The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung
there was a jovial atmosphere, this can suggest a wish to be less isolated in waking life or a new, optimistic approach to life. If, however, there was a brawl, this can suggest repressed emotions boiling over into anger. Drunkenness also suggests loss of control, a desire to forget the past, or an avoidance rather than a facing of emotions. An inn is like a pub, but with the difference that it offers a place to sleep overnight. It also suggests a more tranquil, rural environment, perhaps pointing to your desire to deal with repressed impulses from the unconscious in a secure, secluded environment. (For dreams of restaurants and canteens, see also FOOD AND DRINK.)
HOUSE
For the psychologist Carl Jung, building a house was a symbol of building a self. In his autobiographical Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Jung described the gradual evolution of his home on Lake Zurich. Jung spent more than thirty years building this castle-like structure, and he believed that the towers and annexes represented his psyche. In dreams therefore, houses may represent your life structures or what you have created for yourself as a way of life; for example, values, attitudes and goals, or things you feel ‘at home’ with, or feel you can be yourself with.
When interpreting dreams of houses, how you feel about the house is of particular importance. Houses can be forbidding places, and if you feel anxious in your dream, this suggests that something about your personality is bothering you. That you noted a particular part of the house in your dream may offer a clue, and the different rooms and everyday things in the house are also important as they represent different aspects of your feelings and make up. It is common to dream of returning to a house from your past that you knew or lived in. This dream may be nostalgic or it may reflect a longing to return to the innocence of childhood. If you dreamed of leaving a house, the message is that you are ready to move on in waking life. If the house in your dream felt like it was your home, see also HOME.
LAW COURT/PRISON
A law court in a dream may make you focus on your capacity to make fair judgments in complicated matters concerning work, friends or family members. It may also highlight your feelings of being on trial in waking life, or a sense of guilt about having broken a promise, or a moral or social law. Perhaps you are anxious about being judged by others or feel that there something that you should be punished for. If you find yourself bundled into prison in your dream, perhaps with the clang of heavy gates swinging shut in your ears, this may be drawing a parallel with your sense of confinement in waking life. So, if you have any kind of dream about prisons or being jailed, ask yourself who or what is restricting your freedom in waking life. Do you feel suffocated emotionally by your partner or parents, or do you feel trapped in a dead-end job? Or has your own shyness locked you into a self-made prison in the waking world?
Dream houses
The front of the house and activities outside the house represent your persona, the face you show to the world, whereas whatever is inside the house reveals your inner life. If the house is being attacked or burgled, this suggests criticism or social pressure from others. If the house is burning or falling down, this represents leaving old attitudes behind. If the house feels cramped and dark, there is a feeling of restriction in waking life, whilst structural faults suggest broken relationships or illness. If work or repairs are being carried out on the house, perhaps certain relationships are breaking down or health matters need to be attended to.
An impressive big house in dreams suggests that we are conscious of our potential. If the house is small, the dreamer is perhaps seeking security and freedom from responsibility. If you were living in a bungalow in your dream, there may be a suggestion that you are living too much on one level, both practically and emotionally. If there are unfamiliar rooms in a well-known house, this represents unexplored potential. If other people are in the house, they suggest different aspects of yourself you may feel threatened by, or other people you are involved with, or about to be involved with, in waking life. Going into or out of the house suggests that we may need to decide whether we need to be more introverted or extroverted. If you go into another person’s house, this suggests that you are getting involved with that person, perhaps being a part of their life. If you see a loved one move into someone else’s house in your dream, this may be your fear of their infidelity, but it may also reveal a growing distance in your relationship. Planning or altering a house, or building an annexe may refer to a change in your lifestyle or approach to life. Rows of houses represent other people. According to dream lore, country houses suggest tranquility; building a house, a growth in confidence; a new house, a busy social life; an empty house or moving house, financial worries; a big house, good fortune, and a small house, misfortune.
If you are buying a house in your dreams this may relate to making a decision to change in waking life, or wanting to make some kind of change. Buying a house involves decision making and this points to the importance of clarifying what it is that you want in waking life. If the house in your dream is an igloo, this is a symbol of security and completeness and, because it is warm on the inside and cold on the outside, it points to differences between what you feel on the inside and you do and say on the outside. In general dreaming about a flat or apartment has the same meaning as dreaming about a house, but the interpretation depends on whether or not you have lived in an apartment or flat before. If you did, were you living alone in the flat or did you share, and what was this like? This will influence the feelings associated with the image in your dream.
LIBRARY/MUSEUM
In dreams, a library can represent a storehouse of your experiences in life as well as your intellect. If the library is well ordered, this suggests that you handle knowledge well. If the library is chaotic, with books missing or wrongly shelved, this suggests that you may be suffering from information overload or have difficulty processing information. If someone distracts you in the library in your dream, it may suggest that the ideas being considered in waking life are not worth your attention. If you are working on your psychic and spiritual development, the library will have added significance as a place where the collective wisdom of humankind is collected. The more we develop psychically and spiritually, the more we have access to this collective wisdom—also known as intuition and the collective unconscious.
Like libraries, museums feed minds by giving people the opportunity to study objects from the past for their historic, scientific and artistic interest. When trying to interpret dreams about museums, any exhibit that caught your eye is important because it may be pointing to something from your own past that has a bearing on your present situation. If your dream involved visiting a cinema or theatre, refer to the relevant entries in ARTS AND CRAFTS and LEISURE.
LIGHTHOUSE
A lighthouse may appear in a dream as a beacon guiding you to safety through dense fog. Bear in mind that a beacon or lighthouse can also indicate a rocky area you should avoid, and therefore contains a warning about the direction in which you are heading. Such a dream may be urging you to rely on your own resources to avoid floundering. For Freud, the lighthouse was, of course, a phallic symbol rising above the maternal symbol of the ocean.
RELIGIOUS BUILDING
Any religious building suggests a refuge where you can gather your thoughts and consider your beliefs. Even if you are not religious, in dreams religious buildings highlight your spiritual, peace-loving and idealistic potential. Most of us have principles we live by and these may