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

If a farmappears in your dream, you may be longing for a more simple, down-to-earth approach to life. If there is manure in the yard, this may point to obstacles that prevent you realizing your dream. If you dream of a windmill, the windmill may represent your creativity as the windmill grinds flour for bread. If you are the family breadwinner, you might identify with this dream. Images of a stablein your dream may suggest repressed sexuality, as horse-riding is a Freudian symbol of sex. For Jung, the horse represents humankind’s harnessing of natural forces, making the stable a place where the dreamer can face these forces with confidence.

In dreams, hospitalscan either mean a place of safety and healing if you have had a positive experience of hospitals, or vulnerability and disease if the experience was negative. Generally though, hospitals are symbols of healing, representing an aspect of yourself that longs to be pampered and cared for, relieved of the burdens of responsibilities in the waking world. If you find hospitals threateningin your dream, this may suggest that you feel apprehensive about putting control of yourself out of your own hands and into those of others in your waking life. If you are a hospital patientin your dream, this suggests a period of transition after something has not gone well, or a time of rest when you can learn from the experience and find new ways to get back on track. If you are visiting someone in hospital, is a part of you diseased, not well or in need of special attention? Either way, if you have a dream that focuses in some way on a hospital, this suggests that you are in need of some tender loving care, both physically and emotionally . See also SICKNESS AND HEALTH.

Dreams that highlight hotels, bed and breakfasts, and boarding housessuggest that you are not currently feeling secure in your situation. They can also indicate a short-term situation, relaxation and escape, or activities separate from home life. For business people, hotel dreams may refer to work. If you are about to take a vacation, your dream may simply reflect your excitement at the thought of the holiday. But if you are not going on holiday, the dream implies that you have reached a transitional stage in your life and the dream hotel mirrors how you feel about this change of circumstances. Perhaps you have recently moved to a new area, or a relationship has broken up and you are adjusting to your new single status. Was the hotel a bright, uplifting place or was it depressing and dirty? All these details will help you with the interpretation. Bear in mind, too, that hotels, although advertized as home from homes, are in fact impersonal places run by others—so do you yearn for anonymity or do you dread losing your identity? If the hotel has a gymnasium, this suggests challenges, finding ways to gain new skills, or concerns about your physical health and well-being.

If you were in a public house or barin your dream, this suggests the sociable, easy-going side of yourself, as a bar or pub presents an arena in which you can overcome your inhibitions. If there was a jovial atmosphere, this can suggest a wish to be less isolated in waking life or a new, optimistic approach to life. If, however, there was a brawl, this can suggest repressed emotions boiling over into anger. Drunkennessalso suggests loss of control, a desire to forget the past, or an avoidance rather than a facing of emotions. An innis like a pub, but with the difference that it offers a place to sleep overnight. It also suggests a more tranquil, rural environment, perhaps pointing to your desire to deal with repressed impulses from the unconscious in a secure, secluded environment. (For dreams of restaurants and canteens, see also FOOD AND DRINK.)

For the psychologist Carl Jung, building a housewas a symbol of building a self. In his autobiographical Memories, Dreams and Reflections , Jung described the gradual evolution of his home on Lake Zurich. Jung spent more than thirty years building this castle-like structure, and he believed that the towers and annexes represented his psyche. In dreams therefore, houses may represent your life structures or what you have created for yourself as a way of life; for example, values, attitudes and goals, or things you feel ‘at home’ with, or feel you can be yourself with.

When interpreting dreams of houses, how you feel about the house is of particular importance. Houses can be forbidding places, and if you feel anxious in your dream, this suggests that something about your personality is bothering you. That you noted a particular part of the housein your dream may offer a clue, and the different rooms and everyday things in the house are also important as they represent different aspects of your feelings and make up. It is common to dream of returning to a house from your pastthat you knew or lived in. This dream may be nostalgic or it may reflect a longing to return to the innocence of childhood. If you dreamed of leaving a house, the message is that you are ready to move on in waking life. If the house in your dream felt like it was your home, see also HOME.

A law courtin a dream may make you focus on your capacity to make fair judgments in complicated matters concerning work, friends or family members. It may also highlight your feelings of being on trial in waking life, or a sense of guilt about having broken a promise, or a moral or social law. Perhaps you are anxious about being judged by others or feel that there something that you should be punished for. If you find yourself bundled into prisonin your dream, perhaps with the clang of heavy gates swinging shutin your ears, this may be drawing a parallel with your sense of confinement in waking life. So, if you have any kind of dream about prisons or being jailed, ask yourself who or what is restricting your freedom in waking life. Do you feel suffocated emotionally by your partner or parents, or do you feel trapped in a dead-end job? Or has your own shyness locked you into a self-made prison in the waking world?

Dream houses

The front of the house and activities outside the houserepresent your persona, the face you show to the world, whereas whatever is inside the house reveals your inner life. If the house is being attacked or burgled, this suggests criticism or social pressure from others. If the house is burning or falling down, this represents leaving old attitudes behind. If the house feels cramped and dark, there is a feeling of restriction in waking life, whilst structural faultssuggest broken relationships or illness. If work or repairs are being carried outon the house, perhaps certain relationships are breaking down or health matters need to be attended to.

An impressive big housein dreams suggests that we are conscious of our potential. If the house is small, the dreamer is perhaps seeking security and freedom from responsibility. If you were living in a bungalowin your dream, there may be a suggestion that you are living too much on one level, both practically and emotionally. If there are unfamiliar rooms in a well-known house, this represents unexplored potential. If other people are in the house, they suggest different aspects of yourself you may feel threatened by, or other people you are involved with, or about to be involved with, in waking life. Going into or out of the housesuggests that we may need to decide whether we need to be more introverted or extroverted. If you go into another person’s house, this suggests that you are getting involved with that person, perhaps being a part of their life. If you see a loved one move into someone else’s housein your dream, this may be your fear of their infidelity, but it may also reveal a growing distance in your relationship. Planning or altering a house, or building an annexemay refer to a change in your lifestyle or approach to life. Rows of housesrepresent other people. According to dream lore, country housessuggest tranquility; building a house, a growth in confidence; a new house, a busy social life; an empty house or moving house, financial worries; a big house, good fortune, and a small house, misfortune.