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

Bullets, cannonballs, bombs and mines all explode on detonation or impact. If you fired any of these, your dreaming mind is warning you that you are in danger of exploding with frustration or anger. Are you currently on a short emotional fuse and in danger of detonating with burning anger? What was your target in the dream? This may help you understand what triggered your anger. On the other hand, could an explosive situation be building up around you? Again, if your firepower ran out, this could indicate lack of ammunition in a conflict in your waking life; perhaps there just isn’t enough reason for you to be involved.

Gun

Guns, pistols or rifles in a man’s dream typically suggest male sexuality and defenses used against emotions. The unconscious may have selected this weapon to denote his sexual performance and if he fires blanks concerns about failing virility may be indicated. But because a person can feel impotent in other areas of life a misfiring gun may also suggest general feelings of powerlessness. If a gun appears in a woman’s dream, it may indicate her desire to be more assertive sexually. If you are shooting the gun in the dream, you may be behaving in quite an aggressive way in waking life. Are you defending yourself in the dream or shooting for pleasure? If you are shot by a gun, you may be feeling wounded or the target of criticism or hurtful comments in waking life. If you shoot the gun in your dream, this suggests anxiety about expressing emotions or hidden hostility. Bayonets are thrusting weapons used in conjunction with guns, and in dreams they suggest extreme danger and a desire for total control, either aimed at someone else or directed against you.

Idioms: shot in the arm; shot in the dark; shot to pieces; long shot.

Nuclear bomb

If the cloud from a nuclear bomb appears in your dream this is a terrible symbol of utter destruction. However, its shape will be significant; if it appears in mushroom form, it can also be a symbol of regeneration and renewal after the destruction. See also DISASTERS.

battle you are waging with yourself, such as the battle to give up smoking, the struggle to keep to a diet and so on.

If you dream of war, rather than simply a battle, different interpretations are appropriate. War has a more global effect that one-to-one combat or fighting, and this would suggest that you need to be more conscious of the effect your actions have on others. The outcome of war should be the establishment of order, and dreams of wars coming to an end can have a positive interpretation, suggesting that this natural process is taking place on an inner level.

Idioms: in the wars; on the war path; war of nerves; declare war; battle stations; battle your way through; battle scarred.

WARFARE

If, in your dream, you were part of a regiment, this may suggest that you feel safe in numbers, as a part of a crowd or group of people. If you feel sorrow or guilt or resentment, this may reflect your attitude to the group of people you associate yourself with in waking life. Taking part in guerrilla actions suggests secret plans in waking life, whilst a preoccupation with a helmet and protective clothing may mirror a desire to ‘take cover’ in waking life. A dream in which an invasion takes place may be symbolic of an invasion of your space in waking life, either real or psychological. If a tank appears in your battle, this is an aggressive phallic symbol. It can also suggest an attack on convention and an indiscriminate flattening of all those who stand in your way. The torpedo also symbolizes male sexuality but, unlike the tank, it delivers destruction by stealth. High-tech missiles, cannon, field guns and other forms of artillery also present variations on the phallic symbol. On the other hand, they may also symbolize obstacles or ‘hot shots’ you feel are against you as you pursue your goals. This may be particularly the case if you are a woman in a stereotypically male profession.

If an air raid takes place in your dream, this indicates emotional attack from people or feelings you have about the events around you. A bomb suggests an explosive situation or sudden events that have produced anxiety. It can also suggest your own anxiety. If an underground mine figures in your dream, this can suggest bringing to consciousness potential and innate wisdom. A dream explosion with billowing clouds graphically mirrors the damaging consequences of exploding with pent-up fury or tension in waking life.

Idioms: I feel blitzed; come as a bombshell; put a bomb under someone; earn a bomb.

WEAPONS

Weapons in dreams appear for numerous reasons. They are associated with aggression and hostility towards someone, perhaps you. They can be a warning that you need to take defensive action against something or someone that poses a real threat to you. They may also represent a secret desire within you to hurt someone. If you dream of using a weapon against someone, do you harbor hidden anger and aggression that you have not expressed in waking life? If you do not know the person you are attacking, your weapon and victim may be symbolic representations of aspects of yourself you do not like or find hard to deal with. You may have inner conflicts that need to be resolved, or ‘killed off’. If so, what does your unknown victim look like, and how does he, she or it react to the threat? All this may provide you with important clues. If you have a weapon used against you in a dream this may suggest that you have done something to upset people around you or it may be that you feel you have become the victim of circumstances. If you are shot in the dream, this may be referring to internalized aggression, past hurt or a fear of being hurt.

According to Freud, almost every weapon is a phallic symbol and many dream researchers still subscribe to this view. If a man dreams he is attacking a woman with a weapon or hunting a woman, it may reveal an equivocal attitude towards women. A woman who dreams of being attacked may be expressing sexual insecurity or a fear of men. Weapons or firearms that malfunction in dreams or fail to work may indicate a sense of powerlessness to handle challenges in daily life. They may also suggest anxiety about sexual performance or an inability to express ideas confidently to other people. If a work tool or other object is used as an offensive weapon, this suggests a skill or authority that has turned against you, as might happen if a teacher was taking advantage of a pupil. The atmosphere of the dream will provide the best clue for analysis, but ancient dream oracles suggest that this dream generally means you have enemies who pretend to be friends. In other words, ‘watch your back’.

CLOTHES AND IMAGE (#ulink_695e232a-3593-54da-8616-681c57fccb0b)

Dreams about clothes are very common and they usually tell you something about your self-image.

In waking life, clothes protect, conceal and reveal and so in dreams they depict the façade, or persona, you create for other people; by so doing, they tell you where you may be vulnerable or exposed in waking life. The colors and condition of your dream clothes are especially important as they may symbolize how you are feeling about yourself, or how others perceive you. For example, if you were dressed in brightly colored designer clothes and were basking in the admiration of others, this may indicate good self-esteem, whereas if you were dressed in dark, shabby-looking garments in dreamland, and you felt miserable and self-conscious, it may be that this is how you are feeling in the real world.

Dreams about clothes can often focus on whether you are wearing the right outfit for the right occasion. For example, you may turn up at a party dressed totally inappropriately, you may have problems getting dressed, or you may find yourself walking naked down a busy street. Such dreams are rarely about sex and more about feelings of vulnerability, although they are sometimes about freedom from inhibitions. See also COLORS.

Clothing Scenarios

DRESSING IN OTHER PEOPLE’S CLOTHES

Clothes are the protective layer that keeps you warm, but they are also a way to express your personality or hide imperfections. In dreams, what you wear is often a symbol of your self-image or inner self, and if you dress in clothes that obviously belong to other people, this is a clear sign that you have problems accepting yourself as you truly are. It can, on the other hand, suggest admiration for the person whose clothes you are wearing.

For Jungians, wearing clothes of the opposite sex may signal the dreamer’s need to express the anima (female aspects of the male nature) or the animus (male aspects of the female nature). For Freudians, a child dressing up in adult clothes, particularly if the clothes are those of the opposite sex, may suggest childhood rivalry with one parent for the affections of the opposite sex parent. If you are simply changing outfit in your dream, this may suggest altering your mode of behavior, role or mood. If you astonish yourself by shopping for, buying and wearing unusual clothes in your dream that you would never normally wear in waking life, then your unconscious may have been suggesting that you have become too set in your ways and outlook, and that it is time to open your mind up to new opinions. Is it time for you to break out of your rut and for other people to sit up and notice you?

On the other hand if you dress casually in waking life and dream of wearing a business suit, your unconscious may be urging you to adopt a more business-like approach. If you were surprised by the color of the clothes in your dream—either your own or those belonging to someone else—then see if that color has significance for you (see COLORS). If you find yourself dressed in expensive designer clothes you couldn’t normally afford, this may also be simple wish-fulfillment, especially if you are fashion conscious.

EXPOSURE

If you expose yourself in your dream, either deliberately or by accident, you need to ask yourself why this happened. In your waking life, are you too open, too naïve, too trusting, or not open or trusting enough? If you feel embarrassed in the dream, then the chances are you feel that you are already exposed or in danger of being exposed in some way in waking life. If, on the other hand, you are enjoying your freedom from social constraint, then your unconscious may be urging you to be more open or free from convention in waking life. Exposing yourself in a dream may also have something to do with truthfulness; perhaps you need to be more honest and direct in waking life.

NAKEDNESS

One of the most common and often embarrassing dreams is to find yourself naked in a public place, wearing only your underwear or clothes that are see-through. Nakedness may represent a longing to return to childhood innocence, as the dream represents the real you, stripped of pretence and social conditioning. Do you have a desire to be seen for who you are or to reveal your essential personality without having to create a façade? Another interpretation is that nakedness expresses a latent exhibitionism or simply a desire for sex. Freud once stated that his favorite dream was of being naked in a crowd of strangers.

From a Freudian perspective, a naked female is usually an expression of sexual desire for dreamers—men or women—who are sexually attracted to women. Freudians see the naked male in much the same light as the naked female, as an expression of sexual desire for men. In Jungian terms, nakedness suggests aspirations for love and rebirth, or a desire to attain spiritual awareness and to renounce the material world. According to this interpretation, nakedness is also an expression of beauty, creativity and divinity. Ancient gods such as Venus, goddess of beauty, and Diana, the goddess of the hunt, are often depicted naked.

A naked child is particularly associated with the Jungian archetype of the divine child, and more generally with innocence and lack of inhibition. If you are covering up a child’s nakedness in the dream, this indicates a general discomfort with emotional expression. Many psychologists favor the interpretation that dreams of nakedness highlight feelings of vulnerability. Such dreams may be interpreted as a fear of sexual relationships, but they are more likely to signify fears and anxieties about yourself, and the way you appear to others. Perhaps you feel failure or rejection if you reveal your true self. In your waking life, you therefore need to overcome feelings of vulnerability and learn to be more self-confident.

Being partly dressed in a dream may suggest that you are not prepared for what lies ahead. It might be wise to re-examine your plans and your future. If the people in the dream seem unaware that you are underdressed or naked, this suggests that you shouldn’t worry about showing your real self to others. It may also signify that you are not worried about what others think of you, or that you long to show sides of your true personality to others. To dream of being ashamed or frightened may indicate a fear of showing your real feelings. If, on the other hand, you are disgusted by your own, or another person’s, nakedness, or other people are disgusted with your own nakedness, this suggests anxiety about discovering the naked truth about yourself, another person or a situation.

If you positively welcome the nakedness of other people in your dream, it may express a frustration with what, in waking life, you perceive to be their affected behavior—you wish they could be more natural. It may also suggest that you can see through people and see them for who they are. If you are sufficiently secure within your own self-image in waking life, you will not be afraid of being stripped in public in a dream. For example, dreaming of appearing naked in a strip show could suggest that you are anxious about being misunderstood, or that you welcome the opportunity to express and reveal yourself.