Opening the Door: Applying Dream Messages to Life

Oftentimes people express complete bafflement regarding the value of dreams. How, they wonder, could such a mishmash of illogical and unrealistic stuff have any value? This is a good question, and there is a good and fairly simple answer.

The reason that such silly-seeming stuff can be of value is that it is not the “surface story” that has the meaning. The overt story is like a code. You can take it or leave it because by itself, it is usually a mystery. You have to put in some effort to get at the nugget of gold contained within, but it is not as difficult as it may appear. Once you learn the key to the code it becomes easier, as with anything new that we set out to learn.

In fact, not only does it become easier, but it becomes a fun challenge to look behind the story and discover the secret message. You know you are going to have an "A-Ha!" moment, and this lures you on. Who doesn’t enjoy an "A-Ha!" moment? There is such a sense of satisfaction I feel each time I “get” a dream, even after all these years of working with them. It really does feel good to be your own authority. It is empowering. “I know this is what I need to do, because I discovered the answer myself, right here inside me.” The following story illustrates this point well.

Not long ago, I was faced with the question of taking on a potential financial responsibility. I had decided I could not do it, and I proclaimed this fact to a number of friends and family members. However, as time and circumstances unfolded, I felt backed into a corner, being pressured to do it anyway. I was afraid to take this on. It seemed logical and reasonable not to do it. Yet, the reasons for doing it were equally compelling. As the deadline loomed for my decision, I had a dream. I knew this dream was speaking to the question facing me, and at first it looked like it was saying don’t do it. Yet, something made me go back and look at it again and again, even though I thought I had figured out the message of the dream. Finally, I called a friend. At times, even the dream teacher needs an objective-other to ask the right questions.

My friend asked me lots of good questions about numerous parts of the dream and finally hit on the right symbol. There were two houses in the background of this dream, all the action took place between them. My friend asked me how those two houses felt. So, I focused on the houses intuitively (we are all intuitive, including you); one house felt strong and confident, the other one felt weak and vulnerable. Because of the placement of the houses and the other action, this association was all I needed, everything fell into place and in that moment I knew beyond any doubt that I could take this risk, and everything would be ok. I did, and so far, it has been fine. I have no doubt that I will never regret my decision. It feels good to have such confidence in one’s decisions, as well as the source of the advice one follows.

Oh, and as far as telling friends and family that I changed my mind? With the authority of one who *knows*, I simply stated “I had a dream that told me it would be okay.”

Let us now look at a short dream in greater detail to see how a bunch of seeming nonsense can have an impact on one’s life.

Male Dreamer writes:

I am on the top floor of an office building, sitting in a closet. I am watching a child who is just outside the door cracking eggs and putting them into an empty flower pot.

Questioning reveals that the dreamer associates the office building with work, and the top floor as being a higher level of consciousness, the creative self. The thought of sitting in a closet makes the dreamer feel very stuck.

Because everything in a dream is first considered to be part of oneself, the child is the childlike part of himself, the part that is innocent and just doing what he is inspired to do in the moment. The dreamer also mentions that the child is a boy and that he seems totally absorbed and purposeful in what he is doing, and he feels this is his own inner child.

The dreamer associates eggs with new ideas, new life, or new projects in embryonic form, and flower pots as a container for holding live plants, representing growth and potential. Being empty, it seems to represent a wide open state of potential, as do the eggs. Eggs are usually cracked open to use as a food, which to the dreamer means sustenance, or nurturing himself.

After appropriate questions are considered (we will get to those questions later), the dreamer is able to relate the dream to feeling very blocked at his job (closet), and notes that he has been searching for a new one. Because he feels that this is the same office building that he actually works in, even though it looks different in the dream, he gets the impression that there is something else he could do at his current company. Bringing in the other elements now, he sees it is undoubtably in another department, where he might take a position that has great potential (eggs and flower pot) to allow him to feel creative and satisfied (eggs as food, sustenance) doing something that comes naturally to him and completely absorbs him - the state of the child in the dream. He feels the dream is showing him a tremendous potential to be found right where he is. The dreamer, with some curiosity, begins to consider and explore other possibilities and finds a month later that his company is planning to open a new division and he is eventually hired to help launch this new endeavor, which affords him all the opportunity illustrated in his dream.

And so it is easy to see that a coherent meaning exists behind the seeming nonsense of the surface story. Dreamwork is like detective work, where all the clues are in the dream, and the all answers are in the dreamer. The dreamer just needs to learn how to be the detective, which, is fortunately not difficult to do.

By the same token, some dreams are so mundane that many people can’t begin to see how to extract anything of value from them. Again, much can be associated with a simple, apparently unremarkable image.

Female dreamer writes:

I am polishing my grandmother’s sterling silver flatware, taking great pains to do the best job I can with each knife, fork and spoon.

Upon questioning, the Dreamer relates that as a child she would often stay with her grandmother and did in fact polish the silver on a number of occasions. She goes on to describe her grandmother as a loving and patient woman, who was a source of stability for the young dreamer. The grandmother would often sing or tell stories as they worked. The stories recounted the days of her grandmothers’ youth, of a different time and different ways. Also were stories of the child’s own mother as she grew up. They were times in the dreamer’s life when all was content and secure, with cookies baking in the oven and flowers from the garden on the piano, and a warm breeze blowing the curtains on the window.

Asked how this relates to her life at this time, the dreamer states it doesn’t really, her life is in turmoil and change, with chaos much of the time. It has been this way for over a year and there is no end in sight, and she tells of some of the challenges facing her.

Asked the next logical question -- “Then what might this scenario played out in the Dreamtime mean for you?” -- the dreamer thinks for a minute and begins to cry softly longing for the security and peace of that simple time long ago. Upon further nudging by the dream teacher, she thinks for another moment and says with dawning realization, “Why, I can’t bring back those days, but in the midst of my tumultuous life, I could carve out a few hours now and then and create some peaceful time for myself. I could go for a walk in the rain, or take a bubble bath in candlelight, or I could gather ingredients and bake ginger cookies like my grandmother made. I could sing some of those songs she used to sing, or I could write out some of the stories she told me. I could get out my old flute from high school and play some music.” There were endless possibilities for creating some peace in the present, using the past memory as a model.

It might also be noted that the Dreamer can take a general message from this dream that she is doing the best job she can with all that is going on in her life, as she did as a child painstakingly doing the best she could at polishing the silver.

As these dreamers found, there are, for all of us who seek, endless ways that the Dreamtime can be a source of nurturing and wisdom, service and guidance in our waking life.

Note: Although these articles can help you a great deal, many of the concepts are best learned in person from Julia herself. If you are interested in a workshop, class, or an individual session, please contact Julia!

Do you have a dream you would like some help interpreting? Call Julia and she will give you analysis or just a nudge in the right direction. Read on for more information!

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Note: for more information on dream symbols, see Symbolic Dreams.

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