popular dream symbols

While most dream symbols have very personal textures, here are some that mean the same thing for most people most of the time.

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Attic - The place where aspirations, interests and personal goals have been put away to collect dust. This is where taboo subjects and beliefs are hidden.

Basement - Most often, the unconscious and unknown of the self.

Bedroom - The internal place of spousal (or spousal-potential) relationship, the good and bad. You only have one internal bedroom, so it's good to be in the bedroom in your dream. Are you alone? Does someone else occupy the room and keep you from entering?

Bicycle - A very basic, self-propelling means of controlling one's direction. Often appears when the dreamer has left a difficult situation, and has just become self-reliant. Developmental dream.

Blood - Life and passion for life. Red in a dream often carries the same meaning as Blood.

Buying - Getting something you want, but having to pay for it.

Car - The ability to get down the road of life. Who's driving?

Chase - What is pursuing or is pursued by the dreamer is a psrt of the dreamer that seeks to be understood. Young women often dream of aggressive men as they sexually mature. The men (or man) represent her own new, more self-assertive, more sexually aggressive masculine energies.

Church - Usually, contemplation of life's deeper meanings.

City - Points to self-development. Often, Mother. Sometimes, a hectic lifestyle or a reference to work.

Dark - Obscured vision and unclear understanding. 'In the dark.'

Death - Transformation. When something is changed, it no longer exists as it did before. In effect, it has died.

Enemy - Contradicitions within one's self. Sometimes, people you reject.

Falling - Out of control, lack of grounding. Sometimes, escape.

Flying - Almost always escapism. Suggests the need to face present situations and tackle them.

Food - Usually, food to nourish the soul or fulfill emotional needs.

Forest - The most common symbol of one's own unconscious. Very often the beginning of self-discovery and development.

Friend - Almost always an aspect of the dreamer.

Glass - Glass walls, windows and houses represent being cut off from what is on the other side. A glass container is often the container of the soul.

Hill - Obstacles, if climbing the hill. Clear perspective, if on top of the hill. Mother's breast if safety is implied.

House - The dreamer. What is the house like? What rooms are important in the dream?

Ice - Usually, frozen emotions. This dream occurs when the dreamer is ready to deal with the emotions.

Key - You are headed in the right direction. Having the key suggests taking a step toward unlocking a greater mystery.

Knife - Seeking power or protection. Desire for liberation. A knife lets out the blood of life, but also points to one's own hurts. Must be interpreted in context to the dream.

Left - The emotional or feminine side of the dreamer.

Man - When a man dreams of a man, it is almost always his Shadow or an aspect of self. The Shadow is the opposite of the Ego. In a woman's dream, very often the masculine self. Should be interpreted in context to the dream.

Marriage - The union of opposites, usually masculine and feminine. Also, questions about marriage and life's deeper meaning's. Often occuring when there are problems in a relationship.

Night - The unconscious and unknown. Often that which you fear. Usually a dream of the first approach to an unconscious matter.

Ocean - The emotional self. Are you in touch with your emotions, or separated from them?

Path - Like the road of life, but usually relates to internal journey and exploration. Often appears in the Forest.

Police or Authority - Represent rigid rules and extreme authority. Very often, the dreamer is following rules that come from someone else. Sometimes a sign of self-repression.

Pregnancy - Most often a sign of potential and new beginnings. Sometimes a desire to have a child.

Road - The road of life.

Red - Vitality and passion.

Sleep - Unawareness that usually causes a problem revealed in the dream. The most common sleep event in dreams is the dreamer goes to sleep, wakes briefly to see someone else asleep, falls asleep again, then wakes to find the other person gone.

Snake - Very common, but must be interpreted in context to the dream. Most common are green snakes which usually represent psychic, masculine or earlthy energies. Fear, but also wisdom and cinning. The snake knows, but does not speak.

Stairs - Transformation. Up the stairs suggests a consciously directed transformation. Down suggests an unconsciously directed transformation.

Swimming - Relaxation after liberation, and being in touch with one's emotions.

Teeth Falling Out - Almost always a reference to loss of friends or social status. In psychic dreams, can mean the death of someone.

Telephone - Communication. Often points to problems in communication.

Three - The number three is the most common number appearing in dreams. It is a diabolic number of completion taht suggests you must lose something to gain something (the Gift of the Magi).

Touching - Wanting or gaining understanding.

Valley - Depression, low point, or emotional scar, but also unconscious and emotional exploration.

Water - Almost always the emotional self, but specific connotations depending on the dream. Cloudy water is often emotional or sexual distubance. A ough river is a sign of too much emotion being pushed through too narrow a channel.

Woman - Almost always the dreamer's feminine self, especially when the dreamer is a woman. Should be interpreted in context to the dream.

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