Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

Dreams are worlds of our own creation, they spring entirely from our own minds, and yet very seldom does the dreamer seem to know what their own dreams mean. I find this a fascinating dichotomy, where we actually get a glimpse into our own subconscious minds.

Naturally, interpreting dreams is a big thing whether you’re a psychologist, or a fortune teller. Mystics from ancient to modern times have claimed that our dreams come from one of three places: the gods, our ancestors, or from our hearts. Freud and others like him say that dreams come from the subconscious mind alone, and are usually the result of repressed desires your Id had, and your Super Ego couldn’t allow you to act on.

As you might imagine, these differences in opinion lead to some fun variations in how the two opposing groups might interpret the same dream.

Let’s take, for example, a fairly common dream, that of finding yourself in a building of some kind. You may be exploring it, lost in it, or even tied up inside it, but the building itself is the main focus of the dream.

Psychologists typically see the building itself as a symbol of your physical self. If the building in question is beautiful, then they would say that that indicated a healthy body image. Derelict buildings, or those falling apart at the seams, indicate concerns about your health. Further, they tend to correlate upper floors with your conscious mind, and lower floors or basements with your unconscious mind.

The mystic, on the other hand, sees the buildings as indicative of the kind of luck coming your way. Small buildings indicate bad luck, while a large or rich building foretells a positive shift in your fortunes.

Other, less common dreams, have even more fun interpretations. One of my personal favorites was that in Japan, if you dream that your hair is on fire you will completely lose your mind. I’d be very interested to find out how that superstition got started.

Dreaming of ice is also interesting, especially for writers. According to psychologists, water symbolizes free-flowing creativity, or possibly emotion. Frozen water, aka ice, does not flow. Dreaming of ice, then, indicates that your creativity is frozen or stifled, and some change must occur to “break the ice”. Perhaps you are feeling overwhelmed for some reason, and are unable to concentrate, or fear of failure has you paralyzed. Either way, you are telling yourself that you need to change something to get yourself flowing again.

Then again, the mystical meaning of a dream of ice is completely different. According to folklore, if you are married and dream of ice, it means your marriage will be happy and fruitful. Just don’t dream of ice skating, because apparently that means disaster is coming.

Interpreting a dream is a pretty personal thing. I enjoy attempting to apply information from The Hidden Meaning of Dreams, by Craig Hamilton Parker, just for the heck of it. I’m not going to say the results have ever foretold the future, but they have been interesting.

One thing I would recommend, especially to those in any creative field, is to keep some kind of dream journal. Even if you don’t remember your actual dreams, writing down the disjointed thoughts you have as you are falling asleep or waking up can be a gold mine of ideas.

Cheers,

Michelle