Slum: The geography of a slum is about the desire to keep certain unsavory elements of the social strata in a separate area, away from the mainstream. The same is true of a slum in a dream, only now the geography is a symbol for some area of your consciousness. To visit a slum in your dream is to be exploring the parts of your life that aren’t being tended to and need some loving attention.
Smells: There are dreams in which the sense of smell is activated. Smell is the most primitive of all of the senses, and there are powerful sense memories that are evoked when certain smells are present. This type of deep memory-response may be what is triggering a dream in which smell plays a role. If there is something specific that is being smelled in the dream, use that to inform your interpretation.
Smile: A smile is a reflex that is connected directly to feeling a sense of joy. Sporting one is a contagious experience, and when one person smiles, it often sparks a smile in another. In this way, the symbolism of smiling relates to both of these notions: that joy is present in abundance and that when it is felt and processed, it can spread with ease. If you are smiling in a dream, then you are expressing an overflow of joy or the need and desire for more of it. If someone in your dream is smiling, consider the character aspect of your personality that the person represents and understand that that area of your personality has the capacity to increase your joy quotient.
Smoke: Something is changing but is currently obscured or unclear. As the saying goes, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Since fire represents drastic change, smoke is an indication of the occurrence of transformation without necessarily having the ability to see the actual source of the shift. Smoke can cause asphyxiation by blocking the lungs from receiving oxygen, so dream smoke may indicate a suffocating life situation about which your unconscious is sending you an alarm. A smoke screen is a mechanism for keeping something hidden. It is a battle technique that was developed in World War One, associating it with danger and violence. It has entered our language as something that indicates a deliberate desire to obscure a person’s true intentions or create a diversion in order to perpetrate some act of betrayal. If your dream smoke obstructs your sight in any way, you may want to consider what current difficulty in your life may be blocking your view of things as they really are. Ask yourself if you are focusing on what’s really important and not being distracted in some way.
Smoking: Cigarette smoking is a hotbed of controversy in today’s society, such that the symbolic meaning attached to it can be complicated. The media has always portrayed smoking as glamorous and sexy, though that is changing. Those who smoke may have a relationship with their smoking that runs the gamut from frustratingly addictive to apathetically indifferent to the consequences. Health-conscious nonsmoking individuals can be quite virulent in their objections, and many states and cities have banned smoking in public places altogether. Given these radically different perspectives, if a cigarette features prominently in your dream, you must use your own associations with smoking to arrive at an accurate interpretation. No matter what your personal focus is, the health risks associated with smoking make the symbolic meaning connect to making choices that are not impacted by your knowledge of the consequences. The factor of addiction is an important element to consider. Smoking can represent any choice in life that is not healthy, but is difficult to avoid.
Snail: The general association that most people have with the snail has to do with its very slow pace. A snail in a dream may be asking you to consider the value of moving slowly.
Snake: There is a significant amount of change or transformation in your life if you dream of snakes. Snakes can inspire great and varied personal emotions and therefore can ultimately connect to very different shades of meaning based on your associations. But first and foremost, snakes represent change and transformation. This connects to the fact that they shed their skin in their growth process and that many of them are capable of causing fatality to their predators, implying the symbolic rebirth that follows any death experience. There is a healing element to this, as many snake venoms can also be used as curatives. This may connect to the two snakes that appear on the physician’s caduceus, representing the challenge to life and the response of the healer to match it. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the snake bears the responsibility for tempting Adam and Eve. As such, a snake can represent a confrontation with a change in your value system. It is important to remember that Adam and Eve’s yielding introduced the human race to the knowledge of mortality and the birth of consciousness. A serpent in your dream may actually represent a major shift in your awareness that may bring about the death of an old paradigm that brings you into a whole new world. In Eastern cultures, the awakening of spiritual power is often referred to as a snake. Known as kundalini, it is experienced as an incredible energy that undulates up the spine. Stimulating this can induce a tremendous healing force that has the ability to purify the nervous and glandular systems. The practice of yoga is designed to awaken the snake that lies dormant at the base of the spine. As a dream symbol, a snake could represent the potential for power and energy if properly channeled.
Sneakers: All shoes relate to how grounded you are feeling in your life and also the choices you are making about where you are walking metaphorically. Sneakers imply a readiness for effort and exertion and a need to be grounded enough to work hard. There may be a literal call toward physical exercise in a dream that features sneakers in it.
Snow: You may be experiencing some emotional disconnect around some area where you are lacking warmth. Snow is frozen water. Water represents emotions. Emotions that are frozen imply a disconnection from authentically experiencing them in their raw, wet form. When snowfall is particularly heavy, it can impede visibility and render you immobile or housebound. When seen through the perspective of emotional avoidance, it is easy to see that a large dose of emotional expression that is not being dealt with can seriously limit any forward movement in your life. Since snow melts, facing the underlying issue is inevitable. The snow just postpones the confrontation and does so with beauty and the promise of temporary peace.
Soap: You may feel a need to cleanse yourself of some troubling thought, idea, pattern, habit, relationship, or experience. If you are using the soap in your dream, you may get a clue as to what is troubling you by virtue of what part of your body you are washing. Soap cleans things up in the present; that which you want to clean up was created in the past. Therefore, soap in a dream may be responding to a desire to take care of some shame or regret from your past.
Solar Power: To dream of tapping into the technology of solar power may allow you to recognize that every human being has a birthright to an endless supply of abundance and limitless life force.
Soldier: An archetypal character aspect, the soldier resonates with the warrior. The job of this particular archetype is protection and aggression, but primarily through the ability to divide all things into the two categories of either right or wrong. A dream with a soldier in it may be asking you to tap into this inner wisdom to face a life circumstance in a very black and white way. Since we live in a time in which war is a very present reality, a soldier also connects to sacrifice at the community and global levels, as they are the individuals in society who are willing to risk their lives to fight for high ideals. If there is someone in your life who is a member of the armed services, such a dream image may be more personal.
Soul Mate: A soul mate is the embodiment of an idea that there is a very particular person you are fated to connect with in intimacy and partnership. As a symbol, this is really an inevitable expansion of your total self, and the kernel of the meaning to soul mating is in its feeling that it was destined that the two of you meet. While such a dream may feel like it is connected to this search in your waking life, on a certain level such a dream is part of your journey toward integration. Searching for your soul mate indicates that wholeness and/or the blocks to wholeness have not yet been identified. A successful connection with your soul mate may mean that integration is at hand. If there are challenges to connecting with your soul mate in your dream, those challenges represent the obstacles to wholeness in your current life.
Soup: The original comfort food, soup in a dream may be expressing a desire to nurture yourself at a fundamental level. Since the making of soup can be improvised with whatever ingredients are available, this dream may also connect to a spontaneous need for sustenance that goes beyond planning or preparation.
Spark: Fire is a symbol of great change and transformation. Since a spark is essentially a tiny amount of fire, the spark is a symbol for the impetus for change to take place. This may take the form of the initial idea that indicates that a sense of great vision is to follow. It sometimes takes many sparks before an actual fire starts, so such a dream may be an indication of the current availability of inspiration in your life.
Special Powers: This symbolizes a desire to increase your confidence through enhanced abilities. Most special powers can be related to one of the four elements of fire, air, water, and earth. A power associated with heat or flames should be considered as a function of combustion and the transformation that fire can generate. Any power associated with water connects to emotions; the use and manipulation of water relates to channeling the power of emotion, whereas transmuting water to either steam or ice has the impact of altering emotional energy for one’s use. The grounded element of earth is represented by anything rock-like or by strength-oriented power. Air is the element in question when powers such as invisibility or flight are concerned. If your special power does not conform to one of the elements, the key to your interpretation will lie in discovering the underlying use and essence of the power you possessed in the dream. Ask yourself what area of your life needs amplification based on the area of your skills and abilities that was amplified by the increased power.
Speech: Making a speech has two perspectives, because on the one hand it has a universal meaning that connects to the projecting of a single focused thought in an effort to create mental agreement. The person making the speech is a part of your consciousness that has the main idea. Those listening represent other thought patterns that are being exposed to the singular idea. What are you trying to convince yourself of? On the other hand, since many people have strong feelings about public speaking, a dream about a speech could indicate that you are preparing to face something in a public way that frightens you.
Speeding: The speed limit is a set of suggestions that are based primarily on community safety. Driving represents the movement through life, and speeding suggests that you are moving fast and taking risks in order to do so. Consider the sensation of the dream to inform your interpretation. If you feel euphoric, you may desire to increase the exhilaration in your life. If the speed frightens you, the speed of things in your life is overwhelming. If you are being pulled over for speeding, you are paying the consequences for risky behavior.
Speeding Ticket: A speeding ticket is a symbol of the consequences around choices you have made with regard to behavior that is risky or dangerous. Since driving is a public experience, the part of your life that such a symbol relates to is your social life or community experience.
Speedometer: Anything that relates to a driving experience is symbolic of how you are moving through your life. The speedometer is your mechanism for managing the speed with which you are moving in order to allow you some measure of control. A broken speedometer indicates a loss of your ability to regulate some aspect of how something is unfolding.
Sperm: Sperm is the male side to the ultimate in human creativity. As a symbol, sperm is the most fundamental element of the creative process from the perspective of the masculine principle. The masculine principle is the realm of action and decisiveness. If sperm features in your dream, you are looking to increase your own power to create through doing.
Spider: The spider spins a web and then waits patiently for its prey, trusting that all it needs and desires will come to it. In this way, the medicine that the spider carries is of creativity and patience. This is a powerfully feminine symbol. Many, if not most, people have an aversion to spiders, which makes them a creature of the shadow. A spider bite may indicate that an infusion of the feminine principle may be in order for your current dealings to succeed. The irritation, illness, or death that is possible from a spider bite indicates the level of sacrifice that will be required of you on an emotional level at this time.
Spider Web: Profound abilities in the area of creativity are represented by the spider web. A spider’s webbing is a miraculous feat of engineering and unparalleled beauty. Its purpose is twofold. On the side of nurturing, it is a home. However, it is also a weapon of prey—a trap set to capture, kill, and eat. A spider web may point to creative ideas that are currently being spun. This also indicates that a period of waiting must follow in order for success to be achieved.
Spine: The spine is the center of the physical structure of any mammalian body, and as such, it is symbolic of the core around which all else is organized. When the spine is in alignment, all movement works well, and when it is not, breakdown begins to occur. In this way, anything that is happening with your spine or the spine of a person or animal in your dream is asking you to consider what is at the very center of your thinking about something and how well it is supporting you. Look at your beliefs. To be spineless is to lack all conviction, so if this is featured in your dream, you may want to consider that your belief system is in serious question.
Spiral: The spiral is actually the truest shape with regard to the movement of all life. Plants, flowers, and even the solar system itself move in a spiral-like direction. If you are dreaming of the shape of a spiral or movement that appears to be unfolding in a spiral, you may be dreaming of the sacred geometry of life itself. A new level of psychic energy may be being released in your experience. The context of the dream will indicate whether you are feeling in control of this burst of energy or overwhelmed by it.
Splinter: A splinter is a very small object that causes a great deal of discomfort. In this way, it is a symbol of something innocuous that is bothering you in a constant and irritating manner. What annoyance needs to be plucked out of your life?
Sponge: The essence of a sponge is its ability to absorb. We use this simple plant life as a metaphor for learning at an aggressive rate, as in soaking something up like a sponge. In a dream, a sponge may indicate a desire or present circumstance in which there is a lot for you to take in. The context in which the sponge appears in the dream should offer some clues about what area of your consciousness is currently expanding.
Spoon: A spoon is an implement that assists in taking in nourishment through eating. In this regard, there is an implication that such an image in a dream may point to needing to sustain yourself more efficiently. Spooning also has a strong identification with its use as a euphemism for a particular kind of physical intimacy where two people fit together in a very comforting way. If this is the image in your dream, this need may be expressing itself. Both uses imply taking in certain sustaining ideas; where in your life do you need more care?
Sports Car: A car in a dream is a symbol for the way in which you move through your life. In the case of a sports car, your dream may be expressing a desire to increase the speed and exhilaration with which you create your life. A sports car is an indication that more power is needed in order to fulfill the needs your journey is presenting you with.
Spotlight: A spotlight in a theatrical setting is designed to pull focus on a particular point, usually a person. In this way, it connects to the desire to be noticed and highlighted out in the world for some particular accomplishment or a need to prove yourself in some way. What do you want other people to know about what you are doing?
Spray Paint: A staple in the graffiti art world, spray paint allows the immediate and portable use of the paint that is inside the can. As a form of expression, spray paint may highlight a desire to be more creative in a rebellious fashion.
Sprinklers: Controlled dissemination of water is what sprinklers offer. If the sprinklers in your dreams were for the purpose of gardening, your dream is reflecting a desire to make sure that something you are in the process of creating will get a consistent amount of the attention necessary to complete the project or idea. A sprinkler system that is designed to help put out fires is about the desire to keep sudden and unexpected changes at bay. Change can be overwhelming, and the presence of a sprinkler system in a dream indicates precautions against too much change too fast.
Squirrel: The squirrel knows how to prepare for the future by putting aside abundance today. In this way, the squirrel relates to practicality and prudence. However, this is not to be mistaken for a fear-based sense of hoarding. The squirrel is extremely playful and carefree, reminding us that we can prepare for the future without fearing that our needs will not be met.
Stabbing: Something is making a deep and penetrating impact on you, perhaps a betrayal of some sort. The act of stabbing creates a very narrow, deeply penetrating wound that can do a surprising amount of damage by compromising a fairly small amount of flesh. In other words, a little goes a long way. Harsh or sharp words can have the same effect. The right phrase, delivered with the proper tone, can cut very deeply and wound a person at a surprisingly deep level. In fact, any penetrating action that occurs suddenly and contains a touch of violent intention could be represented by stabbing in a dream. A sudden change in loyalty is often referred to as a stab in the back. Unexpected news can feel like a stab in the heart. The nature of a small wound that produces a great deal of blood symbolizes the devastation that can follow even the smallest of hurts.