had produced that particular dream. The dreamer can also be taught by his own dreams, he said, to recognize the various levels working within him to produce each dream.
“When a voice speaks in a dream, an aura of feelings and thoughts will show whether the voice is his best self or just his imagination. When a scene from the day flashes across his mind in sleep, he will be shown by nuances whether the scene represents merely worries from the day, or a prologue to helpful comments from the subconscious. When strange and outrageous material appears, his own subconscious will teach him to distinguish which is merely a dream caricature of his outrageous behavior, and which is instead a radical challenge to his being.
“Dreamers should often ask in a dream, or immediately after it, he said, to be shown what part of their mentality has been at work in the dream, and why. Some of Cayce's dreamers were amazed at the colloquy which they were able to follow within them. Others were delighted to be able, they felt, to distinguish their own inner voice from the contribution of discarnates in dreams.”
• “In Cayce's view, dreams often carry significant meaning on several levels at once, and should be interpreted accordingly.”
• “Part of the art of interpreting dreams, according to Cayce, lies…in recognizing symbols with relatively universal meaning. He emphasized the purely personal meaning of much dream contents, from articles of clothing to scenes of war. But he also challenged dreamers to see, in certain poetic and evocative dreams, the presence of symbols which have wide currency in myth and art. Fire often means anger. Light often means insight and help from the divine, as does movement upward. A child often means helpful beginnings, needing further aid from the dreamer. A horse and rider often mean a message from higher realms of consciousness. Pointed objects inserted in openings may be sex symbols—although a key in a lock is more typically unlocking something in the dreamer.”
• “One aspect of Cayce's dream interpretation was harder for dreamers to duplicate: the times he predicted their dreams, even the night and time of night. In the strange, wandering world of dreams, this bit of his skill seemed incredible—even allowing for the power of his suggestion upon the dreamer's unconscious. But he said he could do it because he could see factors in the dreamer's psyche which made the dreams inevitable, much as one on a high building could predict the collision of careening cars on separate streets below him. He added that dreamers would also learn to recognize when given dreams were signals of a new theme or series, and to predict for themselves how more would follow—as his dreamers did in lesser degree.”
• “In Cayce's view, determining the purpose of a dream is a major step in interpreting it. He explained that the psyche or total being tries to supply whatever the dreamer needs most. If the dreamer needs in-sight and understanding, it gives him lessons and even discourses. If he needs shaking up, it gives him experiences—beautiful or horrendous. If he needs information, it retrieves the facts for him. Dreams are part of a self-regulating, self-enhancing, self-training program, over which the dreamer's own soul ever presides.
“An important step in interpreting a dream, then, is specifying what it came to accomplish—which the dreamer, according to Cayce, can learn to recognize for himself. A stock discussed by an acquaintance in a dream was a nudge to note and study the stock. But a stock seen in action, in actual figures, or described with instructions by a special kind of voice in his dream, was a signal for the dreamer to act, no longer to study.
“Part of Cayce's training led dreamers to wake up after a vivid dream, review it in their minds so as to recall it later, and then return to sleep with the intention of having the dream interpreted for them—as it not infrequently was, whether by more episodes, or by essay-like passages, or by the voice of an interpreter or ‘interviewer,’ as one dreamer called it.”
Simple Steps to dream interpretation
Kevin Todeschi, in his book Dream Images and Symbols, offers this advice on developing the skill of dream interpretation:
“Step One: Write down your dream immediately upon awakening…. Even if you only have the feeling of a good night's sleep, write it down. Let the subconscious mind know that you are serious.
“Step Two: Realize that the feeling you had about the dream is every bit as important as any one possible interpretation. What is the emotional response you have to the dream, to other characters in the dream, or to the action taking place in the dream? Note the actions, feelings, emotions, and conversations of each of the characters in your dream as well.
“Step Three: Remember that every character in a dream usually represents a part of yourself. Other people may reflect aspects of your own personality, desires, and fears. Even if the character in the dream is a real person who you know, generally the dream character represents an aspect of yourself in relationship to that person.
“Step Four: Watch for recurring symbols, characters, and emotions in your dreams, and begin a personal dream dictionary. Write down these symbols and what their importance is to you. As you observe what is going on in your life and then look at a particular dream, you'll begin to have an idea of what individual symbols may mean to you, especially if the symbol appears in later dreams. If the symbol had a voice, what would it be telling you? The symbol won't necessarily mean the same thing to other people, because personal symbols are as individual as the dreamer. For example, dreaming of your teeth falling out may be symbolic of gossip to some people, but an individual who has just been fitted with new dentures may have an entirely different interpretation.
“Step Five: Practice, practice, practice!… After your dreams have been recorded, make a habit of exploring them a few weeks later. Look for themes, situations, emotions, and symbols that are repetitive. One individual found that her cat, which she dearly loved, frequently appeared in dreams that dealt with personal relationships; another discovered that a watch or a clock was a recurring symbol in precognitive dreams about his personal future. These types of personal insights are only possible with ongoing practice.”
Above all—hold to your ideal
“In Cayce's understanding of dreams,” says Bro, “a comparison of the dreamer's life with his ideal was occurring in dreams almost every night, however symbolically portrayed, or however small the action examined…. In [Cayce's] view, the individual's actions of the previous day, and of the current period of his life, are compared for him each night in sleep with his own deepest ideals. Accordingly, one who awakens grumpy and unrested ought to look into his life, as well as his dreams. And one who awakens in a clear and peaceful frame of mind may be sure that when he recalls his dreams they will not show him in serious inner conflict….
“Further, the remembered dream needs to be used, if possible…. The subconscious is like a woodland spring to be dipped out and kept flowing, if it is best used. The dreamer may focus on some portion of the dream that strongly appeals to him, provided it is in keeping with his inmost ideal. For dreams, said Cayce, ‘are visions that can be crystallized.’ In dreams the real hopes and desires of the person, not idle wishes alone, are given body and force in the individual….
“'Study self, study self,’ was Cayce's first counsel on training to interpret dreams. He told people to search out memories, to list their working ideals in columns (physical, mental, spiritual), to decide what they honored in others and to compare this with themselves, to check their self-perception against what others perceived in them…. [For] every person who seeks to grow, whether in dreams or awake, must find and assess his own working ideals…. Once one clarifies his own deepest ideal, however hard to word and to picture, he must begin lining up his psyche in harmony with it, or his dreams will show him in constant conflict with himself….
“Part of lining up the psyche with its ideal, and ultimately with its Maker, is laying aside fear of past mistakes. Cayce was firm about this, resisting self-condemnation whenever he saw it, and insisting that guilt be replaced with present action. In one of his more startling sayings, he told a dreamer with unpleasant memories of sexual indulgence at the expense of the women in his life that ‘no condition is ever lost.’ What-ever the failing, even the cruelty, if the