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Summer Refresh: All About Symbolism
133 Plays1 year ago
Remember when you dreamt you were naked, your teeth were falling out, or you were pregnant? You are not alone! These are among the most common dreams. Originally aired as Episode 3, this episode kicks off our Summer Refresh series. Last week, Margaux shared a prophetic word about experiencing refreshing this summer as we step into a new season (literally and spiritually).
We’ll revisit key basics of dream interpretation from previous episodes to stay sharp. As the title suggests, we’ll discuss the importance and power of symbolism in dreams. How do you know if your dream is literal or symbolic? The vast majority of the time, dreams are SYMBOLIC - just as God often used symbolism in the Bible to communicate, He still uses that same language to speak in your dreams.
When deciphering dream symbols, here are some helpful guidelines:
1) Rely on Holy Spirit for interpretation!
2) Consider what the symbols mean to you personally and their biblical context.
3) Google the prophetic meaning of the symbol - no shame in the Google game! Ask Holy Spirit to highlight anything He wants to speak through your search.
This episode offers key practical tips for interpreting dreams with Holy Spirit’s guidance, and of course, we reveal interpretation for the three common dreams mentioned above!
*Scripture References: Mark 4:1-2; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14
“What do I mean when I say that dreams are symbolic? I mean that often times you will have a dream where the things or the people in your dreams actually represent something else.”
“We are receiving information in parables and the invitation here is to get into the quiet place, sit with God, listen to your heart, and He’s going to describe and tell you what He was talking about in those dreams.”
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Intro Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay
Recommended![I Am Doing a New Thing [prophetic word] - Isaiah 43 image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/63e84c28832e33f4732dbf78/8212b14c-3801-4d31-a72d-e5fe26bc8337.png)
Transcript
Introduction to Breathing Underwater
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Breathing Underwater, the summer refresh series.
00:00:07
Speaker
We were designed to hunger for the deep things of God, to thrive on faith and wonder, to seek out divine wisdom that defies human logic. We were designed to unlock the mysteries of God. This is Breathing Underwater.
Symbolic Dreams: Nakedness & Teeth
00:00:39
Speaker
Have you ever had a dream that you are standing in front of your school class or perhaps in front of your work colleagues or somewhere else public and you're completely naked?
00:00:53
Speaker
Have you ever dreamt that your permanent teeth are loose or falling out or even disintegrating in your mouth? Or personal favorite, have you ever dreamt that you're pregnant or giving birth and you're totally weirded out because this is not feasible in your real life? Well, I have some good news for you. You are not alone in dreaming these dreams. These three dreams are three of many common dreams that people dream. And the best news is, drum roll.
00:01:25
Speaker
These dreams are symbolic. a They are symbolic, which means they're not literal. You are welcome. You don't need to worry about those naked dreams anymore, my friends. They actually have a really cool message in them, which I will share with you in just a little bit. I will give you the interpretation actually for all three of those common dreams. But before I do, Hello, my name is Margo. Welcome to Breathing Underwater. This is episode three. I know last week I said it was episode one, but I made a mistake. The trailer is technically one. Last week was two and today is three. So we are back on track. Welcome to episode three. Today's show is going to be jam packed full of goodness. I mean it. So I advise you to buckle your seat belt.
00:02:23
Speaker
or even better, sit down, find a comfy seat, have a cup of coffee, maybe a pen and paper, get ready to take some notes because there is going to be some very pivotal information today for those of you who are ready to start interpreting your dreams.
Understanding Dream Symbolism
00:02:41
Speaker
One of a couple foundational, foundational truths that you need to know about your dream life is that your dreams are primarily symbolic. Now, that doesn't mean we don't have literal dreams sometimes. And that doesn't mean that there aren't literal elements to our dreams, meaning a person or a place sometimes. And if you are a person,
00:03:05
Speaker
that consistently has literal dreams, I am not telling you you're wrong. I absolutely believe you. There are people that have primarily literal dreams. Although those people are further and further between and I doubt they would be on the podcast because literal dreams don't take really any interpretation. So we are just going to embrace ourselves as the vast majority and go with most of our dreams are symbolic in nature. This is so important because it will drastically change the interpretation of your dream if you're taking it literally. It can be hard to not take it literally, especially when it's our own dreams, but I'm just asking you to trust me. Just open your heart, open your hands a little bit and get ready to learn a new language of metaphor and symbolism. It's going to be fun.
00:04:02
Speaker
What do I mean when I say that dreams are symbolic? Just to make it very clear, I mean that oftentimes you will have a dream where the things or the people in your dreams actually represent something else. So let's say that you have a dream about someone that you're really close to, someone that you're in a relationship with. It could very well mean that you're having a dream about your relationship with that person or having something to do with that person that could be literal. Absolutely. or that person could represent someone or something else. Especially when we're having dreams about high profile people or celebrities or leaders in our life, they can often represent something else. Let me give you an example.
00:04:48
Speaker
Let's say I have a dream about a female celebrity musician that I love. I have a dream that she and I are at my house and we're hanging out in the living room and we are having so much fun laughing and joking and hanging out. The interpretation of that dream is probably not that this famous woman is going to show up at my house and we're going to hang out. It is more likely that she represents someone or something else. So what do I do with that? I would first ask myself, okay, Margo, who does she represent or what does she represent to you? I might say something like, oh, okay, she represents creativity.
00:05:29
Speaker
She represents beauty and songwriting and music, maybe worship. So now we're getting a little bit closer because these things all matter to me. They're all personal to me. So it is more likely that God is speaking to me in this dream about my gift of songwriting or music and my love for beauty and creativity and he's speaking to me about this gift and I actually having a really good time together that he's delighted that he gave me these gifts because I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this gift.
00:06:01
Speaker
And now I feel known. I feel connected. It resonates like, yes, this is something that I've been actually wondering or been praying about or something that matters to me rather than I'm waiting around at my house now for her to show up literally at my front door. Okay. That might be a silly example, but you'd be surprised how stuck we can get in the literal with our own dreams. So that is an example of symbolism. And to go just a little bit deeper in that, this is actually pretty relevant to me because I ended up getting my BA in art history. Interestingly, I was going for a degree in interior design and I had to take some art history classes as prereqs. And I just fell in love with art history. I just absolutely loved it. loved it I took to it very quickly.
00:06:51
Speaker
And I realized later why I loved it so much. It's because it is really all based on this visual communication of knowing symbols, of knowing allegory, of learning the meaning of color and context and socially what was happening. in the periods that these artists were creating art and the story that this visual art was telling without any words.
Cultural Context in Dream Interpretation
00:07:16
Speaker
This was a really natural way for me to communicate and I didn't realize until later, oh, this is totally the way that God speaks to me as well and oh, this is totally what my dreams are like.
00:07:30
Speaker
So some of the things that we learned in art history, and this is true anytime you would go and look at any piece of art, is to really know that the artist made very intentional decisions about the materials they use, the style, the approach, the scale, where things were placed on the canvas, the symbols, the colors. This is all done very intentionally. Even more abstract art that can sometimes feel haphazard and like, oh, he was just flinging a brush around. I guarantee you there was intention put into these pieces of artwork. It's the same with our dreams.
00:08:12
Speaker
And it can be so hard for our left brains to wrap their mind around this when things seem like that couldn't have meant anything. And it's really easy to just want to toss it, to judge the dream, say it's nothing and toss it. But in the same way with certain modes of art, I would look at them and just think this is nothing to me. I might be feeling something about this, but I have no idea how to get something out of this piece of art. Once I started to learn the keys, I started to realize, wow, this is really something. This is really something. And learning about the artist and learning about their story and who they are was actually a really big part in that as well, which is why it's important that we know God's character, we know his motivations and why he would be speaking something to us, which is a whole other topic. And we will cover more in coming shows, but for the sake of today, this is a part of our mind getting into symbolic mode and learning to learn the symbols. So you might wonder, ah why are our dreams symbolic? Why is it this metaphorical language? Why is it riddles that we have to unlock? Why can't God just speak plainly? Why isn't he just black and white? If he really wants me to know something, why doesn't he just say it point blank?
00:09:34
Speaker
I have had that moment. I have definitely had that moment. But what I have learned is that there's a very simple reason. I think there's a couple reasons, probably more than I know, definitely more than I know. But a couple reasons that I'm going to share with you today. And the first one is that simply this kind of language is God's language. This is just the way that he communicates. One of the ways that he communicates a primary way. If we have spent any time in Scripture, we're going to see that he speaks and describes things in a very unique, creative, colorful,
00:10:12
Speaker
symbolic way, often using stories and often using very vivid imagery. This is how he speaks. If we look at the New Testament and the way that Jesus teaches, Scripture says that he primarily taught in parables. In Mark 4, I think it's 24, 4, 24, it actually says point blank that Jesus went around teaching and he didn't teach anything except for in a parable. But that when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything that he meant. So this is the invitation. It's that we are receiving information in parables, and the invitation is to get into the quiet place, sit with God, listen to your heart, and he's going to describe and tell you what he was talking about in those dreams.
00:11:00
Speaker
If you know anything about our God, He is so relational. He is so relational that all of our dreams are really the same invitation into relationship, into intimacy, into time with Him. Like any relationship, you have to spend time to get to know that person, right? You get to know their their language. You get to know the common pictures that they that they like to use, and common words that they like to use, or the stories that they use, or the stories of their life that make the rest of their ah what they're sharing make sense in context. It's the same thing in our relationship with God, in our relationship with ourself, and I would even say our relationship with our dream life.
00:11:45
Speaker
Because as I have sat with my own dreams, there are common symbols that come up in patterns in my own dreams that are you ah that are unique to me, that you might not find in a common dream symbol dictionary, but are unique to me. And I know now when I see this symbol, most likely God is speaking this to me, because I've spent that much time with my dreams and with Him. Also, this kind of language of communication is very Hebrew. Like the Hebrew culture is very story oriented, very metaphorical. Even the language, if you're going to learn Hebrew, you're going to find that the letters, the symbols are very symbolic. And really, it's our privilege to get to learn this language. It's our privilege to get to seek this out.
00:12:31
Speaker
These riddles and parables and symbols are not to frustrate us, but they are to invite us into deeper relationship and into more mysteries. So it's going to take intentionality and time and a little bit of work and applying some faith, like I've said before, that will be absolutely worth it. Another reason I believe that our dreams are so much in this form is because our brains actually receive this information more quickly than words. So if we're going to talk about left brain, right brain, and I'm going to do this in very layman's terms, very simplified, our left brain is really interested in things being linear, logical, black and white,
00:13:16
Speaker
Verbal. Naming things. Using words to name things to understand them and contain them. Our right brain is the opposite. It's non-verbal. It's sensing. It's feeling. It's image oriented. It's very much picking up non-verbal communication. And this kind of communication is actually taken in, processed faster, and it's retained longer. I forget the exact amount of milliseconds. It's small, but it's actually significant how much faster this information is processed. An example is if you're going to look at your laptop or a desktop computer, if you want to throw something in the trash, what are you looking for?
00:14:01
Speaker
You're looking for a little trash can icon, right? You're not looking for the word trash somewhere. Why do you think that is? It's because these designers know and understand that symbols communicate more quickly. Same with traffic traffic lights. Red, yellow, green. instead of stop, yield, go, because we don't even have to process that. We just see it and we understand it. We are full on in conversation with somebody else and we see those colors and we just know immediately what that means. You're going to start to see signs and symbols everywhere. They are actually everywhere. And on the bathrooms, why does it not just say women and men's? Why does it have to have the pictures on there? Listen, this is a part of the way that our brain takes in information more quickly.
00:14:49
Speaker
So, that's another reason why. And isn't that just brilliant? Because we're actually designed this way. Imagine that. Okay, so now that we've established that we are primarily trying to discern symbolic language, you might be wondering, how do I do that?
Interpreting Personal Dream Symbols
00:15:10
Speaker
How do I decipher what these symbols mean? How do I decipher the meaning of these dreams? I'm going to give you many tools for this, but the number one focus is always going to be that we are first and foremost relying on the Holy Spirit for interpretation. These things are going to be spiritually discerned.
00:15:34
Speaker
Even if you might be learning symbol meanings or common symbol meanings or that you start to have reoccurring symbols in your dreams, I advise you to never just take it and make it black and white and paste it on top and make that the interpretation. There is always room for things to mean something else and they often do. Our dreams are fluid. Context matters, timing matters, and really what we want is the intended interpretation. We're going to get misinterpretation if we're just looking things up and in a symbol dictionary and cut and pasting those meanings of the symbols right into our dreams. Now, this doesn't mean that learning common symbols isn't helpful. It's very helpful.
00:16:18
Speaker
And there are some already that we feel like God has consistently used and stuff that we look up in scripture to that is consistent when God is trying to explain this, he'll use this. But it's not a hard and fast rule. It's not always one meaning for every symbol. We need to be really flexible with this and we need to rely on the Holy Spirit.
00:16:44
Speaker
Like it says in 1 Corinthians 2, I'm going to read this, starting in verse 9. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. These things God has revealed to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the Spirit of that person, which is in Him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God so that we might understand these things freely given to us. And we impart this in words and not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths.
00:17:32
Speaker
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. This right here, this is something even those of us who have the Spirit of God living in us, we can choose to try and decipher things through the natural carnal mind, can't we? We can decide if we want to have our mind set on the flesh and on natural things, or if we are going to let the Spirit of God reveal to us the mysteries. This is so important, and this is a part of relationship. So, that is key number one.
00:18:11
Speaker
The next thing I would say when we're learning symbols is to really sit with what do these symbols mean to me? What could they represent? What was the context of the dream that will give some interpretation or at least some hints towards the interpretation of the symbol? And what does that symbol represent to me? What does it mean to me? How does it relate to my life? Let's say you had a dream about a dog. Well, do you like dogs? How do you feel about dogs? Well, how have dogs played a role in your life or have they? Then I would look at what's the context of the dog? What's he doing in the dream? Is he licking your hand? Is he sleeping by your foot? Is he trying to bite you? Is he growling at you or barking at someone else? This is all going to be a big indicator of what the meaning of that symbol is.
00:19:03
Speaker
If we were going to ask someone who is maybe of Middle Eastern culture or Asian culture, dogs will likely represent something very different because those cultures look at dogs differently than we do. They're not pets in the same way. They are often looked down upon or dirty or have a negative connotation. So we have to be looking at the cultural context of the person, the dreamer, And if we're the dreamer, looking at the cultural context for us, what does it mean for us and our personal response to that symbol? I also recommend that you look in scripture.
00:19:40
Speaker
Just do a Google search. What is the meaning of dogs in Scripture, in the Bible? And let all of the verses come up about dogs, then read through them, decipher and discern, decide if there's one that hits the mark for you. Oh, yeah, I think that that fits with the context and what I'm already processing in my life. If you don't find anything there, Look in a dream interpretation book. Usually these kinds of books will have a dream dictionary. I would look up in the dream dictionary where they will have common symbols and what the interpretations are often. I have three of these books at home. Sometimes they are immensely helpful. Other times they're not helpful at all. It's important to know these are not your hard and fast always
00:20:27
Speaker
truth to symbols, but they are definitely another resource in the same way as looking in scripture and sitting with our ourselves and saying, okay, what would this mean to me? And of course asking the Holy Spirit, what does this mean to you? Show me what you are communicating in this. And then I would say, too, I just flat out Google stuff sometimes. What is the prophetic meaning of dogs? Of course, going this route, you're going to have all kinds of stuff come up and there's going to be some really weird stuff on there that we don't that we don't want. But you don't have to fear that.
00:21:00
Speaker
Just be discerning and follow the Holy Spirit and wait until something resonates. And I have to tell you, there are times that stuff on weird websites, I'm kind of curious and I'm like, oh man, is that it? And sometimes I'll get a key on there. I'll have a little witness in my spirit. Oh, that's it. Okay. God is not religious. He will lead us to the information that we need. And as long as we're trusting Him and following Him, we don't need to be afraid. But of course, apply wisdom in that. So those are some really practical ways to start sitting with, what do these symbols mean? Always recognizing what they are in context and finding what they mean personally for us is going to be the utmost importance.
00:21:42
Speaker
All right, shifting gears. We are getting close to the end of the show today. And although I have much more information I can end and date you with, we're going to wait. We're going to save that and give you a little break. And I am going to make good on my promise to you by giving you the interpretation of those three common dreams from earlier. And you get to practice that discretion that I mentioned in deciding if these fit the dreams that you had. These are common dreams, and these are common interpretations, and they have been tested and tried, and they are often correct and give people um really helpful insight into these dreams. But that does not mean, like I've said before, that it is hard and fast and true every time. So you get to decide and use your discretion if this is going to fit for you, okay? Great job.
00:22:35
Speaker
I am gonna start with the infamous naked dream because this is just a fan favorite yeah and I'm pretty sure you're dying to know what it
Common Dreams: Nakedness & Teeth Explained
00:22:42
Speaker
means. So I won't keep you waiting ah It's so interesting that when we have naked dreams so often we feel shame about it, right? We wake up and think oh my gosh, I was naked I can't believe people saw me and I just really quickly want to speak to that because this is so obviously pointing back to really Adam and Eve and what happened at the very beginning. They were so free in their nakedness and so connected to their bodies until of course death and sin entered the world and now all of a sudden this is something that we feel ashamed of and we have such beautiful bodies and they were made with such love and intention. I just want to remind us this is not how we were intended to feel about our bodies so do your best to fight that shame over it.
00:23:31
Speaker
Okay. Naked and public dreams. These can usually indicate issues of openness and transparency in your life. So this is not a negative thing. This is actually a positive thing. Where are there areas in your life that it is actually an invitation for you to be more open and transparent, maybe even needed for you to be more open and transparent? Obviously, look at the context of the dream. Where were you when you were naked? Who were the people that you were around? The setting could be speaking to the area of your life.
00:24:04
Speaker
or it would behoove you to be more open and transparent with people. The people that you are around, the individuals or the groups could be speaking to those that would actually benefit from your openness and authenticity and transparency. You know how refreshing it is to be around people who are actually letting you see them. Even though it can be scary sometimes, like this is really the way that God calls us to live is to be open about our struggles and to let other people in. There's often such redemption.
00:24:35
Speaker
and power in sharing our stories. And it can be inclusive to those who feel like they're on the outside, who feel like, oh, no one has the problems I do. But when they see, oh no, you're real, you have real struggles, you go through things, you share things about your life, it's actually inclusive to them and makes people bond and and feel connected. So I would just say this is a really positive dream where there is an open invitation for you to to actually operate in the power of authenticity. See, that wasn't so bad, right? Not as scary. It's not actually speaking to the fact that you are prophetically going to forget to wear clothes to work. but OK, the second one was the teeth dream, which is very, very common. I interpret a lot of dreams and there are so many dreams that come about teeth. So we're going to put on our metaphorical hats here. OK, let's think through what teeth could represent. What do teeth do?
00:25:35
Speaker
teeth chew, right? They chew our food. So think about the phrase, I'm gonna chew on that. That's actually speaking to I'm gonna think about that. I'm gonna digest that. I'm gonna really think through and meditate on that. So teeth, whether they're loose, painful, broken, disintegrating, chipped, falling out, perfectly intact, clean, aligned, They can often represent our ability to comprehend or understand something, right? So we're chewing on it, trying to understand it, comprehend it. If it's a particular tooth, let's say that it's one of your front canine teeth, your eye teeth. Okay. If it's speaking about the eye teeth, eyes are sight. So maybe it has to do with your understanding or discernment on something that you've seen or your wisdom teeth.
00:26:31
Speaker
Yes, wisdom teeth. It could be speaking to wisdom, losing wisdom over a subject, or it feels like you're you're losing your grip on understanding what was going on. And instead of feeling anxious, this is an invitation to more relationship. I would take this into prayer. I would take this to God and just talk to him about the places where you feel like you're lacking wisdom or discernment and get that from him. Okay, I'm going to move on to the third dream, the pregnancy dream. I love this one because I have dreams about this quite a bit because I'm always birthing something new. I actually had a conversation with a woman the other day I was interpreting a dream for and she came to me saying I had a dream that I was three months pregnant. She was clearly
00:27:17
Speaker
Panicked and anxious. Do you think that this what do you think this means? Do you think that I could actually be pregnant? Do you think that God's doing a miracle? And I just said no, no, I don't even though of course that's possible I don't think this is literal and you could just see the wave of peace come over her And as I started to ask her questions, it became more clear. I said has anything new happened in the last three months because she was three months pregnant in the dream she said yeah actually i got a new role and promotion at work. oh Click here we go so being pregnant or giving birth can mean that you are metaphorically birthing something new.
00:27:59
Speaker
you are seeded with something from God, whether that's a gift or a new role, like in this case, or a promise that you're carrying, or something that you have been given from Him, that you are growing inside of you that is being covered and protected and nurtured and is going to grow, and you are actually going to give birth to this new thing with him. In this instance, it correlated directly with this new role, this new job that she had. And so I said, I actually think that this new role is really significant. And God is speaking to it showing you this is from me. And I actually seated something here in this new role that is going to grow into something new and beautiful, and we're going to birth it together. And as soon as I said that, it was just like,
00:28:46
Speaker
all of the pieces came into place and she felt known and loved and like, oh, my job actually has purpose. She had sensed that this this promotion was significant, but now God had spoke to her about like, yes, this is us together and we're birthing something new that's going to be ours. Isn't that beautiful? So, gone are the days of thinking just because you dream that you're pregnant means that you are. Of course, please hear me. If it's possible that you are, Please ask for interpretation because if this is an indicator that you are, then that is absolutely beautiful as well. But the majority of dreams are symbolic. Yes, we have learned that. You have ah gone the course with me today. I'm so proud of you. Well done. That was a fire hose of information. And I am officially going to release you now and I will see you next time. Happy dreaming.