Three nights ago: before I went to sleep I asked my patron god and goddess to show me the magical name I am to take during my upcoming dedication with the witches. This is the dream they gave me.
I am in Venice Beach/Santa Monica with my friend Julie. We are standing under a thatched roof with no walls. It is dangling with vines of red flowers. Julie does my hair and my makeup and says I look beautiful. "Good!" I shout. "Let's go!"
We start running full throttle towards the beach. This Venice Beach has no other people, and its banks are lush with poplar trees. We are laughing and screaming, trying to jump over the waves as the tide rushes at our feet. The water pools, and we try to land on the sand banks in between these pools. Every now and again when we jump, the water catches us and we surf or slide on our backs. Wild abandon.
Wake.
(I hope my god and goddess are not naming me Puddle Jumper!)
To see the beach in your dream, symbolizes the meeting between your two states of mind. The sand is symbolic of the rational and mental processes while the water signifies the irrational, unsteady, and emotional aspects of yourself. It is a place of transition between the physical/material and the spiritual.
To dream that you are on the beach and looking out toward the ocean, indicates unknown and major changes that are occurring in your life. Consider the state of the ocean, whether it is calm, pleasant, forbidding, etc.
To dream that you are looking toward the beach, suggests that you are returning to what is familiar to you. Alternatively, you may be adapting or accepting to the changes and circumstances in your life.
To dream that you are relaxing on a beach, signifies that the coming weeks will be calm and tranquil for you. Your stress will be alleviated and you will find peace of mind.
To dream that you are working on the beach, signifies a business project that will consume most of your time.
Dreaming of the beach symbolizes the meeting between your two states of mind. The sand is symbolic of the rational and mental processes while the water means the irrational, unsteady, and emotional aspects of yourself. It is a place of transition between the physical/material and the spiritual. Dreaming that you are on the beach and looking out toward the ocean indicates unknown and major changes that are occurring in your life. Consider the state of the ocean, whether it is calm, pleasant, forbidding, etc. Dreaming that you are looking toward the beach, suggests that you are returning to what is familiar to you. Alternatively, you may be adapting or accepting to the changes and circumstances in your life. Dreaming that you are relaxing on a beach means that the coming weeks will be calm and tranquil for you. Your stress will be alleviated and you will find peace of mind. Dreaming that you are working on the beach means a business project that will consume most of your time.
If you dream about an empty beach, you could be sensing an opportunity.
If you are sunbathing or watching other people sunbathe, you could be feeling happy with yourself and confident about your future.
To see a goddess in your dream, symbolizes your femininity or feminine side. For a man to dream of a goddess, indicates his fears about the female.
To see God in your dream, signifies your spirituality and expression of your feelings about divinity. God also symbolizes an untouchable, unreachable, and unattainable notion of perfection. Thus such a dream may highlight your struggles and attempts with trying to be perfect.
To dream that you are worshipping God, signifies repentance of your actions and errors.
To dream that God speaks to you, signifies feelings of guilt, eternal punishment, and damnation.
To dream that you are a god, implies your own special talents which you have not yet recognized or fully developed. Alternatively, it refers to your feelings of superiority over others. You think you are above others and have a tendency to look down on people.
If you dream of seeing God, you will be domineered over by a tyrannical woman masquerading under the cloak of Christianity. No good accrues from this dream.
If God speaks to you, beware that you do not fall into condemnation. Business of all sorts will take an unfavorable turn. It is the forerunner of the weakening of health and may mean early dissolution.
If you dream of worshiping God, you will have cause to repent of an error of your own making. Look well to observing the ten commandments after this dream.
To dream that God confers distinct favors upon you, you will become the favorite of a cautious and prominent person who will use his position to advance yours.
To dream that God sends his spirit upon you, great changes in your beliefs will take place. Views concerning dogmatic Christianity should broaden after this dream, or you may be severely chastised for some indiscreet action which has brought shame upon you. God speaks oftener to those who transgress than those who do not. It is the genius of spiritual law or economy to reinstate the prodigal child by signs and visions. Elijah, Jonah, David, and Paul were brought to the altar of repentence through the vigilant energy of the hidden forces within.
This is a rare dream which few people experience. Great success and elevation.
Seeing God in your dream means your spirituality and expression of your feelings about divinity. God also symbolizes an untouchable, unreachable, and unattainable notion of perfection. Thus such a dream may highlight your struggles and attempts with trying to be perfect. Dreaming that you are worshipping God means repentance of your actions and errors. Dreaming that God speaks to you means feelings of guilt, eternal punishment, and damnation. Dreaming that you are a god, implies your own special talents which you have not yet recognized or have not fully developed. Alternatively, it suggests your feelings of superiority over others.
Regardless of whether we believe in a God or not, all of us have been exposed to the idea of a supreme and omnipresent being. The dilemma over the existence of God is probably the most common dilemma of them all. Everyone from time to time will have a dream about "God." Its symbolism depends on the dreamer. God in our dreams can be considered a positive or self-affirming symbol. It represents truth, purity, and love. It also represents the creative energy that is abundant in all of us (whether we know it or not). For a certain number of people, in the dream state, God may have negative connotations. For them God could represent eternal punishment, damnation, and invoke massive amount guilt. Most religions consider dreams to be a pathway to God or to the spiritual realm. Through dreams we have an opportunity to have experiences that are not available during the day. Our unconscious mind may be more capable of connecting to the eternal flow of spirit and it may be the dwelling place of the soul.
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the symbol for water is a wavy line with
small sharp crests, representing the water’s surface. The same sign, when tripled,
symbolizes a volume of water, that is, the primaeval ocean and prime matter.
According to hermetic tradition, the god Nu was the substance from which the
gods of the first ennead emerged (19). The Chinese consider water as the specific
abode of the dragon, because all life comes from the waters (13). In the Vedas,
water is referred to as mâtritamâh (the most maternal) because, in the beginning,
everything was like a sea without light. In India, this element is generally regarded
as the preserver of life, circulating throughout the whole of nature, in the form of
rain, sap, milk and blood. Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and
the end of all things on earth (60). Although water is, in appearance, formless,
ancient cultures made a distinction between ‘upper waters’ and ‘lower waters’.
The former correspond to the potential or what is still possible, the latter to what
is actual or already created (26). In a general sense, the concept of ‘water’ stands,
of course, for all liquid matter. Moreover, the primaeval waters, the image of
prime matter, also contained all solid bodies before they acquired form and rigidity. For this reason, the alchemists gave the name of ‘water’ to quicksilver in its
first stage of transmutation and, by analogy, also to the ‘fluid body’ of Man (57).
This ‘fluid body’ is interpreted by modern psychology as a symbol of the unconscious, that is, of the non-formal, dynamic, motivating, female side of the personality. The projection of the mother-imago into the waters endows them with
various numinous properties characteristic of the mother (31). A secondary meaning of this symbolism is found in the identification of water with intuitive wisdom. In the cosmogony of the Mesopotamian peoples, the abyss of water was
regarded as a symbol of the unfathomable, impersonal Wisdom. An ancient Irish
god was called Domnu, which means ‘marine depth’. In prehistoric times the
word for abyss seems to have been used exclusively to denote that which was
unfathomable and mysterious (4). The waters, in short, symbolize the universal
congress of potentialities, the fons et origo, which precedes all form and all
creation. Immersion in water signifies a return to the preformal state, with a sense
of death and annihilation on the one hand, but of rebirth and regeneration on the
other, since immersion intensifies the life-force. The symbolism of baptism,
which is closely linked to that of water, has been expounded by St. John
Chrysostom (Homil. in Joh., XXV, 2): ‘It represents death and interment, life and
resurrection. . . . When we plunge our head beneath water, as in a sepulchre, the
old man becomes completely immersed and buried. When we leave the water, the
new man suddenly appears’ (18). The ambiguity of this quotation is only on the
surface: in this particular aspect of the general symbolism of water, death affects
only Man-in-nature while the rebirth is that of spiritual man. On the cosmic level,
the equivalent of immersion is the flood, which causes all forms to dissolve and
return to a fluid state, thus liberating the elements which will later be recombined
in new cosmic patterns. The qualities of transparency and depth, often associated with water, go far towards explaining the veneration of the ancients for this
element which, like earth, was a female principle. The Babylonians called it ‘the
home of wisdom’. Oannes, the mythical being who brings culture to mankind, is
portrayed as half man and half fish (17). Moreover, in dreams, birth is usually
expressed through water-imagery (v. Freud, Introduction to Psycho-Analysis).
The expressions ‘risen from the waves’ and ‘saved from the waters’ symbolize
fertility, and are metaphorical images of childbirth. On the other hand, water is, of
all the elements, the most clearly transitional, between fire and air (the ethereal
elements) and earth (the solid element). By analogy, water stands as a mediator
between life and death, with a two-way positive and negative flow of creation and
destruction. The Charon and Ophelia myths symbolize the last voyage. Death
was the first mariner. ‘Transparent depth’, apart from other meanings, stands in
particular for the communicating link between the surface and the abyss. It can
therefore be said that water conjoins these two images (2). Gaston Bachelard
points to many different characteristics of water, and derives from them many
secondary symbolic meanings which enrich the fundamental meaning we have described. These secondary meanings are not so much a set of strict symbols, as
a kind of language expressing the transmutations of this ever-flowing element.
Bachelard enumerates clear water, spring water, running water, stagnant water,
dead water, fresh and salt water, reflecting water, purifying water, deep water,
stormy water. Whether we take water as a symbol of the collective or of the
personal unconscious, or else as an element of mediation and dissolution, it is
obvious that this symbolism is an expression of the vital potential of the psyche,
of the struggles of the psychic depths to find a way of formulating a clear message
comprehensible to the consciousness. On the other hand, secondary symbolisms
are derived from associated objects such as water-containers, and also from the
ways in which water is used: ablutions, baths, holy water, etc. There is also a
very important spatial symbolism connected with the ‘level’ of the waters, denoting a correlation between actual physical level and absolute moral level. It is
for this reason that the Buddha, in his Assapuram sermon, was able to regard the
mountain-lake—whose transparent waters reveal, at the bottom, sand, shells,
snails and fishes—as the path of redemption. This lake obviously corresponds to
a fundamental aspect of the ‘Upper Waters’. Clouds are another aspect of the
‘Upper Waters’. In Le Transformationi of Ludovico Dolce, we find a mystic
figure looking into the unruffled surface of a pond, in contrast with the accursed
hunter, always in restless pursuit of his prey, implying the symbolic contrast
between contemplative activity—the sattva state of Yoga—and blind outward
activity—the rajas state. Finally, the upper and lower waters communicate reciprocally through the process of rain (involution) and evaporation (evolution).
Here, fire intervenes to modify water: the sun (spirit) causes sea water to evaporate (i.e. it sublimates life). Water is condensed in clouds and returns to earth in
the form of life-giving rain, which is invested with twofold virtues: it is water, and
it comes from heaven (15). Lao-Tse paid considerable attention to this cyclic
process of meteorology, which is at one and the same time physical and spiritual,
observing that: ‘Water never rests, neither by day nor by night. When flowing
above, it causes rain and dew. When flowing below, it forms streams and rivers.
Water is outstanding in doing good. If a dam is raised against it, it stops. If way is
made for it, it flows along that path. Hence it is said that it does not struggle. And
yet it has no equal in destroying that which is strong and hard’ (13). When water
stands revealed in its destructive aspects, in the course of cataclysmic events, its
symbolism does not change, but is merely subordinated to the dominant symbolism of the storm. Similarly, in those contexts where the flowing nature of water is
emphasized, as in the contention of Heraclitus that ‘You cannot step twice into
the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.’ Here the reference is not to water-symbolism as such, but to the idea of the irreversible flow along a
given path. To quote Evola, in La tradizione ermetica: ‘Without divine water,
nothing exists, according to Zosimus. On the other hand, among the symbols of
the female principle are included those which figure as origins of the waters
(mother, life), such as: Mother Earth, Mother of the Waters, Stone, Cave, House
of the Mother, Night, House of Depth, House of Force, House of Wisdom,
Forest, etc. One should not be misled by the word “divine”. Water symbolizes
terrestrial and natural life, never metaphysical life.’
This indicates birth (of some person).
To dream of clear water, foretells that you will joyfully realize prosperity and pleasure.
If the water is muddy, you will be in danger and gloom will occupy Pleasure's seat.
If you see it rise up in your house, denotes that you will struggle to resist evil, but unless you see it subside, you will succumb to dangerous influences.
If you find yourself baling it out, but with feet growing wet, foreshadows trouble, sickness, and misery will work you a hard task, but you will forestall them by your watchfulness. The same may be applied to muddy water rising in vessels.
To fall into muddy water, is a sign that you will make many bitter mistakes, and will suffer poignant grief therefrom.
To drink muddy water, portends sickness, but drinking it clear and refreshing brings favorable consummation of fair hopes.
To sport with water, denotes a sudden awakening to love and passion.
To have it sprayed on your head, denotes that your passionate awakening to love will meet reciprocal consummation.
The following dream and its allegorical occurrence in actual life is related by a young woman student of dreams:
``Without knowing how, I was (in my dream) on a boat, I waded through clear blue water to a wharfboat, which I found to be snow white, but rough and splintry. The next evening I had a delightful male caller, but he remained beyond the time prescribed by mothers and I was severely censured for it.'' The blue water and fairy white boat were the disappointing prospects in the symbol.
To see water in your dream, symbolizes your unconscious and your emotional state of mind. Water is the living essence of the psyche and the flow of life energy. It is also symbolic of spirituality, knowledge, healing and refreshment. To dream that water is boiling, suggests that you are expressing some emotional turmoil. Feelings from your unconscious are surfacing and ready to be acknowledged. You need to let out some steam.
To see calm, clear water in your dream, means that you are in tune with your spirituality. It denotes serenity, peace of mind, and rejuvenation.
To see muddy or dirty water in your dream, indicates that you are wallowing in your negative emotions. You may need to take some time to cleanse your mind and find internal peace. Alternatively, the dream suggests that your thinking/judgment is unclear and clouded. If you are immersed in muddy water, then it indicates that you are in over your head in a situation and are overwhelmed by your emotions.
To dream that water is rising up in your house, suggests that you are becoming overwhelmed by your emotions.
To hear running water in your dream, denotes meditation and reflection. You are reflecting on your thoughts and emotions.
To dream that you are walking on water, indicates that you have total control over your emotions. It also suggests that you need to "stay on top" of your emotions and not let them explode out of hand. Alternatively, the dream is symbolic of faith in yourself.
Seeing water in your dream, symbolizes your unconscious and your emotional state of mind. Water is the living essence of the psyche and the flow of life energy. It is also symbolic of spirituality, knowledge, healing and refreshment. Seeing calm, clear water in your dream means that you are in tune with your spirituality. It indicates serenity, peace of mind, and rejuvenation. Seeing muddy or dirty water in your dream indicates that you are wallowing in your negative emotions. You may need to devote some time to clarify your mind and find internal peace. Alternatively, it suggests that your thinking/judgment is unclear and clouded. If you are immersed in muddy water, then it indicates that you are in over your head in a situation and are overwhelmed by your emotions. Dreaming that water is rising up in your house means your struggles and overwhelming emotions. Hearing running water in your dream indicates meditation, reflection and pondering of your thoughts and emotions. Dreaming that you are walking on water, suggests that you have supreme and ultimate control over your emotions. It may also suggest that you need to "stay on top" of your emotions and not let them explode out of hand. Alternatively, it is symbolic of faith in yourself.
There is a Chinese tradition that the waves are the abode of dragons,
and that they are also symbolic of purity (5). The apparent contradiction here
arises from the fact that the ocean swell offers two different aspects: because of
their rhythmic undulations they are reminiscent of dragons, and by virtue of their
white foam they suggest purity. There is thus no question of dual tendencies
here—only juxtaposition.
To dream of waves, is a sign that you hold some vital step in contemplation, which will evolve much knowledge if the waves are clear; but you will make a fatal error if you see them muddy or lashed by a storm.
To see clear, calm waves in your dream, signify renewal and clarity. You are reflecting on some important life decision that needs to be made. Alternatively, if you are riding a wave, then it indicates that you are trying to get a handle on your emotions. Waves also symbolize potential and power.
To hear waves crashing in your dream, indicates tenderness and relaxation. It also brings about feelings of sensuality, sexuality and tranquility.
To dream that you are caught in a tidal wave, represents an overwhelming emotional issue that demands your attention. You may have been keeping your feelings and negative emotions bottled up inside for too long. You may be holding back tears that you are afraid to express in your waking life. On a positive note, the tidal wave symbolizes the clearing away of old habits. If you are carried away by the tidal wave, then it means that you are ready to make a brand new start in a new place.
To see muddy, violent waves in your dream, indicate a fatal error in an important decision.
Seeing clear, calm waves in your dream means a calming of emotions. It may also signal an important decision to be made. Hearing waves crashing in your dream indicates tenderness and relaxation. It also brings about feelings of sensuality and sexuality. Dreaming that you are caught in a tidal wave means the strength of your emotions, perhaps accompanied by tears that you are holding back in your waking life. Seeing muddy, violent waves in your dream means that a fatal error was made in an important decision.
To see land in your dream, represents your need to be more grounded or down to earth. You are looking for a strong foundation and some stability. Alternatively, the dream may be a metaphor for something that you have "landed" as in a job, a part in a play, etc.
To see rocky or barren land, denotes failure in your undertakings.
To dream of land, when it appears fertile, omens good; but if sterile and rocky, failure and dispondency is prognosticated.
To see land from the ocean, denotes that vast avenues of prosperity and happiness will disclose themselves to you.
Seeing land in your dream, represents nurturance and you need to be grounded. You are seeking for a strong foundation and some sort of stability. Seeing rocky or barren land indicates failure in your undertakings.
To see your own feet in your dream, symbolizes your foundation, stability and sense of understanding. It signifies your need to be more practical and sensible. Keep both feet on the ground. Alternatively, feet represents mobility, independence and freedom. Perhaps you have taken a step in the right direction and are contemplating your goals or your next step. The sole of the foot may be a pun of being or feeling like the "sole" or only support of some person or situation.
Consider also the pun of "putting your foot in your mouth".
To dream that you are washing your feet, indicates that others can easily take advantage of you. For Christians, washing your feet symbolizes forgiveness and compassion. If someone is kissing your feet, then it symbolizes humbleness, humility, or devotion.
In particular for the people of India, to dream of the feet may symbolize divine qualities since the feet are considered the holiest part of the body.
To dream of seeing your own feet, is omnious{sic} of despair. You will be overcome by the will and temper of another. To see others' feet, denotes that you will maintain your rights in a pleasant, but determined way, and win for yourself a place above the common walks of life.
To dream that you wash your feet, denotes that you will let others take advantage of you.
To dream that your feet are hurting you, portends troubles of a humiliating character, as they usually are family quarrels.
To see your feet swollen and red, you will make a sudden change in your business by separating from your family. This is an evil dream, as it usually foretells scandal and sensation.
Seeing your own feet in your dream, symbolizes your foundation, stability and sense of understanding. It means your need to be more practical and sensible. Keep both feet on the ground. Alternatively, it represents mobility, independence and freedom. Perhaps you have taken a step in the right direction and are contemplating your goals or your next step. The sole of the foot may be a pun of being or feeling like the only support of some person/situation. Dreaming that you are washing your feet indicates that others can easily take advantage of you. In particular for the people of India, to dream of the feet may symbolize divine qualities since the feet are considered the holiest part of the body.
For some people, dreaming about feet can be a very sexy dream. Besides sexual connotations, the dreams can represent your ability to move forward in life. Dreams with feet in them point to how well you are balanced and grounded.