See Also Rooms

Basic meaning: The self; your self image

(1) The house or other building may be a symbol of yourself. Going upstairs may mean going into the "head" - that is, the layer of the mind where rational thinking takes place. Cellars may represent the unconscious. Different parts of the house may be different ages, different emotions, different complexes, etc., the modern representing the conscious ego, the oldest the deepest layers of the unconscious - what Jung called the "collective unconscious").

If the house feels cramped, this might indicate frustration. Is some part of you not developed, not yet integrated into consciousness? What is keeping this or that instinct or emotion repressed?

(2) A house may represent your self-image: how you see yourself, or how you want to be seen by the world, or what you want from life.

(3) If the house is your parental home, what you feel in the dream may say a lot about your childhood feelings - about your parents, for instance.

(4) The different rooms of a house may symbolize the different emotions or complexes. Not being able to go into a particular room may indicate there is some aspect in your life that is not yet open to your conscious mind. When you acknowledge these emotions, you will be able to enter into the room in your dreams.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Houses in a dream most always symbolize the dreamer; different aspects of the psyche being represented by the different rooms, levels in the house, outer and/or inner aspects. It is your self-image, yet at the same can reveal the inner parts. Typically the different rooms of a house may symbolize the different emotions or complexes. The oldest, the deepest layers of the unconscious - what Jung called the "collective unconscious" will be seen as basement and the hidden spaces below that level.