Dream Symbolism: Water

A common dream element that appears in the dreams of people across the world and across cultures is that of water.  Water plays an important role in our lives, nourishing and bringing us life and vitality.  Without it we wouldn’t be able to live.  In the dream world water also plays an important role, one that we should pay attention to.

Water represents our emotions and our current emotional state during the dream.  Think about it, when you become emotional what happens – you cry – water literally comes out of your body.

By looking at the water in a dream we can further see the state of our emotions.  First look at what type of water there is – is this the kind of water that falls from the sky or is this the water that is contained by land?  Traditionally, water that comes from storms and is above ground is representative of our emotions that are conscious to us.  We see this water falling, there is no part of it that is hidden to us.  The water that is found in lakes and oceans is our emotions contained in our unconscious mind.  We can’t see to the depths of the water and we don’t know all the emotions that lay beneath.

You can get an even deeper look at the state of your emotions by looking at the state of the water.  Is it clean or is it mucky?  Is it vast and expansive or is it a small drop?  Is it still and calm or are there ten foot high waves?

Let us make up a dream and use it as an example to see how all this works.  Say you are having a pleasant dream where you are on a beach sitting peacefully on a chair just enjoying your fruity beverage with an umbrella.  All of a sudden the ocean in front of you morphs from pleasant, relaxing waves into giant waves crashing against the shore and splashing into your fruity beverage.  Now what does this all mean?

First we are looking at an ocean, so these are unconscious emotions.  An ocean is also vast, probably the biggest body of water we can think of, so these emotions are expansive.  From the state of the water it appears we are going from relatively calm emotions to ones that are fierce and powerful.

This dream is telling the dreamer that they are having new and strong emotions that are unconscious to them.  In their conscious state they might want to examine their lives and see if something big has changed to cause these new emotions.  The other dream elements can also give the dreamer more specific clues as to what these emotions are coming from.

If you have a dream you would like me to interpret, please stop by my etsy shop and check out my dream interpretation listing.

Have you ever had dreams with water involved?  What type of water was it?