The meaning of the symbols of meaningless seen in a dream.

It is imperative that the mu’abbir or interpreter understands fully and properly every details of a dream seen by any person. He should be able to weigh it on the scale of the rules of interpretation.

If the numerous facts emerging from a dream are such that they correspond with each other logically then such a dream will be deemed as a genuine and authentic dream. But if the facts emerging from such a dream are such that they do not correspond with each other then the interpreter should reflect on the apparent meaning of the words. Whichever meaning is nearest to the rules of interpretation, such a meaning should be adopted

If a dream is of a complicated nature so that if cannot be weighed on the scale of the rules of interpretation then such a dream will be deemed as meaningless.

If a certain dream causes the interpreter to become dubious then he should appeal to the conscience of the observer of such a dream: If the dream concerns Salaah, he should question him about Sallah; if it concerns a journey he should question him about the journey; if it concerns marriage, he should question him about marriage. Thereafter, the mu’abbir will interpret to the best of his knowledge

The interpreter should be extremely cautious when interpreting a dream: If the dream evidences obscenity and indecency he should either use pleasant words when interpreting it or simply avoid interpreting it.

It is necessary for a mu’abbir to establish the biological and logical classification of thins and give its interpretation accordingly.

The biological and logical classification of things can be made as follows : (a) geneses (b) species (c) nature and characteristics.... facts to be taken into consideration before a mu’abbir interprets a dream dream meaning

also see Stealing

1- Dreaming of a thief links with our fear of losing things, or of having them taken away. We may be afraid of losing love or possessions.

2- When a thief appears in dreams, we arc aware of part of our personality which can waste our own lime and energy on meaningless activity. It literally steals from us.

3- A spiritual thief is that part of us which has no respect for our beliefs.... thief dream meaning

If you dreamed of walking on a trail, you can achieve your goal(s) if you persevere.

To dream of losing or wandering off a trail is a warning against wasting your time in meaningless activities and/or relationships.... trail dream meaning

1. Sleek, strong, but a meaningless life.

2. Sweet, friendly. ... greyhound dream meaning

Acting stupidly in a dream means money or profits. Ifa farmer acts silly in a dream, it may mean a good harvest for that year. Otherwise, the farmer’s dream could be meaningless.... stupidity dream meaning

When I was in college, I read in a theology book that a monk on a mountain top and a man with his bottle of wine are really trying to get to the same place. That place translates to peace and a genuine feeling of being connected to the rest of the universe. Dreaming about being in bars and drinking may symbolize a need that you have for some type of a meaningful transformation. On the other hand, this dream may be a form of wish fulfillment, and you are escaping into a pleasurable environment where daily cares and concerns are meaningless.

If you rarely allow yourself to relax and socialize, this dream may be compensatory in nature.... bar / pub dream meaning

One of Carl Jung s most interesting areas of thought is that of individuation. In a nutshell the word refers to the processes involved in becoming a self-aware human being.

The area of our being we refer to when we say T, ‘me’ or ‘myself’ is our conscious self awareness, our sense of self, which Jung calls the ego.

The autobiography of Helen Keller has helped in understanding what may be the difference be­tween an animal and a human being with self awareness. Helen, made blind and deaf through illness before learning to speak, lived in a dark unconscious world lacking any self awareness until the age of seven, when she was taught the deaf and dumb language. At first her teacher’s fingers touch­ing hers were simply a tactile but meaningless experience. Then, perhaps because she had leamt one word prior to her illness, meaning flooded her darkness. She tells us that ‘noth­ingness was blotted out’. Through language she became a person and developed a sense of self, whereas before there had been nothing.

The journey of individuation is not only that of becoming a person, but also expanding the boundaries of what we can allow ourselves to experience as an ego. As we can see from an observation of our dreams, but mostly from an extensive exploration of their feeling content, our ego is conscious of only a small area of experience.

The fundamental life pro­cesses in one’s being may be barely felt. In many contempo­rary women the reproductive drive is talked about as some­thing which has few connections with their personality. Few people have a living, feeling contact with their early child­hood, in fact many people doubt that such can exist. Because of these factors the ego can be said to exist as an encapsulated small area of consciousness, surrounded by huge areas of ex­perience it is unaware of.

In a different degree, there exists in each of us a drive towards the growth of our personal awareness, towards greater power, greater inclusion of the areas of our being which remain unconscious.

A paradox exists here, because the urge is towards integration, yet individuation is also the process of a greater self differentiation. This is a spontaneous process, just as is the growth of a tree from a seed (the tree in dreams often represents this process of self becoming), but our personal responsibility for our process of growth is neces­sary at a certain point, to make conscious what is uncon­scious.

Because dreams are constantly expressing aspects of indi­viduation it is wonh knowing the main areas of the process. Without sticking rigidly to Jungian concepts—which see indi­viduation as occurring from mid-life onwards in a few individuals—aspects of some of the main stages are as fol­lows. Early babyhood—the emergence of self consciousness through the deeply biological, sensual and gestural levels of experience, all deeply felt; the felt responses to emerging from a non-changing world in the womb to the need to reach out for food and make other needs known. Learning how to deal with a changing environment, and otherness in terms of rela­tionship.

Childhood—learning the basics of motor, verbal and social skills, the very basics of physical and emotional indepen­dence. One faces here the finding of strength to escape the domination of mother—difficult, because one is dependent upon the parent in a very real way—and develop in the psyche a satisfying sexual connection. In dream imagery this means, for the male, an easy sexual relationship with female dream figures, and a means of dealing with male figures in competition (father); see sex in dreams.

The dream of the mystic beautiful woman precedes this, a female figure one blends with in an idealistic sense, but who is never sexual.

The conflict with father—really the internal struggle with one’s image of father as more potent than self—when re­solved becomes an acceptance of the power of one’s own manhood. Women face a slightly different situation.

The woman’s first deeply sensual and sexual love object—in a bonded parent-child relationship—was her mother. So be­neath any love she may develop for a man lies the love for a woman. Whereas a man, in sexual love which takes him deeply into his psyche, may realise he is making love to his mother, a woman in the same situation may find her father or her mother as the love object. In the unconscious motivations which lead one to choose a mate, a man is influenced by the relationship he developed with his mother, a woman is influ­enced by both mother and father in her choice. Example: ‘I went across the road to where my mother’s sister lived. I wanted to cuddle her and touch her bare breasts, but we never seemed to manage this. There were always interruptions or blocks.’ (Sid L).

At these deep levels of fantasy and desire, one has to recog­nise that the first sexual experience is—hopefully—at the mother’s breast. This can be transformed into later fantasies/ dreams/desires of penis in the mouth, or penis in the vagina, or penis as breast, mouth as vagina.

For most of us, however, growth towards maturity does not present itself in such primi­tively sexual ways, simply because we are largely unconscious of such factors. In general we face the task of building a self image out of the influences, rich or traumatic, of our experi­ence. We leam to stand, as well as we may, amidst the welter of impressions, ideas, influences and urges, which constitute our life and body. What we inherit, what we experience, and what we do with these creates who we are.

One of the major themes of individuation is the journey from attachment and dependence towards independence and involved detachment. This is an overall theme we mature in all our life. In its widest sense, it pertains to the fact that the origins of our consciousness lie in a non-differentiated state of being in which no sense of T exists. Out of this womb condi­tion we gradually develop an ego and personal choice. In fact we may swing to an extreme of egotism and materialistic feel­ings of independence from others and nature.

The observable beginnings of this move to independence are seen as our at­tempt to become independent of mother and father. But de­pendence has many faces: we may have a dependent relation­ship with husband or wife; we may depend upon our work or social status for our self confidence; our youth and good looks may be the things we depend upon for our sense of who we are, our self image. With the approach of middle and old age we will then face a crisis in which an independence from these factors is necessary for our psychological equilibnum.

The Hindu practice of becoming a sanyassin, leaving behind family, name, social standing, possessions, is one way of meeting the need for inner independence from these in order to meet old age and death in a positive manner. Most people face it in a quieter, less demonstrative way. Indeed, death might be thought of as the greatest challenge to our identifica­tion with body, family, worldly status and the external world as a means to identity. We leave this world naked except for the quality of our own being.

Meeting oneself, and self responsibility, are further themes of individuation.

The fact that our waking self is a small spot­light of awareness amidst a huge ocean of unconscious life processes creates a situation of tension, certainly a threshold or ‘iron curtain’, between the known and unknown.

If one imagines the spotlighted area of self as a place one is standing in, then individuation is the process of extending the bound­ary of awareness, or even turning the spotlight occasionally into the surrounding gloom. In this way one places together impressions of what the light had revealed of the landscape in which we stand, clues to how we got to be where we are, and how we relate to these. But one may remain, or choose to remain, largely unconscious of self.

The iron curtain may be defended with our desire not to know what really motivates us, what past hurts and angers we hide. It may be easier for us to live with an exterior God or authority than to recognise the ultimate need for self responsibility and self cultivation.

To hide from this, humanity has developed innumerable escape routes—extenonsed religious practice, making scapegoats of other minority groups or individuals, rigid belief in a political system or philosophy, search for samadhi or God as a final solution, suicide. This aspect of our matunng process shows itself as a paradox (common to maturity) of becoming more sceptical, and yet finding a deeper sense of self in its connec­tions with the cosmos. We lose God and the beliefs of humanity’s childhood, yet realise we are the God we searched for. This meeting with self, in all its deep feeling of connec­tion, its uncertainty, its vulnerable power, is not without pain and joy. Example: ‘On the railway platform milled hundreds of people, all men I think. They were all ragged, thin, dirty and unshaven. I knew I was among them. I looked up at the mountainside and there was a guard watching us. He was cruel looking, oriental, in green fatigues. On his peaked cap was a red star. He carried a machine gun. Then I looked at the men around me and I realised they were all me. Each one had my face. I was looking at myself. Then I felt fear and terror’ (Anon).

The last of the great themes of individuation is summed up in William Blake’s words ‘1 must Create a System, or be en- slav’d by another Man’s; I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.’ A function observable in dreams is that of scanning our massive life experience (even a child’s life experience has millions of bits of information) to see what it says of life and survival. Out of this we unconsciously create a working philosophy of what life means to us.

It is made up not only of what we have experienced and learnt in the gen­eral sense, but also from the hidden information in the cul­tural riches we have inherited from literature, music, art, the­atre and architecture.

The word hidden” is used because the unconscious ‘reads’ the symbolised information in these sources. It is, after all, the master of imagery in dreams. But unless we expand the boundaries of our awareness we may not know this inner philosopher.

If we do get to know it through dreams, we will be amazed by the beauty of its in­sight into everyday human life.

In connection with this there is an urge to be, and perhaps to procreate oneself in the world. Sometimes this is experi­enced as a sense of frustration—that there is more of us than we have been able to express, or to make real. While physical procreation can be seen as a physical survival urge, this drive to create in other spheres may be an urge to survive death as an identity. Dreams frequently present the idea that our sur­vival of death only comes about from what we have given of ourself to others. ... individuation dream meaning

In most ancient cultures, consider­ation and even veneration of dreams played a great pan. Some groups felt that dream life was more real and imponant than waking life. Not only were dreams looked to for information about hunting (Eskimo groups), but also for ways of healing physical and psychological ills (Greek dream temples) and insights into the medicinal properties of herbs, barks and clays (African tribal witchdoctors). Common to most of these groups, and evident in the Old Testament, was also the sense that through dreams one had awareness of the transcendental or supersensible. St Peter’s dream of the sheet and unclean animals was a turning point in the history of western socicty —as was Constantine’s dream of his victory if he used the symbol of Christianity.

At its most fundamental, the human religious sense emerges out of several factors. One is the awareness of ex­isting amidst external and internal forces of nature which cause us to feel vulnerable and perhaps powerless. Such natu­ral processes as illness, death, growth and decay, earthquakes, the seasons, confront us with things which are often beyond our ability to control. Considenng the information and re­sources of the times, one of religion’s main functions in the past was the attempted control of the ‘uncertain’ factors in human life, and help towards psychological adjustment to vali­ne rability. Religions were the first social programmes aiding the human need for help and support towards emotional, mental, physical and social health and maturity. Even if prim­itive, such programmes helped groups of people to gain a common identity and live in reasonable harmony together. Like a computer program which is specific to a particular business, such programmes were specific to a particular group, and so are outdated in today’s need for greater integra­tion with other races. Religions also offered some sort of con­cept of and connection with the roots of being.

Example: ‘For two nights running I have dreamt the same nightmare. I am in a chapel walking down the first flight of several flights of steps when I hear loud noises behind me. I am told to run, being warned of the soldiers who ride the cavalry horses nght down the steps, and who run you over if you are in their way.

The horses are fierce and they absolutely race down the steps at the same time every day, and you literally have to lock yourself away in a nearby room which is a long way down the chapel. I ran into the room hearing the pounding of the horses’ hooves. It was a terrible pandemo­nium in that chapel. In the room were school children the same age as me and some perhaps younger’ (Maria H). Maria, who is 16, in describing her dream says she had recently been confronted with whether to have a sexual relationship with her boyfriend. Religion, represented by the chapel, is Maria’s way of locking out her powerful sexual urges. Many dreams show that religion, as a set of beliefs, is used as a way of avoiding anxiety in the face of life’s uncertainties.

For many people, the rigid belief system helps them to avoid uncertainty in making decisions.

Dreams also portray and define the aspect of human expe­rience in which we sense a kinship with all life forms. This is the side of spiritual expenence through which we find a con­nection with the roots of our being. While awake we might see the birth of a colt and feel the wonder of emergence and newness; the struggle to stand up and survive, the miracle of physical and sexual power which can be accepted or feared. In looking in the faces of fellow men and women we see something of what they have done in this strange and painful wonder we call life. We see whether they have been crushed by the forces confronting them; whether they have become ngid; or whether, through some common miracle, they have been able to carry into their mature years the laughter, the crying, the joy, the ability to feel pain, that are the very signs of life within the human soul. These things are sensed by us all, but seldom organised into a comprehensive view of life, and an extraction of meaning. Often it is only in our dreams, through the ability the unconscious has to draw out the signif­icance of such widely divergent expenences, that we glimpse the unity behind phenomena which is an essential of spiritual life, i.e. we all have a life, we breathe, we have come from a mother, so share a universal experience.

Example: To quote J.B. Priestley from his book Rain Upon Godshill: ‘Just before I went to Amenca, dunng the exhausting weeks when I was busy with my Time Plays, I had such a dream, and I think it left a greater impression on my mind than any experience I had ever known before, awake or in dreams, and said more to me about this life than any book I have ever read.

The setting of the dream was quite simple, and owed something to the fact that not long before my wife had visiied the lighthouse here at St Catherine’s to do some bird ringing. I dreamt I was standing at the top of a very high tower, alone, looking down upon myriads of birds all flying in one direction; every kind of bird was there, all the birds in the world. It was a noble sight, this vast aerial river of birds. But now in some mysterious fashion the gear was changed, and time speeded up, so that I saw generations of birds, watched them break their shells, flutter into life, mate, weaken, falter and die. Wings grew only to crumble; bodies were sleek, and then, in a flash bled and shrivelled; and death struck every­where at every second. What was the use of all this blind struggle towards life, this eager trying of wings, this hurried mating, this flight and surge, all this gigantic meaningless ef­fort? As I stared down, seeming to see every creature’s ignoble little history almost at a glance, I felt sick at heart. It would be better if not one of them, if not one of us, had been bom, if the struggle ceased for ever. I stood on my tower, still alone, desperately unhappy. But now the gear was changed again, and the time went faster still, and it was rushing by at such a rate, that the birds could not show any movement, but were like an enormous plain sown with feathers. But along this plain, flickering through the bodies themselves, there now passed a sort of white flame, trembling, dancing, then hurry­ing on; and as soon as I saw it I knew that this white flame was life itself, the very quintessence of being; and then it came to me, in a rocket burst of ecstasy, that nothing mattered, nothing could ever matter, because nothing else was real but this quivering and hurrying lambency of being. Birds, men and creatures not yet shaped and coloured, all were of no account except so far as this flame of life travelled through them. It left nothing to mourn over behind it, what I had thought was tragedy was mere emptiness or a shadow show; for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life. I had never before felt such deep happiness as I knew at the end of my dream of the tower and the birds.’

Some Nonh American Indians developed the totem out of similar processes. In one generation a person might learn to plant a seed and eat the results. Later someone might see that through fertilisation more food was produced. Still later some­one found that by irrigating, still more improvement was made. No one individual was responsible for such vital cul­tural information, and the collective information is bigger than any one person, yet individuals can partake of it and add to it.

The totem represented such subtle realities, as it might in a modem dream; as Christ might in today’s unconscious. That older cultures venerated their collective information, and that modem humans seem largely apathetic to it, shows how our ‘religion’ has degenerated. Yet utilising the power of the unconscious to portray the subtle influences which impinge upon us, and building the information gained into our re­sponse to life, is deeply important.

With the growth of authoritarian structures in western reli­gion, and the dominance of the rational mind over feeling values, dreams have been pushed into the background. With this change has developed the sense that visionary dreams were something which ‘superstitious* cultural groups had in the past. Yet thoroughly modem men and women still meet Christ powerfully in dreams and visions. Christ still appears to them as a living being.

The transcendental, the collective or universal enters their life just as frequently as ever before. Sometimes it enters with insistence and power, because a too rational mind has led to an unbalance in the psyche—a bal­ance in which the waking and rational individuality is one pole, and the feeling, connective awareness of the uncon­scious is the other.

Although it is tempting to think of the transcendent as ethereal or unreal, the religious in dreams is nearly always a symbol for the major processes of maturing in human life. We are the hero/ine who meets the dangers of life outside the womb, who faces growth, ageing and death.

The awe and deep emotions we unconsciously feel about such heroic deeds are depicted by religious emotion.

See angel; Christ, rebirth and Devil under archetypes; church; evil; fish, sea creatures; example in whale under fish, sea creatures; heaven, hell; sweets under food; dream as spiritual guide.

See also hero/ine; mass; masturbation; old; paralysis; colours; sheep under animals. ... religion and dreams dream meaning

To dream of seeing your tongue indicates that you need to be more outgoing.

A dream in which your tongue is afflicted shows that you’ve engaged in too much meaningless chatter.

A dream in which you see another person’s tongue has carnal implications.

The tongue can mean a sex act or penis.... tongue dream meaning

To dream of putting ice cubes into a drink suggests you should stop wasting time or money on meaningless, temporary pleasures.

If you dream of someone throwing ice cubes at you, you feel neglected or mistreated by someone close to you. You may suspect that they are not sharing their true feelings with you.... ice cubes dream meaning

To dream of a jester warns that you will ignore important things in order to focus on meaningless trivia.... jester dream meaning

To dream of hearing the national anthem suggests that you will receive news from a distance.

If you were singing the anthem, you need to be more disciplined and stop wasting time on meaningless pursuits.... national anthem dream meaning

Dreams about rodents foretells trouble through active but hidden jealousy.

The exception is if the rodent was white - that means you will be protected by friendly forces.

If you heard rodents gnawing but didn’t actually see them, the dream is a warning that you are wasting your time in meaningless pursuits.... rodent dream meaning

Be prepared to struggle through a period of difficulties of your own making if you dreamed of using bellows.

If you merely observed them in your dream, it indicates a tendency to waste effort on meaningless things.

Change your tactics.... bellows dream meaning

Any dream involving this reaction is a warning to stop wasting your time with meaningless people and activities.... bewitched dream meaning

The use of any kind of mechanical drill is a sort of dream of contrary in that the harder the drill was working in your dream the more urgent is its warning to you to stop frittering away your time and energy in meaningless activities.... drill dream meaning

Eating or serving gravy is a warning that you are concentrating on meaningless activities and are in danger of overlooking a good opportunity, but making gravy signifies a favorable time for a speculative venture or even a modest bit of gambling.... gravy dream meaning

A dream in which you heard a clock strike or were otherwise made aware of the hour suggests that you are exerting your energy in the right direction; but to dream of sand running through an hourglass is a warning against wasting your time in meaningless pursuits.... hour dream meaning

Some aspects of an ice dream are contrary omens and some are not To sit on ice forecasts comfortable living conditions, but to walk on ice is a warning of loss through speculation.

To slip, slide, or fall on ice indicates coming difficulties, whereas if you broke through the .

ice, it signifies that your greatest anxieties are groundless.

Ice seen floating in clear water (as in a brook, stream, or lake) is a sign that you will overcome jealous opposition.

Putting ice into drinks is a caution to stop wasting time, money, and energy on meaningless temporary pleasures.

Ice skating by yourself signifies recognition for work well done, but skating with a partner is a warning against indiscreet behavior or indiscriminate sex relations.

To see ice-laden trees or bushes indicates success after inexplicable delays, so don’t get discouraged, persevere!... ice dream meaning

You are wasting your time and energy on meaningless pleasures.... junket dream meaning

The meaning of a dream kiss depends on the circumstances involved.

If the kissing was pleasant, proper, and a sincere token of affection, it predicts happiness and contentment; but if it was of a perfunctory, meaningless, insincere, or illicit nature, it signifies a false friend or disappointment in a love affair.

A dream of kissing babies or small children forecasts success in a difficult undertaking.

To dream of trying to avoid a kiss from someone you dislike portends a minor illness or a vexing experience.... kiss dream meaning

These nasty rodents in your dream portend trouble through active but hidden jealousy; however, if they were white, you will be protected by benign forces.

If you heard them gnawing but didn’t actually see them, the dream is a warning that you are wasting your life in meaningless pursuits.... rat(s) dream meaning

The meaning of a search dream must be de- termined by reference to the purpose and object of the action; however, to dream of searching for an unknown purpose or thing is your subconscious re-minding your conscience that you are wasting your time in meaningless activity and/or relationships.... search dream meaning

Depriving self of spiritual, emotional or physical nourishment; lack of self-love and acceptance. Striving for the attainment of an idealized ego-self which is empty and meaningless. Self-punishment.... anorexia dream meaning

Good thoughts or good will.

A vague expression of feelings.

Consider also how you feel about carnations.

For example, if they remind you of a fond memory, they might represent that period in your past or a sentimental feeling about it.

If you think of them as cheap, they might represent an empty or meaningless gesture.

See also: Flower; Plant... carnation dream meaning

A void, an empty space, or nothingness can represent: Openness, freedom, potential, or endless possibility (as in an empty canvas or empty space).

Feeling emotionally empty, missing something or someone, or lacking something specific.

An unmet need or expectation (as in expecting something but getting nothing).

Meaningless or insincere (as in “empty praise”).

See also: Zero; Depleted; Wanting; Vacuum; Container; Hole; Scarcity; Sparse; Leaking... empty dream meaning

What applies to a church may apply equally to a temple or a circle of stones or any other sacred place.

(1) A church may symbolize the self, the totally integrated psyche, with all its elements organized as a harmonious whole centred on whatever, in terms of your individual personality and ‘destiny5.

constitutes the supreme value of truth. (For self)

The image may therefore be taken as a sign that your unconscious is urging you to ‘centre” yourself, to put an end to the fragmentation which results in your going off in opposite directions; to ‘pull yourself together” in the almost literal sense of unifying all the currently conflicting parts of you into a creative and fulfilling collaboration or commingling.

Other buildings - a house, or just a room - may represent your psyche. The fact that your dream presents the psyche in the image of a church means that you are being invited to perceive the self as something sacred - that is, something of supreme value and perhaps in some way transcendent.

(2) The church may symbolize, not the total psyche, but some most valuable (‘sacred”) part of it which holds the meaning of your life - the key to your true destiny.

(3) In primitive times a sacred place was regarded as the birthplace of the tribe’s original - divine - ancestor(s). In the same way, your dream image of a sacred place may be a reminder that you are not a worthless creature living a meaningless life; that vour self is a divine reality’, something of supreme value and to be taken with the utmost seriousness; that you are not only to love yourself but also to revere yourself.

(4) The church - or what is going on inside it, or how you in the dream are reacting - may represent your feelings about religion or about some institutionalized form of religion.

(5) For church crypt see Cave, Cellar.

(6) Is there someone in the church - a priest or (other) holy person, or someone you love dearly and respect deeply (father or elder brother, for instance)? If so, the figure may represent the self, the part of you that transcends the ego (for self).

See also Wise Old Man / Woman.... church dream meaning

Most dreams have an element of fantasy or the surreal in them, but when the events or images in your dream are so fantastic or have absolutely nothing to do with your waking reality, how do you interpret them? The first step would be to try to understand them literally. For example, if you dream that a wrist-watch is melting on your hand, are you making the best use of your time? If you dream of having eyes In the back of your head, do you need to watch your back in waking life?

If it simply isn’t possible to interpret your dream this way, the next step would be to sit down with a pen and paper, think of your dream and begin to doodle. In some cases, the symbols that flow from your pen may relate to your dream or provide a point from which you can interpret it.

If this still doesn’t help, you can of course just let the dream go, but if the dream continues to nag at you, it is likely that it had something important to say. Many dream psychologists believe that there is no such thing as a meaningless dream, so if the images in your dream were so fantastic you simply can’t make sense of them, the following technique may help. Just before you go to sleep on the night after having a surreal dream, try to recall the symbols you had difficulty understanding; it is often the case that the dream you will have on this second night will contain the same message as the first dream, but perhaps expressed in symbols that are easier to comprehend. This technique is applicable with any difficult dream, not just dreams that contain elements of the fantastic or the surreal.... surreal dreams dream meaning

You are trying to break from your routine.
You may be putting too much pressure on yourself to succeed.

This dream is unfortunately an admonition for your sensuality and indulgence.
Your character will be put under scrutiny and called into question.

Receiving kola nut is a premonition for the integration and merging of contrasting aspects of yourself.

You may be purposely preventing yourself from pursuing your goals and desires because you fear that you will fail.
You may be proceeding too quickly in trying to discover your subconscious thoughts.
Your dream denotes secrets that you may have kept from others or aspects of yourself that you have kept hidden and shielded away.
You have shut yourself down and are dead inside.

Kola nut is a hint for a relationship or situation that is meaningless.
You are not really in control of the direction that your life is taking.

Dream about receiving kola nut is about your willingness to sacrifice your authority in order to maintain calmness in your domestic life or personal relationship.

Dream of kola nut speak of covenant because is a covenant seed. ... kola nut dream meaning

A perceived warning or sign of trouble.

A real or imagined precursor to a problem, destruction, loss, or an ending.

Something you consider an illusion, meaningless, fake, or of no consequence somewhere in your life (as in “smoke and mirrors”).

Emotion (perhaps that feels dark, destructive, or toxic).

A real, desired, or feared communication (as in a “smoke signal”).

Consider also the context, your feelings about, and the source of the smoke.

See also: Fire; Ashes... smoke dream meaning

Like adding a G.P.S. system to a car, these facts and tips can steer you in the right direction to maximize your dream analysis benefits.

Dreams Communicate in Images Because of How the Brain Works

A dream speaks in pictures because your brain is hardwired to remember visually. As psychologists have confirmed, the brain stores much of its information (i.e., thoughts, memories, and experiences) as images that are linked up to your thoughts and feelings—becoming a mental picture in the mind’s eye. This is why visual pictures are the language of the brain. That is also why, in books on how to boost your memory, you are asked to link the words or names that you want to remember with a set of images, in order to remember them. When it comes to memory and your brain, pictures rule!

All Dreams Are Meaningful.

All dreams carry a message, and even a single dream image has meaning. Some dream messages are about your emotions while others relate more to your thoughts, attitudes, or actions. For example, in one such single-image dream, a man saw a large wooden wheel. At first, the image seemed meaningless, but later he remembered that when he was growing up, there had been a wagon wheel on his family’s farm. After his mother died, he often sat beside that wagon wheel as he mourned. The dream image of the wheel made him realize that he still felt bad about the recent loss of a good friend. The dream suggested he needed to take the time to grieve for his friend, just as he had grieved by the wheel for his mother.

Everyone Does Dream.

Those who say they do not remember any dreams often wonder if they dream at all. Research confirms that everyone experiences dreams. In fact, you dream about four to six times a night, whether or not you remember any of your dreams. Dreaming and recalling your dreams are two separate issues.

There Are Several Sources of Dream Messages

SOURCE 1 OF DREAM MESSAGES: YOUR MIND. Most dreams are communications from your psyche, the inner part of you that is aware of all your experiences, goals, and memories. Like a best friend, the psyche (your inner self) acts like a bridge between your waking and sleeping self and uses dreams to guide you to be the best you can be.

SOURCE 2 OF DREAM MESSAGES: THE SOUL AND BEYOND. Some dream insights come from the soul. You may be the captain of your ship but the soul is the ship’s owner, and on occasion, the soul has something to say about your path in life. Speaking of the great beyond, many believe that guardian angels can whisper in your ear through a dream, and that, on occasion, the divine itself bestows experiences of amazing grace, healing, or inspiration in dreams. Many dreamers have confirmed such extraordinary dream events.

SOURCE 3 OF DREAM MESSAGES: THE DEARLY DEPARTED. Some individuals believe that life continues after death and that dreams reconnect you with a loved one who has passed on. Anecdotal dream experiences suggest that the dearly departed visit on occasion to let you know they still love you (see Chapter 11, “Not All Dreams Are Dreams”).

Dream Analysis Is Easy.

There is a general misconception that learning to understand the message in a dream is difficult; however, if you can learn to drive a car, you can learn to analyze your dreams. Dream analysis is about understanding the language of symbols and metaphors and orienting yourself to a few rules of the road, such as the hints listed below. Once you master these concepts, you will be on your way.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 1: LEARN THE BASICS. Become familiar with the basics of dream interpretation such as those described in the Five-Step Dream Technique, which is introduced in later chapters. Once you crack open the nut of meaning of a dozen dreams, you will be on your way to a lifetime of amazing dream messages.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 2: LOOK FOR THE “AHA” EFFECT. When the meaning of a dream comes together, you get an “Aha!” rush of energy as a notable shift in perception. Understanding a dream message brings satisfaction, like watching a final puzzle piece fit into the big picture.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 3: BEWARE OF PERSONAL BIAS. Everyone has topics that trigger emotional reactions and sweep them away. Because of this, approaching a dream without preconceptions or reactions is important. If the topic of a dream is too intense, take a step back to avoid slanting your potential interpretation toward wishful thinking. Since initial reactions can steer you off course, a cool head is key to a correct interpretation. To correctly analyze a dream, put aside tinted eyeglasses and be willing to accept the truth, the whole truth, about the dream’s meaning.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 4: PUT AN INITIAL GUESS ON HOLD. As you wake up with a dream, the excitement of the story makes it easy to decide that you already know what it means. Hold that confidence in check and decide that you do not know what the dream means, at least not yet. As you apply the dream analysis techniques of your choice, your perspectives may shift and may bring a different result than your first thoughts about the dream.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 5: NOTE YOUR WORD CHOICES. Notice which words you select as you record your dream. The words that come to mind often alter your thoughts about the dream itself and create a shift in perception. This word-choice phenomenon is another way that the creative, unconscious mind reveals glimpses into the meaning of a dream.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 6: SYMBOLS ARE NOT THE WHOLE DEAL. A common misstep is to focus only on the meaning of a symbol and attempt to find dream message from the symbols, or to focus on the symbols first. Though dream symbols add depth to the message, focusing mainly on symbols tends to be a misstep. There are dreams where a symbol holds the entire message, but in general, the overall story tends to be the key to understanding the dream.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 7: YOU CAN DO IT. Despite these caveats, proceed without fear. Dream analysis is as easy as learning to drive a car. Once you know how to start the engine and observe a few rules of the road, you are on your way to dream analysis.

EASY ANALYSIS HINT 8: DREAMS AS A LUXURY VEHICLE TO GET THROUGH LIFE. Having paid attention to dream messages all my life, to me it appears as if those who do not analyze their dreams are trying to get through life using a bicycle. They miss out on a fantastic built-in Rolls-Royce of the mind—dream insights—that can get them where they want to go faster, more securely, and at their own speed.

Frightening Dreams Are Constructive Messages.

Even though a scary dream shakes you up, most nightmares carry a helpful message. The most common type of nightmare invites you to repair a character trait in yourself. Here’s how that works. In general, since people do not care to face something unpleasant about themselves, they push away a dream that makes them feel as if they are being scolded. As the dreamer pushes such a dream away—which, in psychological terms, is an attempt to suppress the dream—the dreamer’s clouded awareness “masks” the dream’s content. As a result, like seeing something in the distant, murky shadows, a friendly image now appears scary. Watching a dream about a personal flaw can feel like meeting an enemy in a deep, dark, empty forest. It is an “oops” that frightens the fragile ego, which reacts with “Who, me?” Though a rare nightmare can be a literal ESP dream warning, most scary dreams are distorted, but helpful, messages about your own flaws.

Dreams Help You Solve Problems.

As one of the main functions of dreaming, dreams can help you make decisions, clarify questions, and resolve daily challenges. In fact, experience dictates that the default stance of the sleeping mind is to assist you with any knot that you are trying to untie. Like a night-time Google session, your mind investigates the topic of your concern, compares the issue to your storehouse of past and current experience, and then cranks out an insight or a solution. Taking the time to plug into this “default nightly brainstorming” session can be highly productive on a wide range of matters, from advice to the lovelorn, daily questions, or even to achieve a scientific breakthrough.

Dream Messages Are Metaphors.

Dreams often exaggerate to make a point and most dream scenes are rarely literal. They are metaphors, and it helps to keep that in mind. For example, a scene about an avalanche that is going to engulf your home may scare you, but unless you live on a susceptible mountainside, the image is a metaphor about something that threatens your security, is off track, or is out of control. Positive scenes are also metaphors. A dream of winning the lottery suggests that you are a big winner, but what you are winning is not likely money. The win can signal career advancement, a great new relationship, or a talent that is being acknowledged—as your own kind of winning ticket.

Dream Dictionaries Cannot Tell You What a Dream Means

At best, a good dream dictionary can give you a general idea about what a symbol may mean, but it cannot tell you what that symbol actually means in the context of your specific dream. Dream dictionaries are a cookie-cutter approach to images. In contrast, the best part of a dream symbol is that it is a one-of-a kind communication uniquely tailored to you and in most cases, does not apply to anyone else. Check out the chapter on Symbols to get the exact and true meaning of dream images.

You Are the Best Interpreter of Your Dreams.

Once you learn the basics and stack up a dollop of experience, you become the best interpreter of your dreams. The reason is that dreams are about you and your life. Since you are the most familiar with the life areas about which your dreams speak, you are the best interpreter of your dreams.

What to do with a Cryptic Dream.

For every effort that you make to understand a puzzling dream which leads to a successful insight, it becomes easier to interpret the next dream. However, when you do come across a puzzling dream, there are a few options.

1. Wait awhile and try again a few hours later or a few days later.

2. Talk it over with a friend; sometimes the comments of a sympathetic listener can add new perspectives.

3. Browse through the example dreams at InterpretADream.com, check out books on dreams, or poll the Internet on specific dream topics.... fun dream facts and hints dream meaning

1. Accusation spoken over and over;

2. Many opinions vocalized;

3. Meaningless prayer; Luke 23:21; Matt. 6:7.... echo dream meaning

(1) Because it is represented by a circle, zero may symbolize completeness; eternity; or your true self.

See also Mandala.

(2) It may signify zero-hour, or time for blast-off, in which case it may mean that now is the time for doing something about yourself: for example, putting into practice what you have learned from life or from dreams.

(3) It may symbolize ‘nothingness’ in the sense of worthlessness or emptiness. Perhaps you are being shown the vanity of vanity, the ultimate meaninglessness of worldly ambition and success, or the ultimate insubstantiality of the egotistic self.... zero dream meaning

Sigmund Freud actually called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious,” That statement will probably remain true in psychology forever. Freud’s classic text, The Interpretation of Dreams, contains some of his finest work.

Freud believed every dream is a wish fulfillment, and he kept this theory to the end, even though he gave up his initial idea that all dreams have a sexual content.

For Freud, the concept of wish fulfillment didn’t necessarily imply that a pleasure was sought, because a person could just as well have a wish to be punished. Nevertheless, this idea of a “secret” wish being masked by a dream remains central to classical Freudian psychoanalysis.

Freud said, “Dreams are not comparable to the spontaneous sounds made by a musical instrument struck rather by some external force than by the hand of a performer; they are not meaningless, not absurd, they do not imply that one portion of our stockpile of ideas sleeps while another begins to awaken. They are a completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes; they can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity.”

It was not until Freud noticed how allowing his patients to freely associate ideas with whatever came to mind, that he really explored spontaneous abreaction. Freud himself suffered bouts of deep anxiety, and it was partly this that led him to explore the connection between association of ideas and dreams. In 1897 he wrote to his friend Wilhelm Fliess:

‘No matter what I start with, I always find myself back again with the neuroses and the psychical apparatus. Inside me there is a seething ferment, and I am only waiting for the next surge forward. I have felt impelled to start writing about dreams, with which I feel on firm ground.’

This move toward dreams may have come about because in allowing his patients freedom to talk and explore the associations that arose - free association - Freud noticed that patients would often find a connection between the direction of their associations and a dream they had experienced. The more he allowed his patients to go in their own direction, the more frequently they mentioned their dreams. Also, talking about the dream often enabled the patient to discover a new and productive chain of associations and memories.

Freud began to take note of his own dreams and explore the associations they aroused. In doing so he was the first person to consciously and consistently explore a dream into its depths through uncovering and following obvious and hidden associations and emotions connected with the dream imagery and drama.

Obviously previous dream researchers had noticed how the dream image associated with personal concerns, but Freud broke through into seeing the connection with sexual feelings, with early childhood trauma, and with the subtleties of the human psyche. He did this to deal with his own neurosis, and he says of this period, ‘I have been through some kind of neurotic experience, with odd states of mind not intelligible to consciousness, cloudy thoughts and veiled doubts, with barely here and there a ray of light.’

Using dreams for his self analysis, Freud discovered that previously unremembered details from his childhood were recaptured along with feelings and states of mind which he had never met before.

He wrote of this period, “Some sad secrets of life are being traced back to their first roots; the humble origins of much pride and precedence are being laid bare. I am now experiencing myself all the things that, as a third party, Ihave witnessed going on in my patients, days when I slink about depressed because I have understood nothing of the day’s dreams, fantasies, or mood.”

Without this powerful and personal experience of working with his dreams, meeting emotions and fantasies welling up from the unconscious, Freud would not have so passionately believed in his theories regarding dreams and the unconscious.

Of course, like much of Freud’s theories, he related dreams to sex. One of his basic views of dreams was that the purpose of dreams is to allow us to satisfy in fantasies the instinctual urges that society judges unacceptable such as sexual practices. This was partly the reason for the enormous opposition and criticism that he met.

During the period of his early life, only men were believed to have powerful sexual urges. When Freud showed that repressed but obvious sexual desires were equally at work in women this created a social uproar. Perhaps his second finding in regard to sexuality surprised even him. During his analysis of women patients, sexual advance or assault by the woman’s father was often revealed.

Freud struggled with this, wondering whether the assault was memory of an actual event, or a psychic reproduction of it. He eventually came to the conclusion that hysterical and neurotic behavior was often due to the trauma caused by an early sexual assault by the parent. Where there was not evidence of physical assault, then he saw the neurosis as due to sexual conflict or a trauma caused by some other event. This conflict was often manifested through dreams. This led to Freud being rejected by university colleagues, fellow doctors, and even by patients.

Another expert in the field of dreams and dream interpretation was Carl Jung.... sigmund freud on dreams dream meaning

An abyss is a natural symbol of emptiness and meaninglessness. It can also represent the need to detach oneself from an overwhelming condition or relationship.... abyss dream meaning

Possible meanings

You dream that you are lost, desperately trying to find your way home. No matter which direction you take, you never manage to find the right road and nobody you meet can help you. Often this dream indicates that you want a more fulfilling job or a different lifestyle but you have no idea how to proceed.

If you come to a crossroads and don’t know which way to take, it may mean that in waking life you are faced with several choices. You have to make a decision but don’t know what to base it on.

Your destination sometimes provides a clue to the meaning of the dream. Perhaps you are trying to get back to a place where you used to have happy times. This suggests that your current lifestyle is unsatisfactory. If you are looking for a place you associate with your youth the dream implies concerns about growing older.

Being lost in a place that feels dangerous reflects feelings of unease about a current situation. The dream is a warning that someone or something is posing a threat to your well-being.

Dreams about being lost have special significance if you’re middle- aged or elderly. The further you progress along your journey through life, the more essential it becomes to reassess your values and your priorities. Otherwise the more spiritual side of your nature remains unfulfilled so that, at a deeper level, you feel ‘lost’.

Questions to ask yourself - and what to do when the answer is ‘yes’

Do / feel unfulfilled?

• If you find your job meaningless, career counselling could help you to identify both your innate abilities and the skills you’ve acquired through experience. It would also galvanize you into finding a more satisfying way of using them. Ifyou need to reassess your entire lifestyle, you could benefit from the services of a life coach.

Am I faced with several choices?

• Your dilemma is offering you the chance to sort out your priorities, consulting your heart as well as your head. What do you most want from life? Which of the available choices would be most likely to help you get it? If you still feel confused, then why not follow a path that will make you feel glad to be alive?

Do I tend to live in the post?

• The more you cling to the past, the less meaningful your life will seem. You need to find a way of rekindling your enthusiasm, perhaps by injecting some fresh stimulus into your life. This could mean finding the courage to do something you’ve always longed to do but lacked the confidence to try.

Do / long to find my ‘spiritual home’?

• Your dream is urging you to embark on a quest for self-knowledge and find a more authentic way of being. This means turning your attention within, perhaps through meditation or prayer. Spiritual counselling or psychotherapy can also help you to get in touch with your inner world and find your ‘inner home’, a state in which you feel emotionally and spiritually fulfilled.

... being lost dream meaning

lucky numbers: 01-19-21-40-41-48

balls, of: aggressive destructive desires to avoid situations you find uncomfortable.

being fired: quick reactions wil avoid an accident.

hearing a: the deception of fleeting relationship wil be exposed as meaningless.

man dreaming of hearing a, fired: overcome risks before entering into a project.

woman: wil marry a military man at great expense to your emotions.

military man firing a: marriage to a beautiful girl who wil dump you emotional y.

of: wil be cal ed upon to defend your country.

woman dreaming of a: are desperate to make an impression on your partner. ... cannon dream meaning

‘Now Allah has created the dream not only as a means of guidance and instruction, I refer to the dream, but he has made it a window on the World of the Unseen.’
Mohammed, the Prophet

Ancient art and literature are crowded with references to dreams. For thousands of years dreams have been credited with supernatural or prophetic significance by the majority of the world’s spiritual traditions. The Bible, for instance, makes it clear that dreams are divine messages and this explanation for dreams was shared by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, all of whom also believed that dreams had healing powers.

Certain cultures, such as the Australian Aborigines and many African and Native American tribes, have always believed dreaming to be a way in which an individual can enter into the collective spirit memory. To this day, dream pooling plays an important role in those societies where tribal members gather together for the purpose of interpreting dreams. Another view is held by the Inuit of Hudson Bay in Canada, who believe that when a person falls asleep and dreams, their soul goes wandering.

The Egyptians are thought to have been the first to develop a system of contrary dream interpretation; a positive dream, for example, predicts misfortune and a nightmare predicts an improvement in waking fortunes. They produced the earliest known dream dictionary, written approximately 4,000 years ago. Now called the Chester Beatty Papyrus, it came from Thebes in Egypt and is kept in the British Museum.

It was the ancient Greeks, however, who first proposed the theory that dreams were not from some external, divine source but internal communications, or the divine spark within. Plato (427-347 BC) suggested that dreams were expressions of a person’s hidden desires, whilst his pupil Aristotle (384-322 BC) speculated that dreams shared similar themes and were not divine oracles but coincidences. It was the ‘father of medicine’ Hippocrates (460-377 BC) who proposed that dream symbols reflect the state of the dreamer’s body—for example, fire denoted indigestion—and should be regarded as valuable diagnostic tools.

The first fully-fledged dream researcher to focus on dream symbols and dream themes was a Roman living in Greek Asia Minor called Artemidorus (AD 138-180), who wrote a book about dream interpretation that is still in print. As far as Artemidorus was concerned, dream symbols had certain meanings but the most important aspect of dream interpretation was the symbols’ personal significance to the dreamer, along with the dreamer’s personal circumstances.

In much of Europe, even though the early Christians respected dreams for their spiritual significance, the repressive control of the Roman Catholic Church put a stop to any attempts at dream interpretation. By the fifteenth century, dreams were regarded as no longer significant or important. Even a century or so later, Shakespeare called them ‘children of the idle brain’. This school of thought persisted into the eighteenth century, when dreams were still thought to be meaningless.

In the early nineteenth century, when the restrictive influence of the Church began to wane and members of the German Romantic movement—in their quest for spontaneous expression—rediscovered the potential of dreams, a revival of interest in dream interpretation began to trickle into the mainstream with the publication of popular dream dictionaries such as Raphael’s Royal Book of Dreams (1830). The stage was now set for Freud and Jung; two men who continue to have the greatest impact on the way we interpret dreams today.... a brief history of dream interpretation dream meaning

There is an ongoing debate about whether dreams are a vehicle for messages or whether dreams are random by-products of the brain. Both sides of the argument are briefly summarized here.

THE ONGOING DEBATE. Though mystics have long seen dreams as a message from the soul, psychologists are not so sure. Researchers are divided. Some conclude that dreams have meaning, while others theorize that dreams are random images that have no intentional meaning or message. As the nature of scientific enquiry, the debate will continue.

DREAMS AS MEANINGLESS, RANDOM EVENTS. Those who see dreams as meaningless think that dream imagery is related to the random, spontaneous firing of brain cells (neurons), which fire like blinking lights that turn on and off. This process of brain cells turning themselves on and off is thought to be part of the brain’s housekeeping and upkeep. Proponents such as Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchson suggest that cells in the hindbrain (the lower brain stem) spontaneously activate cells in higher brain centers (the cortex), which creates the nightly imagery that we call dreams. They see dreams as meaningless. In this view, the images you experience at night are random events that happen because individual brain cells fire at random (turn on and off) during the night.

DREAMS AS MEANINGFUL. Those who hold the view that dreams do have meaning agree with those who hold the opposite view—that brain cells engage in spontaneous firing. However, they consider that fact irrelevant. Instead of a focus on individual brain cells, they theorize that, like a computer, the brain has the equivalent of built-in software (neuronal mechanisms) that enables the mind to process thoughts, feelings, and experiences. One such software-like neuronal package relates to dreaming.

These psychologists point out that the brain has other similar processes conducive to information processing, such as the ability of children to learn complex language patterns. Linguist Noam Chomsky describes language patterns as “deep” versus “surface” structures; these are complex grammar and language patterns that children absorb without coaching, no matter what their language. In Chomsky’s view, such an ability in children suggests that the brain has a built-in template related to language learning. Theorists who see dreams as having meaning, surmise there are similar brain templates associated with dreaming.

Researchers Aaron Greenberg and Milton Kramer concluded that dreams have meaning, pointing to studies that suggest dreaming is linked to maintaining emotional and psychological balance. Their studies on the dreams and sleep of traumatized war veterans and those with emotional disorders indicate dreams play a key role in regaining emotional stability. Their research revealed that story lines in dreams relate to actual events in a dreamer’s life and to actual needs in a dreamer’s life. In effect, Greenberg and Kramer independently concluded that dreams are meaningful.

DO DREAMS GIVE YOU A MESSAGE? Do dreams carry specific insights for dreamers? Apart from scientific debates and hypotheses, you can check out countless dream books and Web sites that describe the personal experiences of individuals who have experienced specific messages and meaning in their dreams. No matter what scientists may speculate or conclude, dream enthusiasts will continue to analyze their dreams.... do dreams have meaning? dream meaning