Parents may appear in a dream in the guise of animals. It then would represent a love-hate feeling toward that parent. May represent other people in which the meaning would symbolize a slyness or aggressiveness that is characteristic of that person. May be symbolic of some primitive or animal part of your psyche; thus the emotional response to the animal would represent a fear (if the animal in your dream is feared) of an instinctive urge. May represent your animal nature; aggression or anger buried in your unconscious. Perhaps you need to pay more attention to your instincts instead of listening to others.

Demons in dreams probably represent parts of your unconscious mind that have been repressed and neglected and are now threatening to disrupt or mutilate the psyche. They should be approached lovingly, given attention and integrated into your conscious life. This will bring about their "conversion": They will cease to threaten and will contribute their vital energies to the enhancement of the self.

Self-knowledge - knowing what we are carrying around with us in our unconscious - is the only sure defence against what in ancient times was called demonic possession, which in psychological terms means the conscious ego being taken over by unconscious forces {obsessive fear or anger, or whatever}.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Meeting a stranger always symbolizes an encounter with some part of your unconscious personality, your shadow. Fear of a stranger may be an expression of neurotic free-floating anxiety, which may be a result of roused but unsatisfied, unused libido.

In a woman's dream, rape may represent either (unconscious) fears of sex or (masochistic) fantasies of being raped.

A man's dream of committing rape would probably be a straightforward symbol of sexual desire, but of a sadistic kind. You probably need to acquaint yourself with your own feminine qualities and let them play a larger role in your life. What are you trying to take vengeance for? Did your mother seem to withdraw her love from you as a boy?

A spider is a common symbol of mother as an object of fear or dislike and particularily in a mansdream. Freud sees it as a symbol of 'the phallic mother (big surprise), of whom we are afraid; so that the fear of spiders expresses dread of mother-incest and horror of the female genitals" (Freud's own italics). Try to get to know, not only your mother, but - more important - what your mother means to you. One way of doing this is to converse with the spider: hold it in your mind and ask it searching questions.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Fears in your life. People, objects, your job, etc. Slaying a monster symbolizes overcoming these fears. See Monsters, Dragons, Serpents

Devil

Basic Meaning - A fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, when acknowledged the very forces that could bestow a harmonious and balanced life.

(1) The Satan of Jewish - Christian - Islamic tradition was originally a horned fertility god, a personification of the fertilizing power of Nature {the tradition of God is separate from Nature}. In psychological terms, a fertilizing agent is something within the psyche that can inaugurate a new phase in the individual's development.

(2) The evil connotations of the devil figure may reflect the dreamer's fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, in fact, the very forces that - if mobilized and utilized - could bestow a new and fuller life. What we repress is invariably something that had great value for us but on some occasion in the past gave rise to guilt-feelings or a fear of punishment. It is our fears that invest the unconscious with the fearsome characteristics of a dark underworld inhabited by evil monsters. In reality, the unconscious contains all the energy and wisdom we need for healing and wholeness.

It might be said that our fundamental human task is the conversion of the devil within ourselves, that is, converting negatively charged {dissident, destructive} psychic forces into positively charged {life-enhancing and unifying} powers. But you won't convert the devil with brute force, only with love. The negatively charged psychic forces are the ones you neglect and despise or fear. They become positively charged when you acknowledge them and integrate them into your conscious life.

If we do not recognize the "devil" within ourselves, we shall project him onto others and thereby give more scope for hatred and destruction {the real devil!} in the world.

{3} In certain contexts - if, for example, he has horns or is sexually involved with naked women - the devil may be a sexual symbol. If sexuality is repressed in such a guise in a woman's dream, it is possibly because she has a fear of sexual relations. In a man's dreamthe indication might be that he has a guilt-ridden attitude towards his own sexuality {which Freud might trace back to anxiety arising out of the normal male infant's erotic feelings for his mother}.

Demons

Demons in dreams probably represent parts of your unconscious mind that have been repressed and neglected and are now threatening to disrupt or mutilate the psyche. They should be approached lovingly, given attention and integrated into your conscious life. This will bring about their "conversion": They will cease to threaten and will contribute their vital energies to the enhancement of the self.

Self-knowledge - knowing what we are carrying around with us in our unconscious - is the only sure defence against what in ancient times was called demonic possession, which in psychological terms means the conscious ego being taken over by unconscious forces {obsessive fear or anger, or whatever}.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Basic meaning: Verbalization; losing teeth, unable to understand a problem or situation.

(1) Teeth may be a symbol of aggressiveness. If the dream is showing someone bitting someone else, it may mean there is an aggressive nature towards that person.

(2) False teeth may symbolize insincerity.

(3) Losing teeth may symbolize a feeling of - or fear of - getting older or impotent or losing sexual attractiveness. Or they may represent a retreat to infancy (when, toothless, you enjoy your mother's breasts and nourishment), and hence a refusal to face reality. Alternatively, they may symbolize the start of a new phase in your life (knocking a tooth out sometimes featured in male initiation rites in mythology).

(4) A bad tooth may represent a painful or rooten part of one's feelings, life or relationships; angry or regretful words.

(5) 'teeth" in the dream world are most often an archetypal image of the dreamer's sense of confidence and competence in the waking world. Dreaming that there is something amiss with my teeth usually points to insecurities about my ability to "get my teeth into it, " or maybe I"ve "bitten off more than I can chew." Ironically, the very fact that you remember such a dream is a reliable indicator that the you, the dreamer, can deal creatively and transformatively with the problems that life presents. If this were not the case, you would not even have remembered the dream. All dreams (even nightmares!) come in the service of health and wholeness, and no dream ever came to anyone to say, "Nyah, nyah--you"ve got these problems and you can't do anything about them!" The more emotionally charged, or urgent the dream, the more likely that it points to a creative possibility previously hidden from the conscious mind, in response to a pressing waking life problem.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Teeth Dreaming that you have rotten or decaying teeth, forewarns that your health and/or business is in jeopardy. You may have uttered some false or foul words and those words are coming back to haunt you. Dreaming that you are brushing your teeth means your level of confidence, struggles and aggressiveness. You need to look out for yourself and your own interest

Breathing under water {unconscious}. This would symbolize unconscious realizations, fears, desires, attitudes.

sexual symbol for the vagina. the unconscious. fears of "bottomless" situation in life.

A need to expose one's true self. A lack of esteem or fears of growing older. May symbolize humility and purity. Lacking hair may suggest you are not thinking logically.

Giving energies and attention to something that is separating you from inner growth, or from things that are important in your life. May represent a merger of aspects of yourself deemed unnatural by some but are essential for balance in your life. Adultery may indicate a fear of weakness in your relation to spouse or even different aspects of yourself. An expression of repressed unconscious sexual desires considered indecent. Dreaming of your partner committing adultery may indicate fears and weaknesses in your relationship.

This is a common dream which usually represents underlying fears and feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. Interpret your dream by considering your primary fears, current difficulties, and situations in your life that seem to be on a downward spiral, especially those situations that seem outside of your control (financial, romantic, etc.). Some people believe that if you keep falling in your dream and don't wake up that you will die at the point of impact. This is absolutely not true. In a falling dream you wake up out of fear and not because of danger of dying. Superstition based dream interpretations say that if you fall a long distance in your dream and get hurt, be prepared for really hard times ahead; but if you fall and are not injured your upsets will be minor and temporary.

May be symbol of the penis. The firing of a pistol would then represent the sexual act.

Pistol Dreaming that you are aiming a pistol indicates that you are trying to target a specific goal. However, if the overtones of the dream are that of fear, anger and aggression, then the pistol means power by which you need to defend yourself against the fear and anger.

A lighted candle symbolizes enlightenment, awareness or the search for truth. A burning candle symbolizes getting old or a fear of dying. Seeing a candle blow out in your dream indicates that you are surrendering a significant aspect of yourself. For Freud this would be the penis.

And Childhood Recollections

{1} If the child in your dream is you as a child, the significance of the dream may have to do with a childhood experience. But don't be too ready to understand it this way {see Childhood Recollections at bottom}.

{2} The child may be a symbol of your true self, that which is essentially you and which you are capable of unfolding. That fact that your real self is represented by a child suggests that your true self is a beautiful unspoilt product of Nature; that it is worthy of unreserved love; and that it needs the nourishment of your love if it is to grow and unfold all its loveliness.

{3} If the child has some divine aura {e.g. if it is the Christ-child}, waht is symbolized is as in {2} above. The aura represents the transcendent nature of the self: it is much more than your conscious ego or your present image of yourself; it holds together the opposites that are within you {e.g. conscious and unconscious aspects, "head" - intellect and "heart" - intuitiveness and compassionate giving, extroversion and introversion, masculine and feminine}, and it is your ultimate goal and fulfillment.

{4} The child may represent {the possibility of} a new beginning, a new development in your psyche - a new attitude to life, a new set of values, a new balance of your psychic forces, a new reconcilation of previously conflicting forces. The child in you is the growing-point in you.

{5} There is a child in all of us - our emotional self - that often needs reassurance, to be told that all is well and there is no cause for fear, or anger, or guilt, and that love makes all things good and dissolves all pain. At the same time the child sometimes needs to be chided and corrected if it is eventually to - as it should - grow up.

{1} If you are being chased in a dream, what is chasing you probably symbolizes something you are afraid of, either in your external life or - more commonly - in your inner self, your unconscious. For example, a woman who dreams of being chased by men is probably afraid of sex. {Freud would add that her dreams present, in disguise, an unconscious, repressed desire for sex}.

{2} If you are doing the chasing, the "you" in your dream is probably your conscious ego and the thing you are chasing is almost certainly some part of yourself that frightens you. Chasing it away means disowning it, banishing it from your conscious life. At the very least, get to know "it" and understand it.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Life's energy source. Love, passion, life itself. Losing blood may suggest you are losing energy because of inner conflicts or waking conflicts. Feelings of being emotionally drained. Dreaming that you are drinking blood may indicate that you have a thurst for vitality and power. Women often dream of blood or of someone bleeding shortly before or during their periods and when they are pregnant.

Also: Blood may be a symbol of life or physical, emotional, and/or spiritual energy. It may also symbolize passion, love or even anger. Dreaming that you are bleeding or losing blood may mean that you are feeling emotionally drained. Shedding blood may also represent guilt. Dreaming that something is written in blood may represent the energy you have put into a project. Drinking blood means receiving new life or new strength. "Displaced" blood may be menstrual blood which for a woman may represent a sexually related anxiety, and for a man may represent a fear of sex and/or of women.

(1) Abundant hair may signify virility or male sexuality.

(2) Long matted hair or a (long white) beard may symbolize wisdom - available in your unconscious depths.

(3) Cutting hair may symbolize loss of virility, or castration.

(4) Pubic hair and (in a woman's dream) hair in armpits or on legs may symbolize sexuality.

(5) Loss of hair/baldness may express (fears of) getting old and/or unwanted.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

Seeing food in your dream, represents physical and emotional nourishment and energies. The different types of food can symbolize a wide range of things. Generally, fruit is symbolic of sensuality. Frozen foods may imply your cold emotions and frigid ways. Eating certain foods refers to qualities that you need to incorporate within your own self. Dreaming that you are hording or storing food indicates a fear of deprivation. You do not trust what you already have. Seeing or eating stale food in your dream, suggests that you are feeling sluggish and emotionally drained. You need to be invigorated and revitalized.

Seeing hair in your dream means sexual virility, seduction, sensuality, vanity, and health. It is indicative of your attitudes.

If your hair is knotted or tangled, then it is symbolic of uncertainty and confusion in your life. You may be unable to think straight. Dreaming that you are cutting your hair, suggests that you are experiencing a loss in strength. You may feel that someone is trying to censor you. Alternatively, you may be reshaping your thinking or ambitions and eliminating unwanted thoughts/habits.

Dreaming that you are combing, stroking or styling your hair, suggests that you are taking on and evaluating a new idea, concept, outlook, or way of thinking. You may be putting your thoughts in order and getting your facts straight. A more literal interpretation suggests your concerns about your self-image and appearance.

Dreaming that you have long hair indicates that you are thinking long and carefully before making some decision. You are concentrating on some plan or situation.

Dreaming that you are losing your hair indicates that you are concerned with the notion that you are getting older and losing your sex appeal/virility. You are preoccupied with aging and your appearance. Losing you hair also signify a lack of strength and that you do not possess the power to succeed in an undertaking. You may be feeling weak and vulnerable. Dreaming that someone is smelling your hair indicates sexual curiosity and your need for some sensual stimulation. You have a lot to learn about a relationship. The way yours or someone else's hair smell may remind your of a particular person.

Dreaming that you are reaching for someone's hair, suggests that you are trying to connect with that person on a spiritual or intellectual level. It also refers to sympathy, protectiveness, and fraternal love.

Dreaming that the wind is blowing through your hair means freedom to express uninhibited feelings. You are "letting your hair down".

Dreaming that your hair is white or turns white indicates that something important has just been made aware to you. It is a symbol of wisdom and insight. The dream may also be a metaphor suggesting that you are feeling "light-headed".