Dream Interpretation… NOT an exact science. But there’s so much our minds are trying to do and tell us while we sleep, we can’t afford not to listen. Look at it as work. How well do you understand the issues you’re consciously and subconsciously dealing with? Your sleeping world(s) might just know more than you do.
Since my psychic twins’ books launched and their dream adventures become fan favorites, I’ve gotten a good bit email and questions about dream interpretation.Now first, a disclaimer. I’m not a dream scientist, but I do play one on TV… No, I’ve been studying and fascinated with dreams my whole life, and I’m fascinated with my own and others’ dream worlds. I’m happy to chat with anyone about what they’re remembering of what their sleeping minds explore, and about how to use and access even more of that valuable insight.
It’s hidden gold, what we don’t see until we turn the rest of the world off. This is the first of three Dream Theory posts about some of the ways that I look more deeply into my own and others’ dream memories.
Anna Faraday, in her 1970’s books, Dream Power and The Dream Game, pioneered much of modern dream work. She believed dreams have three potential meanings, on three different levels of understanding, that all should be explored.
Level 1, Looking Outward:Does the dream and its symbols or setting or actions tell you anything about the dreamer’s world? I’ve talked about this a good bit in Dream Theory and Psychic Realm blog posts and comments. If we don’t deal with external events while we’re awake, they (or some symbolic reflection of them) are likely to show up in our dreams. Voila! There you have the simplest explanation for the basis of my first to Legacy books.
The key? Looking outward from a dream, especially when the outward meaning is a direct one, can serve as a warning or a reminder.It may show the true nature of a situation or person you’re avoiding or subconsciously worried you’re not seeing clearly. And Faraday’s insistence that dreams can be precognitive and clairvoyant fit into my Psychic Realm plans for Sarah and Maddie Temple quite nicely ;o)
Level 2, Looking Glass Dreams:Much like Alice learned when she really was only when she fell down the rabbit hole into her wonderland, we often come face-to-face with our true selves when we meet our reflection in our dreams. Symbols and colors and setting become much more important to interpreting dreams (and the dreamer) at this level.
I do this a great deal in Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy, too, when my twins must learn not to be afraid the what they become in their dreams. They must learn to trust their instincts, instead of continuing to run.Aside from the outward, literal, meanings of what you remember, what dream elements appear most often when you sleep? Characters, animals, houses or places, even modes of transportation and how you arrive and leave situations. Learning the underlying meanings of all of these will tell you something about yourself.
In Secret Legacy, a violent, deadly door and an angry ocean prevent Sarah Temple from reaching the secret she longed for. She feared it meant she was the evil standing in her own way, that she was the threat to all around her. In the in, she was projecting her fear into the deadly scenarios her mind was concocting. She was her own greatest threat. She was the door barring herself from moving forward.
Level 3: Looking Inward:I touch on a lot, because it’s the key to all of this, in my opinion. Dreams show us our potential for change. For resolving our own problems. In the Secret Legacy example above, Sarah Temple had to accept her power to move past her destructiveness and dislike for herself, or those she cared for (and her secret) would continue to drown with her. She was her own locked door.
Faraday (and before her Gestalt) recommended opening dialogues with dream characters.Interacting with them, so the real key to the symbols and scenarios could emerge. Since my Legacy characters are psychic and can initiate and control dreams, this means they can confront and explore their sleeping realities directly.
By the end of Secret Legacy, my characters are traveling through dreams, connecting with the living through them, and changing realities (both waking and sleeping) with the power of their belief in their dream work.
For us mere mortals, the thing to focus on in our inward dream work is the conflicts and opposites we visit when we sleep. What extremes do our dreams isolate? What battles need to be fought between what we think we are and who we need to be? And how can we work with our dreams to explore those weaknesses and possible strengths?
The goal is to integrate what our dreams lead us through into our waking lives. It’s very seldom a literal thing. It’s all about feelings, remember? My last post was all about the emotions that cross back and forth between our waking and sleeping worlds. They’re our vehicle for change. They’re our greatest assets as we look more closely at the treasure within our own minds.
Dark Legacy and Secret Legacy continue to hit the Kindle Best Seller lists! Remember–Dark Legacy’s a .99 cent downlaod through May 22nd!
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream interpretation, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
I just wanted to chime in to tell you that I am thoroughly enjoying these posts about dreams – one of my fascinations for years. Also, I am just about to start reading Dark Legacy – woohoo!
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