Omens, Lucid Dreams and Spirit Totems

An omen is an especially powerful dream symbol or sign that occurs during REM sleep, or is perceived in your waking world when you have alpha and theta brainwave activity in harmony. The meditation music I'm producing with my husband, Timo Haakana, is created with specific numerological sequences and sound energy harmonics that automatically align and your chakras as you listen. Meditating with the "Alignment of the Divine" music will strengthen and balance your chakras, stimulate rapid spiritual and energetic healing, and open your Third Eye and Crown chakras for psychic and spiritual work. During these transcendental states of consciousness that are created by the powerful compositions, you will experience alpha and theta brainwave activity in perfect harmony and be able to see and interpret omens, clairvoyant visions, and the information obtained through remote viewing or scrying.

Omens are very simple and easily identifiable signs and symbols that are categorized as major or minor, depending on the significance of the message conveyed by each omen. There are only a few omens in dreams that are considered major omens, and these include:

• floating, levitating, hovering, falling or flying through the air with or without the use of a personal floatation or vehicle or device of some type
• being partially or completely nude or exposed in public
• being unable to speak or make any sound in response or reaction to any dream stimulus
• being unable to physically move away from a threat, real or imagined danger, or upsetting situation in a dream
• the illusion of waking up within a dream
• distortions or anomalies in space and time either combined with or independent from lucid dream experiences
• extra sensory perception or any sensory impressions not common to your usual dream experiences
• technicolor and hyper-saturated colours
• moving photographs or artwork that comes to life
• blood
• climbing up or down
• mythological, fantasy or religious symbolism

All omens, whether they are major or minor ones, are connected to prophetic dreams. A prophetic dream is one that contains information perceived by the Third Eye chakra during your REM sleep or transcendental meditation. All prophecies fall into four categories: precognitive, warnings, devotional (somehow inspiring the dreamer to devote themselves to a spiritual belief and path) or insightful (containing alternative perspectives about a situation or experience the dreamer is consciously aware of and working on in real life). All omens in your dreams and visions will either be prophetic messages that are relevant to the larger community, audience or the world, or they are only relevant to the individual perceiving the omens. Most prophetic dreams contain information that is relevant to the next year or two, but occasionally people dream major prophecies that can come to pass much later in time.

Someone recently shared a profound house and self dream experience that he remembers from several years ago. During the time he had the dream, he was an average college aged young adult who still lived at his parents' home. In his dream, the line between reality and the dream realm was blurred by the major omen of waking up within a dream. Whenever you dream that you wake up and start going about your morning routine as if it were any other day, your dream experience will be more profound and more likely to involve lucid dreaming.

A lucid dream is one where the dreamer is aware of the fact that they're dreaming and everything they see and experience is taking place in the dream realm. During lucid dreams, you can control and manipulate your surroundings in unnatural or supernatural ways, and you experience extra sensory perception or ESP.

Included in the following text are the details and memories of the lucid self dream, as they were described to me for the purpose of interpretation and analysis. That interpretation will follow the dream experience and I will explain the reasons for my conclusions.

The dream began with the experience of waking up normally in bed, rising up and emerging from the bedroom. I noticed that I could hear random talking, noises, and sounds like a party coming from outside. I was happy and thought that my friends had come over to celebrate with me when my parents were away.

I went to the bathroom to take care of my normal business and the illusion of normal life was shattered when I opened the door and saw a polar bear sitting on the toilet! I quickly apologized for interrupting him and said that I hadn't realized the bathroom was occupied and then I closed the door.

At some point after I shut the bathroom door, I realized that this couldn't really be happening and I must be dreaming. I went outside for a cigarette, knowing I was dreaming and wanting to explore the experience of smoking in a lucid dream. I thought that if I focused my attention on the cigarette then I could make it grow longer with each puff instead of burning up like it does in real life. I was paying such close attention to the cigarette and I was amazed by my ability to manipulate the dream reality.

When I finally took my eyes off the smoke, I looked out across the field on the other side of the road from the spot where I was standing. I saw that the field was filled with lions, males and females. They were eating flesh and had blood on their mouths. I observed them and became anxious because I realized I didn't hear my friends or their party anymore and I thought the lions ate them.

I thought that while I focused my attention on manipulating the cigarette, the lions attacked and devoured my friends. At that point I switched into survival mode because the lions had seen me too and slowly rose up and began to stalk me. They moved slowly to the left and right, surrounding me, and I noticed they were hunting me like their prey. Scared and panicking, I ran into the house and didn't dare to look back at them. I went inside, closed the door, and began locating stuff to defend myself.

I reinforced the window with the kitchen table and created a barricade in the front rooms of the house. I stood in the kitchen worrying and afraid that I would have to defend myself against bloodthirsty lions, I looked through the open doorway to the living room and saw the polar bear sitting on the sofa.

He was watching tv and when he saw me, he smiled and waved and called for me to join him. I sat with the bear and realized that he wasn't afraid because he could easily handle any of those lions, and he could protect me as well. I felt safe and watched tv with him, and there was a documentary about the desert on tv. As I watched tv, I somehow got sucked into the documentary and was in the middle of the desert with the polar bear!

Soon the bear walked ahead of me and I followed, then I walked beside him after a little while. We eventually came to a point where we were faced with two different paths: one on the left rose up a steep hill and the one on the right stayed flat and level. The bear and I walked up the left path. When I reached the top of the cliff, I could see the right path down about fifteen feet from me.

Down on the other path I saw my dog who died almost two years before, but he was alive and he saw me too! He raised his tail and wagged it, and tried to run up to greet me. He was stopped by the cliff face but he tried to run and jump up to me. I even bent down to try to catch him if he got close enough to me. Finally the dog gave up. He dropped his tail and turned away. I didn't feel any emotion as I stood there and watched, I simply realized that he was smart enough to give up despite how happy he was to see me after all this time.

That's when I noticed the polar bear was gone because I stopped paying attention to it while I was watching the dog. Then I discovered myself at the pyramids and approached one. I saw strange shining, multicoloured and partially translucent stairs floating in mid air and I began to climb them.

As I climbed up the stairs to the top of the pyramid each step became more laboured and exhausting than the last. Then I began to feel the presence of God or a superior, supreme power. During the final steps of my tough climb up the pyramid, there was an intensely bright light at the top that was mind blowing. I began to feel so honoured by the God presence there that I didn't dare look to it.

When I took that last step the power was overwhelming and strong. It hit me and I fell to my knees and cried out to the infinite presence. I bowed down in humility and reverence. It was such an intense experience and I had mixed feelings of awe, fear and respect about it. Finally I pulled myself together and quit crying, then I looked up at God and saw that it was me shining there like a mirror. Then I woke up.

My message of this dream is found like all other interpretations by breaking down the dream and examining each element, symbol, omen, and experience independently. After pondering each piece of the dream on its own, I then take another general overview of the dream with these ideas in mind. Í broke down this dream as follows:

• HOUSE, friends, family away
• party or celebration
• bathroom interruption
• anthropomorphizing of the polar bear on toilet
• smoking cigarettes
• manipulating dream reality
• threatening wild lions that have killed friends
• being hunted and stalked
• retreat to house and barricade
• protecting the kitchen window and seeing the polar bear in the living room
• sitting and watching tv with the friendly polar bear
• being transported into the tv
• journey by foot and companionship
• a choice of two paths
• the harder choice and perspective from the top
• the dead dog trying to reach the top
• the disappearance of the polar bear and solo journey
• the pyramid and multicoloured, translucent stairs
• climbing the stairs
• bright light and presence of God
• bowing down, reverence, awe and fear
• reflection and mirror

My Interpretation

Because the dream begins in your house where you currently lived at the time of the dream, this is a self dream that was relevant to you at the time that you dreamed it. Waking up and being aware that you were dreaming during some parts of your dream indicates that lucid dreaming was involved and this is a prophetic dream about your self. You had the idea of your childhood friends in your dream but did not actually see them, which means you were thinking about emotional and spiritual regression at the time of the dream. Your strong dislike for responsibilities and demands were prompting you to consider childish and immature actions, but you had not acted upon those ideas or fantasies.

You also had the idea that your parents were away in your dream. To dream of family is a message that there will be a general improvement in all your affairs, and parents convey messages about authority, guidance, nurturing and love. In your dream, your parents are away, which refers to your fears of failing in your responsibilities and disappointing them, and losing their love.

You went to use the bathroom in your dream, which indicates that you were in need of emotional release in your life at the time of the dream, but that release was blocked or prevented. Interrupting someone in the bathroom is a message of discovering the hidden and intimate secrets of another, but the person you interrupted was in fact an animal. In dreams, animals are omens connected to business and material resources. Polar bears in particular are white, so they relate to purity and spirituality. The behaviour of this particular polar bear in your prophetic dream indicates that it is a Spirit Totem, an animal spirit that acts as a spirit guide for you temporarily or permanently.

One of the most startling elements of your lucid dream was the stage when you smoked a cigarette outside and manipulated your reality with mental concentration. Smoking cigarettes, pipes, and cigars in a dream, or observing someone else smoking, is a very lucky omen that indicates a prosperous time or cycle of abundance and blessings is coming your way. In your dream you manipulated reality to make the cigarette--or fortune--increase instead of decrease as you used it! This is a crystal clear message that you can and probably were actively manipulating your reality in your waking life, in order to create a flow of abundance as you step forward into your independence as a grown adult leaving home for the first time.

The lions were a representation of the fears you had at the time, especially fears about financial failure and betrayal or disappointments from your friends. In addition, the party represents messages of good news and celebration in your social sphere. Your friends were eaten by the lions, which is an omen that you would receive bad news regarding your friends or experience a loss, betrayal, deception or conflict with a childhood friend in the future. The friend in question was most likely in your thoughts during the dream as an impression even if you didn't actually see him.

Retreating into your home as a reaction to danger and the threat of betrayal, signifies that you are the kind of person who withdraws socially and relies on himself during times of social trials and hardships. The kitchen table is a sacred place like an altar, where you receive food and nourishment. This represents your spiritual nourishment as well as your loving and supportive relationship with your family. In the dream, you used the altar of spiritual nourishment to reinforce the window of (or outward perception of) family bonds.

You saw your Spirit Totem again while you were standing in your kitchen, or experiencing the love and protection of your family. This tells me the polar bear spirit came to guide you through the transition from your life at home with your family and your journey into independence. This Spirit Totem is most likely still with you, as you have only been out of the family home for a little more than five years. Your Totem is most likely preparing to leave you soon now, which is why your thoughts are drawn back to this powerful dream right now.

When you watched tv with the bear, you felt safe, secure and protected. This part of the dream is a clear message that you're safe from your fears and perceived threats as long as you walk with Spirit. This message is profound and is repeated throughout the dream. This dream informs you that your fears of failure and abandonment will not become reality, and it also tells you that your ability to manipulate the flow of abundance and prosperity, will be the source of your future success.

Watching the documentary with the Totem is a message that you will learn and grow a lot with the assistance, guidance and companionship of your Totem. Transporting through the tv to the desert symbolises success and rewards as the direct result of your own hard work that the Totem would guide you through.

The choice of the two paths is also a particularly significant part of your dream. The right path represents the easy life and good times with good friends while the left path is the harder choice that promises much more spiritual growth and personal attainment for the gruelling hard work it demands. You chose the left path, which tells me you're the type of person who seeks challenges, new experiences and sacred knowledge of occult mysteries. You don't shy away from the easy road, but you definitely don't turn down opportunities for spiritual evolution.

When you're at the top of the cliff, you see your old faithful companion, the dog that had died earlier. This is a message that the dog's spirit was leaving you at that time, and wanted to say goodbye to you because he could not continue to travel with you in your spiritual journey. The dog's spirit was replaced by the polar bear Totem, and you were also confronting your old ideas and ways of doing things in your youth.

The Totem had disappeared because you weren't paying attention to him, and this is another reference like the cigarette smoking earlier in the dream. You have a powerful belief that you can control your reality by focusing and concentrating on certain things, and you were concerned at the time of the dream that you could be focusing too much attention on the wrong things.

Finally your spiritual journey continues on your own, which tells you that you were ready for the independent life ahead of you at the time of the dream. The pyramid is a truly significant dream symbol that must never be ignored or overlooked. Pyramids are shown with the number four in numerology, and pyramids are messages of foreign affairs and possibly travel to distant countries, and also conveys ideas of time and timelessness and immortality. Because of the connection with alien architects and visitors, pyramids in the dream realm are built upon science fiction, the modern mythology of technological evolution. Pyramids can also express messages of celestial deities and gods, or the ancient wisdom of the past and Ascended Masters. Pyramids are a connection or stairway between Earth and Heaven, and most dreams involving pyramids are the soul seeking adventures of your Dream Self's spiritual journey.

Vivid and intense colours and light in a dream represent your chakras and your spiritual energy. You saw multicoloured translucent stairs rising up the pyramid, which indicates an increase of prosperity, fortune, success and personal affairs. The multi or technicolor aspect of the floating stairs suggests hyper-saturated exaggerated improvements in your life, especially in foreign affairs, travel, coming of age, and business.

You climb up the floating stairs in the dream, which is another major omen that represents overall improvements in your life coming after the time you had the dream, and the profound and prevailing experience of spiritual evolution and discovery. You were seeking truth and wisdom but were still lacking experience at the time you had this profound prophetic dream. Over the following year in your life, you went through many changes and transitions but you were successful in your life because of your own ability to manipulate your reality through lucid dreaming, meditation, and magick. Your polar bear Totem is moving on from your life right now but is trying to remind you of your ability to manipulate the flow of abundance so that you increase your resources as you use them, rather than decrease them or create a void or lack of resources in your life. Pay attention to your Dream Self over the next few months and watch for a new Totem or spirit guide coming into your life.

Bright light and perceiving the divine in your dream means that you had the opportunity to experience enlightenment, sacred gnosis, rare joy and contentment with your whole life, and spiritual growth achieved through acceptance and intellectual pursuits. In your dream you worship the divine and this indicates that you are enthusiastic in your spiritual quests and you feel a great deal of respect and powerful emotions regarding God, but you are not sure what to believe about God. The mirror at the end of your dream may seem like a gnostic discovery or revelation about yourself, but that's a false interpretation. Perceiving your reflection or a mirror in your dream is an omen about trust and betrayal in your personal relationships, especially friendship bonds.

My conclusion is that you had this powerful prophetic dream when you were about to take one of the most important steps in your whole life: moving out into the world on your own. The dream promised great success, and in the years following that dream, you certainly have achieved many great things in your career and personal life combined. You make your family proud and you continue to seek wisdom and experience, especially in your endless spiritual quest. This dream contained most of the major omens which indicates the highly prophetic and significant meaning of the dream and you can still benefit from the guidance and insight in your waking life even now. There are more than one reference in this dream to the deception, betrayal, loss or disappointment relating to one or more of your childhood friends, and this is a significant message warning you to be very cautious of the people you choose to call friends and let into your personal life. However, do not let this serious warning cause you to avoid socializing in general or withdraw from public life.

~*~Monica Who~*~

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Free Dream Interpretation Explanation and Conclusions

Readers voted in my monthly poll in January 2009 and most said they wanted to read more blog articles about dream interpretation. I've been writing about dream interpretation in my blog since I began blogging back in 2007, and I'm currently writing an instructional meditation manual ebook that includes tips for interpreting your most important dreams. You can already find articles in my blog that cover the basics of dream interpretation, including articles that explore the meanings of houses and travel in your dreams.

Now I will write about more specific dream experiences and their meanings, and go beyond the basics of dream interpretation by exploring the dreams submitted by my readers and clients. I will use my firm understanding of archetypes and symbolism, to interpret the dream examples I receive in my blog comments, and I will help you get better acquainted with your Dream Self.

Your Dream Self is the representation of your soul in the dream world, and everything that you experience in your real life is eventually reflected in your dream reality as dramatic and traumatic events and experiences that your Dream Self has. You need to study your dreams about or involving houses to learn everything you can about your Dream Self because she or he will reveal all the secrets of your spiritual evolution while you're sleeping deeply.

Your dream journal will reflect the life and personal story of your spirit as your Dream Self explores and reacts to different situations and information in the dream state. Dreams mostly occur during the fifth stage of sleep, REM sleep, but can also occur during the earlier stages. Dreams that occur during your alpha stage of sleep involve the same alpha brainwaves that are seen in meditation and hypnotic trance states. Psychic function involves the alpha and theta brainwaves working in harmony during the alpha state, and can continue into your REM sleep as well.

You can get a detailed clairvoyant impression and interpretation of your dream for free! All you need to do is post a comment on this blog entry and write about your dream. Tell me everything you can remember about your dream, including emotional and sensory perception details. Make sure that you point out if any of the people, events or environments of your dream are familiar, factual influences in your life. If your dream included impressions (such as seeing a person who doesn't look like anyone you know, but you have the distinct impression that it's somehow your best friend, for example) you need to explain the impressions as clearly as you can. Describe the impression, how you became aware of the impression, and when you became aware of the impression.

After you've written about your dream in as much detail as you can, add your comment to this blog article. You can submit anonymously but comments will need to be approved before they post to the blog, so only submit ONE MESSAGE PER DREAM. It may take some time for me to interpret your dream, but when I do, I will send an email to you including your detailed dream interpretation and conclusions, and information regarding the status of your dream publication.

All dreams submitted to me through this blog can be quoted and used in whole or in part by Monica Who in the Psychic and Spirituality Blog. Your dream and my interpretation and explanation could be included in a blog article, but I might not use your dream for a long time or at all. When you submit your dream to me, you will receive your detailed interpretation and conclusions as soon as possible, but I will retain the publishing rights to your single message, or comment, about the dream in question.

Communication from Spirit in Your Dreams

Do the dead communicate with the living through dreams?

While the majority of our dreams focus on our self and our personal experiences, often containing important insight and guidance from our Higher Self, there are certainly some dreams that include direct communication from Spirit. The messages you receive from Spirit in your dreams can come from your spirit guides, angels, the Ascended Masters, or even a person who has passed away.

There are a few ways that you can know if your dream included communication from Spirit. The first sign is that your dream was significantly more vivid than your typical dreams and included sensory perception that isn't typical for you either. Some people dream in full colour, and if you do tend to see colours in your dreams regularly, then you will notice the colours in the communication dream were much more vivid or intense than usual. Often dreams do not include actual sensory information such as scent and taste, although sometimes our dreams include an impression that something smelled or tasted a certain way. When you truly taste and smell things in your dream it's a clear indication that your experience was more than just a dream.

Another sign that your dream involved a direct connection with Spirit is that a person or small group of people (whether you recognize them or not), made it extremely clear that they needed to communicate something important to you and were persistent if you tried to ignore them, and very persistent about telling you to remember what was said. The delivery of the message from a person who has passed on (especially someone you knew) is most often preceded by either a knock at the door or a ringing telephone, or you dream that you're in an unfamiliar place where you've suddenly discovered your loved one. In these experiences you are also conscious of the ideas that this person is dead or that you believed he or she was dead, and you are very surprised to see or hear from them. This often includes a feeling or a direct statement from the person that death is only a transition and a change of environment for the spirit. Sometimes you may dream of beings or creatures, real or imagined, rather than people but they communicate with you and demonstrate the persistence I mentioned.

When you have a dream that includes full sensory perception (or additional senses that are not typically included in your dreams) and communication from Spirit, you also wake up knowing that it was an important dream that means something and absolutely must be remembered. The first thing you should do is write down every single detail you can remember about the dream, whether it seemed significant or not. If you don't keep a dream journal yet, dreams with communication from Spirit are definitely a sign that you ought to be keeping a detailed record of your dreams!

Record all the details in the dream journal as soon as you wake up, to help preserve the memory of your dream. If additional details come to your mind throughout the day, jot them down and add them to your dream journal as soon as you have a chance. If you don't understand what the message was because it was incomplete or somehow obscured (such as receiving a letter or documents that cannot be read because they are damaged, blurry, or written in a language or code that you do not understand), you need to examine everything else that was included in your dream to help decipher the meaning. Dream symbolism is based on your personal associations and experiences, as well as some archetypes, and it is important to start by considering your personal impressions of each symbol, element and event in the dream before you explore what dream dictionaries and other dream experts have to say about what your dream means.

Receiving an incomplete or obscured message from Spirit can be very frustrating for you because you woke up with the overwhelming sense that you need to remember something very important, but you have no idea what it is! Sometimes interpreting the other elements of your dream still does not lead you to a clear understanding of the message being relayed, and in these situations you are sure to get additional dreams within the next few days that are connected to the first dream through symbolism and experiences, themes or events, and these follow-up dreams can help you to understand the message much better. It can take multiple dreams of this nature for the dreamer to grasp the complete message being expressed by Spirit, so remember to write down what you remember of your dreams whenever you remember a dream.

Your dream journal will be one of the most valuable resources to you in your spiritual journey because you will be able to spot trends and patterns in your dreams much sooner, and be able to benefit sooner from the insight and guidance that you receive from Spirit through your dreams.

Communication from a recently deceased loved one is most common after about six months from the time they crossed over. Unless there is a message of vital importance, your loved ones will generally step back to give you time to grieve and heal. If you are struggling a great deal with your grief, it is common for you to receive a dream message with assurance of the afterlife and well being of your loved one. These assurance and comfort dreams are communication from Spirit, but it could come from your spirit guides, angels or God rather than from your loved one.

Unless there is an urgent need, it is usually more important to your crossed over loved one that you heal and begin to move forward again before they attempt to communicate with you. If you receive dream messages from a crossed over loved one within the first six months of the death that are not assurance and comfort messages, refer to and rely on your dream journal. If you are unable to decipher the message yourself within a few days, I recommend that you seek an expert or a psychic medium because the message must be of an urgent nature for them to communicate it so soon. Try for a few days to interpret the message yourself though, because it is of great value to your spiritual evolution to experience direct communication from Spirit.

~*~Monica Who~*~

Dream Themes & Symbols: Infants and Children

People often ask me what infants mean in their dreams, and they wonder if these dreams mean pregnancy is just ahead in their future. I want to remind you that while we do have prophetic dreams from time to time, the majority of our dreams contain messages about the past and present. To understand the meaning of an infant in a dream, you need to consider the common ideas associated with infants and birth, as well as your personal associations.

If you had a new baby in your life your responsibilities would increase, which is why most dreams about infants convey messages about responsibility. Babies are completely helpless and require a lot of care, so the message in this type of dream can be that you feel helpless about something in your present life, or that you're experiencing a strong desire to be taken care of or to nurture someone else. Another concept connected with infants is creation; your dream could be telling you something about what you are manifesting in your life right now, or even creative endeavours. People sometimes refer to special projects as their "baby," and infants in a dream can also express messages about an important project you've been working on or are planning to start. Consider these associations when you explore the meaning in your dreams about infants. Of course, if you are already pregnant or trying to conceive, your dream probably expresses your hopes or fears.

Children in dreams can represent innocence, playfulness, inexperience, learning, youth, and memories of your own childhood. If you are already a parent, dreams of children can convey messages about your own children (or how you view your children) even if the dream children don't resemble your own kids. Quite often, dreams of children involve messages regarding your inner child.

As always, the events of the dream and your emotional reactions hold important keys to unlocking the message. You should never jump to conclusions about your dreams: carefully consider all the elements and events of the dream, ask yourself how it relates to your present circumstances, and be open to receiving guidance from your dreams.

~*~Monica Who~*~

Understanding Your Nightmares

Nightmares are dreams that stir up intense negative emotions, which can make them more difficult to interpret. You have nightmares when something in your life demands your immediate attention and requires resolution. They can be a result of stress, fears and insecurities (both conscious and unconscious), general unhappiness and emotional turmoil, or traumatic events in your life. People suffering from Post Traumatic Stress often relive the traumatic event(s) in their dreams and can be plagued with persistent nightmares. Whatever the cause of the nightmare, the simple message is that you need to deal with something now before it becomes a much bigger problem.

In order to understand the real message of your nightmare, you need to separate yourself from the emotional reaction and consider all the symbols and concepts in your dream from an objective standpoint. (Most of the time you need to consider your emotional reactions when interpreting your dreams, but with nightmares the emotional reaction can overshadow the true meaning of the dream.) First consider the overall theme of your nightmare, some common examples are: betrayal, abandonment, loss, violence, and chaos. Also carefully consider all the situations in your present life that could be a source of stress, fear, insecurity or turmoil--is it possible that your nightmare represents any of these real situations? Nightmares that seem to be a realistic portrayal of your worst fears don't necessarily mean that your fears are going to come to pass in your near future! It means you're feeling particularly vulnerable and your fear or sense of insecurity requires your attention now before it gets out of hand and causes real problems in your waking life.

You might be confused about the meaning of your nightmare because of the people present in your dream. Sometimes a nightmare involves specific people in your life but the message may not relate to them or your relationship with them at all. For example, a nightmare about your mother dying could be connected to a fear of losing someone you care deeply about rather than your mother specifically.

Sometimes nightmares convey messages about things you are passionately concerned about, even if the events of the dream do not directly relate to your everyday life. People who have very passionate opinions about current events, war, human rights, animal rights, etc can experience nightmares about these topics. These types of nightmares are often messages that you should express your opinions more or even get involved in activism. These nightmares are usually quite specific in that they contain details that are relevant to the issue you're concerned about--a nightmare about the war in Iraq can mean you're being encouraged to express your political opinions more, while a dream about war in general often relates to fears of chaos, loss of control, etc.

I hope you will be able to decipher the important lessons of your nightmares so you can get on with dreaming much sweeter dreams!

~*~Monica Who~*~

Dream Themes & Symbols: Travel

Travel is another very common theme in dreams that most often refers to your personal journey. Travel in a dream tends to convey messages regarding your personal progress in emotional and spiritual development, or your goals. The mode of transportation, as well as events surrounding travel and your emotional reactions reveals greater insight into the message your angels are trying to express through your dreams. (Of course, the meaning of your travel dream can be slightly different if you are actually planning a trip. The events and emotions you experience in the dream can be messages about your expectations of your upcoming travel, and the ideas expressed in this article can help you decipher the dream as long as you take into account the events of your waking life that are relevant.)

If you dream of traveling on an airplane, the message is typically that you are soaring and achieving success, spiritual enlightenment, or positive and optimistic emotions. Because you are traveling through the air, this type of travel dream can also convey messages about your intellect, higher reasoning or higher self. The airplane itself often refers to the assistance of your angels because you are not flying all on your own power. However, if you have a fearful reaction to flying in the airplane (with or without a fear of flying in your waking life) this can reveal a fear of success, fear of unconventional thoughts or ideas, or even feeling like you don't deserve the help of angels in your journey. The fear can also be a result of events taking place within the dream, such as strong turbulence, which could indicate troubles or difficult patches along your journey. Again, paying close attention to the events happening in your dream will help you to interpret the full message.

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, travel by train often conveys a message of a relatively smooth journey. It can also mean conforming to a standard method of doing things, doing things in a sequential order that is preplanned and organized, a journey that is comfortable and predictable, or even "being on the right track."

Travel by car tends to express independence and free thinking in your journey, even if you are not traveling alone. It can convey messages of spontaneity, freedom, doing things your own way, or even a desire for control of your journey.

Dreaming of traveling by boat can be a complex message because of the element of water, which almost always represents emotions. It can mean your journey heavily relies on your emotions and emotional stability, or is motivated by emotions (either realized or repressed). The conditions of the weather and the water are usually of particular significance in these dreams and tend to relate to emotional experiences.

There are certainly other forms of transportation that can be present in your travel dreams, but these are the most common and will give you a good starting point for understanding what other modes of transportation could mean in your dream. The next thing to consider about the dream is the events surrounding the travel. Was it a surprise trip? Was it a trip for personal reasons or perhaps a business trip? Was it a long or short journey? Were there any delays or unexpected events along the way, and if so, how did you feel or react to them? Were you traveling alone, who were you traveling with, or who did you interact with along the way? What were your thoughts and emotional reactions to other people in your dream? Was the outcome of your travel unexpected and was the experience satisfying? Was your final destination known in advance or come as a surprise? Did you reach your final destination and if so, what were your thoughts and emotional reactions to the destination?

~*~Monica Who~*~

Dream Themes & Symbols: Houses

Houses are a very common dream theme that most often represents the self, but houses in dreams can also convey messages regarding material and financial stability, security and basic needs, personal values, or the condition of family and home life. To understand the meaning of a house in a dream, it's important to consider the other dream elements surrounding this symbol such as what is happening in or around the house, what rooms are involved in the dream, etc.

The upstairs of a house tends to refer to intellect and spirituality, while basements tend to refer to the subconscious. A bedroom often refers to parts of the self that you keep private, and can also convey messages about sexuality or intimate relationships. The livingroom of a can be about the way you present yourself to others, socializing with people you allow into your private life, or your basic beliefs regarding home and family life. The kitchen can represent spiritual and emotional nourishment or can convey messages connected with mothers/motherhood and nurturing. A bathroom conveys messages about your private or hidden self, and because water is a significant aspect of a bathroom, it often refers to emotions and spirituality (generally of a private nature). For example, a bathtub or shower can represent spiritual and emotional cleansing while the toilet often conveys messages about emotional release, believe it or not! Attics tend to express old memories, the past, or intellect and spirituality (the same as upstairs). Closets represent hidden or repressed emotions and memories, and can convey messages about holding onto things which are unnecessary. Corridors can convey messages about the way you go about things or your personal progress, and secret passages often mean finding new or exciting methods, opportunities or perspectives that usually make life easier for you. Stairs are a very significant message as well, representing growth and opportunities. Going up stairs is a message about your spiritual and emotional journey, achieving a higher level of understanding, etc and going down stairs is often about exploring the subconscious. Falling down stairs is typically a message about unconscious fears or obstacles preventing you from emotional or spiritual progress. Floors represent emotional or spiritual foundations, or the division between the conscious and unconscious mind. Ceilings and roofs can represent the connection between intellect and spirituality, the higher self, security and protection, or even barriers or obstacles regarding spiritual development or connection with your higher self (it all depends on the way the ceiling or roof is perceived or what is happening regarding this symbol). Windows tend to refer to perspectives on the world or your self--if you are looking out the window it would usually represent your perspectives on your life and events around you, while looking in a window is a message about introspection, soul searching, your beliefs or perspectives regarding yourself, or self discovery.

A glass house is a very complex message with many possible meanings. It can represent that you feel uncomfortably exposed or that your personal boundaries (your walls) are too fragile. It can also mean you feel no need to hide or keep parts of yourself private from others, or that you need or feel inspired to share parts of yourself or your life with others. Your emotional reaction to the glass house will be the key to understanding the message it conveys.

As with all dream symbols, there is never just one meaning or one interpretation that is always true! It's important to examine what is happening in the dream regarding that symbol, your emotional reactions or perceptions of the symbol, and any connection to your waking life that is relevant.

A client told me about a dream she had regarding the renovation of a friend's house. One part of the house was old, in a general state of disrepair, and was infested by rats. The newly renovated part of the house was clean and luxurious. Her dream conveyed messages about the financial stability (particularly improvements) of the person her dream was about. The rats represented financial fears and small, pesky problems (again of a financial nature) that would be easily overcome. In her dream, the angels were conveying an overall message that her friend would experience improvements and success in his financial life as long as he kept working at it.

Another client told me of a dream she had regarding buying a house. Her dream also included a journey by train to her new house, which was significant in the overall message. I will share her dream and the interpretation of the symbols as an example of how dream symbols interact and come together to express messages from the angels.

Last night I dreamed about buying a house. It was a small but comfortable house, although it didn't look very pleasing from the outside. I also paid attention to the fact that there was no fence around the yard, though this didn't make me feel insecure. Inside it was cozy, with a spacious and practical kitchen and pleasing decorative features. The master suite was located on the second floor and seemed to be the only thing on the second floor, and there were several luxuries upstairs. In addition, there were many belongings inside the house, which I found particularly intriguing. These things were a large collection of decorative bottles or glass containers, which seemed excessive in their numbers and were placed nearly everywhere, especially on the main floor. Also there were a great deal of house plants, all in great need of TLC due to being neglected. In the dream I watered all the plants and they seemed to thrive with just a little bit of attention. Other details that might be important are the price of the house was shockingly low and the seller kept hinting that the price he ultimately wanted to agree on was even lower than the listed price. Travel to the new home involved a somewhat uncomfortable train ride (mainly because the toilet was clogged and I couldn't use it), but there was a lot of nearly decadent food available for free on the journey. I had the strong sense I could take any of the food I wanted, without restriction or concern for diet.

To better understand this dream, it's important to take into account that the dreamer is presently working hard to build a new life in a new location. She has a great deal of emotion, as well as finances, invested in this endeavour, and recent set backs have caused her some intense depression despite her nearly relentless optimism. In addition, the changes she's making in her life were inspired by earlier guidance she received from her angels.

Buying the house is a message from her angels that she will succeed in her endeavours: she will be able to enjoy a comfortable life in her new location and the emotional and spiritual cost (represented by the price of the house in the dream) will be less than she expects. The train ride to the new house represents her personal journey. It will be a relatively smooth journey (as train rides often are), but repressed emotions (the problem with the toilet) will make it a bit uncomfortable for her. The food available on the journey represents the help and nourishment available to her from her angels: it's abundant and absolutely free, she can take as much as she needs without any fears. In her dream the house doesn't have a fence around it and she feels fine about that, which is a message that there will be no significant barriers to achieving her goals of a new life, and no restrictions on her self. The exterior of the house is the way she presents her self or her new life to others: because the exterior is "not very pleasing" it means she will not be prone to bragging about financial or material comforts and may even falsely represent her financial status as being less than it truly is, not as a means of deceiving others, but by being extremely modest. The interior of the house is very pleasing to her, which means she will be satisfied with her new life and there will be things she really enjoys, small touches she didn't expect but definitely notices! She paid particular attention to the kitchen and the upstairs master bedroom, and I feel this means her new life will provide a great deal of spiritual and emotional nourishment and her private and romantic life will be particularly fulfilling. She mentioned "luxuries" in the bedroom, which takes up the entire upper level of the house and this means she will be particularly satisfied and delighted in her emotional and spiritual experiences, and will most likely find a romantic relationship that far exceeds her expectations. I feel the decorative bottles represent blessings she will receive in her new life, which are very abundant! She referred to them as decorative, which leads me to believe most of her blessings will be of an emotional nature; although bottles do have a practical use and she is likely to experience financial prosperity as well, she will place the greatest significance on the emotional and spiritual blessings. The house plants represent her spirit, which is currently neglected and wounded (her depression), but with a little nourishment and care she will experience miraculous healing and be able to continue her emotional and spiritual growth. Her angels are telling her she will succeed in her endeavours, that they are ready and willing to help her along her journey, and that she will experience healing, joy, and blessings that she didn't even expect!

Think about the dreams you've had involving houses. What are the angels trying to tell you about your self, your financial stability, or your family and home life?

~*~Monica Who~*~