An image of life, expressive of the manifestation of the cosmos and of
the birth of forms. Aquatic plants, in particular, are symbolic of the ‘nascent’
character of life. In India, cosmic images are depicted as emerging from the lotus
flower (17). At the same time, man, conscious that biologically he was related to
the animals, could not but be aware that his upright posture was more closely
related to that of the tree, the shrub and the very grass, than to the horizontal
posture of all animals (other than the celestial birds). Thus, whereas totemism
drew up relationships between man and certain animals, the astrobiological era
was characterized by frequent connexions and equations between mythic beings
and plants. In particular, lives which had come to a violent end were supposed to
carry on a metamorphosed existence in vegetable form. Osiris, Attis, Adonis, to
name only a few deities, are closely related to plants. Another aspect of plantsymbolism is the annual cycle, in consequence of which they sometimes symbolize the mystery of death and resurrection (17). The fertility of the fields affords
the most powerful image of cosmic, material and spiritual fecundity.

To see plants in your dream, indicate fertility, spiritual development, potential, and growth. Alternatively, the appearance of plants in your dream reflect your caring and loving nature. If you are estranged from your children, then the plants can be seen as representative for your children.

In particular, to see indoor plants in your dream, suggest that your growth is being hindered or slowed in some way. You are experiencing a lack of independence. Alternatively, the dream signifies your desire to be closer to nature.

To see droopy, withered or dead plants in your dream, suggest that you are at a standstill in your life. You are lacking initiative.

Up to a certain point it corresponds to landscape-symbolism in general,
of which it forms one representational aspect, embracing the important symbols
of level and space, that is, height and situation. With the dawning of history there
arose, according to René Guénon, a true, ‘sacred geography’ and the position,
shape, doors and gates, and general disposition of a city with its temples and
acropolis were never arbitrary or fortuitous, or merely utilitarian. In fact, cities
were planned in strict accord with the dictates of a particular doctrine; hence the
city became a symbol of that doctrine and of the society which upheld it (28).
The city walls had magic powers since they were the outward signs of dogma,
which explains and justifies Romulus’s fratricide. Ornamental reliefs on capitals,
lintels, and tympana of the Middle Ages often depict the outlines of a walled city,
although in a way which is more emblematic than symbolic. These ornaments are
a kind of prefiguration of the heavenly Jerusalem. An angel armed with a sword is
sometimes to be seen at the city gate (46). Jung sees the city as a mother-symbol
and as a symbol of the feminine principle in general: that is, he interprets the City
as a woman who shelters her inhabitants as if they were her children; that is why
the two mother-gods Rhea and Cybele—as well as other allegorical figures derived from them—wear a crown after the pattern of a wall. The Old Testament
speaks of cities as women (31).

To see a city in your dream, signifies your social environment and sense of community. If you dream of a big city, then it suggests that you need to develop closer ties and relationships. You are feeling alienated and alone. To dream that you are in a deserted city, indicates that you feel rejected by those around you.

To dream of a city in ruins, denotes that you are neglecting your social relationships and allowing them to deteriorate.

To dream of an underground or underwater city, represents your unconscious and how through deeper understanding of yourself, you find commonality and shared experiences with others.

To dream that you are in a strange city, denotes you will have sorrowful occasion to change your abode or mode of living.

Seeing a city in your dream means a sense of community and your social environment. Dreaming that you are in a deserted city or that you feel alienated from the activity of the city, then it suggests that you feel rejected by those around you. Seeing a city in ruins means that you are neglecting your social relationships and allowing them to deteriorate.

In a manner of speaking, space is an intermediate zone between the
cosmos and chaos. Taken as the realm of all that is possible, it is chaotic; regarded
as the region in which all forms and structures have their existence, it is cosmic.
Space soon came to be associated with time, and this association proved one of
the ways of coming to grips with the recalcitrant nature of space. Another—and
the most important—was the concept of space as a three-part organization based
upon its three dimensions. Each dimension has two possible directions of movement, implying the possibility of two poles or two contexts. To the six points
achieved in this way, there was added a seventh: the centre; and space thus
became a logical structure. The symbolisms of level and of orientation were
finally brought to bear in order to complete the exegesis. The three dimensions of
space are illustrated by means of a three-dimensional cross, whose arms are oriented along these six spatial directions, made up of the four points of the
compass plus the two points of the zenith and the nadir. According to René
Guénon, this symbolism—because of its structural character—is identical with
that of the Sacred Palace (or the inner palace) of the Cabala, located at the centrepoint from which the six directions radiate. In the three-dimensional cross, the
zenith and the nadir correspond to the top and the bottom, the front and back to
East and West, the right and left to the South and North. The upright axis is the
polar axis, the North-South axis is the solstitial line, the East-West the equinoctial. The significance of the vertical or level-symbolism concerns the analogy
between the high and the good, the low and the inferior. The Hindu doctrine of the
three gunas—sattva (height, superiority), rajas (intermediate zone of the world
of appearances, or ambivalence) and tamas (inferiority, or darkness)—is in itself
sufficient to explain the meaning of the symbolism of level up and down the
vertical axis. It is, in consequence, the intermediate plane of the four-directional
cross (that which incorporates the cardinal points and which implies the square)
which represents the world of appearances. Taking next the East-West axis,
traditional orientation-symbolism associates the East—being the point of sunrise—with spiritual illumination; and the West—the point where the sun sets—
with death and darkness. Passing next to the North-South axis, there is no one
definite interpretation. In many oriental cultures, the zenith coincides with the
mystic ‘Hole’ through which transition and transcendence are effected, that is,
the path from the world of manifestation (spatial and temporal) to that of eternity. But it has also been identified with the centre of the three-dimensional cross,
taken as the heart of space. Reduced to two dimensions—those of the contrasting
horizontal and vertical arms—the cross comes to represent harmony between
extension (associated with width) and exaltation (with height). The horizontal
arm concerns the implications of a given gradation or moment in an individual’s
existence, and the vertical pertains to moral elevation (25). William of SaintThierry, describing the seven gradations of the soul, observes that it ascends these
steps in order to reach the celestial life (14). If we seek an interpretation which
will justify the four points of the horizontal plane’s being reduced to two (the left
and right), we can find a basis for it in Jung’s assertion that the rear part coincides
with the unconscious and the front with the manifest or consciousness; and since
the left also can be equated with the unconscious and the right with consciousness, the rear then becomes equivalent to the left and the front to the right (32).
Other equivalents are: left side with the past, the sinister, the repressed, involution, the abnormal and the illegitimate; the right side with the future, the felicitous, openness, evolution, the normal and the legitimate (42). In all this, there is an apparent contradiction with the corresponding number-symbolisms: Paneth
observes that, in most cultures, the uneven numbers are considered to be masculine and the even numbers to be feminine. Since the left side is the zone of origin
and the right that of the outcome, the corresponding number-symbolisms would
seem to be one (the uneven or masculine number) for the left side (that is, the
past) and two (the even or feminine number) for the right side (the subsequent or
outcome). The solution is to be found in the fact that the number one (unity)
never corresponds to the plane of the manifest world or to spatial reality: it is the
symbol of the centre, but not in the sense of occupying any situation in space
which might imply a sequel. Hence we must conclude that two is the number
corresponding to the left side and three is that related to the right. Guénon
explains the way in which the cosmic order conforms with all this in a lucid
exposition of the relevant Hindu doctrines to the effect that the right hand zone is
the solar region; the left-hand the lunar. ‘In the aspect of this symbolism which
refers to the temporal condition, the Sun and the right eye correspond to the
future, the Moon and the left eye to the past; the frontal eye corresponds to the
present which, from the point of view of the manifested, is but an imperceptible
moment, comparable to the geometrical point without dimensions in the spatial
order; that is why a single look from the third eye destroys all manifestation
(which is expressed symbolically by saying that it reduces everything to ashes),
and that is also why it is not represented by any bodily organ; but when one rises
above this contingent point of view, the present is seen to contain all reality (just
as the point carries within itself all the possibilities of space), and when succession is transmuted into simultaneity, all things abide in the “eternal present”, so
that the apparent destruction is truly a “transformation” ‘ (26). Now, the seven
aspects that define space have been regarded as the origin of all septenary groups,
and in particular of the seven planets, the seven colours and the seven kinds of
landscape (50). Hence Luc Benoist can assert that the Christian Church, by
building on earth a mighty, three-dimensional cross of stone, has created for the
entire world the co-ordinate lines of a supernatural geometry. Benoist then quotes
Clement of Alexandria as saying that the six directions of space symbolize—or
are equivalent to—the simultaneous and eternal presence of the six days of the
Creation, and that the seventh day (of rest) signifies the return to the centre and
the beginning (6). Once the cosmic sense of spatial symbolism has been demonstrated, it is simple to deduce its psychological applications. And once the static
laws have been determined, it is easy to grasp the dynamic-implications, always
bearing in mind the symbolism of orientation. Here, we must point out that the
swastika—a solar and polar symbol—implies a movement from right to left, like the apparent movement of the sun; and that Clotho—one of the Parcae—spins
her ‘wheel of destiny’ in the same direction, that is, the opposite way to existence, so destroying it. Right-handedness is characteristic of all symbols of natural
life (28); hence, in the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, to enter is to go towards
the right and to go out is to go towards the left (19); orienting these hieroglyphs,
we have the right corresponding with the rise and the left with the setting of the
sun. Similarly, the right side takes on an extra implication of birth and life, while
the left side acquires an association with death (17). Another consequence, apparent in allegories and emblems, is that the right side corresponds to the higher
virtues—if one may put it that way—such as compassion, and the left side to
justice. All of the above conclusions are logical deductions drawn from the study
of oriental tradition, supported by the findings of experimental psychology. But
they are conclusions which have also been verified by anthropologists and sociologists in their studies of the habits of diverse peoples. Ania Teillard, for example, has collated a mass of facts; she quotes J. J. Bachofen as asserting (in his
Mutterrecht und Urreligion und Grabersymbolik der Alten) that, in the important
and very common equation ‘right hand=masculinity’, the left hand harbours
magic powers and the right hand the force of reason, and also that in matriarchal
societies one always finds the idea of superiority attributed to the left side, and
conversely. To turn to the left is to look back upon the past, the unconscious,
implying introversion; to turn to the right is to look upon the outside world,
implying action and extraversion. At the same time, ethnologists are agreed that
during the first stage of any period of sun-worship, the right side becomes preeminent, whereas in lunar cults it is the left side which prevails (56). In paintings,
reliefs and other artistic creations of man, the left side is characterized by a more
vivid projection of the self (that is, by identification) and the right side is more
extravert.

Seeing or dreaming that you are in space, represents exploration. You are an independent thinker.

To dream that you are in a jungle, signifies aspects of yourself and your personality that may be inhibited. You may be experiencing some chaos and unpredictable circumstances in your waking life. Consider the phrase "it's a jungle out there!"

If you are lost or trapped in a jungle, then it indicates that your negative feelings are hindering your progress. You need to come to terms with aspects of your unconscious.

Dreaming that you are in a jungle means aspects of yourself and your personality that may have been inhibited

The jungle could represent your confusing and overwhelming thoughts regarding daily life. If you dream you are in an impenetrable jungle, your unconscious may be revealing to you the anxiety you have about a particular situation, a current difficulty, or the future. If you find yourself freely exploring the jungle, it is a positive dream image that might be encouraging you to go on a new adventure and discover unexplored areas of your own psyche.

To see a building in your dream, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding, awareness or success. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality.

To see a building in ruins or damaged, indicates that your approach toward a situation or relationship is all wrong. You need to change. Your own self-image may have suffered and taken some blow.

To dream that a building collapses, indicates that you are losing sight of your ambitions and goals. Your pursuit for material gains is failing.

To dream that you or someone fall off a building, suggests that you are descending into the realm of unconscious. You are learning about and acknowledging aspects of your unconscious. Alternatively, it symbolizes your fear of not being able to complete or succeeding in a task.

To dream that you are scaling or climbing a building, indicates that you are getting carried away by your ambitions.

Dreaming of a building, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding or awareness. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality. Dreaming of a building in ruins or damaged indicates that your approach toward a situation or relationship is all wrong. You need to change. Your own self-image may have suffered and taken some blow. Dreaming that you or someone fall off a building, suggests that you are descending into the realm of unconscious. You are learning about and acknowledging aspects of your unconscious. Alternatively, it symbolizes your fear of not being able to complete or succeeding in a task. See also Falling in our Common Dream Themes section.

To dream of trees in new foliage, foretells a happy consummation of hopes and desires. Dead trees signal sorrow and loss.

To climb a tree is a sign of swift elevation and preferment.

To cut one down, or pull it up by the roots, denotes that you will waste your energies and wealth foolishly.

To see green tress newly felled, portends unhappiness coming unexpectedly upon scenes of enjoyment, or prosperity.

To see lush green trees in your dream, symbolize new hopes, growth, desires, knowledge, and life. It also implies strength, protection and stability. You are concentrating on your own self-development and individuation.

To dream that you are climbing a tree, signifies achievement of your career goals and attainment of higher positions in life. The speed at which you climb the tree will parallel the speed of your achievement of these goals.

To dream that you chop or cut down a tree, indicates that you are wasting your energy, time, and money on foolish pursuits. Alternatively, the dream may be a comment on your sexual fear or guilt.

To see a falling tree in your dream, means that you are feeling off balance and out of sync. Perhaps, you are off track and headed in the wrong direction.

To see a withered or dead tree in your dream, indicates that your hopes and desires have been dashed. You are experiencing some instability and setback in your life. Alternatively, the dead tree represents infertility or a lack of virility. Perhaps it signal an end to a familial line (as in a family tree).

To see bare trees in your dream, indicate used up energy. You have put your all into some relationship or project and now you are exhausted. Perhaps you are even feeling depressed. Alternatively, the dream signifies the cycle of life or the passage of time.

To see crows perched on the dead tree, symbolizes the end of some cycle or behavior. It is representative of death.

Seeing lush green trees in your dream, symbolizes new hopes, growth and desires. It also implies strength and stability. You are concentrating on your own self-development and individuation. Dreaming that you are climbing a tree means that you will achieve your career goals and reach those high places in society. The degree of difficulty to which you climb the tree will measure the speed of your achievement of these goals Dreaming that you cut down a tree means that you are wasting your energy, time, and money on foolish pursuits. Seeing a falling tree in your dream indicates that you are off balance and out of sync. You are off track and headed in the wrong direction.

To see large and magnificent buildings, with green lawns stretching out before them, is significant of a long life of plenty, and travels and explorations into distant countries.

Small and newly built houses, denote happy homes and profitable undertakings; but, if old and filthy buildings, ill health and decay of love and business will follow.

Buildings usually present the dreamer and symbolize the levels of consciousness (see House). Other buildings can also represent the self. Law courts or police stations may represent the dreamer's prudence and perspicacity. Industrial buildings such as factories could stand for the imaginative or creative potential of the dreamer; museums represent the past. If the building is in need of repair this suggests that the dreamer should take care of his or her mental or physical health (see also Library and Shopping).

To dream about half of something, indicates that something in your waking life is incomplete or unresolved. It may also indicate that you are only partially acknowledging your feelings. You or someone else is limiting or restricting you. Alternatively, the dream suggests that you need to be open to compromise and meet halfway.

Dreaming about half of something indicates that something in your waking life is incomplete or unresolved. It may also indicate that you are only partially acknowledging your feelings. You or someone else is limiting or restricting you. Alternatively, the dream may suggest that you need to be open to compromise and meet halfway.

Traditional symbols of love always express a duality in which the two
antagonistic elements are, nevertheless, reconciled. Thus, the Indian lingam, the Yang-Yin, or even the Cross, where the upright beam is the world-axis and Chinese
the cross-beam the world of phenomena. They are, in other words, symbols of a
conjunction, or the expression of the ultimate goal of true love: the elimination of
dualism and separation, uniting them in the mystic ‘centre’, the ‘unvarying mean’
of Far Eastern philosophy. The rose, the lotus flower, the heart, the irradiating
point—these are the most frequent symbols of this hidden centre; ‘hidden’ because it does not exist in space, although it is imagined as doing so, but denotes the
state achieved through the elimination of separation. The biological act of love
itself expresses this desire to die in the object of the desire, to dissolve in that
which is already dissolved. According to the Book of Baruch: ‘Erotic desire and
its satisfaction is the key to the origin of the world. Disappointment in love and
the revenge which follows in its wake are the root of all the evil and the selfishness
in this world. The whole of history is the work of love. Beings seek and find one
another; separate and hurt one another; and in the end, comes acute suffering
which leads to renunciation.’ Or to put it another way: Maya as opposed to
Lilith, illusion balanced by the serpent.

To dream of love or being in love, suggests intense feelings carried over from a waking relationship. It refers to your contentment with what you already have and where you are in life. On the other hand, the dream may be compensatory and implies that you may not be getting enough love in your life. We naturally long for the sense to belong and to be accepted.

To see a couple in love or expressing love to each other, indicates success ahead for you.

To dream that your friend is in love with you, may be one of wish fulfillment. Perhaps you have developed feelings for your friend and are wondering how he or she feels. Your preoccupation has found its way into your dreaming mind. On the other hand, the dream may suggests that you have accepted certain qualities of your friend and incorporated it into your own character.

To dream that you are making love in public or in different places, relates to some overt sexual issue or need. Your dream may be telling you that you need to express yourself more openly. Alternatively, it represents your perceptions about your own sexuality in the context of social norms. You may be questioning your feelings about sex, marriage, love, and gender roles.

To dream of loving any object, denotes satisfaction with your present environments.

To dream that the love of others fills you with happy forebodings, successful affairs will give you contentment and freedom from the anxious cares of life. If you find that your love fails, or is not reciprocated, you will become despondent over some conflicting question arising in your mind as to whether it is best to change your mode of living or to marry and trust fortune for the future advancement of your state.

For a husband or wife to dream that their companion is loving, foretells great happiness around the hearthstone, and bright children will contribute to the sunshine of the home.

To dream of the love of parents, foretells uprightness in character and a continual progress toward fortune and elevation.

The love of animals, indicates contentment with what you possess, though you may not think so. For a time, fortune will crown you.

Dreaming of love of being in love, suggests intense feelings carried over from a waking relationship. It implies happiness and contentment with what you have and where you are in life. On the other hand, you may not be getting enough love in your daily life. We naturally long for the sense to belong and to be accepted. Seeing a couple in love or expressing love to each other indicates much success ahead for you. Dreaming that you are making love in public or in different places, relates to some overt sexual issue or need. Your dream may be telling you that you need to express yourself more openly. Alternatively, it represents your perceptions about your own sexuality in the context of politic and social norms. You may be questioning your feelings about sex, marriage, love, and gender roles.