Different flowers usually have separate meanings, but, as so often
happens, flower-symbolism is broadly characterized by two essentially different
considerations: the flower in its essence, and the flower in its shape. By its very
nature it is symbolic of transitoriness, of Spring and of beauty. The sixth of the
‘Eight Immortals’ of China, Lan Ts’ai-ho, is generally depicted clad in blue and
carrying a basket of flowers; it is said that he was given to singing of the brevity
of life and the ephemeral nature of pleasure (5). The Greeks and Romans, at all
their feasts, always wore crowns of flowers. And they would strew flowers over
the corpses as they bore them to the funeral pyre and over their graves (not so
much as an offering as an analogy) (8). We have, then, another example of an
antithetical symbol, like the skeleton which the Egyptians would bring to their
banquets, as a reminder of the reality of death and as a stimulus towards the
enjoyment of life. Now, because of its shape, the flower is an image of the
‘Centre’, and hence an archetypal image of the soul (56). ‘Celestial flower’ is the
name given to a meteorite or a shooting star by the alchemists (57), and the flower
was, for them, symbolic of the work of the sun (32). The significance would be
adapted according to the colour of the flower. So, for example, orange or yellowcoloured flowers represent a reinforcement of the basic sun-symbolism; red flowers emphasize the relationship with animal life, blood and passion. The ‘blue
flower’ is a legendary symbol of the impossible, and is probably an allusion to the
‘mystic Centre’ as represented by the Grail and other such symbols. The ‘golden
flower’ is a famous parallel in Chinese mysticism, a non-existent flower which is
also spoken of in alchemy; in the Epistola ad Hermannum Arch. Coloniensem
(Theatr. Chem. 1622) it is given the name of ‘the sapphire-blue flower of the
Hermaphrodite’ (32).

To see colorful flowers in your dream, signify kindness, compassion, gentleness, pleasure, beauty, and gain. It is also symbolic of perfection and spirituality. Your dream may be an expression of love, joy and happiness. Alternatively, flowers in dream, especially if they are blooming, represent your hidden potential and latent talents. Flowers can also denote a particular time or season. If the flowers are white, then it symbolizes sadness. Consider the color of the flower and the type of flower for additional analysis.

To see withered or dead flowers in your dream, denotes disappointments and gloomy situations. It may signal an end to a love relationship. Or it could indicate that you may not be utilizing your full potential and talents and letting it go to waste.

To dream that you receive a bouquet of flowers, represents respect, approval, admiration, and rewards.

To see flowers blooming in barren soil, signify that energy and cheerful nature will enable you to overcome your grievances. If you are picking flowers, then the dream symbolizes blooming love or a new developing relationship.

To dream of seeing flowers blooming in gardens, signifies pleasure and gain, if bright-hued and fresh; white denotes sadness. Withered and dead flowers, signify disappointments and gloomy situations.

For a young woman to receive a bouquet of mixed flowers, foretells that she will have many admirers.

To see flowers blooming in barren soil without vestage of foliage, foretells you will have some grievous experience, but your energy and cheerfulness will enable you to climb through these to prominence and happiness.

``Held in slumber's soft embrace,
She enters realms of flowery grace,
Where tender love and fond caress,
Bids her awake to happiness.''

Seeing colorful flowers in your dream means kindness, compassion, gentleness, pleasure, beauty, and gain. It is also symbolic of perfection and spirituality. Your dream may be an expression of love, joy and happiness. Alternatively, flowers may denote a particular time or season. If the flowers are white, then it symbolizes sadness. Seeing withered or dead flowers in your dream indicates disappointments and gloomy situations. You may not be utilizing your full potential and talents. Dreaming that you receive a bouquet of flowers, represents respect, approval, admiration, and rewards. Seeing flowers blooming in barren soil means that energy and cheerful nature will enable you to overcome your grievances.

When we look at flowers, most of us feel some joy and vitality. At the very least, we appreciate their beauty and see their value. Flowers are beautiful and in our dreams they could represent the simplest feelings of contentment to the deepest feelings of spiritual completeness. A circular flower is a friendly sign that could be the symbol of wholeness that represents the "psychic centre of the personality." Additionally, the colours could symbolize the psychic centers in our bodies called chakras. Flowers also represent hope and positive growth, along with simplicity, innocence, and possibly virginity. A flower can also symbolize the vulva.

If you dream that you are arranging flowers, you could be trying to make improvements to your waking life. Dead or dried flowers in a dream can symbolize poor health or obstacles in your life. Flowers in a bouquet may symbolize a marriage.

The point signifies unity, the Origin and the Centre. It also represents
the principles of manifestation and emanation, and hence in some mandalas the
centre is not actually shown but must be imagined by the initiate. There are two
kinds of point to be considered: that which has no magnitude and is symbolic of
creative virtue, and that which—as suggested by Raymond Lull in his Nova
Geometria—has the smallest conceivable or practicable magnitude and is a symbol of the principle of manifestation. Moses of Leon defined the nature of the
original Point as follows: ‘This degree is the sum total of all subsequent mirrors,
that is, of all external aspects related to this one degree. They proceed therefrom
because of the mystery of the point, which is in itself an occult degree emanating
from the mystery of the pure and awe-inspiring ether. The first degree of all is
absolutely occult, that is, not manifest, and cannot be attained’ (25). This explains why the Centre—identical with the mystic point of Moses of Leon—is
usually represented as a hole.

To see something pointed in your dream, represents action, urgency and completion. The dream suggests that you have arrived to a decision or common understanding. Alternatively, the dream may also be a metaphor that there is a point to your dream. Or you need to get your point across.

To see your own eyes in your dream, represent enlightenment, knowledge, comprehension, understanding, and intellectual awareness. Unconscious thoughts may be coming onto the surface. The left eye is symbolic of the moon, while the right eye represents the sun. It may also be a pun on "I" or the self. If you dream that your eyes have turned inside your head and you can now see the inside of your head, then it symbolizes insight and something that you need to be aware of. This dream may be literally telling you that you need to look within yourself. Trust your intuition and instincts.

To dream that you have something in your eye, represents obstacles in your path. Alternatively, it may represent your critical view and how you tend to see faults in others.

To dream that you have one eye, indicates your refusal to accept another viewpoint. It suggests that you are one-sided in your ways of thinking.

To dream that you have a third eye, symbolizes inner vision, insight, instinct or some psychic ability you have yet untapped. You are able to see what others cannot. Or you need to start looking within yourself and trust your instincts.

To dream that your eyes are injured or closed, suggests your refusal to see the truth about something or the avoidance of intimacy. You may be expressing feelings of hurt, pain or sympathy.

To dream that you have crossed eyes, denotes that you are not seeing straight with regards to some situation. You may be getting your facts mixed up.

To dream that your eyes are bleeding, symbolizes the sacrifices your have made and the difficulties you have endured. Alternatively, the dream signifies some very deep pain or internal conflict within your soul. Although you may not feel any physical pain, you are hurting inside. Perhaps you have been hiding the pain for so long that you forgot what pain feels like. There is some unrest or uneasiness within which needs to be addressed and resolved immediately.

Eyes are complex dream symbols and can be interpreted by considering the dreamer's experiences and the details in the dream (as is the case with all dream symbols). Some say that the eyes are the windows for the soul. Eyes symbolize perceptiveness, personal outlook, clairvoyance, curiosity, and knowledge. They also reveal information about personal identity and suggest to the dreamer what they should pay attention to. Closed eyes are said to represent fear and an unwillingness to see clearly. Superstition-based dream interpretations say that if the eyes in your dream are beautiful they represent peace. Crossed eyes may be an unconscious warning about someone’s character, integrity, or misperceptions.

To see hair in your dream, signifies sexual virility, seduction, sensuality, vanity, and health. It is indicative of your attitudes. If your hair is knotted or tangled, then it is symbolic of uncertainty and confusion in your life. You may be unable to think straight. If you dream that you make a drastic change to your hairstyle, then it means that you are making a drastic, new approach to some issue in your waking life.

To dream that you are cutting your hair, suggests that you are experiencing a loss in strength. You may feel that someone is trying to censor you. Alternatively, you may be reshaping your thinking or ambitions and eliminating unwanted thoughts/habits.

To dream that you are combing, stroking or styling your hair, suggests that you are taking on and evaluating a new idea, concept, outlook, or way of thinking. You may be putting your thoughts in order and getting your facts straight. A more literal interpretation suggests your concerns about your self-image and appearance.

To dream that you have long hair, indicates that you are thinking long and carefully before making some decision. You are concentrating on some plan or situation.

To dream that you are losing your hair, denotes that you are concerned with the notion that you are getting older and losing your sex appeal and virility. You are preoccupied with aging and your appearance. Losing your hair also signifies a lack of strength; you do not have the power to succeed in an undertaking. You may be feeling weak and vulnerable.

To dream that someone is smelling your hair, indicates sexual curiosity and your need for some sensual stimulation. You have a lot to learn about a relationship. The way yours or someone else's hair smell may remind your of a particular person.

To dream that you are reaching for someone's hair, suggests that you are trying to connect with that person on a spiritual or intellectual level. It also refers to sympathy, protectiveness, and fraternal love.

To dream that the wind is blowing through your hair, signifies freedom to express uninhibited feelings. You are "letting your hair down".

To dream that your hair is white or turns white, indicates that something important has just been made aware to you. It is a symbol of wisdom and insight. The dream may also be a metaphor suggesting that you are feeling "light-headed".

If a woman dreams that she has beautiful hair and combs it, she will be careless in her personal affairs, and will lose advancement by neglecting mental application.

For a man to dream that he is thinning his hair, foreshadows that he will become poor by his generosity, and suffer illness through mental worry.

To see your hair turning gray, foretells death and contagion in the family of some relative or some friend.

To see yourself covered with hair, omens indulgence in vices to such an extent as will debar you from the society of refined people. If a woman, she will resolve herself into a world of her own, claiming the right to act for her own pleasure regardless of moral codes

If a man dreams that he has black, curling hair, he will deceive people through his pleasing address. He will very likely deceive the women who trust him. If a woman's hair seems black and curly, she will be threatened with seduction.

If you dream of seeing a woman with golden hair, you will prove a fearless lover and be woman's true friend.

To dream that your sweetheart has red hair, you will be denounced by the woman you love for unfaithfulness. Red hair usually suggests changes

If you see brown hair, you will be unfortunate in choosing a career.

If you see well kept and neatly combed hair, your fortune will improve.

To dream you cut your hair close to the scalp, denotes that you will be generous to lavishness towards a friend. Frugality will be the fruits growing out therefrom.

To see the hair growing out soft and luxuriant, signifies happiness and luxury.

For a woman to compare a white hair with a black one, which she takes from her head, foretells that she will be likely to hesitate between two offers of seeming fortune, and unless she uses great care, will choose the one that will afford her loss or distress instead of pleasant fortune.

To see tangled and unkempt hair, life will be a veritable burden, business will fall off, and the marriage yoke will be troublesome to carry.

If a woman is unsuccessful in combing her hair, she will lose a worthy man's name by needless show of temper and disdain.

For a young woman to dream of women with gray hair, denotes that they will come into her life as rivals in the affection of a male relative, or displace the love of her affianced.

To dream of having your hair cut, denotes serious disappointments.

For a woman to dream that her hair is falling out, and baldness is apparent, she will have to earn her own livelihood, as fortune has passed her by.

For man or woman to dream that they have hair of snowy whiteness, denotes that they will enjoy a pleasing and fortunate journey through life.

For a man to caress the hair of a woman, shows he will enjoy the love and confidence of some worthy woman who will trust him despite the world's condemnation.

To see flowers in your hair, foretells troubles approaching which, when they come, will give you less fear than when viewed from a distance.

For a woman to dream that her hair turns to white flowers, augurs that troubles of a various nature will confront her, and she does well if she strengthens her soul with patience, and endeavors to bear her trials with fortitude.

To dream that a lock of your hair turns gray and falls out, is a sign of trouble and disappointment in your affairs. Sickness will cast gloom over bright expectations.

To see one's hair turn perfectly white in one night, and the face seemingly young, foretells sudden calamity and deep grief. For a young woman to have this dream, signifies that she will lose her lover by a sudden sickness or accident. She will likely come to grief from some indiscretion on her part. She should be careful of her associates.

Seeing hair in your dream means sexual virility, seduction, sensuality, vanity, and health. It is indicative of your attitudes. If your hair is knotted or tangled, then it is symbolic of uncertainty and confusion in your life. You may be unable to think straight. Dreaming that you are cutting your hair, suggests that you are experiencing a loss in strength. You may feel that someone is trying to censor you. Alternatively, you may be reshaping your thinking or ambitions and eliminating unwanted thoughts/habits. Dreaming that you are combing, stroking or styling your hair, suggests that you are taking on and evaluating a new idea, concept, outlook, or way of thinking. You may be putting your thoughts in order and getting your facts straight. A more literal interpretation suggests your concerns about your self-image and appearance. Dreaming that you have long hair indicates that you are thinking long and carefully before making some decision. You are concentrating on some plan or situation. Dreaming that you are losing your hair indicates that you are concerned with the notion that you are getting older and losing your sex appeal/virility. You are preoccupied with aging and your appearance. Losing you hair also signify a lack of strength and that you do not possess the power to succeed in an undertaking. You may be feeling weak and vulnerable. Dreaming that someone is smelling your hair indicates sexual curiosity and your need for some sensual stimulation. You have a lot to learn about a relationship. The way yours or someone else's hair smell may remind your of a particular person. Dreaming that you are reaching for someone's hair, suggests that you are trying to connect with that person on a spiritual or intellectual level. It also refers to sympathy, protectiveness, and fraternal love. Dreaming that the wind is blowing through your hair means freedom to express uninhibited feelings. You are "letting your hair down". Dreaming that your hair is white or turns white indicates that something important has just been made aware to you. It is a symbol of wisdom and insight. The dream may also be a metaphor suggesting that you are feeling "light-headed".

Hair symbolizes vitality. If you dream that your hair is thinning or you are going bald, you may lack confidence. Dreaming that your hair has been cut signifies a fear of emotional or physical castration. Dreaming of healthy and shiny hair may mean that things are going well for you, but it may also be a sign of vanity.

To dream about beginning something, indicates that valuable time has been wasted through procrastination. You need to get on with life and put your plans into motion.

Dreaming about beginning something indicates that valuable time has been wasted through procrastination. You need to get on with life and put your plans into motion.

To dream that you are running away from someone, indicates an issue that you are trying to avoid. You are not taking or accepting responsibility for your actions. In particular, if you are running from an attacker or any danger, then it suggests that you are not facing and confronting your fears.

To dream that you are trying to run but cannot make your feet move as fast as you want them to, signifies lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. It may also reflect your actual state of REM paralysis during the dream state.

To dream that you are running alone, refers to your determination and motivation in the pursuit of your goals. You will find success and rise above those around you. Alternatively, the dream may mean that you need to hurry up in making a decision.

To dream that you are running with someone, signifies cooperation.

To dream of running in company with others, is a sign that you will participate in some festivity, and you will find that your affairs are growing towards fortune. If you stumble or fall, you will lose property and reputation.

Running alone, indicates that you will outstrip your friends in the race for wealth, and you will occupy a higher place in social life.

If you run from danger, you will be threatened with losses, and you will despair of adjusting matters agreeably. To see others thus running, you will be oppressed by the threatened downfall of friends.

To see stock running, warns you to be careful in making new trades or undertaking new tasks.

Dreaming that you are running away from someone indicates an issue that you are trying to avoid. You are not taking or accepting responsibility for your actions. In particular, if you are running from an attacker or any danger, then it suggests that you are not facing and confronting your fears. Dreaming that you are trying to run but cannot make your feet move as fast as you want them to means lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. It may also reflect your actual state of REM paralysis while in the dream state. Dreaming that you are running alone means that you will advance to a higher position and surpass your friends in the race for wealth. Alternatively, you may be running from some situation or from temptation. Dreaming that you are running with others means festive and prosperous times.

Dreaming of running competitively should be distinguished from dreams that have you running to or from something. If you are simply running with no goal, it may be an indication that you need to slow down in your every day life. If you are competing, you need to consider your recent rivalries and realistically look at the current challenges. If you are running in a race and win, your unconscious may be expressing confidence that you may or may not feel in the wakened state. Running in your dreams may also symbolise the energy levels, the strength, or the force that you have to get through life.

Seeing a girl in your dream, represents your playful, innocent, and childlike nature. Perhaps you have been behaving prematurely. Dreaming about a girl that you just met, represents your anxieties and thoughts of whether you had made a good impression on her and what she thought of you. If she told you that she disliked you in the dream, then it may be an excuse for you to dismiss her and not pursue a relationship that is beyond friendship. For a man to dream that he is a girl means that he aspires to be an actor and play female parts.

To dream of darkness overtaking you on a journey, augurs ill for any work you may attempt, unless the sun breaks through before the journey ends, then faults will be overcome.

To lose your friend, or child, in the darkness, portends many provocations to wrath. Try to remain under control after dreaming of darkness, for trials in business and love will beset you.

A dark place, such as a cave, in a dream can symbolize negative emotions. In your dream, are you able to find your way out of the dark place?

A dream about being in darkness can also mean that you believe you are being "kept in the dark" about something - that someone else is keeping a secret from you.

If you dream that you are afraid of the dark you could be unwilling to deal with obstacles that you expect to face in the future.

To taste something sweet in your dream, suggests that life is going well for you. You are expressing your satisfaction with life. Alternatively, the dream may be giving approval to move forward with some decision or action. Sometimes, you need to indulge yourself and not worry about the consequences.

The tree is one of the most essential of traditional symbols. Very often
the symbolic tree is of no particular genus, although some peoples have singled
out one species as exemplifying par excellence the generic qualities. Thus, the oak
was sacred to the Celts; the ash to the Scandinavian peoples; the lime-tree in Germany; the fig-tree in India. Mythological associations between gods and trees
are extremely frequent: so, Attis and the pine; Osiris and the cedar; Jupiter and
the oak; Apollo and the laurel, etc. They express a kind of ‘elective correspondence’ (26, 17). In its most general sense, the symbolism of the tree denotes the
life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is therefore equivalent to a
symbol of immortality. According to Eliade, the concept of ‘life without death’
stands, ontologically speaking, for ‘absolute reality’ and, consequently, the tree
becomes a symbol of this absolute reality, that is, of the centre of the world.
Because a tree has a long, vertical shape, the centre-of-the-world symbolism is
expressed in terms of a world-axis (17). The tree, with its roots underground and
its branches rising to the sky, symbolizes an upward trend (3) and is therefore
related to other symbols, such as the ladder and the mountain, which stand for the
general relationship between the ‘three worlds’ (the lower world: the underworld,
hell; the middle world: earth; the upper world: heaven). Christian symbolism—
and especially Romanesque art—is fully aware of the primary significance of the
tree as an axis linking different worlds (14). According to Rabanus Maurus,
however, in his Allegoriae in Sacram Scripturam (46), it also symbolizes human
nature (which follows from the equation of the macrocosm with the microcosm).
The tree also corresponds to the Cross of Redemption and the Cross is often
depicted, in Christian iconography, as the Tree of Life (17). It is, of course, the
vertical arm of the Cross which is identified with the tree, and hence with the
‘world-axis’. The world-axis symbolism (which goes back to pre-Neolithic times)
has a further symbolic implication: that of the central point in the cosmos. Clearly,
the tree (or the cross) can only be the axis linking the three worlds if it stands in
the centre of the cosmos they constitute. It is interesting to note that the three
worlds of tree-symbolism reflect the three main portions of the structure of the
tree: roots, trunk and foliage. Within the general significance of the tree as worldaxis and as a symbol of the inexhaustible life-process (growth and development),
different mythologies and folklores distinguish three or four different shades of
meaning. Some of these are merely aspects of the basic symbolism, but others are
of a subtlety which gives further enrichment to the symbol. At the most primitive
level, there are the ‘Tree of Life’ and the ‘Tree of Death’ (35), rather than, as in
later stages, the cosmic tree and the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil; but
the two trees are merely two different representations of the same idea. The
arbor vitae is found frequently, in a variety of forms, in Eastern art. The—
apparently purely decorative—motif of hom (the central tree), placed between
two fabulous beings or two animals facing each other, is a theme of Mesopotamian origin, brought both to the West and to the Far East by Persians, Arabs and
Byzantines (6). In Romanesque decoration it is the labyrinthine foliage of the
Tree of Life which receives most emphasis (the symbolic meaning remaining
unchanged, but with the addition of the theme of Entanglement) (46). An important point in connexion with the ‘cosmic tree’ symbol is that it often appears
upside down, with its roots in heaven and its foliage on earth; here, the natural
symbolism based on the analogy with actual trees has been displaced by a meaning expressing the idea of involution, as derived from the doctrines of emanation:
namely, that every process of physical growth is a spiritual opus in reverse.
Thus, Blavatsky says: ‘In the beginning, its roots were generated in Heaven, and
grew out of the Rootless Root of all-being. . . . Its trunk grew and developed,
crossing the plains of Pleroma, it shot out crossways its luxuriant branches, first
on the plane of hardly differentiated matter, and then downward till they touched
the terrestrial plane. Thus . . . (it) is said to grow with its roots above and its
branches below’ (9). This concept is already found in the Upanishads, where it is
said that the branches of the tree are: ether, air, fire, water and earth. In the Zohar
of Hebrew tradition it is also stated that ‘the Tree of Life spreads downwards
from above, and is entirely bathed in the light of the sun’. Dante, too, portrays the
pattern of the celestial spheres as the foliage of a tree whose roots (i.e. origin)
spread upwards (Uranus). In other traditions, on the other hand, no such inversion occurs, and this symbolic aspect gives way to the symbolism of vertical
upward growth. In Nordic mythology, the cosmic tree, called Yggdrasil, sends its
roots down into the very core of the earth, where hell lies (Völuspâ, 19;
Grimnismâl, 31) (17).
We can next consider the two-tree symbolism in the Bible. In Paradise there
were the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both were
centrally placed in the Garden of Eden. In this connexion, Schneider says (50):
‘Why does God not mention the Tree of Life to Adam? Is it because it was a
second tree of knowledge or is it because it was hidden from the sight of Adam
until he came to recognize it with his new-found knowledge of good and evil—of
wisdom? We prefer the latter hypothesis. The Tree of Life, once discovered, can
confer immortality; but to discover it is not easy. It is “hidden”, like the herb of
immortality which Gilgamesh seeks at the bottom of the sea, or is guarded by
monsters, like the golden apples of the Hesperides. The two trees occur more
frequently than might be expected. At the East gate of the Babylonian heaven, for
instance, there grew the Tree of Truth and the Tree of Life.’ The doubling of the
tree does not modify the symbol’s fundamental significance, but it does add
further symbolic implications connected with the dual nature of the Gemini: the tree, under the influence of the symbolism of the number two, then reflects the
parallel worlds of living and knowing (the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge). As is often the case with symbols, many more specialized meanings have
been developed on the basis of the general tree-symbolism already outlined. Here
are a few: firstly, the triple tree. According to Schneider, the Tree of Life, when it
rises no higher than the mountain of Mars (the world of phenomena) is regarded
as a pillar supporting heaven. It is made up of three roots and three trunks—or
rather one central trunk with two large boughs corresponding to the two peaks of
the mountain of Mars (the two faces of Janus). Here the central trunk or axis
unifies the dualism expressed in the two-tree symbolism. In its lunar aspect, it is
the Tree of Life and emphasizes the moon’s identification with the realm of
phenomena; in its solar aspect it relates to knowledge and death (which, in symbolism, are often associated). In iconography, the Tree of Life (or the lunar side of
a double or triple tree) is depicted in bloom; the tree of death or knowledge (or the
solar side of a double or triple tree) is dry, and shows signs of fire (50). Psychology has interpreted this symbolic duality in sexual terms, Jung affirming that the
tree has a symbolic, bisexual nature, as can also be seen in the fact that, in Latin,
the endings of the names of trees are masculine even though their gender is
feminine (31). This conjunctio confirms the unifying significance of the cosmic
tree. Other symbols are often brought into association with the tree, sometimes
by analogy with real situations, sometimes through the juxtaposition of psychic
images and projections. The resulting composite symbolism is, of course, richer
and more complex, but also more specific, and consequently less spontaneous
and of less scope. The tree is frequently related to the rock or the mountain on
which it grows. On the other hand, the Tree of Life, as found in the celestial
Jerusalem, bears twelve fruits, or sun-shapes (symbols of the Zodiac, perhaps).
In many images, the sun, the moon and the stars are associated with the tree, thus
stressing its cosmic and astral character. In India we find a triple tree, with three
suns, the image of the Trimurti; and in China a tree with the twelve suns of the
Zodiac (25). In alchemy, a tree with moons denotes the lunar opus (the Lesser
Work) and the tree with suns the solar opus (the Great Work). The tree with the
signs of the seven planets (or metals) stands for prime matter (protohyle), from
which all differentiations emerge. Again, in alchemy, the Tree of Knowledge is
called arbor philosophica (a symbol of evolution, or of the growth of an idea, a
vocation or a force). ‘To plant the philosophers’ tree’ is tantamount to stimulating the creative imagination (32). Another interesting symbol is that of the ‘seatree’ or coral, related to the mythic sea king. The fountain, the dragon and the
snake are also frequently related to the tree. Symbol LVII of Bosch’s Ars Symbolica shows the dragon beside the tree of the Hesperides. As regards the symbolism of
levels, it is possible to establish a vertical scale of analogies: dragons and snakes
(primal forces) are associated with the roots; the lion, the unicorn, the stag and
other animals expressing the ideas of elevation, aggression and penetration, correspond to the trunk; and birds and heavenly bodies are brought into relation with
the foliage. Colour correspondences, are: roots/black; trunk/white; foliage/red.
The snake coiled round the tree introduces another symbol, that of the spiral. The
tree as world-axis is surrounded by the sequence of cycles which characterizes
the revealed world. This is an interpretation applicable to the serpent watching at
the foot of the tree on which the Golden Fleece is suspended (25). Endless
instances could be quoted of such associations of symbols, full of psychological
implications. Another typical combination of symbols, extremely frequent in
folktales, is that of the ‘singing tree’. In the Passio S. Perpetuae XI (Cambridge,
1891) we read that St. Saturius, a martyr alongside St. Perpetua, dreamed on the
eve of his martyrdom ‘that, having shed his mortal flesh, he was carried eastward
by four angels. Going up a gentle slope, they reached a spot bathed in the most
beautiful light: it was Paradise opening before us’, he adds, ‘like a garden, with
trees bearing roses and many other flower-blooms; trees tall as cypresses, singing
the while’ (46). The sacrificial stake, the harp-lyre, the ship-of-death and the
drum are all symbols derived from the tree seen as the path leading to the other
world (50) (Plate XXIX). Gershom G. Scholem, in Les Origines de la Kabbale,
speaks of the symbolism of the tree in connexion with hierarchical, vertical structures (such as the ‘sefirothic tree’ of the Cabbala, a theme that we cannot develop
here). He asks himself whether the ‘tree of Porphyry’, which was a widespread
symbol during the Middle Ages, was of a similar nature. In any case, it is reminiscent of the Arbor elementalis of Raymond Lull (1295), whose trunk symbolizes
the primordial substance of Creation, or hyle, and whose branches and leaves
represent its nine accidents. The figure ten has the same connotation as in the
sefiroth, the ‘sum of all the real which can be determined by numbers’.

The tree in your dream is you. The health, size and overall quality of the tree is indicative of how you feel about yourself. This interpretation is to be made only when the tree is the focal point of the dream. Also, consider whether the tree is alive with leaves, flowers or fruit, or if it's barren. You may see trees in your dream as a part of a landscape or as a secondary symbol. At those times, consider all of the details as they may have different interpretations than the one just given.