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Dream Symbols Index Page
Individuality in Dream Interpretation
The first thing that I want to state is that books with dream symbols are not necessarily
worth their salt. This statement includes my own dream symbols dictionary. Sometimes
they are helpful, sometimes they are just plain confusing. The symbols I list on the Dream
Symbols page may be totally worthless when it comes to interpreting your dreams. The
only way to interpret your dream successfully every time is through the power of the Holy
Spirit not by using a dream symbol chart.
The Holy Spirit will help you to 'know' what your dream means if you are "faithful" in the
little things. Meaning, if you take hearing from Him seriously, He will help you to
understand.
When looking for an interpretation remember that the experts aren't necessarily the
experts. They may be experts on their own dreams but that doesn't make them experts on
your's. This statement is not said to bash anyone, including myself. It's meant to clearly
communicate that nobody is an expert on how the Holy Spirit communicates through
dreams to you, unless it is the Holy Spirit whom has given them the interpretation.
We are All Human
I have taken two different college level dream courses through Christian university
curriculum but the principles in the books were not very accurate in interpreting my
dreams. In one case, I submitted a dream of mine to an author of a published dream
book. His book was part of a degreed curriculum in ministry.
I contacted this author because I was going to give a prophecy based on a dream I had
had but I wanted a little reinforcement before I gave the prophecy because I believed it to
be about a woman who couldn't conceive and I did not want to make a mistake with such
an important matter. I believed the dream meant there was a woman in our church who
was about to become pregnant. So, I submitted it to this author, whom I had studied under.
When I submitted the dream to him he said that the dream was for and about me because
I was active in it. He said that if I had only been watching the dream and not actively
participating in it it would have been for and about others. He opined that the prophecy
was about me and not for someone else as I thought it was.
His interpretation did not click with me. I knew the dream was not for me nor about me
except to the degree that I would be prophesying about this thing in the future.
In the dream, I saw myself prophesying to my pastor that a woman in our church was going
to have a baby by the power of the Holy Spirit. I knew it was not about me, so I stepped
out in faith and gave the prophecy to my pastor. Additionally, when I handed the typed
prophecy to my pastor I had included that this prophecy would be fulfilled in approximately
four months.
Four months later, to the day, a woman in our church who was told she couldn't conceive
was miraculously pregnant.
I am not telling you these things to put down other people. I am telling you these things to
encourage and to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is not easily put in a box of our making.
He shows us things so that we can personally understand Him when He is speaking to us.
He doesn't go by a dream symbol chart. The symbols that the Holy Spirit uses are
symbols that will personally make sense to you, and sometimes only to you. He speaks to
you and I in a way that you and I personally will understand.
Personal Symbols
I believe people dream with their own set of symbols. Some symbols may be universal.
For example, one universal symbol is tornadoes. They are generally a sign of a serious
problem/turmoil or a real life tornado. Other dream symbols can have any number of
meanings. For example, water to one person can represent relaxation but to a person
who is deathly afraid of water it can represent emotional turmoil. The bottom line is that
the Lord speaks to us in a language that we, as individuals, will understand.
Something helpful to keep in mind when trying to interpret your dreams is that the symbols
in dreams are sometimes easier to understand if you look at the dream as though God
were playing a game of Pictionary with you. I'm not sure if everyone will find this helpful
but it worked for me.
First, try to apply as literal an interpretation as possible to the dream. The elements in
your dream may very well be exactly the elements in real life.
Example: If your tooth fell out chances are pretty good that in the next six months you
might take a trip to the dentist for a problem.
If there seems to be a little bit of symbolism look at the basic elements and then go from
there.
Example: I saw my husband and a man from his work sitting on a couch. Next, I saw a
house disappear.
In real life, the man (Fred) was a man who was negotiating the sale of his house with my
husband. So, keeping it simple, I realized it had to do with the house. The house in the
dream disappeared.
Keeping it simple - Fred's house is going to vanish.
Bottom line, the sale did not materialize.
Secondly, keep track of your dreams to establish a pattern of how you dream. You can't
expect to understand the language of dreams if you only pay attention occasionally.
Do the elements in the dream match up to anything in the news or in your family life? By
keeping track of your dreams you will begin to understand the patterns of your dreams
and how they apply to your lives and the things occurring around you, in real life.
People do not realize that they may see themselves active in a dream but it has nothing to
do with them. When we dream a dream as though it were us, sometimes what we are
experiencing is a prophetic dream about someone else through the other person's life
perspective, as though it were our own. See the dream about Hurricane Rita for an
example of experiencing a dream through someone else's perspective.
The opposite is also true. Sometimes we may see strangers in our dreams but in reality
we are looking in on our own lives in the future. Once I was dreaming of seeing someone
else's life. I wasn't engaged in any way with the person in my dream, I was just watching a
woman with many fish tanks who sold things for a living. The dream reminded me of the
way Scrooge watched the ghost of Christmas future. He was looking in on someone else's
life and not active in the scene. This is how I dream sometimes. During the dream I was
thinking that I liked the lady's fish tanks but there were way too many for me. A year and a
half later, that lady was me. I just gradually ended up with five or six fish tanks (because
my fish kept reproducing) and I loved it. Because I write my dreams down faithfully I
learned that when I dream about looking in on someone else's life, sometimes I am actually
looking in on my own future life.
Write down your dreams right away!
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