Dreams and Their Meanings; A Short Primer on Interpreting Your Dreams- 2

An ancient Greek concept: we hurtle through life with our backs to the future, able to see only what is past, never what is to come.

Part two of a series on dreams, meanings, and interpretations. The opening is the same as Part one, but the dreams examined are new to this series. Before I began this series, I had written one piece on dreams that examined one particularly important to me. The dreams examined below came before that one.

I have always been fascinated by dreams and the way they fragment into ‘weird’ imagery and what the imagery means. Are dreams intended to get a message across or are they simply your brain filing and storing events of the day. I believe in both types of dreams. I am not a psychologist and have no formal education directly related to dream interpretation, if such a thing exists. And although I have researched dreams and their possible meanings on my own, I claim no special expertise.

There are many books available by people more knowledgeable than I am and Carl Jung’s work is perhaps the best known. Much of what I what I learned and use to interpret dreams is based on archetypes Carl Jung found to be universal throughout cultures and times and thus, apply to everyone. But those archetypes have a plethora of meanings and recognizing which meaning applies to an individual’s dreams varies by the person who had the dream.

This is how I interpret the meaning of dreams using Jung’s archetypes because it works for me. It may not be the same for another person. I’ll list some of the archetypes I have encountered in my dreams and what I gleaned from them based largely on Jung’s writings. The list below is far from comprehensive in the multiple and varied meanings each archetype might have, but it is a list of what they mean to me and have been a great help in understanding my dreams and their meanings and those of a few others.

1. House- Your physical body. It usually is not your real ‘house’, your house in waking life, but if in the dream you know it to be your house, then it is your body.

2. Car- the way you navigate life. If you dream of being in your car, the dream is trying to convey a message about how you’re living your life.

3. Kitchen- the place where knowledge is prepared for to be consumed, to take in.

4. Eating- the consumption of or taking in new knowledge.

5. Tree- Mortality, your life in this world. Usually, negative connotations.

6. Flying- a desire to rise above the struggles of the life, to escape it all.

7. Blanket- your covering, that which protects you from the dangers of the physical world.

8. Buffalo- strength, virile, usually masculine. The ability within you to overcome a hurdle, to conquer a crisis

9. Earth/soil- the ground beneath your feet; it can both support you and bury you.

10. Water- life in this world, consciousness, our collective conscience, and love.

11. Snake- knowledge of this world and of good and evil.

12. A Woman walking a path or road with you, especially but not always at night- a daena, imago anima, the mirror of your earthly likeness, your own faith, created out of your good deeds and good thoughts in life. Your Guardian Angel. In life she guides you, comforts you, and inspires you. In death, she judges you and leads you across the bridge. The opposite of your daena is your shadow, also created by your deeds and thoughts- just not the good ones. Your shadow is largely created by repressed emotions, thoughts, and actions; the more deeply you suppress your negative emotions and desires, the stronger your shadow grows.

13. A Library- a place where knowledge is stored and readily available for any seeker

14. New Growth or Greening Grass- Renewal, the beginning of a new season; positive

As I said, I am not a psychologist and others might assign different meanings to the archetypes listed above. I am just offering my method of interpreting meanings found in dream imagery. It will not be the same for everyone.

I’ve hesitant to discuss many of my dreams because I may sound like a crazy person, but I said in Part one that I would, and so I will. I politely ask that you don’t assume that I’m mentally unstable or under the influence of psychedelics, because I am neither. I simply allow myself to flow with the Tao.

Dream fragment:

I walk along a country lane on a late afternoon, an open corn field on one side, cutover for harvest, a field of tall grasses on the other. Two women walk some distance ahead of me, a blonde-haired whom I recognize from other dreams, the other with dark hair unfamiliar. I sense a third walking just behind and it seems to be a male presence, but I can’t see him.

Josh follows, but far enough behind that he is out of sight. Two girls around his age walk with him.

One tree stands in the cutover field, an ancient, gnarled tree, branches grey and barren of leaves. On an outstretched branch hangs a single apple and I know immediately that it is an evil tree.

I run ahead to catch up with the two women, warn them of the danger from the tree but they're unconcerned. The woman whom I recognize asks, "Why would that tree frighten me?"

“But the children”, I say, “Josh and the others are following us. That tree will try to trap them, try to trap Josh with an apple. That’s a very old trick, you know.”

"Yes, it is", the woman replies, "but Joshua has his own companions."

I follow the women as they continue to walk and a young buffalo lying in the tall grasses stirred and then leapt to his feet.

*****

I interpret that dream as a reminder that we all have our own spiritual companions, our daena, whom we created, to guide us and we all create a Shadow self, as well. The blonde-haired woman who spoke would be my daena, and the one behind me who I could not see would be my Shadow. I’m not certain why the second woman is there, the one with dark hair or what she might represent.

The simplistic single ‘apple’ on an old tree temptation reflects the trickery and deceptions of this world but assures that they can be overcome. Help (the young buffalo) is always there for you if you accept it. Ultimately, it’s about hope.

*****

Dream fragment:

It’s night, it’s fully dark. I’m on my bike (although I no longer ride a bike, it was my bike) on a road I don’t recognize. I’m descending a long incline and know that there is an old structure is at the bottom of the hill, a square shelter built of rough-cut stone, with low walls that leave most of the it open on the sides. Stone benches are on the inside of the walls and a circular well full of water in the center. There are people in the structure, but I can’t yet see them.

A sense of sacredness surrounds the place, pervades the very air.

I reach the structure and the people sitting on the benches stop talking and look at me. It is two women, one blonde and the other dark haired, both of whom I recognize from other dreams. And I know there is another there, sense it is male, but he is behind the wall where I stand, and I cannot see him. As I approach, I feel their curiosity at me being there and then a sense of remorse, I think, coming from them.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the blonde hair woman said, her words clipped and sharp. I felt like I’d done something wrong by visiting that place, that I shouldn’t be there. “It’s going to be hard for you to pedal your bike all the way back.”

I looked at the hill I’d biked down. It would be hard to go back up that road. “I can do it,” I replied, dreading the difficulty of it but knew it was necessary. I swung my bike around, looked up the hill again. “I guess I have to, so I will.” But I sensed they were gone, then, and turned back to face the shelter. It was empty; just aged stone walls, benches, and the ring of stones that encircled the well. Even the well was dry.

I got on my bike around and started riding back up the road. I could see the top and the road seemed steeper than it had coming down. But I had to get back where I’d started so I pedaled, legs burning, most of the way up, then got off the bike, exhausted, and I walked my bike the rest of the way.

*****

I interpret that dream as meaning I still have much to learn, tasks to complete, and that there is no short-cut to get where I need to be. The blonde-haired lady, my daena, acted as my Guardian Angel and the third, whom I couldn’t see would be my Shadow. We all must conquer our Shadow before moving beyond the cycle of human rebirth, of reawakening in yet another human life.

Maybe I wanted to give up and start again but got slapped back to it by my companion, my daena, for my own good. It wasn’t my time to leave and reawaken as a new person, another human life.

I still have much to learn in this one before I take on another.

*****

Dream fragment:

I’m on a balcony that circles the second floor of a house and I look down at the dirt road below. There is a dark area in the middle of the road, roughly the size of a coffin, my coffin, my death. I hear the laughter of children and walk on the balcony to other side of house. I know that a few people are inside a room at that end of the house, but I can’t see them. I go to end of balcony beside the room the people are in and still can’t see them but know they are there. From that end of the balcony, I see a wide waterfall crashing into a river below, spray and mist rising from it, then I notice children, laughing, giggling, and jumping into the waterfall. They aren’t afraid of the water, they leap into it, smiling and laughing. Then I’m back on other side of house, I look down at that dark area in the dirt road and a bulldozer comes along and buries it, and I know it was gone, my death was buried. I still hear children laughing, joyously happy as they leap into the waterfall and the river below.

*****

This was an interesting dream to interpret, one of few in which I didn’t see my companions but maybe didn’t need to. The dark area in the road was clearly my death and it being covered over, taken away, was meant to show me that death is a fleeting thing and leaping back into the river of humanity, to reawaken there can be a joyous experience, as evidenced by the happy children.

I had the sense that the people in the room who I never did see are always there, watching, helping souls reawakening in human lives.

~ ~ ~

This story was originally posted on Medium.

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If this content interests you, I’ve published a few other stories on dreams.

Dreams and Their Meanings; A Short Primer on Interpreting Your Dreams | Longevity (vocal.media)

Dreams and What Can be Learned from Them | Longevity (vocal.media)

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