Do you need help figuring out what your dreams mean? The more you work with your dreams in a specific way, the more information you will get from them. The waking ego, the dreaming ego, and the unconscious mind learn to work together to provide images and information that lead to a more satisfying life. This article outlines one approach to working with your dreams.
Recording the Dream
It is important to record the dream exactly as it occurred as much as possible. Because dream details fade over the minutes or hours after awakening, it is essential to record the dream immediately upon awakening. You may find that you remember more than one dream, so you can record any that you remember, or the one that stands out as being the most significant.
Record the dream without any editorial comments. Become a trained observer of your own dreams. Don’t analyze or edit out inconvenient content. By the same token, don’t obsess about every tiny detail. Record the places, characters, and events, but remember, how you feel about something can be of equal or greater importance. You may want to add the nuances of patterns after you have recorded the main elements of the dream drama.
At first a “just the facts” approach will get you started. Later you may find yourself imitating the narrative styles of particular dreams. A storyteller does not always record his tale in the first person, nor is a fairy tale told the same as a detective story. Not that you need consciously parody William Faulkner at 3:00 a.m. Rather, allow the spirit of the dream to imbue your words when it would. Stream of consciousness is, after all, not just a name for a writing style, it is the narration of dreams.
Listing the Main Characters
After you have recorded the dream, then begin to examine its contents. The intention is not to judge or edit, but rather to consider them in an open-minded fashion.
~ Persons known to me - Say how you know the people. You may want to note whether these people were acting like themselves in the dream, of if they seemed to be out of character. Who was “I” in the dream? What age? What persona (working person, child, parent, animal, etc.)? Was I active or passive? Was the “I” in the dream someone other than yourself? Were you present in the dream or only watching? What did the “I” in the dream want?
~ Persons not previously known to me
Listing the main features of the dream
~ the scene
~ the time of day / historical period
~ how the elements are portrayed in the dream (scene, characters, action)
~dominant factors in the dream
~ connections that were not obvious within the narrative
Symbols in the Dream
~ Familiar - Note the symbol and it usual associations. Is it consistent with its usual meaning?
~Unfamiliar - Note the feelings evoked, why it is symbolic in the context of the dream.
Personal versus Archetypal Significance
Consider how the dream connects to your personal circumstances. Certain symbols have both personal impact and archetypal significance. Thus if you have a pet tarantula, spiders may be fairly commonplace to you, yet they also are symbolic of centering and the weaving of fate throughout our lives.
Consider the larger social / spiritual / transpersonal context of the dream. Even ordinary dream scenes often include spiritual messages and meaningful details that help you make important decisions on the social or spiritual level. A dream figure’s clothing, for example, may suggest a change in your path that seemingly has nothing to do with the content of the dream.
Feelings during the dream / when you awoke
Sometimes you feel a certain emotion during a dream, while at other times you seem to be observing, rather like watching a movie. Some dreams have little or no feeling within the dream, but you feel strong emotions upon awaking. Sometimes you don’t remember the dream, but you awake with strong emotions. These variations can be significant, as they indicate the relative intensity of the dream message and the intensity of its impact on your conscious mind.
What is the dream’s outcome?
Does your dream self get what it wants or needs? Is the dream incomplete or pointless?
Does it even have an ending?
Thoughts or feelings that occurred later
Later on you may develop an insight into the dream, or its feeling tone changes. The act of considering the dream content can surely change your attitude toward its contents. Great fear in a dream, for example, may cause you to consider some factor in your waking life that otherwise might have been ignored. In doing so you create an opportunity for yourself.
The dream tutorial provides questions for you to answer in order to record everything you remember about your dream. You may not need this tutorial at all, or you may find it helps you to remember certain details that you would otherwise omit.
~ How does the dream start?
~ Where are you?
~ How are you dressed?
~ What are you doing in the dream? Or not doing?
~ What other characters are present at the beginning? Do you know them?
~ Describe how they look, how they are dressed, etc.
~ What happens after that?
~ How does the dream end?
~ Is there anything that is left unresolved?
~ How do you feel when you wake up?
~ How do you feel when you are recording the dream?
~ Are you aware of any connections between the dream and your life?
~ Imagine the dream characters are part of you. How do you feel about them?
~ Imagine the places and actions being part of you. How does that make you feel?
~ What things in the dream stand out as being the most important to you? Why?
~ Does this dream relate to other dreams you recall?
~ What have you learned from the dream so far?
~ Title of the Dream – the title can capture the essence of a dream.
Sources
Dreams: Working Interactive, by Stephanie Clement and Terry Rosen, published by Llewellyn
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