Dream Symbols

By: Kelly Halonen, RSW, MSW

Dreams can have a variety of different meanings. From helping you process your day or past, exploring your deepest fears and desires, or seeming to make no sense at all. While dream analysis isn’t an exact science, there have been common themes or ideas that seem to pop up in dreams. And like many of the experiences we go through, our interpretations help us to create meaning.

​Here are some common elements that may appear in your dreams, and what they could mea

Common Anxiety-Based Dreams: These dreams often happen when we are feeling powerless in overwhelming situations in our daily lives.

• Falling: If you have a dream in which you are falling from a high place, it may mean that you have climbed too high in your professional or personal life, and may fear or be ready for a fall.
• Drowning: This may represent the dreamer’s fear of being engulfed by the unconscious mind, and that control over the unconscious needs to be slowly relaxed.
• Being Chased: This may represent aspects of the dreamer that are trying to be integrated into main consciousness. Usually, this fear can subside if the dreamer can turn around and see what is chasing them, and determine what that symbol represents. Sometimes this imagery can represent a fear that something from the past won’t let you move on.
• Trying to Run but Can’t: This may be from parts of our brain that stop us from acting out our dreams as we sleep. For example, stopping us from physically running in our beds. It may also mean that you feel stuck in a certain aspect of your life.

Common Actions in Dreams:

• Flying: This may represent the dreamer’s higher self or sense of immortality.
• Being Tied Up: This can symbolize the need for freedom or repressed sexual fantasies.
• Violence to the Self: This often represents a sense of guilt and a desire for self-punishment. It can also represent that the dreamer is feeling vulnerable and that outside forces are fighting against them.
• Violence Towards Others: This represents a struggle against unwanted parts of the dreamer’s inner or outer life. If the violence is against a child, that can mean there is a failure to accept the child in oneself. If the violence is against someone older, this can mean there is a refusal to listen to the wisdom of others.
• Seeing a Strange Face in a Mirror: This can symbolize an identity crisis in the dreamer’s life.

Common Events in Dreams:

• Weddings: This may represent opposite, but complementary parts of the self coming together or the union of the dreamer with the creative forces of life.
• Funerals: This dream can have multiple meanings. It can represent an end or the need for an end in a phase of the person’s life, or repression of desires and traumas.

Common Things in Dreams:

• Airplane: This can be associated with the dreamer’s wish to travel or see the world. It can also represent a desire for rapid progress.
• Fire: This can represent disruptive emotions in one’s life or a new beginning, as fire can destroy but also cleanse and purify.
• The Shadow: This represents all that the person wishes not to be, the darker side. It can symbolize hidden or repressed parts of the self.
• Unfamiliar Surroundings: The dreamer may feel that they are not ready to leave a way of life behind. They may feel lost, regretful, or apprehensive. But, if feelings of excitement come with this dream, then the dreamer may be ready for change.
• Puppets or Marionettes: This can represent manipulation of a lack of control or choice. This may be a sign that the dreamer wishes they had more control over their own life.
• Ghosts and Spectral Figures: If the ghost is shadowy, this may mean that there is knowledge that the dreamer has, that needs to come out and be empowered by the conscious mind. These figures can also represent fear of death. If the ghost is hovering above the dreamer while the dreamer sleep, this can also be seen as out-of-body experiences, where the dreamer’s soul appears to shed its physical form.
  
• Door: If the door is opening inward, it can be an offer of self-exploration. If the door is opening outward, the dreamer may need to be more accessible to others.
  
• Clocks and Watches: These can represent the human heart and what emotions the dreamer is experiencing. If the clock is stopped, this could mean a stilling of emotions. If the clock is racing, this means that the emotions are overwhelming for the conscious mind.
  
• Rainbows: This can stand for good news, redemption, promise, and forgiveness.
  
• Lightning: This symbolizes inspiration, and the warning that flashes of wisdom can be destructive. It also shows the power of nature and forces outside of the dreamer’s control.
  
• Water: This represents the unconscious, imagination, and creativity.

​If you find that your dreams are leaving you with residual feelings, questions, and concerns, keep in mind that they are always open to interpretation, and plenty of meaning can be made out of even the simplest of dreams. Your therapist can always help you decipher the meaning behind your dreams that makes the most sense to you.

Source: Fontana, D. (1994). The Secret Language of Dreams.Duncan BairdPublishers