You know how it goes, you wake up, groggy from some weird ass dream and it just sticks with you ALL-DAMN-DAY.

You have no clue what the dream means, so you try to tell your colleague over your morning coffee, it goes something like this…

“Dude, I had the weirdest dream last night, it was about a worm and a volcano and…” you continue on whilst your colleagues eyes roll so far back into their head, never to be seen again.
We usually leave these situations feeling unheard and more confused than before.

Dreams are WEIRD and wonderful and can provide so much insight into our inner landscape, the solutions to our problems and sometimes even glimpses of the future. Interpreting your dreams to see the message within is called Oneiromancy and means “Dream Divination”. It is an extremely valuable skill to have. Not only can you interpret your own dreams with ease once you understand how, but you can help others too!

If you want help developing your divination skills, I have a course for that!

This post will give you some quick tips to interpreting your dreams and ways to increase your dream recall as well.

What is Dream Interpretation, and Why Does it Matter?

Some people don’t remember their dreams, and others remember every single one.
There are medications and lifestyle habits such as drugs, cigarettes and alcohol that will potentially halt your dream recall or even skip the REM sleep cycle where dreams are made and on the flip side there are some herbs, foods and drugs that can rapidly increase the recall and the strangeness of your dreams.

It’s important for everyone to reach the REM sleep cycle to ensure a well rested body, and we need to dream to work through a lot of our subconscious issues, for memory storing and if you’re intuitive this can be a way to work in with ancestors, spirits, guides and your higher self.

Knowing how to interpret dreams was an extremely valuable skill back in the day. We can refer to Biblical times and I’m going to show off my christian upbringing here, but we can look to the well known story of Joseph and the coat of dreams and how his dreams and his dream interpretation skills literally changed the course of not only his own life, but that of his family and Egypt as well.

P.S. If YOU too have a christian upbringing, check out my digital deconstruction content here

How To Interpret Your Dreams

Firstly we need to start off by remembering our dreams.

Reduce the amount of alcohol and cigarettes that you use and any non prescription drugs and ensure proper sleep hygiene such as a regular bedtime and wake time, dark room and no electronics in bed. I can highly recommend a lepidolite crystal beneath your pillow to aid in falling asleep or a cup of valerian root or chamomile tea before bed.

DREAM RECALL

To increase your dream recall rate, sleep with a notebook and pen beside your bed. When you first wake up, write down anything that you remember. This might be a colour, a word, a person, animal or even a feeling. Write as much as you can and leave it at that.
Do this exercise every single day and you will notice that you remember more and more of your dreams as this becomes a habit.

Learning how to lucid dream is also helpful for dream recall.

PATTERNS

Now that you have a notebook of dreams to work with, you can look back and start to see patterns.
Are there any recurring symbols, animals, or themes to your dreams? Is the same person popping up every night or is every dream in blue?
Each recurring theme is a message for you and potentially an important one too.

ELEMENTS

My favourite way to decipher a dream is to think about the elements. Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Dreams that you’re a mermaid, or that occur in or around water fulfill the water element. These could even be dreams about drinking tea or taking a bath, dancing in the rain or dreams of fish.
If you dream about flying, falling or floating or even about smoke & smells, these are the air element.
Fire, volcanoes, flames, candles, cooking - these are all the fire element.
Gardening, flowers, trees, dirt, earthworms, snakes, walking and even money are of the Earth element.

Once we know the main element we can then decipher from there.
Water - This is about your relationships, intuition and emotions.
Air - This is about your thoughts, dreams, communication and ideas.
Fire - This is about your creativity, your passions, your desires.
Earth - This is about material things, possessions, daily work and habits, routines and health.

A practical example here will be a dream I had earlier this week.
I was a mermaid, trying to save my human lover from drowning. Desperate to bring him with me beneath the water but knowing it was not the right thing for him.
This is a dream about my intuition and spiritual awakening. I’ve learnt to swim, and adapted to this so much that it has become enmeshed in my life, I wish to share this with my husband but it is not a road I can force him to walk. He is still human in comparison, and not (yet) at home with spirituality, psychic awareness and intuition.

THEMES

Themes are all about common dreams and looking at them from a different perspective.
Our big common themes as a collective are as follows;

Chasing Dreams

I have these ones ALL THE TIME. They’re horrible!
Basically, the ‘thing’ that is chasing you is a metaphor for a problem in your life that your’e trying to get rid of. The closer it is to catching you in the dream, the bigger the issue is in your waking life.
If you can, try to get a look at what or who is chasing you, this can often be a big clue.
Also - how are you getting away?
Pure speed and adrenaline, trying to outrun it?
Hiding? This means you’re not ready to face up to the problem yet.
Or are you trying to outwit and outmanoeuvre, meaning you’re getting a bit creative at deceiving yourself and avoiding this problem in real life.

Usually the key here is to turn around and face this problem head on in your waking life. This should sort this style of dream out for you.

School/Studying

These dreams are more common in people with perfectionist tendencies. (I’m looking at you Virgo/Capricorn/Taurus!)
It’s basically a way of feeling the pressure at work, to get things right all the time. It’s a work stress dream.
If it happens whilst you’re still actually at school or studying, then it is simply a school stress dream. Stress over high standards and performance.

Teeth Falling Out

Yep, we’ve all had this one. It’s really horrible!
Usually it refers to an area of our life that we have lost our power or our confidence.
Think how it would feel to literally have no teeth. Would you want to smile? Would you feel confident to go about your life as normal? Teeth dreams are all about a lack of confidence and power in your life.

Flying

These ones area actually really great dreams to have! They show that you are looking at the bigger picture, and feeling powerful and in control. It’s interesting to note your mode of flying and see if it relates back into your life in any way.

Running Late

Ugh, I hate this one. I am perpetually having these dreams, and the reason why is no surprise.
It’s a dream of overcommittment. Taking on too much.
If you’re dreaming of running late all the time, interpret this as your sign to say NO and delegate some tasks to others.

Falling

Uh Oh - this one’s a doozy! Usually falling dreams happen when something in our life feels totally out of control. It’s our subconsious’ way of expressing that feeling of no control over all or an aspect of life such as work, school or a relationship. These dreams are usually a red flag and potentially require some deep reflection on your part. Try to do one single thing, each day that leaves you feeling in control, at least in one area of your life. This will help combat the spiralling, free fall feeling.

VISITATION DREAMS

Every now and then, dreams are more than a dream. These ones don’t need a lot of interpreting as we usually wake ‘knowing’ it was something more.
These dreams usually involve a friend or family member who has passed away. They come back, the dream is usually about doing something normal with them until you remember.
More often than not, the moment you say “Wait a minute, aren’t you dead?” they will disappear.
Take comfort that these dreams are a way of connecting with them again and reminding you that they are truly still with us.

Sometimes we will have recurring visitations from particular animals, deities or beings.
These can often be our spirit guides bringing us information that our subconscious needs to know. Dreams are the easiest way for guides and departed loved ones to bring us messages that we need to know so pay attention when this starts happening.

PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS

Laslty, how to interpret precognitive dreams. This one, really doesn’t need a lot of interpretation.
Usually we wake, and remember an unusually clear amount of information and these dreams often just feel different. They honestly have a weight to them that other dreams just don’t.
If it is truly precognitive, then you cannot do anything about it but wait for it to happen. These dreams are rare.

Sometimes you can get a glimpse of a potential future, this is usually another message from your guides as a wake up call about something.
Like that time I was 39 weeks pregnant and absolutely convinced I was having a boy. We had only chosen boy names until I had a dream that we had a girl, and couldn’t tell anyone we’d had the baby as we didn’t have a name yet.
Fast forward 2 weeks and I gave birth to our daughter, luckily, the dream had prompted some serious name searching so we were OK on that front!

Tips and Reminders for Dream Interpretation

When interpreting your dream, keep an eye out for symbols, colours, feelings and elements.
Make sure to write them down and if it’s not initially clear what the meaning is, look up the symbols on https://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/
Don’t worry if you don’t remember all your dreams. I’ve been keeping a dream journal since I was 11 and I still don’t remember them every night!
Pay close attention to dreams about family members that have passed on. They usually bring a message with them.

Dreams are something we all have in common and something none of us can escape from. Why not try to interpret your dreams so that you can work with your subconscious, and your spirit team and make the most out of your rest time!

Lastly, if you have a particularly poignant dream that you just can’t seem to interpret on your own, why not book a reading about it!
I can guide you through the dream meaning and we can consult the cards to find out the deeper meaning behind your dream and what message your subconscious or guides were trying to give you.

Brightest Blessings,

Hana the Suburban Witch

How To Interpret Your Dreams

What is Dream Interpretation, and Why Does it Matter?