I was part of a civilization, very different from this one, sometime in the future. Our society was in the throws of a crumbling dystopic malaise and our food was scarce. A traveler from our village returned one day with a large ancient-looking book that prophesied that our salvation required a diaspora to an island we had never known. We traveled via teleportation; I remember having serious reservation about trusting the man and the book. We arrived in a desolate rocky wasteland that sloped down to a large forbidding fortress. There was no vegetation or animals around, and I remember saying "this area is inhospitable." We decided to venture to the fortress to see if there were other lifeforms inhabiting it. We crept down the steep hills of the valley until we reached the castle doors. of the stronghold. No one appeared to be living in the building, but it was well-lit with burning torches and furnished with regal tapestries and carpets. In an instant we were surrounded by people who had entered the atrium. We showed that we had weapons but were peaceful people. Members of our village entered into a ceremonial greeting dance with the strangers culminating in a formal acceptance into their home. The strangers warned us of a curse that was rapidly devouring the landscape and its inhabitants, I then saw a vision of a mob of crazed people running and howling--following a man carrying an bloody antelope skull. When someone came in contact with the mob, they donned the same bloodthirsty face and joined the mob. I was absolutely terrified by the image. The elders of the fortress told us that they were preparing to defend the fortress from invasion by this evil force. We followed them deep into the catacomb basement of the fortress were the rest of their people were hiding. Some of them had guns or spears but most were unarmed. I remember thinking that there was an impossibly slim chance that this arrangement would ward of an onslaught by this evil.
We were preparing our villagers alongside our new friends when all of a sudden word came that the cursed army had already reached the outskirts of the valley. I ran up the stairs, but when I emerged on the main floor, the castle had become my grandpa's house. I looked out the window and saw a van sitting in the driveway, but couldn't see anyone inside. "they're in the woods" someone told me, this is a distraction. The doorbell rang, and the mailman was standing at the door: "I have a delivery." I tried desperately to warm him about the curse, that he was not safe there and needed to leave immediately. I woke up from my dream but then immediately fell back in. The cursed army had penetrated the windows and doors of my grandparents house. I was attacking them with a hammer, but I was being overwhelmed. I remember thinking that I was dreaming, but I became worried about the others in the basement. I voice in me said that what I was experiencing was a construct of my own imagination, and that when I ceased to dream, the creatures would cease to live. I terror of the situation became too real and I couldn't gain lucidity or control again. I woke up several times but kept returning to the same dream. It was horrible.
To see a fortress in your dream, symbolizes protection and healing. Alternatively, it suggests that you are putting up a wall between you and others. You are shutting down emotionally.
To dream that you are confined in a fortress, denotes that enemies will succeed in placing you in an undesirable situation.
To put others in a fortress, denotes your ability to rule in business or over women.
Seeing a fortress in your dream, symbolizes protection and healing. Alternatively, you may have put up a wall between you and others. You are shutting down emotionally.
To see people you know in your dream, signifies qualities and feelings of them that you desire for yourself. If these people are from your past, then the dream refers to your shadow and other unacknowledged aspects of yourself. It may represent a waking situation that is bringing out similar feelings from your past relationships.
To see people you don't know in your dream, denotes hidden aspects of yourself that you need to confront or acknowledge.
Seeing people you know in your dream means qualities and feelings of those people that you desire for yourself. Seeing people you don't know in your dream indicates hidden aspects of yourself that you need to confront. Seeing people from your past in your dream, refers to your shadow and other unacknowledged aspects of yourself. It can represent a waking situation that is bringing out similar feelings as your past relationships.
To remember something in your dream, indicates that you have learned something significant from your past mistakes or previous experiences. The dream may also serve as a reminder of something important that is occurring in your waking life. You are so worried that you will forget something that the preoccupation has made its way into your dream.
To dream of an invasion, represents your need to be more assertive. Stand up for yourself and let your voice be known. Don't let others tell you what to do.
Dreaming of an invasion, represents your need to be more assertive. Stand up for yourself and let your voice be known.
To see a mob in your dream, represents chaos and disorganization. Your are experiencing a conflict in ideas and interest. It is time to be more assertive and take control of your life.
Seeing a mob in your dream, represents chaos and disorganization. Your are experiencing a conflict in ideas and interest. It is time to be more assertive and take control of your life.
To dream that you or someone is under a curse, suggests that you are getting caught up in your own guilt. You also need to proceed with caution in some situation or relationship.
To dream that you or someone is cursing, refers to your inner fears. It also means that you are becoming a hardened person.
Dreaming that you or someone is under a curse, suggests that you are getting caught up in your own guilt. You also need to proceed with caution in some situation or relationship. Dreaming that you or someone is cursing, refers to your inner fears.
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.
Within the symbolism of landscapes, the valley, which, because it is
low-lying, is considered to lie at the level of the sea, represents a neutral zone apt
for the development of all creation and for all material progress in the world of
manifestation. Its characteristic fertility stands in contrast to the nature of the
desert (symbolically a place of purification), of the ocean (which represents the
Origin of life but which, in relation to man’s existence, is sterile), and of the
mountain (the region characterized by snows and the ascetic, contemplative life,
or by intellectual illumination). In short, the valley is symbolic of life itself and is
the mystic abode of shepherd and priest (51).
To find yourself walking through green and pleasant valleys, foretells great improvements in business, and lovers will be happy and congenial. If the valley is barren, the reverse is predicted. If marshy, illness or vexations may follow.
To dream that you are in a valley, symbolizes fertility, abundance, or your need to be sheltered and protected. If you are entering or walking through a valley, then it is analogous to your issues of death and dying. This death may be symbolic as in an end to something in your life. Alternatively, the dream represents life's struggles and hardships before you can achieve some spiritual enlightenment or epiphany.
Dreaming of a valley means positive change resulting in happiness and peace.
This is a complex symbol, derived at once from that of the house and
that of the enclosure or walled city. Walled cities figure in mediaeval art as a
symbol of the transcendent soul and of the heavenly Jerusalem. Generally speaking, the castle is located on the top of a mountain or hill, which suggests an
additional and important meaning derived from the symbolism of level. Its shape,
form and colour, its dark and light shades, all play an important part in defining
the symbolic meaning of the castle as a whole, which, in the broadest sense, is an
embattled, spiritual power, ever on the watch. The ‘black castle’ has been interpreted as the alchemists’ lair, as well as a rain cloud poised above a mountain-top
(50). Its significance as the Mansion of the Beyond, or as the entrance to the
Other World, would seem obvious enough. In a great many legends, the Castle of
Darkness, inhabited by a ‘Black Knight’, is symbolic of the abode of Pluto; this
is confirmed by Theseus’ mythic journey into hell. Charon has his abode in a
similar castle which is inaccessible to living men (the ‘castle of no return’ of
folktales). In the legendary heaven of Nordic tradition, the same meaning is to be
found. Melwas, the abducter of Guinevere, dwells in a castle surrounded by a
deep moat, the only means of access being two bridges difficult to negotiate.
According to Krappe, it is very possible that the underlying symbolism of all
mediaeval tales and legends about a castle owned by a ‘wicked knight’ who holds
captive all who approach his domain may well be that of the sinister castle of the
Lord of the Underworld (35). On the other hand, the ‘Castle of Light’ is the
‘redemption’-aspect of this same image. Piobb explains that the sudden appearance of a castle in the path of a wanderer is like the sudden awareness of a spiritual
pattern. ‘Before this fascinating vision, all fatigue disappears. One has the clear
impression that treasure lies within. The splendid temple is the achieving of the
inconceivable, the materialization of the unexpected’ (48). The castle, in sum,
together with the treasure (that is, the eternal essence of spiritual wealth), the
damsel (that is, the anima in the Jungian sense) and the purified knight, make up
a synthesis expressive of the will to salvation.
To see a castle in your dream, signifies reward, honor, recognition, and praise for your achievements. You are destined to a position of power, wealth, and prestige. Alternatively, the dream indicates your desire to escape from life's daily problems.
To dream that you live in a castle, represents your extreme need for security and protection to the point where you may be isolating yourself from others. Perhaps the dream parallels a waking situation where it has put you on the defensive.
To dream of being in a castle, you will be possessed of sufficient wealth to make life as you wish. You have prospects of being a great traveler, enjoying contact with people of many nations.
To see an old and vine-covered castle, you are likely to become romantic in your tastes, and care should be taken that you do not contract an undesirable marriage or engagement. Business is depressed after this dream.
To dream that you are leaving a castle, you will be robbed of your possessions, or lose your lover or some dear one by death.
Seeing a castle in your dream means reward, honor, recognition, and praise for your achievements. It foretells that your future will be a happy one, surrounded by the love of your children, generosity of neighbors, and comfort of friends. You are destined to a position of power, wealth, and prestige. Dreaming that you live in a castle means your need for security and protection to the point where you may be isolating yourself from others.
A castle in a dream may be symbolic of the "cavern of the heart." It represents the home of the human spirit (yours) and the natural self. Dreams with castles in them may come from deeper levels of the unconscious, or the collective unconscious. They may represent spiritual transcendence and the mysterious and intangible force that seems to quietly, but firmly, direct our lives. A castle in a dream may also represent feelings of security, protection, isolation or remoteness. You may have a castle dream when you have realised a desire or accomplished a goal. Darkened castles may be symbolic of unconscious or unfocused desires, at times, black castles represent our failures and white, or lighted castles, symbolise achievement and awareness. If you dream that a castle is under siege, you may desire more freedom. If a castle is being destroyed, you may be worried about future dangers.
Dreaming of books indicates calmness. You will advance toward your goals at a slow and steady pace. Books also symbolize knowledge, intellect, information and wisdom. Consider the type of book. It may represent a significant calling into a specific field of work. Dreaming of dusty books indicates forgotten knowledge or previous "chapters" of your life. Dreaming of children's books, memories and a collection of personal memories from your own childhood. It may also suggest your desire to escape from reality and retreat into some fantasy world. Dreaming of a satanic book, symbolizes your one-sided way of thinking and looking at things. You are trying to denounce any responsibility in your actions and are putting forth a little effort as possible.
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.