I was willing to allow last night's dream to fade into oblivion, but it's almost time for me to head off to dreamland once more, and the dream has been haunting me all day. Unfortunately, I don't recall many of the details. I remember the mood, the colors, the emotions... and even some of the sentiment.
One detail I recall reminds me of a dream I had a few months back, logged here as "Consoling an Emasculate Friend...", which involved my friend Andrew; as did last night's dream. I'm pretty sure it took place in an outdoor space that I'm pretty sure I've dreamed of before. I don't know if it's based on a place I've been before, or on an internal space that exists in my dream-space only.
Andrew was there, again naked. This time I was making an effort not to notice, as there was a vulnerability about his aura. But there was a simultaneous need to be seen that came through as a strange mix of guilty and sinister. I did notice that he had a pretty severe skin condition and was both trying to hide and flaunt it. I pretended like it was nothing and made sure that I treated him no different now that I knew this about him.
Suddenly, he grabbed me and started making out with me. I pulled away, though still held close, and thought about what I was doing. In my mind I thought, "Dan's not here, but that doesn't mean I can mess around at will. I have to make sure that Andrew knows that if we do this, we're going to have to have a talk with Dan about it when he gets back. I explained this telepathically to Andrew and he agreed, kissing me again. At first it was thrilling, but then it was kind of gross. He kept sticking his tongue in my mouth, like the first time a boy tried to make out with me. I wasn't sure whether to get into it or laugh out loud.
After a while I lost my interest and walked away. There was a parade going on and I had the feeling that I was supposed to be in it. I made my way into the flowing crowd and realized that I was really near Aaron's new Tattoo shop in Auburn. I dropped in and lo and behold, Aaron was working. He was sitting at his desk and not facing me. John M was there, either working or hanging out. He began trying to fill me in on all this technical information that I had no mind for at the time.
I wanted to see Aaron, but he was being really avoidant. Finally, he turned around in his chair and was talking to me directly. I apologized for not availing myself but as usual, he just talked over me. He was going on and on about how much important stuff I was missing by pissing around and not being a real tattoo artist. It started to make me feel really bad and I started to get kinda angry. I threw it right back at him, accusing him of being a boring old man. This really got under his skin cause then he was yelling at me about how he didn't get this fat by accident. I hadn't noticed, but now I looked at his belly and it was true. He was huge. He was so big, he looked like Mr. Creosote, only blobby and melting into his chair. He was so fat, he couldn't stand up any more and I was wondering if he could still tattoo.
The argument was still open, but I walked away because I knew he wouldn't be able to win and neither would I and I don't like arguing with my friends. I went back out into the street and walked around with John M for a while. He chatted me up about jewelry and costs and all. We just walked through the parade.
To see your body appearing tattooed, foretells that some difficulty will cause you to make a long and tedious absence from your home.
To see tattooes on others, foretells that strange loves will make you an object of jealousy.
To dream you are a tattooist, is a sign that you will estrange yourself from friends because of your fancy for some strange experience.
To dream that you have tattoos, represent your sense of individuality and the desire to stand out in a crowd. You want to be unique and different from everybody else, particularly if you do not have any tattoos in real life. Consider also what the tattoo is and what significance it has in your life. It may represent something that has left a lasting impression on you. Alternatively, to dream that you have a tattoo, suggests that a waking situation or decision is having a much longer lasting effect that you had expected.
To dream that you are a tattoo artist, suggests that your exotic tastes and strange experiences may turn off those around you. If you are a tattooist in real life, then the dream is just a reflection of who you are.
Dreaming that you have tattoos means that some urgent and difficult business will call you away from your home for an extended period of time. It may also signal a new stage in your life. Seeing tattoos on others in your dream indicates that you will be the object of jealousy. Dreaming that you are getting a tattoo with a friend, represents your deep bond and long-lasting, solid friendship. Dreaming that you are a tattoo artist means that your strange life style will alienate your friends and family.
Tattoos may represent those things in our lives that seem only skin deep, but may be interesting and fun. They could represent our thinking, our playful ways, and our seemingly unimportant habits. As time progresses, we may realise that our passing fads have become permanent. Thus, a tattoo may be symbolic of something that we inflict on ourselves, is permanent if not deep, and generally carries with it some negativity.
To see friends in your dream, signify aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to incorporate and acknowledge. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Alternatively, dreaming of a friend, indicates positive news.
To see your childhood friend in your dream, signifies regression into your past where you had no responsibilities. Things were much simpler and carefree. You may be wanting to escape the pressures and stresses of adulthood. Consider the relationship you had with this friend and the lessons that were learned. Alternatively, the childhood friend suggests that you have been acting in a childish manner. You need to start acting like an adult.
To dream that your best friend is dying, suggests that some aspect or quality that your best friend possess is dying within your own self.
To dream of friends being well and happy, denotes pleasant tidings of them, or you will soon see them or some of their relatives.
To see your friend troubled and haggard, sickness or distress is upon them.
To see your friends dark-colored, denotes unusual sickness or trouble to you or to them. To see them take the form of animals, signifies that enemies will separate you from your closest relations.
To see your friend who dresses in somber colors in flaming red, foretells that unpleasant things will transpire, causing you anxiety if not loss, and that friends will be implicated.
To dream you see a friend standing like a statue on a hill, denotes you will advance beyond present pursuits, but will retain former impressions of justice and knowledge, seeking these through every change. If the figure below be low, you will ignore your friends of former days in your future advancement. If it is on a plane or level with you, you will fail in your ambition to reach other spheres. If you seem to be going from it, you will force yourself to seek a change in spite of friendly ties or self-admonition.
To dream you see a friend with a white cloth tied over his face, denotes that you will be injured by some person who will endeavor to keep up friendly relations with you.
To dream that you are shaking hands with a person who has wronged you, and he is taking his departure and looks sad, foretells you will have differences with a close friend and alienation will perhaps follow. You are most assuredly nearing loss of some character.
Seeing your friends in your dream means aspects of your personality that you have rejected, but are ready to integrate these rejected part of yourself. The relationships you have with those around you are important in learning about yourself. Additionally, this symbol foretells of happy tidings from them and the arrival of good news. Seeing your childhood friend in your dream means regression into your past where you had no responsibilities and things were much simpler and carefree. You may be wanting to escape the the pressures and stresses of adulthood. Consider the relationship you had with this friend and the lessons that were learned. Alternatively, the childhood friend may be suggesting that you have been acting in a childish manner and you need to start acting like an adult. Dreaming that your best friend is dying, suggests that some aspect or quality that your best friend possess is dying within your own self.
To dream that you are fat, signifies a fortunate change in your life. You are experiencing abundance in some area of your life. Alternatively, the dream means that you are being overindulgent. You need to learn moderation. A more literal interpretation of this dream is your fears of gaining weight. You have an skewed perception of your own image which may stem from low self-esteem.
To dream that others are fat, signifies prosperity. Consider also the phrase "it ain't over till the fat lady sings" and how you need to wait for the final result and not assume the outcome.
To dream that you are getting fat, denotes that you are about to make a fortunate change in your life.
To see others fat, signifies prosperity.
Dreaming that you are fat means a fortunate change in your life or you may be overindulgent. A more literal interpretation of this dream is your fears of gaining weight. You have an skewed perception of your own image which may stem from low self-esteem. Dreaming that others are fat means prosperity.
Man comes to see himself as a symbol in so far as he is conscious of his
being. Hallstatt art, in Austria, shows fine examples of animal-heads with human
figures appearing above them. In India, in New Guinea, in the West as well, the
bull’s or ox’s head with a human form drawn between the horns is a very common
motif. Since the bull is a symbol for the father-heaven, man comes to be seen as
both his and the earth’s son (22), also, as a third possibility, the son of the sun and
the moon (49). The implications of Origen’s remark: ‘Understand that you are
another world in miniature and that in you are the sun, the moon and also the
stars’, are to be found in all symbolic traditions. In Moslem esoteric thought, man
is the symbol of universal existence (29), an idea which has found its way into
contemporary philosophy in the definition of man as ‘the messenger of being’;
however, in symbolic theory, man is not defined by function alone (that of
appropriating the consciousness of the cosmos), but rather by analogy, whereby
he is seen as an image of the universe. This analogical relationship is sometimes
expressed explicitly, as in some of the more ancient sections of the Upanishads—
the Brihadaranyaka and the Chandogya for instance—where the analogy between the human organism and the macrocosmos is drawn step by step by means
of correspondences with the organs of the body and the senses (7). So, for
example, the components of the nervous system are derived from fiery substance, and blood from watery substance (26). These oriental concepts first
appear in the West during the Romanesque period: Honorius of Autun, in his Elucidarium (12th century) states that the flesh (and the bones) of man are
derived from the earth, blood from water, his breath from air, and body-heat from
fire. Each part of the body relates to a corresponding part of the universe: the
head corresponds to the heavens, the breath to air, the belly to the sea, the lower
extremities to earth. The five senses were given analogies in accordance with a
system which came to Europe, perhaps, from the Hebrews and the Greeks (14).
Thus, Hildegard of Bingen, living in the same period, states that man is disposed
according to the number five: he is of five equal parts in height and five in girth; he
has five senses, and five members, echoed in the hand as five fingers. Hence the
pentagram is a sign of the microcosmos. Agrippa of Nettesheim represented this graphically, after Valeriano, who drew the analogy between the five-pointed star
and the five wounds of Christ. There is a relationship, too, between the organic
laws of Man and the Cistercian temple (14). Fabre d’Olivet, following the Cabala,
maintains that another number closely associated with the human being is nine—
the triple ternary. He divides human potentialities into three planes: those of the
body, of the soul or life and of the spirit. Each of these planes is characterized by
three modes: the active, the passive and the neutral (43). In the Far East, also,
speculation about the symbolism of man began very early. The same kind of
triple ternary organization is to be seen in the ancient teachings of the Taoists
(13). It is also interesting to note that there is a relationship between the human
being and the essential or archetypal animals (the turtle, the phoenix, the dragon
and the unicorn) who appear to bear the same relation to man—who is central—
as the tetramorphs do to the Pantokrator. Now, between man as a concrete
individual and the universe there is a medial term—a mesocosmos. And this
mesocosmos is the ‘Universal Man’, the King (Wang) in Far Eastern tradition,
and the Adam Kadmon of the Cabala. He symbolizes the whole pattern of the
world of manifestation, that is, the complete range of possibilities open to mankind. In a way, the concept corresponds to Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’. According to Guénon, Leibniz—perhaps influenced by Raymond Lull—conceded
that every ‘individual substance’ must contain within itself an integral reproduction of the universe, even if only as an image, just as the seed contains the totality
of the being into which it will develop (25). In Indian symbolism, Vaishvânara, or
the ‘Universal Man’, is divided into seven principal sections: (1) The superior,
luminous spheres as a whole, or the supreme states of being; (2) the sun and the
moon—or rather, the principles to which they pertain—as expressed in the right
and the left eye respectively; (3) the fire-principle—the mouth; (4) the directions
of space—the ears; (5) the atmosphere—the lungs; (6) the intermediary zone
between earth and heaven—the stomach; (7) the earth—the natural functions or
the lower part of the body. The heart is not mentioned, because, being the ‘centre’
or dwelling-place of Brahma, it is regarded as being beyond the ‘wheel’ of things
(26). Now, this concept of the ‘Universal Man’ implies hermaphroditism, though
never specifically. For the concrete, existential human being, in so far as he is
either a man or a woman, represents the dissected ‘human’ whole, not only in the
physical sense but also spiritually. Thus, to quote the Upanishads: ‘He was, in
truth, as big as a man and a woman embracing. He divided this atman into two
parts; from them sprang husband and wife.’ In Western iconography one sometimes finds images which would seem to be echoes of this concept (32). A human
couple, by their very nature, must always symbolize the urge to unite what is in
fact discrete. Figures which are shown embracing one another, or joining hands, or growing out of roots which bind them together, and so on, symbolize ‘conjunction’, that is, coincidentia oppositorum. There is a Hindu image representing the
‘joining of the unjoinable’ (analogous to the marriage of fire and water) by the
interlinking of Man and Woman, which may be taken to symbolize the joining of
all opposites: good and bad, high and low, cold and hot, wet and dry, and so on
(32). In alchemy, Man and Woman symbolize sulphur and mercury (the metal).
In psychology, level-symbolism is often brought to bear upon the members of the
body, so that the right side corresponds to the conscious level and the left to the
unconscious. The shapes of the parts of the body, depending upon whether they
are positive or negative—whether they are protuberances or cavities—should be
seen not only as sex-symbols but also in the light of the symbolism of levels. The
head is almost universally regarded as a symbol of virility (56). The attitudes
which the body may take up are of great symbolic importance, because they are
both the instrument and the expression of the human tendency towards ascendence
and evolution. A position with the arms wide open pertains to the symbolism of
the cross. And a posture in the form of the letter ‘X’ refers to the union of the two
worlds, a symbol which is related to the hour-glass, the ‘X’ and all other symbols
of intersection (50). Another important posture is that of Buddha in the traditional iconography of the Orient, a posture characteristic also of some Celtic gods
such as the so-called ‘Bouray god’ or the famous Roquepertuse figure. This
squatting position expresses the renunciation of the ‘baser part’ and of ambulatory movement and symbolizes identification with the mystic centre.
To see a man in your dream, denotes the aspect of yourself that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. Perhaps you need to incorporate these aspects into your own character. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him.
If you are a woman and dream that you are in the arms of a man, then it suggests that you are accepting and welcoming your stronger assertive personality. It may also highlight your desires to be in a relationship and your image of the ideal man.
To see an old man in your dream, represents wisdom or forgiveness. The old man may be a archetypal figure who is offering guidance to some daily problem.
To dream of a man, if handsome, well formed and supple, denotes that you will enjoy life vastly and come into rich possessions. If he is misshapen and sour-visaged, you will meet disappointments and many perplexities will involve you.
For a woman to dream of a handsome man, she is likely to have distinction offered her. If he is ugly, she will experience trouble through some one whom she considers a friend.
Seeing a man in your dream indicates the masculine aspect of yourself - the side that is assertive, rational, aggressive, and/or competitive. If the man is known to you, then the dream may reflect you feelings and concerns you have about him. If you are a woman and dream that you are in the arms of a man, suggests that you are accepting and welcoming your stronger assertive personality . It may also highlight your desires to be in a relationship and your image of the ideal man. Seeing an old man in your dream, represents wisdom or forgiveness.
All different kinds of people clutter our dream landscape. The men in your dream may include family members or total strangers. You may dream about your father, son, husband, or friend and should interpret the dream according to its details. A man, particularly the father figure, may represent collective consciousness and the traditional human spirit. He is the Yang and his energy, when mobilised, creates the earthly realities. Depending on the details of the dream, the masculine figure could be interpreted as the Creator or Destroyer. At times, women dream about men that are strangers to them. These men may represent the women's unconscious psychic energy. At times, a strange and ominous man in men's dreams could represent their "shadow" or their negativity and darker sides of personality.
Skin is associated with the ideas of birth and rebirth. In the Egyptian
system of hieroglyphs there is a determinative sign comprising three skins knotted together, signifying ‘to be born’; it comes into the composition of words such
as ‘to engender’, ‘to bring up’, ‘child’, ‘to form’. The amulet which the Egyptians used to present to the newly-born comprised, like the hieroglyph, three animal
pelts which were attached to a solar globe. The number of the skins here refers to
the essentially threefold nature of the human being—the body, the soul and the
spirit—while the globe denotes his incorporation into the All. The symbolism of
skin is borne out by the rite known as ‘the passage through the skin’ which
pharaohs and priests used to carry out in order to rejuvenate themselves; this rite
was later replaced by a simulacrum, and then latterly it became just a panther’s
tail which kings wore knotted round their waist. This notion that an individual
may assume the characteristics of an animal, with its totemic implications, also
comes into skin-symbolism (19). There is a basic analogy here with the sacrificial
rite once practised by the priests of pre-Columbian Mexico in which human
victims were clad in skins; similarly with the wearing of skins by the bearers of
the signum in Roman legions.
To dream of your skin, represents protection or shield of your inner self. It serves as a physical boundary and how close you let others get to you. Alternatively, your skin indicates that you are being too superficial or shallow.
To dream that your skin is covered with rashes or other skin deformities, signifies your fear of facing a harsh reality. You are afraid of making a wrong impression. The dream may also be a pun that you are making a rash decision. If you dream that your skin has been burned, then it implies that you are unwilling let down your guard. Your line of defense has been compromised. This dream may also be a metaphor that you are "getting burned" or humiliated by someone or some situation.
To dream that your skin is orange, signifies self-love. You are content with who you are.
To dream that your skin is different color, suggests that you are not being true to yourself. Look up the specific color for additional meaning. If your skin is darker than your true skin, then it may mean that you are trying to hide or blend into the background. If it is lighter than your true skin, then it symbolizes fear. Alternatively, it may be a sign of sickness. Perhaps a call to the doctor is in order.
Dreaming of your skin, represents protection or shield of your inner self. It serves as a physical boundary and how close you let others get to you. Alternatively, it may indicate that you are being to superficial or shallow. Dreaming that your skin is covered with rashes or other skin deformity means your fear in facing a harsh reality. This may also be a pun to indicate that you are making a rash decision.
In a manner of speaking, space is an intermediate zone between the
cosmos and chaos. Taken as the realm of all that is possible, it is chaotic; regarded
as the region in which all forms and structures have their existence, it is cosmic.
Space soon came to be associated with time, and this association proved one of
the ways of coming to grips with the recalcitrant nature of space. Another—and
the most important—was the concept of space as a three-part organization based
upon its three dimensions. Each dimension has two possible directions of movement, implying the possibility of two poles or two contexts. To the six points
achieved in this way, there was added a seventh: the centre; and space thus
became a logical structure. The symbolisms of level and of orientation were
finally brought to bear in order to complete the exegesis. The three dimensions of
space are illustrated by means of a three-dimensional cross, whose arms are oriented along these six spatial directions, made up of the four points of the
compass plus the two points of the zenith and the nadir. According to René
Guénon, this symbolism—because of its structural character—is identical with
that of the Sacred Palace (or the inner palace) of the Cabala, located at the centrepoint from which the six directions radiate. In the three-dimensional cross, the
zenith and the nadir correspond to the top and the bottom, the front and back to
East and West, the right and left to the South and North. The upright axis is the
polar axis, the North-South axis is the solstitial line, the East-West the equinoctial. The significance of the vertical or level-symbolism concerns the analogy
between the high and the good, the low and the inferior. The Hindu doctrine of the
three gunas—sattva (height, superiority), rajas (intermediate zone of the world
of appearances, or ambivalence) and tamas (inferiority, or darkness)—is in itself
sufficient to explain the meaning of the symbolism of level up and down the
vertical axis. It is, in consequence, the intermediate plane of the four-directional
cross (that which incorporates the cardinal points and which implies the square)
which represents the world of appearances. Taking next the East-West axis,
traditional orientation-symbolism associates the East—being the point of sunrise—with spiritual illumination; and the West—the point where the sun sets—
with death and darkness. Passing next to the North-South axis, there is no one
definite interpretation. In many oriental cultures, the zenith coincides with the
mystic ‘Hole’ through which transition and transcendence are effected, that is,
the path from the world of manifestation (spatial and temporal) to that of eternity. But it has also been identified with the centre of the three-dimensional cross,
taken as the heart of space. Reduced to two dimensions—those of the contrasting
horizontal and vertical arms—the cross comes to represent harmony between
extension (associated with width) and exaltation (with height). The horizontal
arm concerns the implications of a given gradation or moment in an individual’s
existence, and the vertical pertains to moral elevation (25). William of SaintThierry, describing the seven gradations of the soul, observes that it ascends these
steps in order to reach the celestial life (14). If we seek an interpretation which
will justify the four points of the horizontal plane’s being reduced to two (the left
and right), we can find a basis for it in Jung’s assertion that the rear part coincides
with the unconscious and the front with the manifest or consciousness; and since
the left also can be equated with the unconscious and the right with consciousness, the rear then becomes equivalent to the left and the front to the right (32).
Other equivalents are: left side with the past, the sinister, the repressed, involution, the abnormal and the illegitimate; the right side with the future, the felicitous, openness, evolution, the normal and the legitimate (42). In all this, there is an apparent contradiction with the corresponding number-symbolisms: Paneth
observes that, in most cultures, the uneven numbers are considered to be masculine and the even numbers to be feminine. Since the left side is the zone of origin
and the right that of the outcome, the corresponding number-symbolisms would
seem to be one (the uneven or masculine number) for the left side (that is, the
past) and two (the even or feminine number) for the right side (the subsequent or
outcome). The solution is to be found in the fact that the number one (unity)
never corresponds to the plane of the manifest world or to spatial reality: it is the
symbol of the centre, but not in the sense of occupying any situation in space
which might imply a sequel. Hence we must conclude that two is the number
corresponding to the left side and three is that related to the right. Guénon
explains the way in which the cosmic order conforms with all this in a lucid
exposition of the relevant Hindu doctrines to the effect that the right hand zone is
the solar region; the left-hand the lunar. ‘In the aspect of this symbolism which
refers to the temporal condition, the Sun and the right eye correspond to the
future, the Moon and the left eye to the past; the frontal eye corresponds to the
present which, from the point of view of the manifested, is but an imperceptible
moment, comparable to the geometrical point without dimensions in the spatial
order; that is why a single look from the third eye destroys all manifestation
(which is expressed symbolically by saying that it reduces everything to ashes),
and that is also why it is not represented by any bodily organ; but when one rises
above this contingent point of view, the present is seen to contain all reality (just
as the point carries within itself all the possibilities of space), and when succession is transmuted into simultaneity, all things abide in the “eternal present”, so
that the apparent destruction is truly a “transformation” ‘ (26). Now, the seven
aspects that define space have been regarded as the origin of all septenary groups,
and in particular of the seven planets, the seven colours and the seven kinds of
landscape (50). Hence Luc Benoist can assert that the Christian Church, by
building on earth a mighty, three-dimensional cross of stone, has created for the
entire world the co-ordinate lines of a supernatural geometry. Benoist then quotes
Clement of Alexandria as saying that the six directions of space symbolize—or
are equivalent to—the simultaneous and eternal presence of the six days of the
Creation, and that the seventh day (of rest) signifies the return to the centre and
the beginning (6). Once the cosmic sense of spatial symbolism has been demonstrated, it is simple to deduce its psychological applications. And once the static
laws have been determined, it is easy to grasp the dynamic-implications, always
bearing in mind the symbolism of orientation. Here, we must point out that the
swastika—a solar and polar symbol—implies a movement from right to left, like the apparent movement of the sun; and that Clotho—one of the Parcae—spins
her ‘wheel of destiny’ in the same direction, that is, the opposite way to existence, so destroying it. Right-handedness is characteristic of all symbols of natural
life (28); hence, in the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, to enter is to go towards
the right and to go out is to go towards the left (19); orienting these hieroglyphs,
we have the right corresponding with the rise and the left with the setting of the
sun. Similarly, the right side takes on an extra implication of birth and life, while
the left side acquires an association with death (17). Another consequence, apparent in allegories and emblems, is that the right side corresponds to the higher
virtues—if one may put it that way—such as compassion, and the left side to
justice. All of the above conclusions are logical deductions drawn from the study
of oriental tradition, supported by the findings of experimental psychology. But
they are conclusions which have also been verified by anthropologists and sociologists in their studies of the habits of diverse peoples. Ania Teillard, for example, has collated a mass of facts; she quotes J. J. Bachofen as asserting (in his
Mutterrecht und Urreligion und Grabersymbolik der Alten) that, in the important
and very common equation ‘right hand=masculinity’, the left hand harbours
magic powers and the right hand the force of reason, and also that in matriarchal
societies one always finds the idea of superiority attributed to the left side, and
conversely. To turn to the left is to look back upon the past, the unconscious,
implying introversion; to turn to the right is to look upon the outside world,
implying action and extraversion. At the same time, ethnologists are agreed that
during the first stage of any period of sun-worship, the right side becomes preeminent, whereas in lunar cults it is the left side which prevails (56). In paintings,
reliefs and other artistic creations of man, the left side is characterized by a more
vivid projection of the self (that is, by identification) and the right side is more
extravert.
Seeing or dreaming that you are in space, represents exploration. You are an independent thinker.