child hides something and another tries to find it by listening to cues from their friend. If the child was walking away from the object, their friend would have said something like, “you’re way too cold.” And if the child was nearing the object, their friend might have said, “you’re getting hotter!” So, what does it mean to be hotter; to be closer to the flames? It means you’re closer to finding out whatever it is that is eluding you. When you’re coming to the heat of the fire, you are no longer left out in the cold.

Fire not only provides energy for cooking and a way of keeping warm, but also provides light by which to see – illumination. You can see your way through the darkness to whatever solution is available to you. A torch comes to mind here.

Fire, as heat, has certain slang interpretations attached to it:

• When someone is “hot” they’re really attractive or really angry.
• Having “the hots” for someone means there is a sexual attraction to that person.
• To go “up in flames” can mean failure or loss.
• The “heat is on” refers to being pursued.
• Things are really “heating up” or getting serious; more intense.

Any of these interpretations could also apply to your dream. You’ll want to keep in mind any ways in which you use fire as slang. If someone in your dream is on fire you could perceive them to be really angry or really sexy or a complete failure!

Fire can be an assertive energy.

Fire is also commonly associated with energy, assertiveness, and passion. When you are “on-fire” for something, you are zealous in pursuit of that cause.

Fire is also an element.

It is one of four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy: Fire, Air, Earth and Water.

• Air energy feeds a fire.
• Earth energy smothers a fire.
• Water energy douses a fire.

Are any of these other elements present in your dream?
For instance if you dream of water putting out your fire, you will want to think about who or what is dampening your enthusiasm in your awake life.

Fire can signify a sense of camaraderie.

Fire pits, communal fires or campfires are all good examples of this. Roasting marshmallows, cooking hotdogs on a stick, and singing songs by the fire are all fun and relaxing activities that strengthen bonds and foster camaraderie. The key point here is that they’re all possible because a fire is present.

Fire can be a symbol of transformation.

Fires of hell and eternal fires are those by which you are tested and tried. They may represent burning away the old and making way for the new.

The Phoenix (firebird) also represents transformation. Death by fire and a new phoenix is born from the ashes; burning away the old to make way for the new.

Astrologically: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius’ are fire signs.

A Fire Dream

I had a dream in which there was a fire at my parent’s house. It turned out that they were seriously considering selling the house. Eventually, they did sell it and moved to the mountains. The fire in my dream was the “burning away/getting rid of” the house. This whole process involved severing string ties; burning away of the old and making way for the new. They were also “on fire” about moving to the mountains; creating a passion inside themselves to experience something new. This is an example of fire energy at work.

All dreams are personal to each individual. You gave yourself this dream for a reason. The fire is a clue to something you are experiencing, or will experience in your life. My hope is that my thoughts on fire will help you understand this amazing, complex symbol better.

As always, thanks for reading!

Dream Journaling – Part 3

In part 2 of my ongoing blog series on journaling, I talked about how to record an entire dream. I gave some tips on how to stay in your dream and how to record your now-thoughts as you were journaling.

In part 3, I will be concentrating on separating your dream into the clues you give yourself in order to better understand your dream. Keep in mind that each symbol that you dream has a universal meaning as well as your own personal meaning to it.

You will begin this section with a completely written dream. You will need to separate each component, analyze them, and then put them all back together in a way that gives your dream the correct meaning. I use Dream Chart – 1, below, for this purpose.

Charting a Dream

The easiest way for me to explain how to do this is to give an example dream. This is a real dream that was given to me to analyze. You will simply substitute your own personal dream and follow the exact steps I am using.

The Dream as told to me:

I have titled this dream Zombie Swamp.

I am in a boat in a swamp. The boat is broken in two. A woman is in the other 1/2 of the boat. We come to a blockade of sticks and branches. There are bad guys. They resemble Night of the Living Dead zombies. I get out of the boat and start running. They chase me. The zombies transform into really fast little goblins when I start running. I use a maneuver I know – stop real quickly, then use my shoulder to fling them over me onto the ground using their own momentum. Stop, grab, and drop. I wake with my arm and shoulder killing me from flinging the goblin. I am the actor in the dream, performing the action.

Now chart the dream, as I did below, by separating it into the following categories.

Dream Chart – 1

When charting a dream, just as in writing your dream, an important thing to keep in mind is that every single thing in your dream means something. It’s in your dream for a reason. The more you work with your dreams and add to your personal dream dictionary, the more these symbols will make sense.

Examine the items from your chart. Write anything you know about each item. Use a dictionary when necessary.

1. What is a zombie? Basically, a dead thing that has life.
2. What is a swamp? A stagnant body of water.
3. A Boat? A means to travel through the swamp.
4. The woman could be personal or universal; universal meaning the other 1/2 of the self. The union of male/female representing wholeness.
5. Blockade of sticks and branches? A barrier. This actually reminds me of a dam, the kind that beavers make. A dam blocks the flow of water and could create a stagnant swamp. Water, universally, is life energy.
6. Stopping is the key to defeating the goblins — interesting clue. Is there something the dreamer needs to stop in order to create positive life-giving energy flow back in their life? The zombies have created a barrier to this positive energy flow.
7. Instead of cool, clear, running water, they have a stagnant swamp.

The key here is to figure out what the zombie represents in their awake-life.

The dream points in the right direction and further dream analysis may reveal how to “bring back clear, flowing water.”

Next, examine any current, past or future life situations to determine if the dream is about them. If anything leaps out at you, it could be the key you’re looking for.

The main life event that leaped out at me concerning the zombie dream was:

The dream was told to me during the dreamer’s 50th birthday party. Could it be about the thought of growing old?

Imagine that time, as in “aging over time”, is the zombie/goblin.

Using the chart above, I’ll analyze the dream picking out the most noticeable things first.

• The dreamer is performing the action. He is the actor. This is a clue that the dream is about him. See post Identity: Are you the actor or the watcher?
• The boat represents floating along.
• The swamp represents stagnation.
• The blockade represents the 50th birthday.
• The zombies represent how time slowly lumbers along.
• The goblins represent how time suddenly speeds up.
• The dreamer is feeling scared as he runs; it is scary how fast time moves.
• Running represents using a more personal energy, using his own legs, in running from the issue. (As opposed to floating along.)
• Flinging the goblin represents using personal energy to work on the issue.
• Stop, grab and drop; lay it out cold!

The message is, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could stop time?”

My Interpretation:

• The dreamer is running away from turning 50.
• Those time goblins are way too fast, he’s not going to get far!
• His answer, time’s not going to get the best of him.
• He has a few tricks from his youth up his sleeve.
• He’s going to stop, grab, and drop time in its tracks!

That’s not to say that there aren’t other interpretations for this dream.

The dream interpretation changes based upon what you determine the zombie/goblins to represent. In the above example I determined that the zombies represented time. They could represent a different worry that the dreamer was running from. Ultimately, the decision belongs to the dreamer, which is why I enjoy teaching how to interpret your own dreams using a dream dictionary that you personally create. I will be showing you how to write your own dream dictionary in a future post.

Analyzing A Dream – In Short

1. Begin with a completely written dream.

2. Give your dream a title if you haven’t already done so.

3. Chart the dream by separating it into the following categories:

• symbols
• actions
• thoughts
• feelings
• misc. (I use miscellaneous for those things I think are important yet don’t seem to fit into any of the categories.)
  

4. Examine the items you have listed on your chart and write anything you know about each item. Use a dictionary when necessary.

5. Examine any current life situations that may be relevant to the dream.

6. Interpret the dream, if possible, by fitting the dream clues in with a current, past, or future life situation.

Conclusion

When I first began studying my dreams, I read a lot of books trying to understand how the interpreter came to the conclusions they did concerning the meaning of a dream. I needed to know how they were analyzing the dream and coming up with their interpretation in order to understand the meaning of my own dreams. These journal posts, in fact this whole blog, is my way of trying to make available to you what wasn’t there for me. One of the most important tools for dream interpretation is the ability to understand your own personal symbols. My next post, creating your personal dream dictionary, should be very helpful with that.

Is there anything you’d like to see in future posts? Leave me a comment here or send me an e-mail at Dreamer@words2words.com.

As always, thanks for reading,

Michelle

Dream Journaling – Part 2

In part 1 of my on-going series of posts about dream journaling I talked briefly about how to remember your dreams and how to record them when you only have a few minutes. In part 2, I will be focusing on the best way to record an entire dream in order to have the most success at analyzing it.

Journaling an Entire Dream

The basic steps.

• Remember your dream.
• Find time to write it down.
• Write the date.
• Write the dream.
• Give it a title.
• Focus on writing only what is in the dream, and not what you are thinking at the present time.
• Think about where you were in the dream.
• Were you the actor performing the action or the watcher watching it? If you are unsure what identity you had, reference the post Identity: Are you the actor or the watcher?

Staying in the dream.

The best way for me to explain this is with an example.

Someone told me a dream. They mentioned something that happened while they were on vacation in the mountains the week before. I asked them if there were mountains in the dream. The answer was, “No.” I then asked them if they were on vacation in the dream.  Again a “no” answer. There was nothing in the dream that indicated it had anything to do with their vacation. I directed them back to their dream; asking what they were doing, thinking and feeling within the dream. It turns out that their dream was about a bear happily eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They associated bears with mountains then mountains with their vacation. They associated themselves away from the dream!

What happened in the example above is called free-association. We all have a tendency to do it. We need to overcome the habit in order to get to the true meaning of our dreams. Always redirect yourself back to the dream when you find that you are moving away in that manner. Stay in the dream.

A bear eating a sandwich in a dream could be about many things.

Things including but not limited to:

• Children or grandchildren
• Food
• Someone who loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• A need to go into hibernation
• A silly random happy thought
• Etc.

When you free associate away from the dream, you lose all of the opportunities to explore its true meaning.

How to stay in the dream.

The best way I know to do this is to ask the following questions:

• Was this action actually in my dream?
• Was this thought actually in my dream?
• Was this feeling actually in my dream?
• Was this object in my dream?

Teaching yourself how to stay in your dream will also teach you how to keep from free-associating away from it. They are inter-connected principles.

After you have mastered this, you can begin to record what I term now-thoughts.

Explanation of now-thought versus dream-thought.

You may be writing down a dream and you remember something that happened two days ago that could be meaningful. The fact that it popped into your head at the moment when you wrote down a particular part of your dream tells you that you need to pay attention to it. In order to keep it from being confused with your dream thoughts, feelings and happenings, you need to note that it is a now-thought. Simply write the words “now-thought” before you write the actual thought.

I stress over and over to only write what is in your dream, so why am I telling you how to incorporate your now-thoughts?

Once you’ve mastered the art of staying in the dream, then you can begin to incorporate now-thoughts when you’re writing. This will add more depth when it’s time to analyze your dream. When you begin to analyze the dream, you will decide whether the now-thoughts pertain to the meaning of the dream or lead you away from the dream. You can incorporate them into your analysis if relevant or discard them if irrelevant.

In part 3 of dream journaling I will discuss some steps that will help you find meaning in the dream you’ve just finished writing down! I will be discussing the clues you give yourself to help you understand the dream better. In the first paragraph of my blog post on Cars: Moving through dreams, I introduce dream clues, if you want to take a look.