About Dreams and interpreting them

I am somewhat careful when it comes to interpreting dreams from books, that claim all symbols are universal. I believe the best one to interpret your dream is you, you are the artist and you know what your symbols mean to you, at least on a subconscious level.Then of course, we are all partly products of our culture. We have heard the same fairytales (also in religion), seen the same tv-shows and movies, heard the same music. More or less. Therefore we can understand a lot about where the other one is coming from. But remember that our souls' vocabulary is constantly under construction. What the wolf stood for in your childhood might have been something big and bad, but today the wolf may have a completely different meaning for you - freedom, nature, soul, strength, courage... It always depends on the context, how you feel in the encounter/dream and what new knowledge you have gained lately.

Talking to good friends and other insightful people may be helpful. They may give you suggestions about possible meanings of your dream - and most importantly ask the right, simple questions. When you hear a suggestion that moves you deeply, you may feel inner peace and still react emotionally, this is a sign that you are on the right track. Or maybe you simply know all of a sudden what it all was about.

In my own dream theory, there are 3 main types of dreams, or types of material in our dreams:

1) Random pictures from whatever we have seen, heard, experienced or thought of during the day. Your brain is simply organizing random information and cleaning up. Usually you don't feel too much when waking up, and giving too much meaning to these kinds of dreams is unnecessary. It might be a fun game, though.

2) Your soul is trying to speak to you about a specific problem. You always have the keys to all the doors within you. "The truth will set you free" -thus, understanding your dream may lead to understanding yourself. You wake up having a strong need to understand your dream. It is you telling you about a problem that needs to be solved, or about wisdom you are refusing to accept when your inhibitions are at work during day time. Write it down and ask yourself, what the different parts of your dream may represent to you. But remember, this is clarifying how you feel. What's going on inside you. Dreaming that someone is evil or hates you doesn't mean they actually are this way, it only tells about your own fears and anxieties. Different problems. Different solutions.

3) The third kind is for me purely theoretical. If god(s) and spirits would/do exist, you might be able to sometimes receive outer information in your dreams about, for example, the future, or other things beyond your own knowledge and wisdom. Personally I don't like giving dreams "the voice of God". Remember, that even if God was speaking to you, the message is never pure, but always filtered through your own perception. Be critical. There is a false prophet and a pharisee looking to judge and condemn in all of us. The Truth always leads to greater peace, harmony and forgiveness.

So please, even a dream you may perceive as a divine intervention must be interpreted through the eyes of love. Mostly it is about information you have subconsciously picked up at daytime, that you keep processing at night time. But still, it is very important to listen to yourself. You are so much wiser than you may think you are.

PS. If you aren't happy with the creativity of your dreams, you can always take in art and culture instead. Your own reactions and thoughts to art may be interpreted in a similar way to dreams. But when doing this, free yourself from trying to look for the "right" answers and interpretations to art. Yes, try to understand the artist, but then let your own imagination fly and try to understand yourself, too. And the bonus is, the more interesting the culture you experience, the more you gain great material for your own dreams.