Standing before a lake that was more of an over-sized pond, at best; I was greeted by a humpback whale, that occasionally breached the surface of the water. It leaped from the lake to lay half of its' entire body's mass onto the land, facing me. There was a hole in the ground just inches from my feet, and I turned from the whale to crawl down inside, on metal bars as steps. The way down was short lived, having only reaching the bottom at about five feet or so. There was a metal plate that acted as the bottom platform, dead end at my feet. I looked to my hands and realized I was holding a piece of paper that looked as though it had been torn off a larger sheet.
On the milk white strip, it read: "Cogito," and the second word is hard to recall. I've never heard or seen this word in my life. Climbing from the stout length of the underground tunnel-way, there was a voice that gave an echoed, ghastly tone. I can vaguely remember it being feminine in nature. It's when I realized that the voice wasn't of my own design, but that of the marine creature that had kept itself planted onto the lakeside. She was talking to me telepathically, though, keeping her mouth shut the entire time. I was speaking a foreign language. One I am not fluent in. From certain words given, I then acknowledged it was of French. The whale questioned me if I had tried to speak my native tongue, as though she hadn't understood anything other than her own.
Somewhere along the dream, in the midst of a jump from one scene to another, I found myself standing at the body of the whale in the center of the lake, where the water had gone bone dry. I was watching as she was slowly rolling her flippers up into the air, only to drop back down into the dirt she rested in. The suns beams were beating down and blistering on her, and I had gotten the idea to cover her in the dirt to give her at least some form of protection from it.
In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, the schematic figure of a lake
expresses the occult and the mysterious, probably by allusion to the underground
lake which the sun has to pass over during its ‘night-crossing’ (but also simply by
associating it with the symbolism of level, given that water always alludes to the
‘connexion between the superficial and the profound’; a lake becomes, then, a
fluid mass of transparency). In the temple of the god Amon, at Karnak, there was
an artificial lake symbolizing hyle—or the ‘lower waters’ of protomatter. And, at
certain times during the year, a procession of priests would cross the lake in
boats, in this way re-enacting the ‘night-crossing’ of the sun mentioned above
(19). The symbolism here is the same, broadly speaking, as that of the watery
deeps. The Irish and Breton belief that the Land of the Dead is at the bottom of
the ocean or of lakes may be derived from watching the sun setting over the water;
and the death of human beings, and therefore by analogy the setting of the sun,
was interpreted as passing over into the nether world. But, as we have suggested,
the structure of lake-symbolism may have arisen directly out of the symbolism of
level; for this latter symbolism, so deeply rooted in the psyche of man, equates all
that is on a low level spatially with what is low in a spiritual, negative, destructive, and hence fatal, sense. The fact that water-symbolism is closely connected
with the symbolism of the abyss serves to corroborate the fatal implications of
the lake-symbol, for the part played by the liquid Element is to provide the
transition between life and death, between the solid and the gaseous, the formal
and the informal. At the same time, the lake—or, rather, its surface alone—holds
the significance of a mirror, presenting an image of self-contemplation, consciousness and revelation.
To see a lake in your dream, signifies your emotional state of mind. You feel restricted and that you can't express your emotions freely. Alternatively, the lake may provide you with solace, security, and peace of mind. If the lake is clear and calm, then it symbolizes your inner peace. If the lake is disturbed, then you may be going through some emotional turmoil.
For a young woman to dream that she is alone on a turbulent and muddy lake, foretells many vicissitudes are approaching her, and she will regret former extravagances, and disregard of virtuous teaching.
If the water gets into the boat, but by intense struggling she reaches the boat-house safely, it denotes she will be under wrong persuasion, but will eventually overcome it, and rise to honor and distinction.
It may predict the illness of some one near her.
If she sees a young couple in the same position as herself, who succeed in rescuing themselves, she will find that some friend has committed indiscretions, but will succeed in reinstating himself in her favor.
To dream of sailing on a clear and smooth lake, with happy and congenial companions, you will have much happiness, and wealth will meet your demands.
A muddy lake, surrounded with bleak rocks and bare trees, denotes unhappy terminations to business and affection.
A muddy lake, surrounded by green trees, portends that the moral in your nature will fortify itself against passionate desires, and overcoming the same will direct your energy into a safe and remunerative channel. If the lake be clear and surrounded by barrenness, a profitable existence will be marred by immoral and passionate dissipation.
To see yourself reflected in a clear lake, denotes coming joys and many ardent friends.
To see foliaged trees reflected in the lake, you will enjoy to a satiety
Love's draught of passion and happiness.
To see slimy and uncanny inhabitants of the lake rise up and menace you, denotes failure and ill health from squandering time, energy and health on illicit pleasures. You will drain the utmost drop of happiness, and drink deeply of Remorse's bitter concoction.
Seeing a lake in your dream means your emotional state of mind. If the lake is clear and calm, then it symbolize your inner peace. If the lake is disturbed, then you may be going through some emotional turmoil.
All bodies of water generally represent our emotions and our unconscious. Old dream interpretation books say that lakes are associated with romantic feelings. If the lake is calm, your love life is probably in such good shape that you feel safe. Stormy water means to strap your self in and get ready for a bumpy ride. If you see a monster in the water, your unconscious may be suggesting that you have competition (or some unseen issue or problem).
Symbolic of the world, the body and the grave (20), and also regarded
as an essential symbol of containing (and concealing). Rabanus Maurus (Operum,
III, Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam) lays particular stress on this aspect (46).
Nowadays, however, the whale seems to have acquired more independence as a
symbolic equivalent of the mystic mandorla, or the area of intersection of the
circles of heaven and earth, comprising and embracing the opposites of existence
(51).
To dream of seeing a whale approaching a ship, denotes that you will have a struggle between duties, and will be threatened with loss of property.
If the whale is demolished, you will happily decide between right and inclination, and will encounter pleasing successes.
If you see a whale overturn a ship, you will be thrown into a whirlpool of disasters.
To see a whale in your dream, represents your intuition and awareness. You are in tuned with your sense of spirituality. Alternatively, a whale symbolizes a relationship or business project that may be too big to handle. You are feeling overwhelmed. The dream may also be a pun on "wailing" and a desire to cry out about something.
Seeing a whale in your dream, represents your intuition and awareness. You are in tuned to your sense of spirituality. Alternatively, it indicates a relationship or business project that is too enormous to handle.
For most people, dreaming about whales is a pleasant experience. These huge water dwelling mammals may be symbolic of the connection that exists between the unconscious and conscious mind. They may represent the dreamer's level of awareness, perceptiveness, and intuition. Some think that they represent our emotional power or are messengers from the spiritual realms. If the waters are rough and the whale was unpredictable or on the attack, think about the emotional environment in your everyday life. Under such unpleasant dream circumstances, these large animals may represent overwhelming emotional or psychological issue and problem.
Whale Totem Meaning
Where the edge of land ends and the fringe of vast oceans begins is a threshold of mammoth proportions. To garner in-depth understanding of symbolic whale meaning, we've got to pay homage to its environment, the oceans of our planet.
The oceans, and water in general holds age-old symbolism of emotional depth (I've written about potential water symbolism here, if you're interested). As humans, we all experience an array of emotions. Some are on the surface; we can experience these emotions easily because they float on top of our life-experience as driftwood on the surface of the water. We can observe these top-layer emotions clearly, they are familiar and we deal with them daily. Other emotions, however, run very deep within us. Some emotions we burry beneath the fathoms of our consciousness; these emotions are the leviathans of our being - the lumbering beasts we dare not let surface.
From this perspective, we can easily relate to the depth and breadth of water with the essence of emotions. Given its habitat is the water realms, the totem meaning of the whale largely deals with emotions too. The whale symbolizes emotional creativity, well-being, nurturing as well as emotional depth.
Those who are magnetized by whale energy will tend to be incredibly deep in sensitivity. The depth of feeling whale-totem-people endure can be overwhelming. Whale people are super-perceptive about the feelings of those around them, and this can manifest into an internal pressure that can be quite crushing. The whale can help with overwhelment of feelings and even temper the onslaught of emotions picked up from other people too. If you are extraordinarily affected by the emotions of others, or your own emotions are so intense as to cause discomfort, your whale totem can help.
Why? Because whales are masters of:
Navigation: Moving through emotional depths
Communication: Effectively expressing emotional experiences
Conservation: Using emotional energy for fuel and not being consumed by emotional floods
I love poking through old myths and parables, especially when exploring totem meaning and the whale has plenty legends to its name. From Native American to Islam, the whale is featured prominently in ancient lore. Take the prophet Jonah. It's a classic passage in the Bible. I'm fortunate to know a several Biblical scholars, and I've talked to these folks (thanks to Robert, Jim and Diane!) about the deeper symbolic meaning of Jonah's three days and three nights in the bellies of the mega ketos ("great fish" in Greek), dag gadul ("big fish" in Hebrew), and the nun in Arabic - all terms describing the huge fish-whale who swallowed Jonah in the Biblical account. My Bible-savvy pals relate the story as an allegory of deliverance of the Jews from Babylonian capture. The great mother of Babylon's first queen (Semiramis) was Derceto, and the Babylonian sea goddess Derceto (a behemoth being of the sea) is the very same 'great fish' who swallowed Jonah. This perspective illustrates the Jews' liberation from Babylonian captivity with Jonah being expelled from Derceto's belly.
What intrigued me further was discussions deeper emotional allegory associated with Jonah's account. Imagine the emotional duress Jonah endured. Charged with the task (from God, no less) to travel to Ninevah and speak to the people about the righteous path of God. Now, at the time, Ninevah was quite inhospitable, and it was highly unlikely they would be keen to hear what Jonah had to say. Knowing this, Jonah retreated from his responsibility, essentially hiding from his soul-purpose (God) and that's when the mammoth beast of the sea swallows him whole.
We've all been in Jonah's sandals. We've all had a scary task to set before us, a heavy task with potentially frightening responsibilities placed on our shoulders. When we turn away from these responsibilities (knowing what we should do, yet refusing) it churns up massive emotional upheaval. We become swallowed ourselves in an emotional quagmire. We stew in our emotional soup, until we reach a boiling point. We all struggle with emotional buildup over choices we need to make, or even those choices we cannot bear to execute. Some of us, after days and nights of stewing within the womb of the soul, finally emerge (spit from the whale, so to speak) with renewed determination and a rekindling of faith. Others of us return to the emotional abyss until we can process our fears and indecision into a more refined state of being.
This kind of emotional swallowing, digesting and processing is key to whale totem meaning. Luckily, the whale can facilitate emotional clarity, and help us navigate through the often ambiguous and confusing seas of emotion. Whales themselves are incredibly nurturing; we see this in how they raise their young as well as their close-knit connection to others in their community herds or pods. Whales, and those with whale totems have a natural affinity for helping, especially promoting well-being within their community. People who are attracted to the whale often feel devoted to a greater cause, and although they may struggle with their own personal emotions, they tend to naturally conjure healing powers towards others in emotional trauma. Does this sound familiar to you? If you have these tendencies, I encourage you to swim deeply with the whale in your meditations and prayers. Navigating the emotional waters with the whale by your side will afford guidance and clarity.
Whales ask us to embrace the unknown, and that's precisely why they are so connected to the emotional depths of the oceans. To be sure, our current circumstances are born from an emotional womb. In other words, our reality is intrinsically connected to our thought and our emotional choices. It can be frustrating and confusing to track down the emotional origin of the stuff that's manifested in our lives, and the whale can help us understand, on a deeper level, the actions that have caused unrest in our daily life.
In many sects of Native wisdom, the whale is symbolic of the beginning, the creation of all life on earth as we know it. They aren't the only ones. Countless cultures around the globe associate themes of creation, birth and rebirth with the whale. Other symbolic suggestions to add to whale totem meaning include:
Deeper Awareness
Cosmic Consciousness
Emotional Rebirth and Understanding
Nurturing and Devotion to Community
Appreciation for Beauty, (especially song and dance)
The Importance of Balance (emotional and otherwise)
I hope these philosophical ponderings about whale symbolism and whale totem meaning has inspired you to dive more deeply into the cetacean realms. Perhaps these insights might inspire you to meditate and soulfully contemplate the presence of the whale in your own life. To be sure, joining with whale energy in your devotionals will eventually lead you to a cohesive view - an expansive clarity into the deeper fathoms of your emotional worlds.
The whale is the keeper of the Earth's history and secrets. It keeps alive the memories of the legendary motherland of Mu, which was once located in the west of America and to which all Native American tribes trace back their origins. The whale was once the witness of the great disaster to which the motherland fell victim. People who own the power of the whale are often very perceptive and can, with the help of this gift, access all the information that exists in the universe. They often have telepathic powers, but the source of their knowledge frequently remains unknown to them. It is only with time that they realize how to utilize their powers. The whale teaches one to find and blend with one's own original sound, because it carries the history of all living beings. It shows that the right frequency can heal and, with the help of the whale, you can learn to connect with the ancient language that was used for communication before language in its current form was developed. The whale always guides the way to discovering the meaning of your own life.
The whale gives you the ability to know the wisdom of the ages - from the time before time.
Inner awakening, creation, movement, strong sense of family, sprout in creative imagination, reaching within or outside to find inspiration, don't hold back your endeavors, be strong and move swiftly. Whale shows how to dive deep within to awaken your creativity, imagination and intuition. He teaches awakening inspiration so you can see your own beauty reflected into the world. It is time to create you own song, your own rhythm in which for creative imagining takes place. Are you using your true creativity? Whale will teach how to access the power and magic of the creative - emotional - passionate force.
If you do not speak French and you hear French in your dream, signifies a sensual and romantic part of yourself. It is often referred to as the language of love. Alternatively, the dream represents your unwillingness to understand some issue. You are not giving enough attention to some waking relationship.
To dream that you are speaking French, signifies an expression of love.
If you do no speak French and you hear French in your dream means a sensual and romantic part of yourself. It is often referred to as the language of love. Perhaps you are unwilling to understand or not giving enough attention to some waking relationship. Dreaming that you are speaking French means an expression of love.
To dream of going through a tunnel is bad for those in business and in love.
To see a train coming towards you while in a tunnel, foretells ill health and change in occupation.
To pass through a tunnel in a car, denotes unsatisfactory business, and much unpleasant and expensive travel.
To see a tunnel caving in, portends failure and malignant enemies.
To look into one, denotes that you will soon be compelled to face a desperate issue.
To see a tunnel in your dream, represents the vagina, womb, and birth. Thus it may refer to a need for security and nurturance.
To dream that you are going through a tunnel, suggests that you are exploring aspects of your unconscious. You are opening yourself to a brand new awareness. Alternatively, it indicates your limited perspective as in the phrase "tunnel vision". Are you being close minded or narrow minded in some issue?
To see the light at the end of a tunnel, symbolizes hope. You will navigate through life and all its difficulties with great success. Alternatively, it also indicates the end of your journey and the realization of your goals.
Seeing a tunnel in your dream, represents the vagina, womb, and birth. Thus it may refer to a need for security and nurturance. Dreaming that you are going through a tunnel, suggests that you are exploring aspects of your unconscious. You are opening yourself to a brand new awareness. Alternatively, it indicates your limited perspective. Seeing the light at the end of a tunnel, symbolizes hope.
Did you see a light at the end of the tunnel, or were you trapped in a tunnel unable to determine your location? The tunnel could represent a variety of things. If it was not an unpleasant experience, it may symbolise a transitional period and a passage into new levels of understanding or ways of living.
In theogony, the Sun represents the moment (surpassing all others in the
succession of celestial dynasties) when the heroic principle shines at its brightest.
Thus, after Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter, comes Helios Apollo. On occasion, the
Sun appears as the direct son and heir of the god of heaven, and Krappe notes that
he inherits one of the most notable and moral of the attributes of this deity: he
sees all and, in consequence, knows all. In India, as Sûrya, it is the eye of Varuna;
in Persia, it is the eye of Ahuramazda; in Greece, as Helios, the eye of Zeus (or of
Uranus); in Egypt it is the eye of Ra, and in Islam, of Allah (35). With his
‘youthful’ and filial characteristic, the Sun is associated with the hero, as opposed
to the father, who connotes the heavens, although the two (sun and sky) are
sometimes equated. Hence, the weapon of heaven is the net (the pattern of the
stars) or the power of binding; while the hero is armed with the sword (symbolically associated with fire). And it is for this reason that heroes are promoted to
solar eminence and even identified with the Sun itself. In a given period of history
and at a certain cultural level, the solar cult is the predominant if not the only one.
Frazer, however, as Eliade has noted, brought out the divergencies of the solar
elements in the sacred rites of Africa, of Australia and Oceania as a whole, and of
North and South America. The cult of the Sun reached an advanced stage of
development only in the New World, and—most advanced of all—in Mexico and
Peru. Eliade concludes that, since these were the only countries in pre-Columbian
America to evolve a viable political system, it may be concluded that there is a
parallel between predominantly solar cults and ‘historical’ forms of human existence. We must not overlook the fact that Rome, the most powerful political force
of Antiquity, and the originator of the historical sense, upheld solar hierophany,
which, during the Empire, dominated all other cults in the form of Mithraic ritual
(17). An heroic and courageous force, creative and guiding—this is the core of
solar symbolism; it may actually come to constitute a religion complete in itself,
as is shown by the ‘heresy’ of Ikhnaton in the 18th dynasty of Egypt; here the
hymns to the sun are, setting aside their profound lyrical interest, expressions of
theories about the beneficent activity of the king of astral bodies. The sun on the
horizon had long served the Egyptians of the Ancient Empire as a means of
defining ‘brightness’ or ‘splendour’. They were also forcibly struck by the analogy between the daily disappearance of the Sun and the winter solstice (19). At same time, there was, for the primitive, astrobiological mind, an essential connexion
between the Sun and Moon, analogous to that between heaven and earth. It is well
known that, for the vast majority of peoples, the sky is symbolic of the active
principle (related to the masculine sex and to the spirit), while the earth symbolizes the passive principle (cognate with the feminine sex and with matter); these
equations, nevertheless, are occasionally transposed. And the same thing happens with the Sun and Moon: solar ‘passion’, so to speak, with its heroic and
fierce character, clearly had to be assimilated to the masculine principle, and the
pale and delicate nature of lunar light, with its connexion with the waters of the ocean (and the rhythm of woman), obviously had to be classified as feminine.
These equations are certainly not constant; but the exceptions do not invalidate
the essential truth of this symbolism. Even physically speaking, the Moon merely
fulfils the passive rôle of reflecting the light which the Sun actively diffuses.
Many primitive tribes hold that the eyes of heaven are the Sun and the Moon
located on either side of the ‘world-axis’, and there are prehistoric drawings and
engravings which may be interpreted after this fashion. Eliade notes that, for the
Pigmies and Bushmen, the sun is the eye of the supreme god. The Samoyeds see
the Sun and the Moon as the eyes of heaven, the Sun being the good eye, and the
Moon the evil eye (one can see here an unequivocal instance of the symbolism of
dualism expanded by the assimilation of that of moral polarity). The idea of the
invincible character of the sun is reinforced by the belief that whereas the Moon
must suffer fragmentation (since it wanes) before it can reach its monthly stage of
three-day disappearance, the Sun does not need to die in order to descend into
hell; it can reach the ocean or the lake of the Lower Waters and cross it without
being dissolved. Hence, the death of the Sun necessarily implies the idea of
resurrection and actually comes to be regarded as a death which is not a true death.
For this reason, too, ancestor-worship is associated with the cult of the sun, in
order to offer the symbolic promise of protection and salvation. Megalithic monuments are based upon the amalgamation of these two cults (17). Thus, the broadest and most authentic interpretation sees the sun as the cosmic reductio of the
masculine force, and the Moon of the feminine (49). This implies that the active
faculties (of reflexion, good judgement or will power) are solar, while the passive
qualities (imagination, sentiment and perception) are feminine, with intuition
possibly androgynous (26). The ‘correspondences’ of the Sun are chiefly gold,
among the metals, and, of the colours, yellow.
Alchemists regarded it as ‘gold prepared for the work’ or ‘philosophical
sulphur’, as opposed to the Moon and mercury (the metal), which is lunar (57).
Another alchemic concept, that of the Sol in homine (or the invisible essence of
the celestial Sun which nourishes the inborn fire of Man) (57), is an early pointer
to the way the astral body has latterly been interpreted by psychoanalysts,
narrowing its meaning down to that of heat or energy, equivalent to the fire of life
and the libido. Hence Jung’s point that the Sun is, in truth, a symbol of the source
of life and of the ultimate wholeness of man (32). But here there is probably some
inexactitude, for totality is in fact uniquely symbolized by the ‘conjunction’ of
the Sun and the Moon, as king and queen, brother and sister (32). In some
folklore-traditions, the urge to allude in some way to the supreme good, which, by definition, is incapable of definition, is met by the saying ‘to join the Sun and
the Moon’.
Now, having established the principal terms of solar symbolism—as an heroic image (Sol invictus, Sol salutis, Sol iustitiae) (14), as the divine eye, the active
principle and the source of life and energy—let us come back to the dualism of the
Sun as regards its hidden passage—its ‘Night Sea-Crossing’—symbolic of immanence (like the colour black) and also of sin, occultation and expiation. In the
Rigveda—Eliade reminds us—the Sun is ambivalent: on the one hand it is ‘resplendent’ and on the other it is ‘black’ or invisible, in which case it is associated
with chthonian and funereal animals such as the horse and the serpent (17).
Alchemists took up this image of the Sol niger to symbolize ‘prime matter’, or
the unconscious in its base, ‘unworked’ state. In other words, the Sun is then at
the nadir, in the depths out of which it must, slowly and painfully, ascend
towards its zenith. This inevitable ascent does not relate to its daily journey,
although this is used as an image, and hence it is symbolized by the transmutation
of prime matter into gold, passing through the white and red stages, like the Sun
itself in its orbit. Of undoubted interest, as an indication of the intensity of man’s
attitude towards the Sun, is the reference by Tacitus and Strabo to the ‘sound’
made by the Sun as it rises in the East and drowns in the oceans of the West. The
sudden disappearance of the Sun below the horizon is related to the sudden death
of heroes such as Samson, Hercules and Siegfried (35).
To dream of seeing a clear, shining sunrise, foretells joyous events and prosperity, which give delightful promises.
To see the sun at noontide, denotes the maturity of ambitions and signals unbounded satisfaction.
To see the sunset, is prognostic of joys and wealth passing their zenith, and warns you to care for your interests with renewed vigilance.
A sun shining through clouds, denotes that troubles and difficulties are losing hold on you, and prosperity is nearing you.
If the sun appears weird, or in an eclipse, there will be stormy and dangerous times, but these will eventually pass, leaving your business and domestic affairs in better forms than before.
To see the sun in your dream, symbolizes peace of mind, enlightenment, tranquility, fortune, goodwill, and insight. It also represents radiant energy and divine power. Generally, the sun is a good omen, especially if the sun is shining in your dream. The sun may also be a metaphor for your "son".
To dream that the sun has a creepy, harsh glare, represents a significant disruption or serious problem in your life. The sun is considered a life-giver and thus, any abnormalities and peculiarities to the sun's appearance represents some sort of pain or chaos occurring in your waking life.
Seeing the sun in your dream, symbolizes peace of mind, enlightenment, tranquility, fortune, goodwill, and insight. It also represents radiant energy. It is a good omen to have the sun shining in your dream.
The sun sustains all life on Earth. When you see it in your dreams, it suggests that you are being nurtured and sustained by your environment and your life choices. It could also represent a spiritual force or the light of God. Sunrise may indicate new beginnings and a new wave of energy while sunsets suggest a period of closure and completion. Sunlight in your dreams is never a negative symbol. Light always symbolises or indicates consciousness and may signify masculine energy. Its presence, even in the most disturbing dreams, has reassuring qualities. Old dream interpretation books say that sun shining on you is an omen of good fortune and good will.
Planet: Sun.
Season: Summer.
Positive associations with this tarot card:
happiness, greatness, enlightenment, vitality, good health, love, fulfillment.
Negative associations with this tarot card:
misjudgement, delays, potential failure, inflated ego.
Simply one of the best, if not the best, cards in the Tarot. The Sun is a most welcome card and a signal of very happy, joyous times.
This card can represent holidays, good news around children or perhaps news or the conception or birth of a much wanted baby.
The Sun heralds a time of fun with friends and family and agreeable companionships and relationships.
Ultimately The Sun dispels negativity and promises of a happy ending.
Negatively The Sun perhaps suggests delays to your plans or achievements and does warn against arrogance and misjudgement caused by an inflated ego.
To dream that you are studying Latin, indicates your position of prominence and distinction. It also refers to your scholarly pursuits.
To dream of studying this language, denotes victory and distinction in your efforts to sustain your opinion on subjects of grave interest to the public welfare.
Dreaming that you are studying Latin means that you will rise to a position of prominence and distinction.
Dreaming that you are standing, suggests that you are asserting yourself and making your thoughts/feelings known. It also indicates that you are proud of yourself.
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.
To see metal in your dream, signifies strength and character. It may also symbolize the inhumane side of society. Consider the exact type and shape of metal and what you are doing with it. In particular, if the metal is solid, then it represents your libido and sexual desire.
Seeing metal in your dream means strength and character. It may also symbolize the inhumane side of society.
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.