Since I rarely have the luxury to sleep until I wake up naturally these days, it’s rare that I remember any of my dreams more than fleetingly. But I had another “house” dream last night, this one quite pleasant. I’ve been having house dreams since I can remember, although the house is never the same, and sometimes isn’t really a house. The first one I remember clearly and the only one I’ve ever repeated involved a long low golden stucco type house with endless rooms full to varying degrees of fallen leaves. I wasn’t alone, but don’t remember how many people or who was with me. There was also—somewhere in the house—a panther, and we were trying to avoid having it find us. It’s not easy to be quiet when you’re walking in dead leaves.
Another one involved a huge gorgeous Victorian gabled house with gingerbread trim and a big front hallway where we picknicked with a bunch of aliens. One house dream was in a cozy little cottage filled with plants that happened to be owned by Pete Townshend (long before the recent child porn scandal). One was about a huge complex filled with machinery owned by my nightmare boss from my first job out of college (another avoidance dream). One of the more recent ones saw my sister and I scrambling to save all our stuff from a flood of monster proportions. It wasn’t any of our real houses from childhood, but it sure felt like it in the dream.
Last night, the “house” was a big school which I had moved into and I was helping to remove all the old furnishings and toys in preparation for a new year of students. It was quite fun, as I’m a repressed interior decorator. Even though in the waking world, being a teacher or daycare provider is..uh…my worst nightmare. (okay, not really, my worst nightmare is getting pregnant again, haha!)
The thing all my house dreams have in common is that they are SO vivid. The houses are extremely detailed and I remember them all. I’ve never been much for dream interpretation and haven’t ever bothered to look up what houses might mean in a dream. I always sort of assumed that houses would either mean that I wanted safety in my life or that I had it. Mind you, none of these dreams are ever scary. Even the panther and the flood were fun, if a little anxiety-producing (in the dream, not afterwards).
Thanks to the speediness of Google, here’s what I found in an online dream guide:
Home: Center of being. Spiritual self. Shelter. Basic need fulfilled. Happiness within the family.
House: Financial security. Happiness within the family. Honor and dignity. Being.
School: Discipline. Instruction. You have the skills to resolve a problem.
Panther: Wild beauty and grace. Enemies will fail in attempts to injure you.
Another site had this to say about houses in dreams: Buildings and houses are symbols of yourself. The upstairs represents your conscious mind and the lower floors and cellar your hidden self. Decayed or crumbling buildings indicate that your self-image has suffered. Different parts of a house may symbolise different times. For example, modern rooms may represent the conscious mind whereas the oldest areas may represent the ancient mind- the unconscious. Also the condition of the building may express how you feel about yourself. In addition it can also represent your physical health. Sometimes decayed buildings are the prelude to the onset of an illness.
Hmmmm….