Dream Dictionary

Houses and Buildings are structures that represent aspects of your inner architecture. The house can personify personal aspects in how the mind is compartmentalized. Buildings and public places relate more to work issues, or feelings of seeking acknowledgment in social interaction.

Commonly, you will dream of a house from childhood with some new additions, representing the way that the self is constructed in childhood, although it continues to evolve as you explore potential and change over time.

Specific rooms are associated with aspects of the self and its decoration and architecture can portray your emerging ‘style.’ If the architecture seems grand or expansive, the message can be about opening or broadening your outlook. Palatial spaces can sometimes represent a fear of intimacy. When the walls seem constricting or dingy, the message can signify how your own ideas limit you. If the decoration has animal patterns, the message can be about being more grounded and earthy. If the room is well lit, you are exploring ideas in active consciousness; if dark - whatever is being explored is presently unknown or untapped within you. See also Colors.

The attic signifies higher thought or spiritual ideas, but can also suggest the ideas you store and collect or how you must ‘climb upward’ or raise consciousness to sort through what you no longer need to store and protect. The attic can be associated with the critical tapes of conscience where you explore self limiting ideas.

The basement is the subconscious or area of the self that you keep ‘below the surface.’ Commonly, you will dream of basements when you are going through therapy and sorting through the past. New or undiscovered rooms will suggest aspects of the self you are unaware of, but are currently being explored for potential. The ‘living’ room is a social place to explore interactions with others and your mindset in meeting others, while the ‘bed’ and ‘bath’ rooms are representative of ‘coming clean’ or exploring your sexuality. These types of dreams bring these ideas to the forefront specifically because you are not open to them during the day. If your house is shifting on the foundation, sliding or crumbling, perhaps negative ideas need to crumble as a representation of how your foundation of beliefs must be renewed over time. See Natural DisastersandPlumbing.

Apartments and hotels can symbolize exploring temporary changes in perspective. Windows relate to seeing beyond limitations or taking in a broader view.

The ‘family’ room houses family dynamics at play in relationships and social situations, while the office portrays work and issues relating to how you are currently providing for yourself or your role and sense of achievement in life. The hearth or fireplace often symbolizes your sense of heritage and what you hold to be sacred. Since it is associated with fire, the idea of family dynamics and emotional well being are being portrayed.

Hallways are places of transition, where you meet others in ‘neutral space’ and often appear when you are exploring choices or going through a transition. The ‘front’ yard or garden is what you are making of yourself for ‘public view.’ The ‘back’ yard is suggestive of more organic aspects, which are not made obvious to others. Focusing on foliage or growth in a garden can symbolize how you are nourishing developing traits. You often discover or search for something or explore the correctness of your behavior ‘in the bushes’ or ‘in the shadows.’

Buildings sometimes appear as rickety structures, representing how you grow to meet a future that has not yet been erected or ‘solidified.’ Buildings can be places in which you are lost or searching for something, as in the case of searching for a new identity when changing jobs. By traveling to a specific floor or level of consciousness, you can also find yourself outside of your work building or on the roof as you take an objective view of leaving a job because the ceiling isn't high enough. Stairs going up can symbolize exploring aspirations, while stairs going down symbolize retracing steps or understanding the root of your motivation. The floor of a structure can be indicative of levels of awareness or may be associated with the meaning of the number involved: See Numbers. You stand on the ground floor of awareness and travel upward to achieve your ideals, or downward to find those things that you keep hidden below. Elevators and escalators in a building can also symbolize aspirations or how your upward or downward journey feels orchestrated beyond your control.

The roof of a structure shows limitations. As a setting of activity, something taking place on a roof can portray your desire to break through barriers in achieving your ambitions. When the ‘sky is the limit’ the ceiling can block your ambitions, suggesting how self-defeating ideas may be blocking your ability to discover success.

Opening a door suggests objectivity or discovery associated with the symbolism of where the door may lead. The door can lead to certain rooms as a way of opening to the area associated with that room. Doors can mean many things: boundaries and unblocking potential, while knocking is often a sexual symbol. The ‘front’ door leads you ‘out’ into the world, suggesting the barrier between the self and the social realm. The ‘back’ and ‘side’ doors allow for an ‘escape’ or for ‘intruder’ like characters who appear as aspects of you that remain unacknowledged and integrated. See Shadow and Attack and Being Chased.

A church is obviously spiritual, but can often suggest how religious ideas are holding you back in some way. Sometimes you may find yourself looking for a ‘key’ in a church as a way of suggesting how self-criticism and/or severe conscience is trapping your organic nature through illness or dis-ease. See Key under Purses, Wallets, Luggage, Jewels and Keys.

A school suggests learning experiences or being measured against others in your abilities where the teacher can represent wisdom from your higher Self. The library can represent communication or ideas that you store. Searching through books can symbolize exploring ideas adopted in the past, and how they affect your view of the present. Being given a book can symbolize direction from higher sides of you. A gymnasium is a place of competition and often appears when you are learning to balance two sides or conflicting desires. the locker room combines the idea of competition and recognition, with changing identity since you store your valuables in a locker. The factory often appears when you are exploring how learning new skills can increase your effectiveness and worth in the market. A warehouse shows your reserves or what you are falling back on or exploring during crisis. The warehouse is also a symbol of where old ideas are stored.

A hospitalis a place of personal crisis; or where you might find ‘critical’ care when you are out of options in making a change. You may visit the hospital in a dream as a message about getting help with the transition. Being in a hospital is often a sign that you are not aware of how your thinking is holding you back. It is often a call for help when you are not moving easily through a type of transformation. Hospitals and emergency rooms can also represent ‘new life’ or the place where you are ‘born’ into a new way of interacting. When doctors and nurses offer you advice, you should give the message careful consideration as an aspect that may enhance your ‘well-being.’

A shopping center reflects ‘shopping’ for new ways of being and exploring a sense of self worth and values. Markets and shopping areas also show how you are exploring commerce and work when you are making a change. Restaurants and cafes often appear in dreams when you are exploring how your path might lead to better fulfillment. The waiter or waitress can symbolize traits within you that you are not considering that can allow your work to become for fulfilling.