Dream Interpretation

As with everything, there are different schools of thought regarding the importance of dreams. Some believe dreams to be merely a jumble of images brought about by the previous day’s stimuli, or wishful thoughts having free reign. Others believe dreams to be an integral part of who we are and of our personal growth.

Personally, and to put it very simply, I believe that dreams are the language of the Soul.

There are various types of dreams that one can experience:
The most common are the dreams filled with symbolism. These are the ones that once you know how to interpret; you will see how pertinent these dreams are to where you are in your life right now.

There is also Psychic or Spiritual dreams; these dreams are not as common, but include astral travelling, working with guides, healing work, predictive dreams and “dimensional hopping” as one of my good friends likes to call it.

How can you tell whether you are having a common dream or a predictive dream? This is a good question, because predictive dreams may also include symbolism. Usually, when you have a predictive dream, it is as though you are watching a movie. You are witnessing something and not actually taking part in the dream at all.

I am going to be focussing on the common garden variety of dreams. You know, the one where you are due to give a presentation and you realise that you are completely naked? Those sorts of weird and wonderful dreams that often leave us feel bemused and odd when we wake up.

The biggest problem that people have with dreams is that they lump the meaning of the symbols in their dreams to a Universal meaning. My Mother is one such person. She reckons that if you dream of a death, you hear of a birth and if you dream of a birth, you hear of a death. This is not necessarily true. It could hold true for her, but this does not mean it is true for you. A death could also mean the end of a phase or a project and a birth the beginnings of something new.

The best way to interpret your dream is to understand what the meaning of the symbolism means to you. We are all unique and a snake or a red rose conjures up a completely different meaning for me than it may for you. What you need to do is to write down your dream as detailed as you can, recording how you felt in the dream. Then take each symbol and see what it means to you. Once you have deciphered the meaning of the symbols and the feelings you felt at the time, your dream will make sense to you and you often realise that what may have seemed frightening and scary in the dream, is actually very good information coming through.

A good example of this was when I was asked to interpret dreams on Radio 702 one morning. A caller told me that she had almost died in hospital, made a recovery and was at home. It had been a very fearful and stressful time. She fell asleep in the lounge and in her dream she saw three snakes coming out of the electrical socket in the wall. Terrified, she watched as her husband chopped all three snakes’ heads off.

For her, snakes were fearful deadly creatures. Looking at the dream at face value, this sure looked like a nightmare. But when I told her that the actual message coming through was that she had faced the biggest fears in her life (the snakes), the strength in her (her husband) annihilated these fears by facing them head-on (chopping off their heads) and that she survived. What a release for her! Suddenly, this so-called nightmare was a stunning message that she had faced her worst fear, (dying), and had come through it triumphant and stronger in many ways than she was before.

Here are a few tips to get you going:

1. Keep a dream journal beside your bed and record your dream as soon as you wake up and remember what it was that you dreamt.
2. Don’t jump out of bed too quickly in the morning. Lie there awhile and see if anything comes to you.
3. Set your intention the night before that you will remember your dream upon awakening.
4. Relax, lighten up and treat this as a game rather than get serious about it. When you try too hard, you won’t remember a thing.

Happy dreaming!

With love
Helen