Understanding and Interpreting Dreams

Don’t forget to check out the Dream Blog  https://lauracrean.wordpress.com/category/dream-blog/

24th March 2013

“Write what you know! Write what you know!”  That’s what people keep telling me – so I thought, what do I know?  Well people do tell me quite frequently that I know about dreams and that my dream interpretations are interesting and often ‘spot on’.  So I thought to myself, why not write a blog on dreams.  I mean everyone dreams right?  Well some people think they don’t dream, but actually everyone does dream they just don’t always remember them.  For some of us dreams are something that become an integral part of our lives – they are vivid, rich with imagery that can feel so real that they affect our waking lives.  For others they are something that happen only sporadically and are half remembered snippets of  images that fade upon waking.  My dream life is as important to me as my waking life – which is probably why writing became so interesting to me because when I write, I am there, in the moment, with my characters or I am my characters – surely the dream world and the world of a writer’s imagination (which is like day-dreaming)  are linked somehow.  So, there you are dreams and me – we go hand in hand – now – where to start?

I have had many dream books and dream journals over the years, I looked in my cupboard a little while ago and dug out a few of them.  Many of them I used to check out of the library and I have learned over the years that different people view dreams and dream interpretations in many different ways.  Here are a selection of books in case you would like to have a little look into dreams yourself but I would say after all these years of looking at dreams – the best interpretation usually comes from the dreamer themselves – so if you can figure out what symbols recur in your dreams and take on meaning for you personally, stick to them because your own subconscious will always have the answer.  After all it is your mind that has constructed the dream in the first place.  It has done so for a very good reason – to tell you to pay attention and deal with it!  I have forgotten that this past few years so this will be a very therapeutic exercise for me – to start paying attention once more to my dreams and learn from them.

A selection of Dream books from my bookshelf

When I first started to try to interpret my dreams I found David Fontana’s Dream Pack invaluable.  It helped me come to terms with a bad period in my life, many years ago now when I ran away from a bad marriage with very little to show for it except my 2 lovely daughters and the will to get on and bring them up the best I could, with the little that I had, on my own.  Here is one of those early dreams and the very in-depth way I used to get to the bottom of the symbolism back then.

An old sample dream from one of my dream journals

A close up of some rough notes on the dream symbolism

A close up of my original dream with thoughts on individual symbols

As long as people have had dreams, there have been people there to interpret them.  All cultures talk about mystics, shamans and witch doctors whose job it was to interpret the dream world in the past (and still today).  Now we have scientists in the guise of psychotherapists and councillors, and they all had/have their own way of interpreting dreams and their own take on what was happening, where it was happening (i.e – a real dimension or the mind) why it was happening and often who the dream messages were from.  Whether from God, spirits of  ancestors, spirit guides,  angels, the universe or their own psyche  – there was always someone to listen to your dream and tell you exactly what was going on and what to do about it.  Some of these mystics took on an even wider interpretation of  dreams and soon it wasn’t just one person’s inner world that was being dissected but the state of global affairs and the global consciousness that was at stake.  Many people have taken this dream symbolism to the brink of its power where it has turned into prophecy, and has been used to make predictions and to give insight into future events and global politics to aid humanity.

When I think of dreams I often think of the colourful characters from history and myth who have been associated with them, Joseph from the bible is the one that usually springs into people’s minds and how God gave him the gift of dream interpretation to help his people out of captivity – he became a very powerful figure in his world.  I also think of great teachers like Martin Luther King: his ‘I had a dream’ speech was an overwhelming emotional trigger in the race for racial equality, making him a truly inspirational historical figure.

I could go on and on about how often dreams and their interpretations and influence can be seen in many different mythologies and histories around the world but that would quite frankly become boring, so let’s just say dreams are powerful and can lead people to do great things.  But they don’t have to just influence powerful people, they can influence your life too, they can help you to calm the chaos in your own mind – something I have found very useful in the past and hope to again in my immediate future.  I think my journey has strayed once more and I am looking forward to delving into my dreams to sort out that chaos and get back on track with my life.

The good thing about the world of dreams is that it doesn’t matter what your faith – dreams can have meaning in your life and give meaning to your life.  Now that I have set the scene for this blog I will leave you with an example of one of my own dreams that I recorded to Facebook the other day because it really struck me as a dream that reflected what was happening in the world as well as my own life.

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The post on Facebook “Disaster” ( 19th March 2013)

So I just had this dream and I thought I’d share here before I forget it. It was of a disaster of epic proportions. The dream was set on a man-made waterway system in a huge city possibly supposed to represent New York or possibly just society in general. The waterway was built to make life easy for the people and it was very long but extremely deep (like a bottomless pit) – this was demonstrated at the beginning of the dream by a diver jumping in and I could see how fathomlessly deep it was. Anyway this waterway meandered through this city and everyone had their own boats and were having a lovely time sailing up and down this waterway, everyone had different sized boats depending on their income. Then all of a sudden there was an almighty crash of this huge ocean liner which crashed into a building and started to sink causing a blockage in the system, pulling all these smaller boats down with it. In literally minutes it seemed all the boats following behind just kept crashing into the boats in front and that was the major disaster – all these people were trying to bail out, lots and lots of people were drowning and being dragged down into the depths and others were trying to warn those coming up behind what was ahead and were telling them to turn around, turn back, save yourselves – some people were jumping off of the sinking boats and onto the smaller launches going the other was, some even hanging on by their finger tips. Amazingly vivid dream. At the beginning of the dream the people on the edges of this waterway were living the high life, the shops and businesses on the waterway system were extravagant, luxurious and the people were enjoying everything life had to offer then when the accident happened, boats kept crashing into the shops and the people fell off the board walks into the deep waters and were dragged down with the boats! Well – there you are that was my dream – anyone else think it sounds like a banking crisis? LOL

Then I posted a personal interpretation

if I was going to interpret this dream personally to me – then the water is my emotions – as usual I’m ‘too deep’ and my emotions dominate my journey hence the long and deep waterway – the vehicles in dreams represent me – my vehicles through life, so I suppose I have many gifts and ways to travel through life but as usual my life is a flippin’ disaster LOL so yet again it doesn’t take much for me to crash and have a personal crisis – my life is full of them. I have the possibility of a huge vehicle (the ocean liner) but I have no control over my own life, so I crash taking those around me down in the wreckage. However there was a rescue in the beginning of my dream that i didn’t mention, it was when Alice (my youngest daughter) and I were in one of the beautiful shops and she was trying on lovely dresses (different roles) and while she was in the dressing room the boat crashes into the buildings and the dressing room is flooded and she is trapped and drowning! She bangs on the door and I open it and rescue her. To me this suggests that 1. I am there for my children and that is my biggest role – to help them try on their own different roles and be there to help them when they need me and 2. that Alice in the dream represents my own innocent feminine qualities and I need to take control as my own grown up Maternal self and show (myself) the way to get on with my own journey. We get out of the dressing room and escape along the bank which is where we see the tragedy unfolding – we are rescued and sail back up the waterway to a park where we play. So there is a light at the end of my own journey in this dream! In the end we are playing so that is a message to myself not to take life too seriously!

As a Christian this dream takes on a whole new light to me and I can see it as an end times vision.  People just getting on with their everyday lives, the society that man has made for himself.  Life is easy, just relaxing and doing what ever you want – the more money and power you have, the bigger the boat (the bigger the crash).  The ocean liner is carrying a lot of people just taking it easy, along for the ride, sitting back and kicking it, happy in their luxury.  When disaster comes at the end, people start to jump ship but they don’t know what to do and just end up drowning and being crushed by the vehicle that has been carrying them for so long (their own ignorance).  Some people tried to warn others that the end is near – disaster is coming if they don’t turn around and change their ways.  The dressing room is trying on different lifestyles, different religions, different attitudes to how life should be.  I was not living a Christian life at the time of the dream and I wasn’t being a good Christian role model for my children, so when my youngest daughter starts drowning it is only me that can rescue her. because I am the only one in her life who can tell her that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life – the way to freedom and salvation.  It is hard for me to suddenly see this dream in this light as it highlights my responsibility for my children’s spiritual wellbeing.  The other interpretations are all still valid and they all still make sense but this one for me is the most amazing and I can’t believe I couldn’t see it before.  It just shows how before God steps into your life you are blind and when you accept Jesus as your saviour, how your eyes are opened anew and you see things in a completely new light.

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Originally this was a very quick (Facebook) interpretation and I didn’t look at any dream symbol books or go into the dream in great depth.  It just demonstrates how easy I do find it now to just run off an interpretation of one of my own dreams.  I don’t usually go into great depth anymore, I used to spend hours writing down my dreams and hunting out the symbols and themes of the dreams and looking at them in great detail but now I can usually get the gist of it quite quickly.  I used to do interpretations of other people’s dreams for them on request, but I soon found that as soon as someone had one dream interpreted that they would become eager to have every dream looked at in-depth and it got to the point where I would be spending hours on the phone or with them drinking tea in my living room while I wrote out all the symbols and gave them an in-depth reading.  This can become draining for me and the person wanting the reading because then they focus too much on my interpretation and don’t  try to ‘feel for themselves’  what the dream is trying to tell them.  They would  lean on me like a crutch which I think is counterproductive.  So I think I will leave it there for the time being – this is just the beginning of my dream blog, I will probably post more on the nature of dreams and possibly give you some more examples from my own dreams as I am planning to pay attention to them over the next few months and see what jumps out at me as it were.  If anyone wants to ask me a question about dreams in general or desperately wants an interpretation – well – comment on here and I will try to oblige.

Update – 25th August 2015:

Our world views are tools for existing in this reality in the way we think is the correct way and each world view will colour our interactions and motivations, every person lives their life according to their own world view.  Like I said before, as a Christian I now see things differently.  Your dream is always personal to YOU – and you will always be the best person to look at the dream first but then try and step back and see it in a different light, you might be surprised by what God has to say.

If you have a dream that you think could have multiple interpretations for you personally and for society as a whole, or your church, you are probably right.  Try and step back and see the dream symbols in different contexts.  Personally, the symbols will relate to you and how you are interacting in your personal space with those around you but corporately there could be a bigger picture at play.  Another good way to get more out of a dream’s interpretation is to put it out there for others to interpret.  For example if you have a dream that involves other people you know, family members or people from your community try telling them the dream and ask them what springs to their mind about it – you might be surprised what insights for others your dream might have.  If you read the bible regularly, your dreams may reflect biblical messages and God may be highlighting lessons from the bible that could help you, because the bible is a Christian’s main tool for living a life that God has planned for  you.  If you are not a Christian you may see your dream in a different light – but I urge caution, because the spiritual realm, which the dream realm is a part of, has many facets, many doors, and many spiritual battles are fought on such planes.

Books shown in the picture

The Dream Pack – containing the dream book, one dream journal, 20 dream cards and one dream eye pillow – by David Fontana – Duncan Baird Publishers Ltd.

10,000 Dreams interpreted – An Illustrated Guide to Unlocking the Secrets of Your Dreamlife by Gustavus Hindman Miller – Element Books Limited.

Understanding Dreams by Keith Hearne and David Melbourne – New Holland Publishers UK Ltd

and my dream bible  (the book that seems to have the best symbol interpretations for me):-

– The Dream Book – Symbols for Self-Understanding by Betty Bethards also published by Element books.

I haven’t included a bibliography as I did not use any books for research when writing this blog – just my own knowledge and interest of the subject matter of dreams.

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