Getting Started with Dream Interpretation
Photo credit: Zoltan Tasi
Assuming that we’re getting as much rest as is typically recommended, we spend about a third of our lives sleeping. Though our bodies might be lying relatively still, our minds remain very busy during the night. When we drift off into sleep, we enter the strange and magical realm of the “dream-maker.” Even if we’re not aware of it, the majority of us spend a portion of our sleeping lives in a world beyond imagination. According to depth psychology and traditional cultures around the world, our dreams hold a treasure trove of symbolic imagery that can guide us in our waking lives, if we would only listen.
How can we begin to learn from the wisdom of our dreams? Before we can interpret our dreams, we have to remember them. Although some people believe that they never dream, it is more likely that they do not remember their dreams. The ability to remember one’s dreams is sometimes referred to as “dream recall.” Below, I outline some very simple and effective steps that can be taken to increase one’s dream recall.
The first step towards remembering your dreams is to spend more time learning and thinking about dreams and dreaming. The more that we seek out information and talk with others about dreams, the more likely we are to remember our own dreams. Reading this blog post, for example, has already increased your likelihood of remembering your dreams tonight. Continue to ingest more articles, books, movies, and youtube videos about dreams. The more attention that you give to the topic of dreams and dreaming during your waking life, the more likely it is that you will be rewarded with memories of your dreams when you wake up. Talk with your friends, family members, or therapist about your dreams, if you feel safe doing so. Discussing dreams with other people can be a lovely way of giving them an insight into your inner landscape. Some online and local communities host dream groups or dream circles, where people come together to talk about the different aspects of dreaming and the dreams that they have had. These communities can be a powerful catalyst for remembering your dreams. Meeting people who are also interested in dreaming will help foster your own enthusiasm about dreams, which will in turn bolster your dream recall. Keep in mind that dreams are highly personal, and that you put yourself in a vulnerable position by sharing dreams with others. It might feel hurtful if someone is dismissive of your dream, or offers unwelcome interpretations or feedback. Be careful to gauge the safety of a dream group before sharing your dreams. Discussing your dreams in individual or group therapy with a trained professional is always the safest bet.
The second step, which is related to the first, is to set an intention to remember your dreams before you go to bed. This, in conjunction with the work you have done to immerse yourself in the topic of dreams and dreaming, will send a message to your subconscious mind that you value your dreams and are serious about wanting to remember them. Make your intention known to your subconscious mind by writing it in a dedicated notebook (which can double as your dream journal). Write something like, “tonight I will remember my dreams ” or “tonight I ask that the dream-maker grant me a dream.” This will prime your mind for dream recall. Write your intention over and over again in your notebook, filling the page. This might feel silly at first, but it will make a big difference in signaling your intention to your unconscious.
The final step towards increasing dream recall is to write down or record your dreams immediately after you wake up. Dream memories are often fleeting, so it’s important to write down or record your dreams before they are forgotten. This should be done, ideally, without having moved from the physical position you were in when you woke up. In order to facilitate this, make sure that you have a journal, phone, or tape recorder within arm’s reach of your bed. As soon as you awaken, write or record whatever information that you can remember about the dreams you have had that night. Even if you can only remember the tiniest fragment of an image, writing it down or recording it may help you to remember other aspects of the dream. It is recommended that you narrate the dream in the present tense, writing or saying something like, “I am standing in a dark hallway” rather than “I was standing in a dark hallway.”
It is up to your personal preference whether you choose to write your dream memories down in a dream journal, or capture them using a tape recorder or phone. If you decide to write them down, expect your handwriting to be difficult to read at first. Eventually you will become more adept at writing in the dark, and your handwriting will be neater and more contained. Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estes points out in her audio programming A Beginners Guide to Dream Interpretation that a pencil may be preferable to a pen, since pens have the unfortunate habit of running out of ink at inopportune times.
Another Jungian analyst, Marion Woodman (2009), makes the case for creating voice recordings of one’s dreams rather than writing them down. In her audio program Dreams: Language of the Soul, she recommends making audio recordings of one’s dreams because she feels as though this method lends itself to capturing a more dreamlike quality, as the dreamer relates memories of the dream from a half-asleep state of consciousness. This is my preferred method, as I feel that it allows me to straddle the worlds of wakefulness and sleep more easily, without having to sit up and go through the physical motions of writing in a notebook.
Once you’ve begun remembering your dreams, you can begin the process of interpreting them. Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson (2009) outlines an excellent four-step system for working with dreams in his book Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth. These four steps include making associations with the images presented in the dream, identifying inner dynamics represented by the dream images, making an interpretation of the dream, and establishing a ritual to enact the lesson that the dream has offered you in your waking life.
To begin interpreting your dream, identify the different images that made up your dream. For example, in your dream you might have seen a bearded man wearing a red tunic standing in a dimly lit hallway. Now, make associations with the different elements of each image. In your dream, the man’s tunic was red. What do you think of when you think of the color red? Perhaps you think of fire, rage, blood, boldness, and the expression “seeing red”. You might also associate the color red with beauty, ripeness, sexuality, and danger. You might have any number of other associations that arise for you that I haven’t suggested here. Now what do you think of when you think of a tunic? A man? A beard? What do you think of when you think of a hallway, and of dim lighting? Of all of these myriad associations, notice which ones seem to “click” for you. Which associations seem intuitively applicable for you for each dream image? Perhaps your gut tells you that the color red in your dream is signaling boldness. What does your intuition tell you that the other elements of your dream are representing?
When analyzing the images that come to you in your dreams, it might be tempting is to look up the meaning of certain dream images online or to seek out a “dream dictionary,” which purports to contain the meaning of different dream symbols. Robert Johnson discourages the use of such resources, because dream images have vastly different associations for different people. Rather than relying on an outside authority, he feels that it is best to learn to trust one’s own instincts in regards to what dream symbols might mean.
After you’ve made associations with the images presented to you in your dream, you can embark on the second step of Johnson’s process. This step involves identifying the inner dynamics that the associations you have identified represent. According to Johnson, each image that makes up the dream is representative of something inside ourselves. If we identify as a man, for example, the image of a woman in a dream might represent a feminine quality within ourselves. Robert Johnson emphasizes that all dream figures and images, even if they are clearly identifiable as people, places, or things from one’s waking life, are actually representative of parts of oneself. In our example dream outlined earlier, we intuited that the color red signified boldness. In this case we might look inside ourselves to identify our own boldness.
When you’ve finished identifying which parts of yourself that the components of your dream might represent, you can make an attempt at interpreting your dream. What do you feel that the dream is trying to show you? What might be the lesson or lessons that the dream would like to teach you? What kind of change might the dream be encouraging you to make in your own life? If we return to our example dream once more, perhaps you’ve intuited that the image of the bold man is inviting you to connect with your inner boldness so that you might illuminate the dull and sleepy parts of yourself represented by the dimly lit hallway.
Now that you’ve interpreted your dream, the final step is to apply the lessons that the dream has given you to your waking life. Robert Johnson suggests enacting a “dream ritual” in order to do this. He cautions that this ritual shouldn’t be extreme or grandiose, but should be something that can be easily put into action. You needn’t, for example, renounce all of your possessions and take a vow of poverty if you feel that your dream is telling you that you’re too materialistic. Instead, you might choose to symbolically forego a minor purchase in favor of taking a short walk in the park.
In his book, Johnson recalls a dream ritual enacted by a college student who felt that his dream was instructing him, via images of fast food, that he was spending too much time pursuing unhealthy and vacuous activities. For his dream ritual, he proceeded to buy a large meal from a fast food restaurant and bury it ceremoniously in his backyard. According to Johnson, enacting such a ritual will “seed” waking life with the wisdom that has sprouted from the unconscious. A nutritive cycle of communication and acknowledgment is thus fostered between the conscious and the unconscious minds.
So how might we enact a ritual related to our dream of the man in the red tunic? Since we intuited that the dream was inviting us to engage our bold side, we might do something like take a small risk that we might have otherwise avoided, like saying “hello” to a stranger at the gym while waiting in line for the water fountain. Alternatively, we might literally wear a piece of red clothing in public in order to attract a bit more attention than we would otherwise feel comfortable receiving.
You don’t need to be seeing an analyst or a therapist in order to begin working with your dreams, but it can be very helpful to share your dreams with a professional who is familiar with dream interpretation. It is powerfully affirming to share one’s dreams with someone who sees the value in them and can guide you through the process.
Dream interpretation is truly the work of a lifetime. Marion Woodman recommends spending an hour per day working with one’s own dreams. This is a commitment to the inner life, and might feel challenging to maintain in the midst of a busy outer life. Robert Johnson notes that our culture tends to value material successes and achievements. In this sense, inner work is fundamentally counter-cultural, and helps to undo these white-supremacist norms. In my experience, I have often found it difficult to prioritize dreamwork amongst the stresses of daily life. Often, I find myself desiring to do something that requires less effort as I attempt to unwind after a long day. However, I have also found that the time that I do dedicate to my dreams always feels well-spent, enriching the experience of my waking life. Another advantage of consistently dedicating time to dreamwork is that doing so will always bolster dream recall, leading to more complete dream memories. I like to work on my dream interpretation before bed in the hopes of maximizing this effect.
Years ago, when an acquaintance told me that her years-long Jungian analysis had focused mostly on her dreams, it didn’t feel like the kind of therapy that I was looking for at the time. This degree of focus on dreams that she described seemed to me to be too removed from the reality of my material existence. Since that time, I have come to learn more about the value of dreams and dreamwork. For me, enacting dream rituals has helped me to anchor the wisdom of my dreams in my waking life. In this way, the dream world and the “real” world are not so removed from one another, and begin to interact in new ways. At this point in my life, I prefer that my own therapy include space for dreamwork and other practices that involve a direct dialogue with the unconscious, as well as more straightforward discussion of the narrative of my daily life. If you choose to discuss your dreams in therapy, you will need to work with your therapist to find a balance that suits your own temperament and needs. I wish you the best of luck in your own journey with your dreams, and hope that you find the process to be fruitful.
References
Estés, C.P. (2003). The beginner’s guide to dream interpretation: Uncover the hidden riches of your dreams with Jungian analyst Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. Sounds True.
Woodman, M. (2009). Dreams: Language of the soul. Sounds True.
Johnson, R. A. (2009). Inner work: Using dreams and active imagination for personal growth. HarperOne.
Link to purchase Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth by Robert A. Johnson:
https://bookshop.org/a/15163/9780062504319
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Please note that this blog post is intended to be educational in nature, and not as a substitute for therapy.