We live in the 21st century, and the world of dreams is as mysterious to us as it was a hundred years ago, when, for example, Freud or Carl G. Jung dealt with them. How is it possible? How is it that our knowledge has yet to progress further?
One possible answer is that we used to think we only have meaningless dreams at night without much importance and meaning. But the truth is that dreams have much more meaning for our mental development than any books or seminars. This is because they only concern ourselves. There is no one else here to interpret the information for us according to their discretion and knowledge. The one who speaks to us through dreams is our own unconscious. That part of ourselves over which our mind has no control.
The language in which our unconscious speaks, and which in this case manifests itself as dream visions, is symbolic. For this reason, in most cases, dreams cannot be interpreted literally, and it is difficult to interpret them correctly with the help of external “helpers.” I mean, for example, books of dream symbolism or internet interpretations of dreams.
Why dream dictionaries don’t work
As I mentioned above, dream visions are a very unique and specific message from our unconscious about what we experience on a spiritual level. For this reason, it is necessary to proceed with caution when interpreting dreams and monitor all the influences that affect us. On the contrary, we might assign the wrong meaning to our dream symbol, and as a result, an important message from our soul will not be delivered.
I like what Inelia Benz writes in one of her books. She says that if you want the unconscious to use dream symbolism from the book, then it is necessary to read the entire book first. That makes sense to me. If I work with a book for a long time and know the meanings in it, then I can assume that my unconscious also knows them.
As an example, I can cite a dream I had some time ago. I was followed by a pack of wolves, which chased me into a house, from where I watched them run through our village. In the interpretation, we could focus on the symbol of the wolf. I can read a lot of interpretations on the Internet and even relate to them. However, if we look at the circumstances that preceded this dream, the interpretation will be different.
It has been some time now that various people have often told me that I shouldn’t go into the forest alone because there is a pack of wolves and they might attack me. I didn’t pay much attention to it when I was conscious (in a normal life), because I don’t believe I’d be attacked by a wolf in the daylight, especially since they have a lot of animals to hunt. But it can be seen that this information got into my subconscious and that’s how I got a message from the unconscious.
And so I could experience the situation (in a dream-safe place) and find out how I would react. So we can talk about the so-called compensatory dream. Something that has affected me internally, but I won’t get into a situation where I can deal with it directly.
I go to the forest all the time and I’m not afraid of wolves, but let’s say that I accepted the possibility that such a situation could happen.
Another example of a compensatory dream could be that we get into a situation where, for example, we had a fight with someone or broke up badly, and we solve this situation with the help of dreams. It would be much easier (and faster) to deal with the person directly, but sometimes that’s not possible. Maybe because the person is no longer alive or we don’t know where to find him.
In such a case, we can clarify the situation, express our positions and perhaps apologize or forgive the person. If such a thing happens, we feel tremendous relief, and the dreams do not repeat themselves.
If our dreams are repeated, or if a certain situation is repeated in them, it means that we are overlooking some fact in our conscious life. Something we should address and focus our attention on, but for some reason we avoid.
It can be a message about our direction, life mission, connection with a person, or the plight of our soul. They are also things that we have not processed. Wasted moments, bad decisions, unfulfilled desires, or returning urgent thoughts.
If we want to stop suffering, it is important that we pay close attention to recurring dreams.
Regarding the topic of compensatory dreams, I would like to write here one of my dreams. A few years ago it happened to me one day my neighbor ran over my favorite cat with a car and he subsequently died in my arms as a result of his injuries. I was completely devastated. I couldn’t sleep, I was just crying all the time and I was in a lot of pain. Then I remembered that I had a book about dying and started reading it. In that book, people describe various experiences associated with death, the journey the soul takes as it returns to the light, and so on.
Three days after his death, I had a dream in which my cat returned. He was all dirty and covered in blood. I was overjoyed to see him, so I told him: “I’m so glad you’re back!”
But he answered me completely seriously: “I came only to ask you to let me go.”
“But I don’t want you to go…”, I objected. “You have to let me go,” he said for the last time and left. I saw that a black cat was waiting for him by a hedge of bushes, where I expected a hidden way. I had to start laughing because I was thinking how funny it is that people have people they like as their helpers in going to the other side, and he has a cat there.
After that, I got to the place where all the archangels were and my guardian spirit was there too. On a small television, he showed me experiences from my life in which my life was at stake and he saved me. I didn’t even remember most of those things anymore. Interesting was that there was an extremely good atmosphere, light and cheerful. We basically just laughed the whole time. Like when you get together with your best friends and tell each other funny stories from your youth.
After this dream, I perceived his death differently. More like a natural part of life. His time had just come, so he had to go. When I think about it, I no longer feel sadness, but rather reconciliation.
Our own interpretation of dreams
If we want to understand our dream, we need to look at the dream situation from all possible angles.
Where I am, what the place means to me, what the atmosphere is like, who is there with me, what the situation is, and how I deal with it. Is there something I heard a few days ago from a friend or on TV? I read a book whose plot made an impression on me..and so on.
Now you understand why an ordinary dream dictionary can’t even have a clue of what’s going on inside you. Nobody has. Just your unconscious.
At this point, I would like to mention a certain technique or rather conscious communication with the realm of dreams. It can happen that dream images are so crazy that we would never figure out their meaning. It has proven to me that if a dream has really hit me and I want to know its exact meaning, I will ask in my head while I am not fully awake. Let me say an example.
I once dreamed that I was at my parents’ house, changing my daughter’s diaper. Suddenly I noticed that someone was moving around the corner and seemed to be peeking inside. I started to get angry and swear. At that moment, a giant black elephant stood in front of me. I started yelling at him and cursing him for staring at my daughter. He just looked at me and smiled amused. So I screamed even more, got angry, and yelled for him to go away. But he kept smiling and repeating what I was doing. At one point I even wanted to set him on fire, so I took hairspray and a lighter. But even the fire did nothing to him. Then I noticed that a huge pig – probably a friend of the elephant – was sitting on the sofa in the living room, watching TV.
I wanted them both to leave, but they continued what they were doing. That’s when the elevator clicked and I knew my mom was coming home. The pig and the elephant got up and left. However, the elephant added: “Don’t worry, we’ll be back.”
Pretty hard to interpret, right? That’s what I thought when I woke up. But because I wasn’t fully conscious yet, I asked the question “What the fuck was that?!”
Immediately came the reply, “Those were your thoughts.” And I understood it immediately. My exaggerated, nonsensical thoughts attracted to me because I gave them my energy and attention. And they repaid with their presence. There was no way I could get them away because that’s not how thoughts work. If we focus on them, they are still there. The house in that dream represented my mind. My mom was the interruption to these thoughts, because in real life, when I was on the phone with my mom, I was able to relax, laugh, and stop thinking about the things that were bothering me.
Conscious work with dreams
As I mentioned above, the dream space is our safe place. This means that we can go through all situations, even the most dangerous and full of fear, without physical harm. This basically means that if we want to deal with a situation or overcome a fear, we can call the same thing into our dream and go through it without it necessarily happening in our life. Sometimes we need to change our point of view or perhaps relax in some situations.
If we fall asleep knowing that we want to get into this situation or change it (for example, in the case of recurring nightmares), this can be achieved. Let’s say someone has a recurring nightmare of being chased by a monster. The dream repeats the moment when this person runs away and when the monster almost catches him, he wakes up in fear. In this situation, the person in question can repeat the intention before going to sleep that he wishes to change the plot. Instead of running away again, he can stop, turn to the monster, and calmly ask him what he really wants from him.
At this point, the situation usually changes quickly. The monster changes shape and dangerous appearance and simply tells him what he is running from in life, what he is afraid to admit, or what he doesn’t want to accept.
For example, phobias or different types of fear can be solved in the same way.
I heard about a man who was afraid of spiders, they always chased him in his dreams. Then one day he decided to change this and instead of running away, he started a conversation with one of the spiders. He discovered that he was not terrible at all, and the spider eventually became his friend, whom he visited in his dreams when he was at a loss for something.
A similar situation happened to me in real life. I live in a place where there are a lot of scorpions and sometimes one gets into our house. At first, I was afraid of them, not that I have a phobia, but the idea of not seeing him at night and him stinging me was quite unpleasant for me.
One day I saw such a strange moving ball on the terrace. Curious, I went to see what it was and saw that it was a scorpion being eaten alive by ants. I dug the ants out of him and carried him to the stone wall where he could hide. At that moment I realized that he seemed so dangerous to me, and at the same time, he was quite a defenseless creature. Since then, although I do not seek their company, I am also no longer afraid of them.
Let’s just say that we have much bigger fears in life than just animals. For example, personal injury, the death of a family member, or a car accident. If we constantly think about these things and feed them with great energy, we may attract them into our lives. A lot has already been said about this.
However, we can use our safe space and experience this terrible situation in it. Either it can be enough for us to have experienced it there and we no longer have to experience it in real life, or we can try to change it. Change our feelings, perception of the situation, and point of view, or change negative thinking to acceptance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Last but not least, I would like to mention that this process can be subjectively perceived as tedious. If you’re just starting out, it’s possible that the first few nights your dreams will be filled with seemingly meaningless images. It can be a complete chaos of thoughts. Working with dreams requires precise intention and enough time.
If we become interested in this topic, we will notice that dreams change and we can understand them better. We can also keep dream diaries, or draw or represent dreams as music.
It also happens that we are not yet ready for some information and therefore the answer does not appear to us. It happened to me that I wanted to know something, so before going to sleep I expressed my intention to know the answer. I heard a voice in my dream that said, “Now is not the time for you to know.” Interesting, isn’t it? And so all that remains is to wait for the right time.
Remember that everything should be done with joy, not with fierceness and impatience.
So, good night.