TWV Presents...



Articles/Essays From Pagans

[Show all]

Views: 15,215,296
June 16th. 2013 ...
 How To Stay Spiritual Amidst This Chaos?
 Hearing The Music And Dancing The Dance
 A Tale of the Wood

June 9th. 2013 ...
 Magical Names
 The Nature of Sacrifice
 The Magick of Buildings
 Start your own Pagan Church in Canada - A Detailed Guide

June 2nd. 2013 ...
 Maiden, Mother, Who?! (A Discussion of the Triple Goddess)
 Gods Who Live In My House
 Why the 'Redneck Pagan'?
 Among the Greenwod - An Interview with Raven Grimassi

May 26th. 2013 ...
 So You Think You've Found a Teacher...
 Learning To Live Your Own Life
 Raising Personal Magickal Energy for Spellwork
 Casting The Wiccan Circle

May 19th. 2013 ...
 The Role of Identity in Magic
 Talking Trash? It's a Dirty Subject but Waste Happens.
 Earth Angels
 My Wiccan Journey
 13 Keys: The Victory of Netzach

May 12th. 2013 ...
 Pagan Studies I: How Should We Define Modern Paganism?
 The Third Path
 Nothing Special... Part Two
 Exploring Paganism

May 5th. 2013 ...
 Nothing Special.
 The Value of Multicultural Awareness
 Put Your Back Into It (Our Lady of the Sacred Honey Badger)
 Moon Musings, Planetary Preponderances and Red Lipped Bat Fish

April 28th. 2013 ...
 Lessons from the Lessers: Iris

April 21st. 2013 ...
 Taken By The Goddess: The Crescent Moon Tattoo
 The Gods/Being Godbothered
 To Be A Witch
 The Archetypes are Gods: Re-godding the Archetypes

April 14th. 2013 ...
 On The Inclusion of Children
 'Wand Fun' With Grandson
 Lessons from a Baby
 Lessons of Freedom: On Divinity and Healing

April 7th. 2013 ...
 Out of the Broom Closet... Sorta
 A Journey Through the Witches Tarot
 History and Science Behind Numerology

March 31st. 2013 ...
 What is the Magickal Self?
 Ethics and Numerology

March 24th. 2013 ...
 Keystones of the Sacred Land

March 17th. 2013 ...
 Why Some Pagans and Witches Still Hide
 Witch Heritage 101: What Happens When Witch Haters Joke about anti-Witch Films
 I'm Not a Broom. So What's with the Closet?

March 10th. 2013 ...
 Top Ten Stupid Things I Did as a New Pagan: Part 3
 Hunting for the Real Witch in Film
 The Collective Shadow
 Lies - The Opposite of Truth

March 3rd. 2013 ...
 Grounding and Releasing Negative Energy
 A Patchwork of Magick

February 24th. 2013 ...
 Top Ten Stupid Mistakes I Made as a New Pagan (Part Two)

February 17th. 2013 ...
 Top Ten Stupid Mistakes I made as a New Pagan... Part One
 Gardening with Crystal Energies
 A Call from the Ancestors
 Moon Musings, Planetary Preponderances and Black Water Snakes

February 10th. 2013 ...
 We Are the Weirdos, Mister: A Completely Uncool Story of Origin

February 3rd. 2013 ...
 "I'll Grind Your Bones to Make my Bread": Pagans and Animal Husbandry
 The Role of Contemporary Culture in Magic
 A Pagan Response to Endangered Earth
 The Great Mother's Gift, Heinlein, and the Nature of Squirrels
 13 Keys: The Glory of Hod

January 27th. 2013 ...
 Why We Do Need Wicca
 The Cosmos In the Coffee Shop
 Learning Consciousness
 On Travel Spirituality and Magick
 Gratitude

January 20th. 2013 ...
 Beloved Backs and How to Save Them
 Building or Burning Bridges?
 Plants, Magic and Intuition
 Plagiarism - How It Harms Our Community
 Looking Back

January 13th. 2013 ...
 Ramblings of a Pagan Guy: Stupid Clichés
 Know Thyself
 The Magick and Power of Words
 Aging Is Not Easy
 The Riddle of Who We Are?

January 6th. 2013 ...
 Wicca v Witchcraft
 Innate Paganism

NOTE: For a complete list of articles related to this chapter... Visit the Main Index FOR this section.
|
|  |


Article Specs

Article ID: 14493

VoxAcct: 330407

Section: words

Age Group: Adult

Days Up: 815
Times Read: 2,239

RSS Views: 13,118
| Dreams: Gateways To Our Inner Selves

Author: Zanaffar
Posted: March 27th. 2011
Times Viewed: 2,239
This article is about dream interpretation, a common method used for divinatory purposes. I am not going to debate the nature of dreams, what they are, where they come from because there are very many theories and in my opinion many are true at the same time, even if some of them may seem contradictory.
What is commonly accepted is that the subconscious plays an important role in the process of dreams. In my vision in the relaxed state of sleeping the boundaries between the conscious (which is highly influenced by our personality, education, social factor, role in society, role in personal life, etc) and the subconscious (which represents the core of our psyche, the gateway to our inner selves, which isn’t limited and influenced by outer factors) weakens, thus giving the opportunity for the two to communicate.
Some dreams are not really important, some are just random images, artificial states induced by the brain in order to relax, and metaphorically speaking defragment it’s self just like a computers hard drive, that is why they are forgotten. Other dreams are very “real”. They create an impression; they induce an emotional state, thus we do not forget them (or only partially) when we wake up. It is these dreams that bare a significance and should be examined.
Dream interpretation has its basis more on parapsychology, than on classical mysticism. In my opinion the significant dreams always carry some form of message from your inner self. Your conscious is limited, partially inactive in the state of dreams, that is why the message is encoded, shown in symbols and emotions. Your conscious can identify this symbols and decipher their meaning, thus perceiving the message sent by the inner self.
Most messages are simple, your inner self warns you to be more present in your own life, other times it evokes an old memory which taught you an important lesson in life, in another case it may transmit an advice to help you in a future decision … and so on, the possibilities are endless. You must know that your inner self is infinitely wise, and can perceive things that your conscious could never reach, the past, present and future is not really a mystery to your inner self.
Now comes the question… how do you actually interpret your dreams? There are many methods, some coming from thousands of years of tradition, while others base themselves on psychology. Throughout my years of studying divinatory methods I developed a simple way to do this, which doesn’t really require any great skill, but it does require an open mind and a sense of logic.
In order to properly interpret your dreams you must realize that your subconscious will not send you symbols which you could not understand… that wouldn’t make any sense. So you must refer to the symbols from your daily life. Some symbols have a traditional meaning and I am going to enumerate some of them:
Murky water - disease, discomfort, bad emotional state Clear water - good health, joy, positivity Means of transport (including animals, e.g. horse) - the evolution of a situation present in your life Baby boy - a change, opportunity, new beginning regarding career, material matters Baby girl - a chance, opportunity, new beginning, prosperity regarding matters of the heart, personal life Aggressive dog - a male with bad intentions present in your life Aggressive cat - a female with bad intentions Dog - a loyal friend who offers his/her help Cat - seduction, temptation Mouse - financial problems Climbing up stairs - the pursuit of a dream, plan, project Storm - sudden change, unexpected turn of events Cow - fertility, well being Someone chasing you - regret, bad decision from the past, guilt Hospital - Resolution to a problem, emotional recovery Dead male relative - an issue from the past not yet finished Dead female relative - an emotional scar from the past Mythical creature - look it up in a dictionary and adapt its symbol.
These are just some of the symbols that are commonly perceived in dreams, and their meaning must be adapted to the other elements of the dream. I will give you an example: Let’s say that in the dream someone was climbing up the steps of a huge business building and there he/she saw a dog. When you interpret the dream you logically examine what it could mean. You will start with the action. Climbing up stairs; you know that it means the pursuit of a plan, dream etc. then you try to remember the building… a business building… you examine your own life… most probably you are thinking about improving your business, applying to a new job etc… thus “climbing the steps of a business building”. Now you see the dog… did it harm you? No, then it means a friendly male.
So you put together the meaning of the message: You desire change in your professional life, you may have some ideas, initiatives, but before you do anything ask a more experienced friend, partner, acquaintance for advice and possibly help. As we can see the interpretation was quite simple and logical. The important part is to always try to search the meaning of the symbol and relate it to your life. If you can’t find a traditional meaning of a symbol, then try to figure it out by using logic, and asking yourself questions like… what does it represent in life, what is it’s purpose etc.
Another important thing is that you must let your intuition guide your logic, the emotions felt in the dream are very important and they shape the clearness of the meaning.
Now these refer to usual dreams, but there are situation where things are far more complicated. Some dreams are extremely vivid, without logic, everything is confusing etc. In these cases try to slowly interpret portions of the dream which you can understand and then put together the whole “picture”.
People who are interested in spiritualism and perform mystical activities, often get various dreams which are not only very complex, but also extremely filled with symbols, unusual elements etc. The best method to understand these is to use your logic, intuition combined with a deep meditation. With the meditation try to enter yourself, the depths of your self and try seeking the answers there. Relax and silence your mind, your cold relational logic, and try to give priority to your intuitive logic, and to your emotions. People who have guides can also ask for their guidance and help.
Some forms of dreams can only be understood with meditation and inner research, for example visions, déjà vu experiences, dreams which somehow (may be coincidence or not) go beyond the limits and turn into an astral travel or similar experience.
The conclusion is… if you have a very strong dream that seemed almost “real” and you remember it after you wake up… it probably bears a message for you from your inner self.
Copyright: http://zanaffarsbookofshadows.blogspot.com/

ABOUT...

Zanaffar
Location: Andover, England
 Website: http://zanaffarsbookofshadows.blogspot.com/
 Author's Profile: To learn more about Zanaffar - Click HERE

Other Articles: Zanaffar has posted 3 additional articles- View them?
 Other Listings: To view ALL of my listings: Click HERE

Email Zanaffar... (Yes! I have opted to receive invites to Pagan events, groups, and commercial sales)

|
|
Web Site Content (including: text - graphics - html - look & feel)
Copyright 1997-2013 The Witches' Voice Inc. All rights reserved
Note: Authors & Artists retain the copyright for their work(s) on this website.
Unauthorized reproduction without prior permission is a violation of copyright laws.
Website structure, evolution and php coding by Fritz Jung on a Macintosh G5.
Any and all personal political opinions expressed in the public listing sections (including, but not restricted to, personals, events, groups, shops, Wren’s Nest, etc.) are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of The Witches’ Voice, Inc. TWV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.
Sponsorship: Visit the Witches' Voice Sponsor Page for info on how you can help support this Community Resource. Donations ARE Tax Deductible.
The Witches' Voice carries a 501(c)(3) certificate and a Federal Tax ID.
Mail Us: The Witches' Voice Inc., P.O. Box 341018, Tampa, Florida 33694-1018 U.S.A.
|  |
Witches, Pagans of The World



|


Current Topic
Editorial Guide
NOTE: The essay on this page contains the writings and opinions of the listed author(s) and is not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Witches' Voice inc.
The Witches' Voice does not verify or attest to the historical accuracy contained in the content of this essay.
All WitchVox essays contain a valid email address, feel free to send your comments, thoughts or concerns directly to the listed author(s).
|
|