Sometimes I think about dream symbolism. In general, I'm a person who accepts the simple logical reason for events over something more complex and flowery. But I also am constantly puzzling through the complexities of my emotions to find the true heart of why I do and think the things I do. What's interesting to me is how much I feel I learn about myself when considering the symbolism of my dreams. I definitely struggle believing some things of course. But many others have some foundation in reality, for me.
Over my life, I have often dreamed similar themes. Different dreams but groupings of similar events or feelings. I always wonder how common certain dreams are and how others perceive the same dream through their lens. So here is a countdown of the top themes I see in my own dreams.
10. Complex buildings or labyrinthian structures: The maze itself is not usually the focus of the dream but the background that the action takes place within. In the dream, I don't recognize that normal direction in reality would basically be impossible. I don't have these types super often but they are often vivid.
*I once dreamed of a highrise building with a modern elevator system but all the rooms were the dark and cramped victorian style with maximalist decor. There were no hallways and every room fed to another room, other apartments, or balconies without discretion. The dream ended on a balcony where I started floating up to the tops of higher buildings.
*In a different dream several years ago, it followed this strange Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and Taylor Swift amalgamation. Harley Swift was in this hotel, taking this back route out to avoid the crowds awaiting her. The path is full of these weird little 'instagramable' rooms. Gymnastics were involved, as well as several combinations of service elevators up and down. Along the way, her and a new friend stumble on this secret legendary party and all the doors are secret panels at the top of this room. There were a few narrow stairwells that were barely big enough for a single person to walk down. The room itself was hot pink with shimmering silver streamers and had Grand Budapest Hotel vibes. There were only like five other people in various stages of drunken stupor, all having the time of their lives in this weirdly tall little room.
9. Having some type of power or magic: This is not as prevalent as it once was, but it's pretty self-explanatory. I love fantasy worlds and my subconscious sometimes creates these super elaborate worlds with lore and story building. I have tried and failed so many times to flesh these out into actual stories. But at least they live in my head, I suppose.
*In one, there was this ranch of this magical woman named Willow. She wore a blue dress and apron, had a long gray fishtail braid, and fiery eyes. She would take in stray people and animals all the time. To some of them she was basically a mother. She always taught to use non-magical solutions before magical solutions. Her power was 'witch powers': she could enchant objects to work without supervision and instill comfort. In non-magical ways she was incredibly intuitive, smart, honest, and could heal almost anything that wanted to be healed. Her farm was full of misfits. I can't remember all of them but there were tens of tens that had already moved off the farm to their own lives. One such was a woman who looked like Morgana (from Merlin), who also had the power to enchant and forcefield. She didn't move far away because she saw Willow as her true mother. There were two sisters who were taken in, who ran away from their rich family who mistreated them because of their power. The younger sister didn't talk but has minimal healing power. The older sister is constantly trying to protect her. Her powers are brought on in passionate moments; destructive energy bursts. Willow had been teaching her how to better control it for good. There were at least five other magical children and a few non-magical adults. Willow died in an attack on the farm. Her braid was cut and hung around the front gate of the farm as protection, like she wanted. Her body was not yet buried when another attack came a few days later. The attackers set fire to the house and barn in the night. Most of the young huddled together and ran to Morgana's. Both the sisters and another girl (who had a power to shift any specific energy between people, objects, creatures, etc) tried to revive Willow. It was obviously frowned upon but she was the only one they saw who could fix everything. Specifically: the older sister was injured still but had learned to boost the magic energy of others and focused on the other two; the younger sister who could heal put every bit of herself in it and tried to increase her range, focusing on pieces at a time; the girl with energy transferal power pleaded for the memories of Willow from all the strays and the farm itself to plant their intent, she pulled energy from the dirt where she died and the places she spent the most time, she pleaded to close the loopholes of death and bring back the person they all knew. They could see her body taking back sentience just before I woke up.
*In a different one, there's this magic school which gave The Magicians vibes. There was something about experimenting with magical flowers and telekinesis. There's a hot guy who is using magic to steal stuff but he seems to steal something too powerful that he shouldn't have messed with. My friend with foresight thinks they need to flee and bring me along. It's night and there's moonlight shining into this dorm room. When I look at myself in the mirror my moonlight self has black eyes and tries to devour me. I managed to use another mirror to turn them towards each other so they devour each other. As I run away there are teachers and professors all over the place, just chaos, something magical broke. I have a deja vu of the girl who's upside down in the hallway with pink hair as a professor and I are laying in the hallway. I feel the pain of every person in the world at once and can hardly feel myself screaming.
8. Teeth loosening/falling out: I've only really started having these kinds of dreams in the last few years. The funny thing is that when I first started having these dreams, I used to freak out. When I woke up I'd check all my teeth. But nowadays when I have them, even in the dream, my reaction is 'welp, guess shit happens *shrug*'... Considering it's supposed to mean you're worried about change, I guess I just accept it as part of life. They usually are tacked onto the end of a different dream, ones that I don't usually remember very well. Like just when I'm starting to realize I'm in a dream.
7. Falling in love with/start feeling romantic feelings for people from real life: These are lowkey the worst dreams. I don't understand why my subconscious mind pulls shit out of nowhere. I literally have to fight and sort through such murky emotions that I know I don't feel. But being around that person gives me brain chemicals like I'm feeling love for them for real. These dreams have happened for multiple people throughout my life. I had a really really bad case of it like three times. I literally would go to bed normal and wake up obsessed with them. The desperate longing, the physical heartache, the fluttery butterflies: all a hit like a fucking addict. I have moved whole states to purge my system. From friends who I have genuine care for apart from my heart skittering out of control. The dreams themselves though: a romantic's paradise. The sweetest words, kisses, and touches. Realistic to their personality. The chemistry off the charts. But not a single truly real thing about any of it. Absolutely devastating.
*I had one of these the other day, and I'm so worried it'll happen again and morph into a monster. To be fair, dude is hot and even waking I'm like damn. All I remember is feeling his chest while he kissed up my neck and deliriously whispering that he had the lips of Adonis.
*In one of my worst cases, we were just hanging out in the dream until he looked at me. He's always had eyes that could see straight through me and take my emotional temp at a glance. His eyes said everything. He touched my hand and everything was so soft and close and intimate. Like making love without a single piece of clothing dropping. Though there were plenty of dreams with him where they did.
6. Needing to pee but people are always around and there's no doors: Also pretty self-explanatory. A dream I have only really started having often in the past five or so years. I almost always wake up just needing to pee in real life. But in the dream there's either no locks and people barge in or the stalls are super short or people won't leave me alone long enough to find a bathroom. Just an absolute lack of privacy that is annoying.
5. Being on a boat or near the water: I've had a few periods of time where every dream for months is somehow related to water. During the pandemic, I had a bunch of extremely vivid water dreams. I decided to try to turn a few of them into short stories...Still working on those, but the dreams themselves were these rich cinematic art pieces. When I was in high school, I had a similar theme of cold places, some of which were water-centric.
*In one dream, there is an middle aged woman and a younger woman hunting this assaulter in the early 1900s. They track him onto this ship trekking across the ocean. Something happens and the ship is sinking. The dream itself actually begins with them running down this dark hallway covered in like 6 inches of water after this man is trying to flee the ship. He runs down these stairs in fear but its completely submerged at the bottom. The women lock the steel gate separating them from him. The look of terror on his face at the realization of who they are and the situation. He pleads for forgiveness but without a single word they turn and leave him to his watery grave.
*In a weird one, it follows this ragged grieving sea captain who refuses to go back out on the water despite the pull towards it. He lives in a shanty on this huge pier and drinks. But one day he wakes and gives birth to 3 white doves. For the first time in years he feels something other than sorrow. He builds them a coop on the top of his shanty, but when he goes to put them in the coop, the doves turn into different fish. One by one they jump into the sea. They visit him and eventually he goes back out on the water.
4. Bodyguard/protector role: I often dream that I (or the character I inhabit/follow) is a fearless warrior, a protector. I dream that I can save people and be a hero. When I was in high school, that was a large portion of my dreams.
*I once dreamed I was a part of some black ops team whose mission was the extraction of a group that had gotten pinned down in a derelict skyscraper. There was a whole city of these empty derelict skyscrapers, all that was left after some war and the ensuing mass exodus. Empty office buildings and dirty apartments left from a more innocent time. Some friends were my other black ops members. We methodically searched the designated area but found no signs. As we entered an open room, bullets hailed in from the floor to ceiling broken windows. We returned fire but one member was hit. I dragged him behind some cover and apply first aid to a nasty wound on his shoulder. I leave him with another member and we navigate around the room. We shoot a zipline to the skyscraper on the other side, to a fire escape. I'm the first to rapple across and we all sneak up on our attackers. I wake up just as we find them.
*There's one where this bodyguard protects this daughter of some important man. The important man is somehow killed and the killers are after the daughter. The bodyguard and woman are separated and to protect herself, she flies to Tibet or something to hike this mountain trail and GET AWAY. The bodyguard tracks her flight info and knowing her well enough, knows where she is going. He knows that if he can track that info, the bad guys can too. So he follows her there but stays back to let her feel independence for the first in a long time. Only when there's an incident in one of the hostels along the trail does he step forward to help her. She is injured and he carries her to the end of the trail. She'd had a crush on him for a long time and she kisses him before I wake up.
3. Chased or attacked by snakes: When I was around 4 or 5, my older brother had caught a couple little gartner snakes and kept them in a tank. It was a mild summer so they stayed on the porch in the shade. We came back the next day and one had eaten the others. I had already been kinda creeped out by their leglessness, but I wasn't a fan. To this day, some of my most vivid nightmares are of snakes. Any time I see a picture of a snake, lead alone an actual snake, I get intense nightmares of being attacked by them.
*I actually vividly remember the first time I dreamed about snakes. Around that same time, 4 or 5, I dreamed we were on that porch with some of my brother's friends and they were handling the little gartner snakes. One of the snakes jumped down and quickly slithered up my pant leg, into my underwear, and inside me. To say I have felt a little traumatized by that dream since is an understatement.
*When I was older, I dreamed I was alone, walking out on this tropical dock. Beautiful clear water all around, palm trees and lush undergrowth. Staring out at this relaxing evening view, I spot this ripple in the water with a little head sticking out. This bright red snake with an aggressively spiky triangular head is swimming right at me. I start freaking out and backing back down the dock. It slithers up on the dock and hisses while coming at me. Suddenly I feel the heft of a machete in my hand and I swing at it just as it lunges for me. Beheading it causes a spray of blood to coat me. As I look up, the water is all a wriggling mass of angry red spiky snakes. I had to wake myself up from that one.
2. Death of loved ones: Especially when I am feeling down or anxious, these insidious dreams fuck with my wellbeing. I had them a lot as a kid and it made me really clingy. I still have them somewhat regularly and it's always a punch to the stomach. I often wake up from these because I'm crying. For obvious reasons, I don't want to talk about specifics.
1. Sex or romance with professors/teachers: Apparently I have a kink. Oh well. By far my most common dream theme is romance and desire. But further breaking that down a large percentage is fucking teachers apparently. I have million snippets in my dream journals that are just some description of a vague romance with a professor. Like 90% of the time it's not even actual people I know, just a generic hot person whose profession is teaching.
*In one I'm a young woman with a crush on her aloof teacher. It's the last two weeks of some school year and he never really shows any emotions, but its extremely attractive to me for some reason. We brush past each other one day, in a hall or elevator or something, and I feel the desperation course through my body. I tell him I'd like a meeting with him for grade stuff. He tells me 'why? you have nothing to be worried about. you have the highest grade in the class.' But I insist. He thinks on it a moment, looking into my eyes, and asks me to his office after school before leaving abruptly. Later, as soon as the office door closes, we're on each other. Pushing each other into the walls while desperately kissing and touching. At one point he sees the clock and remembers he's supposed to be somewhere. He gives me time to put myself back in order before we both leave the office. We walk to his car and there's not much conversation. Before he leaves though it's made clear we'll be spending more time together. The middle of the dream is a hazy montage of him purposely brushing past me in class, kissing in dark little rooms, sex on top of desks, and witty suggestive little conversations in between. We're not exactly spending every moment together, neither of us searching the other out, but when we cross paths we want each other. At one point there's a big concert I want to go to. At this point, we're in a place where if he sees me outside after school, he'll invite me to his car and drive me wherever I was heading. On one of these rides, possibly the last couple days of school, I mention the concert and he gets a strangely emotional look (kinda angry kinda devastated but very quick) before asking me to come with him. I think it's odd but I agree. He tells me he had bought the tickets a long time ago for him and his ex-fiance. We stop somewhere empty and fuck in the grass. Then back to the same neutral emotions before he drops me close to home. At this point at school, everyone seems to have their suspicions about us including school officials but no one has ever explicitly caught us and I'm of consenting age. Night of the concert is on the last day of school. I tell my parents I'm going with my friend 'Carmella'. I can't remember any of the concert other than the kiss cam showing us already kissing. This seems to upset him a little but never overly. We go back to his car and make out before he takes me home. I get into a big argument with my dream-parents about the concert and they want to see a picture of me and 'Carmella'. (I made a note at the end of the entry that this is probably because I watched Flower. "This teacher reminds me of that teacher a little bit, especially in looks, which oof")
*In one very interesting twist, on valentine's day eve no less, I dreamed I was trying to flirt with and impress a professor (Katie McGrath) with my knowledge of Aphrodite, only for her to reveal herself as Aphrodite.
So yeah, dreams are super interesting and I love hearing about them. What are common themes in your dreams? 🔮
