SherryliciousMmmmm's blog: "Dream Interpretations"

Dreaming of these places reflects a feeling of having choices or even too many choices. It may also be a reminder that you have not been careful with your money of late.

Depending on your status as a potential buyer, being in a mall may reflect your sense of power or competency given the choices you have. If the choices all reflect items you would find in a waking-world store or mall, the items you are most drawn to may be the objects of central meaning in a dream. The salespeople you are bumping into may be significant if they are familiar. Perhaps you feel as though you owe somebody something or someone expects particular actions from you.

Are the items that you want missing or available in abundance? This may be a metaphor of the balance, or lack thereof, in facets of your life.

Are clerks unable to assist you in finding your needs? Perhaps you are looking outside yourself for growth that can only come from within.

The cave is the archetypal place of initiation. Caves are the first and most sacred of human dwelling places. As such, people may often feel a primordial sense of attraction to caves in their dreams. Initiation is the Jungian term for becoming a Self in the transition from childhood to maturity. Jung contends that there are rites of passage that need to be completed. The cave is often the place this is done. For much of human history, caves have been sacred places of shelter from the world; the place that became the extent of a person's kingdom in the face of uncertainty and peril. While the cave itself may not be a central image any longer, we have many metaphors for it.

These include small rooms with a sacred or significant object of our past in them, small bedrooms or studies, basement workshops, or other places of solitude and silence. There is also something in such a space that confronts you-not necessarily in an endangering way, but an existential one. This grappling is the business of the cave. To make peace with the object of your grappling is the act of initiation.

If your dream includes leaving the cave, you will probably feel a new unity with the world upon your departure. It's a far cry from being disillusioned; the peace you feel comes from a fuller sense of participation and belonging in the cosmos.

Sexual dreams are not about sex exclusively. Often they are about how we perceive people and how we think others perceive us. To construct a framework for interpreting sexual dreams, it is important to identify who is with us in the dream and how we feel about the experiences being had while dreaming.

Certain dreams are simply romantic. Boy and girl meet in the dream state and find themselves enjoying one another. This scenario commonly involves an attractive acquaintance and a generally pleasing environment. There is no violation of taboo, except for a sense that perhaps things are moving a little fast in the nocturnal relationship. Often, the dreamer has simply acted upon a desire for a relationship with a particular person.

Other dreams begin to press on the boundaries of our taboos. These include dreams with sexual content the dreamer would consider inappropriate in waking, but participates in during the dream. These dreams can be very troubling. One can wake up feeling as though a rape was committed, a fidelity violated, or that innocence has been stripped away. Dreams of this nature may require some more thorough examination.

Identifying the who or what that has generated discomfort is an important first step. Was it a boss, coworker, friend? Someone much older or younger than you with whom you have an affectionate, but platonic relationship? Or was it the nature of the encounter-coerced, cheating, public, or whatever-that is the most distinct feature of the dream? Who was forcing whom? Was it a stranger who reminded you of someone you know? Representation and displacement relationships are often components of sexual dreaming.

Some of these dreams indicate our own ambivalence about taboos. There is, after all, something exciting about what is forbidden. In other cases, we are expressing our own frustration with a sex life that is not satisfying. Still other times, others have violated our boundaries and we respond by perceiving them as taking unmerited favors from us.

In all of these cases, the dreams are worth noting and studying. By looking into what you may find abhorrent at first, you will see aspects of your personality and the relationships around you that have gone mostly unnoticed. Perhaps most importantly, you will become more aware of the various facets of your personality in those relationships.

Being individually abandoned by a significant other can represent a feeling of insecurity in a relationship. This may reflect concerns about the feelings of another towards you. Are you genuinely receptive to the idea of being loved and valued, or do you view another's affection as a put-on?

Perhaps you view yourself as lovable as you are known, but fear that more revelation about you will lead to isolation. This could be especially true if there is a taboo experience being kept secret from the person who has abandoned you (e.g., marital infidelity). Dreams of this nature may be recurring if as a child your parents extended only conditional affection towards you.

You may see yourself as completely abandoned. This can represent a major sense of being unable or unworthy to fit into society. In this type of dream, you may not be alone in a physical sense, but lack connection with the people around you. Self-esteem issues, taboo experiences, or your ability to receive love should be areas of investigation.

People who view themselves as completely abandoned within a dream often find themselves lacking connection in many day-to-day relationships or experiences.

Lastly, you may see yourself as ritually abandoned. This dream experience finds others leaving you for your own good.

Where have you left unfinished business in relationships with others?

Conversely, have others left your expectations unmet or altogether unrecognized?

With the tremendous interest in angels these days, it is not surprising that they are becoming frequent characters in dreams as well. Pictures of angels, stories of angels, and a popular spirituality of angels have put the images and imaginations of angels in our collective unconscious.

The word angel literally means messenger. Often, delivery of a particular message in the dream is the role filled by these beings. As the needs arise, they may provide additional help to the dreamer beyond simply delivering information. Since so many religions and contemporary worldviews have made room for angels in their view of the universe, this topic needs to be broken down a little more. Jung had room in his worldview for spirit guides.

These were apparitions that shared both knowledge and insight. This insight came as dialogue. Consequently, the Jungian angel was something of a spiritual mentor.

Religious angels have usually served more as ambassadors. They come with specific information, but not much dialogue. They are dispatched for specific purposes. Revelation, not dialogue, is the mission of the angel in this context.

Beginning with popular literature of the 1970s, angels have become more involved with tangible needs of this world. Tires are repaired, oncoming traffic is diverted, and rickety homes are preserved from the weather by angels. This seems to be a reflection on the growing interest in finding a reliable help in a malevolent world.

Angels also have become, in a sense, the sort of instant wish-granter that the character Kazoo was to Fred Flintstone in The Flintstones TV cartoon show. Kazoo was a green alien being who appeared when Fred needed help-he provided free favors and magical tricks. Some folks dream of angels helping them out in this way. In this sort of case, the dreamer may be turning toward an actual friend in real life to give them something.

Many angels in dreams represent help from an unknown and unseeable origin to survive a difficult situation. The dreamer is turning out into the unknown, expecting help from beyond his or her actual means. This could be called wish-projection.

Finally, the angel may be what the name implies: a message.

To discern which type of angel you have in your dreams requires some energy on your part. Does your worldview include the possibility of such beings? If not, you can probably move into wish-projection pretty easily.

Did your angel speak or act mysteriously without verbalizing?

If the angel spoke, what was the content?

If the angel merely acted, what was the nature of the action?
What area of your life seems to be needing a special solution that exceeds your resources? Do you feel emotionally unsupported in one of your personal quests or spiritual struggles?

Consequently, we work these figures into our dream lives when events in our lives seem to empathize with what we know of public figures.

Often, politicians, like celebrities, pop into our dreams for no reason other than the fact that we are bombarded with images of them on a daily basis. What may be important, though, is your waking-life perceptions of the politician who appears in your dream.