Interpreting Your Dreams - Dream Interpretation

(originally from the Magical Mysteries Collection – 
later republished on Yahoo! Contributor Network July 30, 2008)

Dream analysis, for thousands of years, has been a function performed by magicians, sages, and prophets. In Genesis 40, the Pharaoh summoned Joseph to interpret his dreams. And in Daniel I, King Nebuchadnezzar called upon Daniel to analyze his dreams. Because incorrect interpretations might result in death, it was imperative that they be accurate.

Today dream analysis books and websites offer readers a glimpse of the subconscious dream world through universally accepted images and their associated meanings. Archetypes (universal images), mythical figures, and dream symbolism figure prominently in our psyche and relate to us messages from our subconscious. To know ourselves, we must know our conscious mind as well as our subconscious mind.

But many of us find, upon awakening, that if we remember our dreams at all, they appear in fragments that make no sense to us. Websites and books explain some dreams, but certain dream symbols may be more personal than universal. A bird to one person might signify flight and freedom, but to another it may mean fright. If we want to understand ourselves, we may benefit by understanding our dreams.

Remembering them may be difficult, however. To remedy forgetting them, try concentrating not only on having a dream before you fall asleep, but on remembering it as well. Gayle Delaney, in her book, "Living Your Dreams (see above)," invites us to explore our dreams by keeping a dream journal.

Keep the journal and a low-wattage lamp by your bed. Get in the habit of recording your dream immediately upon awakening. Even if only fragments appear, write them down anyway. As you write, more pieces of the dream may surface.

When you finish recording the dream, make a list of all the people, places, and things you remember from the dream. Next to each image from the list, describe its appearance, its form, and the feelings it arouses in you. Do any of the images remind you of anything else going on in your life, or any person?

Now describe the actions that took place in your dream and write the feelings associated with each action. Record the overall emotional quality of the dream. I've included a form that might help you record your dreams. Just click on it and print it out.

Don't try to analyze your dream as you write it. Logic and analysis can wait. Sometimes enlightenment will come as you record your dream. Other times it will appear when you review your dreams. Still other times the message won't come until weeks or even months later. A dream you had in March may make more sense to you in October.

As you become adept with the process, ask yourself specific questions before falling asleep, and ask for the message to be clearly illustrated in a dream. How, what, and why questions will result in better dream answers than yes or no questions. For instance, "What can I do to improve my relationship?" works better than "Will my relationship improve?" As you record your dreams, in time, certain patterns may emerge.

Learning about yourself through dreams may open windows to your soul.

3-Year-Old Interprets Her Own Dream

Ever since I was a child, I've asked people to tell me about their dreams. Dreams fascinate me, so nearly every morning, when we had the time, my children and I shared our dreams.

When my youngest daughter, Brittney, was three years old, she told me about one of her dreams. All she said was, "A bee stung me."

"What happened next?" I wanted to know.

"The bee said, 'that feel good?'"

"What did you say when the bee asked you if it felt good?" I asked Brittney.

She responded to the bee by saying, "No," and then added to me, "The bee was Daddy."


I'm sure a slap on the butt can feel like a sting to a child. I didn't press her, but I was surprised by how easily she transferred ownership of the bee sting to something her daddy had done to her.


Adults often don't recognize symbols that appear in their dreams, so I was surprised to discover that this little 3-year-old recognized that the bee symbolized her daddy.

Like Brittney's dream symbols, our own individual dream symbols can help us identify elements that affect our waking lives. As I've mentioned in previous Your Weird Dreams posts, the best book I've ever found on dream interpretation is the one written by Gayle Delaney – Living Your Dreams.

Living Your Dreams is written in such a way that it appears to have been individually tailored to help each dreamer. You interpret your own dreams with your own symbols using her methods, and she helps you identify your own individual dream symbols.

Pay attention to the symbols in your dreams. As you strive to learn who you are, clues will appear in your dreams that will help you solve the mystery that is you.


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Driving the Right Way in a Dream

I am with my son and his family. We are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. Only a few people have said they were coming, so we fix dinner for only his sisters (my daughters), their families, and my son and his family. Suddenly my nephew and my father walk in and I realize my mother, my sisters, and probably my other nephew are coming as well. We will definitely need a lot more food.

Now people I don't even know are showing up and I know for sure I will have to get more food in order to feed everybody.

Now I'm driving a car. My son is with me. For some reason, the wheel will turn only right. I'm trying to force it left, but the wheel refuses to turn in that direction. I panic as I see the car head toward another vehicle. It smashes into a car that is parked in front of a house.

My son gets out of the car and says he'll ask his father to help us. We get out of the car and walk into a house that clearly does not belong to my ex-husband. But I hear my ex's voice and when we walk in, I expect to see him. The man with my ex-husband's voice, though, does not look at all like my ex and when I look over at my son, while I'm wondering why he has chosen to call this man his father, my son no longer looks like my son either. Both father and son decide to help me and treat me as if I'm still the son's mother.

Now I'm the passenger sitting in a car and an animal walks toward us. At first it looks kind of like a deer as it slowly makes its way to the window.The driver opens the window slightly to see what the animal wants. The animal wants to heal me. I'm allergic to animals, so I'm wondering how I will react, but I find myself trusting this animal.

The driver lowers the window even more and the animal, which looks more like an eagle or a phoenix now, jumps through the window and sits on my lap. It leans toward me and chews my eyes, but my eyes don't hurt even while it bites my eyes. Even though what the animal/bird is doing seems odd, even in the dream, I somehow feel he/she is helping me by performing this strange ritual. It speaks to me almost intuitively.

The animal reveals my soul to me by pulling things from my past. Though I don't remember mentioning out loud that when I was a child I thought the only person who ever showed me any genuine affection and loved me was my aunt who died when I was ten years old, this animal seems to zero in on my loss and senses my pain. I can tell that this animal, whatever it is, is attempting to heal me.

When the animal leaves, I wonder if I'm not allergic to animals anymore and if a connection between my allergy to animals and the pain of losing my aunt is possible.
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I'm going to have to examine the meaning of this dream at a later date. Because I was the one who had it, I'm a little too close to it right now to figure out the meaning. Following Gayle Delaney's dream process, I'm going to have to ask myself what each of these dream symbols means to me and how each of them are connected. If you have any thoughts, I would appreciate hearing them.

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You can contact me and send your weird dreams to weirddreams@mail.com

Dream of Dead Grandpa Hanging In The Shower

You can already tell by the title that this dream definitely falls into the weird category.

I will tell the dream in first person as if it happened to me. Here is the dream as related to me:

My mom told me I had to take a shower. I protested because my grandfather (her dad) was hanging naked in the shower – dead.

Mom told me, "It's OK. He's dead. Now take your shower."

It was really creepy. I didn't want to get undressed in front of him, even if he was dead, and I certainly didn't want to take a shower with him hanging there in front of me.

But mom convinced me that it would be fine, so I started to get ready to take a shower. And then I saw his head move. That's when I woke up.

***

OK, this dream falls into the category of WHAT? I mean, how could anybody possibly interpret this dream? Really! I wonder if even Gayle Delaney would be able to figure this one out. And she's an expert in dream analysis.

So I'm asking you, the reader, for your analysis. What do you think this dream means? Maybe somebody out there has a dream dictionary that explains what a dead grandfather hanging in the shower means.

Your Weird Dreams Inaugural Blog

Welcome to the first edition of Your Weird Dreams. I don't know why I didn't start this blog a long time ago. I have always been fascinated with dreams and curious about the role they play in our lives.

I've read dream analysis books and dream symbol books, but no book I've ever read has explained the process of dream analysis better than Gayle Delaney's book, Living Your Dreams. I discuss her methods of dream analysis in my article, Interpreting Your Dreams – Dream Interpretation. Once you read how she dissects dreams, you'll be fascinated with learning about how to interpret your own.

Please click Interpreting Your Dreams – Dream Interpretation and learn how you can use YOUR personal dream symbols to analyze your dreams based upon Gayle Delaney's methods. After reading the article, you may decide you'll want to buy the book.

 Delaney admits that while some symbols are universal, oftentimes, especially in dreams, symbols can be personal. By applying Delaney's methods you can discover your own symbolism, once you realize what they are, to analyze your dreams.

You will be amazed at how easy it is to understand your dreams using her methods. To get you started, I've included a link to Gayle Delaney's book above.

Dreams are sometimes so mysterious, analyzing them can be difficult. But once in a while the dreams are so clearly understandable, it takes no book (and no genius) to figure them out. Here is an example of a dream that even a novice dream interpreter could figure out:

When I was a young mother, I raised my oldest daughter alone. Keeley was a rambunctious little girl who was feisty, intelligent, boisterous, loud, and VERY curious. She talked sometimes without breathing, she rarely slept, and I couldn't keep up with her. She always had a lot to say, and she wasn't comfortable unless every available sound wave included her voice. Occasionally I needed a break from the incessant chatter.

Now that you have the background...

(have to interrupt for a second – Keeley, if you're reading this, I have always loved you dearly. Now back to the blog...)

...you might be able to figure out the meaning of my dream.

I was visiting a friend and noticed a katydid attempting to get inside her apartment. As I always did back then, I grabbed a bug spray can to get rid of the pest, but the katydid kept coming at me and coming at me.

Deciding that I might be able to get the bug outside by holding the spray can in the direction of the door, I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. The bug finally backed off and went out of the door. I slammed the door shut and breathed a sigh of relief, but then noticed an opening at the bottom of the door. Somehow a chunk of the door had broken off.

The katydid reached in with one of its legs. I grabbed the spray can again and completely drenched the insect. The katydid's feet suddenly became human feet, though, and when I opened the door, I saw Keeley drenched in bug spray.

When I awoke from that dream, I sobbed so hard I couldn't breathe. Because even in my own interpretation I could see that I was viewing my oldest daughter as a "pest" who was "bugging" me. What bothered me and what caused me to sob so uncontrollably was that I was trying to get rid of her in my dream.

What happened as a result of that dream and the impact it had on me, was that I started paying more attention to the chatter and less attention to how it was bothering me. I was fortunate that I was able to learn from my dream, because in this case my dream helped me realize a behavior I wanted to change.

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Over the next couple of weeks, I will be explaining more unusual dreams, but before I delve into dreams I want to introduce to you, I would like to ask you to tell me about your weird, unusual, or strange dreams. Just send your weird dreams to WeirdDreams@mail.com – they may be edited for a variety of reasons, but the gist of the dream will remain intact.