Dreams, Symbolism, and Navigating the Inner Landscape

 

When dreamers first begin to navigate the depths of their inner realms, the question inevitably comes up: “What does it mean?” We want something concrete to grab onto, something to give some shape to the fevered haze we drifted through. We turn to dream dictionaries, online references, and other people’s interpretations of what we have lived through, but sometimes those meanings are like moats without bridges. There is no personal connection to the definitions, so we convince ourselves that “because someone said it” we should apply it to our inner depths. This is only human…. We turn to each other for advice and recommendations as we should sometimes. The problem is that the nature of symbolism is not uniform or always held neatly in a collective text. We do the work to search other sources for symbolism, yes, but when coyote is just reduced to “trickster”, why did it genuinely make friends?

 The Request

Often, my inbox is flooded with questions about people’s dreams… What do they mean? I’m adept in the dream world and talk about lucidity a lot, so surely, I must know! The truth is that I don’t know all the answers to the questions and experiences your inner mythos is bringing forth for you. Each person’s inner landscape is completely unique… Of course, we can have similarities, but clones do not exist in the dream world. This post is inspired to help others avoid some pitfalls they may slip into when they delve into the elusive and nutritive soil of their Soulscapes.

 Schemas and Free Association

Schemas are basically mind maps we create to make sense of the world and to allow things to relate to one another. They categorize information to understand the world better. It is said that the best authors and writers are the ones who have big, powerful schemas. Their wells of information connect through cognitive webs and crosspoints, drawing fantastic stories and ideas together in ways we had not previously imagined them. This is a gift! So, if I say, “Carrot,” and I ask you to list a bunch of words that carrots make you think of, you will probably come up with things related by color or shape: Orange, cone, creamsicle, Fanta, sunset, jumpsuit, autumn, or pumpkins. All those things have something in common, so your brain has created a mind-link that makes it easier for you to access them. Sometimes though, our connections between objects are not immediately obvious to others. I say, “Skeletons,” you think, “Closets.” But then I say, “Honeybee,” and you think, “Airport.” Upon closer inspection, we find that you tasted your first jar of orange blossom honey in an airport as a child while you were waiting to return home from a trip. Your mind map is very different from someone who associates the word “honeybee” with “ice cream truck” because the truck used a honeybee logo on its side. Just as our mind maps are highly unique, so are our dreams which connect to those maps consciously and unconsciously… This alters meaning at a fundamental level.

Our schemas are one of the mind-maps that influence our ability to “free associate.” Sometimes in dreams interpretations, a human guide seeking to help us find some answers might ask us to “free” associate what we experienced with whatever comes to mind. They want us to do something slightly different from accessing a schema, but the fact is that this is hard to do. They are hoping that we will draw something up from our unconscious realm when we let our control mechanisms take a back seat and let what arises in our minds freely appear. Without further introspection, a practitioner may not be recognizing that your seemingly unassociated conceptualizations are just linked to memories that have little to do with your dreams themselves. Sometimes you may be completely unaware of why you linked one thing to another. How many things per day do we not notice, even as our unconscious mind stores the data somewhere? (Often.)

Carl Jung felt that when free association was used too liberally, it could lead dream seekers farther away from their inner selves. The idea is that our schemas and “free” associations are sometimes restrictors because they lead us to the outer valences of irrelevant experiences (to the dream) rather than leading us inward to where we can experience an answer. Jung felt that perhaps there would be a greater reward from simply noting the shape or form of the dream rather than attempting to connect it to something and hoping it would land on a revelation relevant to our buried meanings.

I think that sometimes schemas and free associations can lead us where we need to go, but more often than not, the richer marrow of our inner mythos is much deeper than those applications can mobilize. But if our consciousness can’t be fully trusted, how do we achieve refinement and interpretation? In come our “whys” and our senses.

 The Thing About Symbolism

The funny thing about symbolism is that it is mostly subjective. Human brains have evolved to make sense out of messes and to create definitions from white noise. However, with dreams and inner selves, there is far more than a collective. Each dream is individuated and personal to one’s inner unconscious. We may have some symbols that mostly mean the same thing from person to person (ex: swastikas which have been tainted by the way in which they were once used), but there is still a world of nuance and spectral shift from person to person.

When you dream of a house, online resources suggest that it represents an invitation to explore more of your inner self… Perhaps this is true on some level. However, the state of the house (empty, clean, messy, decorated, etc.) is where things get a little too rigid. An empty house is thought to be representative of someone’s insecurity… but what if that isn’t the case? Say someone’s inner landscape feels pure excitement when their internal blueprint navigates their memory of the first time they moved into their dream house. This “snapshot” is embedded in the conscious and unconscious minds and holds specific meaning for the individual as opposed to what someone else’s experience might have been with the same concept. Maybe the empty house represents a clean slate, possibility, or one’s deeper connection to Soul satisfaction.

When it comes to dream interpretation, it is easy to begin nesting in someone else’s imagination. It does not mean that they were wrong about what they were living or experiencing, but how it applies will vary from person to person. The inner mythos is like a rolling vein… Hard to pin down or extract universal wisdom from when we try to force it to obey or insist on it reducing itself to a fine point. The entire essence of it is that it is ours and no one else’s. We cannot delve into the realm of the pre-packaged (even if it has good intentions) and expect to find the Medicine we want most of the time. My method is Jungian, and while he has his highs and lows in his work, I think he was onto something when he stressed the importance of finding one’s own interpretations.

 How Do We Excavate the Wealth of Our Inner Realms?

There are a wide variety of techniques, and most are entire life paths… Everyone must find what works for them. Of course, there are parapsychologists and dream experts that may have some specific ideas that help. My advice is simple: Take nothing at face value. Delve into the adventures (inner and outer) that you have and define your inner archetypes (a typical or reoccurring symbol or experience playing out in the collective) for yourself. Jung created tons of archetypes, and of course, those are going to resonate, at least in part, for many of us. The problem is that we take this landscape as a mandate and adopt it as our own Inner Law. Ruling with an iron fist like this shuts the door we are trying to explore. So what can we do? We start with our conscious waking state becoming fully perceived and make it habitual so that we take the skill back with us into the dreamworld… The inner can feed the outer, and the outer the inner (“As above, so below.”) If you were to create your own archetypes right now without looking at someone else’s copybook, how would they take shape? What adventures, mannerisms, and meanings would they have? What is truly taking place inside yourself? It starts with an investigation and asking questions… I know, we all wanted something a little more mystical.

Think about how often you live through someone else’s definitions. We are not judging ourselves or the experiences… Chances are, they served as well at many points, but Cinderella’s shoe isn’t going to fit the whole kingdom. As an example, consider the zodiac. By Vedic standards, the tropical system is considered to literally be “outdated” or more specifically, misdated at this point… But many of us still use that system. The thing is that archetypes, symbols, and guide maps shift and change as we do. I am in no way dismissing anyone who has found nutriment or identity through their natal charts, tropical or otherwise, because to some, they may apply rather heavily. But why do we accept that most of April means “Aries” or that a Scorpio graces the stage of November? Let us say that we take someone else’s words for granted and just decide to use the labels… That’s fine! It may even help us stay organized, but what does it mean for us individually? How do we connect to Cancer the crab and why? How has the Aries ram been a vehicle for our consciousness to experience itself through the lens of our lives? Aren’t just a few words on a horoscope chart a little reductive? When we go even deeper and play with the complexities of someone’s birth chart, why do we accept the themes that arise? Generally, the zodiac signs represent “potentials” for us, so can we delineate how much of those “truths” we are claiming?

There are many people who just do not fit into the standard scripts, and few of us fit into them perfectly at all times. Collective archetypes are not gloves… They don’t fit every finger of our psyches. They are over-generalizations of trends that can sometimes even be outdated. What if some of us aren’t living those stories anymore? (A lot of archetypes are kinda outdated and not everyone relates to gender-coded terminologies like anima and animus.) Constellations are pictures that ancient people drew in the stars. They projected what they meant to them onto their recordings at the time.

My invitation just encourages you to know your “whys” and dig a little deeper. (I should by no means be credited for this advice since it has been gleaned from many wise teachers and lucid-dreaming friends who came before me and shared this tip! It is often broadly applied to spiritual topics, but is well-suited to the realm of lucid dreaming.) What if we are lacking in our own imaginations or treading on tired ground just because we haven’t consulted our Inner Selves for the answers? We are so much more expansive than that, and I am fascinated with the sometimes shocking and otherworldly messages someone can receive when they allow their authenticity to emerge. The ability to go Within is innate but often lies dormant. Like our shrinking hippocampuses with the invention of GPS technology, our inner compasses, and microscopic lenses can get a little rusty. The good news is that it just takes practice and radical self-honesty to revitalize this gift. It also takes quite a bit of bravery because our human brains easily fear the unknown (If I take a step, will the Universe catch me?). This skill allows you to live your most real self and is the first initiation into the realm of dream interpretation.

By all means, love your folklore… Feel your heart in another person’s story. Get your zodiac sign or symbology tattooed on your inner wrist so that it can serve you nearby. But take some time to identify what pictures, symbols, experiences, and even words mean to you personally… Chances are, how much they vary from “the culturally accepted” will be startling. Our inner beings are somewhat shaped by our outer landscapes, it is true, but the “filter” system we use literally makes a world of difference. Most of the time we need to let go of the middleman and breathe in the many elements of ourselves on our own.

Neurodivergence and Authenticity

          I cannot speak for all neurodivergent people, nor can I speak for all autistic people, even though I am autistic. However, an emergence many have noticed is that neurodivergent people tend to live life outside the lines. Often this is demonized because we remind the collective of the innate realm that unnerves them. When we act on our inspiration, rather than playing social games 24/7 or doing what is “accepted” just because, the collective correction’s officer rears its head… It says, “You’re weird. You can’t sit with us. You remind us too much of what we wanted to forget a little longer.” In simple terms, our inner freedom scares them. I put this paragraph in to uplift my fellow autistic and neurodivergent friends who are anchors for authenticity in our world. We live with sincerity and dance with the body of “original” Self more often than the majority does. I am proud of us, for bringing this here. It is not always easy to live in a body or mind that deviates from the “norm.” Many people do what they do because they followed in someone else’s footsteps, and we all need to do that sometimes. Not every piece of advice or custom is bad… But we consult the “just because” much less often than the mainstream does. For this reason, we bring something inspirational and noteworthy to this plane.

The Purpose of Meaning 

So, what is the purpose of chasing these silly streamers of Self? What is meaning? Meaning is just a definition we assign to something. Too often, we accept what someone else decided was “true” without even questioning it. Many schools of spiritual thought believe that life and existence inherently have no meaning. What we project onto stimuli and experience is the most key part of having consciousness, because we are one piece of the Universe seeking to understand what it is. Why limit it? Give it your lens when you can, not a copy of someone else’s. We’ve all heard “Know Thyself” but are often at a loss as to how to get started. I hope that these subtle starting points help get your juices flowing.

Often, the meaning changes… We live through different perspectives. Perhaps our inner map transforms and we undertake the Hero’s Journey (or a Heroine’s journey or an inner journey in general) all over again from scratch. Maybe the mental lily pad you landed on last week is suddenly too small for your “feet” and you have to re-evaluate what shifted. Fine-tuning one’s senses, physical and psychic, are key to recognizing these alterations (This is the second initiation for many people who want to access the truest form of themselves from moment to moment… It will keep you on your toes because it is not a static experience. Also, if you rely more on some physical senses than others for any reason, that is totally okay! Your level of ability will not preclude you from explorations of the inner self.) For this, there are many lessons (think Franz Bardon’s exercises from Initiation into Hermetics) available for you to integrate and practice to build your skill set.

Part of cultivating our most resonant meaning from moment to moment is refining our imagination. What is this strange entity when it is perfected? It is perfect knowledge of what it feels like to have your experiences. It is a being that does not accept any definition it does not make into a part of itself. This takes many lifetimes to develop because they can always broaden and deepen. In our dreams, our senses can get a bit twisted… Physics has shifted its ephemeral body a little to the right and seeing clearly is practically a peripheral estimate in many instances. Don’t let this discourage you. Re-orientation is not just possible… It is endemic to your inner spheres.

 Journey of Self

Time and space work differently in our inner life and in our dreams. Right now in our human development, the unknown aspects to our inner selves are usually neglected and relegated (or esteemed) as something reserved for monks and sages to explore. We want the shamans to go on their trips and do all our inner work for us. Alas, this is not how the inner Lotus unfolds. Our footsteps through our cosmic interiors are the most useful catalysts to discovering our most pure (undistilled) truths. Feel free to talk to teachers when you get stuck and share your inner pathways with others… Sometimes we find parallels and conjunctions that bridge our shifting blueprints and help us find interstellar companions. My addendum is to not live your Inner or Outer life imprisoned by someone else’s geometric configuration of the universe. The collective is important, but so is your individuation. Your travels to your inner dimensions along with your “whys” and “why nots” (your reasons) are the gateways (It’s 11:11 as I write this!) where your meanings blossom into significance. Board the ship and see how many kernels and facets of Self pollinate your consciousness. The journey of self is everlasting… It is our perspective that gardens the Soul’s Labyrinth into context.