Musings on Dreams

Whenever you have a strange dream, you can wake up and go “What the heck was that about?” and it could turn out to be nonsense, but it may also have symbolism placed beneath its veil. The dream interpretation books can either have some helpful insight into dreams, or have simply ludicrous oracle-style answers for what the author believed certain dreams meant. However, when it comes down to it, only you can know what your dream or dreams truly mean. They can reflect your goals and aspirations, anxieties you have, the feelings you have towards life and different people, or show you want you really want out of life.

It’s possible that a dream may have come from beyond yourself as well. God, Destiny, your Soul, the Universe, someone or something could be telling you something important in your life from your dream. None of that matters if you don’t seek the meaning yourself. Dreams have hidden meanings behind them, but those meanings are usually hidden in plain sight.  There is no textbook definition to what a dream means, only you can define it by and for yourself.

Within a multitude of my favorite books, characters are guided by their dreams and seek meaning within them. Percy Jackson of Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” often dreams of the past, current events, or future dangers to come, but those dreams are often unclear to him. Within the first book of the series in a dream he sees two warriors fighting alongside a storming beach, arguing about something that has been stolen. Later he sees a horse and an eagle fighting along the shores as well. Although he did not know it at the time, these dreams symbolize the conflict between the gods Zeus and Poseidon.

 Even within “The Tale of Despereaux” our favorite little mouse dreams of an empty suit of armor fighting in the dark, only to realize the armor was meant for him, that he was to be the knight fighting in the darkness.  It is not the dream itself that matters, but the characters who must realize what the dream means to them.

While pursuing significance in your night visions is indeed something that can be used in practical motivation for the everyday world, the idea of literally traveling through dreams for a goal has been a favorite of mine for any written work. While I believe lucid dreaming is possible, I have never experienced it, so the idea of a dream world that you can control and walk through is very appealing to me. The idea that your innermost self could be presented to you in a physical manner to explore is both an exhilarating and terrifying idea.

Overall, dreams contain secrets that only you can create and locate. Whether you do and what your interpretations are can help define yourself while you define them. Therefore, dreams are powerful, but only as powerful as you make them. You can use them to make you stronger still. All you must do is pursue them.