Posts Tagged ‘Dream Symbols’

Reality Replayed: Dreaming without symbolism.

Always keep in mind that a dream dictionary defines the symbolic use of the things in your dreams. There is a way we dream that is simply reality replayed. In these instances the symbol would be what it represents in reality. A plate would be a plate, a kitchen would be a kitchen, and a donut would be a donut. Maybe you’re on a diet and you wanted a donut, so you dreamed of eating one! No symbolism was involved; simply a very enjoyable dream. These dreams do not need interpretation, they are what they are.

How to know the difference.

In a reality replayed dream, when you wake up, you will understand the dream and what it meant to you personally.

In a symbolic dream, in most cases, your dream will make no sense to you. This is the type of dream that needs interpretation. You were obviously making use of the symbolic meanings for the physical items in your dream.

Why do we dream in symbols?

Many people theorize that we do this when we aren’t consciously connected to the information. This implies that the language of the subconscious is one of a symbolic nature. Dreaming is only one medium through which the subconscious becomes conscious and in order to understand the information being sent, you need to learn the symbolic dream language.

A problem with the dream language is that it is personal to each individual, and may be hard to decipher.

I have written Dream Journaling posts to help you in your understanding of your personal dream symbols. Also, see my post on Creating a Dream Dictionary.

Does dream information come from any other source?

There are many dream things that defy explanation.  Some examples are:

• Dreaming an event that hasn’t yet taken place.
• Dreaming of an event that has taken place that you were physically unaware of.
• Remote viewing in dreams; spiritually traveling to a location which exists in physical reality and bringing back information while you’re dreaming.
• Talking to another person in your dreams and comparing notes the next day to find they talked to you too.
• Receiving information in a dream from someone who is deceased that you couldn’t otherwise have received.

In answering the question, “Does dream information come from any other source?”

I would have to answer, “Yes!”

Exploring these dream capabilities and how they could possibly work is something I find very exciting. How could they possibly come from your subconscious when they weren’t there to begin with? Where did they come from?

Although I love every aspect of dreaming, these unknowns are my favorite areas to ponder. Theory after theory abounds within my head as to why and how these things can occur! If you’re interested in anything of this sort, you can look forward to many more posts on them in the future.

Or, for more information on things of an unexplainable nature, see my posts in Dream Phenomena, or read an example dream near the end of my post Building.

As always, thanks for reading,

Michelle

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!

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!

Hospitals in Dreams: Our inner healers.

Hospitals are centers of healing. Very few people really want to go into the hospital, yet knowing the hospital is there for you when you need it, is a sense of comfort. You are truly not alone in your distress. The emergency room is there for you, the surgical unit can remove your bad appendix. There are doctors and nurses who will care for you, who will diagnose your illnesses and prescribe a treatment that will hopefully make you feel better.

Hospitals are centers of birth. New life begins in the capable hands of the doctors and nurses in the maternity ward. When things aren’t proceeding so well, they are there to guide you, to give comfort in whatever way they can, and even to cut you if it will make the delivery easier. Amazing, isn’t it?

The hospital also has a morgue. Death is alive there. In life there is death. When your body can no longer be fixed and it is your time to go, those nurses will wash you and change your soiled garments. They will give you pain medication and try in all ways to make you as comfortable as possible.

Our dream hospitals speak to us on many different levels about these things; about the birth of something new into your life, and the death of something old when it is no longer necessary to your growth. I think of the shedding of the human body in this way. When it is no longer necessary for your growth, you will be set free. You are lighter and you find it easier to fly. In this same way, there are things that we carry around in our life that we no longer need and they just weigh us down. Dreams of death can signify the letting go of these things.

Hospitals can be used in dreams as ways of exploring things inside of you. These things could be scary or comforting. In choosing a hospital in which to explore them in your sleep state, you have chosen a safe environment for getting rid of old, yucky stuff, and making room for the birthing of something new.

Many factors affect an individual’s hospital dream. My personal experiences with hospitals are way different than yours might be. Since every dream is personal to the dreamer, I have provided the following outline with which to explore your dreams and hopefully find some meaning.

Awake-life factors that influence hospital dreams:

• Working in a health-related field
• Watching hospital-based television series
• You, or someone you care about, is in the hospital
• Past experiences in hospital settings
• An illness, yours or someone else’s

Basic dream techniques to uncover meaning.

By now, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I believe in the inter-connectedness of awake-life and dreaming life; of physical life and spiritual life. What you are experiencing in your awake-life, you can dream about when you are asleep. What you dream while you are sleeping can be a window into what you will experience in your awake-life. In order to find out what could be going on in your dream, you need to apply the following techniques:

First: This technique dismisses dreams that have no deeper meaning.

Any dreams that are obviously based on television shows can still have personal meaning, although most of the time they are simply a review of the experience of watching your favorite series. If you feel as though this was what your dream was about, you can let it go. In addition, you can use this technique on any dream you feel was a rehash of the day’s events. Simply letting it go.

Second: In this technique you are exploring any way in which your dream could be work related.

Those of you who work in health related fields have to incorporate the added dimension of work-related issues. For example, I work at a bank, therefore when I dream of a bank it’s not necessarily a dream about money, although it could be.

For instance:

Dream: You are being chased down a hospital hallway by zombies

1. Hospital worker meaning-could be-putting in too many hours at work, causing a lack of sleep, hence you feel like a zombie.
2. Non-hospital worker meaning-could be-zombies represent undead flesh-eating things inside of us. The good thing is that you are where you can get healing help, hopefully you’ll run into the doctor, and they can help you get rid of the things chasing you around.

Third: In this third technique you are exploring past and current experiences that are influencing your dream.

When you are dealing with illness and hospitalization in your awake-life, realize that your dream could be about current life issues. Use all the other clues in your dream to get to the reason why you’re giving this dream to yourself. Maybe you need to visit someone, or take better care of an on-going disease, like diabetes. Your past experiences in hospitals could be influencing your behavior in a present situation. You may need to let go of fear, sadness, or dread that could be inhibiting you. Your dream is attempting to show you this. Perhaps you had a restful hospital experience, or a joyful memory of a birth, and you are longing for that feeling again.

Fourth: This next technique is about getting down to the universal meaning for hospitals in dreams.

At this point in your self-analysis, you have explored all awake-life scenarios and related them to your hospital dream. Perhaps none of them apply to you. You don’t work in a health-related field. You have no current hospital things going on in your life, and you have no past hospital “issues” you need to deal with. Yet, you obviously gave yourself the hospital dream for a reason.

Imagine a hospital inside of you; your own personal hospital.

• You go there when you’re sick.
• You go there when you need healing.
• When a new part of you is being born, your hospital helps you.
• When a part of you is dying, your hospital helps you.
• When you’re trying to figure out what is making you feel so bad you go to your inner hospital.
• When you’re having an emergency situation, your hospital is the place you go.
• You have to be close enough to this great resource within you so that it is there in your time of need.
• Maybe you need a rest from the go, go, go of life.
• Maybe you’re simply resting in the hospital bed.

Using the other clues you gave yourself in this dream will help you to understand its meaning. Once again, you are reminded to go back into the dream. If person “A” was in your dream, and you are thinking your dream is about person “B”, who wasn’t in your dream, you need to go back to person “A”. This will hold true, not always for being about that person, but for being about what that person represents to you.

For example:

A week before my father-in-law passed away, my mother-in-law dreamt that her co-worker died. She used the co-worker in her dream to represent her husband. Our mind will protect us, even in our sleep, when something is too painful to see. This is one more reason why dreams are so hard to understand, although well worth the effort.

Of course I can’t end without my usual warnings. We can, and do, dream the future. If, by chance, you saw yourself in a hospital bed after a bad car accident, please be careful driving.

Thanks for reading,

Michelle

Elephant: Animals in Dreams

I am choosing elephant to give you an idea of how to analyze an animal symbol that you’ve dreamed of, but have no clue what it could possibly mean. You will be able to use this same process with any animal that shows up in your dreams.

Step # 1

Ask yourself if there is anything going on in your life that would account for the fact that you are dreaming about an elephant.

1. Have you been to the zoo lately?
2. How about the circus?
3. Watched an elephant program on tv?

If this is this case, your dream could relate to that circumstance. This would be your dreaming mind thinking about what you’ve been doing lately.

If this is not the case, move on to step 2.

Step # 2

Think about what an elephant means to you.

1. Do you like, dislike, or feel neutral about elephants?
2. List anything you already know about elephants.

• People can ride them.
• They can be trained.
• They can be aggressive.
• Found mostly in Africa.
• Etc

Step # 3

Research elephants. Learn the true facts about them.

The truth about elephants, as opposed to what you think about elephants, this will help you to find the universal meaning of an elephant.

1. They are the largest land animal.

2. They are plant eaters (herbivores).

3. Herds are led by the oldest female, the Matriarch.

4. All females care for young-males who leave the herd when they reach around 14 years of age.

5. Males live on the outskirts of the herd. They fight for dominance a lot, yet rarely hurt each other.

6. Both males and females engage in same-sex relationships.

7. They are famed for their memory and intelligence; thought to be self-aware.

8. They experience grief, compassion, and altruism. Also, they play and use tools.

9. They are considered among the world’s most dangerous animals.

• They experience rage.
• They’re known to be vindictive.

10. They are revered in India.

11. It is said that Buddha’s mother dreamed of a white elephant giving her a lotus flower the night before she gave birth.

Once your research is complete you should be able to understand the elephant a lot better. You may notice that elephants have a lot of the same characteristics as people, both good and bad. You could dream of elephants to represent traits within yourself, or these traits could belong to someone close to you. Maybe you have the rage, or the compassion, of an elephant. Are you involved in women’s groups, or same-sex relationships? Are you a bachelor who feels as though he stands outside the circle of the females in his life? Are you extremely intelligent? Or maybe you have a great memory? Are you being honored by the presence of a white elephant?

Step # 4

This is where you take everything you’ve learned and any of your personal thoughts and experiences involving elephants, blending them together to form your personal understanding of what the elephant means to you. In doing this you have just defined your own dream symbol.

I would like to end by saying that I could have told you all about what elephants mean in a dream, but what the elephant means in your dream could be very different from what the elephant means in my dream. I began this venture by stating that my dream was to help you understand your dreams. No matter how I searched, this was the one thing I couldn’t find; someone showing me how to understand the dream from my point of view. If I give you everything from my point of view, you’ll miss the personal energy that you give to the symbol. You are, after all, the one who dreamed it.

Thanks! Please feel free to write me an e-mail or leave a comment.

Doors: Dream Barriers

Doors are the barrier between one place and another.

Here is some basic symbolism to begin with when encountering doors in a dream.

Front doors:

They symbolize that which others see.

Back doors

They symbolize the inner self.

Open doors:

They represent easy access. They are either inviting you to enter or represent you inviting something to enter.

Closed doors:

They create a barrier. When you encounter closed doors, you need to open them first to enter. This requires more inner work. When you close the door, or are behind closed doors, you are keeping something out.

Locked doors:

May mean that you are having trouble accessing something. You can not get in. Keys open locked doors, you might want to look for one. Locked doors may also represent protection when you are the one locking the door.

Archways:

Archways have no door. This is significant, because it symbolizes openess. They are easy access with no barriers.

An Example Dream

My daughter had a dream where she was standing in her living room, looking outside, from behind a locked screen door. This represents wanting to be safe while watching what is going on outside. She gave herself protection from what was out there, but she could slam the front door shut if she chose to do so.

Slamming the door shut would signify her fear was too great to even explore the message that was coming to her.

Being outside, in this instance, stands for something that is just coming to her consciousness. She doesn’t yet own it as a part of herself. It is something she is learning about herself. This something would most likely have to do with her visible life, due to the fact that she was at her front door as opposed to the back. Her outer self, as opposed to her inner self. This something could be bad or good. Negative or positive.

You bring yourself the negatives in your dreams to do the necessary work to eliminate them.

You bring yourself the positives to remind you of the good things you already are.

There are so many things that could be going on when you encounter doors in your dreams that I couldn’t possibly cover it all here. We’re back to the fact that dreams are personal to each individual. The door is a clue to the way you are thinking, feeling, or interacting with the things in your life. My hope is that I’ve given you a doorway into the way you see doors in your own dreams.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any specific questions. My address can be found by clicking the contact link in the header bar at the top of this page. It is not a direct link, so you’ll have to write it down, or copy/paste it into your email program. I’ll do my best to answer everything promptly. Also, if you like or dislike any post, leave a message in the comments section located directly below that post.

Thanks for reading!

Michelle

Car: Moving through dreams.

Remember that everything you give yourself in a dream is a clue to interpreting your dream. You are, in essence, a dream detective exploring these clues. Each clue has a universal meaning, common to everyone. This is why you examine, in detail, every item that shows up in your dream, adding your personal touch to the universal meaning.

With that said, it’s time to take a look into how you’re moving through your dreams.

What exactly is a car? A means of transportation getting you from point A to point B. Equipped with brakes, tires, a steering wheel, frontseats, back seats, passenger seats, and a motor, among other things. So what could it possibly mean when you find yourself driving in a car in your dream? The most obvious answer is that you are going somewhere! This does not necessarily mean moving from one physical place to another, although it can. You can also be traveling from one part of your inner self to another. Many times in your dreams you will find yourself in some means of transportation driving toward a solution to, or understanding of, what is currently moving through your life.

Car Part Basics

Brakes:

They stop the car. When your brakes don’t work you can’t stop. Are you having trouble stopping something? Slamming on the brakes indicates a sudden stop. Have you stopped something recently?

Tires:

They support the car. When your tire is flat you can’t move. Are you stuck in some situation? Do you need to change something?

Steering wheel:

It controls direction. When you are steering this indicates you are in control.

Front driving seat:

It’s where you sit when driving. This indicates that you are in control unless, of course, you’re missing your steering wheel!

Front passenger seat:

It’s where you sit when being driven. Where is someone taking you? Do you feel driven to do something? Are you being driven crazy?

Backseat:

It’s where you sit as a passenger. There are things that are universally associated with backseats: “backseat drivers” and taking a backseat to something else. When you find yourself in the backseat of a car in a dream, you will want to ask yourself if either of those situations pertains to something in your life.

Motor:

It powers the car. If it is running great it could represent being full of energy.

Dead battery:

This could represent the idea of feeling drained.

If your engine stalled or refused to start:

Are you out of energy; out of “gas”?

Cars are a personal means of transportation.Your car, like your house, is often used subconsciously to represent yourself. Buses, trains, and airplanes are, generally, a means of transportation for more than one individual, many times representing groups you are involved in. Since trains and planes travel at faster speeds than cars, you could also use them as a quicker way to get somewhere. Trains are on tracks; is everything “on track” in your life? Flying is a means of letting go, getting your feet off the ground. A bicycle is interesting because it has no motor, taking quite a bit of effort to get from points A to B.

On A Personal Note

When I am doing the driving in my dreams, I feel as though I am showing myself something. My subconscious is bringing information to my aware-self. I am in control of the information. I am in charge.

Whenever I am in my dream, and I am being driven somewhere by someone who is known to me, I relate the dream back to something going on in my life involving that person or what that person represents to me.

In my dreams, I will often use other people to represent qualities within myself. I simply think about what I like or dislike about that person and ask myself if I am acting the same way. It’s that simple.

On Collective Consciousness

When you dream of a loved one who has crossed over and is driving you around town talking to you do you:

a. understand this as a message from inside of yourself that you are attributing to your loved one?

b. understand this as a message from a realm of consciousness that exists and has the ability to interact with us?

This goes a bit deeper into the possibility of a collective or super consciousness that everyone can interact with in their dreams. The experience of talking to your loved one in a dream doesn’t prove that you actually did. I also can not, in all truth, say that you didn’t! Interacting with this realm of consciousness and bringing back proofs that are valid for you are what create things as a truth rather than a possibility. For example: A loved one tells you, in a dream, the location of something that no one living knew existed. That definitely counts as experiential knowledge which leads to truth.

I can’t let my discussion of cars go without touching on the connectedness of dreams and future reality. When you dream the brakes on your car fail in a dream, do yourself a favor and have them checked by a mechanic! If you are involved in a car accident in your dream, be extra careful while driving. Forewarned is forearmed. Maybe you are looking to purchase a new car, and in your dream you were driving a particular make and model which was running great, by all means look for that car, it might be waiting for you! Then again if you’re sitting in an awesome looking car, drinking lemonade, steer clear of that one!

Let me take a moment to explain that I am not trying to confuse anyone. Understanding the dream is a lot more complicated than reading a book that tells you that a car in your dream means you are traveling somewhere! The car in your dream is a clue. It is coming to you from you . You gave yourself a dream with a car in it. You gave it to yourself for some reason. You’re the only one who can determine what your dream means to you, all I can do is help you with the clues.