We all use our understanding of symbols every day

We all use our understanding of symbols every day

Unravelling the meaning of symbols and metaphors is one of the great skills of dream interpretation.  You may think that this kind of understanding requires a specialist knowledge and complex abilities that only the few possess.  But in truth, while some people are naturally more able to give voice to their understanding of a large range of symbols, (just as some can read music easily and others speak foreign languages), it is a skill that we all possess and in fact use every day.  If you are reading this, you can understand symbols.  Letters are simply symbols for sounds.  If you understood the heading to this entry, you will have immediately understood that “&” is a symbol for “and.” 

Symbols are things that have an inherant meaning beyond what they simply look like.  We use symbols so much in our day to day life that we rarely question what they mean.  We all know a red light means “stop” and a green light means “go.”  We all also know that red when on a tap means “hot” while blue means “cold.”  We don’t have to stop and think “oh, I see a red light, is that telling me to stop, or that it’s hot?”  We not only understand the meaning of the symbol, but also how that meaning changes in a different context.  So rest assured we can all interpret symbols with relative ease when when know how.  These kind of symbols will come up frequently in our dreams.  We just need to take the time to recognise them, and look at the meaning they are conveying, not simply watch the literal story of our dream playing out.

Metaphors are also not so esoteric and mysterious as they might at first seem.  A metaphor is when we

Our dreams are like poems our subconscious mind creates

Our dreams are like poems our subconscious mind creates

 say one thing is something else, to give it extra meaning and actually show what they have in common.  This is at the heart of poetry , but we don’t need an advanced degree in literature to understand the poetry of our own dreams.  One of the easiest ways to understand metaphors is as a “figure of speech.”  When we uses phrases such as “he blew me away,” “this where the rubber hits the road,” “get into hot water” and so on, we are using metaphors.  We know we don’t literally mean anyone jumped into a pot of boiling water, or even a warm bath for that matter, but we do understand what is meant by the phrase. Our dreams work in similar ways.   We can also scan our favourite songs for the use of metaphors that our dreams may use to communicate with us.  Look for examples like “Love is a battlefield,” “You are my sunshine” and so on.

Another way dreams can convey meaning to us is through similes.  Similes are quite easy to understand if

Are you dreaming of being wily, or sexy?

Are you dreaming of being wily, or sexy?

we just take a moment to consider them, as again they are ways of communicating we use every day in waking life.  To use a simile is simply to compare to things by saying how they are alike.  Again, this is a device used commonly in poetry, figures of speech and songs.  Some of these similes become so common they are like cliches or stereotypes, but this can be really quite helpful when our dreams try to convey a message where the meaning might otherwise be a little ambiguous or misleading.  When you dream of a praticular object or thing, look for representations where you would use the word “like” or “as” in a sentence.  Consider comparisons such as “cunning as a fox,” “quiet as a mouse,”swim like a fish,” and “regular as clockwork,” “like watching paint dry” and “love is like a red, red rose.”  (Of course, a “fox” to you might instead be a metaphor for someone who is sexy, so remember only you know which meaning to apply in your own dreams!)  If you are trying to describe something that you aren’t sure someone else will understand, you may find yourself saying “its like I’m…(insert appropriate simile.)  Your dreams work in much the same way.  Keep an eye out (note the metaphor!) for when you do this in conversation.  “It’s like I’m stuck on a roundabout and can’t get off.” Or “it’s like my hands are tied.”  Or “it’s like when she walks into a room I just light up.” 

Where we use any of this kind of language when awake, our dreams are likely to play it back to us in pictures.  The trick is just for us to recognise when we see it, instead of the usual waking way of hearing it.  Symbols, metaphors and similes ask us to look beyond the obvious, and see the meaning in the image.

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