The metaphors of dream symbolism hold the secrets of the subconscious mind. Interpreting dreams spiritual symbols meaning is a worthwhile goal. It can give us insight to our psyche and our spiritual journey. We’ll show you how.
The Value of Dream Interpretation
Dreams are a personal virtual reality. Some believe these psychedelic adventures are messages from our soul and the Universe. Others see them as the playground of the subconscious mind or the spirit world. We don’t know for sure. Dreams are a landscape where memories and imagination come together. When dreams become nightmares, they can manifest our deepest fears. This mix of different elements makes dream interpretation both an art and a science.
So, what are dreams? They are one of our three default states of consciousness, along with waking and sleeping. The psychedelic landscape of dreamland takes liberties with our memories and imagination, often combining metaphors that only we can understand. These can stretch the boundaries of our thinking.
Since dreams make up such a large part of our experience, it makes sense to understand what they are and what they mean. Finding the meaning of your dreams is essential for learning who “we” are. Deciphering these messages can hold keys to our development.
Understanding Dream Symbolism
Some cultures believe dreams are the exclusive domain of the Observer. The Observer is the person who is listening when you are talking to yourself. The Observer is pure consciousness. Consciousness is vibration, which is eternal that means the real you is infinite. It is not temporal, like our bodies.
Dream interpretation requires knowledge of several levels of the psyche, the symbols, and patterns of memory, and the subconscious mind. It’s best to start by identifying the symbols and patterns. The best way to do this is by keeping a dream journal. Start a dream journal today. It will take you several months to gather enough data. Then you’ll need to determine the meaning of the dream symbolism and patterns.
Interpreting Dreams Spiritual Messages
It is helpful to have a process that will help us account for the programming we get from the cultural narrative. Religion has a tremendous impact on our cultural folklore. Even if you are not a believer or follower of the dominant world religions, they affect the values of the cultures they control. They inject their religious, ethnic, and gender bias and prejudice into the fabric of our cultural narrative and you can’t avoid it.
Our society does not have one narrative, but many. It makes interpreting dreams more challenging. The first thing you must realize is that your dream symbolism is unique and you have a unique understanding of a diverse cultural narrative.
The metaphors within the landscape of the mind differ for everyone. So, different people could have roughly the same dream but derive different meanings. One person dreams of jumping off a high place and it is terrifying, another person finds it freeing, a way to fly.
Another example is fire. It has a traditional definition as a metaphor, but your meaning of fire likely differs from this because of our modern cultural narrative and your life experience. That doesn’t mean we should ignore historical references. But they should not be the only source. It’s okay to use the tradition as a starting point for your research. The most probable meaning of any symbolism will come from your own experience.
What is a dream made of, anyway? They are a complex mixture of experience and imagination filtered through symbolism. These living movies can express meaning or communicate messages from our subconscious mind. Our dreams are a snapshot of the subconscious mind.
The Role of the Advisor or Shaman
In the past, cultures would exist for eons with the same narrative. So, a Shaman would assist others in interpreting dreams. They would ask a lot of questions about our dream life, then use their knowledge of symbolism to interpret the meaning. Their advice would have a basis in the standard cultural narrative.
We no longer have a singular cohesive cultural narrative on which to base symbolism, which means we must account for the personal meaning of symbols rather than traditional definitions. The Shamanic journey is a process we can use to drill down further into the meaning. We need to find the personal meaning of the symbols.
Interpreting dreams is still possible if we take an approach which accounts for our experience in a modern culture. You’ll need to do some investigation and inner work. When we talk about investigation, we don’t mean conducting a search on Google. It means keeping a dream diary and find out the personal meaning of the symbols of your dreams.
Inner work means using tools to find the personal meaning hidden in our dreams. These tools include the Enneagram, Repeating Question Exercise and Compared Comparison. W’ll discuss them in a moment.
We need to record our memories of significant events. We need to pay special attention to those memories with lasting emotional impact, and this is where you’ll find the meaning of the symbolism in your dreams. So, this is where your journal or book of shadows will come in handy. Record your dreams or fragments of memory first thing in the morning.
Spend some time thinking about the meaning of symbols that appear in your dreams. Ask yourself, what do these metaphors, analogies, and word pictures mean? What is my subconscious mind trying to tell me? It’s the most accurate way to interpret word pictures, metaphors, and analogies.
Your dream interpretation will be more accurate if you base it on what is going on in your life right now. You are not ignoring the past. The past affects your present. Focusing on the present will reveal how these nighttime adventures coincide with other “odd” or synchronistic events.
Much of what an experienced Shaman would do is precisely the process we recommend. Except we would delve more into your life history, which gives the perspective of deriving the meaning and messages in the dream.
The Shaman may use psychotropic herbs to open the subconscious mind. We don’t recommend this approach. It’s risky. There are too many uncontrollable variables in preparing these substances. You lose control the depth and duration of the journey. We don’t advise this method until you exhaust the above procedure.
Finding the Spiritual Symbols Meaning
If you don’t have access to a competent Shaman to guide you, then you need to “become your own Shaman” and unravel the meaning of your dreams. This DIY approach is becoming more common. You can do it!
Tools to Understand the Mind
The Enneagram can provide insight into the influence of Ego on dreams. The Ego is a rich source for the content of dreams. When you find these scripts in your dreams, it’s your mind telling you have something you need to address.
The Repeating Question exercise helps you to dig down below the superficial meaning. Spend some time using it, and you will discover what really happens in the subconscious mind.
Comparative Analysis is a structured form of comparative religious study. It helps us understand our beliefs by seeing them in other systems. This gives you a historical perspective which can help you decide if what you believe is useful or not.
Dream Interpretation Tool Kit
The approach we recommend takes some work. It is not like taking an online quiz to give you immediate answers. But if you want to get the truthful answers, this is the best way. A dream diary is key to interpreting dreams spiritual symbols meaning.
Recording your dreams takes discipline. Interpreting them takes persistence. To understand the symbolism, you will need to do some inner work. Here are the steps and best practices for interpreting your dreams
Dream Interpretation Recipe
1) First, use a spiritual journal to record your dreams or fragments of dreams. Once you record them, they will open your memory. Writing is a way of accessing another level of your mind, and it’s the primary key to interpreting dreams. Don’t overlook its importance.
2) Record all your major life events. Putting them on paper will help determine the material for your dreams. Pay special attention to events that have a significant emotional impact.
3) Now we use cognitive tools to find the meaning. Start with The Enneagram process to identify the thought scripts of your personality and instincts. Then use the Repeating Question process to dig deeper into these scripts to find how they link to your dreams. This will reveal the main themes and typologies of your dreams. Finally, take the typologies and research their meaning using Comparative Analysis to identify them in other systems.
Tips and Best Practices
- Don’t assign meaning t your dreams based on the historical definition or bestiaries. Remember, the meaning of symbols and metaphors of your dreams are unique to you. You need to find out what these elements mean to you based on your own history and values.
- Be sure to use your journal to record dream fragments, themes, and images. Repeating scenarios are a clue to important things. When you have reoccurring nightmares, you need to investigate.
- Don’t give up if the meaning of a dream seems elusive. Your natural mind is attempting to grasp a message which is beyond words. The spiritual symbols meaning is worth finding.
- Learn to spot similar themes from your dream in waking reality. These synchronistic events are clues to the important messages from the universe.
- We only perceive what we expect, and our natural mind will often miss or tune out things we are unwilling to acknowledge. So look for the unexpected when interpreting dreams.
- The Universe will assist you by sending you messages. It can take many forms, such as unusual, whether occurrences, or animals, birds, or insects, that act in odd or unusual ways. Anything in the environment that’s out of place.
- These messages may come to you as mundane occurrences that catch your attention. They often suspend our internal chatter. Again, these are synchronistic events. These cues help us determine the meaning of our dreams.
In Conclusion
What is a dream? Is it just the expression of a playful subconscious? Or do dreams have a deeper meaning? Interpreting dreams, spiritual symbols, and messages helps us understand who we are so that we can maximize our full potential. It is also an excellent way to expand our awareness. We can do this by recording them and asking the right questions.
Remember, external sources for dream symbolism is not accurate today. The culture has changed since these documents were created. Accurate dream interpretation requires some homework to sort out your own values.
Lucid dreaming is one of the spiritual tools we teach. It proves that we can experience non-ordinary reality and exert control over it. Try it for yourself.