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Persephone [NG]
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- Joined
- Jan 16, 2024
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The journey in the dream world is never just a stroll into an imaginary world where the landscape can be in black or white or in colors, where you can fly or take the form of an animal.
Every culture has already developed techniques to "read dreams", and every culture has also found ways to debunk these methods. For a long time it was believed that dreams were messages coming from the future, or simple delusions of a restless mind.
Through the centuries, the interest towards what the mind produces during sleep, during the moments in which you are in your most vulnerable state, even to your own emotions, has grown considerably.
For the people that can remember its dreams, it's important to try and understand what your unconscious mind has tried to show you. There are hundreds of books about the interpretation of symbols in your dreams, but the meanings described in the book rarely coincide with the meanings of your own dreams. A dream never has a fixed meaning, everything has to be interpreted in a specific context based on the person having the dream. If a boy dreams about jumping in a ditch, the meaning will not be the same as if an adult or older person dreamt that.
For a boy, jumping a ditch may mean that he feels he has to push his limits, to get out of his comfort zone and expand his possibilities. It could also mean that he could try and take some risks. For an adult or older person, the meaning could be the opposite: Fear of losing what has been achieved, or simply fear of death.
One of the main works that can help us with dream interpretation is "Oneirocritica" written by Artemidorus Daldianus. It's a manual that starts by what is possibly the most useful distinction this field has ever seen: "Enhypnion" and "Oneiros". This distinction we will talk about it in another thread, to give it the importance it needs. What is important here is that Artemidorus insists that the interpreter must know the identity of the dreamer, his profession, his origins, his financial situation, his health, his age and the local customs of his culture.
Another important author on the interpretation of dreams is Carl Gustav Jung. Jung affirms that dreams aren't an external divinatory message, but a natural phenomenon that comes from within. As a plant produces flowers, so the psiche produces its symbols.
Jung categorically rejects the Freudian theory that states that dreams hide their meanings to evade censorship: Dreams don't lie. A symbol that is stripped of its emotional charge, is not an archetype anymore. During one's life, symbols and motifs form a drawing. Jung calls this drawing the "Individuation", the process through which the conscience and unconscious slowly learn to live an authentic relationship.
Most isolated dreams are just dispatches of the bigger picture. Recurring dreams in particular, tend to signify a compensation for a chronic imbalance, or the residue of trauma, or the coming of something important.
It's here that Jung closes the circle with Artemidorus. He recognizes that the significative dream often has an anticipatory or prognostic dimension: "The unconscious seems to already be informed, and that it has drawn a conclusion that will express itself in a dream". He cites one of Artemidorus' cases, a man once dreamt his father dead in a house fire and his father then died of phlegmon, a high fever, and confirms it with a parallel case where a patient dreamt that his doctor died in a big fire right when he was starting to die of gangrenous fever. Jung warns, however, that these advances are not benevolent guarantees: Dreams sometimes warn, sometimes deceive.
Dreams are a vast and fascinating world, but also delicate and complex. Reading books is not enough to interpret them. Other than knowledge, what is also needed is intuition and empathy. Working on your inner openness and the ability to quiet intrusive thoughts will help you learn to know yourself and, over time, interpret your dreams.
Every culture has already developed techniques to "read dreams", and every culture has also found ways to debunk these methods. For a long time it was believed that dreams were messages coming from the future, or simple delusions of a restless mind.
Through the centuries, the interest towards what the mind produces during sleep, during the moments in which you are in your most vulnerable state, even to your own emotions, has grown considerably.
For the people that can remember its dreams, it's important to try and understand what your unconscious mind has tried to show you. There are hundreds of books about the interpretation of symbols in your dreams, but the meanings described in the book rarely coincide with the meanings of your own dreams. A dream never has a fixed meaning, everything has to be interpreted in a specific context based on the person having the dream. If a boy dreams about jumping in a ditch, the meaning will not be the same as if an adult or older person dreamt that.
For a boy, jumping a ditch may mean that he feels he has to push his limits, to get out of his comfort zone and expand his possibilities. It could also mean that he could try and take some risks. For an adult or older person, the meaning could be the opposite: Fear of losing what has been achieved, or simply fear of death.
One of the main works that can help us with dream interpretation is "Oneirocritica" written by Artemidorus Daldianus. It's a manual that starts by what is possibly the most useful distinction this field has ever seen: "Enhypnion" and "Oneiros". This distinction we will talk about it in another thread, to give it the importance it needs. What is important here is that Artemidorus insists that the interpreter must know the identity of the dreamer, his profession, his origins, his financial situation, his health, his age and the local customs of his culture.
Another important author on the interpretation of dreams is Carl Gustav Jung. Jung affirms that dreams aren't an external divinatory message, but a natural phenomenon that comes from within. As a plant produces flowers, so the psiche produces its symbols.
Jung categorically rejects the Freudian theory that states that dreams hide their meanings to evade censorship: Dreams don't lie. A symbol that is stripped of its emotional charge, is not an archetype anymore. During one's life, symbols and motifs form a drawing. Jung calls this drawing the "Individuation", the process through which the conscience and unconscious slowly learn to live an authentic relationship.
Most isolated dreams are just dispatches of the bigger picture. Recurring dreams in particular, tend to signify a compensation for a chronic imbalance, or the residue of trauma, or the coming of something important.
It's here that Jung closes the circle with Artemidorus. He recognizes that the significative dream often has an anticipatory or prognostic dimension: "The unconscious seems to already be informed, and that it has drawn a conclusion that will express itself in a dream". He cites one of Artemidorus' cases, a man once dreamt his father dead in a house fire and his father then died of phlegmon, a high fever, and confirms it with a parallel case where a patient dreamt that his doctor died in a big fire right when he was starting to die of gangrenous fever. Jung warns, however, that these advances are not benevolent guarantees: Dreams sometimes warn, sometimes deceive.
Dreams are a vast and fascinating world, but also delicate and complex. Reading books is not enough to interpret them. Other than knowledge, what is also needed is intuition and empathy. Working on your inner openness and the ability to quiet intrusive thoughts will help you learn to know yourself and, over time, interpret your dreams.
