dream symbols
Nocturnal vision motifs
Dream symbols are images, objects, or scenarios in dreams that are thought to carry psychological or prophetic meaning beyond their literal content.
The concept is central to dream interpretation, from ancient divination to Freudian psychoanalysis: Water in dreams supposedly represents emotion; falling suggests anxiety.
Dream dictionaries catalog these purported meanings, though most psychologists consider them unreliable—the same symbol may mean different things to different dreamers.
- third eyeMetaphysical perception organ
- lotus flowerAquatic bloom, spiritual symbol
- animusDeep-seated hostility
- angel wingsEthereal flight appendages
- shadowLight blocked by object
light beam · yin-yang · spirit animal · white horse · phoenix · ouroboros · wise old man · sacred geometry · mask · falling · lost teeth · labyrinth · locked room · broken mirror · teeth · dark forest · dragon · mandala
- dreamsnightmare, nightmares, daydreams, REM sleep, dreamscape
- Dream Typesnightmares, night terrors
- dream loreJacob's ladder, nightmares, night visions, prophetic visions
- dreams in artsurrealism, dreamscape, night visions, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte
- Literary Symbolsmotifs, archetypes, emblems, iconography, imagery
- Unconsciousid, ego, superego, repression, impulses
dream symbolsdirect experience
Unmediated personal encounter
plain speech · surface meaning · rational discourse · logical analysis · literal interpretation
dream symbolswaking life
Conscious daily experience
physical reality · external world · objective reality · empirical data · material facts
dream symbolsempirical evidence
Proof from measurable observation
objective reality · hard evidence · physical reality · scientific data · material evidence
dream, dreams, dreamed, dreaming, dreamer, dreamers, dreamy, dreamlike, dreamless