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

If the dream centers on some kind of radical change such as revolution, war, fighting or combat, this suggests some kind of conflict in your life. Images of destructioncan also relate to life changes that quite literally break with the past. A house left in ruins, for example, may suggest a family broken by divorce; fallen treesmay symbolize a move to a new location. See also TREES.

Dreams in which obvious changes occur, and people and things are transformed into something or someone else, suggest changes in awareness. A landscape might change from dark to light(negative to positive), a person may change from male to female, or objects may take on human characteristics. These changes are often depicted as occurring immediately in dreams, like a speeded-up movie, and they reflect changes in waking life.

Bizarre transformations of objects into living things, such as a pencil turning into a snake, a doll into a donkey or a table into a swarm of wasps,suggest untapped potential within you that can help you cope with change. To clarify what this potential is, refer to the symbolic interpretation of the objects that have been transformed. Shape-shifterdreams, in which people you know suddenly transform into something else, typically a monster or beast,represent unpredictable people in your waking life. For example, someone might be kind and caring towards you until they transform under the influence of alcohol. On the other hand, the shape-shifting may be some kind of moral test. Can you uncover the beauty behind the monster’s mask? What lies below the outer skin of the dream beast? Try to make a connection to your waking life.

Sudden changes from winter to springin a dream, or from night to day, may also suggest new directions and developments in the dreamer’s life. If the other way round, and the switch is from day to night, or spring to winter, this may suggest the need to confront and deal with dangerous impulses. If the landscape suddenly becomes unfamiliarin your dream, this can point to an unwillingness or an inability to cope with the new. However, if the new environment is welcoming and friendlythis is a positive sign. A return to the comfort of the childhood home or a familiar environmentis widely interpreted by Freudians and Jungians as a desire to return to the security of the womb during times of change and conflict.

If something is transfiguredin a dream, such as when an object or person is surrounded by light, this suggests that light has entered the person during a period of transition and they are becoming more self-aware. If you become invisiblein your dream, it can indicate that you feel ignored in waking life—that you and your life are insignificant to others. It can also mean that you are hiding from others or yourself. If you have this type of dream, it might be time to look at how you present yourself to other people.

The following dreams tend to be common during times of change or transition. A dream of waking and getting up, when in fact you are still asleep, may signal reluctance to face change or a new challenge—such as a new job or new relationship. Then again, perhaps this false wakefulnessis the mind’s way of preventing us from waking up, thereby exemplifying Freud’s theory that the purpose of all dreams is to prolong, rather than interrupt, sleep. Dreams of a vehicle careering out of controlsuggest worries about losing all sense of direction in life, especially if you are the driver, passenger or bystander unable to influence the events.

A rudderless, drifting raft or boatsuggests loss of direction, but some believe that sometimes not knowing where you are going can be a way of discovering your true self. A raft is an image of survival and, in some ways, this image suggests the ability to ride out the sea of troubles rather than be overwhelmed. Strange reflectionsin the mirror are often said to suggest personal identity problems during times of conflict—if it’s your face, and your eyes are closed, this is a refusal to confront reality and if it is someone else’s face, this may indicate a sense of inadequacy when compared to them. No face at allis the ultimate identity crisis; a fear of death itself. If a bridgeappears in your dream, this is a clear symbol of transition from the present to the unpredictable future. Crossing the bridgesuggests that you possess the strength within to cope with life’s journey and with difficult events such as moving home, divorce or a new job.

Dream images connected to feelings of abandonment, fear and loss of control all have some form of conflictas their theme. For example, dreams about missing a bus, train or airplaneall point to some kind of tension in the dreamer about failing to achieve a goal. Dreams about being abandoned or left alone by a group of loved onessuggest feelings of anxiety about being left out, or being different from the crowd. Anxiously searching for the right road or pathcould point to fears about losing your identity. If you are happily wandering alonein your dream, this may suggest a feeling that the source of your problems lies outside yourself. Dreams about anchors and lifeboatsalso tell of the fight for survival in daily life. If you dream of being lost in dense vegetation, towering trees or tall reeds, you may feel that your progress is being thwarted by obstacles. As in the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’, this dream may evoke longing for the comfort and warmth of home.

If you dreamed that you had a heated argument with someone, try to identify who that person was. Your dream may mirror real-life hostility between the two of you, or you may be consciously unaware of your aversion to that person or their aversion to you. Your unconscious may use the dream as an outlet to release feelings of aggression, or it may use the dream to alert your conscious self to the hidden aggression. If, however, you can find no reason for hostility between the person in your dream and yourself in waking life, then perhaps the dream argument represents an aspect of yourself—this interpretation is even more likely if you are arguing with someone you don’t know. Try to recall what the person looked like and what the argument was about. If the dream focused on a young person arguing with an older person, perhaps the dream represented tension between the part of you that longs to be more spontaneous and the part of you that is a stickler for routine.

If you are being attackedin your dreams, this suggests you are feeling threatened in some way, perhaps by your own impulses, or perhaps by other people and their attitude or remarks to you. If you are the attackerin the dream, who or what are you attacking? Attack is almost always a form of defense, so may also suggest defensiveness about some issue in, or aspect of, your life. There is also a positive side to attack, as new ideas and positive changes can threaten our old way of life and habitual way of thinking about things. If you are attacked by an animalin your dream, this suggests anxiety about aggression in yourself or other people. If you are attacked by a shadowy or frightening figure, this may depict feelings of fear and pain associated with the past. How you deal with the attack is important. If you run from it, the trauma is not being dealt with in waking life.