UNDERSTANDING SYMBOLS

The most curious thing about dreams, perhaps, is they speak to us in symbols. These may seem strange, but once we understand the meaning they are much clearer than our usual way of attempting to communicate with ourselves and others. Why, you may ask, do I have to go through all the symbology in dreams? Wouldn't it be easier just to get the straight message? Communication among people is difficult at best, with so many things open to misinterpretation because of blocks and perceptual filters. Once you know your own symbols you cannot mistake the message, knowing instantly what is being given to you and understanding it totally. A picture speaks a thousand words, and the symbols (pictures) are like shorthand, being much easier to interpret than verbal conversation. Working with symbols might be compared to playing a piano. When you first begin you are certain that this has to be the most awkward and complicated thing you have ever undertaken. But after a routine period of practice, your new skill becomes a natural flowing easy part of your life. So think of working with dream symbols as just learning another language. They are a higher, more accurate, more integrative level that enables you to become aware of self as an interdimensional being.

Overview: --------- There are primary dream symbols which usually have the same meanings. A good place to begin is to realize that everything in the dream is you. You are the producer, writer, actor and director. People in the dream usually represent qualities within yourself you have projected on to them. Male and female figures represent your own masculine and feminine energies. A child represents your child part, an aged person an old part of self, either one that is wise or a part that is dying because you have outgrown it. Animals represent feelings you have about specific animals or the characteristics associated with them; for example, a wolf is danger, like the wolf in sheeps clothing; a fox is cunning and craftiness. A pig may mean gluttony. A house, building, building, store or other structure is you. If it is large, it indicates great potential and awareness of opportunities and/or inner resources. If the rooms are cluttered, you obviously are not keeping your house in order. If some of the rooms are dark, they are parts of the self you do not know or understand. The attic or upstairs represents the spiritual self, the ground floor the physical or everyday self, and the basement the sexual or subconscious self. The various rooms and how they are decorated and arranged indicate that particular aspect of your life; bathroom - cleansing, eliminating, releasing; dining room - nurturing, fellowship, etc. Any vehicle, a car, plane, spacecraft, boat - also represents the self. It is your mode of travelling or being in the world. A car is your physical vehicle and indicates how you are doing in everyday life. Going backwards, downhill, the wrong way? Got a flat tyre? Are you speeding ahead in perfect control? A boat or ship is your emotional vehicle and lets you know what is going on in your emotional life. Are you being tossed upon the seas of life, going up and down? Are you in dry dock? Are you at the helm? Do you have an anchor? An airplane or any airborne vehicle is your spiritual vehicle, and if you are on your way to the airport, you know you are preparing to take off to new spiritual understanding. A motorcycle or bicycle means you need balance in your life. Water represents the emotions, fire is purification, air is the spiritual self, and earth is the physical self (or degree of grounding). Once you begin to recognize a few basic symbols, then you begin to look for colours (you do not dream in black and white), clothes, people, scenery, objects, sizes, shapes, numbers, words, letters, and so on. Everything has its own significance. Fences or road blocks indicate that creative thinking is needed to get beyond a particular problem that is now facing you. The type of road you find yourself travelling upon represents how smooth or rough your life journey is at present. If you are on a freeway it is easygoing. If on a bumpy road, you are getting there, but it is difficult at present. If you are paving a road, you are making your way easier for the future. Any symbols given to you, whether in fantasy, meditation, or guided imagery, are all the same. They are coded messages from self to self. When you "get the picture" you understand the situation.

There are a few different ways to find out what the symbols in your dream are trying to tell you, such as direct symbol dialogue or symbol word association poetry and flow of consciousness technique. The Dreamer must have a focussed intent in using these, as they require not so much time, but patience and determination. I find this trying, since I am a Gemini, and my mind wants to wade in and do perfect poetry. Attempting to not think and let the subconscious come with words is a challenge to me. However, most people should get something from the effort.

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