In a recent dream study group, two different dreams contained an elevator as one of the main symbols. As we discussed the significance and possible meaning of each individual's elevator, I realized that is potentially a very powerful symbol.

It is not one that I had put a lot of thought into before, but we brainstormed some ways that an elevator can by symbolic and came up with some really cool metaphors.

For example, the elevator is the main shaft or vein of transportation among different levels of a building. People ride them to get from one level to another. In this way, an elevator in your dream could represent you traveling between your conscious and unconscious or your past, present and future. Depending on which direction the elevator is traveling, it could mean that you are going within or that you are rising above your current situation. It could be that where you're headed in the elevator represents your goal in life or a current goal you're aiming for and the elevator ride represents your current journey.

An elevator could represent any one of the columns in your body, the main ones being the throat or spine.

There are also endless possible interpretations dealing with what happens in or around the elevator in your dream, if your ride in the elevator is "normal" or different from a real elevator, if you get stuck in your elevator, if you feel claustrophobic inside the elevator and so on.

I am excited to have found another symbol to consider in dream interpretation! Please share any ideas you have about elevators within dreams below. I'd love to hear more thoughts!

Anyone can look up symbols in a dream dictionary. And, honestly it's a good place to start when you're interpreting your dreams. It's where I started. Some "experts" will tell you not to ever go to a dream dictionary because all that will do is give you cookie cutter symbol meanings. There is some truth behind the advice, but the advice in my opinion is flawed. The purpose of dream dictionaries is to give you cookie cutter symbol meanings. But, it is not a bad thing. I mean, if you have no idea where to start when interpreting your dreams and you look up a symbol or a theme in a dictionary it gives you a starting place. The problem comes when people rely solely on the dictionary to define their dream meaning for them. Dreams are personal and need to be interpreted through a personalized lens. There is a creative flare and an art to dream interpretation that cannot be found in a dictionary.

The idea is to list the main symbols or themes or emotions that are in a dream; then visit a dream dictionary for some common symbol meanings and then use your own personal reaction to what you read as your guide. I find dream dictionaries very useful in my job. Not because I use them to find the answer, but because they are a brainstorm of possible meanings. They jump start my creative brain.

The creative part of my job is to think outside the box, to discover as many possible ideas as I can about one symbol or theme or metaphor. Dream interpretation is most effective when you have 2 or more people working on a dream because you collect more ideas to chose from. Then the dreamer determines the meaning that fits for them. It teaches the dreamer to trust his or her instinct (gut reaction) to an interpretation.

My job is to guide the dreamer to a meaning that is personalized for him or her. I get to take a symbol, let's say a car for example, and brainstorm as many ways that a car might be symbolic as I can. Then, the dreamer listens and when one idea sparks an "aha", they speak up and we follow that spark to find another and another until we have illuminated the meaning behind the entire dream sequence!

To do this, I have to be always looking for symbols and meanings in life. The creative part of my job is to always be on the look out, to always be interpreting everything I see and experience. Movies are a great place for me to "practice" my interpretations. After seeing a movie, I think about the symbolism of the title, the characters, the plot, the camera angles, and ever other detail that I noticed. I also read novels with my "interpreter's" lens. I even interpret TV commercials! The more I engage my creative mind, the wider my breadth of knowledge in interpretation becomes and the better I am at my job!

Dream interpretation is an art and like any other creative profession, it requires a creative spark followed by hard work. I am always practicing my craft and am constantly acquiring new knowledge about symbols. But, mostly I just love to let my inner creative child out to play.

When you dream, you leave the world of logic behind and enter the world of creativity, and imagination. Since creativity is associated with our inner child, we often dismiss it as childish, whimsical or silly. Because dreams don't come from a place of logic, we do not credit them with possessing any intelligence. Just as we dismiss children because of their lack of knowledge, we dismiss dreams because of their lack of logic.

But lack of logic does not equal lack of intelligence. Unlike children, dreams are as old as we are. They come from our unconscious mind which has been present since we came into being; observing and participating as much, no, more than our conscious mind. Our unconscious mind houses not only our repressed emotions but also our repressed thoughts and all of our forgotten memories. With an endless capacity to store information, our unconscious mind is a master library of our personal history, our imagination and our emotions.

The language of dreams is metaphorical and symbolic in nature. The unconscious mind uses a whimsical silly form of story telling to give us guidance the same way we would sit with a child and read a story to teach him the moral.

We stress the importance of imagination and story telling for children in order to foster their development. The same should be put on us as adults to foster our own development by having story time every night when we sleep.

Someone told me today that they have so many dreams that they want interpreted, that it would take weeks to get through them all. My suggestion? Sift out the common symbols. Think back over all of your dreams and see if there is a common thread. For example, I tend to dream about wild animals often. Another theme that occurs in my dreams a lot is deep water- sometimes I dive down to the bottom of a deep body of water, other times, I'm trying to stay on the surface and afraid of going under. Your common dream symbols and themes may not be the exact same image every time, but instead may be a variety of images that carry the same "under current" of meaning. For example, you might dream of storms- at first glance they might not come together in your mind as a common symbol because they might represent different types of storms or you might have completely different experiences in the storms, but as you look over all of your dreams for commonalities, you might pick up on the fact that "storms" are in your dreams a lot.

By starting to look for your common dream symbols, you can gain insight from many dreams at one time. Starting to notice what shows up in your dreams over and over will help you to become your own interpreter. You can begin to see your individual dream personality taking shape. The better you know your dreaming self, the better you know your whole self.

"...when I wake the things I dreamt about you last night make me blush..."
~Indigo Girls, "Ghost"

Sex. Just the word elicits a barrage of emotions- exciting, embarrassing, exhilarating, humiliating, good, bad you name it. So, put it in picture form in your head with people you know and it can really get confusing. Sex is more than an animal instinct. It is layered with guilt and pleasure; joy and anger; not to mention mental, physical and, yes, spiritual sensations. So, it's no wonder that sex is a frequent theme in dreams.

Sex in dreams can mean a variety of things. It can simply be a release of built up sexual energy. It can also be wish fulfillment. It can reflect your repressed negative or positive feelings about sex. Or, it could turn out not to be about the sex at all. Sex is one of the most intimate experiences in life. So, it could be that sex in your dream is an expression of intimacy. If your unconscious is trying to focus your attention on a specific relationship in your life, one that is not sexual but is intimate or struggling with intimacy, it may show up as a sex dream. It may be telling you to focus on the intimate (not sexual) aspect of your relationship with that person. Some examples of sex dreams that refer not to sex but to intimacy would be: engaged in sex with a parent, boss, or even with another version of yourself.

So the next time you wake up and are too embarrassed to recount the sex dream that dominated your night's sleep, just know that it is your unconscious mind's way of getting your attention. If you uncover the hidden meaning behind the dream, then you will be able to release your resistance to the dream itself and see it as symbolic rather than a direct reflection of your intentions.

Any type of road or path in a dream could be considered your journey in life. Pay close attention to the condition of the roadway and the way in which you are traveling along it in your dream. Is the road a super highway, suggesting that you're "in the fast lane" in life? Is it tiny walking path through the woods? It could mean that you're taking the path less traveled. Is it a straight path or a twisty, bendy maze of turns; is there a dead end or are you at a intersection? Also, how are you traveling along the path? Are you walking, running, driving; are you in the middle of the road or off on the side walk? All of these details can be a reflection of where you are in life, where you have been and where you are headed in your current situation.

Consider roads and pathways carefully in your dreams; they can be used as a map of your life decisions.

Dreams come to us in layers. They are tricky, tricky puzzles. It's like your psyche is showing off, "look at all the ways I can weave symbols from every depth of your psyche together into one story!" Every detail in a dream is symbolic.

Even right and left are purposeful. Just like your left and right brain have different functions, your left and right side in a dream also represent different areas of your life. When something important happens on your left side, then it can relate to something in your conscious mind, or something going on in your waking state. Whereas, if it occurs on your right side, it is symbolic of your unconscious mind where you are unaware of it. For example, if you are driving a car in your dream and there is a wreck up ahead on the left side of the road; then it could be pointing to an impending "wreck" in your waking life- maybe at work or with your home life. If, the wreck is on the right side of the road, then it could mean something that you're doing unconsciously (like a behavior you're unaware of) could be steering you towards "wrecking" a part of your life.

Incidentally, if the wreck were behind you, then it might represent something in your past.

Jeremy Taylor has wisely observed that "all dreams come in the service of health and wellness." There is so much wisdom in that statement. Dreams do come to tell us what we need to know. And the best part is that if you choose to learn from them, you will have an inner guide to show you where to go next in your introspection. You will be given these cool puzzles to decode and figure out what it means about you. You then have unleashed some repressed emotions that, though you didn't know it, were blocking your way.

As an example, I had a nightmare the other night. I awoke in the middle of the night and was scared to go back to sleep. The next night before going to sleep, I worked on the dream with my husband (it always helps to discuss the dream with someone else so they can act as a mirror and reflect back to you details and feelings you may overlook). He and I discovered that an event that took place a few days earlier, paired with some childhood memories and my current transition to motherhood had all converged to form a fear that I was harboring in my unconscious. I was realizing that as a mother now, I am the adult and I'm responsible for the safety of my family. When there is danger, I can no longer wait for the adult to handle it...I'm the adult. I was unaware of all of these feelings brewing in my unconscious mind, so the dream served to shake me up and wake me up to the issues blocking my personal growth. Now that I am aware of my fear, I can address it consciously. It is no longer repressed and brewing.

The Circle has been around as a symbol as long as humans have been around. It carries ancient meaning that can be applied directly to your current life. The Native Americans observed the circle in all aspects of nature. The circle is a shape that can be found as part of the symbols that represent many religions around the world. It is a timeless, endless shape that speaks volumes. It is also an excellent example of the idea that dreams are layered in their meanings. If a circle is a prominent symbol in your dream, you can look to its multitude of meanings, as well as any of your own personal meanings. It can carry many layers, or depths, of meaning for you in your waking life. The following are just some of the ideas attached to the symbol of the circle:

• Cycles- the cycle of life (birth death re-birth), the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of time (days, weeks, months)
• Nature- the shape of trees, sun, moon, planets, the path of the sun and moon, birds' nests, etc...
• Culture/Religious- wedding bands (signify uniting/two become one), halo, etc.
• Mathematics- absence, zero, 360 degrees, infinity (an infinite number of points all equidistant from the center)
  
• Universal- unity, time/space continuum (all within the circle is all that is within time and space), infinity (no end and no beginning)
  

Now that you have become aware of the circle as a powerful symbol with many meanings, you might notice the shape as you go about your day and think about which meaning is implied with each circle you find. I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on this universal symbol.