Abandonment: This is a dream that is reflecting your fears around self-worth. The fear of being left alone is primitive in nature and has its roots in infancy. If the loss resonates deeply enough, the emotional reaction taps into a deep reservoir of historical injuries and we experience it as a painful abandonment. Dreaming of a circumstance in which this is a primary theme is likely to be compensating for something in your waking life that is triggering thoughts of abandonment, whether consciously or unconsciously. By processing these feelings in the dream state, we are better prepared to face the world when we wake. Pay close attention to who is abandoning you in the dream, as this will factor powerfully into your interpretation.
Abdomen: This is the part of the body associated with your emotions and gut feelings about things. When this is featured in a dream, it is pointing to some sort of issue with trusting the guidance you get from your own instincts. If your abdomen is compromised in your dream, it could also be related to repressing or ignoring your gut feelings. The abdomen is also the part of the body associated with digestion and the taking in of nutrients and sustenance. As such, a dream focused on the abdomen may be a commentary on how well you are engaged in acts of self-care and feeling as if you are being well fed by your life.
Abortion: A fetus is a symbol for an idea, project, new direction, or creative impulse that has the potential to be born into form, but is still in gestation. An abortion is a choice to eradicate that possibility in order to make room for something new. This is a topic that has great charge in our world, so how you interpret this in a dream should reflect your personal viewpoint on the subject. However, from a purely symbolic perspective, the nature of an abortion relates to choosing to eliminate a course of action that you are not prepared to take responsibility for. (See Fetus.)
Abscess: The implication of an abscess is that there is an underlying problem that has not been attended to. Where on your body the abscess of your dream is appearing will give you clues as to where to look for the hidden issue. An abscess is an indication that something needs to be opened up so that the toxic emotions can be cleared out and the healing can begin.
Abyss: An abyss is created when the structure of a particular area is so out of reach, there is no immediate discernible sense of measurable boundaries. This fills us with anything from terror and dread to an excited desire for exploration. The bottomless pit of an abyss is a great symbol for the risks we must take in order to grow. When faced with an abyss in your dream, you have come to the edge of your known reality and are being asked to confront the unknown in a courageous way. The abyss is a symbol of the depths of your unconscious, which often inspires fear or avoidance.
Academy Awards: Any dream that involves celebrities or the milieu of the rich and famous connects you to that part of your consciousness that aspires to higher expression of your humanity. The world of films relates to your creative impulses, and the Academy Awards in a dream reveals a powerful desire to be recognized for your gifts and talents in a very public way. This may be an over-inflation of self-worth to make up for feelings of inadequacy or a very real need to make yourself more visible in your world.
Accelerator: The accelerator in a car or other mechanism is the structure that is engineered to increase your speed and therefore get you to your desired goal that much faster. If one is featured in a dream, you may need to increase your efforts around a particular project. If the accelerator is broken or malfunctioning, you will need to do some more investigation to see why you are experiencing a block. Too much acceleration may indicate a need to slow down or back off the pressure to move too fast in some area of your life.
Accident: Remember the ubiquitous phrase “There are no accidents.” An accident is an unintended and immediate course correction. When we are involved in an accident, the path we are on is instantaneously stopped and we are forced to consider new directions. There is often a good deal of damage control that needs to be done, and often the shift we are being asked to make is not of our own making. Remember, too, that the frustration and disappointment we often feel when an accident occurs is based on our added judgment that the accident was a bad thing or should not have happened. An accident in your dream could be a warning that where you are headed needs to be considered differently.
Acid: Acid causes corrosion by virtue of its ability to eat through many substances, causing chemical reactions that eradicate the structural integrity of the material being affected by it. In dreams, this is connected to the notion of certain feelings “eating away” at you, such as rage, envy, or hatred, or any deep feelings that are destructive if not kept in check. These feelings can burn when projected onto another individual.
Acorn: One of the most powerful symbols for potential, the acorn is a seed that can eventually grow into a mighty oak tree. In this way, it represents the ability to take a small idea and generate something great from it.
Acrobat: The acrobat can move gracefully through the air, which means this image is most associated with mental processes. Your ability to be agile with your thoughts, feelings, and movement through life is being highlighted, but especially your thoughts. Adobe Acrobat is also a well-known design program software, and therefore this dream image may be a pun on how you are taking charge of designing your life to suit your desires.
Actor: An actor can take on many personas and inhabit something that is not real as if it were true. You may be taking on different roles in your life and are dealing with being different people in different circumstances. This dream may also suggest a need to be more authentic and integrated.
Acupuncture: This ancient healing modality takes into consideration the grid of energy channels, known as meridians, that run throughout the physical body. This image in a dream indicates that some sort of healing is either occurring or is needed.
Addict: This is a character aspect of your personality that is aligned with escapism and being out of control. The state of the addict in your dream will determine how serious this impulse is and what damage it may be doing.
Affair: See Infidelity.
Age: Dreams often return us to our past. In some cases we are witnessing a past setting from our current life perspective, while other dreams of this type may find us transformed back into the person we were at the time and in the specific surroundings we are visiting. No matter what the actual structure of the dream, anytime we return to earlier moments in life, we are exploring who we are today as a result of our past. The age of someone who appears in a dream may also relate to the amount of time that particular consciousness has been alive in you. For example, a five-year-old child may represent something that emerged into your awareness five years before you had the dream.
Air Conditioning: Temperature is symbolic of mood and the escalation or decreasing of emotional intensity. Hot weather is synonymous with hot tempers and the prevalence of passion. The desire to cool the air by artificial means is symbolic of your ability to regulate such elements of life at your own whim. The larger the air-conditioning unit, the greater the sense of control that is being expressed. In this way, a window unit is reflecting a modicum of control, whereas central air relates to a more comprehensive desire to rein in your passions. If the air conditioning is broken, such a dream relates to the inability to keep cool under pressure.
Airplane: This dream means that you are experiencing some sort of transition in your life that is happening very fast. Any means of transportation in a dream is synonymous with the way we move through our lives. Because of the dramatic way an airplane leaves the ground and speeds you to your destination, it is connected with any sudden transition in life. In a dream, changes of this nature can connect either to something that is taking place in your life at the moment or to one that is needed or wished for. What happens to the plane offers more distinctions to add to your interpretation: Missing your plane could indicate a sense that something is passing you by and may illuminate a need to take stock of how aware you are of the opportunities in your current situation. Being stuck on a plane might connect to feelings of impatience and the need to accept external limitations. A plane crash indicates that something in process may not have been working properly and will have to start over. Take a look at the areas in your life that are stagnant or erupting—you may need to fasten your seat belt and take off.
Alarm Clock: This mechanism for timing your wakefulness relates to control and preparedness. Since there is often a great deal of anxiety around being on time for important events, this object in a dream may point to a desire to make absolutely sure you are ready for the things that need your attention.
Alcohol: See Drinks/Drinking.
Alien: Everyone in your dream is a part of your own consciousness, and an alien is a character aspect that is utterly foreign to you. This may connect to a higher, more spiritual side of you, but it could also be something that is new and different and therefore threatening. Your personal associations with outer space and aliens must feature in the interpretation you make of such a dream. Abduction by aliens might be revealing fears about unfamiliar territory or new environments in which you may be finding yourself. The more fear you feel in the dream, the more frightened you may be of the changes that are occurring. On the other side of this equation, feeling an affinity toward an alien and actually wanting to make a connection may indicate a desire to break out of a constricting mold of sameness.
Alligator: All reptiles connect with a primitive orientation toward survival and other basic instincts. Since alligators are water dwellers, their meaning and power are associated with emotional territory. They have a level of ferocity, so they also connect with scary and dangerous feelings that live just below the surface of consciousness. When dreaming of alligators, you are connecting with the power to protect yourself by lying in wait. The flip side to this is being vulnerable to your own reactivity when matters of emotional vulnerability are present. Alligators relate to precision and control in all states. Alligators and crocodiles are often confused, but the symbolic meaning is essentially the same for both.
Alternate Universe: The landscape of your dream world has a consciousness all its own, and it is not uncommon for individuals to dream frequently of alternate universes. In fact, dreams by definition take us to an alternate-universe consciousness. This is one of those enigmatic dream symbols where the universal meaning is literal. The landscape of any dream is an alternate universe of sorts. If you have the sense that your dream is taking place in some other reality than the one you reside in, the first consideration will be to take in the theme and interpretation you are assigning the entire dream as a whole. If the dream has a positive and uplifting feeling to it, the alternate universe may simply be a function of your unconscious being creative and expansive. However, there may be an element of wish fulfillment or denial being expressed. Creating an alternative universe might be a simplistic and convenient way of escaping the challenges that are present in the universe you call home.
Aluminum Foil: We use aluminum foil to wrap a perishable item and preserve it, so a dream with this object in it relates to that which you may be keeping wrapped up inside your consciousness. This may or may not be of value to you; wrapping something precious will keep it preserved for a longer period of time, while keeping something under wraps may indicate that some idea or feeling may be better off if it were unwrapped. Aluminum foil is also used to increase heat around food for efficiency in the cooking process. In this way, it represents the enhancement of your ability to take in nurturance and sustenance and engage in self-care.
Ambulance: The ambulance is a vehicle and as such relates to how you are moving through your life. Since it specifically connects to injury and illness as a rapid transport toward healing, it has this sense of rescue at the heart of it as a symbol. Given that there is a siren associated with an ambulance, in a dream it may also operate as evidence that something has occurred in your inner landscape that reflects danger or breakdown, the details of which may be unknown to you at the time.
Amethyst: Amethyst has a violet color, which associates it with the seventh chakra of higher consciousness. In the world of crystals, it has properties thought to be associated with healing, protection, and wisdom. (See Stones, Boulders/Rocks.)
Amputations/Missing Limbs: This is a dream about diminished capacity or ability. Our limbs are what give us mobility and the dexterity with which to create, both of which are impacted in some way when we lose a limb. Whether it is as significant as an entire arm or leg or just the smallest finger or toe, the appearance of a missing limb or amputation in a dream is reflecting some sort of invasion of your ability to navigate through life. Consider the use of the limb that is missing and you will have more information to interpret.
Anchor: An anchor connects to traversing water and in this way relates to some emotional experience you are having. It is designed to keep you steady and in once place in an atmosphere that is not naturally conducive to feeling grounded and stable. Therefore, in a dream an anchor represents this need or desire to stay put while some emotional process is underway. This image in a dream could be working to your benefit or your detriment, so you must determine whether the anchor is helping you stay focused on something that needs your attention or whether you are being held back and are unable to move forward because of a wound or a sense of grief.
Angel: Angels are major archetypal energies that were here before us. Over many thousands of years, humankind has formulated these huge energetic sensations into specific beings that appear in many religious and spiritual disciplines. These beings can appear in dreams and are evidence of a highly evolved moment in your spiritual development. Angels are also symbolic of divine intervention in process, where miraculous turns of events can occur through being guarded from a high level.
Animals: We think of animals as having intelligence that is basically instinctive. In this way, dreams that feature animals are helping us tap into our own instinctual nature. The first element of any interpretation of an animal that appears in your dream is to investigate the special trait that the particular animal represents. You will find many such interpretations within these pages, but a little research will yield great results if your dream animal is not listed. The animal’s behaviors and habits will illustrate the instinct that is being highlighted. The second facet of your interpretation will come from what the animal is doing in your dream. The activity it is engaged in will correlate with some type of movement (or obstacle to movement) in your waking life. The dream may be asking you to stop trying to think your way through a situation and instead turn to your instinctive nature for an answer.
Ant: The ubiquitous ant is generally the smallest creature we think about on any regular basis. As such, ants represent our thoughts that are running their course at the very bottom of our consciousness. All animals in the dreamscape relate to instincts and thought patterns. The sheer number of ants in a colony and the supremacy of their organization connect them to anxiety and pervasive thoughts that crawl along the bottom of our consciousness and can irritate us and cause distress.
Anteater: The consciousness of the anteater is to consume and live off of very tiny pieces of sustenance. Ants relate to anxiety, and therefore the anteater is that which feeds off of pervasive anxious thoughts. A dream with an anteater is about perpetuating such states.
Apple: An apple has many possible symbolic meanings. Though not necessarily about money, an apple in a dream is a symbol of abundance and prosperity. There is a connection to health through the oft-used saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The apple in your dream may also be associated with temptation from the mythology of the Garden of Eden and its use to tempt Adam and Eve. But remember, the apple is also connected to wisdom, as it is the fruit on the tree of life from the same mythology.
Arrow: As a symbol, an arrow has two meanings, one connected to aim and the other to how the arrow lands. You place an arrow where you desire with focus and intention, and in this way an arrow represents your ability to do so with a thought or an idea. On the connection side of the equation, an arrow relates to being penetrated by such an idea. If you are shooting the arrows, the dream is about your desire to focus an idea and have it land somewhere powerful. If you are struck by an arrow, the dream is about a sudden idea taking hold of you.
Art: A piece of art is an encapsulation of a previous experience that was creative and vibrant. Art might relate to memories of past expressiveness or passion. If the work of art is in progress, then some aspect of your creative expression is incomplete and wants your attention.
Art Gallery: A dream that takes place in an art gallery represents the place in your consciousness where you present your creative impulses to the world. Such a dream connects with the finished product as opposed to your creative process.
Artist: An artist in your dream represents an aspect of your own personality that is creative and expressive. What the artist is doing will relate to the ways in which your unconscious wants you to express yourself in your waking life. If the dream features behavior that is excessive or dangerous, you may be engaging in patterns in your waking life that are not serving you by being too impulsive. Consider the media that the artist works in as well. A sculptor is more grounded and earthy, whereas a painter is more connected to passion. A performance artist is more aligned with acting out behaviors.
Ashes: The presence of ashes implies that there has recently been a fire of some sort. Fire represents change and transformation on an intense level. Therefore, ashes in a dream may mean that some sort of great change has recently taken place. Often ashes are thought of as the grief associated with things that have changed against our desires, as in something being “reduced to ashes.” Ashes are also the stuff out of which rises the Phoenix, so be aware that such a dream may portend the new beginnings that are just ahead after the termination of an old, outdated cycle, habit, or pattern.
Attic: The highest floor of any house corresponds to intellect and thoughts. Attics are often used for storage. In this way, they represent memories, information, and knowledge that accumulate over the course of our lives. The state of the attic in your dream will illuminate your current relationship with your thoughts and memories. Exploring any part of a house symbolizes an exploration of yourself. An attic indicates that your journey is taking you back to thoughts based on your past.
Aunt: All people in your dream represent aspects of yourself. An aunt connects to family history as it relates to the previous generation, and so she will have a loose connection to a life view generated by your parents. The fact that she is a sibling to one of your parents allows you to see the influence of the generational dynamic without the direct challenges of the child/parent relationship. An aunt of yours appearing in a dream is asking you to consider how some waking-life issue relates to family history and patterns. (See Family.)
Aura: An aura is the energy field that surrounds any living being and is the evidence of the higher self and the spiritual side of human nature. If you are seeing auras in your dream, you are connecting to this aspect of yourself and there may be an increase of your intuition occurring. If you perceive your own aura in a dream, this may be a moment in your life when the answers you seek ought to be of a spiritual nature. Since colors are an intrinsic part of how an aura is expressed, consider this as part of your interpretation. (See Colors.)
Automobile: See Car.