The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung
building. If you are walking past a church or religious building in your dream, this suggests that you are not making contact with the best part of yourself. Is your waking life so crammed with obligations that you don’t have time to explore your inner world for some much-needed reflection, meditation and contemplation? If you entered a temple in your dream and immediately felt enveloped in a sense of calm, was your unconscious suggesting that you would enjoy better health if you treated your body as a temple, putting your physical, emotional and spiritual welfare first? Dreams about religious buildings may also be an expression of anger against dogma; again it depends on the feelings evoked by the building in your dream. Did you feel relieved or tense? If a vault features in your dream, it may represent your highest spiritual ideals, as vaults often appear in churches or temples with painted stars in imitation of the vault of the heavens. A vault may also recall a crypt or burial chamber, and as such, it may conjure up thoughts of death. See also RELIGION.
TOWER
According to Freud, a tower is a phallic symbol, signifying in its sturdiness the sexual self-confidence of a male dreamer. In dreams, towers represent psychological constructions you may have built in your life, ranging from an attitude to an entire way of life. For example, a tower may be a defensive erection of inner attitudes, suggesting an imprisonment by your own anxieties or a desire to shut yourself away from the world; alternatively, it may be an attempt to reach the heights of awareness or recognition.
If you are standing at the top of the tower in your dream, observe how you feel
Towering above the rest
Freudian dream interpreters relate towering structures in dreams to phallic symbols, and therefore to macho tendencies, on account of their thrusting shape. So if you dreamed you were living in a luxury penthouse thousands of feet above the city or that your office occupied the top floor, could your dream have highlighted your ambitions? Do you secretly long to rise above everyone else financially, professionally and socially? Dreaming of a spire may indicate pride and ambition or yearning to attain spiritual heights, and an obelisk in a dream may be a phallic symbol. A chimney in a dream may be another phallic symbol especially if it was a tall factory chimney. In both the waking and the dream world, skyscrapers are symbols of elevated social and professional status and the ‘greed is good creed’, so if you dreamed of them, perhaps your unconscious was highlighting your waking ambition.
The most prominent and famous landmark in Paris, the city of romance, revolution and passion, is the Eiffel Tower. If it appears in your dream, it presents a powerful erotic symbolism, as it is a strong image of thrusting sexuality. The clock tower, also known as Big Ben, which sits alongside London’s Houses of Parliament, may be a symbol of an encounter with destiny or some life-changing event. Ticking clocks often represent the passage of life (see TIME) and the clock tower combines this with the phallic form to form an image of courage and emotional development. Evoking great and solemn occasions, the chimes of Big Ben, or any clock in a church tower, relate to important life changes, such as marriage, the birth of a child or moving house, or important shifts in attitude, such as forgiveness, resolve and determination.
Some other buildings
Airport
A desire to rise above worldly problems and responsibilities; may also be associated with high ideals. See also TRAVEL.
Bank
Where ‘treasures’ are stored; material security. If you are making a deposit, you are adding to your assets. If you are making a withdrawal, you are calling upon them.
Barn
Associated with labor. Since this is a storage place and home for animals, the dream may be implying that you have an inner storage place containing the essentials for inner growth.
Beauty parlor/hairdressers
New ideas, thoughts are cleansed, created and rearranged.
Boarding house
The essentials are provided but payment is required.
Cleaners
Clean up some aspect of your personality or have you been ‘taken to the cleaners’?
Firehouse
Contains what is needed to put a fire (anger, passion) out.
Funeral parlor
Something dead needs to be laid to rest or reviewed. ‘It’s your funeral.’
Railroad station
Travel, change; waiting to get on the right track in life’s journey. See also TRAVEL.
Restaurant
The nourishment is provided, but payment is needed. The type of restaurant is important. In a fast-food restaurant or cafeteria, the dreamer is required to do much to help; in an elegant setting, the basic needs are provided but more is expected in return.
School
Lessons to be learned; more growth is required; associated with school days; raise thinking to a new level.
Service station
Re-energize your body, physically, mentally and emotionally.
Store
Book store—learning, study, research; clothing store—shopping for a new means of expression; department store—temptation and choices; drugstore—healing prescriptions; health food store—healthier diet; old-fashioned grocery store—inadequate nourishment; music store—harmony; supermarket—eating and living habits. See also MONEY AND SHOPPING.
as you gaze down at the activity below. Were you relieved to be far removed from other people or did you feel imprisoned? Towers in dreams can also suggest an emotionally impregnable figure in the dreamer’s life, for example an authoritarian father, or male authority in general. There may also be a reference to a ‘tower of strength’, or a person on whom you can rely for support and comfort. If your tower has no door, you are not in touch with your inner self. If there are no windows, you can’t see all the good things about yourself.
An ivory tower suggests innocence, but it can also suggest arrogance, intellectual aloofness and the loneliness such an attitude can bring. A square tower suggests a pragmatic, practical approach, and a round tower suggests spiritual harmony. If the tower is round on top of a square building, this suggests harmony in mind, body and spirit. How you get to the tower in your dream is important in your dream. If your steps are difficult to climb, this suggests you are a private person. If the door is jammed, you are not ready to understand yourself. If the door is bolted, you must make the effort to go in. Once inside the tower,