These instructions are compiled (with edits/additions by me) from the two sources listed at the bottom.
In the following sentences, at times you will see a blank used: _______
Insert a theme, character or symbol from your dream into the blank in order to help with your interpretation.
Items in RED are required to be in the paper!
Interpreting Dreams
General Tips:
Be honest with yourself. Not only do you need to be willing to put in the effort to try and interpret your dreams, but you also need to be honest about your feelings and emotions. In reality, your dreams will hardly ever tell you something that you don’t already know on some level – it’s just more likely that you have been repressing or pushing something aside.
Recognize patterns. Over time, you’ll start seeing the same things pop up in your dreams. Pay attention to what emotions surround them. You might come to realize it’s associated with times of extreme change in your life.
Know when your dream interpretation is correct. The key thing to remember is that there are no rules to dream interpretation and so there are no rights or wrongs to the interpretation process. It’s all down to your self-honesty, self-knowledge and willingness to apply your dream knowledge to your waking life situations. A successful dream interpretation really comes down to the following elements:
◦ Your interpretation resonates with you and the path you’re following in life.
◦ Interpreting your dreams adds something positive to your personal growth and emotional or spiritual fulfillment.
◦ Acting upon your dreams is not only becoming second nature, but is giving you good, positive results.
Decide what the dream means to you.
“Deciding what the dream means to you” is what you did in your initial interpretation of the dream. Include the narrative and initial interpretation as the beginning of your paper.
‘REAL’ Life:
Look for the obvious. Before delving any deeper, always analyze a dream at its most basic level first, and that is done by looking for the most obvious meanings.
Some questions to ask of your dream include:
◦ What do you recognize from waking life?
◦ Do you see things in your dream you’ve already experienced?
Dreams that are straightforward with recognizable objects and events are very useful. They are a means by which you can solve problems that have been dogging you throughout the day, week, or month, even where your worries are not conscious.
If you dream over and over about fighting with your mom, it’s more than just a reflection of the day’s events; it shows that this issue is bothering you so much that it stays with you all night, and it’s something that should be addressed in waking life.
Analyze the emotions you felt in the dream.
Dreams often come to us by way of metaphor, like a puzzle awaiting us to piece it together. It’s a lot harder to figure out the meaning of a completely abstract dream than it is to interpret one with obvious connections to your waking life. But all your dreams, abstract or not, are coming from you, and they all have some kind of truth and meaning. Pay close attention to the emotions the dream elicits – that’s the key to figuring out what it means. Ask yourself these questions:
How did this dream leave me feeling?
What are the principal emotions arising out this dream?”
When have you recently felt that emotion in waking life?
Look for key images that stand out in your dream. There’s no one way to interpret them; figure out what makes the most sense in terms of your current emotional state.
◦ For example, if you dreamed about a red alligator swinging off your boss’s lamp and leering at you, you might conclude that you are angry that your boss has taken the limelight and is crowing about your work as his own. Or, you might see this as your boss being angry with you for not throwing light on something ugly that has reared its head at the workplace. Or, you might have a morbid fear of the red alligator figurine on your boss’ desk because the only time you’re ever in your boss’ office is when you’re in trouble, staring at that darned thing to avoid his gaze! While the “symbols” of the dream can be fairly broadly interpreted from the nature or type of those symbols, you still need to fill in the details.
Themes, Symbols, Characters: Identify as many of these as possible and use them in the blank spaces ______________.
Themes: the ‘plot(s)’ of your dream, such as losing your teeth, being chased, driving a car, etc.
Symbols: items that stand out in your dream (these can be environments, colors, objects, etc.)
Characters: known or unknown (if unknown, what role do they play? What feelings do they evoke?)
It’s important to recall the presence of these as it was in the dream, so you can get information about qualities that could remind you of a situation, a person or your emotional state in your waking life. This will get you started in finding out what the _____________ in your dream symbolizes because it is most likely a transposed image or symbol of something that’s actually happening or preoccupying you while you’re awake.
After identifying themes, symbols and characters:
Look at dream meanings in dream dictionary
Look at possible explanation for the themes, symbols and characters in dream meanings dictionaries (available online, just google ‘dream dictionary’). Ambivalent dream symbols are often hard to interpret, so take a look at all the possible meanings – from different sites- to gain different perspectives.
Specific Dream Interpretation Questions (answer at least 2 in your paper)
Dream symbols have many meanings that vary depending on what’s happening in your life, your feelings, cultural background and much more. These questions try to help you find the particular meaning that you have for a symbol- which may be different than you find in a dictionary.
For each blank, insert a theme, character or symbol from your dream.
Question #1: What do you know about _____________ in general?
An accurate dream analysis will emphasize generic associations you make with _____________ and connect them with elements in your waking life. Look at the general characteristics of the _____________ and see how they relate to your dream and your life right now.
Questions to further interpret your dream: What do you know about _____________? How do you feel about them? How do the traits you attribute to _____________ relate to your personality or a situation in your life? Are you undergoing a radical transformation in one area of your life? What is changing?
Question #2: What is the _____________ like in your dream?
Whenever you want to figure out the meaning of a _____________ dream, try to connect with the symbol/theme/character that showed up in your dream. Invoke the _____________ characteristics, what it looked like, how it behaved, if it had a specific intention, etc. Look at the qualities of the _____________ in your dream and if they correspond to qualities you may have or aspects of situation or people in your life. The hypothesis behind this interpretation technique is that the _____________ represents a part of you or experience you’re having in your everyday living.
Questions to further interpret your dream: What does the _____________ look like? How does it behave? How does it move?
Question #3: What role does the _____________ play in your dream?
Does this _____ represent something or someone who has a strong influence in your life? Is it someone you know, a belief system, or a situation? You can also interpret the _____________ in your dream has a potential warning about an adversarial person or situation in your life.
Question #4: How do you feel about the _____________ you dreamed about? Consider the feelings you have about the _____________ you just dreamed about once you wake up. If negative, you can interpret your dream as a call to look at how you may be deceiving yourself or others in your waking life. If positive, look at positive transformations in your life, changes that are coming you way with opportunity to grow, expand.
Question #5: What symbolic meanings associated with _____________ grab your attention? Look at the symbolic meanings of the _____________ coming from spiritual traditions, religion, myths you are familiar with. This can help you interpret the archetypal meaning of your dream.
NOTE: this is different than looking up meanings in the dictionaries (which you are required to do above)
References
How to Interpret Your Dreams. (n.d.). WikiHow. Retrieved November 2, 2020, from http://www.wikihow.com/Interpret-Your-Dreams
Dream Analysis – Advice to Analyze Dreams about Snakes. (n.d.) Retrieved November 2, 2018 from
Dream Interpretation Advice
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