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Are you leaving a part of childhood behind, and accepting adult responsibilities?
Wedding dreams can vary greatly. We may dream of a spectacular celebration; of a strange cast of characters, maybe dressed in surprising outfits; or we may dream of small intimate occasions in unlikely places.
Understanding all the different elements at play can give us insight into what our our personal wedding dream may mean. It is not unusual to dream of weddings when we have been to one, are planning one, or intend to go to one. Even if a friend or relative is getting married and we can’t attend, we may still dream of weddings. But we dream of weddings even when none are physically occurring as well.
One of the reasons for this is our subconscious picks up this external symbol and uses it to communicate back to our conscious mind. Weddings resonate with us at a very deep level as they are profound rites of passage in our lives. No matter what culture we come from, a wedding plays a very significant role in a person’s life. It marks a change from childhood or adolescence to true adulthood. For some people this can translate to a loss of innocence. It often indicates the acceptance of responsibility, the giving of commitment, the promise of fidelity. A wedding of course also is a moment of unity, of joining – this can be when people commit to share property, wealth, burdens and joys, and of course the marital bed. On a more profound level it may also be a sacred unity of love, of spiritual alignment and the twining together of souls. We all react to the symbolism of weddings in waking life, so what does it mean when we dream of weddings? Dreams of weddings may be about romance and love, but often they ask us to look at the relationship we have with ourselves, and to find the deep love and connection inside us.
Weddings are full of symbol and symbolic actions
One place to start to understand this dream is to recognise that we all have different “parts” to our selves. At times different parts of our personality seem stronger than others (such as the part that decides to watch TV beating the part of us that wants to go to the gym, or the part that says we must stay and finish that report instead of the part that wants to go home and see the kids.) At times like these it can seem like our different parts aren’t actually getting along very well. We know this when our life feels unbalanced. A wedding dream can be a way of understanding how to bring those different parts together in a happy balance – to create unity inside ourselves. A happy wedding dream may even indicate that our male and female sides (the Jungian anima and animus) are in harmony, without one side dominating the other. This is a great achievement, and should be enjoyed!
Weddings can ask us to reflect on all the things they symbolise, and to understand what is going on in our own lives. Do we need look at how committed we are to something or someone in our life? Would it be helpful to think about how responsible we are behaving, or are there things we are sharing that need a closer look? Wedding dreams may also come when a new phase of life is beginning, and we are leaving behind an old one. Sometimes a wedding dream may indicate we have recently met or started to know better someone with whom we just “click” – this does not have to be in the romantic sense, but can indicate a “marriage of minds.”
Wedding dreams, especially if they have strong religious symbols, may be a powerful indicator of our own spiritual nature. These kind of dreams may typically occur when we have been focussing on prayer, meditation, compassionate deeds, maybe even dream work or some other form of self growth. Such dreams may be intensely moving, or they may contain strange images that drive us to explore our nature and our relationship with the divine in greater detail. To pursue these confusing symbols is often very rewarding!
To some, weddings are essential in order to have a family. To dream of weddings in this context may ask us to look at what we need to “get in order”, to formalise, so that we may move on to a new creative stage in our life.
To look a bit deeper, we can look at the characters who appear, and consider what they may represent in our lives. Carefully identifying important elemens such as colours, the weather and any plants or animals that appear may also provide more clues as to what this dream may be saying.
(see other posts for more information.)
Sometimes wedding dreams are because we are actually getting married, or will be involved win a wedding. This event is likely to cause us to think about all sorts of things we haven’t thought about previously, and to feel a range of often conflicting emotions – excitement and anticipation, mixed with apprehension, even fear; a sense of gaining something new as well as of giving up something important. Dreams at times like these are ways to help us sort through these thoughts and emotions. By understanding our dreams we can not only cope with the situation better, but we also have a wonderful opportunity to learn something new and helpful about ourselves.
Finally, it is worth remembering that weddings aren’t just about the two main parties of bride and groom. Weddings are about families, long lost relatives, friends and friends of friends. Maybe a wedding dream is asking us to look more closely at our relationships, both close and those further afield. Weddings are, at the end of the day, usually a happy and celebratory affair. Wedding dreams may sometimes come to celebrate a special event in our lives – either in the waking world, or maybe even, a special an significant event that has occurred in our own mind – in our subconscious.
What is deep inside you, waiting to be discovered?
This is the dream of deep dark places. We may experience this dream as a cave, or series of caves, a well, dark underground tunnels, or even a basement that seems to go further underground than normal. Whatever the form this dark, unknown place appears as, when it does we can be pretty sure we are entering the realm of the unknown, moving beneath the surface and exploring our subconscious.
It is not unusual to dream of caves or the deep underground when we are going through any sort of learning or growth phase. The dark unknown can simply be a symbol of exploring something new, but it can often be a far more profound symbol of facing our “deeper” self. In our day to day lives, we are often distracted by the business of living, of external and material things. We worry about paying the bills, getting the kids to school, making sure we do our job well, what to wear, what to eat, where to go on vacation. It is rare that we find the time to pause, to think about why we are doing all his, what it’s all for. Dreams of caves and deep underground places can be a sign that we are turning our focus away from the outside and starting to think about what is really going on inside us. This is an essential process if we are to come to know ourselves properly, to understand why we do what we do, why we react to things in the way that we do, and what is behind our feelings.
Dreaming of caves may cause a variety of feelings. We may be surprised by what we thought was simply a door, well, or normal basement, only to discover unexpected depths. This may be a sign that we are beginning to discover unexpected depths in ourselves. We may be afraid, nervous or anxious at this great dark unknown. This may reflect our own nervousness about exploring deep inside our own minds. if we have lived a life so far where we haven’t stopped to ask those “deep” kind of questions like “who am I?” and “what is my purpose?” then this can seem a bit scary to begin with. The same can happen when we first start dream work, if we have thought for our entire lives that dreams are inconsequential, just left over thoughts from a busy day with no real meaning, it can be a bit unnerving to realise that for years a part of us deep inside has been trying to send us messages! And yet for other people, dreaming of caves can be exciting, even exhilarating. It can come as great relief, even a revelation to realise there is so much deep inside us waiting to be explored and understood.
Whatever our initial emotional reaction to the caverns in our dreams, it is usually worth facing them bravely. It is often simply ourselves we face, and the great mystery of who we really are, and who we can ultimately be.
Are you prepared to explore the deepest unknown places of your own mind?
Caves often have a feminine aspect – that is they can represent feelings, intuition and receptivity. Caves can be compared with the womb, in being a place of creation and growth. When caves appear in dreams, they can symbolise our own potential, the parts of ourselves that have not yet been “born” or come out of the dark (our subconscious) into the light (our conscious, waking self.) If we dream of caves there is a good chance we are exploring our own potential, and may be ready to start a new phase of our own personal evolution.
Coming to know our subconscious better, connecting with a deeper sense of our self can be fulfilling and enriching on a personal level, but it can also be the start of something even more amazing, when we become aware of how all humanity shares this great dark deeper self, and through this place we are all connected. And that is one of the most amazing realisations of all.
What is deep inside you waiting to come out?
The first and most obvious association of volcanoes in dreams is an indication of “erupting” emotions, often of anger. And while in some cases this may be true, it is more than likely only a small part of the story, and in other cases, may not have these kind of associations with anger at all.
It may be helpful to remember two interesting characteristics of volcanoes: one, that they are a channel for things from deep within the earth to be revealed at a surface level; and two, that the active component of volcanoes – being fire/magma/lava, all share the same qualities of being able to create as well as destroy.
Let\’s consider the first characteristic in relationship to dreams. If volcanoes are a channel for things deep inside to come to the surface, how might this be a reflection of what is going on our lives? While it may indicate deep emotions coming out after being suppressed, volcanoes might also indicate a powerful new knowledge that is becoming clear, an instinct we are becoming conscious of profound new depths of self knowledge. To better understand how this might relate to our own particular dream, it can help to consider how close we are to the volcano, and how active it is. Is it in the distance, something we are trying to get to? This could be a quest for self understanding, a desire see what is deep inside us, but something we are only just beginning. Or maybe we are standing right on top of the crater, looking into the red hot lava bubbling and ready to explode. This may symbolise we are on the cusp of big revelation, a significant change could be about to occur.
The second characteristic, that of fire or lava, can help us understand how change in our life means that some things are destroyed in order to make way for the new. This can be scary and threatening when we don\’t understand it, but it is not necessarily a bad thing. We have to \”destroy\” bad habits before we take up new ones, we have to let go of self limiting beliefs before we can embrace a new perspective of life. However, volcano dreams can also appear when we are anxious or stressed, and indicate the mounting tensions we feel in life. If we feel like the dream is full of fear and anxiety, this may be a reflection of feelings we are having in waking life. When this is the case, we can look to other areas of the dream for signs and hints to help us manage or resolve the causes of this anxiety.
Fire and lava can be cleansing, so volcano dreams can be signs of spiritual or psychological growth. Volcanoes as they erupt can help purge blockages, so volcano dreams may imply a release of tension, or a resolution of a problem. Volcanoes when they have calmed down also change the face of the earth, they can leave islands in the sea where there once were none, they can create mountains and craters and fertile valleys. So volcano dreams can also be symbols of creativity, sometimes in a frighteningly forceful way. But if we can be prepared for the awesome power that is potential within us, when it is unleashed we can be more aware and then be able to direct the power to our own goals, instead of wildly erupting and possibly damaging those around us.
Volcano dreams can be expressions of anxiety and a warning against extreme emotions, but they can also be a powerful symbol of potential and transformation, that if we heed the lessons of our dreams and act wisely, we can harness as an extraordinary creative opportunity.
When the smoke clears what new things will be revealed?
Is your dream monster really as scary as it seems?
In our dreams strange and unusual creatures exist. Some fascinate us, some terrify us. Monsters seem to come from somewhere deep in our imagination, and can create a particularly strong impact. We tell children that monsters aren’t real and smile indulgently as we explain them away. But somehow it seems different when we dream of monsters ourselves as adult. So why is it that we dream of monsters?
Things in our dreams are usually symbolic, and very few more so than monsters. Monsters are our very own personal symbols, often cobbled together from different creatures in stories, films and even mythology. Monsters can come from deep within our subconscious, so they may have a very important message to tell us. The very nature of monsters, that they are creatures of imagination, usually indicates we are dealing with something we don’t want to face, or something we don’t understand.
We can go back to the basics of dream work to understand what our own monsters mean to us. We can describe how the monster make us feel, and then look for situations in life where we are feeling the same way. Are we feeling threatened? Harassed? Under pressure? Is this something we are feeling at work, in a relationship or with a choice we have to make?
We can also try the action of describing the monster in basic words as we would to a child. We can look at the colour of the monster and what it it is doing. (see “colours” post.) Is the monster big and overwhelming, or sneaky and sly? This may indicate how we feel about a certain problem or dilemma in our lives. Remembering also, that symbols in our dreams are usually a reflection of parts of our own selves, monsters can be a part or our own personality we don’t want to admit to. Is the monster angry? Maybe there is something in our life that we are mad at ourselves for, and now need to forgive ourselves. Is the monster faceless, maybe even invisible, but hounding us none the less? This can be a problem in life, a behaviour or issue that we are running from. Now it might be time to face the creature that pursues us. Very often a bad monster dream can be about the parts of our own personality we like the least. These kind of dreams ask us to face what we don’t like, change what we can, and be kind to ourselves for those things beyond our control. Is the monster hungry, and maybe wants to eat us? This can indicate we have a habit, maybe even a compulsion or addiction that is “consuming us.” It might be time for a more balanced approach to life. Are we attacking the monster, trying to kill it? This might be an angry reaction to a part or our-self we can’t accept. Maybe we should stop judging ourselves by other people’s standards, and accept and love ourselves for who we really are. Or it may be a symbol of illness, and our body trying to attack an invading infection or disease that our subconscious mind is aware of.
Is there something you would rather not face?
Monsters in dreams can be our fears made manifest, but not all dreams of monsters are bad ones. Sometimes a monster can be harmless, helpful or even amusing. Such dreams may come after we face a scary monster in our dreams, or as we start to confront the problems or concerns we have in waking life. These kind of dreams may help us to understand the transitions from fear to freedom, with the changing monster helping us understand our own transitions. Some monster dreams may be of mysterious, but not particularly worrying monsters. These kind of dreams may indicate a powerful period of transformation occurring, with new skills and outlooks on life developing inside us that we cannot fully understand or recognise yet. We may even be lucky to have a visit from a part of ourselves deep within our subconscious mind, that arise like a creature from the deep to help or guide us at an important juncture in our lives.
The thing to remember with monster dreams, is that they come from within our own minds. If we can be brave and true enough to really face and understand them, most monsters aren’t really so scary after-all. In fact, they may even turn out to be our friends.
Are your feelings frozen instead of flowing freely?
As fires and record high temperatures bake parts of the planet, others are locked in snow and ice, freezing those places with record low temperatures. So with such extremes of weather around us, it is no wonder that a potent symbol like ice might start appearing in our dreams. For those melting in the heat, dreams of ice may provide a welcome relief, at least at a subconscious level; while for those in freezing conditions, to dream of ice may be the subconscious mind calling on images and sensations close to hand to form part of a bigger story.
But as we know is so common with dreams, very rarely will a dream have simply such a literal meaning as those above. What then, is the role of ice in our dreams? As usual, that will depend very much on what the circumstances of our lives are, and what our personal associations to ice may be.
As water is often a reflection of our inner emotional, creative or spiritual state, to dream of ice may be an indication of some feelings we have turned off inside so that we no longer feel them – freezing them and not letting them flow. These feelings may have even been frozen for so long, that we now do not recognise or remember them. If the ice is melting, this could indicate that long forgotten feelings are starting to come to life, thawing just as the ice does in spring to let the new life emerge. This is a wonderful dream symbol and a reason to be excited! If the ice is only starting, it could be a sign of great hurt or shock, and an inner desire to freeze any feelings so they cause less suffering. But this dream can be a warning, for feelings are not meant to be frozen but to flow freely. If our subconscious shows the start of ice, it may be a sign to seek emotional support, or do some soul searching and recognise where in our lives we are starting to shut ourselves off, before a real ice age sets in.
Ice is cold, so when relating to our emotions, this can indicate that we
Are your feelings beginning to thaw?
are some how being cold in life, and maybe should consider showing someone we know some warmth. Alternatively, ice dreams may be reflecting the “frosty” reception we feel we have received from someone else, who perhaps was not welcoming or gave us the “cold shoulder.”
Ice in dreams can have other meanings beyond frozen emotions. As we freeze foods to keep them longer and we know of fossils being found in ice, ice can be a symbol of preservation. We may dream of ice when we feel we are working hard to “simply survive” either emotionally or financially, or when we feel we have successfully emerged from such a time with our souls intact.
Icy landscapes also have a certain beauty, which can symbolise wildness, extremes, adventure or isolation to some. Ice dreams to some may be cleansing and purifying, and refreshing to the senses. Or sometimes to dream of being in icy water or of having an icy shower can be a wake-up call, shocking our senses into something that we had perhaps become too relaxed about to notice, like taking a cold shower.
We can also look at how ice may used in language and what was hapenning in our dreams. If we are “skating (or walking) on thin ice” we may know subconsciously that we are taking a large risk, and perhaps should be careful. If in our dream we are “breaking the ice” it may indicate that perhaps there is someone we should approach and get to know better, or maybe we recently have started to.
Unless ice is a part of our regular existence, it is likely that ice dreams are reflecting a temporary state, like the state of water which can move between fluid, gas or solid as ice. If we dream of ice it may be time to look at our feelings, our creativity and our behaviour. It may be time to let the sunshine into our lives, and to feel the warmth and flow of life again.
Is there somewhere in life you want to let you hair loose?
Our feelings towards our hair are very personal and intimate, often running very deep and associated with our sense of identity and how we wish the world to see us. To dream of hair can often be tied to our feelings of confidence or insecurity.
If we dream of cutting or colouring our hair, it can be sign that we are breaking away from an identity we have outgrown and trying to create a new one for ourselves, and discarding that which is no longer useful for us. We can understand if this new direction is a positive one by looking at whether our hair is healthy, indicating a “healthy choice,” or alternatively by examining the feelings that arise in the dream. Does changing your hair make you feel liberated and free, excited and confident, nervous or brave, younger or more mature and responsible, maybe more practical or more attractive? We can also look at how we would describe our hair, then use those words to describe ourselves. Is the hair in our dream unruly or easy to manage? Is it wild, or well-groomed? Is it tied up or flowing free?
Hair can symbolise our “crowning glory,” that which are most proud of in our personality, our appearance or our achievements. Hair in dreams can also relate to our feelings of sexuality and sensuality, our desire to be admired, and our wish to enjoy the sensuous side of life. But some of us use our hair to hide behind. Could a dream of hair be asking us to reveal our true selves?
Hair has played important roles in history and mythology. Samson’s hair was a symbol of strength and virility, and when his hair was cut he lost his power. Lady Godiva covered her naked body with her long flowing hair. Dreaming of lost, falling or cut hair that creates a negative feeling may indicate a sense of loss of power, or maybe of feeling exposed somewhere in waking life.
Some hair dreams are not about the hairs on our head, but may be about hair growing in places that we would not expect, that we do not like, or hair that it is unusually dark, wiry or strange in some other way. These kind of dreams can be disturbing, but generally have rather benign meanings. They may indicate a new idea cropping up in a place we weren’t expecting, or can be a sign of a wilder, untamed side our personality seeking expression. Hairy things are often scary to us, such as hairy monsters or hairy spiders. Hair showing up in a dream this way can be asking us to confront something we are afraid of, or reconsider something we may find unattractive at a surface level and ask us to look beyond appearances. Either way, there is a lesson to be learned from things we have an initial aversion to if we stay long enough to see what else might be going on.
If we dream of grey hair or long beards can often indicate age and all that we associate with that. We may think of age in this way as the acquiring of wisdom and respect, or as of the gradual loss of capacities that we fear in old age. It may even be we have a reaction to age that is a mixture of these too extremes. To dream of going grey or growing a long beard may ask to examine our feelings towards aging, gaining experience, or playing a more senior role somewhere in our life.
Do you feel that time has bestowed the mantle of wise elder upon you?
To understand dreams of hair, it can help to look at where on the body the hair is (see the posts on different body parts) and if necessary, what colour the hair is if that seems significant (see post on colours.) We can also see if the hair seems wild and unruly, or lustrous and beautiful, to indicate how we feel about our image, and what we are projecting to the outside world.
Dreams of hair invite us to look inside and see if what we show the world is what we really are, and to check how we are growing and caring for ourselves. Dreams of hair ask us to consider our confidence and our vanity, and how strong, seductive, exposed or vulnerable we may feel.
Sometimes we have a dream where something really special happens. A dream that touches us, that makes us feel close, intimate, connected. Such is the dream of the embrace.
To understand the meaning of these kind of dreams, it can help to understand who it is we hugged, held closely or embraced, and what they meant or mean to us in waking life. We can ask ourselves if this person represents the mother inside us, the wise older person, the strong brave leader, and so on. (You can also try exploring the other posts about people to see how people represent certain qualities in our dreams.)
To dream then of embracing this person can be a profound symbol of integrating a new aspect into our personality, of learning a new way of living, a new set of skills, of maturing and becoming ready to play a new role in life. If we dream of embracing our mentor, for example, it can be an indication that we are finally able to accept not only the lessons of our teacher, but also the responsibility that comes with playing that role. It may be time to finally stop being the student and step up to be a teacher, or master ourselves. To dream of embracing an enemy, or person we didn’t like, can be symbol that we are beginning to accept ourselves for who we really are, and forgiving ourselves for the behaviour or thoughts in ourselves that we didn’t really like. To dream of embracing an enemy can be a powerful symbol of making peace with ourselves. If we look to what this “enemy” represents to us, we may begin to understand what part or our personality we are learning to understand and accept.
Another lesson the embrace dream may be teaching us are lessons we were not ready to learn from the person we dream of when we first met them. Perhaps we met a wise guardian in our teen years, but were too busy growing up, testing boundaries and finding our own way in life that we didn’t pay real attention to the wisdom they were sharing with us. Or maybe this advice came at a time when we were too busy coping with a difficult situation to be able to sit back and absorb the wise words being spoken to us. But we still heard, and our subconscious remembered. And now that we are older, and have more quite time, or maybe the message is just that more relevant, that our dreaming mind will remind us of that special knowledge that was shared with us all those years ago.
We can also look at the feelings an embrace dream gives us. Is it one of peace, forgiveness, love, connection, intimacy, acceptance, calmness, wisdom, fulfillment, joy, nurturing, protection and so on..? Only you will know what this particular “holding close” dream means, but often it can be extremely cathartic, maybe a closure on a relationship, a saying goodbye to someone we never had the chance to, a saying thanks to someone we wish we had appreciated more, or a realisation of how important someone was to us.
Such an encounter can be profoundly moving. We may dream of people who have passed away, of loved ones not seen for many years or valued teachers long lost from our lives. The embrace dream reminds us that valuable lessons will never be forgotten, that those who guide and teach and love us will always live on in our hearts, and that in our dreams, we can always reach and feel the profound connection to those who are most important and life changing in our existence. But more than that, embrace dreams remind us that to learn a lesson we must change something inside us, and that the greatest growth comes from learning to love and accept who we really are.
What part of your wild nature do you need to release?
Interpreting what animals mean in our dreams is a very personal process, but some animals can create such strong impressions they may seem to overwhelm our logic. This can be a good time to step back and try to understand the animal as a symbol before we go the next step of applying our own personal layer of interpretation.
One animal that is often a such of such confusion and power is the wolf. Feared, worshipped, maligned, misunderstood and revered, the wolf is a potent symbol through-out much of Europe and North America, and now thanks to cultural diversity, through much of the world. Wolves star in folklore and fairy-tales from many generations ago, and still capture our imagination through popular films and television today.
Wolves in dreams may be scary, threatenning and viscious, they may be noble, protecting and wise, or they may be something else entirely – mysterious, elusive, wild. To understand the wolf in our dreams, we can start by understanding the wild nature of these animals, and the very attitudes that society has to them can reveal much about our own wild selves.
Wolves can represent all that is wild and “uncivilised” about ourselves. This can be a scary thing to confront. What is wild is what our polite and safe day to day behaviour does not want to let out – what is wild can damage, hurt and upset. But what is wild can also free, excite and release. Wild can be untamed and bad mannered, but wild can also be pure and uncorrupted. Sometimes a wolf dream will be guiding us to find our true, authentic nature that we are afraid to reveal as we try to conform, but sometims a wolf dream will be a warning that we are behaving too wildly, that we may be threatenning something else that is important to us.
The behaviour of wolves in their native environments can give us clues as to why we might be dreaming about them. Do you long to feel part of a group, or seek the support and kindred spirit of a pack? Do you feel a need to protect something that is important to you, and need the fierceness of a wolf mother? Do you need to approach a situation carefully, using the stealth of a wolf to get close without being discovered? Do you feel a need to express your true self more freely, let go of inhibitions and howl at the moon?
The She-Wolf can be a fierce but also caring protector
Looking at the role wolves play in fiction, folklore and films may also give us insight as to what the wolf means in our own personal dream. The mythical She-Wolf who nurtured Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, as well as Mowgli from the Jungle Book, can help us understand how wolves in our dream can be a sign of us seeking or offering nurturing, care and protection to a part our selves or someone else. The Big Bad Wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” may be sign of our own wild nature, or it may symbolise a person who is threatening or bullying to us, or even how we might be acting that way ouRselves. The wolf may also be associated with a predatory nature in a sexual sense, so those who have suffered abuse, or fear some sort sexual overtones they are not comfortable with may dream of wolves in this way.
Wolves can appear in our dreams when we fear or are experiencing loss, especially of a material or financial nature, stemming from the old saying that “to keep the wolf from the door” indicates security and not going hungry. Wolves may also appear in dreams when our subconscious has picked up something is not quite right, and is trying to warn our conscious mind that we should be careful of what or who we trust, that there may be a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
But no animal itself is inherently bad, and these values that we assign to them are the result of years of cultural associations. Remember when we dream of animals, they also represent a part of our selves, and we cannot understand what our dream means simply by looking up a symbolic reference. We always need to go the next step and aks ourselves, “what does the wolf mean to me?”
Are you ready to confront what is threatening?
Wolf dreams challenge us to confront what we are afraid of, and to not lurk in the shadows of our own subconscious. Wolf dreams offer us the gift of strength, freedom and the ability to fiercely protect that which is dear to us. Wolves in our dreams invite us to claim back our own power, to run freely and live our most authentic life possible, without fear, without shackles, without shame.
PS. I have mentioned this book previously, but it is also relevant in this post for those who may have missed it – a very empowering and insightful look at how to live wildly and freely:
http://www.amazon.com/Women-Wolves-Clarissa-Pinkola-Estes/dp/0345409876
When did the events of your dreams really start?
In ancient times, numbers were believed to hold mystical powers, and even today we still hold certain numbers in high regards as “lucky numbers” and are suspicious of others as potentially bringing bad luck. The special associations we give to certain numbers often continues into our dreams. Just as certain numbers gain significance through history, so too can numbers gain special meaning through our own personal history. Some scholars suggest the number 13 is believed to be unlucky in Western Christian society because it was the thirteenth disciple, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, among other reasons. But in ancient pagan times 13 was not considered unlucky at all. (By the way, those who have an extreme fear of the number 13 are said to suffer from “triskaidekaphobia.”) When deciphering our dreams, it can be helpful to look back through our own lives and see when a number became significant to us. Moments of trauma, achievement and transition are the most common times a number gains a special personal significance to us.
If when we write our dreams, we use the number symbol instead of the word for any numbers that appear in our dreams, it can be easier to recognise them later. It is easy to scan a page to see “7″ than “seven” for instance. This can be applied to things like dreaming of 6 white birds, a 4 year old child, choosing between 3 doors, getting out a lift on the 20th floor, for example.
Numbers in dreams can refer to our age, or the age we were when a significant even occurred. Numbers can also appear in dreams as indicators of an address or house number we lived when an event happened. Numbers may also have special meaning such as number on a jersey or strip we wore when playing a team sport, the license plate on our first car or where we finished in an important competition, such as first second or third.
Another way numbers can play an important role in our dreams is an indicator of time. Numbers can give clues about when events hapenned in waking life that we are now dreaming about. Maybe we are dreaming about a stressful situation that is quite like another we had 5 years ago. Maybe this is about a project we started 3 months ago, or maybe it reminding us the importance of what somebody said 2 days ago when we weren’t really paying attention. Most dreams will draw on recent memories, usually within the last few days, unless the event we are dreaming about has connections or similarities with a significant even that occurred some time ago, even years ago.
Another common association dream numbers can have is to represent dates. This may be personal dates like birthdays, anniversaries and so on, or it could apply to newly significantdates like a looming deadline, then end of holiday’s or the day we start a new job. And of course, some numbers we have a special attachment to, and call them our “lucky” numbers. Dreaming of our lucky numbers in some way can be our subconscious helping us make a decision. If how we dream of our lucky numbers seems good, it can indicate to go with our choice; but if the outcome is negative (such as our 7 white birds falling our of the sky) this might encourage us to consider a different option, as to pursue our current course of action could be “unlucky.”
While our subconscious can reveal things we know deep down about how long things may take to happen in the future, it is wise to exercise great caution when interpreting numbers this way. While it may be one thing to dream of wedding on the 9th or a job interview on the 26th, it is quite another thing to assume we can predict a completely unknown event on a day that has not yet occurred. Numbers in dreams can be very easily misinterpreted when used in this way, so often the wisest behaviour is first, to come understand how numbers are communicating about our past and present, and try to do that accurately first. This will help us to identify patterns and repeating significance in our dreams, and that can reveal deep meaning as to the subconscious patterns at play in our waking lives.
What new parts of your self are you discovering?
It is quite common to dream of finding new rooms in a house. It may be the house we live in now, an old house or building we remember, or an entirely new and different dream house. While dreaming of particular rooms such as the kitchen, bedroom or bathroom can each have their on symbolic meaning, this post is specifically about the dream where we discover a new room in the house, one we did not know was there before.
Our feelings and reactions to this new room, or the series of new rooms will give us important clues as to how this relates to our lives. Do you feel awe inspired, excited and amazed? Do you feel a sense of nervousness and trepidation? Or do you simply not want to know, and decide to lock the door and keep this room hidden, a secret?
New rooms in a house can relate to areas in our lives where we are discovering new skills, abilities or strengths within ourselves. While we may feel we know who we are and what we are capable of, dreams of new rooms invite us to open our minds to the possibility that we have even greater potential than we thought. New rooms are like an extension of ourselves. Just because a house is built does not mean we need to move out when we need more space, we can extend and build to make the house accommodate our growing and changing needs. So too can we extend our own personality, to embrace new ways of living. Dreams of new rooms invite us to look at what we thought were our limitations, and to recognise that we can move beyond them.
How the room is decorated, who is in there with us, and what other furniture and items we see there can give us clues as to what area of our life we are expanding. Turning the light on in a dark room can be like shining the light of our conscious mind into a part of our life that we may have ignored or neglected up until now. Finding old momentos from childhood may indicate hobbies or past-times we gave up but now have new significance, and maybe are able to return to. Feeling that we haven’t been here for a long time but are returning, can also be a sign that we are getting back in touch with important areas of our lives that we may have forgotten. Clearing out or throwing things away can be a sign of letting go of old behaviours or beliefs that held us back, and clearing space to let a new confidence in. Finding rooms grandly embellished and furnished luxuriously can indicate we have come to a very rich and rewarding part of our selves. Maybe we are expressing ourselves freely for the first time. Opening the doors and windows can be a symbol of being open to new ideas and opportunities. Like fresh air coming into the house, so too can a fresh and revitalising energy flow though our lives. If we met people there, and are welcomed in, this can be a particularly potent symbol of reaching and getting in touch with new aspects of our personality. If we unlock the door to enter, this can be a symbol of “unlocking our potential.” We may even have recurring dreams of many new rooms over a series of dreams and different nights, as our new life starts to unfold before us.
Are you ready to embrace your new potential?
It is not unusual to feel a little nervous as we first discover these new rooms. After-all, we think we know ourselves quite well, so to suddenly stumble upon new capabilities within ourselves can take a little getting used to. But if we react to this room with fear, and lock the door or decide to keep the room secret, this could indicate a sense of shame or a concern that we can’t let others see the real person that we are. In many cases, this can lead to stress and frustration, as there is a very important part of our life that we keep secret. If we are unable to integrate all aspects our life and personality peacefully, this may lead to recurring dreams, anxiety and health problems. It might be helpful to start sharing a little of our true self with someone we can really trust, or alternatively, doing something completely new with a group of strangers who have no expectations of us and therefore will not judge. This could be taking a drama class with a community group none of our friends know, wearing our outrageous clothes when away on holiday, or reading our poetry as a volunteer to the elderly. Whatever it is, the important thing is to find a way that we can express ourselves, and live true to who we are. Volunteer work is great for this, as people will be grateful for things that matter, such as your kindness, and far less likely to judge you for superficial things.
Dreams of new rooms can be exciting dreams of emerging new potential and the promise of growth and experience. If we explore these new rooms bravely, and embrace the chance to learn and be more, new room dreams can be a gift that takes us beyond who we thought we were, beyond our self imposed limitations, and lets us break through barriers to expand in ways we may never have thought was even possible.
