“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WALDEN
By now you know that the language of dreams is mysterious and powerful. You have learned that you can interpret your dreams symbolically and hook them up to your waking life, influencing it for the better. If you’ve started to remember your dreams—or even made the decision to try—you are already ahead of the game. Keeping your dream diary faithfully is like having money in the bank. Now let’s take the process one step further and talk about how you can enrich all your dream processes by creating your own personal dream dictionary.
What exactly is a dream dictionary? It’s like a regular dictionary: it has words and meanings. The difference is that your words (and images) are symbols that have certain meanings for you alone. A symbol points beyond itself to a deeper meaning. We’ve touched on the importance of symbols both in dreams and in everyday life. In effect, your dream dictionary is going to be a dictionary of symbols that you harvest from your dreams and interpret.
Create Your Dream Dictionary
A good way to keep your dream dictionary is in a loose-leaf ring binder notebook. Go through the alphabet and mark one or more pages for each letter—more pages for words that begin with the letters most frequently used. For example, “A” would take more pages than “Q” or “Z.” The advantage of a ring binder notebook is that you can add pages as you need them. You can also get colored tabs to separate the alphabetical sections. This makes it easy to find them quickly. You might find it convenient to keep your diary and your dictionary in different sections of the same notebook.
After you have recorded your dreams in your dream diary, you can go back at your leisure and list the important symbols in your dictionary, along with your interpretation of those symbols. It’s a good idea to make notes that refer the symbols to specific dreams and to note symbols that recur. You might use some sort of code—such as an asterisk—to show that a symbol is a repeat. Or you could use numbers to indicate how many times a repeat symbol has appeared. Use erasable pencil for these codes so you can change them as you need to.
Let’s talk about some symbols that usually (but not absolutely always) have universal meaning. These are the symbols that most everyone will interpret the same way, or in a similar way. That’s because these are archetypal ideas that reside in the human psyche all over the world. Remember our discussion of archetypes? Here’s a refresher:
The person who looks at the world from a symbolist point of view (as do astrologers and some psychologists, mystics and artists, poets and musicians) understands that beneath the complexity of the world that we experience there is another layer that is much simpler than the vast diversity we see every day. There is a primary symbolic language that governs life at its basic, most fundamental level. As Ray Grasse says in his book The Waking Dream, “Just as all musical compositions are based on a scale of notes, and all paintings are variations on a spectrum of colors, so philosophers and mystics have taught that all forms or phenomena are reducible to a set of essential universal principles or archetypes.” Some cultures have identified these archetypes as gods and goddesses, each one representing one facet of the whole of existence.
Every one of us has ancestors—generations and generations of them—and the fact that we all come from an endless line of forebears creates such archetypes as the Old Man, the Wise Woman, the Mother, the Father, and so on. Sometimes a figure of a woman represents the Goddess archetype, and depending on your beliefs, you may experience other religious symbols. For Christians, the cross is a powerful symbol, while people with different beliefs will dream of religious symbols appropriate to what their culture has taught them.
In astrology, every planet symbolizes something different—the Sun is your core self; the Moon, your emotions and your body; Venus, your love nature; Mars, your essential life energy; Jupiter, the principle of expansion; Saturn, the principle of restriction and limitation; and so on. The Earth is a powerful symbol of home, of growth, of humanity itself and of all the creatures and plants and inorganic forms that the earth has on it. Also, each of the zodiacal signs has a specific symbolic meaning. (See my book Teen Astrology for complete information.)
Water is a basic archetypal symbol. It usually represents the unconscious processes, especially if it shows up as the ocean, with its ceaseless movements and crashing waves or its outgoing tide which returns the waters to their central source. As the poet Howard Moss has said, “All the waters of the Earth are one.” What happens in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Mexico affects the Indian Ocean on the other side of the earth. The deep ocean currents create the world’s weather. It’s a mistake to believe that the oceans with their separate names don’t have any connection with one another. Every river on earth flows to the sea, and rivers are fed by the snow melt that runs down the mountains. All is connected. This is a prime example of a universal archetype.
However, although water is generally accepted as representing the unconscious at the symbolic level, that doesn’t mean that you can’t derive a different meaning from water in a dream. Maybe you are planning a fishing trip with your father, or going to spend a vacation at a lakeside cottage with your family, or have had a boating or waterrelated accident. Water—depending on what form it takes in your dream—may have a purely personal meaning.
But it’s good to know that there are universal meanings as well. For example, if you dream you are adrift in a small boat on a large ocean, and there’s no personal meaning you can figure out, then it’s sure the water is a reference to your unconscious processes. In this example the ocean could indicate you are out of touch with your unconscious. Or, say you choose in the dream to dive off the boat into the unknown deep. Then you would be experiencing the desire to delve into your unconscious sphere of being and learn more about what’s there. The feeling you have during and after the dream would reveal your attitude about investigating your unconscious self. If, in the boat that is adrift, you are clinging to the boat and afraid of the water, you might be fearful of being sucked into the unconscious against your will. On the other hand, in the scene where you dive into the water, you are willing to test the unknown depths for the sake of discovering more about your inner self.
When water shows up in one of your dreams, the first thing to do is to note the kind of water it was: ocean, lake, river, stream, a glass of water, a flood—there are many possibilities. Then think of what that kind of water means to you—and see if you can make a connection to the universal symbol of water through the personal symbol. This kind of relating of dream symbols takes a bit of thought, but it’s lots of fun—like reading a mystery novel or doing an interesting puzzle.
The important thing about symbols, whether universal or strictly personal, is their ability to connect things—events, persons, feelings, and so forth. As Carl Jung remarks in his book The Symbolic Life, “You are standing on the sea-shore and the waves wash up an old hat, an old box, a shoe, a dead fish, and there they lie on the shore. You say: ‘Chance; nonsense!’ The Chinese mind asks ‘What does it mean that these things are together?’”
Don’t rely on bought “dream dictionaries” that give prefabricated meanings to any and all objects, people, and situations that might occur. If you have such a book, throw it away right now. Not only are these standardized lists wrong, but they can get you off the track of finding out what your own dream symbols mean to you. You don’t want to pollute your personal dream dictionary by using somebody else’s made-up idea of what a particular symbol means. I’ve read lots of these so-called dream dictionaries and I find them worse than useless. Sure, they are popular—but they are at best unreliable and at worst misleading. So stay away from prepackaged dream symbol interpretations and make your own personal dream dictionary! That’s not only the best way to learn the special language of your dreams, it’s the only way. Especially since dream language has more to do with the images and the feelings you have about them than it does with words describing them.
Here’s a pretty silly example I found in one of the prefab dictionaries. “Lace means good times ahead. If a man dreams of lace, he will get a job promotion. When a woman dreams of lace, it means a wealthy man will propose to her.”
The fact is, lace could mean all sorts of things to different people—shoelaces, or lacing a drink with alcohol, or someone might know a person with the name of Lace. A teen girl might be sewing a dress with lace trimmings for a party. Would her dreaming of lace lead to a marriage proposal from a wealthy man? Not likely. I rather doubt that a teen boy would dream about lace, but let’s say he does. Would he get a job promotion? Fat chance, since he probably doesn’t work. See what I mean about stupid?
Universal Symbols and You
Using what you’ve learned about basic archetypal symbols, make a list of as many symbols as you can think of that might have universal significance. Then, make notes of what these same symbols mean to you at a personal level.
Symbol:___________________________________________
Universal meaning:___________________________________________
Personal meaning:____________________________________________
Symbol:____________________________________________
Universal meaning:__________________________________________
Personal meaning:___________________________________________
Symbol:____________________________________________
Universal meaning:____________________________________________
Personal meaning:____________________________________________
Symbol:____________________________________________
Universal meaning:____________________________________________
Personal meaning:____________________________________________
Symbol:____________________________________________
Universal meaning:____________________________________________
Personal meaning:____________________________________________
One theory holds that all of the people in a dream are facets of ourselves. Personally, I don’t agree. Of course, it is entirely possible that unknown persons who appear in our dreams do represent parts of ourselves, either that we don’t know about or are trying to hide from ourselves. But if you dream of a person you know—or even of someone you don’t know, such as a celebrity—there’s usually a symbolic meaning to be gleaned from the appearance of that particular person. Say you dream of a character you saw in a movie, or one who appears regularly on a TV sitcom. What would this character, or actor, symbolize to you? Maybe you wish you were more like that character. Maybe he or she represents some quality you need to solve a problem. Or maybe you think he or she is dumb, boring, or unattractive. If you can relate the character/actor to some part of yourself—what you want to be or something you don’t like in yourself that you’d like to change—then his/her appearance could represent a side of yourself.
Teen Dream Tips
Record your dream symbols in different colors—fine-line markers are good for this, or colored pencils—so they will stand out in your dream diary.
Make a list of symbols that reappear frequently and see if they have different meanings to you at different times in different dreams.
Dialogue with your dream symbols. Interview them! (See the dream interview exercise.) Let them “speak” to you directly.
Write letters to your dream symbols or figures (animal or human).
However, that is not necessarily the case at all. For example, I once dreamed of Oprah Winfrey. Though I think she’s a nice lady and I admire her success, I’ve never watched her program. Why would I dream of her? She is certainly not any “part” of myself. Guess what? I received a call from one of her producers asking me about appearing on her show! It didn’t pan out, but the dream may have been advance information that the invitation would come.
Let’s say you dream about Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. She might be a part of you; you might see yourself as the heroine solving her problems. But maybe you’ve just seen the movie in a TV rerun for the first time and enjoyed it a lot. Maybe you live in Kansas! Maybe you admired Dorothy’s spunk in getting herself home and coping with the wicked witch. Maybe you need some of that spunk and your dream is telling you to be more like Dorothy. Maybe you think someone in your life is a wicked witch—a teacher, even your mother (for the moment).
“One does not dream, one is dreamed. We undergo the dream; we are the objects.”
Carl G. Jung
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
Albert Einstein
The Dream Interview
One neat way to get at the meaning of the symbols in your dreams is by conducting a “dream interview” with yourself. In this exercise, you are going to be both the interviewer and the subject of the interview. Think of it as a course in getting to know your hidden self. Here’s how to do a dream interview:
1. Decide which dream you will interview yourself about.
2. If you haven’t already done so, write out the dream in as much detail as you can and have it in front of you.
3. Before beginning the interview, highlight the words and images that seem to have special meaning, even if you’re uncertain about what they mean.
4. Use these highlights as a guide to conduct the interview.
5. Do your interview with a tape recorder, just like a real journalist. Ask questions and then answer them. (Or do it with a friend.)
6. Try to tune in intuitively to the symbols in the dream about which you are interviewing.
7. Ask a question such as, “What does this (describe the scene or symbol on the written-out dream page) suggest to you?” Or ask the symbol directly, “Who are you and why did you appear in my dream? Do you have a message for me?” (Later, you can request another dream for clarity if you like.)
8. Answer with whatever pops into mind. Don’t sweat it. Take what comes. If nothing comes, move on to the next highlight and the next question.
9. If the question sends you off in a seemingly odd direction, follow where it leads. Symbols are flexible, and one thought about a symbol can lead to a whole string of associations. (Review word associations in chapter 3.)
10. If you (or the other person if you are doing it with a friend) get anxious or uncomfortable, don’t push it. Pause and then ask again, gently, what you (or the other) are feeling about the symbol or scene. If it’s uncomfortable, just go on to the next highlight.
11. Make a note—verbally on the tape or in writing—of any strong emotions that a symbol or scene evokes in you. Every dream has an emotional heart.
12. Keep the mood lighthearted and playful. Think of this as dream play, not dream work.
13. Do the dream interview like a fun exploration, keeping a sense of curiosity and excitement about what you might find or encounter. Don’t get afraid. If something fearful or upsetting comes up, make a note and move on.
14. Have a good time switching roles, if you are self-interviewing. If you have trouble thinking of questions, take the time to write them out beforehand using your highlights.
15. Remember that you can do this dream interview in complete privacy. You can choose to share or not to share with another person.
16. Record all your dream interviews in your dream diary. Then add the symbol definitions to your dream dictionary. And save the tapes.
Teen Dream Tip
You can also do the interview with another person if you want to do “dream sharing,” but I know that many teens value their privacy and don’t feel comfortable telling their dreams, especially disturbing or puzzling ones, to a friend or family member. However, if you do have someone with whom you regularly share dreams, you can conduct a two-person interview, switching back and forth, one person interviewing the other about his or her dream.
When creating your own dream dictionary, remember that you—as a teen—are just in the beginning stages of formulating inner symbols and assigning meaning to them. This is an exciting time of your life because you are closer to your unconscious than adults who have many layers of life covering up their connection with their deepest inner selves. It’s easier for teens to get at your symbolic meanings because you don’t have a lot of learned stuff to shove out of the way of the truth of your inner self.
Journal Seminars
“In journal seminars, the longest class is always the session about dreams. People bring a collection of recorded dreams, and we set about interpreting, drawing, sometimes acting them out, and nobody wants to go home. It’s such a relief to be able to talk about, share, explore this other world in which we spend a third of our lives. It must mean something: we are ‘there’ nearly as much as we are ‘here.’”
Christina Baldwin,
Life’s Companion
That’s why your own dream dictionary is so important. You will have it to refer to as you get older and experience more and more dreaming and meet different symbols. You’ll be able to look back and see what a particular symbol meant to you when you were younger and compare it with what that symbol means for you later on. For example, a teen dreaming about children will have a different meaning than a young mother or mother-to-be dreaming about children. The context of your life will affect the meaning of the symbols you produce in your dreams. If you dream about a child, it might be your annoying younger sibling—whereas a pregnant woman would find a dream child pleasant.
Thus, you need to know what various objects and personages mean to you so that you will have a clear idea about what significance they have in your dreams. It’s fine to tell your dreams to trusted friends or family members who are sympathetic to your dream work, and to get their opinions of what the symbols might mean, but in the final analysis, it’s your dream and it has to be your interpretation. Don’t be influenced with what another person thinks your dream means. Make your own decisions. What’s key here is how you feel about the symbols—which your dream mind has produced and which are part of you. Also, there’s no one way to interpret any symbol. Over time, your symbols may change meaning, or become richer in meaning. There are no right and wrong interpretations. It’s all up to you. You are the writer, director, producer, and star of your own dreams. They are your property.
Teen Dream Tip
To avoid a static outlook on your symbol interpretation, periodically review and update your dream dictionary, noting what symbols appeared in earlier dreams and what you felt about them then. Meanings will change with time. Also, remember that dreams give guidance even when you can’t quite get a handle on the meaning of the symbol. Don’t feel bad if you have to puzzle over a symbol. That’s half the fun of dream interpretation. These brainteasers teach you loads about yourself and how your dream mind functions. And, once you do have a good grasp of what your symbols mean to you, you are in a better position to ask dreams for guidance—and receive the answers you need.