Sewing: Sewing joins fabric together with small, delicate yet very strong stitches. It symbolically connects to the precision that is sometimes needed to construct ideas, choices, and the expansion of your consciousness. There is the big-vision part of your experience, but without the tiny incremental steps, nothing will stay cohesive and it is this that any type of sewing connects to. If you are sewing with a machine, there may be more power, force, and conformity associated with what you are up to. Sewing by hand indicates a moment when there is great individuality being expressed and there may be a need to pay greater attention to the details in something you are creating.
Sex: Perhaps the most misunderstood symbol in dreaming, sex is ultimately about connection and integration. When sex appears in a dream, it is imperative that you put your personal reactions to sex and sexuality aside in order to arrive at an accurate interpretation. Detaching from the thoughts and feelings triggered by the characters involved in the act of sex in your dream is even more crucial to this process. This can be difficult for many people to accomplish. Sex in dreams can be an area of great concern for many people. While some sex dreams are experienced as pleasurable and erotic, more often than not people report dreaming of sexual encounters as troubling because of the nature of the sexual act they dreamed of or the partner with whom they were engaged. However, once examined through the language of symbols, sex loses its potency and charge, while revealing so much more. When two people have sex, on at least some level they are trying to get as close to each other as they possibly can. The act of sex can be defined symbolically as two separate energies attempting to merge into one. Therefore, sex is symbolic of the process of integration. If you remove any personal projections that come up around sex and how it was played out in your dream, the interpretive meaning rises above any potential embarrassment or shame. Though sometimes more difficult to accept, this also applies to sexual encounters that have societal taboos associated with them, such as those involving incestuous relationships or illegal activities. Whoever you are having sex with in your dream represents a character aspect that your unconscious is telling you needs to be integrated into your personality. If you are witnessing a sexual act, then you will need to consider what character aspects of yourself are being expressed by the people having sex. The message of integration still applies, but it will connect more to parts of your personality that need to join forces. Perhaps a life situation is demanding different areas of your skill sets that, if combined, will empower you to be effective in a way that is currently eluding you.
Shadows: The shadow is one of the most powerful elements of depth psychology and dream work. It relates to the parts of your psyche that you wish weren’t so, prefer to keep hidden, or feel shame about. If your dream contains the image of a literal shadow, consider the thing that is creating the shadow. Whatever the object is, think of the shadow as the darker side of whatever the thing itself means to you.
Shark: The ultimate predator, this is a very common image in a dream that represents fear and anxiety. As a totem, the power of the shark is phenomenal. Sharks represent our capacity to be single-minded, unstoppable, and driven. And yet, when they appear in a dream, they are often reviled and feared. When the shark appears in your dream, you must ask yourself what you are afraid of. Such a dream may be calling you to step into your personal power in a bigger way. Focus, self-determinism, and being utterly free of distraction are part of the medicine that the shark has to offer. But first you must get out of the way of your own fears in order to accept such power as your own.
Shaving: Removing unwanted hair is a ritual for both men and woman and is, for some, an essential element of personal grooming. For a man, facial hair is related to masculinity, so there is a symbolic element of softening that when shaving appears in a dream. For many men, the act of shaving is a grooming staple, and in this way shaving may indicate the preparation to present yourself in a way that suggests readiness and competency. For women, shaving the legs and underarms has connotations about the readiness for sexual intimacy, so in a dream such desires may be being expressed.
Sheep: Innocence and vulnerability are the hallmarks of the sheep as a symbol. If the sheep appears in your dream, you are getting in touch with the more tender side of yourself. Be careful, however, of giving up your will, as the sheep is also a symbol of following the herd without individual mindfulness. There is a strong association with sheep and sleep or meditative states with the phrase “counting sheep.”
Shelf: The purpose of a shelf is to hold things. Consider the various reasons one might do so. Most objects put on a shelf are for display or to have ready access to. In this way, a shelf in a dream may connect to accomplishments and a sense of pride in things you have done and wish to be able to remember easily or share with others. There is an adage “to put on the shelf,” which refers to things you prefer to handle at another time, so such a dream may point to avoidance.
Ship: A ship is a vehicle that travels on the ocean. The ocean represents the unconscious mind, and a ship traverses the very top layer of this mysterious place. In a dream, a ship implies an investigation of matters of an emotional nature. The state of the ship in your dream offers distinctions around this exploration. A sinking ship implies that your feelings are overwhelming you in a profound way. A more powerful ship, such as one that is run by steam or motors, suggests that there is more strength around what you are exploring. A sailing ship implies a simpler or personal search, but also one that relies on things beyond your ability to control. How well the ship you are on is handling the water that surrounds it could point to how well you are managing a difficult emotional situation in your life.
Shipwreck: The implication with a shipwreck is that some difficult experience has already happened. The event is likely to have been emotional in nature and has thrown you off in your daily routine in a considerable way. As a result of emotional turmoil, you are finding yourself in new territory that must be explored.
Shirt: An article of clothing is always connected to self-expression. The torso contains all of the vital organs and therefore relates to the way you process emotions and deal with vulnerability. A shirt is the symbol of protecting yourself while simultaneously expressing your individuality. Consider the phrase “the shirt off your back” as relating to your personal sense of values that can be changed or exchanged with another’s.
Shoes: The feet ground you and also point the direction in which you are moving in life. The shoes in your dreams can illuminate how well you are walking your walk. Since shoes adorn the feet, they represent personal self-expression and choices around where you are headed. The phrase “walk in someone else’s shoes” may be important to consider in a dream with shoes in it. Trying on new and different shoes can connect to a need to discover new ways of moving about your life. Different shoes or mismatched pairs are expressing confusion about where your steps may lead you. Lost shoes indicate a need to find ways of grounding yourself and call you to inquire about the ways in which you may not be fully prepared to move in new directions.
Shopping: Shopping is the activity that supports getting your needs met. As a symbol, it relates to being willing to take the actions that will result in self-care, abundance, and sustaining yourself. This can be either in balance and healthy or out of balance and reflecting a level of avoidance and escapism. The nature of what you are shopping for and the sensations around this image in a dream will help clarify your interpretation.
Shopping Cart: The shopping cart is primarily a tool for collecting those things that you are purchasing at a grocery store, and in this way it is a symbol for your ability to contain abundance and make choices that support self-sustenance. Shopping carts have a secondary meaning that is actually more prominent in the collective as an indication of homelessness and the despair that connects with losing everything. If your dream features a shopping cart in this way, then you may be expressing poverty consciousness. A person pushing a shopping cart in your dream is a character aspect of low functioning and a fear that you may lose everything.
Shower: If you are dreaming of taking a shower, then you want to cleanse something in your recent past and let it go. If someone in your dream is taking a shower, consider what aspect of your personality the person represents, as that is the part of your psyche that has something that needs to be released and cleaned up. A cold shower is a symbol for balancing out an overabundant sex drive. A shower that is too hot indicates that the need for purification is at an even higher level.
Shrinking: In the world of symbols, smaller is representative of feeling less than or insignificant. Something that is shrinking and steadily losing size is being diminished in power. Consider what is shrinking in your dream, as that is what is losing its ability to influence you. This may be beneficial or harmful, depending on what is shrinking. If a person is shrinking, then it is a personality trait that is either lessening or needs to be moderated downward. If it is you that is shrinking, look for ways in which you need to hold back or where you may feel disempowered in your life.
Siblings: All people in dreams relate to some aspect of your own personality. If you dream of your actual brothers or sisters from your life, the character aspects that they represent as part of your psyche should be investigated in the same manner as those of any person known to you who appears in a dream. However, because of the powerful dynamic of family systems, the relationships between siblings will connect to various roles that the members of the group often find themselves locked into. When a sibling appears in a dream, there is a great deal of complexity to explore, from your current relationship to your childhood history and even how parenting styles affected each family member. With careful and unbiased investigation, a sibling dream can offer a penetrating snapshot of where you are in your development as an individual, separate from the limitations of your personal history.
Sidewalk: Streets are symbolic of moving through your social and community experience at a fairly fast pace. The sidewalk is a similar symbol for your movement through your community, but at a more intimate level. It also represents the limits placed on you as you move about the world by being told where you must walk, so in this way it is symbolic of social restrictions. What you are doing in relation to the sidewalk in your dream is reflecting your relationship with these limitations and social conventions.
Silver: This secondary precious metal represents wealth, abundance, and prosperity. Because many sacred objects are made of silver, this metal itself connects to the desire to elevate the mundane. Consider the object made of silver in your dream; whatever interpretation you would ascribe to it, the stakes are raised if it is made of silver.
Silverware: Silverware is a symbol of civilization and sophistication. Food is what sustains us and represents nurturing and self-care. By using an implement to connect to our food, we add yet one more separation between ourselves and animals. The meaning attached to silverware must combine the primal instinct to eat for survival with the restraint of social acceptance and grace. Parents struggle to get their children to use silverware for both these reasons, so that they will be able to feed themselves and simultaneously fit in with society. The more sophisticated the circle one travels in, the more silverware there is to contend with. This illuminates the symbolic association of silverware to civilization and cultural hierarchy. Using silverware in a dream connects to your sense of propriety and conformity.
Singing: Singing is an ancient, primal expression of passion. When words are not enough, singing becomes the next heightened form of communication. The ability to sing is so revered that we elevate superior voices to high status in our media and culture. Technically, singing is merely a sustained extension of speaking; the basic principle here is the power and passion of the expression. If someone is singing in your dream, the message that is being communicated is very important—so important that the spoken word was not enough to carry the force of the weight of that message. Therefore, it is important to consider what is being sung and incorporate the message into your interpretation. Losing your voice in a dream might correspond to a feeling of a lack of passion in your waking life or a loss of expression due to some challenging circumstance. If you can sing in your waking life, your personal relationship to your singing is crucial to consider. If you are critical of your singing, you may be connecting to being judgmental of your passion, or lack of it. If you cannot sing as well as you wish you could, you might be longing for more passionate encounters by dreaming of being able to sing in your sleep state. Singing before an audience may connect to a need to rally inner resources behind some common desired aim or goal. If someone else is singing in your dream, use the character-aspect technique to determine what part of you is expressing a passionate need to get your attention.
Sink: The symbolic meaning of a sink relates to its capacity both to draw water to you and to take the waste water away. In this way, a sink is ultimately a reflection of civilized living. The fact that it is a structure that helps move water connects it with the world of feelings and emotions. Consider the type of sink and the state that it is in; both should be utilized in your interpretation. A bathroom sink relates to matters of intimacy and privacy. A kitchen sink connects to how well you are engaged in self-care. An industrial sink has more to do with your social experience.
Sister: See Siblings.
Six: Six is the number of partnership, marriage, creative collaboration, and balance. After the freedom of five, there is a need for stability, which is provided by the even number six. This energy can also be seen as a pairing of two threes. If three is about primal creativity at an individual level, then combining two systems of three allows for six to engender worldly partnerships and the concept of marriage and union. The number six represents partnership on every level: business, social, educational, and spiritual. In the personal realm, the number six represents the happy union of opposites within us and the integration of our own opposing forces, such as containing two powerful emotions that contradict each other. The shadow challenge of the six energy connects to responsibility and a sense of burden.
Skateboard: The skateboard puts wheels on your feet and increases your mobility exponentially. In a dream, a skateboard represents a desire to move faster and also to connect to a sense of rebellious youth. If you are someone who skateboards in your waking life, there is less emphasis put on this image in a dream.
Skeleton: You are looking under the surface of things, at the hidden structure of an idea. Skeletons support the physical body and are not readily visible to the outside world. They are the foundation on which everything else is built. In the dream world, they represent this same underlying structure of our bodies and our lives. A skeleton is the invisible underpinning of any physical, conceptual, emotional, or spiritual construct in our waking lives. The skeleton of our lives is the structure of ideas, beliefs, and myths around which we superimpose our sense of self. When you can see the skeleton of something, you have a better idea of what is supporting it or holding it upright. If you dream of this image, you might be getting a message that something in the structure needs to be examined.
Skin: The largest organ in the human body, the skin is ultimately about protection. It is extremely vulnerable, so a dream that features skin may reflect this sense of vulnerability. The exposure of skin can be very erotic in nature, and this may be reflected if there is this sensibility associated with the imagery in the dream. The skin is very expressive and will reveal things that are going on beneath the surface, so emotional and psychic transparency may be what such a dream is about.
Skunk: The skunk and its odor cannot be separated. When faced with fear, the skunk emits a musk that most predators find objectionable, thus protecting it from danger. In this regard, the symbol of the skunk connects to the ability to keep danger at bay. When the skunk appears in a dream, your mechanisms of self-protection are being stimulated. It is up to you to decide whether this defensive posture is for your own true good or an overreaction.
Sky: The sky is the enormous part of our world that is everything that the earth is not. In this way, the sky is a symbol for the endless capacity of the human imagination. For some, this expansiveness is so enormous that it includes the concept of God. Anything that involves the sky in the landscape of a dream represents this upward-soaring element of the human psyche. Consider what is happening in the sky in your dream, and add that quality, experience, or sensation to your aspirational sensibilities. What is happening in your highest thoughts will be happening in the sky of your dreams, whether positive or negative. Remember that things can “fall out of the sky,” which represents sudden, unexpected experiences; again, those can be either positive or negative.
Skydiving: The essence of skydiving is the adrenaline rush associated with the risk of falling to the earth. If you are skydiving in the dream, you may be looking to increase your sense of excitement in your life. The power of this thrill is the relinquishing of control as you descend. In this way, the symbol of skydiving may indicate a need to let go of something you are attempting to control.
Skyscraper: This image indicates expansion to higher levels of conscious awareness. Any building is a reflection of the consciousness of human beings. If a house in a dream symbolizes your personal sense of self, each successively larger building can be thought of as an expansion of this consciousness. In this way, a skyscraper is the ultimate expression of human consciousness, reaching from the ground to the heavens. The skyscraper is also a very American icon and is directly connected to the explosion of urbanization that marked the movement into the current modern era. When steel began to be mass-produced, it paved the way for the bustling city environment to push upward. This ascension then is symbolic of the consciousness of humankind erupting toward higher levels of awareness and intellectual functioning.
Slave: A slave is a character aspect of part of your personality, one that is persecuted and held in bondage. The dream context will help you determine what area of your life has you in chains. Consider that you may be working too hard and that your life is out of balance because of that. If not work, what are you a slave to?
Slavery: Slavery is a cultural institution, and as such, in a dream it represents a pervasive atmosphere in which one element of your consciousness holds another element of your consciousness back, so much so that you are unable to function properly. Such a dream may be asking you to examine your ideas that are more rigid than is beneficial to you.
Sled: This is a vehicle designed for mobility over frozen ground covered with snow. In this way, there is a primary symbolic meaning associated with a grace and ease of movement in your life when there is a lack of emotional and psychological warmth. If the sled in your dream is more of the childhood variety, the dream may be expressing a desire to release complex emotional challenges in order to experience a moment of relief and playfulness.
Sleeping: Sleep is a state of consciousness that is below the waking state. To be sleeping or to dream of someone being asleep in a dream first and foremost relates to the way in which consciousness is experienced in layers. This is not dissimilar to the notion of a dream within a dream, but it also connects to the idea of “being asleep” as a synonym of being less than consciously aware of things. Where are you missing key things about your life because you are asleep to the awareness you could be having? If someone is sleeping in your dream, there is a part of you that needs to be woken up. If it is you who is asleep, the same applies, only in a more general way—it’s time to wake up to more awareness or action.
Slide: A slide is a play structure that offers a short burst of speed and momentum. First you climb and then you drop. In this way, it symbolizes the release that can happen after a small amount of effort as well as the need to return to a more childlike state of mind.
Slippers: Anything connected to the feet has to do with being grounded and the way you would like to express yourself with regard to your walk through life. Slippers are the ultimate in relaxation and retreat from responsibility and effort. Wearing them in a dream represents a desire to feel freer. If someone in your dream is wearing them, then the character aspect in you that the person represents needs a break. Slippers that are not being worn are asking you to consider being more at ease.
Slot Machine: A slot machine is about intermittent variable reward, one of the most addictive systems in life where you may or may not win something so you feel compelled to continue trying. In what ways are you continuing to focus on something because there is a very slight chance of a big payoff? This dream may be pointing to a way in which you are tied to the habit of hope at the detriment of other aspects of your life. Of course, some gambles do pay off, so such an image in a dream may also be asking you to take a risk.
Slow Motion: You may be dreaming about a desire to slow things down a bit in your life. This could be to reduce stress, but also to be able to look at something more closely. Consider what was occurring in your dream during what felt like slow motion. The context will offer you insight on how to interpret such an image. (See Running.)