DREAM INTERPRETATION AND SYMBOLOGY Raymond Buckland Typed in for PAN by Lewis (508)/795-7628 You have probably spent countless hours of trying unsuccessfully to decipher the seemingly senseless riddles of your dreams. You are puzzled when a dream of attending Aunt Minnie's funeral proves not in the least prophetic as, ten years later, Aunt Minnie is still going strong. You're totally baffled at intimate exchanges with people you wouldn't normally go near. You are amazed at dreaming of doing things that are physically impossible in your everyday life. You end up with total frustration in your attempts to make any sense of the strange goings-on in your elusive dreams. Yet you still feel that somewhere there must be an answer... but where? What is the key? as an element of the Universal Consciousness your super-conscious awareness is totally versed in Universal Symbolism. Since the super-conscious mind tends to speak in its own language, your dreams can be expected to contain some of this language of Universal Symbols. But even though it has its own language the super-conscious mind is aware that you will respond best to those symbols with which your conscious mind is most familiar. Therefore, it will use terms and symbols from your everyday life. Of times it will use the symbolism from recent events that are fresh in your memory. These impressions from your personal physical life are called Personal Symbolism. Universal Symbolism includes those things that remain true for all humankind throughout the ages. Included are colors, numbers, form and sexual identity (ie: male and female) They come from the super-consciousness and therefore are timeless. A case in point is transportation--the universal symbol of spiritual advancement. As material technology has advanced, the application of symbology has kept pace. So transportation may take one of the modern forms of conveyance, such as rockets, planes, steamships, trains or automobiles, or one of the timeless modes of riding on the back of and animal or walking. It would be impossible to list all the universal symbols here but a general sampling is given in the file titled "universal symbols" INTERPRETING YOUR DREAMS The eminent psychologist carl Jung once stated: "No dream symbol can be separated from the individual who dreams it." Keep this thought in mind as you study the following concepts. Notice that almost all of the universal symbols have various shades of meanings. The interpretation of such symbols can only be done by YOU, the dreamer, through consideration of your own feelings towards the dream, the symbol and your own intuition. The dream is a complete and almost limitless combination of symbols. it can be analytical, judgmental or therapeutic in nature. The majority of dreams are analytical. That is, they provide a means for the higher self to comment on your everyday life and your spiritual development. It will analyze how you are relating to your environment and your fellow man and woman. A small percentage of your dreams are of a prophetic nature, to warn and prepare you for future events (the percentage of prophetic dreams vary greatly from one person to another but it is estimated that perhaps one dream in twenty concerns the future) Don't immediately jump to the conclusion that what you dream about brother Bob, or cousin Mary is an indication of something that is about to happen to him or her. It may be but far more likely is not. Along with this incidentally it should be noted that invariably the principle characters in your dream are actually representing YOU--or some aspect of you. So when you dream of your sister Suzy arguing with you about something, you are actually seeing a representation of an inner conflict+-- one part of you at odds with another part (perhaps your male aspect against your female aspect) with the image of sister Suzy being used simply as a recognizable form that you can accept. Again depending on the individual, the number of therapeutic dreams varies from person to person. It simply depends on the need of the individual. If a person has a strong feeling of inferiority, their therapy may be to dream of being a powerful, capable and attractive person. In this way, the Higher Self is compensating for the dreamers psychological lack. If a person has a strong feeling of superiority they might be taken down a peg or two by a dream that depicts him or her as a weak defenseless and inferior person. Thus the dream often attempts to overcome character defects. Prophetic dreams will only occur when the individual needs to be prepared for an event in the future. Even though you may not consciously remember it, the dream prepares you, subconsciously for the shock that it to come. Not all precognitive dreams are of significant events: some may even appear quite trivial. But they are important just the same. They program and prepare the subconscious and conscious minds over a period of time, to deal with the future events and situations in a proper manner. REMEMBERING DREAMS The obvious first step in dream interpretation is to remember them. If you have trouble in remembering your dreams, the probable reason is that your have ignored them for so long that the subconscious no longer tries to bring them to your conscious memory. If this is the case, you must program yourself to remember. This can be done through affirmation. During meditation and just before going to sleep tell yourself very firmly, "I WILL REMEMBER MY DREAMS", Do this three times. Release the command. Then again tell yourself very firmly three times "I WILL REMEMBER MY DREAMS". Release the thought. Then for the third time repeat the three commands "I WILL REMEMBER MY DREAMS". So you instruct yourself 9 times in all. The second step in interpretation is recording the dreams. Place a pad and a pencil by your bed for this purpose. This very act, in itself, reinforces the command to remember. When you first awaken--even before that eye-opening cup of coffee--jot down notes on what you remember. Don't worry about trying to get everything in perfect order at this point. The important thing is to capture what you can, even if you only have time to make a few brief nots. You will find that later on you will be able to recall more of the details of the dream. Then write down all the details that you can remember. Describe the people, their identities, occupations,clothes, the state of their emotions and their activities. Note your attitude towards them and their attitudes towards you. Describe everything you see, feel and hear. Pay special attention to the numbers of things and their colors. It is all important. Then try to arrange your notes in the order in which they were dreamed. Once you have completed your notes and organized them you can begin the task of interpretation. First of all, examine the dream to see if it fits any of the events of the preceding day. This will explain a few of your dreams. If this test fails then you must determine whether the dream is literal or symbolic. A LITERAL dream is one in which the main dream character or image is a real person or thing in your life or on your mind at the time. If the literal interpretation makes sense, you may have found the key. When the literal interpretation fails to make sense the dream is obviously symbolic. A SYMBOLIC dream is one in which the dream character and images cannot be taken literally as a real person or thing. Then the image is that of an aspect of you, the dreamer. Then the ancient wisdom of the Universal Symbols should be applied. As you first begin to work with symbology, you may still have difficulty unraveling the tangled threads; you may only decipher part of the mystery. Don't worry about this for it is quite natural in the beginning. Continue to affirm that you will remember. Continue to faithfully record all of the details that you can. As you do you will find that the symbols will gradually begin to clear as you and your higher self develop a dialogue that you can consciously understand. The hidden symbol in one dream will suddenly be revealed in another. When this begins to happen you should start to compile your own personal Dream Dictionary. Take a notebook that is not used for any other purpose and divide it into alphabetical sections. As you discover the meanings of new symbols, write them down. Soon you will find that you have an extensive set of personal symbols which will permit nearly total interpretation of all your dreams. PERSONAL SYMBOLS Many published books on dream interpretation provide the reader with hundreds of symbols and simplified interpretation. Other than listings of Universal symbols, such books are totally misleading. Each of us has his or her own unique personal symbology, has on our experiences in this life. For example, two elderly ladies dream of a cat. One of the ladies has lived a spinster life shared with a succession of cats that she has loved and pampered. The second lady has a very traumatic memory of a wild cat which scratched her severely during her childhood. It is obvious that a single interpretation of "cat" will not satisfy moth dreamers. To the first lady, the cat is a warm, loving, companion. To the second, the cat is an evil, dangerous creature that brings pain. Therefore, it is necessary for the dreamer to analyze the symbol from the standpoint of his or her own personal feelings. THE REPETITIVE DREAM Many dreams are repeated in order to emphasize their meaning or to insure that they are noticed. This may or may not be obvious to the dreamer. Usually dreams come in a series of three. Sometimes their symbology will be quite similar. At other times you may record three dreams of entirely different symbology but upon their interpretation find that the underlying theme for each is almost identical. In either case the source of the dream is attempting to insure that the message gets through and is understood. A dream repeated over days, weeks or perhaps months, indicates something that you have not taken action on. Once you understand and respond to, the dream, through action or a change in attitude, the dream will cease to occur. Generally the recurring dream is one of the following: A) Precognitive or prophetic B) Compensation for an improper attitude C) The result of a traumatic incident which has left a negative impression. D) A major message about something inside you that needs "fixing". GROUP DREAMS Among the more spiritually advanced is an occasional tendency to actively share or participate in a dream with someone else. In these cases, the two people ar very much in tune with one another on a psychic of emotional level. It does not mean that they are "soul mates" destined for one another. Rather they are in harmony at some levels in this particular time of their lives and are undergoing similar adjustments on the spiritual plane. Interpretation of the dream should be done the same as with an ordinary dream but with the other person in the dream interpreted as an aspect of yourself. DREAMS versus OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES The memory of out of body experiences (OOBE's)has the same elusive quality as the dream. Consequently it is often difficult to separate the two. One marked difference is the sensation of awareness. In a dream. the visual awareness of the self is in one direction only. As with physical sight, you "see" only what is in front of you. in the OOBE, however your awareness is all-encompassing. You see not only what is in front but also what is behind, above, below and on the sides--all at the same time. Do not attempt to interpret an OOBE as you would a dream.