The Dream Dictionary from A to Z [Revised edition]. Theresa Cheung
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It’s more popular today than it has ever been, with people from all walks of life using their dreams as unique and personal sources of guidance and inspiration, or as tools for change, growth, and personal development.
Dreams can offer us profound insights into what is preoccupying us and, although they are likely to forever remain mysterious, interpreting them can be healing and empowering, help us understand ourselves better and shape the decisions we make in our waking lives. As we’ve seen, there are different approaches to the interpretation of dreams and you’ll find a fusion of all of these in this book.
Famous Dreamers
Through the centuries, the dreaming mind has been said to be the source of countless insights, revelations, and even history-changing guidance. Here are just a few well-known examples:
Julius Caesar attributed his decision to cross the Rubicon and march on Rome with his army to a dream, in which he saw himself lying in bed with his mother (his seers told him she represented Mother Rome). And his wife Calpurnia saw his assassination foretold in a dream.
St Francis of Assisi had a dream in which Jesus Christ spoke to him from the Cross, telling him to ‘set my house in order’, and so went on to found the Franciscan Order of friars.
Dante reported that the entire story of the Divine Comedy was revealed to him in a dream he had on Good Friday in 1300. When he died in 1321, some of the original manuscript was lost. His son Jacopo recovered the manuscript thanks to a dream in which his father showed him exactly where to look.
Genghis Khan is reported to have received his battle plans in dreams. It is also said that a dream told him he was ‘a chosen one’.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote his famous poem ‘Kubla Khan’ after waking from an opium-fueled dream.
Robert Louis Stevenson was convinced his best stories, including the main device in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, came to him in dreams. Suffering as a child from nightmares, he reportedly learned to control his dreams so he would no longer have nightmares. He said his dreams inspired all his writings.
Days before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln dreamed of loud wails coming from the East Wing of the White House. When he investigated, he was told by soldiers on guard that they were weeping for the President, who had been assassinated. Days later Lincoln’s body was laid in state in the East Wing so people could pay their last respects.
Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz was a chemist working on the chemical structure of benzene. His data made no sense to him because benzene (we now know) does not behave like a ‘long string’ molecule. While dozing in a comfortable seat, Kekulé saw in a dream the image of a snake biting its own tail. He woke up and immediately understood the mathematics of the benzene molecule – which has a ring rather than a long-string structure.
Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini composed one of his greatest works, ‘The Devil’s Trill’, after a dream he had in 1713. In the dream he handed his violin to the devil himself, who began
to play with consummate skill a sonata of such exquisite beauty as surpassed the boldest flights of my imagination. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted; my breath was taken away, and I awoke. Seizing my violin I tried to retain the sounds I had heard. But it was in vain. The piece I then composed…was the best I ever wrote, but how far below the one I heard in my dream!
Elias Howe wrote that he understood the central notion of his invention of the sewing machine in a nightmare in which he was captured by cannibals. While dancing around a fire and preparing to cook him, the cannibals waved their spears. Howe’s dreaming mind noticed that the head of each spear bore a small hole through the shaft. The up-and-down movement of the spears and the hole in each spear remained with him when he woke. The idea of passing thread through a needle close to its tip, and not at its widest point, was a major innovation in making sewing by machine possible.
One night in 1816, Mary Shelley, her husband, and a group of friends were challenged to each write a ghost story. That night Mary dreamed of a creature that would later become the monster created by Victor Frankenstein in her yet-to-be-written novel.
Niels Bohr said that he developed the model of the atom after he had a dream that he was sitting on the sun with all the planets whizzing around him and hanging by the thinnest cords.
Paul McCartney heard a haunting melody in one of his dreams, confirmed that none of the Beatles had heard it before, and wrote it down. It became the tune for the song ‘Yesterday’.
In 1964 golfer Jack Nicklaus told a reporter how his dreams helped him practice and significantly improve his golf swing.
Dream Types
To all, to each, a fair good night. And pleasing dreams and slumbers light.
– Sir Walter Scott
Understanding what type of dream you had can help you to interpret it. Just as there are different types of music – classical, rock, jazz – there are different kinds of dreams. Although dream types can blend and merge, modern dream researchers tend to break dreams down into one of the following categories:
Afterlife Dreams
Dreams about departed loved ones can feel incredibly real and bring tremendous comfort, healing, and reassurance to the dreamer, encouraging them to believe that perhaps in some unseen realm the departed loved one lives on. Psychologists believe such dreams are products of grief, but whether they are or not research has shown that people who dream of departed loved ones tend to deal better with their grief than people who do not.
Amplifying Dreams
These can exaggerate certain situations or life attitudes in order to point them out sharply for the dreamer. For example, someone who is very shy may dream that they have become invisible.
Anticipating Dreams
These are dreams that may alert us to possible outcomes in situations in our waking lives – for example, passing or failing an exam. We dream the most likely scenarios, or what our fears about these situations are.
Auditory Dreams
These are dreams where you recall sounds or hearing something, rather than visual symbols. Many artists and musicians have experienced these kinds of dreams and used what they heard as inspiration for their work. Sometimes the sound you hear may be the sound of a narrator telling you what is happening in the dream. When this occurs your dreaming mind wants you to concentrate on the narrative or story being told. (Be aware that sometimes external noises from your sleeping environment, like a phone ringing, can creep into your dream.)
Cathartic Dreams
Such dreams evoke extremely emotional reactions, when the unconscious is urging us to release pent-up emotions we may feel unable to express in waking life. For example, you may find yourself bursting into tears on a packed commuter train in your dreams, or you might punch your irritating neighbor or tell your boss exactly what you think of them.
Childhood Dreams
Dreaming about your childhood may reflect a childhood dynamic that hasn’t been worked out yet and requires a resolution. It may also suggest a need for greater spontaneity in your waking life.
Contrary or Compensatory Dreams
In these types of dreams, the unconscious places the dreaming self in a totally different situation to the one we find ourselves in waking life. For example, if your day has been filled with unhappiness and stress due to the death of a loved one or the end of a relationship, you may dream of yourself spending a carefree, happy day by the seaside. Your unconscious may also give you personality traits that you haven’t expressed in waking life. For example, if you hate being the center of attention, you may dream about being a celebrity. Such dreams are thought to provide necessary balance, and may also be suggesting to you to incorporate in your waking life some of the characteristics