Who´s Who in the World of Dreams

Interpreting the meaning of people in our dream world can be notoriously difficult. As a Tarot reader it reminds me of trying to figure out what a court card (Queens, Kings, Knights and Pages) in a reading represents. It could be an actual person that the client knows or it could be a part of their own personality or it could be the characteristics of the card that the client should nurture or be aware of. To unravel the meaning it is important to look beyond the obvious.

It´s easy to assume that a person who shows up in our dreams such as a family member, a friend or work colleague represents exactly the same person that we know in waking life. Studies have shown that people who have positive dreams about people they like or the opposite (a dream highlighting the negative qualities of a person they don´t like) are much more likely to give credence to those dreams because they mirror their waking life prejudices and judgements.

This is a simplistic way of looking at a very complex part of dream exploration. It is of course possible that a person we know appears in the dream as just that person. This tends to be the case when the dream has a precognitive quality or the person has some concrete advice for us or maybe the dream is asking us to relay a message to that person which is significant. I once had a dream about a friend of mine and felt strongly compelled to share it with him before he embarked on a trip during which he had some experiences that seemed to have been foreshadowed in my dream.

However, here are some other possibilities of what it could mean to have an encounter with a dream person we may are may not know in waking life.

According to Jungian dream analysis we might be shown our masculine side, the animus in women or our feminine side, the anima in men. This can give vital clues to the state of our Self, the process of individuation and the (im)balance between our female and male parts. For example, my dreaming mind likes to use male actors to demonstrate the state of my animus which can be quite entertaining.

If a woman encounters a female dream character towards whom she feels a dislike or other strong negative emotions, chances are that we are being confronted with our shadow self. Here again the dream encourages us to integrate the parts of ourselves we may have suppressed and shunned to bring about healing and wholeness. It is important to examine what it is that we react to in those personalities and how this might apply to us in waking life.

Sometimes a dream person shows us certain character traits that would be useful for us to adopt at the present time or that hinder us from moving forward depending on the other messages in the dream.

If we dream of a loved one who has died and it is particularly vivid we may be experiencing a ¨dream visit¨. The dream state is where we can leave ordinary reality and connect with the unseen worlds including the one inhabited by those who have passed on.

Dreams can also be a vehicle to compensate or comfort us when waking life is particularly challenging. In that case we may dream of a person that gives us a feeling of wellbeing, love and safety.

Our dream world is a complex landscape where multiple layers of meaning and interpretation operate. The people who inhabit this world can appear in many guises and it can be challenging but also immensely rewarding to get to know them better.