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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.
