Dream Dictionary

See Weapons and Utensils.

An unnatural structure erected to hold back water portrays the symbolic blocking or ‘holding back’ of emotions. The condition of the dam and the details surrounding this imagery can suggest whether the emotions demand release; the clues to what is blocking their expression, or the flood that may ensue should the dam break. See Water and Natural Disasters under Landscape and Scenery.

Dancing in a dream portrays integration, or two sides of you moving in unison. You explore aspects of yourself that are being portrayed by your dancing partner. For example, a woman dancing with a man might be ‘learning how to move in step’ with her Animus or assertive, aggressive ability to provide for herself. A man dancing with a woman is exploring the idea of moving in step with his Anima as he explores his sensitivity. Dancing with a frightening character can symbolize the integration of the Shadow or repressed side of the self that seeks integration. Dancing portrays graceful movement from a sense of balance and the idea of actualizing self expression. Dancing with Animals can symbolize integrating the emotion that the animal represents. See also Archetypes and Universal Characters.

Dreaming offers a safe environment to explore difficult ideas. Even Nightmares are a positive sign that something powerful is stirring within you. The more frightening the dream, the more urgency the psyche feels in trying to bring awareness to something that is repressed. The idea of something appearing dangerous in a dream arises because of a transformative event that may have led to an ‘uncomfortable shift’ within you. Explore the symbol associated with the danger such as: Accident, Rickety Structures in Houses and Buildings, Attack or Being Chased, Intruder and The Shadow under Archetypes and Universal Characters and also, Natural Disasters under Landscape and Scenery. Something only appears 'dangerous' in a dream because you are not facing it.

To dream of being in the dark shows that you are 'in the dark' about the symbolism being explored in the dream. Something has yet to come into conscious awareness. If the same dream moves from night to day, it shows the issue moving into conscious awareness. See Placement and Perspective and Landscape and Scenery.

Daytime represents consciousness, or what you are aware of, while a dream in a night setting often suggests issues that you are not consciously facing. Explore the other symbolism as clues to what may need to be acknowledged and integrated. See Placement and Perspective.

See Corpse.
 

The idea of death is a complex symbol with many meanings. If you dream that your life is being threatened, the dream is exploring how you are letting go of a side of you that is no longer appropriate or that you must let 'pass on.' If you are witnessing someone else being killed, you are not owning this transformative process that is required of you. Ask yourself how the death of this 'other person' might represent a side of you that needs to undergo some type of change or metamorphosis. Since all people in dreams represent sides of you, think of the adjective you would use to describe the person who has died and how it represents you. Many people dream of seeing a loved one who has died and comes back to visit, as a way of taking baby steps in the acceptance of this loss. Often, they will see the person who has passed on a television show or in some other media form as the idea of accepting the death makes its way into consciousness. See Advertisement, Murder, Corpse, and Attack and Being Chased.

Something may be rotting as the image of the potential for ‘new life’ that is festering because it is not receiving proper care. You may need to prune away old growth to allow something new to grow in its place. New doors may be opening, while you remain focused on only loss. Somewhere within, you are recognizing that some part of you requires nourishment and care. Explore the symbol that is rotting as a representation of what may need to be released. See Food and Corpse.

See Placement and Perspective.

A deer is associated with gentleness and the idea of the soul. It can be a message about what is 'dear' in life and the need to find it. See Animals.

In the same sense that you ‘chew' on experience to 'digest’ it, and ‘eliminate’ past experience and perspectives, seeing excrement can symbolize how an outlook that was originally nourishing, may need to pass. Dreaming of defecation is a sign that something you are holding onto needs to be released. To defecate in public can be a symbol of how peer pressure or conformity is forcing you to be something you are not. You may have anger and resentment that cannot be expressed because of how others would view you for doing so. The negativity or repulsion that is often associated with excrement shows how the unconscious has rejected what you are holding on to, in a way that moves you to release it. Associated with another character or animal can suggest the side of you is being eliminated, such as feelings/emotions (animal) or the characteristics you associate with this person. Often you will dream of Water leaks later on, as a representation of how releasing has allowed feelings (water) to seep and renew consciousness. See Animals and Houses and Buildings.

The symbolism that you feel the need to defend can offer insight into the area of your life that you are currently protecting, sometimes in an unhealthy way. Territory can suggest what you have built or ‘earned’ as in your public identity, career, family or position in life. The idea of protecting something can either suggest recognizing its importance in your life, or seeing how protecting it has trapped you in your growth. If you are protecting a wall, then you need to consider why you would need to erect a structure that can only leave you trapped. Perhaps you are fearful or afraid of intimacy and change. See Weapons and Utensils, Houses and Buildings, and Purses, Wallets, Luggage, Jewels and Keys.

Habitual behavior or the ‘trained’ mental and emotional responses that protect the psyche are called defense mechanisms. In your early years, you are like a sponge, absorbing incoming information to understand the person that you are becoming. Sometimes the feedback you received was positive and at other times, it may have been negative. Just like the other mechanisms in your body, the psyche has a way of protecting itself from pain by employing defensive measures. It can block any incoming information that causes you to feel ‘uneasy.’

At some point in your life, a type of subconscious net began to both trap beliefs within the unconscious, while rejecting anything that goes against what you were trained to believe about yourself. A defense mechanism can be as simple as the psyche’s ability to block emerging or transformative ideas. It can be as complex as how it attempts to work through difficult or repressed emotions by leading you to confront them through difficult experiences or through dreaming. These are situations that hold a 'certain fascination for you,' because they embody an opportunity to overcome what you are repressing. In this case, you tend to attract the situations that you need, while these are the very situations that you would also, rather avoid. The more you ward off this transformative aspect of the psyche, the more these issues will become the symbolism of your dreams and daily experience. Abreactions, like the Freudian slip, show the power of the psyche in its desire to break free of repression.

You spend two-thirds of your life building belief structures that are disassembled during the one-third of your life that you spend dreaming. The human body was designed to take in, process and release energy. While it also has the ability to store energy, this energy will still find ways of dissipating. See Dreaming Explained.

Generally this will portray a living thing, although any symbol that is deformed, or constructed in an ‘unusual’ way, offers clues to that part of your nature that is undeveloped, or behaving unnaturally. If it is something in nature, it can suggest unnatural growth or a type of protectiveness that is holding you back. As a part of the body, see Anatomy and Body Parts Also see: Animals, Houses and Buildings and Landscape and Scenery.

Just as you ‘construct’ belief structures, you also have the power to tear them down. If you are dreaming of demolishing something, chances are you are protecting something that is no longer necessary. Your feelings and the symbolism surrounding what is being demolished can portray how something may require protection against the ‘side of you that would tear it down’; ie: self-criticism. On the other hand, it may be an outworn aspect that needs to be torn down. See Build and Defend

Similar to dreaming of Aliens, you are disowning some aspect of yourself that you have either associated with being ‘evil,’ or you are having a hard time 'identifying' with. As you grow, you repress natural and instinctive traits, like aggression, neediness or pain if you believed it was not good in the face of social restraints.  Evil is simply the opposite of the good or unacknowledged power within you. As this energy seeks expression, it can appear threatening or repulsive in proportion to how tightly you block its expression in daily life. See Evil and Shadow under Archetypes and Universal Characters.

The character that pulls or fixes your teeth is associated with the side of you that cares for ‘what happens with the mouth,’ like expression. If pain or blood is involved, the dream is exploring the idea of painful communication, where ‘pulling teeth’ symbolizes your frustration and inability to change your expression. Associated with teeth, it can also represent enlightenment. See Teeth under Anatomy and Body Parts, and the Wise Man and Wise Woman under Archetypes and Universal Characters.

To dream of leaving is a common theme associated with Vehicles and Places of Transportation, in which you are hurrying or late. The time of departure can have symbolic meaning, portraying the sense of where you stand in relation to the stages of your life. Generally, if you are dreaming about the need to depart, you may be stuck in a transformational stage and 'need to move on.' The other symbolism of the dream will shed light on what part of you is departing, embarking or coming forward. See Time of Day under Placement and Perspective, Arriving and Leaving and Numbers.

See Placement and Perspective; and also, Floors under Houses and Buildings.

See Landscape and Scenery.

Representing your ‘work space,’ the desk is often associated with finding something unusual, looking for something, or writing as a way of exploring potential and your idea of authority through communication. See Book; Black or Red and Yellow writing under Colors; Lighting under Placement and Perspective, and Room under Houses and Buildings to uncover additional meaning.

See Shadow under Archetypes and Universal Characters, Evil and Demons.

This ‘precious stone’ often emerges in dreams where you ‘discover’ it as the answer to all the difficulties that you may face. As the most valuable aspect of your nature, the associated symbolism will reveal its current ‘well-being’ and how ‘uncovering it’ can help you through difficulty. See Purses, Wallets, Luggage, Jewels and Keys.

As a symbol that suggests the random turning of events, dreaming of dice can portray the idea of gambling, or the uncertainty that you feel about the choices you are making. See Numbers.

In daily life, you dig to uncover the roots of something. You may dig for the truth or dig to bury an aspect, which you’d rather not face. This symbol goes deeper than just searching for something. It suggests that you know where it is and need only discover the roots to bring it back to life. On the other hand, digging can suggest the need to remove it completely, by destroying its roots. Digging portrays a desire to see something or understand the dynamics of things hidden. See Burial.

Like Banquet, you are exploring nourishment in a social setting, sometimes associated with family dynamics. Its connection to ‘the later part of the day’ can bring the idea of nourishment/fulfillment in the later stages of life. Dining can suggest finding nourishment hidden in darkness or the unknown, as ‘issues you may need to sleep on,’ and is different from the nourishment of Breakfast that sustains and motivates you for the day. See Food.

See Reptiles.

This is a symbol often associated with sexuality and intimacy. Something only becomes ‘dirty’ because it is ‘unclean’ or taboo. Whatever symbol is recognized as being dirty will suggest that part of you that has been overlooked or neglected. Dirty can also be associated with attempts at transformation. When you are moving away from a past way of being that was adopted through conformity, your new persona, costume or clothes can appear dirty, yet dirty symbolizes a more earthy and organic side of you that is emerging. This is also the case when you dream that your house or inner architecture is dirty. Whether it is sexual or organic, the idea of dirty is a positive symbol about growth. See Bath and Clean.

See Natural Disasters, Landscape and Scenery and Accident.

As a waterway, the ditch can portray how emotions are wearing away at your foundation. It can also suggest a place where you ‘ditch’ something and allow it to be covered or buried through the accumulating passage of time. Sometimes it suggests a ‘last ditch effort,’ where you may be forced to approach the ditch to dis-cover or ‘uncover’ the truth of something. The ditch symbolizes how you have buried something that ‘collects floating debris’ in the same way that projection overlays the past upon the present. See Abyss, Water, and River.

This symbol can be associated with ‘going beneath the water,’ or delving into your unknown feelings or aspects that you are coming to recognize that were previously hidden 'below the surface.' It can also appear as something ‘diving toward the earth’ which shows fears about your aspirations and ability to achieve your goals. You may have a sense of ‘being brought back to earth’ if your ambitions are not fulfilling. At the same time, diving is a classic image of going deep to retrieve the treasure of untapped potential. See Water; Plane under Accident, Boat under Vehicles and Places of Transportation and Deep under Placement and Perspective.

The doctor is the character that heals us. As a part of the psyche revealed by characters in our dreams, when this character appears you are working to heal something or moving toward integration as a type of 'operation' takes place. Your well being may require the symbolic removal (surgery) of another aspect that no longer serves you. Hospital under Houses and Buildings.

A dog is a faithful companion and demonstrates unconditional love as the easy expression of feelings and love of this type in your relationship with others. If you are dreaming of a dog, you are exploring unconditional love and the idea of being domesticated or changed by a relationship. A coyote on the other hand, is wild and uncivilized and can portray the need to have a type of freedom in your current relationship. See Animals.

This playful mammal interacts with humans and could be classified as ‘the dog of the sea.’ Like dogs, who are ‘faithful’ and represent the easy expression of feelings and love in your relationship to others, dreaming of a dolphin suggests this loving connection taking place within you as you move to access the depths of the unconscious. See Sealife and Water.

See Ass and Animals.

Doors represent both barriers and the idea of exploring potential. You may dream of a familiar house with a door leading to a room you didn't even know existed. Since the house represents your 'inner architecture,' the door can symbolize opportunities, unacknowledged potential or strengths that you are not considering. The door captures the idea of the way you hold yourself back from new experiences and also, the pathway to new experiences. The door can be a sexual symbol if this area of your life is currently being held back.

The front door is associated with how you reveal yourself in social situations. Dreaming of the front door represents a type of 'coming out' or a change in the way you appear to others. The backdoor leads to the area of the mind that is kept more private, and a dream associated with the backdoor can symbolize blockages or opportunities that you are not facing head on. Side doors capture the idea of influences, or the middle way between two tough choices. Associated with peripheral vision, the side door embodies ideas that encompass more of life than you are currently 'allowing in.' The coming and going through side doors can signify a type of hiding. Any characters associated with door openings should be explored. Consider the adjective that best describes the person and explore how they represent aspects of you that are currently 'coming or going' as in being adopted or released. See Door under Houses and Buildings.

 See Reptiles.

Since drapes cover the windows, there is a sense of not being willing to see something or putting on pretenses, rather than expressing who you really are. See Curtains.

The human body holds an ability to heal itself that requires no thought or action on your part. Even while you may not remember your dreams, your ideas and attitudes are being processed in much the same way as food is digested and eliminated. Healthy thought processes nourish you and keep you open to growth and transformation. On the other hand, dysfunctional ways of warding off change can hold you back and will be processed through dreaming, where aspects are either given full expression or eliminated. Dream analysts work with the imagery to understand the type of energy that is undergoing transformation.

If we observe nature, we see its drive toward innovation at the same time that it redistributes the bound up energy of stagnation. Nature is relentless in ability to overcome any barriers to its forward progress. Since we are natural creatures too, the psyche moves toward a similar path of change and renewal. We spend two-thirds of our lives building belief structures that are disassembled during the one-third of the time that we spend dreaming. In this way, we can continue to evolve in a changing world.

In living things, there is a marked demonstration of moving disorder toward the endurance of order. This is different from the universe where there is a movement of order toward entropy or the reduction to randomness. Evolution shows how living things demonstrate a trend to achieve a peculiar orderliness in an environment of disorder. The living organism seeks stasis, something that is foreign to its environment. Yet, ultimately, the organism must become dependant upon a changing environment.

Our existence seems to drive us toward a condition where we barely hover over the peak of achieving stasis: a highly stressful condition. All living organisms utilize unique devices or defense mechanisms to achieve probable and persistent order. Adaptation allows the organism to continue to interact with an environment that is always changing. In higher organisms, this energy management process is achieved through the nervous system.

When transformative energy seeks expression within the psyche, we decide from memory the course that will lead to the effective return to a steady state of order. During dreaming, our defenses are inactive and information can make its way beyond our walls. Energy management describes how living organisms transform energy and store it, demonstrated by how fat is stored in tissues. Repression and projection are the ways in which we transform and store latent psychic energy. Dreaming has the function of moving us beyond what we repress as a way of releasing latent psychic energy.

Dreaming shows how the imagination acts as a type of sensory organ that allows us to process ‘wasted energy’ that would better serve us in other ways. Freud called dreaming "a peculiar way of thinking." We may rehash events in our dreams and therefore, dismiss the process. However, research shows that the mind is processing the information specifically because it may have impacted us in ways we failed to recognize. When the opportunity to transform comes up against the walls of our defense mechanisms, information still finds productive ways of reaching us through dreams. See Unconscious.

See Clothing and Makeup.

Drinking fluids suggests fulfillment or a necessary change related to emotional needs. See Water, Food, Alcohol and Cup.

The idea of driving has associations with what motivates you. If you are driving, you may be in control of your sense of direction but if the vehicle is out of control, you may feel insecure about changes you are making. The person driving you needs to be considered in terms of how they may be dominating you or more in control of your sense of destiny. See Car and Driving under Vehicles and Places of Transportation.

Like other Water dreams, your movement in water signifies how you are approaching change related to feelings and how you feel about your ability to do so. To dream of drowning in water, shows the enormous impact of your emotions, and how you are fighting to keep your head (thoughts) above water (your feelings.) Drowning dreams are a wakeup call to integrate your feelings and express them so that you can master them.

Similar to Alcohol, dreaming about drugs can be indicative of not facing the idea of substance abuse. Since they alter perception, taking drugs or being given a drug can be a message about changing how you view experience. If the drug is associated with healing, the other symbolism can provide additional insight into a lack of wellness or dis-ease. Receiving an injection by a needle has the additional association of pain and blood, which suggests difficult feelings that once integrated or ‘injected’ into consciousness will have the power to heal.

The idea of ‘beating a drum’ can symbolize standing up for a cause or something that has become a major focal point to the exclusion of other equally important issues. The drum can also represent the heart, bringing to light the things that you are passionate about.

See Alcohol.