The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams. Theresa Cheung

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      LIBRARY/MUSEUM

      In dreams, a library can represent a storehouse of your experiences in life as well as your intellect. If the library is well ordered, this suggests that you handle knowledge well. If the library is chaotic, with books missing or wrongly shelved, this suggests that you may be suffering from information overload or have difficulty processing information. If someone distracts you in the library in your dream, it may suggest that the ideas being considered in waking life are not worth your attention. If you are working on your psychic and spiritual development, the library will have added significance as a place where the collective wisdom of humankind is collected. The more we develop psychically and spiritually, the more we have access to this collective wisdom—also known as intuition and the collective unconscious.

      Like libraries, museums feed minds by giving people the opportunity to study objects from the past for their historic, scientific and artistic interest. When trying to interpret dreams about museums, any exhibit that caught your eye is important because it may be pointing to something from your own past that has a bearing on your present situation. If your dream involved visiting a cinema or theatre, refer to the relevant entries in ARTS AND CRAFTS and LEISURE.

      LIGHTHOUSE

      A lighthouse may appear in a dream as a beacon guiding you to safety through dense fog. Bear in mind that a beacon or lighthouse can also indicate a rocky area you should avoid, and therefore contains a warning about the direction in which you are heading. Such a dream may be urging you to rely on your own resources to avoid floundering. For Freud, the lighthouse was, of course, a phallic symbol rising above the maternal symbol of the ocean.

      RELIGIOUS BUILDING

      Any religious building suggests a refuge where you can gather your thoughts and consider your beliefs. Even if you are not religious, in dreams religious buildings highlight your spiritual, peace-loving and idealistic potential. Most of us have principles we live by and these may surface in your dreams in the symbol of a religious building. If you are walking past a church or religious building in your dream, this suggests that you are not making contact with the best part of yourself. Is your waking life so crammed with obligations that you don’t have time to explore your inner world for some much-needed reflection, meditation and contemplation? If you entered a temple in your dream and immediately felt enveloped in a sense of calm, was your unconscious suggesting that you would enjoy better health if you treated your body as a temple, putting your physical, emotional and spiritual welfare first? Dreams about religious buildings may also be an expression of anger against dogma; again it depends on the feelings evoked by the building in your dream. Did you feel relieved or tense? If a vault features in your dream, it may represent your highest spiritual ideals, as vaults often appear in churches or temples with painted stars in imitation of the vault of the heavens. A vault may also recall a crypt or burial chamber, and as such, it may conjure up thoughts of death. See also RELIGION.

      TOWER

      According to Freud, a tower is a phallic symbol, signifying in its sturdiness the sexual self-confidence of a male dreamer. In dreams, towers represent psychological constructions you may have built in your life, ranging from an attitude to an entire way of life. For example, a tower may be a defensive erection of inner attitudes, suggesting an imprisonment by your own anxieties or a desire to shut yourself away from the world; alternatively, it may be an attempt to reach the heights of awareness or recognition.

      If you are standing at the top of the tower in your dream, observe how you feel

       Towering above the rest

      Freudian dream interpreters relate towering structures in dreams to phallic symbols, and therefore to macho tendencies, on account of their thrusting shape. So if you dreamed you were living in a luxury penthouse thousands of feet above the city or that your office occupied the top floor, could your dream have highlighted your ambitions? Do you secretly long to rise above everyone else financially, professionally and socially? Dreaming of a spire may indicate pride and ambition or yearning to attain spiritual heights, and an obelisk in a dream may be a phallic symbol. A chimney in a dream may be another phallic symbol especially if it was a tall factory chimney. In both the waking and the dream world, skyscrapers are symbols of elevated social and professional status and the ‘greed is good creed’, so if you dreamed of them, perhaps your unconscious was highlighting your waking ambition.

      The most prominent and famous landmark in Paris, the city of romance, revolution and passion, is the Eiffel Tower. If it appears in your dream, it presents a powerful erotic symbolism, as it is a strong image of thrusting sexuality. The clock tower, also known as Big Ben, which sits alongside London’s Houses of Parliament, may be a symbol of an encounter with destiny or some life-changing event. Ticking clocks often represent the passage of life (see TIME) and the clock tower combines this with the phallic form to form an image of courage and emotional development. Evoking great and solemn occasions, the chimes of Big Ben, or any clock in a church tower, relate to important life changes, such as marriage, the birth of a child or moving house, or important shifts in attitude, such as forgiveness, resolve and determination.

       Some other buildings

       Airport

      A desire to rise above worldly problems and responsibilities; may also be associated with high ideals. See also TRAVEL.

       Bank

      Where ‘treasures’ are stored; material security. If you are making a deposit, you are adding to your assets. If you are making a withdrawal, you are calling upon them.

      

       Barn

      Associated with labor. Since this is a storage place and home for animals, the dream may be implying that you have an inner storage place containing the essentials for inner growth.

      

       Beauty parlor/hairdressers

      New ideas, thoughts are cleansed, created and rearranged.

      

       Boarding house

      The essentials are provided but payment is required.

      

       Cleaners

      Clean up some aspect of your personality or have you been ‘taken to the cleaners’?

      

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