Symbols Dream Meanings

Unlocking the Meaning of Dreams and Embracing Your Vision for the Future

When we close our eyes at night and drift into slumber, our inner world awakens. In the depths of our minds, a bustling symphony of thoughts and emotions unfolds, and our bodies become a chemical laboratory, producing a myriad of substances that influence our growth, cognitive functions, emotions, and overall well-being.

This enigmatic realm, known as the unconscious mind, never sleeps. Entire volumes have been dedicated to exploring its intricacies, as well as its profound connection to the world of dreams. Yet, despite all the knowledge we've gathered, the essence of dreaming remains a tantalizing enigma. The truth is that no one truly comprehends why we dream, where dreams originate, their precise meanings, or the many facets of this complex human phenomenon.

A dream is a sequence of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that typically unfold involuntarily in our minds during specific stages of sleep. The content and purpose of these dreams elude our full comprehension, although they have captivated the interest of scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout recorded history. The pursuit of extracting meaning from dreams, often termed dream interpretation, has fascinated many. This scientific exploration of dreams is known as oneirology.

Most dreams manifest during the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, a period marked by heightened brain activity resembling wakefulness. REM sleep is recognized by the continuous movement of the eyes during slumber. While dreams can occasionally emerge during other sleep phases, they tend to be less vivid and memorable in these instances. The duration of a dream can vary, lasting a few seconds or extending to approximately 20–30 minutes. Our chances of remembering a dream are significantly higher if we are awakened during the REM phase. On average, a person experiences three to five dreams each night, with some individuals reporting up to seven. However, most dreams vanish from our memory almost as soon as we wake.

Dreams tend to lengthen as the night progresses. During a full eight-hour night of sleep, most dreams transpire in the typical two hours of REM sleep. Dreams linked to our waking life experiences are closely associated with REM theta activity, implying that emotional memory processing occurs during REM slumber.

Teeth falling out, a house being burnt, a winter storm, a foreign country, your sister, a child, a stranger, a painting, a werewolf, a church and a ballet are some of the limitless number of images or symbols you can find in dreams. Most dream symbols are not to be taken literally, but rather metaphorically. A metaphor is where the meaning of one thing is transferred to another thing—a ‘happy ship’, for example, might mean a good-humored family or workforce. In most cases, to fully understand the message in the dream you should interpret your dream symbols as metaphorical rather than literal references to your thoughts and feelings. For instance, a burning house might contain references both to yourself (the house) and to your passion, anger, desire or bodily fever (the fire).

Symbols and pictures predate language. They point to the emotions and instincts, many of which are hidden or repressed; these are stored in the unconscious mind, where they reside until some stimulus brings them to consciousness. Jung tells us that dreams speak in the language of symbols and these symbols can have more than one meaning. This has to do with the personal and collective unconscious. The former refers to the dreamer’s ego life, where those things that have been repressed or rejected from consciousness reside. The collective unconscious, which is rich in symbol and metaphor, is older than the individual and indeed older than consciousness itself. It consists of ‘the whole spiritual heritage’ of mankind’s evolution born anew in the brain structure of every individual. The representation of a symbol in the personal unconscious points to the anxieties of everyday life, whereas the collective unconscious addresses the deeper sense of who we are. This is the true self that is often disguised in the ego-life, a spiritual and creative being that inhabits our psyche. Jung tells us we cannot be fully whole until we recognize these ‘collective’ aspects and make them a part of our everyday lives.

Dream dictionaries fill shelves in bookstores and each one will tell you what the symbols in your dreams say about you. The trouble is that most of them contradict each other; in many instances they can also contradict you. The language of dreams is above all personal and symbols cannot have fixed meanings. However, this does not mean that a dream encyclopedia such as the one you are reading now has no useful role to play; quite the contrary.

If used correctly, it can be incredibly helpful. It can spark your imagination and can give you inspiration to help you to interpret your dream.

Although there is often confusion and difficulty surrounding symbols, not helped by the fact that many sources of information come from ancient texts, distant cultures and far-off periods of history, kernels of truth often reside in what might be called a clichéd reading of any particular symbol; this is because we all share common needs and therefore share common experiences giving rise to common dream symbols. Bear in mind, however, that one interpretation can never have a universal application and the specific meaning will differ from person to person. As stressed throughout this encyclopedia, the only way to get a satisfactory interpretation for your dream symbols is to consider your personal associations in conjunction with the universal symbolic meanings.

See also ARCHETYPES; COLORS; SHAPES.