In the previous dream I was doing some dance on the Oprah show with many other people...
I'm in a darkened city, like something out of a comic book. It almost feels as if the city is "inside" of something. There are tall buildings all around and I cannot see the horizon. I somehow climb up to this ledge on a building- it is so many stories up I cannot see the ground. So I get up to this ledge that is about the size of a king bed and there are two other people that are there- they are homeless and I am homeless too. I think about sleeping there for night.
We all think about it and are afraid of rolling off and dying in our sleep. I go inward toward the building and notice some steps winding inside and upward. I see they belong to the apartments in the building. I hope the tenants don't see me. I climb the steps. They end at a ceiling of plywood- some tenant has boarded them off. I think about sleeping there, but return to my homeless friends on the ledge.
To dream that you are homeless, indicates that you are feeling insecure. You are unsure of yourself and where you are headed.
Dreaming that you are homeless indicates that you are feeling insecure. You are unsure of yourself and where you are headed.
To see a building in your dream, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding, awareness or success. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality.
To see a building in ruins or damaged, indicates that your approach toward a situation or relationship is all wrong. You need to change. Your own self-image may have suffered and taken some blow.
To dream that a building collapses, indicates that you are losing sight of your ambitions and goals. Your pursuit for material gains is failing.
To dream that you or someone fall off a building, suggests that you are descending into the realm of unconscious. You are learning about and acknowledging aspects of your unconscious. Alternatively, it symbolizes your fear of not being able to complete or succeeding in a task.
To dream that you are scaling or climbing a building, indicates that you are getting carried away by your ambitions.
Dreaming of a building, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding or awareness. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality. Dreaming of a building in ruins or damaged indicates that your approach toward a situation or relationship is all wrong. You need to change. Your own self-image may have suffered and taken some blow. Dreaming that you or someone fall off a building, suggests that you are descending into the realm of unconscious. You are learning about and acknowledging aspects of your unconscious. Alternatively, it symbolizes your fear of not being able to complete or succeeding in a task. See also Falling in our Common Dream Themes section.
To dream that you are standing on a ledge, indicates that you are feeling tense, anxious and/or excited. Consider what direction you are looking? Up? Down? Straight Ahead? The direction to which you are looking relates to your viewpoint, whether it be an optimistic one, pessimistic one or realistic one. On a more positive note, this dream may signify a sense of freedom and liberation.
To dream that someone is standing on a ledge, denotes a sign of desperation and a cry for help.
Dreaming that you are standing on a ledge indicates that you are feeling tense, anxious and/or excited. Consider what direction you are looking? Up? Down? Straight Ahead? The direction to which you are looking relates to your viewpoint, whether it be an optimistic one, pessimistic one or realistic one. On a more positive note, this dream may signify a sense of freedom and liberation. Dreaming that someone is standing on a ledge indicates a sign of desperation and a cry for help.
To dream that you are climbing up something (ladder, rope, etc.), signifies that you are trying to or you have overcome a great struggle. It also suggests that your goals are finally within reach. Climbing also means that you have risen to a level of prominence within the social or economic sphere.
To dream that you are climbing down something, indicates that you need to acknowledge and take notice of your unconscious. You are expressing some hesitance and reservation with delving into your more negative feelings. Alternatively, it suggests that you may be feeling low or emotionally drained.
Dreaming that you are climbing up something (ladder, rope, etc.) means that you are trying to or you have overcome a great struggle. It also suggests that your goals are finally within reach. Climbing also means that you have risen to a level of prominence within the social or economic sphere. Dreaming that you are climbing down a cliff, indicates that you need to acknowledge and take notice of your unconscious. You are expressing some hesitance and reservation with delving into your more negative feelings. Alternatively, it suggests that you may be feeling low or emotionally drained.
Up to a certain point it corresponds to landscape-symbolism in general,
of which it forms one representational aspect, embracing the important symbols
of level and space, that is, height and situation. With the dawning of history there
arose, according to René Guénon, a true, ‘sacred geography’ and the position,
shape, doors and gates, and general disposition of a city with its temples and
acropolis were never arbitrary or fortuitous, or merely utilitarian. In fact, cities
were planned in strict accord with the dictates of a particular doctrine; hence the
city became a symbol of that doctrine and of the society which upheld it (28).
The city walls had magic powers since they were the outward signs of dogma,
which explains and justifies Romulus’s fratricide. Ornamental reliefs on capitals,
lintels, and tympana of the Middle Ages often depict the outlines of a walled city,
although in a way which is more emblematic than symbolic. These ornaments are
a kind of prefiguration of the heavenly Jerusalem. An angel armed with a sword is
sometimes to be seen at the city gate (46). Jung sees the city as a mother-symbol
and as a symbol of the feminine principle in general: that is, he interprets the City
as a woman who shelters her inhabitants as if they were her children; that is why
the two mother-gods Rhea and Cybele—as well as other allegorical figures derived from them—wear a crown after the pattern of a wall. The Old Testament
speaks of cities as women (31).
To see a city in your dream, signifies your social environment and sense of community. If you dream of a big city, then it suggests that you need to develop closer ties and relationships. You are feeling alienated and alone. To dream that you are in a deserted city, indicates that you feel rejected by those around you.
To dream of a city in ruins, denotes that you are neglecting your social relationships and allowing them to deteriorate.
To dream of an underground or underwater city, represents your unconscious and how through deeper understanding of yourself, you find commonality and shared experiences with others.
To dream that you are in a strange city, denotes you will have sorrowful occasion to change your abode or mode of living.
Seeing a city in your dream means a sense of community and your social environment. Dreaming that you are in a deserted city or that you feel alienated from the activity of the city, then it suggests that you feel rejected by those around you. Seeing a city in ruins means that you are neglecting your social relationships and allowing them to deteriorate.
To dream that you are sleeping, denotes peace of mind. Alternatively, it means that you are ignorant of the conditions and circumstances around you. If you are sleeping with a stranger, then it suggests that you are avoiding some issue or situation that is being symbolized by the stranger. Perhaps you are refusing to recognize a negative or hidden aspect of yourself. Sleeping may also be synonymous with death in that it beckons renewal and new beginnings.
To see someone sleeping in your dream, is a reflection of yourself and your own unconscious mind. It is telling you that you may not be alert or informed about a particular situation.
Dreaming that you are sleeping indicates peace of mind. Alternatively, it may also mean that you are ignorant and not fully aware of the conditions and circumstances around you. If you are sleeping with a stranger, suggests that you are avoiding some issue or situation that is being symbolized by the stranger. Perhaps you are refusing to recognize a negative aspect of yourself. Seeing others sleeping, is often a reflection of yourself and your own unconscious mind. It is indicative of how you may not be alert or informed about a particular situation. Sleeping may also be synonymous with death in that it beckons renewal and new beginnings.
This is a symbol which is very common in iconography all over the
world. It embraces the following essential ideas: ascension, gradation, and communication between different, vertical levels. In the Egyptian system of
hieroglyphs, steps constitute a determinative sign which defines the act of ascending; it forms part of one of the appellations of Osiris, who is invoked as ‘he
who stands at the top of the steps’. Ascending, then, can be understood both in
a material and in an evolutive and spiritual sense. Usually, the actual number of
steps involved in the symbol is of symbolic significance. In Egyptian images, the
number tends to be nine: the triple ternary which symbolizes the gods of the
ennead who, together with Osiris, make up the symbolic number ten which
stands for the completed cycle or the return to unity (19). A great many Egyptian
tombs have yielded up amulets in the shape of ladders. The Book of the Dead
says: ‘My steps are now in position so that I may see the gods.’ Eliade has
pointed out parallel images, such as the following: Among many primitive peoples,
mythic ascension is indicated by means of a rope, a stake, a tree or a mountain
(symbolizing the world-axis). Or, according to an Oceanian myth, the hero reaches
heaven by means of the fantastic hyperbole of a chain of arrows. And in Islamic
tradition, Mohammed saw a ladder which the just climbed up to reach God (17).
To refer again to primitive belief, Schneider observes that in order to ‘reach’ the
mountain of Mars and reap its benefits, one must ascend the ladder of one’s
forebears—suggesting a biological and historical source for the mystic symbol of
the ladder. Hence steps are also one of the most notable symbols in ancestral rites
(50). Images specifically connected with the steps are the mountain, and architectural structures incorporating steps, such as the Egyptian pyramid of Sakkara,
the Mesopotamian ziggurats, or the teocallis of America of pre-Columbian days;
we have then a synthesis of two symbols—that of the ‘temple-mountain’ and
that of the steps—signifying that the entire cosmos is the path of ascension
towards the spirit. In Mithraism, the ceremonial steps were seven in number,
each step being made of a different metal (as was each different plane of the
ziggurat in a figurative sense). According to Celsus, the first step was of lead
(corresponding to Saturn). The general correspondence with the planets is selfevident. Now, this idea of gradual ascent was taken up particularly by the alchemists from the latter part of the Middle Ages onwards; they identified it sometimes with the phases of the transmutation process. In Stephan Michelspacher’s
work Die Cabala, Spiegel der Kunst und Natur (1654), the following graded scale
is given: Calcination, Sublimation, Solution, Putrefaction, Distillation, Coagulation, Tincture, leading to a kind of shrine inside a mountain (32). According to the Zohar, the ladder which Jacob is said to have seen in his dreams had seventy-two
rungs and its top disappeared into the clouds (39). Broadly speaking, in emblems
and allegories throughout the Middle Ages, it is the ascending (affirmative) aspect
of the steps which predominates, emphasized by the signs and symbols clustering round the ladder. Bayley points out that many steps are surmounted by a
cross, the figure of an angel, a star or a fleur-de-lis (4) located on the border itself.
In Romanesque art, and generally in the thought characteristic of the period, the
steps are the symbol of the ‘relationship between the worlds’ (14, 20), but it
must not be forgotten that, within the spatial symbolism of level, there are not
two grades indicating two different worlds (the terrestrial or intermediary and the
celestial or upper) but three (through the addition of a third: the infernal or lower
world). This is why Eliade (for reasons of psychology as well) states that the
steps are a vivid image of ‘breaking through’ the levels of existence in order to
open up the way from one world to another, establishing a relationship between
heaven, earth and hell (or between virtue, passivity and sin). Hence, steps located
beneath the level of the earth are always a symbol for an opening into the infernal
regions. In Bettini’s Libro del monte santo di Dio (Florence, 1477), steps are
shown superimposed upon a mountain; to emphasize the parallel—and indeed
identical—symbolism of the mountain and the ladder, the former is portrayed as
if it were terraced and the terraces are shown to be the rungs of the ladder. On
these rungs are the names of the virtues: Humility, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Awe, Mercy, Science, Counsel, Understanding and Wisdom. The
steps are portrayed as if chained to the mountainside. On the peak of the mountain is a mandorla formed of angels with Christ in the centre. (Plate XXVI).
To dream that you ascend steps, denotes that fair prospects will relieve former anxiety.
To decend them, you may look for misfortune.
To fall down them, you are threatened with unexpected failure in your affairs.
To see steps in your dream, represent your efforts in achieving your goals, ambitions and material gains. The dream may be telling you to take things one at a time. Or that you need to take a chance and take that first step toward your goals or dreams. Alternatively, the dream signifies your closeness to your spirituality or religious beliefs.
To dream that you are sitting on the steps, suggests that you need to pause from life's demands and reevaluate your decisions, challenges, goals, and path before continuing on.
In the broadest and most abstract sense, the king symbolizes universal
and archetypal Man. As such, according to animistic and astrobiological ways of
thought widespread from India to Ireland (21), he possesses magic and supernatural powers. He also expresses the ruling or governing principle, supreme
consciousness, and the virtues of sound judgement and self-control (56). At the
same time, a coronation is equivalent to achievement, victory and consummation
(33). Hence any man may properly be called a king when he achieves the culminating point in the unfolding of his individual life. Deriving from, and equated
with the king-symbolism are the symbols for gold, the sun and Jupiter. These
symbols imply in essence the idea that the king is Man transposed to the solar
plane, to the ideal or ‘golden’ situation—that is, ‘saved’ and made eternal. The
idea of immortality was passed from god to monarch, and only later was it
vouchsafed to the hero and later still to ordinary mortals in so far as they merited
the ‘crown’ of success, having overcome certain obstacles (usually of a moral
order). The king, quite apart from all this, may also symbolize the ‘royalty’—’or
grandeur—of Man. In this case, he may be subjected to a period of unfavourable
or painful circumstances; when this is so, the particular symbol becomes that of
the ‘sick king’ (like Amfortas in Parsifal), or of the ‘sea-king’ (signifying the
negative aspect of humanity) (32). Love also plays a highly important part in the
symbolism of royalty, since love is held to be one of the most obvious of culminating points in the life of Man. This is why the bride and bridegroom in the
Greek marriage-ceremony wear crowns made of some precious metal. The king
and queen together comprise the perfect image of the hieros gamos, of the union
of heaven and earth, sun and moon, gold and silver, sulphur and mercury; and—
according to Jung—they also signify the spiritual ‘conjunction’ that takes place
when the process of individuation is complete, with the harmonious union of the
unconscious and consciousness. The title of king is bestowed upon the most
outstanding specimen in every species or type: so, the lion is the king of beasts,
as is the eagle of birds or gold among the metals (57). To come back to the
symbolism of the ‘sick king’, he—like such afflicted heroes as Philoctetes—
signifies, on the one hand, the punishment which pursues sin as the shadow
follows the body (given the existence of the light of consciousness), and, on the
other, sterility of spirit. A particularly significant instance of the symbolic process is implied by the king’s projecting his spiritual state on to nature around him,
as happens with Amfortas in Parsifal, in the Waste Land of Eliot, and, to some
extent, the Fall of the House of Usher by Poe. As for the ‘sea-king’, he is symbolic
of the ocean (another version of Neptune) and therefore personifies the deeps of
the unconscious in their regressive and evil form as opposed to the waters of the
‘Upper Ocean’ (the clouds, rain or fresh water) which are fecund (32). The ‘aged
king’—such as Dhritarashtra, the aged monarch of Vedic epics, or king Lear, or all
those aged kings of legends and folktales—is symbolic of the world-memory, or
the collective unconscious in its widest and most all-embracing sense (38). The
king often exhibits, in concentrated form, the characteristics of the father and the
hero, and there is a touch of the Messianic about him; by inversion of the temporal order of things, what is past becomes ‘what is to pass’ and the dead king is
supposed by his subjects to be living a strange existence as a ghost, later to return
to his country when it is in great danger. This legend tends to accrue to the names
of historical monarchs,who have fallen in strange or unhappy circumstances, as in
the case of the Portuguese dom Sebastian or that of don Rodrigo, the last of the
Gothic kings. The supreme example is the mythic king Arthur, called by Malory
Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus (q.v.) (16).
To see a king in your dream, indicates that success and prestige are within reach. You will rise above your problems and adversities. The king is symbolic of power and control. Alternatively, the king symbolizes your father or some father figure. You are looking for support.
To dream that you are the king, represents your masculine power. Alternatively, it indicates that you have attained a high level of authority and power. Perhaps you are becoming too domineering or overly confident.
To dream of a king, you are struggling with your might, and ambition is your master.
To dream that you are crowned king, you will rise above your comrades and co-workers.
If you are censured by a king, you will be reproved for a neglected duty.
For a young woman to be in the presence of a king, she will marry a man whom she will fear. To receive favors from a king, she will rise to exalted positions and be congenially wedded.
To appear before a friendly king is a sign of great success, and before a cruel king is
very unfavourable.
Seeing a king in your dream means much success and prestige to be headed your way. It is symbolic of power and control. Dreaming that you are the king, suggests that you will rise above your problems and adversities. Alternatively, it is an expression of your masculine power.
To dream of dying, foretells that you are threatened with evil from a source that has contributed to your former advancement and enjoyment.
To see others dying, forebodes general ill luck to you and to your friends.
To dream that you are going to die, denotes that unfortunate inattention to your affairs will depreciate their value. Illness threatens to damage you also.
To see animals in the throes of death, denotes escape from evil influences if the animal be wild or savage.
It is an unlucky dream to see domestic animals dying or in agony.
[As these events of good or ill approach you they naturally assume these forms of agonizing death, to impress you more fully with the joyfulness or the gravity of the situation you are about to enter on awakening to material responsibilities, to aid you in the mastery of self which is essential to meeting all conditions with calmness and determination.]