Theresa Cheung - The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams - The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams

Coat of arms

To see a coat of arms in your dream represents your familial roots and identity.

Crowns

To dream of a crownis to acknowledge your own success and to recognize your ability to forge ahead in life. You may also be about to receive some sort of honor or award. If you dreamt that a crown or laurel wreath was placed on your heador a garland of flowers was placed around your neck, this could suggest that you crave to be acknowledged as head and shoulders above the rest in your waking life. As well as wish-fulfillment, such dreams can also be literal. Perhaps you have recently been promoted at work or been given new authority over a number of people.

Cup

Receiving a cupis less about wish-fulfillment than about the symbolism of the chalice, indicating a receptive state that encourages intuitive development and a go-with-the-flow approach to life. It may be encouraging you to be more open to the feminine side of your nature, and to give and receive in equal measure. A common dream among men is the presentation of the football cup, suggesting they feel as if they should be declared the ‘first among men’.

Diadem/Tiara

The diadem or tiarain a dream suggests mental or intellectual abilities that are not being acknowledged in waking life. It could also signify a desire for the magical and unknown.

Flowers

If you were presented with a bouquet of flowersin your dream, you need to notice who or what gave you the flowers, what kind of flowers they were, and what color they were, as all these messages are significant. The giver may be someone who you already know who holds you in high regard, but if it is someone you don’t know so well, your unconscious may be alerting you to their secret admiration. It is also possible that your unconscious is compensating for lack of recognition from other people and expressing your desire for them to be more demonstrative. If the flowers are dying or have wiltedthis could suggest that the giver’s admiration is wilting, or that your expectations are disappointed. If the dreamer discards the flowersthis signifies bad relations between the dreamer and someone close to him or her, or the people around him or her, both at work and in the family.

Medal

A medalis a reward for bravery or good work, so when it appears in a dream it is recognition of your own abilities and achievements in life. If you give the medal to someone else, then you are honoring a part of yourself represented by that person.

Prizes

Dreams of prizes can denote a feeling of well-being, but they can also indicate financial worries. Gaining a prizecan also be associated with winning a loved one’s sexual favors, especially if the prize is accompanied by a bunch of flowers. Prizes can also warn against unwarranted expectations. Jung cites as a universal dream type the Greek myth of Bellerophon, who received the winged horse Pegasus from the goddess Athene, and then presumptuously tried to fly to the heavens—the god Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse, and Bellerophon fell crashing to earth.

Shield

A shieldis a symbol of preservation and protection. It can appear in dreams as a symbol of protection, or as a barrier between you and the rest of the world. Are you erecting the shield, or is it being erected by someone else?

Trophy

Recognition in your dreams that you have done something you should be proud of and have overcome your fears.

when a feud was about to erupt at work, but no one thanked you for your efforts.

If you dream of winning, whether it is a prize, competition or contest, this illustrates your feelings of confidence. It may be a reassurance from your subconscious that you have what it takes to be a success in waking life. On the other hand, dream oracles suggest that this kind of dream can sometimes mean the opposite. If you dream of winning a lottery ticket, this indicates a new-found sense of optimism in your waking life. If you see numbers on a lottery ticket, consider buying a lottery ticket and use the numbers you saw in the dream. Losing or drawing the lotteryin the dream, is a warning that you might be surrounded by false friends or that your hopes are unrealistic. See also NUMBERS.

Animals in dreams represent primitive drives and desires, such as fear, lust and anger that can only be really understood on an instinctual level.

Thus, to dream of a certain animal could suggest an aspect of your personality that is instinctual, hidden or striving for recognition. It could also represent a part of yourself you find hard to control. And because we often assign characteristics or personality traits to animals, dream animals may also symbolize gut feelings we have about others. An attacking lion, for example, may depict how we see someone who is being aggressive toward us.

Animal dreams rouse special interest because they contain images that are familiar to us, but at the same time we recognize something that is unfamiliar and obscure. Traditionally, the characteristics of the dream animal are applied to the world of humans, often seeing the animal as a harbinger of misfortune or good luck; for example, a wolf is often thought to predict thieves or misfortune. According to Freud animals in dreams are not predictive of future events but a classic expression of repressed or unexpressed sexual and aggressive tendencies. Jung, however, argued that animals in dreams should be analyzed individually, depending on the character they portray in the dream and the association the dreamer has to them.

Jung believed that animals are sublime and, in fact, represent the ‘divine’ side of the human psyche. He suggested that animals live much more in contact with a ‘secret’ order in nature itself and—far more than human beings—live in close contact with ‘absolute knowledge’ of the unconscious. In contrast to humankind, the animal is the living being that follows its own inner laws beyond good and evil—and is, in this sense, superior and a source of inspiration and guidance.

Although animals are one of the most common dream symbols, dreams that feature them can be complex and hard to interpret. Perhaps the simplest way is to first think about how you feel about the specific animal in your waking life. You may, for example, adore cats and think of them as lovely creatures because you have a much-loved pet cat, or you may associate cats with feeling unwell because you are allergic to them. Thinking about how that animal makes you feel within the context of your dream should help you recognize if that feeling is struggling to the fore, or is already expressing itself in daily life.

If, on the other hand, you have no feelings in particular about the animal in your dream, you need to think about the quality you typically associate with it; for example, a fox with cunning and stealth, an elephant with strength and mystery, or a dog with unconditional loyalty and love. Because animals are thought to represent unedited feelings and drives, it’s possible that your unconscious used the symbol of the fox in your dream to alert you to your own or someone else’s cunning. Thinking about that aspect of yourself—again within the context of your dream—should tell you whether you need to nurture and develop it, tame it or be on your guard against it in someone else.