Symbols and Icons
RELATED TOPICS: visual and verbal dream puns - spells - language - dream math and logic - genital symbolism (Freudian phallic symbols, but also clitoral and vaginal symbolism) - Freud - Jung - Jungian shadows - cups and vessels - blades - crystals - mirrors and reflections - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 3300+ dreams plus 1000 more pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2013.
AVENUE OF TREES: by Anonymous #34; July 1911?, early 1924?, March 30, 1934, and January 1947; four death-omen dreams, one predictive Every decade or so, I dream a loved one says farewell and walks down an avenue of trees. I wake to find that person's dying... |
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THE BATTLE FOR THE RAI DRAGON: by Rikutsu; 2015/12/6, a dream flagging that change is possible at last In a corrupt world, a talisman called the Rai Dragon offers hope of real change--IF it can be found, AND used by someone decent-hearted... |
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BELL CURVE IN THE DARK: by Wayan; 1982/8/17, a dream on... the gifted? A human pinball game played in the dark, with bells for stoppers, sorting people into a Gaussian bell-curve... |
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THE BOOK: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal); October 1989, a mandala-like dream-icon The crystalline figure on the cover of the book in my dream seemed to hold as many answers as its title... |
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BORN IN A CAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/4/20 to 2007/8/9, a painted series of rite-of-passage dreams. I keep dreaming of awkward but successful transitions into new life, and paint them all in one landscape... |
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BUCKLEY'S BLOATED BOMB: by Wayan; 1983/11/20, a political nightmare. I meet William F. Buckley and his beloved pet pig. Only the hog's a live H-Bomb, and the leash is a trigger... CAUTION: REPULSIVE GUY, REPULSIVE PET, REPULSIVE ISSUE |
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CELEBRATE BOTH: by Henry Sultan, 2005/6/26, a painting that blends two dreams At a snake-weaving party I flirt with my anima, who tells me how the cake fell off the roof. I think “At last we’re really connecting!”... |
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CHRISTA'S FUR: by Wayan; 2018/6/9, a smutty spiritual dream-poem riffing on Leonardo's 'Last Supper'? In an alternate Judea, I long for a female Christ and her lesbian apostles. My lust is unrequited, till a small Sex Kitten gives me some wise advice... CAUTION: CAT NUDITY, BLASPHEMY |
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CLIMB DOWN THE PINNACLES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, l995/12/24, a surreal dream and painting Decision by decision, we made our way down immense rock crags. Below, I had to put out a deadly fire, a fire as solid as wood or stone, with a white staff. What am I really trying to calm? |
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COSMIC EGG AND ENERGY BIRD: by Wayan; 1971/12/4, a childhood mystical dream. A mystical vision of the Cosmic Egg gets messy when it hatches and the Bird escapes... |
A DIFFICULT PATH: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/11/3, an advisory dream. I lead my daughter up a thorny path, but she’s getting badly scratched. Shall I leave her in that fishing village? She wants to... |
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DREAMKU, SEPTEMBER 2006: by Roswila; thirty dream-haiku with various dates from 1960-2006 One dream-poem in haiku style each day for a month! Ghosts, snow, penguins, yoga babies, elves who leave their tree... |
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EXPLORATION OF TAROT IMAGES IN A DREAM: by Roswila, 1998; an analytical numerate dream Tarot cards fuse and meanings layer, to warn me I've similarly (con)fused real and trance-induced memories during therapy... CAUTION: ABUSE ISSUES |
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FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me... |
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FREEDOM THROUGH BOXES: by Wayan; an experiment in art & pain, Jan 2005 I've always loved curves, color, dreams, sex, texture... and planning, too. So one day I drew 100 black boxes in ink--no color, no curves, no erasure! And then I began to seek... |
GOD'S THREE DIALS: by Wayan; 1992/11/20, a heavenly dream. God built 3 dials to check: body, soul, and time. But the Holy Spirit's lazy, only checks one! It's up to us... |
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A GOLDEN KEY IN A CHEAP LIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/7/9, a subtle dream lesson I was so lonely the potheads on Haight looked good. I dreamed I had the Golden Key, but under a cheap sodium streetlamp, ALL my keys looked gold! Then I met true gold: a woman meditating until she shone... CAUTION: NUDITY, HAIGHT STREET STONERS |
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HER CUTIE MARK: by Wayan, 2016/8/7, a hazy dream fusing Shakespeare, My Little Pony and the Three Graces After seeing The Tempest with a tattooed Miranda, I dream she has a Cutie Mark on her flank--a logo showing her life-path. But she's outgrowing it... CAUTION: MILD NUDITY |
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I WANTED TO STEAL A PINK WOOLEN SWEATER: by Jack Kerouac, early November? 1952, a class-envy dream. I wanted to steal this pink woolen sweater. But I didn't need a sweater. What I really wanted to steal was middle-class security... |
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KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29 One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to. Some things should be avoided at rush hour... |
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LEONINE TRINITY: by Wayan; based on 1987/11/28 dream; 1991 digital "woodcut" of recurring dream figures. A goddess in a dream once told me to seek 3 and only 3 qualities in a mate... CAUTION: NUDITY |
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LIFECYCLE: by Wayan; 1980s. Pencil sketch of daydream The life-loop. A woman bears a child who grows up to become herself, who bears a child who... CAUTION: SKETCHY NUDITY |
THE MAGIC WORDS: by Wayan; 1974/5/29, an early dream on word-magic. Humanity in the future desperately needs the magic words from the past to free them. But... "pickle?" |
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MANDALA DURING A TIME OF WAR AND DISINTEGRATION: by Jenny Badger Sultan; Jan-Feb 2003, painting of a dream-series My dreams were troubled by war. So I painted them in concentric rings--lotus, fire, children, animals, and nightmares... |
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MANDALA OF THE EIGHT DREAMERS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/9/16, painting of a group's dreams Our dream-group's dreams had a lot of imagery in common: circles, groups, meditation. I fused them into this piece... |
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THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream. I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect... |
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MY CUBIST CONSCIENCE: by Wayan; 1982/8/5; a dream warning of overharsh ethics. I dreamed I was trapped in the maze of my pacifist vegetarian feminist anarchist eco-conscience... |
NOCTURNAL HAIRCUTS: by two of Pliny the Younger's servant boys; 96 AD. Subliminal? Oracular? Prank? All three? Two boys dream robed figures climb in the window to cut their hair--and find, awake, someone has. While Pliny learns... |
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NUCLEUS: by Wayan, 1979/3/18, a surreal psychologically insightful dream of the inside of an atom I dream my theatre friends are particles dancing inside an atomic nucleus--particles that reveal their character, motivations and power. And I'm one too... |
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OCTOPIA: by Wayan; 1996/3/21, a spiritual dream-comic on play; ill. text version I'm a stratospheric bat who finds a flying swastika. Is it creeping fascism or a Hindu blessing? Neither! An Octopian frisbee... |
ORB: by Walter de la Mare; before 1939; a feverdream image I held the strangest and most entrancing object I have ever seen: the very citadel of life itself!... |
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OUR LADY OF THE YOYO: by Wayan; 400 x 670, 1983, digital over acrylic over crayon. Our Lady of the Yoyo plays with our yin-yang world, trying to keep the spin going on each bounce... |
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PAW AT THE BALL: by Wayan; 1981/12/6, two waking Goddess images. A grassy hill in a previous drawing of mine suddenly looked like Big Hair, so I tried to grow a body that fit that 'do... |
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PENTALEMMA: by Wayan; 2002/3/10 to 2006/5/1?, a 13-page nondream improv-comic on our conflicting goals. Mine, at least! Hypnotized in therapy, I saw AT LEAST five competing goals I have to balance. So come tour the Inner Solar System of our desires... CAUTION: NUDITY (BODY, HEART, BRAIN, SOUL) |
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THE PHOENIX: by A.C. Benson; 1894. A dream-poem. I don't understand this poem's symbolism or even its style. It came to me whole, in a dream... |
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POLYGON DREAMS: by Wayan; 2007/4/23, a 32-page comic on the effects of shapes What if comics panels and layouts weren't so square? I try triangles, pentagons, hexagons, circles, spirals--and some serious stuff pops out... CAUTION: IDEAS, OCCASIONAL NUDITY, MENTIONS ABUSE |
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PRAYER: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting. "Our resurrection is not entirely in the future; it's also in us, it begins, it's already begun..." |
| RAINBOW TUNNEL: by Wayan; 1995/4/9 (MP3+lyrics), a global-warming nightmare song In our steamy future, after the cities drown, I'm hiking through Rainbow Tunnel, when I meet a holy man... |
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SAINT BRIDGET: by Jenny Badger Sultan; between 1963-68, a dream on adversity's uses. In a Scythian church, a painting says "Little St Bridget was bound so hard that when they released her she flew"... |
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THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: by Wayan; 1989/7/8, a possibly telepathic nightmare-comedy. My sisters get bored with the game of power, so I watch TV--till it melts, and a terrifying giant rises to chases me... |
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SHIELDS FROM THE GODDESS: by Wayan; 1996/8/3, a dream that's a slap in the face. A Goddess-worshiping general gets a visit from her twin daughters who bring a puzzling message... |
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SILKY'S WEDDING: by Wayan; 1988/1/6, a dreamtale. Silky, my often-animal anima, leads me into a strange pagan church where we get married at last... |
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SWAN: by Wayan; 1995/4/8, a dreamcomic of transformation. (Small screen, slow loading? Swan as ill. text) I wake amnesic in a cabin in Alaska, in a dress printed with self-putdowns. I track down the wizard who cursed me... |
SWORD IN MY BACK: by Franz Kafka; 1915/1/19, a surreal but un-Kafkaesque dream. I slept late and felt a bit stiff, but until my friends pulled it out of my neck I had no idea... |
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TAROT: THE YIN-YANG EARTH (the Wheel of Fortune): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979. Earth is always shown from the side, never its axis. But from the pole, it's a vast wheel: the real Wheel of... |
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THE TIGER CUBE: by Wayan; 1996/1/19, a mysterious not-quite-nightmare. An alien tiger and his human girlfriend herd me to their house and show me a cube of raw flesh... but why? |
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TITANIA: by Wayan; 1981/12/7, 83/1/7 & 2/13 and 84/10/2 (a dream-epic in installments!) about love Clarence the sappy angel from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and Milton's Lucifer, noblest Devil of them all, land on Earth, offering treaties. Who to sign with? Clarence thinks we're perfect, and the Devil's a tinkerer, learning from failures. Failures like me, and my girlfriend Titania, the first android with a full range of feelings. Too bad one is the feeling she's fake... |
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TRISKELION; 2011/6/21 by Wayan; a repeated false-waking dream of dating advice I wake up in a weird sexual situation. But I'm still dreaming--I wake again to find I'm in a weirder sexual situation. But I'm still... CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, (ANTI?)ROMANTICISM |
THE WEED: by Elizabeth Bishop; before 1946, a dream-poem on death/rebirth I was dead. A weed grew from my heart; then two streams poured out--not water or blood but experiences. I asked the weed what it was doing, and it said... |
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THE WELL OF WOMEN'S WISDOM: by Wayan; 1991/3/25, a dream on gradualism. I find the well of women's wisdom. Lucky I had a sex change! A girl sneers "this wisdom's narrow." Is it? |
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