Who stole sleep from baby's eyes? I must know.
Clasping her pitcher to her waist mother went to fetch water
from the village near by.
It was noon. The children's playtime was over; the ducks in
the pond were silent.
The shepherd boy lay asleep under the shadow of the banyan
tree.
The crane stood grave and still in the swamp near the mango
grove.
In the meanwhile the Sleep-stealer came and, snatching sleep
from baby's eyes, flew away.
When mother came back she found baby travelling the room over
on all fours.
Who stole sleep from our baby's eyes? I must know. I must find
her and chain her up.
I must look into that dark cave, where, through boulders and
scowling stones, trickles a tiny stream.
I must search in the drowsy shade of the bakula grove, where
pigeons coo in their corner, and fairies' anklets tinkle in the
stillness of starry nights.
In the evening I will peep into the whispering silence of the
bamboo forest, where fireflies squander their light, and will ask
every creature I meet, "Can anybody tell me where the Sleep-stealer
lives?"
Who stole sleep from baby's eyes? I must know.
Shouldn't I give her a good lesson if I could only catch her!
I would raid her nest and see where she hoards all her stolen
sleep.
I would plunder it all, and carry it home.
I would bind her two wings securely, set her on the bank of
the river, and then let her play at fishing with a reed among the
rushes and water-lilies.
When the marketing is over in the evening, and the village
children sit in their mothers' laps, then the night birds will
mockingly din her ears with:
"Whose sleep will you steal now?"
To dream of sleeping on clean, fresh beds, denotes peace and favor from those whom you love.
To sleep in unnatural resting places, foretells sickness and broken engagements.
To sleep beside a little child, betokens domestic joys and reciprocated love.
To see others sleeping, you will overcome all opposition in your pursuit for woman's favor.
To dream of sleeping with a repulsive person or object, warns you that your love will wane before that of your sweetheart, and you will suffer for your escapades.
For a young woman to dream of sleeping with her lover or some fascinating object, warns her against yielding herself a willing victim to his charms.
To see a baby in your dream, signifies innocence, warmth and new beginnings. Babies symbolize something in your own inner nature that is pure, vulnerable, helpless and/or uncorrupted. If you find a baby in your dream, then it suggests that you have acknowledged your hidden potential. If you dream that you forgot you had a baby, then it suggests that you are trying hide your own vulnerabilities; You do not want to let others know of your weaknesses. Alternatively, forgetting about a baby, represents an aspect of yourself that you have abandoned or put aside due to life's changing circumstances. The dream may serve as a reminder that it is time for you to pick up that old interest, hobby, or project again.
If you dream that you are on your way to the hospital to have a baby, then it signifies your issues of dependency and your desires to be completely care for. Perhaps you are trying to get out of some responsibility. If you are pregnant in real life, then a more direct interpretation may simply mean that you are experiencing some anxieties of making it to the hospital when the time comes.
To dream of a crying baby, symbolizes a part of yourself that is deprived of attention and needs to be nurtured. Alternatively, it represents your unfulfilled goals and a sense of lacking in your life. If you dream that a baby is neglected, then it suggests that you are not paying enough attention to yourself. You are not utilizing your full potential. Alternatively, this dream could represent your fears about your own children and your ability to protect and to provide for them.
To dream about a starving baby, represents your dependence on others. You are experiencing some deficiency in your life that needs immediate attention and gratification.
To dream of an extremely small baby, symbolizes your helplessness and your fears of letting others become aware of your vulnerabilities and incompetence. You may be afraid to ask for help and as a result tend to take matters into your own hands. http://www.dreammoods.com
To see a dead baby in your dream, symbolizes the ending of something that was once a part of you.
To dream that you are dipping a baby in and out of water, signifies regression. You are regressing to a time where you had no worries and responsibilities. Alternatively, such a scenario is reminisce of when the baby is in the fetus and in its comfort zone. In fact, some expectant mothers even give birth in a pool, because the environment in the water mimics the environment in the uterus. It is less traumatic for the baby as it emerges into the world. So perhaps, the dream represents your search for your own comfort zone.
To dream of crying babies, is indicative of ill health and disappointments.
A bright, clean baby, denotes love requited, and many warm friends. Walking alone, it is a sure sign of independence and a total ignoring of smaller spirits. If a woman dream she is nursing a baby, she will be deceived by the one she trusts most.
It is a bad sign to dream that you take your baby if sick with fever.
You will have many sorrows of mind.
If you are nursing a baby, it denotes sorrow and misfortune. If you see a baby that is
sick, it means that somebody among your relatives will die.
Dreaming of a baby in your dream means innocence, warmth and new beginnings. Babies may symbolize something in your own inner nature which is pure, vulnerable, and/or uncorrupted. If you dream that you forgot you had a baby, then it suggests that you are trying hide your own vulnerabilities; You do not want to let others know of your weaknesses. If you dream that you are on your way to the hospital to have a baby, then it means your issues of dependency and your desire to be completely care for. Perhaps you are trying to get out of some responsibility. If you are pregnant, then a more direct interpretation may simply mean that you are experiencing some anxieties of making it to the hospital when the time comes. Dreaming of a crying baby, is indicative of a part of yourself that is deprived of attention and needs some nurturing. Alternatively, it represents your unfulfilled goals and a sense of lacking in your life. Dreaming about a starving baby, represents your dependence on others. You are experiencing some deficiency in your life that needs immediate attention and gratification. Dreaming of an extremely small baby, symbolizes your helplessness and your fears of letting others become aware of your vulnerabilities and incompetence. You may be afraid to ask for help and as a result tend to take matters into your own hands. Dreaming of a dead baby in your dream, symbolizes the ending of something that is part of you. Dreaming that you are dipping a baby in and out of water means regression. You are regressing to a time where you had no worries and responsibilities. Alternatively, it is reminisce of when the baby is in the fetus and in its comfort zone. In fact, some expectant mothers even give birth in a pool, because the environment in the water mimics the environment in the uterus. It is less traumatic for the baby as it emerges into the world. So perhaps, the dream your search for your own comfort zone.
Many people from time to time will have babies or small children in their dreams. If these newborns are strangers to you, you can assume that they represent you. You are the baby and the dream is telling you something about your development in a particular area of your life. At times of great change and renewal, a baby may appear in a dream and represent your potential and a new beginning. Some of the meaning of the dream may be obtained by considering what the baby looked like and was doing. Generally, babies represent innocence and are symbols of the purest form of a human whose possibilities are endless. However, if the baby’s appearance is odd, and if your interactions with it are bizarre or unusual, you need to consider your own well being (psychologically) and think about what personal experiences and psychological hang-ups have prevented you from growing.
To see your own eyes in your dream, represent enlightenment, knowledge, comprehension, understanding, and intellectual awareness. Unconscious thoughts may be coming onto the surface. The left eye is symbolic of the moon, while the right eye represents the sun. It may also be a pun on "I" or the self. If you dream that your eyes have turned inside your head and you can now see the inside of your head, then it symbolizes insight and something that you need to be aware of. This dream may be literally telling you that you need to look within yourself. Trust your intuition and instincts.
To dream that you have something in your eye, represents obstacles in your path. Alternatively, it may represent your critical view and how you tend to see faults in others.
To dream that you have one eye, indicates your refusal to accept another viewpoint. It suggests that you are one-sided in your ways of thinking.
To dream that you have a third eye, symbolizes inner vision, insight, instinct or some psychic ability you have yet untapped. You are able to see what others cannot. Or you need to start looking within yourself and trust your instincts.
To dream that your eyes are injured or closed, suggests your refusal to see the truth about something or the avoidance of intimacy. You may be expressing feelings of hurt, pain or sympathy.
To dream that you have crossed eyes, denotes that you are not seeing straight with regards to some situation. You may be getting your facts mixed up.
To dream that your eyes are bleeding, symbolizes the sacrifices your have made and the difficulties you have endured. Alternatively, the dream signifies some very deep pain or internal conflict within your soul. Although you may not feel any physical pain, you are hurting inside. Perhaps you have been hiding the pain for so long that you forgot what pain feels like. There is some unrest or uneasiness within which needs to be addressed and resolved immediately.
Eyes are complex dream symbols and can be interpreted by considering the dreamer's experiences and the details in the dream (as is the case with all dream symbols). Some say that the eyes are the windows for the soul. Eyes symbolize perceptiveness, personal outlook, clairvoyance, curiosity, and knowledge. They also reveal information about personal identity and suggest to the dreamer what they should pay attention to. Closed eyes are said to represent fear and an unwillingness to see clearly. Superstition-based dream interpretations say that if the eyes in your dream are beautiful they represent peace. Crossed eyes may be an unconscious warning about someone’s character, integrity, or misperceptions.
Mother-symbols are characterized by an interesting ambivalence:
the mother sometimes appears as the image of nature, and vice-versa; but the
Terrible Mother is a figure signifying death (31). For this reason, Hermetic doctrine held that to ‘return to the mother’ was equivalent to dying. For the Egyptians, the vulture was a mother-symbol, probably because it devours corpses
(19); it also stood for the means whereby Hammamit (the universal soul) was
split up into separate parts to form individual souls (19). For the same reason, the
maternal sentiment has been said to be closely bound up with the nostalgic
longing of the spirit for things material (18), or with the subjection of the spirit to
the unformulated but implacable law of destiny. Jung mentions that in Jean
Thenaud’s Traité de la Cabale (of the 16th century) there is a mother-figure
actually represented in the form of a god of destiny (32). He mentions further that
the Terrible Mother is the counterpart of the Pietà, representing not only death
but also the cruel side of nature—its indifference towards human suffering (31).
Jung also notes that the mother is symbolic of the collective unconscious, of the
left and nocturnal side of existence—the source of the Water of Life. It is the
mother, he argues, who is the first to bear that image of the anima which the man
must project upon Woman passing from the mother to the sister and finally to the
beloved (32). A predominantly maternal social pattern—a matriarchal society—
is characterized, according to Bachofen, by special emphasis upon blood relationships, telluric allegiances, and the passive acceptance of natural phenomena.
Patriarchies are distinguished by a respect for man-made laws, the favouring of
works of art and craft, and obedience to the hierarchy (23). Even now that
matriarchal societies, sociologically speaking, no longer exist in the West, psychologically man is nevertheless passing through a phase when he is in all essentials dominated by the feminine principle. To come triumphantly through this
stage and to reinstate the masculine principle as the guiding-rule of life—bringing
to the fore the characteristically patriarchal qualities noted above—would signify
an achievement of the kind that was once symbolized by the transformation of
the ‘lunar work’ into the solar, or by the transmutation of mercury into sulphur.
To quote Evola: ‘Symbols of the earth-mother are: water, the mother of the waters, stone, the cave, the maternal home, night, the house of depth, and the
house of strength or of wisdom.’
To see your mother in your dream, represents the nurturing aspect of your own character. Mothers offer shelter, comfort, life, guidance and protection. Some people may have problems freeing themselves from their mothers and are thus seeking their own individuality and development.
To dream that you are having a conversation with your mother, denotes a matter that has preoccupied your mind and you are not sure how to deal with it in your waking life. It indicates unresolved problems that need to be worked out with your mother.
To hear your mother call you in our dream, suggests that you have been negligent in your duties and responsibilities. You are pursuing down the wrong path.
If you dream that you see your mother and converse with her, it indicates that you
will have prosperity in life. To dream that you have lost your mother indicates her sickness.
To see your mother in dreams as she appears in the home, signifies pleasing results from any enterprise.
To hold her in conversation, you will soon have good news from interests you are anxious over.
For a woman to dream of mother, signifies pleasant duties and connubial bliss.
To see one's mother emaciated or dead, foretells sadness caused by death or dishonor.
To hear your mother call you, denotes that you are derelict in your duties, and that you are pursuing the wrong course in business.
To hear her cry as if in pain, omens her illness, or some affliction is menacing you.
Seeing your mother in your dream, represents the nurturing aspect of your own character. Mothers offer shelter, comfort, life, guidance and protection. Some people may have problems freeing themselves from their mothers and are thus seeking their own individuality and development. Dreaming that you are having a conversation with your mother indicates a matter that has preoccupied your mind and you are not sure how to deal with it in your waking life. It indicates unresolved problems that still need to be worked out with your mother. Hearing your mother call you in our dream means that you have been negligent in your duties and responsibilities. You are pursuing down the wrong path. Hearing your mother cry in your dream indicates some illness or affliction.
The relationship that we have with our mother is the most psychologically significant relationship of all. Rarely all good or all bad, our mothers always invoke powerful emotions. We may dream about our mothers in many different forms. She may be disguised in our dreams, and it is our job to find her in there. If you are dreaming about your mother, you may be addressing some issues or concerns in your dream, or your dream may be based on a valuable memory. The general image of "mother" in a dream may symbolise a variety of feelings and ideas: caring, nurturing, love, acceptance, hard work, sacrifice, martyrdom, etc. The mother in your dream could also represent the "collective unconscious," the source of the "water of life," and the yin. The woman is that force, or current, inside of you that nudges you on and inspires you. It is your intuition and the knowledge that in not necessarily attached to words. Men, on the other hand, represent the active part of us that use the information received to create the physical reality of our lives. When the two are working together well, we have balance and experience awareness leading to peace and productivity.
To dream that you are in a village, denotes that you will enjoy good health and find yourself fortunately provided for.
To revisit the village home of your youth, denotes that you will have pleasant surprises in store and favorable news from absent friends.
If the village looks dilapidated, or the dream indistinct, it foretells that trouble and sadness will soon come to you.
To dream that you are in a village, represents restrictions. You need to follow the rules. Alternatively, a village signifies community, simplicity, and tradition.
Dreaming that you are in a village, represents restrictions. It may also indicate that you are unsophisticated, but well-balanced. Alternatively, it means community, simplicity, and tradition.
To see children in your dream, signify an aspect of yourself and your childlike qualities. You may be retreating back to a childlike state and longing for the past. You are trying to still satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes. Perhaps there is something that you need to see grow and nurture. Take some time off and cater to the inner child within. Alternatively, the dream may be highlighting your innocence, purity, simplicity, and carefree attitude. If you are fighting with children, then it implies that you are repressing your inner child. The children could represent someone in your waking life (coworker, mate, sibling, etc.) who is acting like a child. If you see children fighting in your dream, then it means that your sense of morality and character are in conflict.
To forget about your child or children, suggests that you are feeling overwhelmed by your waking responsibilities. The dream is telling you that you are overly fixating on minor details and overlooking the important things on your life. You need to re-prioritize your time and focus on what matters. To dream that your own grown children are still very young, indicates that you still see them as young and dependent. You want to feel needed and significant.
To dream that you are watching children but they do not know you are there, is a metaphor for some hidden knowledge or some latent talent which you have failed to recognize.
To save a child in your dream, signifies your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed. If you dream that you are separated from your children, then it symbolizes failure in some personal endeavor or a setback in some ideal you had.
``Dream of children sweet and fair,
To you will come suave debonair,
Fortune robed in shining dress,
Bearing wealth and happiness.''
To dream of seeing many beautiful children is portentous of great prosperity and blessings.
For a mother to dream of seeing her child sick from slight cause, she may see it enjoying robust health, but trifles of another nature may harass her.
To see children working or studying, denotes peaceful times and general prosperity.
To dream of seeing your child desperately ill or dead, you have much to fear, for its welfare is sadly threatened.
To dream of your dead child, denotes worry and disappointment in the near future.
To dream of seeing disappointed children, denotes trouble from enemies, and anxious forebodings from underhanded work of seemingly friendly people.
To romp and play with children, denotes that all your speculating and love enterprises will prevail.
Seeing children in your dream means your own childlike qualities or a retreat back to a childlike state. It is an extension of your inner child during a time of innocence, purity, simplicity, and a carefree attitude. You may be longing for the past and the chance to satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes. Take some time off and cater to the inner child within. Perhaps there is something that you need to see grow and nurtured. Dreaming that your own grown children are still very young indicates that you still see them as young and dependent. You want to feel needed and significant. Dreaming that you are watching children but they do not know you are there, is a metaphor for some hidden knowledge or some latent talent which you have failed to recognize. To save a child means your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed.
To dream that it is evening, denotes the end of a cycle, aging or death. It may also be symbolic of unrealized hopes.
To dream that evening is about you, denotes unrealized hopes, and you will make unfortunate ventures.
To see stars shining out clear, denotes present distress, but brighter fortune is behind your trouble.
For lovers to walk in the evening, denotes separation by the death of one.
Dreaming that evening has arrived indicates the end of a cycle, aging or death. It may also be symbolic of unrealized hopes.
A moonlit evenng in a dream is a symbol of love and romance.
If the evening is very dark, your unconscious could be warning you that you are being immature.
If you dream of spending an enjoyable evening with other people, you may be hoping for a relationship to improve.
Seeing reeds in your dream, symbolizes your flexibility in various situations.