Posts Tagged ‘dreaming’

Buses in Dreams: Riding through life.

A Dream Experience

I spoke to a lovely lady today who lost her husband recently. She told me she woke up crying from a dream she had last night. In this dream she was on a bus with her husband. At a stop along the way she couldn’t find her husband anywhere. She was so distressed that she woke up in tears.

The Bus in Physical Reality

In reality a bus is a public means of transportation. You travel on a bus with other people, many of them strangers. A diverse group of people are continually entering and exiting the bus. This symbolizes the movement through life that we all experience.

How the symbolic meaning of the bus was used in the dream.

In the above dream, the woman’s husband gets off the bus. He is nowhere to be found. Her bus ride will continue and his will not. She is still moving through life.

When a bus arrives in your dreams.

You will want to look at how you’re moving through life in a public way. The other clues in the dream will help you to realize what life situation you are dreaming of.

• School buses could be about things you are learning.

• Tour buses could be about trips you are taking.

• Public transportation is generally life as a whole; in the sense that everyone is moving along in their life. We’re all on planet earth, on the same “bus”, so to speak.

• A bus could symbolize a group you are involved with; in the sense that you are all traveling the same route together.

Bridges in Dreams: Transitioning and Connecting

Why was the first bridge built?

“First thoughts” are the basis for the symbolic meaning to the man-made objects in dreams. Before the first bridge was built it was a thought in someone’s mind. Faced with a desire to travel over a body of water or a chasm in the easiest possible way someone created a bridge. The bridge became a way to cross what would otherwise be an obstacle to getting where they were choosing to go. This is, therefore, the basis for its symbolic meaning. When you dream of a bridge you’ll want to think about where you are, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there.

What you are choosing to cross isn’t always a “bad” thing, although it can be. For instance a deep river isn’t bad; a bridge simply makes it possible to cross the river and get where you’re choosing to go without having to bring out the boat! On the other hand, if you’re crossing a 300 foot deep ravine a fall would be deadly. This would symbolize the life or death feel to bridging something in your life.

For example: A diagnosis of cancer could produce a dream of crossing a bridge over a ravine, symbolizing something that holds the power of life or death. You’re at point A and you need that bridge to get you to point B, to “overcome” the cancer. The bridge symbolizes how you’re going to get there.

Examples of possible bridges in your dreams.

When you’re traveling along a road in your dreams and you come to a bridge, the bridge itself is a clue that you are transitioning from one place, activity, condition, thought pattern, or life situation to another. What you are crossing over, as well as where you start and end up, are additional clues to the meaning of your dream. The type and condition of the bridge can also be clues to the ease or difficulty of this transition.

You could dream of a particular type of bridge simply because it is the type of bridge you are most familiar with. On the other hand the type of bridge could be a significant clue to the type of transition you are experiencing.

Steel bridges-Steel is hard and flexible. Modern technology is involved in the making of steel from iron. Steel bridges used symbolically in your dreams could mean a firm yet flexible resolve to get something done; transitioning you to another stage in your life.

Stone bridges-Stone is a natural substance, of nature.

Stone could symbolically represent a natural transition.

• A bridge from adolescence to adulthood.
• A bridge from earth to heaven. Life to death.
• A bridge to anything natural, not man-made.

Draw bridges- Draw bridges protect the castle. Symbolically in a dream they would protect you and your home.

When a bridge is easy to cross you are finding it easy to make a transition.

When a bridge is hard to cross you are having a hard time making a transition or realizing that it’s time to make a transition.

When a bridge is a thing of beauty you are happy to be making a transition. Beautiful things are happening. Quite possibly you have found a beautiful way to rise above a chasm in your life.

Using Bridge Slang Symbolically

“Burn that bridge”

When you are burning bridges in your dreams you are symbolically cutting off all chances of going back to a previous way of being. You are leaving a past situation, place, thought pattern, or activity behind you.

“Cross that bridge when we come to it”

This means to handle the problems in your life as they arise. Think of point A as your first problem and point B as your second problem. The bridge is the path between the two problems. When this type of a feeling shows up in your dream it is telling you to take care of the first thing before you move on to the second one. Don’t jump ahead of yourself.

As always, I hope my understanding of bridges in dreams helps you to understand your dreams better. Please write with any comments, questions or suggestions.

Thanks, Michelle

Bedroom: To sleep perchance to dream.

A bedroom as a dream symbol is filled with highly personal content.

Traditionally your bedroom is your personal, private place. As a dream symbol it will reflect these personal aspects of the self.

Dreaming, in the figurative sense, is about your most cherished desires.  Dreaming about a bedroom could be a clue that you are dreaming about things which you desire.  What do you wish to have, do, or be?

First Thoughts on Bedrooms

In order for a bed and a bedroom to exist they had to have begun in the mind of a human being. The first thoughts about these items are important because they form the symbolic, universal meaning for beds and bedrooms in your dreams. What do you imagine was the first thought that brought a bedroom into being? Was it created for a child, or was it created for the self? What you think those thoughts might have been will help you to understand your own personal symbolism for your dream bedroom.

Let’s begin with the fact that your bed is a soft, comfortable place where you lay your head to sleep. Perhaps the first bed was an animal fur rug placed next to an open fire. Somewhere along the way there was a thought that created the need for a room in which to place your bed.

There was a time when there wasn’t such a thing as a house let alone a bedroom. I imagine a bedroom came into being as a private place to sleep within a house.

Some possibilities for the creation of the first house have already been explored at Dreaming of Houses. When you begin from the point that you are surrounded by four walls and there are as yet no “rooms” in the house, what would make you want a bedroom?

Did you perhaps give birth to a child and need a safe place where the infant could sleep? Maybe you needed to muffle its cries from the wild beasts that would think it was food?

Perhaps you shared your space with 10 other people and you were getting tired of their “crap”, literally!!  Your thought would be that you would like your own space within the communal house so you created an area of your own, your bedroom. This is how you get to the basis that a bedroom in your dreams symbolizes your personal, private space.

Asleep Within a Dream

Being asleep in your dream represents not being aware. It means that you are not fully conscious of something going on around or within you. To awaken into the dream action means that you are becoming aware of what you hadn’t been fully conscious of before. The rest of your dream clues will help you determine what this could possibly be.

The Bedroom is Private

Choosing to share your personal space with your significant other is a huge symbolic clue. It is an agreement to share yourself, to share your naked, exposed self. It is a place where you want privacy for being physically close to others. Traditionally we think of sex as occurring in bedrooms. Sex as a dream symbol stands for a deep, tangible, connection to someone or something. Sex can result in new life, physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. Your dream bedroom could be symbolizing this closeness.

The Bedroom as a Changing Room

When you are naked in your dreams this means that you are exposing parts of yourself, or you feel that parts of you are being exposed. This exposure can be physical, mental, and emotional. Your bedroom is the place where you can feel comfortable in exposing yourself when you undress.

Symbolically, you can use your bedroom as a comfortable place to explore things that you are keeping hidden from others, but also possibly from yourself. Maybe there are things that you haven’t really wanted to face up to or admit. Maybe there are wonderful depths to you that you’ve always thought to be too good to be true. You could explore these things safely in your dream bedroom.

Beyond the Universal Meaning: The personal aspect.

Your personal feelings and experiences with bedrooms in your conscious life will influence your symbolic use of bedrooms in your dream.

Anything and everything that has ever happened in your personal bedrooms can influence how you use them as a symbol. Perhaps you are bedridden and cannot leave your bedroom. It could be your haven or your prison depending upon your feelings about the situation. Whenever your bedroom shows up in your dreams you are exploring something personal to you.

When It Is Not “Your” Bedroom

I also feel that I should mention that some dream bedrooms are not about you at all. When someone else features prominently in your bedroom dream, it could be about something personal to them.

For instance, I had a dream in which my son was exploring a bedroom in a house. In reality he really was shopping for a house. We looked at many houses, but there was only one that was the exact replica of the bedroom in my dream. In this case my dream was about a future event that was personal to my son.

As always, I hope my thoughts on dream bedrooms can help you in determining the meaning of bedrooms in your own dreams. If you have any questions or comments, please write below or send an e-mail

Thanks,

Michelle

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.

Dreams with Teeth

In reality you use your teeth to eat your food, and speak your words. Teeth also figure prominently in your appearance.

Here’s some information about teeth as per Wikipedia – Your ability to chew food affects the quality of your life. The teeth play a major role in speech. Lack of teeth can result in “social insecurity”.

The basic meaning of teeth in your dream is to take good care of them, they’re very important!

Teeth Chomping into Dreams: The symbolic meaning.

A good set of teeth may represent:

• How well you can nourish yourself, both mentally and physically.
• How well you are speaking.
• How well you look.

A poor set of teeth could represent:

• Being unable to nourish yourself, to get what you need.
• Being unable to speak and be understood properly.
• Concern with not looking good.

Teeth falling out:

This is definitely a message from your subconscious saying, “Let me have your attention please!”

When the dream is about words in some way, shape, or form it signifies:

• Regret for words you said, and perhaps wish you didn’t.
• Words you didn’t say, and perhaps wish you did.
• Anxiety about speaking your mind or public speaking.
• Being unable to speak the way you’d like to for some reason.
• Perhaps you’re having trouble speaking what’s on your mind to someone, although you’d really like to.
• Misunderstanding: Is something you said creating problems because it was totally misunderstood?

When this dream is about nourishing yourself mentally, physically or emotionally:

When you don’t have any teeth you are unprepared to nourish yourself. Perhaps you aren’t getting everything you need in order to present yourself properly to others? This is about the ability to do what needs to be done, and do it well. You might be subconsciously worried that you’re going to look really bad, or you’re going to sound really dumb.

When the dream is about appearance:

There are many ways to look bad. How you appear to others involves your whole persona, not just your physical looks. When you lose your teeth in a dream and you believe you’re worried about how you look, remember to take the best care of yourself that you can. Who you are on the inside is way more important than how you appear on the outside.

An example dream:

I watched someone’s dentures fall out as they were speaking to me. The dentures landed in an ugly brown mud puddle. In reality I found out that this person was in the habit of not telling the truth. Their word was “mud”, not worth much. Also interesting that I dreamed “false” teeth to symbolize falsehood. In reality they are still in possession of their natural teeth.

As always, I hope I’ve given you something you can sink your teeth into that will help you understand your personal dream messages. Happy dreaming!

Bowling in Dreams: Knocking stuff over.

There are two sayings commonly associated with the sport of bowling. They are “to bowl a person over” and “to bowl something down.” To bowl something over means to knock it over and to bowl something down means to knock it down; either way something is flattened!

A bowling ball in your dream be giving you a heads up.

• Do you feel as though you’re being knocked down in some situation in your life?
• Do you feel as though you’re bowling down everything in your path?
• If, in the dream, you are symbolizing the bowling pin, you’re being knocked down.
• If, in the dream, you are symbolizing the bowling ball, you’re knocking things down.

You could be symbolizing yourself as the pin and the ball. This would be about knocking things down in your life or getting rid of things inside yourself, rather than involving some external source. These could be things you no longer need or want.

On a basic level, you could enjoy the sport of bowling and are simply having some fun while you’re asleep!

Dreaming and waking to a telephone ringing.

Many people are woken from a dream by the ringing of a telephone.

Sometimes it appears as though a phone in your dream is ringing. Then, when you wake up, you realize that your real phone is ringing. It actually woke you up.

Now imagine being asleep and still in the dream. You hear a phone ringing in your dream. You stop and listen and tell yourself that it is your real phone ringing, and you’d better wake up. You awaken and sure enough your phone is ringing.

Now this is an experience worth exploring!

In the first experience an outside noise penetrated your dream state and woke you up. You didn’t realize that the ringing phone you heard in your dream was actually your phone ringing until you woke up.

In the second experience an outside noise penetrated your dream state, while still in that dream, you realized your phone was ringing and that you needed to wake up.

Knowing awake things in a dream.

The reason why this experience is fascinating is because it speaks of a connection between the subconscious and conscious mind; between the dreaming and the awakened mind.

Generally, when we’re awake, we can remember our dreams. It is a bit rarer to remember your conscious life while you’re dreaming. Actually walking through a dream and thinking about things that are true when you’re awake is a really neat experience.

Why does it matter?

It matters most as a proof of what the dreaming mind is capable of. I am open to the possibility of unusual dream experiences. When I have the dream experience myself, the possibility has become my reality. In sharing my experiences with you, I hope that I am opening you up to the fact that these things are possible, you only need to experience them for yourself to add them to your reality.