The Dream Decoding System: Methodologies & Rules

Welcome to your Systematic Framework. This page moves you beyond guessing to providing the logical reasoning and structure needed to translate any dream reliably. Your subconscious uses consistent methods to communicate, whether through allegory, duality, or a simple reflection of waking life.

Here, you will master the core rules of dream language. Once you understand the how and why behind your dream’s message delivery, you gain the confidence to apply the six accompanying Symbolism Dictionary guides (People, Places, Animals, etc.) to crack your unique dream code every time.

THE SYSTEM

THE HOW TO: How To Remember Your Dreams

The key to remembering dreams in their entirety is to record them, and record them, and record them.

A few years before dedicating myself to recording my dreams, I had a journal with dreams that I wrote down that were a line here, a paragraph there and a page in between. The variation of what I remembered improved when I started the practice and action of recording. the more often you record the faster you will train your memory.

You are here on this website and in this particular section wanting to know how to remember your dreams because you know you are remembering your dreams for a reason. Your desire to know will be as rewarding as your actions.

The best thing to do is to set the scene by making sure all is in place for you to record (for example, journal, pen and torch on bedside unit), if you have another to consider in this scenario then you will need to organise how you can achieve recording your dreams in the same room or in one close to. The intention to remember before falling asleep will embed itself in your subconscious to help you consciously remember, and focus on remembering them however you choose (for example, repeat the intent or visualise the intent). Upon awakening roll over and record or if you have to go into another room do so without the mind wandering.

I have never used an alarm in the morning except for important reasons (business flights, travel, etc), because my grandad told me when I was 17 that you don’t need one, just tell yourself what time you want to wake up and it will be so, and it is. Do you wake up moments before your alarm goes off? Waking up naturally is important, try telling yourself to wake up before your alarm goes off, giving yourself enough time to record your dreams and before long you will never wake up to an alarm again.

An uninterrupted awakening, recording straight away and an unwandering mind is ideal. How ever you go about these three things, will help you. With time, you can ease these things as the connection between the subconscious and conscious strengthens. You may be able to get up and do your morning routine before you need to record, I can quickly record after going to the bathroom and when I sit down with the dream that night, I remember more detail and if I have a break from recording while I am on holiday or for whatever reason it only takes one dream recall to go back to where I left off.

If you forget one morning, don’t let that get in the way of tomorrow, if you remember upon awakening and then your mind gets in the way and you forget all of it bar a few details, record those details.

The more you practice, the more you will remember. Your dream journey will be what you choose it to be.

Translating your dreams within a few days to a week is ideal as you can link thoughts and situations from your waking life to the dream. there are benefits to translating your dreams in blocks (every few weeks or once a month), depending on how many dreams you are recording as there will be repetitive dream elements and themes to show you patterns or sequences.

Practice, practice, practice and learn the magic of DreamTime.

THE METHOD: Dream Translating Practical Steps

Use a translation method to suit you, for example:

• Write/transcribe in one colour
• Make translation notes in another
• Highlight places and characters and what they could possibly represent, or leave till the end once the dream has given you the angle
• Underline any _______ objects/elements that stand out (road, battery, etc) and write it could symbolise next to it
• Bracket (thoughts)
• Speech mark “dialogue”
• *Asterix any actions

Examples using 2 of my dreams

Quick Reference Guide to Your Dreams Message

THE CONTEXT: How Dreams Communicate, Dream Play Out, and Message Delivery

2 principles of how dreams communicate whereby the individual elements of a dream or the dream itself can either be coherent or allegorical

A dream will play out like a waking life setting and scenario and/or to the contrary, have elements that act as symbols that you need to translate.

The former plays out like a short play, and you can take it at face value with little to no translation, for example, what is said or thought and actions played (running, stealing, etc).  This part of understanding dreams is easy because you can look at the script and scene and apply rationality and logic.

The latter, allegory, are elements in the dream that act as symbols, where you need to know what they represent to translate their meaning. Symbols can be identified by your feelings, attachments and associations with the element. They can also be influenced by the collective consciousness and what we collectively term (definition) or associate (a connection such as religion, history, culture, etc). This part of understanding dreams is where you are revealing the hidden meaning of an element and you will benefit from studying your dreams.

If we think of duality, then each thing has a dual aspect, so when learning and understanding your dreams, try looking at what dual aspect it is conveying.

For Example, dreaming of a path or road that represents your life path.

If the road ahead of you was steep, then you know it is going to be hard, yet at the top there is this beautiful glistening pond that you put your feet in, so from a dual aspect, the journey isn’t great, yet the result is.

This can also be vice versa, the path you dreamt was flat, lush with greenery, yet at the end there was a stagnant pond with weeds, showing the journey will be good, yet the result will be disappointing.

Seeing each scene and/or element from a dual perspective is helpful, was the greenery flourishing or withered, was the scene portraying success or misfortune, pleasure or disappointment, etc. 

It may be something of present or something that is down the path.

If you dream of what you desire or approve of, great, when you dream of what you do not desire, something unpleasant, then you, in your own way with the dream information, can alter or change what you are being shown.

If you can see the good and bad in what is being shown, you can understand where changes can be made.

THE SELF: Dreams as Reflection & How beliefs Shape Symbols

Looking at each of the elements and scenes within your dream as a reflection of yourself is one of the ways in which dreams communicate.

Your subconsciousness is scanning you, your life path and lessons to settle upon a matter that can help you grow.

Viewing your dreams from a mirror perspective gives you the opportunity to see all the aspects of you. For example, people within dreams who are also a part of your waking life can represent an aspect of yourself, a trait, quality or behaviour, maybe you dream of being at a person’s house, and the quality or behaviour that reflects you could be surrounding or influencing the situation.

Your feelings play an important role in your dreams and you should use them to understand the message of your dream. For example, the condition of a place made you feel a certain emotion during the dream, this emotion will be governing the matter the dream is about, maybe a tornado was tearing towards you and you felt worried, then the emotion ‘worry’ can be inserted into the message of the dream in sequence of how the dream played out to let you know this is how you are feeling about a matter or a forewarning of a possible future.

Your association with every setting, stage, character, object, action, dialogue, thought and feeling are important to know the message of each dream. For example, maybe you dream of a foodstuff and that particular one doesn’t agree with your body, using ‘doesn’t agree’, in the message of the dream rather than a collective meaning will most likely be the correct translation.

The intelligent communication has encapsulated the matter the dream is about using sensory transmission and elements that represent or symbolise something to you, your dreams are not a riddle for you to figure out, they are to help you.

Try asking for each element, why would I use it to convey a message, how do I feel about it, what attachment do I have to it, and what associations do I have with it.

You are the best person to translate your dreams, study them and before you know it, you will be helping others with their dream journey.

Your dreams are shaped by your beliefs.  This is helpful to take into consideration when you are translating your dreams. 

Try looking at everything within the dream from your subjective reality and ask, “Why would I use this place, person, object, dialogue or action to convey a message to myself?”

Your beliefs about yourself, others and the world will be explored in your dreams.

A belief is your acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists whereby you have trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something.

Your beliefs may alter or change over the years, altering and changing who you are, your behaviour, your life, and your surroundings and this is also true for your dreams.

The elements that you dream of will alter and change alongside you.

Your foundations also shape your dreams because they are the underlying principles of your fundamental truth for the systems of belief or behaviour that result in your chain of reasoning.

It is the chain of reasoning that creates your truth, and your truth is your reality.

Because your life is shaped by your beliefs and foundations, they are effectively: filtering, blocking, and interpreting what you experience and perceive and in turn, influence how your dreams communicate.

This is why you are the best person to learn and understand the message of your dreams.

Can I suggest viewing your dream from your subjective perspective, consider your motivation, attitude and behaviour being conveyed in each act of the scene.

Then try considering your subjective reality and truth and the objective reality and truth, this will allow you to see beyond your perspective.

What can you learn from the dream last night and how can the reality you have created change for the better?  Dreams explore areas where you could benefit from growth and you can use the message to transform any beliefs that are holding you back.

Beliefs shape who you are, your reality and your dreams and you create and shape your beliefs.

Dreaming of the past can help you understand a present situation.

Dreaming of a situation that has happened in your past, can help you understand to consider how it made you feel, what impression it left, and how it shaped your path to be who you are today and then summarise this into one word or a phrase and see how this situation from the past can help you today.

For example, I dreamt of it being time to go to work, I am going to a job in the city. Upon looking at the dream to understand it, I realised I was going to a job in the dream that was a job from waking life that I was offered but never accepted.

This is where I thought about why I did not take the job and the career path that followed the job that I did accept was pivotal to how my life unfolded. I summarised this as a ‘crossroad’.

To recognise the situation from your past and how it can help you with your path today by providing more clarity and understanding from a previous experience is intelligent.

Dreams like to use your feelings to help you understand what the dream is about.  Whatever situation the dream is investigating, using your past where a direction you took or how a relationship made you feel, can help you understand a current situation better.

By using the past event and how that panned out, you can use that knowledge and wisdom to choose the best possible outcome for another situation that has greeted you on your path today.

So if you dream of a past friendship or a past crossroad, contemplate that time or encounter in your life, the good, the bad, and how and why your dream has intertwined it into your dream to help you with something today.

The perception in which the dream was experienced shows you how you align with matter and your perspective about it.

When you are a character in the dream shows that the matter relates to you personally.

When you are a character in the dream, yet you dream sense that you are not a physical representation of your waking life self, could be to show you that you are not being your true self (ethically, behaviour, etc) in the situation the dream is about or it is in relation to a past life situation that influences your present life. What you remember about the character you were in the dream will identify what the perspective is conveying.

Experiencing the dream when you are not a character (a fly on the wall, birds eye view or background position) shows you an outside perspective, a different point of view, that you are detached from the situation or that the situation is coming into your life in the future.

Perspectives change, for example, you are experiencing the dream from yourself playing a role, then the scene changes and you now experience the dream from a background perspective and are no longer a person playing a role showing you different perceptions of the situation, to help you understand the matter better from different points of views or your perception has changed about the matter.

THE FRAMEWORK: What Part of You is the Dream Exploring

There is a connection between the nature of man and the elements of nature, where the four elements reflect you within dreams.

Using this link is a fundamental foundation for how I understand my dreams and when I help others, I am sure it will help you also. The credit for this connection, goes to Mary Summer Rain, through reading about this connection in her book ‘Earthway’, I have gained much knowledge from my dreams.

Physical                Earth     

Emotional             Fire       

Mental                  Air         

Spiritual                Water    

This connection can help you identify what things in your dreams mean, it is the rule, except for when it’s not. The main benefit of this connection is to highlight which part of you the dream is exploring which could be seen as the main type, main theme, and I use the term ‘the main pillar’.  Identifying if your dream is about the physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual pillar, can help establish a main theme. This gives you the aspect governing the situation the dream is about and helps you recognise other elements scattered throughout the dream that connect to this aspect also. 

Viewing any landscapes, settings, objects, etc, that relate to these elements from this angle will help you learn the method of how your dreams communicate.  So next time a natural element appears in your dream, you could try using the four pillars and see if there is compatibility:

Physical                Earth                     –              Physical Reality Aspect

Emotional             Fire                       –              Emotional Aspect

Mental                  Air                         –              Mental Aspect

Spiritual                Water                    –              Spiritual Aspect

For Example, if the situation you dream about is governed by the mind, then you may have several elements that represent the mind appearing within one dream, giving you more detail about the governing nature’s participation.  The element air can present itself as a breeze, wind, clouds, sky, storms, tornados, airports, aeroplanes, etc.  If your dream has a tornado approaching you, ripping up the land and houses in its way, this could relate to your mental activities that are causing destruction.

When the natural element appears in an altered form or is part of a combination of things, you could try expanding on the 4 pillars to translate the symbolism:

Barren Dirt Landscape alludes to an absent and neglected physical aspect

Fire in a Garage alludes to dangerous stored emotions

Wind alludes to the flow of thoughts

Public Swimming Pool alludes to a common/collective spiritual aspect

The matter the dream is about can then be understood in its entirety with both the message of the dream and also the governing aspect.  Knowing this part of you in connection to the matter gives you the opportunity to improve, balance and correct the condition of yourself.

One or more of the 4 pillars can appear within one dream as a situation may involve one or more aspects.  For example, the dream may be about a spiritual aspect you have started learning, yet the mental pillar is distorting the spiritual information, therefore the mind is the aspect in which you need to observe to not distort the information.

The expanse of what your dreams may explore expands across the four pillars and their layers.  Each aspect and situation of life cannot neatly fit into one of the pillars as a dream about a relationship could be governed by either the mind or emotions.  The range is as large as your life and as deep as your development.

The physical pillar could explore your health or concepts of this physical reality.  The emotional pillar could explore your relationships or attachments.  The mental pillar could explore the information you are consuming or your thought patterns.  And the spiritual pillar could explore your experiences or spiritual foundations.

Learn who you truly are; introspect and reflect on how you act or react, your behaviour, your thoughts, your emotions, your relationships, and your integrity.  Discover the interconnectedness of the 4 pillars in dreams and heal your life by being the best version of yourself.

THE DICTIONARY

Explore Dream Elements & Symbolism

If you’ve just had a dream, use these categories to jump directly into identifying and interpreting the specific elements, people, and actions your subconscious used.