Wednesday "Interpreting Dreams"

Dear Diary,

I had the opportunity to work with someone on their dream interpretation. It was a delightful break for me as it has been awhile since I have done dream work. The call came in yesterday with the request of  wanting to know about nightmares that they were having which had been very vivid and kept reoccurring. The nightmares were all different but they had the same since of urgency. When they were compared they also all had the same message.

Now what I like about dream work and interpretation is that each person has their own experience in which their subconscious uses to communicate to them. When the subconscious wants to make its self known to get messages across to the person it uses their emotions and experiences through symbols. It is it's own language. The other part is that there are some ground rules that relate to most people but the rest depends on each individual as to what is going on with them in their own lives. That makes it fun and different for each person.

For example a dream of snakes can mean so many different things. To a person who likes snakes the message may mean one thing opposed to someone who is terrified of them. In some cultures snakes are considered very wise and have great healing medicine while in others a snake maybe considered to be a sign of evil. Another example are storms. There are many different kinds of storms. Personally I love a good Texas thunder storm and the more lighting makes it all the more exciting. My sister-in-law from San Francisco on the other hand was terrified and worried that the lightning was going to strike the house when she visited one year. If you mention a storm that is a tropical depression then my reaction is to turn different shades of green from my experience of being out on a sailboat in the middle of the Bahamas in that kind of storm. If you mentioned the same storm to my husband, he would tell you that it was the best time he ever had riding it out and would do it again. That is why interpreting a dream depends really on the person who is dreaming it.

If you take for instance the symbol of the house.. The house in dreams always represents the self. So with this rule in place now you have the different kinds of houses and the different rooms that are inside the house. Each room and each kind of house is a symbol that represents what is happening with that person. That is the fun part which is learning to look up or find the different meanings in the dream from breaking it down. Color also is anther symbol and if the house in your dream is a cretin color then that means something to. Again remembering that your subconscious is speaking in a language that is talking to your soul and to your mind. Your part is to learn the language.

One of my teachers told me to keep a dream journal and to write down my dreams each morning. He also said to break it down with the different symbols and then write down what each symbol meant to me. When I did it I was surprised that it really worked. Some of the messages in my dreams were things that I had buried deep within my subconscious that when I saw them I knew the information was very important to me. Ever have that feeling that you know something is wrong or you can't put your finger on it? Well, your subconscious knows and it is there locked away until we are ready to deal with it. Dreams can be those opportunities that hold the keys to those things that help us find answers to within ourselves.

There are lots of books with dream symbols and websites to help with finding the messages in dreams. One dream website is http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/  The best thing to do is to find the different resources and the one that fits for you. If it doesn't resonate, then move on. Again we are all different and one website or a particular book may work for you and may not work for another. If you find one that fits then that will help you get started after that you will know your own symbols as you work on interpreting your dreams.