Relatives

Relatives are powerful features of both the waking and dreaming worlds. As a consequence, interpreting dreams of relatives is a complex task. There are hundreds of different possible interpretations that originate within the world of the dreamer as well as from classical psychology.

The reason dreams of family are so prevalent is that everyone has a desire to know what "normal" is, and then act that way in the world. Countless times, clients will come to therapy complaining, "I just want a normal family," or "I just want a normal marriage." The definition of this idea comes from our relatives and how well they fit into or detract from our idea of normalcy.

Dreams of family may affirm or undermine "normal" feelings about ourselves. Extended family relations are very significant in developing the family lore and ritual. As you mature and reflect critically on normalcy in your understanding of it, these rituals either affirm or work against the norms of your perspective. Who does what, why and when is often determined by influences in the extended family. The result is that we construct a family story that defines who we are in our family and what our family means in the world around us.

Relative dreams of this type lend themselves to archetypal interpretations that offer insight into how the dreamer sees him or herself in relation to the larger human community represented by the relatives. To interpret dreams of this kind, discern which relatives were in the dream and whether they are still living or dead in waking life. Often, relatives who have passed away are alive in our dreams. Usually, one of two circumstances exist. Either the activity in the dream reminds you of a ritual aspect of the relationship with this relative, or your relationship with the relative is incomplete.

Dreams about relatives are often recurring. These can have both prophetic or historic meaning. This is especially true in cases where the central characters are relatives with whom there is either emotional tension or uncertainty concerning their health. If there is emotional tension, the dream may be identifying the source of the tension to create an opportunity to resolve it. If there are particular relatives with precarious health, the dreams may resolve, or warn of, impending deaths in the family.

The place and occasion for the relatives' appearance in the dream are important to the interpretation of it. For example, if only the women in your family appear with you in a dream of an activity that they have historically participated in together, you may see yourself as joining with the family in new ways. There are numerous variations on this dream:

1. Not wanting to join the activity (ambivalence about traditional expectations).

2. Joining a group of exclusively opposite-gendered family members (confusion about fitting into the family on your terms).

3. Joining a group of family members with something unique in common; i.e., all bald, all with cancer, all widowed, all single, etc. (identifying with or having concern over ending up like others whom you pity).

While family members are powerful dream icons, their meaning can be quite diverse. Often, free association is the key to discerning their impact on your dreams and the meaning of that influence.

Individual family members, especially fathers and mothers (or representations of them) are often prominent in dreams. For better or for worse, they are primary influences in the shaping of our personalities. This includes how we respond to our environmental stimuli, as well as how we value ourselves and our inner nature. Consequently, another significant aspect of relative dreams is what these dreams show about how our individual ego development and personality strength have been influenced by individual relatives, for good or ill.

Personality strengths and weaknesses often express themselves in alternating generations. For example, in one generation, the father is relentless in expressing anger. In the next generation, anger becomes taboo and inexpressible. In this way, dreams of the individual parent often have a compensatory effect.

Often you will have a dream that includes a particular family member in a very unusual situation for that person (for example: scuba diving with Grandma). Often in this type of dream there will be plenty of other symbols and images that point to the true meaning of the dream.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Relatives , Meaning of Dreams about Relatives , Dream Interpretation Relatives )

Dead : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Menaced by the Dead

Menaced by the Dead

Definition: The deceased curses or otherwise berates the dreamer.

Examples:

• Deceased mother berates daughter for having divided her belongings too soon (the day of her death)

Drowned sister's skeleton chases and punishes dreamer (dreamer actually caused sister's death by negligence)

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Dead , Dream Dictionary Dead )

Vehicle : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Missing the Boat or Other Transport

Missing the Boat or Other Transport

Definition: You dream of rushing to catch a train, bus, ship, or other transport, and miss it. You may dream of arriving too late for a performance in which you are supposed to participate, and find that the play, musical production, sport competition, or other event, has already begun and you are unable to be involved.

Examples:

• I'm racing to catch the plane but just as I reach the gate the plane takes off without me.
• I hurry into the theater and get my cello out. I can hear the music playing--they've already begun the concert without me.

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Vehicle , Dream Dictionary Vehicle )

babaji

one who devotes the major portion of his life to solitary devotional practices, especially chanting the Lord’s names.

(See also: babaji , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Vehicle : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Vehicle Trouble

Vehicle Trouble

Definition: You dream of being in or near a car or other vehicle that is out of control or has some other problem that hampers your mobility. The circumstances vary. You may find that you have no brakes, or that the steering wheel won't work, or that you are out of gas. You may be going off the road, off a cliff, going through a red light, or crashing into an object or person. You may be in the driver's seat, in the passenger's seat, or in the back seat. You may be at the control panel of an airplane, seeing that you are almost out of gas. Your vehicle may be a bicycle that gets a flat tire. You may or may not try to regain control of the vehicle.

Examples:

• Suddenly I find that the brakes on my car are gone. I veer off the road and off the side of the cliff.
• I'm at the controls of an old-fashioned airplane when I realize with horror that the gas tank is almost empty.

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Vehicle , Dream Dictionary Vehicle )

Examination : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Poor Test or Other Performance

Poor Test or Other Performance

Definition: You dream of anxiety-filled activity related to taking an examination in school, or of being tested in some way. There are several versions of this nightmare. You may arrive at the room to find the test has already begun; you may not be able to find the right room; you may be handed the test and realize that you do not know the answers or have never even read the books upon which the test is based. You may not have time to finish. In any case, you are uncertain you are able to pass or to graduate. In another version of the same theme, you may be due to perform in a play, musical, sport, or other event and, as you begin, realize you have forgotten the lines, do not know the part, do not recognize the material or don't know what to do.

Examples:

• I'm handed the exam and glance at the questions. I realize with horror that I don't know any of the answers. I never read the books for this test.
• I'm standing on the stage in my costume. Suddenly I can't remember any of my lines. Am I in the wrong play?

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Examination , Dream Dictionary Examination )

Karma -

(1) any activity performed in the course of material existence.

(2) pious activities leading to material gain in this world or in the heavenly planets after death.

(3) fate; former acts leading to inevitable results.

(See also: Karma , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

mysticism: Spirituality; the pursuit of direct spiritual or religious experience. Spiritual discipline aimed at union or communion with Ultimate Reality or God through deep meditation or trance-like contemplation. From the Greek mystikos, "of mysteries."

Characterized by the belief that Truth transcends intellectual processes and must be attained through transcendent means.

See: mysticism, occultism, clairaudient, clairvoyance, psychic, trance.psychic abilities, siddhi.

(See also: Mysticism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Brahma :

Brahma

(Sanskrit) A word of which the root, brih, means "expansion." It stands for the spiritual energy-consciousness side of our solar universe, i.e., our solar system, and the Egg of Brahma is that solar system.

A Day of Brahma or a maha-manvantara is composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years; this period is also called a kalpa. A Night of Brahma, the planetary rest period, which is also called the parinirvanic period, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma make one solar kalpa; or, in other words, seven planetary cycles, each cycle consisting of seven rounds (or seven planetary manvantaras), form one solar manvantara.

One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days, each day being the duration of a planet's life, i.e., of a planetary chain of seven globes. The Life of Brahma (or the life of the universal system) consists of one hundred Divine Years, i.e., 4,320,000,000 years times 36,000 x 2.

The Life of Brahma is half ended: that is, fifty of his years are gone  - a period of 155,520,000,000,000 of our years have passed away since our solar system, with its sun, first began its manvantaric course. There remain, therefore, fifty more such Years of Brahma before the system sinks into rest or pralaya. As only half of the evolutionary journey is accomplished, we are, therefore, at the bottom of the kosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also: Brahma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Buddhism :

Buddhism

The teachings of Gautama the Buddha. Buddhism today is divided into two branches, the Northern and the Southern. The Southern still retains the teachings of the "Buddha's brain," the "eye doctrine," that is to say his outer philosophy for the general world, sometimes inadequately called the doctrine of forms and ceremonies. The Northern still retains his "heart doctrine"  - that which is hid, the inner life, the heart-blood, of the religion: the doctrine of the inner heart of the teaching.

The religious philosophy of the Buddha-Sakyamuni is incomparably nearer to the ancient wisdom, the esoteric philosophy of the archaic ages, than is Christianity. Its main fault today is that teachers later than the Buddha himself carried its doctrines too far along merely formal or exoteric lines; yet, with all that, to this day it remains the purest and holiest of the exoteric religions on earth, and its teachings even exoterically are true  - once they are properly understood. They need but the esoteric key in interpretation of them. As a matter of fact, the same may be said of all the great ancient world religions. Christianity, Brahmanism, Taoism, and others all have the same esoteric wisdom behind the outward veil of the exoteric formal faith. See: exoteric. esoteric

See also: Buddhism , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Dream Dictionary including dreams about:

Accuse, Aches, Acid, Acorn , Acquaintance, Acquit , Acrobat, Actor and Actress , Adam and Eve, Adamant, Adder , Addition, Adieu, Admire, Admonish, Adopted, Adulation , Adultery, Advancement, Adventurer, Adversary, Adversity, Advertisement

For more dream interpretation, see: Dream Dictionary

For more about dreams, see: Dreams.

Running

Dreaming of running competitively should be distinguished from dreams which have you running to or from something. If you are simply running with no goal, it may be an indication that you need to slow down in your every day life. If you are competing, you need to consider your recent rivalries and realistically look at the current challenges. If you are running in a race and win, your unconscious may be expressing confidence that you may or may not feel in the wakened state. Running in your dreams may also symbolize the energy levels, the strength, or the force that you have to get through life. (A similar definition appears on top of the page for Race , since many people continue to ask me for running, I decided to list them separately.)

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Running , Meaning of Dreams about Running , Dream Interpretation Running )

Death : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Injury or Death

Injury or Death

Definition: You or another dream character (often a loved person) is injured, killed, or dies. Usually the cause is accidental. The villain or threat is not emphasized; injury or death just happens. This theme includes the common dream that your teeth are falling out.

Examples:

• My mother dies
• My child is accidentally struck by a car. I am hysterical.
• I shrink. Someone comes along and squashes me.

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Death , Dream Dictionary Death )

Naked : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Being Naked or Inappropriately Dressed in Public

Being Naked or Inappropriately Dressed in Public

Definition: You dream of being nude in a public place. You may also dream of being inappropriately dressed in public, for instance, showing up at work in your nightgown or pajamas. A variation of this theme is the appearance of some other dream character being naked or wrongly dressed.

Examples:

• I'm in the office when I become aware that people are looking at me in a peculiar way. I look down and am shocked to see I have no clothes on.
• My groom shows up at the altar wearing a weird outfit, a mix of an ethnic costume and a clown suit. I'm mortified.

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Naked , Dream Dictionary Naked )

Losing Valuables : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Losing Valuable Possession

Losing Valuable Possession

Definition: You dream that your pocketbook or wallet is missing, misplaced, or stolen. Variations include loss of some other valuable possession, such as a watch, a diamond ring, a wedding ring, a precious vase, artwork, and so forth Even your entire house, or part of it, may vanish.

. Examples:

• I fall into a bog and my purse sinks with the airline tickets in it.
• My diamond slips off my finger and falls to the bottom of the lake.

Source: Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., President of ASD

(See also: Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation Losing Valuables , Dream Dictionary Losing Valuables )

Karma: In Hindu tradition the karma is the record of all actions from all lives, the consequences for which are determined by the intentions of the act, not the consequences of the act. In Yoga, this is the form of practice that emphasizes work.

 (See also: Karma , Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Mysticism

A word originally derived from the Greek and having a wide range of meaning in modern religion and philosophy. A mystic may be said to be someone who has intuitions or intimations of the existence of inner and superior worlds, and who attempts to achieve conscious communion with them and the beings inhabiting these inner and invisible worlds.

From the theosophical or occult point of view, a mystic is one who has inner convictions often based on inner vision and knowledge of the existence of spiritual and ethereal worlds of which our outer physical world is but a manifestation; and who has some inner knowledge that these worlds or planes or spheres, with their hosts of inhabitants, are intimately connected with the origin, destiny, and even present nature of the world which surrounds us.

The average mystic, however, is one who lacks the direct guidance derived from personal teaching received from a master or spiritual superior.

(See also: Mysticism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

akasa:

akasa (aakaasha). Sky, space, ether.

(See also: akasa , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

mudras:

mudras - muscular contractions that include the bandhas

(See also: mudras , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Lake

All bodies of water generally represent our emotions and our unconscious. Old dream interpretation books say that lakes are associated with romantic feelings. If the lake is calm, your love life is probably in such good shape that you feel safe. Stormy water means to strap yourself in and get ready for a bumpy ride. If you see a monster in the water, your unconscious may be suggesting that you have competition (or some unseen issue or problem). For a more serious and contemplative definition of this dream symbol, please see: Water and Ocean.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Lake , Meaning of Dreams about Lake , Dream Interpretation Lake )