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Interpreting Visions/Symbols

Hello Spacehey friends! I've been having a lot of repeating motifs in my dreams, art, etc. (personally I find the subconscious details in my creative work to be a powerful message, but that's a post for another day-) and I'm curious if anyone here has any good resources for interpreting these kinds of things? Websites, books, etc.? Even other forums they find helpful. My own knowledge base on spirits/deities and the like is limited, but I'm leaning towards this being related to something like that. 

I'm also fairly on board for past lives, but as previously stated it feels more foreign than anything. 


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Reply by Nilla

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I could point you to any number of books or compendiums on dream interpretation, but honestly most of them are useless, merely rote lists of items paired with the authors conception of what they think it *could* mean. I believe this approach is folly, as dreams are an intensely personalized experience - what a symbol in your dreamscape means to you might not mean the same thing to me.  For instance, when I was small I was advised repeatedly by a doting mother to take care eating hot dogs - lest I choke to death. And so, the connection being made in my young impressionable mind, for years afterward hot dogs in my dreams represented various types of danger, all the way up to and including "imminent mortal peril" - hardly an association that could be looked up in a book but the evidence of my dreams is undeniable, hot dogs = hidden danger.

You should ask yourself, what do these motifs mean *to me*? What do I associate these motifs with? What is being represented from my waking life? If you have worked with the Tarot, you are already familiar with inferring a message from a series of symbolic visuals in this way. And on that thought, you should absolutely ask your preferred oracles for guidance in this matter if you haven't already.

Also, some of the best general advice I've gotten on dreams goes thus:

When you dream, typically one or more things can be happening
1) The brain is integrating and processing things from waking life, and reinforcing certain pathways for use later.
2) You have left your body and are performing some activity on the astral plane (or elsewhere).
3) Your subconscious has a message for you.

The first "mode" is mostly noise and can be ignored. I'm told most dreams are of this type, and are routinely deeply unpleasant. As such people rarely actually remember them.

For me the second "mode" is characterized by a complete lack of sky, like I'll go "outside" and look up and the sky is an empty void. Often there will be a person who seems more "solid" than normal dream figments - there is purpose in their actions, light in their eyes, and they don't just randomly disappear and/or turn into other people, they have a heft and constancy to them. Pay attention to these when you meet them, they can be either friend or foe.

The third "mode" is the kind that usually has you waking up going "that's weird, why would I dream about that..." and pondering what it means. In this case the subconscious will usually use what symbolism it has been taught, intentionally or unintentionally, by your own conscious experiences.

This is by no means a definitive taxonomy but I find as a rule of thumb it works well enough, most dreams I have seem to fall into one or more of these "modes" of dreaming.

I hope some or all of that helps.


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