Dream Dictionary For Dummies

Pick an image from a recent dream and let it appear in your imagination.
2. Ask: What does this image remind me of that is present in my life now? Let yourself receive one or more associations. Write them in your diary.
3. Ask: What earlier similar experience is tied to these present ones through an association in my subconscious mind? Let yourself receive one or more associations. Write them in your diary.
4. Ask: What earlier similar experience is tied to this one through an association in my subconscious mind? Keep asking until no more come.
5. Examine the string of connected experiences to find common themes leading into the present. What core emotions are at the heart of the experiences?

Review your collection of words, feelings, memories, and concepts. As you write, ask yourself: How are these ideas like me or my life right now? How do these ideas relate to each other and fit together to describe a situation in my life?

Move your awareness out to the first petal. Imagine another image, idea, personal memory, or word on that petal, something that’s related to snake. The first thing might be poisonous. Note the idea in your dream diary.
3. Return to the center and connect with the snake symbol again. Go to the second petal and see what idea or image is there. Maybe this time it’s sexuality. Note the idea in your dream diary.
4. Return to the center and feel the symbol. Go to the third petal. This time you get ancient wisdom. Continue going back to the center, then out to a petal, until you’ve exhausted the meaningful associations. Don’t jump from petal to petal or you might start associating the associations with each other. Soon you should have an intriguing list: poisonous, sexuality, ancient wisdom, dangerous, slippery, sensual, “snake in the grass,” dragon, cold-blooded, sacred, teeth, sheds skin, constrictor, transformation, kundalini.

Close your eyes and imagine a large open flower with many petals. In the center of the flower, place a symbol you’d like to decode; let’s use a snake. Focus on the image and be willing to receive any ideas.

Find personal meanings horizontally
You can find the personal meanings of a symbol by expanding your awareness horizontally or sideways across the world. You can uncover associated ideas that are similar to the symbol, that have a meaning specific to you, by asking questions like, What does this symbol remind me of? What memories do I connect with this image? Traveling the horizontal path to a symbol’s meaning is a totally subjective journey; symbols hold different meanings depending on how much love and fear are connected with the viewpoint. To discover the personal meanings you have with a symbol, you must trust your subconscious mind.

3. Ask yourself: If I were a flying blue horse, aware of all its sensations and emotions, what would I naturally know about myself, the world, and life? What insights would I have? Write about your answers.
4. Next, ask: If I had all the sensations, emotions, and knowing of a flying blue horse, what lesson would I be teaching myself? What purpose would I be fulfilling? Write about your answers.

interpret a symbol vertically:
1. Pick a dream fragment or a piece of a longer dream. Focus on the symbol that seems most important and describe it in a short phrase. For example: (Blue Pegasus) is a symbol for the image I see of (a flying blue horse).
2. Ask yourself: If I could feel what it’s like to be blue, without fear or reservation, what sensations and emotions would I experience? If I could feel what it’s like to be a flying horse, what sensations and emotions would I experience? Write about the experiences, in first person/present tense, using as many sensory and emotional words as possible. Try to include vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

1. Make a list of ten past dreams, or recent situations in your waking life that seem like dreams.
2. Use your imagination. Let the most colorful images and whimsical actions in each dream connect and form a poetic title that captures the spirit of the dream and makes it instantly meaningful to you.

Pick three people you know. For each one, ask: If this person were a tree or an animal, what would he or she be? What kind of music would he be? What kind of car would she be? What is this person’s secret fantasy? What does his bedroom look like? If this person were a geometric symbol what would she be?

Make a list of ten people you’ve seen in the media. Write their first and last names in your diary. Then ask your imagination: If these people had different names that conveyed their essences or important qualities of their personalities, what would they be? Don’t be logical. Take the first impressions you get. List the pseudonyms next to their present names.