Previously, I wrote that houses and your physical appearance in a dream were important symbols for showing the state of your life. I think the appearance of yourself in a dream is easier to describe, so I will comment on that in this post. Seeing yourself in a dream will give you valuable insights about how your conscious life appears to your unconscious, or at deeper levels to your soul.
Let’s consider some simple examples first. Many years ago, I
was talking with a waitress in a restaurant who was upset by a recent dream.
She had beautiful crowns on her front teeth, and in the dream, they were jagged
and broken. This terrified her because her physical appearance was very
important to her. I mentioned that I had studied dream interpretation, and she
was eager to get my thoughts about the dream. I asked her if she had had an
argument with anyone recently. She said that prior to the dream she had had a bad
argument with her boyfriend and said some really ugly things to him. It doesn’t
take much experience with dreams to see the meaning of her dream.
Our teeth are part of our appearance and are in our mouth
where our words originate. So, in our dreams about teeth, they are often used
to show that the words coming out of our mouth are either beautiful by showing
us with beautiful teeth, or they are ugly by showing us with ugly teeth as in
her dream.
Our hair is also often used symbolically in a dream that shows
our physical appearance. Since our hair covers our head or at least is
associated with the head much like thoughts are associated with the mind, the
appearance of our hair may say something about the state of our mind. If your
hair is nicely combed the dream may be saying that your thoughts are healthy
and orderly, whereas disheveled hair may be telling you that you need to clean
up your thoughts and get them under control.
Teeth and hair are not the only parts of our physical
appearance in a dream that are used to convey messages to us about our life.
The condition of our body, the clothes we wear, and the colors in our clothes
or of items around us are all used to show the state of our life. Are we
dressed properly for the scene in the dream, or are we out of place?
Our dress in our physical life is one of the ways we show
ourselves to other people. They reflect how we want to be seen. In a dream,
they may represent how we are seen to the unconscious mind. They often
represent our values. Dirty clothes may indicate that we need to clean up our
thinking. Improper dress for the setting may indicate that we do not have the
proper attitude or perspective for a situation in which we find ourselves in
our daily life. Torn or ragged clothes may indicate that we need to reevaluate
our values and make corrections.
A common dream is to be surrounded by dirty clothes that
need to be washed. In that case, you should examine your values. A cleansing of
your thoughts may be needed.
Another common dream is to find yourself naked or nearly so.
In this case, the dream may be saying that this is the way you have recently appeared
to other people, not physically naked but emotionally exposed. Your thoughts
and feelings were laid bare for all to see, and in a dream you appear naked.
Our socks and shoes are important items of clothing as well.
Old worn-out shoes may mean that your values are old and worn out. It may
indicate that you need a new spiritual foundation in your life. Colors are
often used to reflect the state of your spiritual life. Dark dismal clothes
show a life without light. Colors such as blue, magenta, and lavender are used
to show various degrees of spiritual development. Red, for example, is often
associated with anger or energy. To understand the colors, you have to examine
your life and state of mind. Colors can change from one dream to the next as
your mood changes.
You may meet another person in a dream who is a stand-in for
you. You are meeting yourself. The clue to this may be the person’s initials,
for example, which are the same as yours. Some dream theories consider other
people in dreams to all be aspects of ourselves. I believe this is false, and
in my dream books I give examples of why this is not the case. Yet this belief
persists. My precognitive meetings with people in dreams who I later encounter
just like in the dream refute this theory.
The image you see of yourself in a dream is linked to your
psychological and emotional appearance in your corporeal life. It may help to
consider the following. In the Edgar Cayce readings, he described three levels
of consciousness. First, there is the normal conscious mind. Second, there is
the subconscious mind that is the source of most dreams. Finally, there is what
he calls the superconscious mind, which is the part of mind that never left its
source, the Creator. According to Cayce, some spiritual dreams originate in
this third level of mind. There is really only one mind, but this structure
gives a way of thinking about the different aspects of the mind.
According to Cayce, after we die the subconscious becomes
the conscious and the superconscious becomes the subconscious. In this view,
facing our issues now in this life is compelling because we will meet them all
when we pass on. Everything we have pushed into the subconscious will be with
us in our new awareness. We cannot hide from ourselves.
I cannot emphasize too strongly that your dreams are about
you. Even dreams that may foreshadow an economic or political event are related
to your life. You received the information because it was of interest to you.
Maybe you had been thinking about something related to the event in the dream
or the event would affect your life in some way. When I consider a dream, I
first try to relate it to my current daily life. Most of the time there is a direct,
obvious relationship, although presented in symbolic form. If I can’t relate it
to my life, I reflect on family and friends to see if there is a connection
with them. When I had a corporate job, I had many dreams related to situations
and people at work. But most important, I had to know my thoughts and feelings
to understand my dreams. I could not refuse to look at myself and expect to
understand my dreams.
During my lifetime, I have discussed dreams with many people
who had little knowledge of dreams. I often find an interest and even
enthusiasm until the person realizes that things may be revealed that they don’t
want to look at. Then they say dreams are something they’ll study at a later
time, which usually means never. I have found few people who want to know what
tomorrow will bring; most people shudder at the thought and say they would
rather not know.
Dreams exist to help us live a more complete, balanced life.
They are not there simply to point out all our failings. The good news about
dreams is they give us the ability to make small incremental course corrections
in our life before we make bad mistakes. They provide nightly feedback that is
invaluable. Have you ever had someone in your life who you went to for advice.
It may have been a parent, friend, teacher, doctor, or religious person. Maybe
it was for a limited period, and you greatly miss the advice and understanding
you received. Your dream advisor is always there from your earliest memories
until your death. Your dream advisor is never busy with someone else or away on
vacation; your advisor is focused on you and possesses wisdom and knowledge your
conscious mind does not have.
