

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.
 

