Trying To Understand More....., dream interpretetion Options

for years now, ever since I started learning shamanism from my grand father I've been trying to learn to interpret my dreams, my grandfather was teaching me, but he died too soon, I don' trust dream dictionaries because my grandfather told me every creatures dreams messages different from others, so how can I obtain this wisdom again,or to be exact,for the first time????? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_bookread.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wandwizard.gif)

I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like you were very close to your grandfather.

Here are some tips for recalling dreams and interpreting them. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

"The dream is often occupied with apparently very silly details, thus producing an impression of absurdity, or else it is on the surface so unintelligible as to leave us thoroughly bewildered. Hence we always have to overcome a certain resistance before we can seriously set about disentangling the intricate web through patient work. But when at last we penetrate to its real meaning, we find ourselves deep in the dreamer's secrets and discover with astonishment that an apparently quite senseless dream is in the highest degree significant, and that in reality it speaks only of important and serious matters. This discovery compels rather more respect for the so-called superstition that dreams have a meaning, to which the rationalistic temper of our age has hitherto given short shrift."

Carl Jung "On the Psychology of the Unconscious" (1953). In CW 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. pg. 24

By looking at our dreams, we unlock deep symbology.

By your bed, keep a journal, pad of paper, or a tape recorder so you can track your dreams. Write down or record key impressions as soon as you can. It will help you recall the dream once you are fully awake. When you wake up write down as many keywords or impressions that you can to help you recall the dream. The longer you wait to make notes, the harder it will be to recall the dream.

Everyone dreams each night during each REM stage and there are several each night. We may not always remember the dream.
Go to sleep before the body is completely exhausted. Take a minute to say, “I will remember my dreams.” That way you don't fall asleep when you are stating you'll remember the dreams and when you wake up you're mind is clearer. Also by going to sleep early, you will have more time when you wake to review any notes and complete the dream recall.

Dreams are full of emotion and when we review our dreams it's easy to be wrapped up in the intensity. By writing those out we can review each scene slowly. Picking out phrases, colors, and symbols. We then view the dream objectively.

It is like the two different ways of viewing a film.
1. You can watch it and get caught up in the plot and sympathize with the characters so much you may lose sight of your surroundings. At the end of the film you realize you're in your living room.

2. You watch the film looking for the director's and writer's theme. What is the symbolism? What is the character dialog alluding to? M. Night Shamalan in his film "The Sixth Sense" used red in each scene with a spirit.

Of course there are films with no meaning and were created for entertainment only. These are like the dreams where our brains download the experiences of the day from short term to long term memory. There will be some of that in a lot of dreams.

Then there are dreams that are prophetic or hold keys to understanding our self. Our soul, guides, ancestors, and the Divine speak to us in our dreams. The messages in our dreams can sometimes be word, association, or number puzzles.

http://www.puzz.com/association.html has some word association puzzles you can try.

Dreams may also include numbers or items that are seen several times. These numbers hold clues to the dreams meaning.
Numerology isn't set in stone. There are many different interpretations. Here is a site that compares the different ones. http://www.psyche.com/psyche/qbl/comparative_numerology.html The site may be helpful in getting the basic concept behind each number's esoteric meaning.


When reviewing a dream note the following things:
1. What was the prominent theme or emotion?
2. Was there a significant color or lack of color?
3. Were there words, numbers, or sounds that stood out?
4. Note the overall emotion of the dream.

When you review the dream entries you can:
1. search for phrases that literally explain the dream
2. interpret the symbolism either by applying esoteric knowledge or word/picture association


Remember what is important is what a color or number means to you and not necessarily what is in a book or website.

EXAMPLE:

“The location was a university in the middle of winter. It was cold outside and everyone that was there was wearing heavy coats and some even gloves, but there was no snow on the ground.”

In this portion there are two symbols.
1. University
2. Winter

University – learning, knowledge

Winter is also the season of Earth. It's a time of death in the northern hemisphere. But also of hope and renewal. This is the season of Christmas and Yule.

“The overall color was white and light blue.”

From “Magick Class Part 1: Philosophy and Nature of Magick” p. 35 and 36.

“White
Goddess, purity, spirituality and greater attainment in life, truth, sincerity, power of a higher nature, wholeness”

“Blue
Truth, inspiration, wisdom, occult power, protection, understanding, good health, happiness, peace, fidelity, harmony in the home, patience”

“There were about 5 people sitting in an outdoor pavilion.”

The number 5:
five senses
five toes/fingers/
learning through the senses

5 is about becoming more aware of your surroundings through the physical senses.

“There was an older African American male probably in his 60’s with white hair, and he was sitting next to a Caucasian female probably in her mid 50’s. They were both part of the cleaning crew because there was a broom leaning between them, she was leaning on a garbage bin on wheels, and he had rags hanging out of his pockets. The gentleman wasn’t saying much, just listening, and the woman was talking and laughing loudly to everyone.”

Cleaning Crew. This is a clue from the subconscious. Matters from the past or worries need to be cleaned out before the dreamer will obtain their desire for bringing more living a more spiritual life (the colors, the pavillion which is a physical structure, and the physical number of 5).

This post has been edited by Masery: Jul 27 2007, 07:57 AM

thank you, this is very helpful, and yes, we were very close, he was also my teacher and friend, but I know he will allways look out for me...... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/fie.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wizard.gif)

A book I would recommend looking into is called Lucid Dreams in 30 Days: The Creative Sleep Program, by Keith Harary and Pamela Weintraub. Its short, 90 pages, very affordable. I bought two copies, for a friend and myself, for less than $20 US. Amazon sells used copies for less than 5 dollars. The reason I highly recomend this book is because its easy to follow, self paced and its not written by some new ager trying to make a buck. The authors have thoroughly researched the various topics related to dreaming and lucid dreaming and their techniques are based off research conducted in a University - which I don't remember read the book.

While the main subject is in teaching readers how to control their dreams that also includes interpreting them as well.

For a shamanistic, or more over aboriginal, perspective towards dreaming and understanding their meaning I would also recomend Dream Gates by Robert Moss

If possible I would also suggest taking a course in dream psychology. Thats where I really learned how to interpret dreams. But thats also because my learning style is more oriented towards a class room setting.

Self teaching books like dream dictionaries are some what useful and usually they are based off the theories and techniques of Freud and Jung but realize that Freud and Jung were really pioneers in their own right. They are really great to look into and study but I think to really understand you own dreams it takes personal experience. I hate dream dictionaries because they are culturally biased and mass produced in an effort to appeal to a target market audience that the writters think will make the most money on. Therefore there are large number of people who would not benefit from a dream dictionary.

One technique for interpreting dreams, I forget what it is called but its really easy: Recall your dream with the best detail as possible. You'll probably want to use notebook paper and skip a line every time you run out of room. Once you have totally written your dream down go back over and with a different color pen use the lines you didn't write in to re-write your dream using different nouns and adjectives. It sounds like you are only re-writting the dream but read over it and it can have a new meaning. Doing this repeated with your own dreams will produce some interesting results.

From my own experience the interpritation of dreams takes time and is a matter of understanding the function of the imagry in the dreams. Take into consideration how things within the dream make you feel. Who are you with, what are the colors, the details, whats going on within the setting.

Some common examples are like buildings can represent structure. The structure could represent family, relationships, work life, financial stability - that is determined by the type of building. A family house is more likely to represent family structure where as a school or public building could represent social structure. The condition of the building would then tell you its quality. An old house would represent an old structure, perhaps a tradition even. A delapitated house would represent a structure in ruins. Then there is the matter if you are in the building or outside it. Being inside a building can represent internal feelings about the structure and being outside of it can represent external interpritations The rest of the meaning of the structure in question comes from your own impression of it. Just because a house is falling apart or delapitated doesn't mean it makes you feel uncomfortable.

Another common dream theme includes a vehical of some type. Vehicals often represent transition or changes in one's life. How the vehical behaves, the type it is, the conditition it is in, and how it makes you feel, tells you what it represents. If a vehical is out of control it represents uncontrolable change.

Then, of course, there are the people we dream about. Most dream psychologists agree that people represent aspects within ourself. Your father would represent your higher masculine qualities while your mother would represent the feminine. Now say you have a little brother or sister who enters your dreams, that would represent your less mature masculine or feminine side. Dreaming about an exgirl friend can represent a detachment from your feminine side. Dreaming about a current girl friend could represent appropriate expression of your feminine side. Yet realize it all depends on the dream it self. For example if you dream about killing your girl friend and being with your ex that represents a negative expression or relationship, even repression of your feminine self.

Some think the people we see in dreams really do represent those people, I think its a little of both worlds. But its possible people we dream about represent how we feel about them or what we desire from them. Dreams really do reveal emotion and desire and it just takes time and logical analysis to understand what they mean.

I think learning to interpret dreams also requires one to understand dreams themselves. That said I would read the information in this link and follow up on the sources cited:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams

This post has been edited by Acid09: Jul 27 2007, 05:31 PM