скачать книгу бесплатно
Barn
Associated with labor. Since this is a storage place and home for animals, the dream may be implying that you have an inner storage place containing the essentials for inner growth.
Beauty parlor/hairdressers
New ideas, thoughts are cleansed, created and rearranged.
Boarding house
The essentials are provided but payment is required.
Cleaners
Clean up some aspect of your personality or have you been ‘taken to the cleaners’?
Firehouse
Contains what is needed to put a fire (anger, passion) out.
Funeral parlor
Something dead needs to be laid to rest or reviewed. ‘It’s your funeral.’
Railroad station
Travel, change; waiting to get on the right track in life’s journey. See also TRAVEL.
Restaurant
The nourishment is provided, but payment is needed. The type of restaurant is important. In a fast-food restaurant or cafeteria, the dreamer is required to do much to help; in an elegant setting, the basic needs are provided but more is expected in return.
School
Lessons to be learned; more growth is required; associated with school days; raise thinking to a new level.
Service station
Re-energize your body, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Store
Book store—learning, study, research; clothing store—shopping for a new means of expression; department store—temptation and choices; drugstore—healing prescriptions; health food store—healthier diet; old-fashioned grocery store—inadequate nourishment; music store—harmony; supermarket—eating and living habits. See also MONEY AND SHOPPING.
as you gaze down at the activity below. Were you relieved to be far removed from other people or did you feel imprisoned? Towers in dreams can also suggest an emotionally impregnable figure in the dreamer’s life, for example an authoritarian father, or male authority in general. There may also be a reference to a ‘tower of strength’, or a person on whom you can rely for support and comfort. If your tower has no door, you are not in touch with your inner self. If there are no windows, you can’t see all the good things about yourself.
An ivory tower suggests innocence, but it can also suggest arrogance, intellectual aloofness and the loneliness such an attitude can bring. A square tower suggests a pragmatic, practical approach, and a round tower suggests spiritual harmony. If the tower is round on top of a square building, this suggests harmony in mind, body and spirit. How you get to the tower in your dream is important in your dream. If your steps are difficult to climb, this suggests you are a private person. If the door is jammed, you are not ready to understand yourself. If the door is bolted, you must make the effort to go in. Once inside the tower, you can use other explanations in this encyclopedia to interpret what you encounter.
CHANGE AND CONFLICT (#ulink_a5c74392-82f9-579d-aa93-2fe3e3b6a69c)
Dreams about change are common because the experience of change is an inescapable fact of life and whether the change is minor, such as a new hairstyle, or major, such as getting married, all change involves both loss and gain.
Dreams about conflict are also very widespread. This is because, in the same way as with change, we all experience conflict to some degree in our daily lives. We do not, as a result, spend all our lives feeling hostile, but every one of us experiences varying degrees of tension and anxiety.
Understanding conflicts and changes can help us manage them better, and many dream researchers believe that dreams are an invaluable tool for self-understanding. For example, Freud believed that dreams reflect hidden conflicting aspects of our personality, whilst Jung believed that the process of adapting to change or conflict was vital for survival and dreams offered an insight into that process. Adler believed dreams could solve problems, and theorists from the Gestalt school believe dreams increase self-understanding.
Dreams about change and conflict should therefore be listened to closely. They are a way of processing the thoughts and feelings surrounding that change and/or conflict and by so doing they can lead us towards psychological healing and personal growth. See also STAGES OF LIFE.
Change Scenarios
CELEBRATIONS
Dreams about birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and any other rite of passage ceremony all contain symbolism associated with change. Notice how you felt in the dream. How did other characters react to the change event? Was there a sense of happiness or sadness in the air? Did obstacles prevent the ceremony from running smoothly?
DISGUISES
Dreams of yourself or other people in disguise can often suggest change. The wearing of a mask relates to the appearance you present to others (as well as to yourself), and sometimes it is hard to remove the mask, perhaps because you are being forced to wear the mask by others. This may be a warning that you risk losing all sense of self. Notice who was disguised in the dream and what they were disguised as. If they were disguised as something sinister, perhaps this suggests fears in your everyday life. If they were disguised as something light-hearted, perhaps this is an element of wish-fulfillment, reflecting a desire to drop pretences and replace them with more fun and spontaneity in your life. According to Jungian symbolism, wearing a veil over your head indicates a desire to be invisible and to withdraw from the outside world.
FERTILITY
Given their associations with fertility and growth, dreams about the birth of a baby or animal, or of tending gardens and vegetation are associated with new beginnings and positive change for the dreamer. Dreams that involve other new beginning such as new jobs, new houses and new relationships are also symbolic of aspects of life change. To understand the meaning of the dream—and what particular change it is pointing to—you need to pay attention to how you feel in the dream, as well as noting any details within in.
Dream change in art
The subject of dreams and change has often been portrayed in art and culture. For example, in his classic novella Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka used this notion of change when Gregor Samsa awakes to find himself transformed into an insect. Surrealist artists, in particular Salvador Dali, used images of dream change to inform their work. For example, Dali’s ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’ is based on the myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection.
GOODBYE
Dreams that contain images of death, or of saying goodbye or farewell to family and friends, also suggest times of change. Such dreams do not mean that someone is going to die or that certain people are going to leave you, rather that a particular phase in life is coming to an end. The dream should contain clues regarding which phase in life is being referred to. If you are the dead person or the dead person is unknown to you, then some aspect of your personality or some issue in your daily life needs to be left behind. If a friend dies in your dream, perhaps that friendship has run its course, or perhaps your friend is about to get married and the nature of your friendship will change.
LABYRINTH MAZE
According to Jung, the enclosed labyrinth is a symbol of the unconscious, and a dream of entering a labyrinth represents rapid change and a journey towards self-discovery. As in the Greek myth of Theseus, who entered King Minos’ labyrinth in Knossos to kill the Minotaur, descent into the unconscious may sometimes involve confronting impulses we would rather ignore because they challenge or threaten us. If you see a maze in your dream, it may also indicate the need to find direction in life and the skills needed to negotiate change. If a map or chart of a maze appears in your dream, this may be a reassuring sign that you are on the right path.
RUIN/DESTRUCTION
If the dream centers on some kind of radical change such as revolution, war, fighting or combat, this suggests some kind of conflict in your life. Images of destruction can also relate to life changes that quite literally break with the past. A house left in ruins, for example, may suggest a family broken by divorce; fallen trees may symbolize a move to a new location. See also TREES.
TRANSFORMATION
Dreams in which obvious changes occur, and people and things are transformed into something or someone else, suggest changes in awareness. A landscape might change from dark to light (negative to positive), a person may change from male to female, or objects may take on human characteristics. These changes are often depicted as occurring immediately in dreams, like a speeded-up movie, and they reflect changes in waking life.
Bizarre transformations of objects into living things, such as a pencil turning into a snake, a doll into a donkey or a table into a swarm of wasps, suggest untapped potential within you that can help you cope with change. To clarify what this potential is, refer to the symbolic interpretation of the objects that have been transformed. Shape-shifter dreams, in which people you know suddenly transform into something else, typically a monster or beast, represent unpredictable people in your waking life. For example, someone might be kind and caring towards you until they transform under the influence of alcohol. On the other hand, the shape-shifting may be some kind of moral test. Can you uncover the beauty behind the monster’s mask? What lies below the outer skin of the dream beast? Try to make a connection to your waking life.
Sudden changes from winter to spring in a dream, or from night to day, may also suggest new directions and developments in the dreamer’s life. If the other way round, and the switch is from day to night, or spring to winter, this may suggest the need to confront and deal with dangerous impulses. If the landscape suddenly becomes unfamiliar in your dream, this can point to an unwillingness or an inability to cope with the new. However, if the new environment is welcoming and friendly this is a positive sign. A return to the comfort of the childhood home or a familiar environment is widely interpreted by Freudians and Jungians as a desire to return to the security of the womb during times of change and conflict.
If something is transfigured in a dream, such as when an object or person is surrounded by light, this suggests that light has entered the person during a period of transition and they are becoming more self-aware. If you become invisible in your dream, it can indicate that you feel ignored in waking life—that you and your life are insignificant to others. It can also mean that you are hiding from others or yourself. If you have this type of dream, it might be time to look at how you present yourself to other people.
TRANSITION
The following dreams tend to be common during times of change or transition. A dream of waking and getting up, when in fact you are still asleep, may signal reluctance to face change or a new challenge—such as a new job or new relationship. Then again, perhaps this false wakefulness is the mind’s way of preventing us from waking up, thereby exemplifying Freud’s theory that the purpose of all dreams is to prolong, rather than interrupt, sleep. Dreams of a vehicle careering out of control suggest worries about losing all sense of direction in life, especially if you are the driver, passenger or bystander unable to influence the events.
A rudderless, drifting raft or boat suggests loss of direction, but some believe that sometimes not knowing where you are going can be a way of discovering your true self. A raft is an image of survival and, in some ways, this image suggests the ability to ride out the sea of troubles rather than be overwhelmed. Strange reflections in the mirror are often said to suggest personal identity problems during times of conflict—if it’s your face, and your eyes are closed, this is a refusal to confront reality and if it is someone else’s face, this may indicate a sense of inadequacy when compared to them. No face at all is the ultimate identity crisis; a fear of death itself. If a bridge appears in your dream, this is a clear symbol of transition from the present to the unpredictable future. Crossing the bridge suggests that you possess the strength within to cope with life’s journey and with difficult events such as moving home, divorce or a new job.
Conflict Scenarios
ABANDONMENT/FEAR/LOSS OF CONTROL
Dream images connected to feelings of abandonment, fear and loss of control all have some form of conflict as their theme. For example, dreams about missing a bus, train or airplane all point to some kind of tension in the dreamer about failing to achieve a goal. Dreams about being abandoned or left alone by a group of loved ones suggest feelings of anxiety about being left out, or being different from the crowd. Anxiously searching for the right road or path could point to fears about losing your identity. If you are happily wandering alone in your dream, this may suggest a feeling that the source of your problems lies outside yourself. Dreams about anchors and lifeboats also tell of the fight for survival in daily life. If you dream of being lost in dense vegetation, towering trees or tall reeds, you may feel that your progress is being thwarted by obstacles. As in the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, this dream may evoke longing for the comfort and warmth of home.
ARGUMENTS
If you dreamed that you had a heated argument with someone, try to identify who that person was. Your dream may mirror real-life hostility between the two of you, or you may be consciously unaware of your aversion to that person or their aversion to you. Your unconscious may use the dream as an outlet to release feelings of aggression, or it may use the dream to alert your conscious self to the hidden aggression. If, however, you can find no reason for hostility between the person in your dream and yourself in waking life, then perhaps the dream argument represents an aspect of yourself—this interpretation is even more likely if you are arguing with someone you don’t know. Try to recall what the person looked like and what the argument was about. If the dream focused on a young person arguing with an older person, perhaps the dream represented tension between the part of you that longs to be more spontaneous and the part of you that is a stickler for routine.
ATTACK/ATTACKER
If you are being attacked in your dreams, this suggests you are feeling threatened in some way, perhaps by your own impulses, or perhaps by other people and their attitude or remarks to you. If you are the attacker in the dream, who or what are you attacking? Attack is almost always a form of defense, so may also suggest defensiveness about some issue in, or aspect of, your life. There is also a positive side to attack, as new ideas and positive changes can threaten our old way of life and habitual way of thinking about things. If you are attacked by an animal in your dream, this suggests anxiety about aggression in yourself or other people. If you are attacked by a shadowy or frightening figure, this may depict feelings of fear and pain associated with the past. How you deal with the attack is important. If you run from it, the trauma is not being dealt with in waking life.
DANGER
Dreams about earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes all point to inner turmoil or emotional conflict that is shaking the foundation of the dreamer’s world. The dream may often come close to being a nightmare, but such dreams are warning you about something that is going on in your waking life to which you need to pay attention. A dream about a natural disaster is unlikely to be prophetic; it is more likely to be referring to something dangerous in your waking life. For example, an avalanche dream may refer to oppressive forces in waking life threatening to overwhelm you—an avalanche of responsibility, for example, that accompanies the birth of a new child. If you are swept away in the dream, you are being urged to find something, or someone, to hold onto in waking life to regain stability. If you dreamed that the earth was cracking open beneath you, this threat may be echoed in changes at work or insecurity within a relationship.
An explosion may reflect sudden changes in waking life or the release of emotion. What damage has the explosion inflicted in the dream? If anything was broken, interpret its symbolism; if someone was clinging on to you in the dream, who are they? If you dreamed you were in danger of thunder or lighting, again this may refer to emotional turmoil in waking life; but a dream about being struck by lighting could refer to sudden insight. If you dream that you are falling into a dark hole, is there some situation in waking life out of which you feel you cannot climb?
Dreams featuring alarms may be caused by car or house alarms that go off in the night; if there is no external stimulus of this sort, and your dream features a house alarm, does this allude to your family? Does someone need protection at this time? Was the alarm effective in the dream? If the alarm failed to go off, this is an extremely significant symbol. If your dream features a car alarm, this may allude to some kind of rash behavior and, as men often equate cars with sexuality, you may want to consider it in this context.
Dreams can also often warn of dangers of which we may be unaware in waking life. For example if you dream of overspending, this may suggest you are expending too much emotion on a particular person. If you dream of escaping from a prison to a happy landscape, this may be a warning that you need to relax more. There are other practical warning dreams. For example, you may dream that your car brakes fail and in waking life find that this is indeed the case. There is usually a simple explanation as your unconscious mind may have registered the fault, but this kind of dream should not be ignored (see ACCIDENTS, ACTION AND ADVENTURES). Similarly dreams of bodily aches and pains and other signs of poor health are also worth taking note of. See also SICKNESS AND HEALTH.
DISOBEDIENCE
Dreams that feature some kind of disobedience, mutiny and rebellion are about conflict with authority, such as a parent, a teacher, a corporation or even the government. If you were disobedient or rebellious in your dream, whose authority were you up against? To whom is it that you feel you need to assert your individuality and independence? On the other hand, your unconscious may have simply allowed you to give vent to feelings of resentment in the safety of the dream world. If you dreamed that you refuse to comply with your boss, or with someone who gives you directions in waking life, this may reflect your mounting anger or exhaustion in the face of demands and responsibilities being placed upon you.
If you felt liberated in your dream, perhaps this is a sign that you need to stand up for yourself more in waking life. If you were involved in a mutiny, do you long to rebel against authority? If you went on strike, such a dream may reflect feelings of frustration and exhaustion in waking life. If you found yourself engaged in arm wrestling, are you engaged in a real-life battle of wills? An alternative explanation for dreams of rebellion against an enemy, known or unknown is that you are in revolt against some part of yourself. Try to remember what you rebelled against in your dream and why, and see if you can draw a parallel in waking life.
DROWNING/CRAWLING/FALLING
Drowning in deep water suggests floundering in the depths of the unconscious. As with dreams of pursuit or being chased, this dream alerts you to areas of your unconscious that are creating conflict and need to be examined with care. Falling and jumping in an attempt to escape from hostile pursuers in a dream is a desperate escape mechanism and suggests that you might have more success if you turn at the last minute to face your enemies, having found the strength to confront them. Dreams in which you are trying to run from something or someone but find you cannot—perhaps because your feet are weighed down or stuck in the mud—can be interpreted in much the same way.
Crawling through a narrow space, tunnel or small enclosure, or trying to squeeze through a tiny corridor or hall points to your creative energies struggling to find expression; these are, however, also common-place dreams expressing anxiety about a challenging and imminent event such as a review at work, an examination or even the birth of a new baby. Being chased, not knowing who or what is out there in the darkness, or vainly trying to push through the crowds in a busy bar, street or department store also suggest that certain repressed aspects of your personality, or unexamined aspects of the self, demand to be dealt with. To be trapped in a dream signifies that you feel you are trapped by outside circumstances. To be aware of trapping something or someone is to try to hold onto them, and if you trap a butterfly or animal, you are trying to capture your inner self. Feeling trapped in dreams also suggests an inability to break free from old patterns of thought and behavior without outside help. See also NEGATIVE EMOTIONS.
FIGHTING
If you are fighting an unknown enemy in your dream, this may represent a struggle with the shadow side of your nature and the unwelcome aspects of your personality. For example, there might be a battle between your moral code and your sexual desire, or between your intellect and your emotional needs. Conflict can also occur between your personal drives and social, political and economic drives. The fight may also represent a battle between yourself and another person, and your conscious and unconscious needs. If the enemy is someone you know, perhaps you have unsuspected feelings of animosity towards them. A fight between a younger and an older person in your dream may suggest a rivalry between the dreamer and authority.
A fight between people of the same age may represent the struggle for recognition or sibling rivalry. Similar interpretations can be applied to any kind of struggle in your dream. Such fights usually depict a fight for freedom, independence or the truth. Your unconscious may also be urging you to work out why there is a conflict, and may be suggesting that there is a more subtle way of dealing with it than with fists. According to Freudians, the struggle depicts the battle between your father or mother for the attention of the other parent.
Idioms: fight it out; fight like cats and dogs; looking for a fight. See also BAD DEEDS.
Forbidden desires
Desires that are forbidden in waking life can be repressed by our unconscious, and when this happens, a conflict ensues between the conscious mind and the unconscious drives that are striving for expression. According to Freud and other dream analysts, we can use our dreams to safely explore this conflict and allow forbidden desires a mode of expression. For example, you may have a dream in which your sister falls ill if you have had an argument with her in waking life; if you are attracted to someone who is married, you may have a dream about having an affair with them.
Dreams can also express the conflict between what you ought to do and what you want to do so; for example, you may have a dream where you tell your boss exactly what you think of them. Other conflicts can center on thinking versus feeling, or rationalization versus intuition, and your dreams can be used to develop and resolve this conflict (see ARCHETYPES). For example, if you are a scientist you may have a dream that you fall passionately in love with a stranger. Your unconscious is urging you to develop the intuitive, impulsive, unexplored and underdeveloped aspect of your nature.
KILLING
If you dream about killing a person, an animal or see people or animals being killed, this does not mean you have latent violent tendencies. Instead it can mean the death of thoughts and actions that have been restricting your personal growth. A deliberate act of murder might suggest hostility, with the identity of the victim and murderer assisting with the interpretation. Killing an authority figure typically suggests a desire to escape social or personal constraints. Killing a parent points to unresolved childhood conflicts, perhaps deep-seated resentments that have not been expressed. If the parent was of the opposite sex, Freudians might consider it as evidence of the Oedipus complex. A dream of poison—either poisoning someone or being poisoned yourself—may refer to some underhand action we are taking or which is being taken against us. Look for clues in the dream. Who or what is being poisoned? Is someone you know in waking life poisoning your attitude unbeknownst to you? What is the color of the poison? Are you poisoning yourself in some way?
VIOLENCE
If you have a dream where the conflict contains gruesome, explicit images of violence, try to relate these to your waking life. If you can’t think of any waking parallels, consider the identity of your opponent in the dream? Is this someone you recognize or is it a hidden part of yourself? Was your opponent serious or light-hearted? Was anyone hurt in the dream? Was the conflict resolved and how so? Any violence in dreams is a reflection of your own inner feelings about yourself and sometimes about the situation around you. Seeing yourself as a victim of self-imposed violence suggests self-blame, perhaps related to the end of a relationship or the death of a loved one, both of which you may feel could have been avoidable had you had acted differently. Dream violence towards yourself may also express low self-esteem, self-loathing and destructive urges that should be dealt with before they erupt into waking life.
If, on the other hand, you are lashing out at others in your dream, this may reflect your struggle to fight the undesirable impulses within yourself. Violence towards an old person can indicate resentment against authority. Violence towards a child may indicate the dreamer’s inability to accept and express the child within themselves. If you dreamed that you were attacked or threatened with attack, it may be a warning of an attack in waking life. This may not be a physical attack but an attack on your integrity or character.
WAR
People who have been in a war situation may be plagued by dreams that recall their ordeals, but for those who have never seen war, such dreams usually refer to private battles raging either within themselves, or between themselves and other people. Are such battles necessary, or would reconciliation be better than victory? Are you being too hard on yourself? Carl Jung believed dreams of war to represent a conflict between the conscious and unconscious minds, which is a struggle between the deep instinctive forces and the rules of conscious conduct. However, sometimes turmoil is needed in order for the personality to develop and grow. If you can accept the part of yourself that is trying to find expression, you may be able to draw up a peace settlement. Anger, sorrow or pity are usually found in dreams about war; whichever of these emotions you feel will show the feeling or action in waking life that has provoked the dream.
The clue to the dream’s subject may be found in the identity of the opposing armies, or the landscape, in the soldier’s clothing and the course of the battle may be suggesting a similar action in waking life. Which army did you belong to? If it was a savage army, perhaps your dreaming mind is suggesting that your true allegiance lies with your instincts, but if you belong to a modern, sophisticated army, the dream may be telling you that your inclination is to follow the rule of your intellect. If you witnessed the outcome of the battle in your dream, or admired the victorious army and its winning tactics, this may give you an indication of how best to resolve the conflict within yourself.
Although war and battle dreams may indicate disagreement between two individuals, they may also point to explosive disagreements between certain groups of people in your life; for example, disagreements in the workplace or differing opinions within the family. Your dreaming mind may be warning you that you will soon be entangled in that conflict and this is especially so if a battlefield features in your dream. The battlefield may indicate the area of conflict and your dream may be indicating whether you should take sides or act as peacemaker. A battlefield scene may also represent your working environment or a
Particular weapons
If you can identify the weapon used in your dream and the symbolic meaning associated with it, you can get a better idea of what your real problem might be.
Axe
This can be both creative and destructive, as it is often used to separate the valuable from the worthless. An axe or hatchet can be a symbol of emotional readiness to cut out dead wood so you can free yourself from whatever is holding you back. If the axe belongs to an executioner, do you have a tendency for excessive self-criticism?
Bladed weapons
Although daggers and knives are symbols of violence—indicating concealed hostility towards someone—they are also symbols of male selfesteem and can stand for the secure presence of a father in waking life. But if a dagger or knife is used against you in your dream, this may suggest a threat from someone or a reminder that you are being confronted with a dangerous or precarious situation in waking life, as in ‘being on a knife’s edge’. A knife has the ability to cut into things and perhaps pinpoint what is bothering you or what needs to be cut out.
Swords
Swords feature in legend, religion and mythology and are often wielded to subdue evil forces, representing the triumph of good over evil. Swords can also denote kingship, as exemplified by ‘Excalibur’, the sword of King Arthur, suggesting justice or the highest source of authority. Being double-edged, swords can evoke feelings of guilt or remorse, but they also suggest spiritual strength and, like axes, the ability to cut away what is non-essential. The sword when sheathed may be a symbol of the self within the body. The lance shares the symbolism of the sword, but its phallic shape often points to sexual issues.
Idioms: put one’s knife in; on a knife edge; under the knife (surgery); cut it out; cut the atmosphere with a knife; doubleedged sword; cross swords; sword hanging by a thread (threats hanging over you); Sword of Damocles.
Bow and arrow
The bow and arrow can be a symbol of tension, especially sexual tension, as in Cupid’s bow. If the arrow is fired to the skies, this can express a wish to devote yourself to a higher purpose. Arrows also suggest being pierced by some intense emotion, or being hurt by someone. Were you the target or were you taking aim? Did the arrow hit or fall short? Was it a poisoned arrow? Arrows are also used symbolically to point the way, so an arrow in your dream can direct you to the right choice, perhaps relating to a decision you need to make in waking life.
Bullet/Ammunition
Bullets or ammunition can suggest verbal attacks in the context of dream conflicts. If the ammunition belongs to someone else, this represents things that you feel other people can use against you, such as lies, anger and so on. If you have the ammunition, it can represent assets you have that can build your confidence, things you could say or do to wound others if you had to. If you run out or don’t have any ammunition, you may be feeling hopeless about a situation and unable to defend your position.
Explosive
