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                                     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.
 

