Anyone who hasn't, should really read this overview page before rushing off to the symbol dictionary. But if you really feel like you have to go now...
About
Symbols
I have found at least 3 different types
of symbols being used within the operational language of dreams. Each
of the types is used in the same way but seem to spring from different
sources of knowledge within us. They are all stored in the subconscious
memory banks and sorted according to their associative value. The subconscious
seems to use graphic images for its “words” and it tends to group all
“like” images together. And, just as a picture can tell a story which
would take many words to describe, a dreaming image also does this. Universal
symbols are the ones which have been called archetypal or primal.
They seem to have their source in some type of collective unconscious
of the human species like that postulated by Jung. Cultural symbols
derive, as the name implies, from the cultural bias and belief system
of the individual within the culture. And finally, personal symbols
are those which may only have meaning to the particular dreamer and are
based on that individual's personal life experience.
Universal Symbols
By
far, one of the most interesting aspects of dream symbols is the apparent
commonality of certain types of symbols which are archetypal in nature
and seem to be fairly consistent in meaning across all cultural lines
and time epochs. The existence of these primal symbols should be an obvious
clue to us that there is some aspect of mind through which all humanity
is connected at some level. I think the evidence for it points to the
superconscious mind level
In order to explain this a little more fully I would like to illustrate with an example of one of these types of Universal symbols...water. Water means emotion, and it has meant emotion, more often than not, for many thousands of years. The reason for this should become obvious as I show how the symbol meaning is derived within the associative functioning mechanism of the subconscious mind.
Water,
first of all, in its primal meaning, relates to spirit. However, spirit,
has no objective body or form to manifest through in the material world
of our waking conscious reality. Without form there can be no image. But,
because of its nature, the subconscious must use images to display the
artifacts of its operation and experiences. So, the subconscious mind,
being located in-between the conscious mind and the superconscious mind,
must look into the world of the conscious awareness and find a form which
can be used to satisfactorily personify the intended meaning. There in
the outer world it finds that the qualities and characteristics of water,
such as its ability to manifest in 3 states (solid, liquid & gaseous),
its flowing and changing nature, its permeation of our lives--both within
and without our physical bodies, its cleansing qualities, and its absolute
necessity for physical survival, allow it to form the basis of an association
of likeness to the greater meaning of that which many of us assumes exists,
and call spirit. But because we have no other contextual form with which
to visualize and understand the qualities of spirit, water is used by
the subconscious as the perfect symbol, or metaphor, for it.
And now, when we reflect on this a little more, we get to the second stage
of the meaning of the water symbol related to our inner selves...which
is what dreams reflect and display to us. Emotion is one of those words
which very specifically points to a reality. But that reality is only
inner reality. Emotion does not exist in a physical form out in the waking
world of conscious awareness. You can't find an emotion walking around
in the real world. You cannot capture one for dissection and study. It
is an internally “felt” force and not a thing which can be handled or
measured. This inner force needs to be identified by the subconscious
as analogous to something in the outer world in order for us to have any
chance of consciously understanding the intended meaning given in a dream.
And since the state of our "spirit" is directly manifested “through” the
state of our "emotions", the subconscious assumes that the two are essentially
identical....and thus it can use the image of water to display a form
to our conscious minds when it means spirit and/or emotion. So, to the
subconscious mind, which is the "speaker", or "translator" between the
superconscious level of mind and the conscious level of mind, in the mental
movies of our dreams, water is the physical (outer) form of the symbol,
emotion is the mental (inner) form of the symbol, and spirit is the primal...non-manifested...essence
of the meaning.
This symbol making process seems to show that reality actually proceeds from the abstract to the definite through a 3 stage process. It seems that reality proceeds from the unmanifested essence, first, to the mentally manifested form and second, to the materially manifested form. And further, each of the levels of reality have a direct 1-to-1 relationship with each other in that they each experience the same essence of primal reality in a form which is appropriate to their experiental environment.
If this is true, then there will be a type of emotion which corresponds to every physical form as well as every archetypal or primal, spiritual form. The images from our outer, waking world which correspond to ”like” emotional and spiritual forms then become the graphic symbols used as a basis for the language of dreams. And when these symbol images from the physical world are so perfectly illustrative of both a spiritual concept and a mental concept, they become what I call Universal symbols. This indicates that they cannot usually be "improved" upon since the subconscious can rarely find a better metaphor.
These
Universal symbols form the basis or main structure of the “grammar” or
“vocabulary” of dreams of everyone. I think it is imperative that anyone
interested in truly understanding their dreams, as well as their lives,
become familiar with these basic forms. It will be found that they are
repeatedly used in dreams throughout one's life.
Cultural Symbols
Cultural symbols are almost as permanent as Universal ones because they
often take on their meanings by association with the Universal ones. By
Cultural symbols I mean things like the characters and scenes from myths
and religions, but also things which that culture uses as tools like automobiles,
jet planes, sewing machines, etc.
A good example to use to explain this might be the symbol for house. In our current culture the house might be depicted as a single structure, a condo, an apartment, a church, a castle, a mobile home or a tent....among other things. But in, say, a Native American migrating culture of 200 years ago we would not expect to find them dreaming of condos or mobile homes. Most likely the house symbol for them would have been a teepee, wigwam or cave. Other groups might have dreamed of pueblos or longhouses. In all cases and cultures, however, the structure in which we "live and have our being" represents the mind. We each experience both our inner and our outer lives through our minds. When we are in our houses, in dreams, we are in our minds.
Religious
icons, stories and figures also relate strongly to Cultural symbols. And
the great dramatic myths (and truths) which have been handed down to us
and form a large part of our internal database also seem to have important
relationships as Cultural symbols.
Personal Symbols
Here is where the individual meaning of symbols comes most fully into
play. And it is often the most difficult area of the inner language to
interpret properly without some knowledge of the above two symbol types,
combined with much self study of one’s own experiences and the resulting
artifacts of that experience which are stored in the subconscious as memories.
No “other” person can arrive at a satisfactory meaning for a personal
symbol without first knowing what memories are being accessed to provide
that symbol for the individual. The best that one person can do to help
another person come to an understanding of personal symbols, I think,
is to show a process by which the symbols are chosen by the subconscious
mind and to show how to ask the right questions to ascertain the meanings.
For this reason, you will not find your personal symbols listed in a dream dictionary. The writers of dream dictionaries do not know who or what “Aunt Meg” means to you...except, perhaps, in a general way. Only “you”, as the dreamer, know this...even though you might not consciously be aware of it. But you DO know it because you created it...or rather, your memories did.
Personal symbols usually take the most study and individual effort in order to understand and interpret correctly. To do so each individual must become sort of a detective...looking for clues, lining up the evidence and narrowing the possibilities until the most probable interpretation becomes clear.
Here is an example from my own Personal symbols list of people (*see People in Dreams). I have a particular aunt who figured in my dreams from time to time and it took quite a while for me to realize what she meant and what a dream relating to memories of her house and yard meant to me. I finally realized that her husband, my uncle, whom I had rarely seen while growing up, since he worked at night, was the owner of a bakery. So my aunt always had a large, metal dish of bakery fresh goodies on her dining room table and, as a child, I was often treated to them. Eventually, after reading through many of the dream scenarios concerning this aunt and I was able to conclude that, in every context, she meant “gestation period”...“something in the oven”...or something “good” or “worthwhile” which was going to take time. The dream was not “about” my aunt. It was “about” me...my life...my endeavors. And this is the subject of most of the dreams of an individual.
As a postscript to this story I later received even further confirmation of the symbol meaning from an older cousin of mine. I asked her what this aunt might mean to her. She said “slow....she always moved and talked so slowly”. So we both arrived at the same symbol through two different methods but each is supportive of the other.
But there’s more. Symbols can, and often do, have multiple layers or levels of meaning. This is covered more fully in the “Gender” section but I will note here that the second level of meaning for this aunt of mine ties the symbol to a subconscious faculty or attribute because she is female. This means that whatever she represents in the dream is “inner”....related to feelings and emotions...rather than actual outer experiences. This is a large subject but a very important one in the understanding of just how much information is discernible through one’s dreams.
Other Personal symbols might be related to past events such as a childhood experience, a place, a favorite or “un”-favorite thing....literally anything from the memory banks which had, or has, enough emotional impact within the subconscious mind to be associated with an image capable of being displayed to you through the mental movies of the dreaming self.
If you take the time and make the effort to decode your personal symbols you will not be disappointed. It is not always an easy task but it can be a very enlightening one on the path to understanding your dreams.
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