DREAM ON

I have received scores of positive comments on Joan Garrabrandt’s marvelous article “Living The Symbolic Life.” Many of them are inquiries about finding resources for dream work or ways to approach dreams.

In “Living The Symbolic Life,” Ms. Garrabrant takes a Jungian approach to dream analysis, which emphasizes the appearance and interpretation of symbols that show up in the dream and waking states. Carl Jung believed that dreams are meant to help us navigate the world and that the symbols we encounter in both the dream and waking states help us decipher what’s going on, where we are, where we should go, etc.

One very important construct of the Jungian approach is the appearance of different people in a dream. Unless they are archetypes, usually represent aspects of the dreamer. So, when you see someone you know in your dream, think about what they mean to you, how you would describe them or how you know them, and these answers will give clues to the meaning of their presence.

Other aspects of a dream, like what the dreamer is wearing and how the clothing fits are important to the meaning of the dream. I recently had a dream where I was trying on some older (but still nice) clothes, and, they just didn’t fit that well. I took that to mean that some of my attitudes were changing.

Anyway, this is such an enormous and interesting topic that I could go on and on, but, instead, I’m going to send you to some additional dream work sites that could be helpful. Keep dreaming — it opens up entire new worlds!