Dream On Dictionary D-K

Dessert

Desserts or sweets can represent various things, such as your 'just desserts' or something 'short and sweet', or maybe its a cookie, which being a circle can represent the 'Self.'

 

Diamonds

Diamonds can represent many things, but to me, then signal hope, as in the famous Hope Diamond. If you see diamond in a ring, on a trunk or chest of drawers, a card like the 9 or queen of diamonds, or a baseball diamonds, you should consider if your dream is telling you not to give up hope.

Double or Two of Something/Someone

If there are two almost identical people in a dream, then this can mean 'double strength.' If they are unusual, or foreign, they represent an idea that is not just a little foreign to you but very foreign. Whatever is being presented will probably be a bit harder to integrate.

Door or Doorway

Doors in dreams mean the same thing as they in life and are a powerful and common symbol for moving forward. In your dream you may be confronted with a door. Perhaps it is inviting yet you are afraid to go in. That would reflect a fear of moving past a barrier, or entering a new project or relationship. Perhaps the door is marked 'closed' and you are redirected to another door. Do you just believe the sign? Or do you not take 'no' for the answer and try the door anyway. Sometimes we can psych ourselves out, believing that progress is too difficult - and we turn away without really trying. If we want something, we should try hard, try every door, see if there is way to where we want to go.

Dresser

See Chest.

Eating

Food is a source of nourishment and enjoyment. Bread can mean the ‘bread of life’ the most basic source of nutriian. If we are eating bread we are nourishing ourselves with basic good things.

• Bread - Christian symbol, the bread of life, taking in spiritual food of Jesus, the bread of the angels, Panis Angelicus. Once in a dream I feasted on three breads in the City of the Angels (Los Angeles).
• Comfort Food - Potatoes, chili, cheese, meats often mean we are nourishing ourselves with really great comforting foods. For many of us food represents love, community, family, belonging. To sit and eat with others in a dream may reflect how we are bringing all this healthy and hearty goodness into our lives.
• Curds and whey - very hearty version of milk, as in the first, most nurturing foods we recieve in this life.
• Eating dessert (end of the meal) might mean you are coming to the end of a chapter or learning experience, and will soon move on to another phase. Desserts are the sweet reward for all the good work you have been doing.

Dodge

If a dream character is dodging through doorways, playing games, or avoiding you, the dream is probably telling you that someone, and it might be you, is going to some lengths to avoid a situation. See Avoid.

Elephant

Elephants are famous for their long memories which allow them to learn the watering spots and trails all over Africa.  They say an ‘Elephant never forgets.’ If an elephant appears in your dream, you may need to remember things you’ve already learned, and apply that to a new situation. Don’t lose the benefit of what life has already taught you.

Ellis Island

This was a famous entry point into the United States for immigrants throughout the 19th century and possibly the 20th century. It served as a stopping point where personal information on each person was recorded. In addition, it was a place where docters checked for infectious diseases and quaranteened people to protect the population from dangerous diseases. A dream that includes Ellis Island may either indicate that you are entering an entirely new place or country, or possibly that you need to protect yourself from some kind of harm, or even that you have been placed in quaranteen!

Engine

An engine in a dream can refer to our heart or motivation. Is this engine roaring with power? Is it in the repair shop? Have you got expert mechanics working on it yet? Or is it still on the block waiting? Is it suspended with a block and tackle - in a state of limbo? Are you being told your car will be ready soon?

Exam

See Test.

Feet

If your dream focuses on your bare feet as you move forward, you may be hearing a call to walk in faith. If you are walking on a rough path, yet not feeling slowing down or being hurt, then you can be assured that you faith is strong and working for you.

Fence

A restraint like a fence that is a barrier to your thinking and acting. Is the fence easy to pass through like a gate, or a couple of strings of wire? Or is it a large fence to be climbed over? This indicates how big a challenge you may be facing, or maybe just your perception of that challenge. 

Field

Area of work, natural source of satisfaction, what you are cultivateing in your life, or endeavor. Your ‘work’ which may include working on your inner self.

Fight

If you encounter a fight in your dreams,  you may be having internal conflicts that are seeking to be resolved. You are probably fighting with yourself over something, though in the dream, it will probalby be others in conflict. Should you fight or walk away? There should be a resolution suggested in your dream.

Foreign

'Foreign' means very different things to different people. If you see someone in your dream that you think of as foreign (remember dreams are not politically correct - their purpose is to communicate only), then some course, action, thought, attitude that has been foreign to you is being indicated.Your usualy solutions and actions are not cutting it and you need to look around a little more.

After all, learning is about going places we have not been, thinking new thoughts, learning about new people and ways to be. The dream person may just represent and idea that is foreign,or they might indicate a direction in which to search. What culture do they hale from? What religion?

Free or Freeman

The name Freeman or Freidman can identify a dream character that reminds you that you have personal freedom, or choices. You may choose to be constrained by others' ideas, your own past, your parents expectations, or any other thing or person. However, its important to realize that these are mental constraints for the most part. If your Unconscious Self is reminding you that you are a free man (or free woman) then perhaps you should consider a full range of options, as a mental exercise, or to find new options in some area of life (marriage, relationships with your kids, your career, your passions and dreams). We are alive so we can live, chose, create.

Freeman Inc

This is not a common definition but another one that comes from my misspent youth. Freeman is a huge tradeshow logistics company. When a company exhibits at a major tradeshow, Freeman is the company that manages warehousing, shipping to and from, furniture, electricity, security and many other things. When I go to the Freeman desk in a dream, I'm going to the source for everything. All I have to do is ask and I can access everything I need. Sometimes, the Freeman desk is hard to find in my dreams. See blog on Misspent Youth.

 

Funeral

A funeral setting in a dream represents the final phase of letting go of a phase of life, a relationship or person, viewpoint, or dream of the future. The setting will often be your internal church, where the very most important internal happenings occur. There may be other important people that attend, music that is played, things that may help you accept the finality, inevitability of the separation. A funeral is the final, most dreaded day, the one we avoid until we cannot avoid it any longer. The very end. Yet, when we accept losses, then we can put them behind us. It is also the beginning of the new phase that must come after it.

Game

Seeing a game, whether cards, baseball, or boardgames can involve the game of life and how you are doing at it. Is you hand full of aces and kings? Are you striking out? Afraid to swing at the ball? Or maybe you need to get your head in the game, or get off the bench and join the game.

Garden

If you see a beautiful garden in your dream, that is a symbol for your Self or Soul, the beautiful, wild, thriving inner you. You are being assured that you have the resources, the inner spring of life to accomplish your goals and dreams. Does your inner garden seem to be in need of inner care? a little dry? Perhaps your inner life needs some tending, a little pruning or weeding, something to think on.

Gray

Gray can mean wisdom and insight. Gray can be message about not being fearful of middle life. Also, perhaps you need to accept that life’s situations are not always black and white. They can be gray, or white with a little black, black with a little white. It takes wisdom, experience and confidence to accept ourselves, lives and decisions at times.

Flunk/Fail

If you are flunking a class in your dream, you are really missing the lesson in some area of your life. You are not showing up, not doing your homework, trying to ignore some problem. This dream  signals that you need to start taking necessary corrective action in your waking life. Your own inner self is telling you snap to it.

Hand

To see a hand can mean that the situation is ‘in hand’, perhaps a bird in the hand message, or that a situation is being handled – there is no need to worry.

Harp

The word 'harp' sounds very similar to 'heart' and can by similar in shape. Is your dream a smart hand-held harp, played close to the body. When we say 'heart strings' we are comparing the heart to a musical instrument. Feelings resonate within our hearts similar to how feel musical vibrations, which is both in our body and inside our bodies, as if our bodies are also an instrument. Also, music can express feeling that are really not expressible in words. The strings also speak to connectedness, intertwined feellings and relationships.

Haunted House

If your house is haunted or you visit a haunted house, there is something in your spiritual or psychological world that is probably not quite right. You are being 'haunted' by something, perhaps the past, perhaps a lover, a mistake, a missed opportunity. You will have to give some serious thought to what is haunting you and find some way to resolve it. Unfortunately, not all problems are easily solved, but sometimes we can resolve our issues, or our role in the outcome. Sometimes it takes talking to a friend, psychologist, or spiritual leader. Sometimes, time resolves things, or our dream helpers. Sometimes we have to get real with ourselves.

Heart Condition

If someone in your dream has a heart condition, this probably does not refer to an illness, but rather an emotional problem of some sort. There are many kinds of heart conditions for instance falling love, unrequited love, inability or unwillingness to feel or show emotions. The other parts of the dream will probably show pretty clearly what kind of heart problem you or another has. Heart conditions are serious of course and not easily fixed – so be patient with your inner work. It will probably not be a quick fix, but may involve forgiveness, honesty, or moving on.

Home

I believe that seeing a Home in a dream has a different meaning from a house. Houses represent our psychological makeup but a Home concerns our feelings and movement toward integration. To be at 'home' in known person's house, means that you have or will soon integrate important traits that you are learning from that person.

To be in a childhood means that you are being reminded of something you already know but maybe have forgotten.

To be in your mother's home means you are finding value in lessons your mother taught you. It might be good to consider what she would say about a situation in your waking life - those things she said to you 100 times! One of them will probably ring with the wisdom of a lifetime. Even if your mother is no longer with you, her words and lessons are very much alive.

Horse

The horse was the main mode of transportation in the Old West and everywhere else until the last century. A horse can have many meanings, including an outmoded way of transportation. If you are moving by horseback, or see horses and cowboys, you might need to update or modernize your attitudes and move you into the 21st Century.

House

Much is already written on meanings for the basement, various rooms and levels of the house. Your house can be a representation of your total psyche, your whole Self. It’s important to notice the condition of any house in your dreams. Maybe the house is in fine shape, or maybe it needs repair.

Or, you may hear a message about how important it is to ‘own your house.' This has to do with taking control and possession of your life and destiny, as in, to own it outright, with no mortgage or obligation to anyone else.

You may also walk into and take possession of a house belonging to another dream figure (possibly animus), and this means you have laid hold of the essence of that dream figure. Whatever he/she represents to you, you now own that, whether strength, initiative, courage, or something else.

Hot Air Balloon

See Baloon

Hotel

A hotel is a temporary way station on your life’s journey. You’ve arrived at an interim place so that you can learn a lesson, and then move on. While at a hotel, you might attend a banquet (find nourishment), attend a seminar (a learning experience), get married or attend a wedding (integrating new learning), find yourself in a Casino (rolling the dice) meet known and unknown people. I would put more emphasis on what you are doing in the hotel rather than the fact that hotels are for temporary stays.

Hug or Embrace

If you hug someone in your dream you are growing closer to adopting or integrating an important characteristic or the person you hug? What is the thing you think of when you visualize that person? Youthful enthusiasm, assertiveness, fearlessness, faith, strength, honesty? See Integration.

Initiative

When a person who shows initiative in waking life appears in your dream, you should consider how trying new things, taking some risks, exploring interests might help you change careers, or move on after a breakup. The friend with initiative may invite you to a show, pick you up in his car (or hers) to go for a drive of visit their. What does that mean to be in the home of that friend? or ‘at home’ with that friend. The invitation is to move out from where you are to a new place that the friend is showing you.

Innoculate

If you are either giving a shot or recieving a shot, your psyche may be trying to protect you from harm or a painful situation. An innoculation introduces a small dose of either a live or dead virus that allows your body to build an immunization. I think its often true that we see realities in small doses, which allows us to explore further and find a bigger or comprehensive truth.

Insulin

Can be related to insular, or isolated. Maybe you need to take steps to insulate yourself from a distructive environment, whether job, relionship, or other situation. Insulation keeps out both heat and cold, even blows. See Innoculate, Island.

Integration

When we adopt and integrate a new idea, way of thinking, or way of living, symbolic language will align that with getting close to a person. At the very beginning of the Integration process, you might be sitting with someone (like a date). If you are further along, you might be walking, holding hands, sitting close together (strong interest). As you get really ready to accept the trait, in your dream you may feel attraction, kiss, hug, possibly jump into bed, or with some person/characteristic. You may also attend a wedding or marry someone as part of this process.

It’s important to understand that psychological processes are going on in your dreams, which are then represented waking symbols. So that is a symbolic kiss, a symbolic man, and a symbolic wedding in your dream.

Interested in learning more about Integration.

Invitation

If dream friend invites you to go somewhere, you should go! You are being invited to move beyond where you are to a better place, to learn or see something new. Let them drive where they want to take you. If they invite you to a show, definately pay attention to where the show is taking place, what it might be about. A new door is opening up for you in some way. Don't be afraid of dream inviations.

Irish

The color Kelly Green seems to show up to flag me to a theme that resonates with my personal experience of being half Irish and half German. Am I showing my 'fighting Irish' side? Maybe that is a good thing - the Irish are famous for fighting for lost causes and for each other. A dream can point out that you are fighting the good fight, or perhaps fighting too hard.

Just because fighting comes naturally, doesn't mean its the best way - maybe there is another/better way. Maybe your dream will show you a different or 'foreign' way, that might be better all around. If another way is indicated, then foreign people may show up in your dreams, whatever 'foreign' means to you. When is it better to walk away?

Island

Islands by nature are rather singular and lonely, cut off by water from other places. If you are on an island or see one, you might consider if you need to pull back a little from some situation in your waking life? Isolate yourself a bit, be that rock, be that island. Or it might possibly be the reverse - that you are a bit too isolated and need to rejoin the human community, find new friends. Also, what are the characteristics of the island? If its Ellis Island, maybe you are entering a new country or venture.

Jail / Halfway house

You are probably working on freeing yourself from an unproductive situation. You have the ability to free yourself in almost all situations with a little creative thinking or change in attitude.

If you are in a half-way house, you are well on your way to or redirecting your life, ‘reforming’ as it were.

Keys

If you have the keys to your car, you have the means of moving forward, advancing your plans and dreams. You just need to start the car and get back on the road. If your keys are missing, then the reverse is true. You need to find out what key message you need to recieve. There may just be one final step you need to take. If you have a second set of keys, perhaps back at your dream house or in the safekeeping of another person, you are in a good place, even if you feel that you don't have what you need. You just need to go 'visit' that friend, retrieve that key thing. If you hand your keys to the valet, your car is close by and you just need a little help to get it. So, get going!

King

If you see a King in your dream, is he really someone you know or an actual king? If he is a person that you know, a commoner in fact, then perhaps you are giving him too much credit or honor. Perhaps he is just another person who makes mistakes. not wiser, or better or more powerful than you.

Are you the King? Perhaps you are thinking of yourself a bit too highly. Or perhaps you should put yourself on the throne and start issuing decrees, running your own life.

Kitchen

If you are in a kitchen, you are actively engaged in cooking up good things for yourself and your life. Are you cooking hearty foods, comfort food, or delicious desserts? All those are important forms of sustainance and nourishment in your life. If you are in a friend's house eating and cooking, they are sharing their goodness, support, or healthy attitudes with you. I think these dreams are usually very supportive of where you are and where you going.

Maybe that kitchen is actually your 'soul kitchen' so to speak where great things are being cooked up in your life. What is the food like?