Chat file opened 07/26/89 17:20:42 ---------------------------------- 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 dreamaing of doing things that are physically impossible in your  everyday life. You end up with total frustration in youur 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 tocontain  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  symbolds with which your conscious mind is most familar. Therefore, it will  use terms and symbols from your everyday life. Oftimes 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. Inclued are colors, numbers, form and sexual  ideniity (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 arl Jung once stated: "No dream symbol can be  separated froom 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 consideradition of your own  feelings towards the dream, the symbol and your own intuition. The dream is a comples and almost limitless combination of symbols. it  can be analytical, judgemental or therapeutic in nnature. 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 aare relating to your enviorment and your fellow man and woman. A  small percentage of your dreams are of a prophetic nature, to warn and prepare  you for future eveents (the percentage of prophetic dreaams vary greatly from  one personn to another but it is estimated that perhaps one dream in twenty  concerns the future) Don't imediately 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 incidently it should be noted that invariably the pricciiple  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 agaiinst your female  aspect) with the image of sister Suzy being used simply aas a recognizable  form that you can accept. Again depending on the individual, the number of therapeutic dreams  varies from person to person. It simply deepends on the need of the  individual. If a person has a strong feeling of inferority, their therapy may  be to dream of being a powerful, capable and attractiive 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 indivual 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 signigcant events: some may even appear quite  trival. 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 annd  just befopore 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 timerepeat 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 penciil by your bed for this purpose. This very act, in itself,  reinforces the command to remember. Whenyou first awaken--evenn 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 attiudes 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  interpretatioon 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 diffculty  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 begiins to happen yopou 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 youu 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, hased on our experiences in this life. For  example, two eldery ladies dream of a cat. One of the ladies has lived a  spinster life shared with a successionof cats that she has loved and pampered.  The second lady has a very traumatic memory of a wild cat which scratched  her severly during her childhood. It is obvious that a single  interpretationof "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 neccessary 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 notbe obvious to thedreamer. 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  eaach 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. Oncce you understand and respond to, the dream, through  action or a change in attiude, the dream will cease to occur. Generally the recurring dream is one of the following: A) Precognitive or prophetic B) Compensation for an improper attiude C) The result of a traumatic incident which has left a negative  impression. 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  oerson 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 theself 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.