DREAM INTERPRETATION 2: WHY SYMBOLISM ?

Heart, Lock, Padlock, Fence, Locked
Photo credit: Pixabay

Many of our dreams are critical of us. Psychologists say that there is invariably an internal barrier which makes us reject even constructive criticism. Everyone must have noticed this behaviour amongst colleagues at work, relatives, friends and even within oneself. For the subsconscious mind to get through, symbolism is a wonderful recourse. Without direct criticism, which would be rejected as wild imagination or even be forgotten, the inner consciousness cloathes the message in allegory and symbols so that it permeates.

A person in Germany dreamt that people were attacking his friend’s Jonas’s wife. They even try to abduct her. His friend Jonas is in his own house, looking for his favourite cuff-links to wear. Even though Jonas can see the attack scene from his window, he still wants to wear the blue cuff-links before going out. The dreamer wakes up.

In real life, this person Jonas loved his wife a lot and would never allow anyone to say anything to her. He was very protective. However, Jonas was also very lazy. Always postponing things. This dream is very symbolic. As I have often emphasised, the dreamer must be a part of the interpretation. Dreams are personal (mostly) and as such require the background of the dreamer. Here Jonas is a symbol of being indolent. The dreamer is being told that he is behaving like Jonas. In real life, people at work had been plotting against the dreamer. He was of a good heart. He knew of the plots, but never did anything about the situation. His friends had also told him that inaction would harm him. This dream is a wake-up call from the subconscious mind. It shows him the gravity of the situation and how he isn’t understanding it. He must act and not behave like Jonas.

Another reason for dreams using symbolism is that a single symbol conveys a lot more meaning and is easily remembered as compared to many sentences of speech.

A lady dreamt that three white men are beating her and she can’t get up.

This short dream accompanied by emotion of fear is easy to remember as compared to a speech about the issue at hand. The whole of next day, she kept thinking about the dream.

The dream is about her health. She was consuming huge amounts of sugar, white bread and milk. Her health had been going down and even her mental health was being affected very badly. The dream tells her that these three ‘whites’ are the source of her ill health. She must not consume them. It seems that she did heed the counsel of her subconscious mind and gave up these foods. Her health improved dramatically.

In next lessons we will look at universal symbols and later many more personal symbols.

First and foremost, do write down your dreams in a dream diary. Place it next to your bed and write it as soon as you wake up after the dream. Please do not wait until the morning. By that time it may be forgotten.

Happy dreaming

15 thoughts on “DREAM INTERPRETATION 2: WHY SYMBOLISM ?”

  3. Thanks for your interesting post!

    The night before last I had this dream:

    I was sitting outside in a cafΓ© on the shopping street of my hometown with a friend. Suddenly, two white, new houses piled up in the background of the picture. They appeared there out of nowhere. Somehow they seemed to glow, as if by some transcendent radiation.

    We were amazed. Then I told my friend, “These are our future houses, but they are not finished yet.”

    Suddenly an elderly man came up to my friend and asked her about her daughter. She told him, “Oh, she’s only going to live for another 14 days and she’s almost gone!”

    This was not a pleasant dream. I interpret it this way: My friend (78) has a daughter who has been in a nursing home for years. She suffers from end-stage frontotemporal dementia. Was the dream wishful thinking or foreshadowing? She wishes her daughter on “cloud 7” because of her condition, which I can understand.

    The two white houses frighten me. Before the death of my son I saw myself with him also in a white room. That is why I see these houses, as deaths of my friend and me. They are imminent when the house is finished.

    In some cultures in the Far East, white is considered the color of mourning and death. The white as a dream color could therefore signal a premonition of death.

    Kind regards, Gisela

    Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Gisela
      Your interpretation of the dream appears to be correct. I may add a few points if that’s OK.
      Firstly the white houses with radiance may symbolise death to you, but the express message is that of transcendence and divine love. The divine is clearly asking you not to be afraid as a grand abode awaits you. Full of God’s love. We all have to go one day. But there is a clear assurance of a journey and a realm beyond compare.
      Also, no time is being predicted. The houses need completion. Your purpose here still entails some more work by you. This is actually a great dream and not many are fortunate like you are.
      I come from India and here also people wear white at death, unlike the west where they wear black. The white does not signify death. It symbolises spirituality and a union with the divine creator. People wear this at death as they take part in a lot of prayers for the departed. It is actually a good symbol, although death is not easy to come to terms with.
      Regarding your friend, it is more of a wish fulfillment about her daughter. There is an element of premonition also, but 14 days may not be very accurate.
      I wish you the very best my dear friend. We will keep you in our prayers. But rest assured, you have to write many more posts before your time comes.😊😊 We won’t part with you anytime soon.

      Liked by 3 people

      • Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I see the transcendence of the white houses as you do. They will be my future home, on a spiritual level. I am not afraid, but I am glad that I still have some time here on earth… God willing. Your explanation of the color white makes me happy and touches me very much. Thank you for that!
        Yes, I will probably write some more posts, and I am always happy to find such friendly readers like you.
        πŸ¦‹πŸ‘ΌπŸ€

        Liked by 3 people

  4. I love this post. I’ve just read it now, and strangely enough I’ve just come off the phone with a friend and we were discussing this topic about symbolism in dreams and that most times the people or main characters are us. In this year I had 3 very difficult dreams and you right it is so important to diarize your dreams. As I was talking to my friend I panicked thinking i had forgotten the whole dream, thank goodness for journals. Yet when one has extremely significant dreams, it is almost natural to revisit these dreams because they are great storytellers in a mysterious and symbolic way. It’s like your dreams paint and write novels in different genres. One of my dreams was definitely in the sci-fi genre, a genre I don’t normally read.
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

    Liked by 1 person

    • How magnanimous are you in making someone feel good.
      The truth is that when I started my journey of dreaming, I was a bit skeptical. Over 29 years, I cannot express how they have altered the very course of my life.
      It is definitely a privilege to be connected through our blogs.πŸ˜ŠπŸ‘πŸ™

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Thank you very much to passing to my dimension, mu blog.

    Your blog is also interesting, you write about spirituality, meditation, dreams and so on… Every argument which I love, that’s why I follow you right now.

    Please sometime come to read my dreams, I think they might be interesting to you, especially later in time which I made some research.

    Thank you again

    Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.