The Sandman's Treasury

By May Sinclair PhD

Use your dreams to make the spiritual laws work.  How?  Dreams uncover what you believe and when you really know what it is you believe you can change your dreams to automatically alter your waking-life events.

There is a difference between interpreting a dream and analyzing it.  Interpretation means finding out what the symbols mean and probably ends up being fortune telling.  Analysis means placing the dream symbol definition back into the dream story and comparing it to your life's events which then offers the full physical, emotional, and spiritual message, so you can create your own fortune.

By the author of "Just How DO Affirmations Work?", "Colors, Symbols, Archetypes", and "Sandman Healer", May Sinclair's

The Sandman's Treasury

includes over 6,000 symbol definitions.

This book is for people who are truly interested in understanding their own dreams.  May Sinclair has taught dream interpretation and analysis for nearly 25 years.  You won't get any Gustave Miller junk, but you won't get any advice about what you should do to change your ways either.  All and all the book helps you discover who you are—who your dreams say you are—not what the author of a book thinks you are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: May Sinclair PhD
• Release date: Jul 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393213567

May Sinclair PhD

May Sinclair's doctorate is in the philosophy of Metaphysics. An award-winning and internationally acclaimed author of numerous non-fiction and fiction books, based on symbolism and ancient history, she is currently writing the third book in the metaphysical fantasy trilogy about reincration: Another turn of the Wheel.

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Cover Picture:

Lost in the Woods

Edmund George Warren (1834-1919)

FOR ALL OF MY

STUDENTS, TEACHERS,

AND GUIDES

SANDMAN'S

TREASURY

PART I

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO USE THE SYMBOLS IN DREAMS

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Throughout the world all peoples have always been interested in their dreams.  Most individuals are fascinated by their own dreams and are often engrossed in other people's dreams too.  Countless time is spent describing our dreams to each other.  And untold hours are used by millions of people doing what they know to do to interpret those dreams.  The reasons for all that sharing and interpreting are many.  One of the major reasons is simply that it is all great fun, highly interesting__extremely entertaining.

There are times when a person does have a dream, is consciously aware of dreaming and understands the dream while it is occurring__then cannot remember anything about it upon awakening.  Possibly that happens because the dreamer does not need to analyze the dream.  The information and guidance was understood and analysis would be detrimental in some way.  Perhaps the dream content would be over rationalized.  There are other times when dreams are remembered.  Especially nightmares.

Nightmares occur to let people know something is going on that must be looked at because it is affecting some aspect of their health.  Nightmares occur to get the dreamer’s attention.  It always works.  Children’s nightmares are significant.  They are highly susceptible to their surroundings and are affected even more by the excess information experienced by adults because they are in the process of learning how to cope and are less able to quickly filter out all those junk messages we are all constantly exposed to.  Parents who understand dream interpretation and analysis are better equipped to help their children recognize whenever they are being sold on some idea or plan that is good for another rather than they themselves and develop more appropriate coping skills.  The feelings of fear generated in bad dreams are a challenge that must be addressed as soon as possible to allow a person__adult or child__to remember their dreams.  The willingness to learn from our dreams is an important aspect of using dream techniques for self-discovery.

As children we were less inclined to hide feelings, emotions, and knowledge—being more willing to share what we felt and knew—but it is imperative we realize the potential strength of those efforts made by our families to teach us the correct rules of life.  At a very early age children attempt to hide what they have been verbally and intuitively taught to hide.  Whatever it is adults want them to hide.  Hold on to that thought while we consider that much of our thinking is based on beliefs that are strong and go deep.  Our thoughts and beliefs go underground into our sub-conscious if they cause us problems in our public lives.  They are not changed, only buried.  We can unearth them, but generally we do not because of the pain attached to them.  That exact same pain that caused them to go underground in the first place.  Therefore, when using this symbol guide, consider the potential thought patterns that have already been taught to each and every individual, as well as, the potential for unlearned, yet known, knowledge. 

Dreams are free.  They come spontaneously.  There is no need to make a conscious choice to take time away from other activities to do it, re-figure our personal budget, or expose our figurative dirty laundry and family skeletons to the world.  We get to dream about anything without being prejudiced against, in dreamland.  Well, there are prejudices in dreams, but they are personal to the dreamer.  More importantly, the bases for those personal prejudices that are often hidden within a person's sub-conscious can finally be located and removed.  Dreams do not occur to only some__they happen to everyone who wants them__young, old, poor, rich, people of all colors and races, both sexes, no matter of what sexual practices and persuasions.  So, dream interpretation is possibly more popular than any other form of self-help therapy because it is free, it is easy, and it is fun. 

An important action connected with using dreams to improve our lives, is writing them down.  Not only does the dreamer need to write down her or his dream, but it is imperative that what is going on in their daily life at the point of the dream occurrence be written down, too.  Comparing the dream symbols to the current events in our daily lives make the dream symbols easier to understand.  Writing them down will also help uncover life patterns.  It will help to see if the same old fear(s) are showing up under various disguises.  This part of dream work can be considered fun—or not—but none-the-less it must be done to make dream work significant.

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WHAT DO ALL THESE SYMBOLS MEAN?

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Symbols are far greater than words.  Dreams are filled with symbols because they are interesting, exciting, and oftentimes lots of fun.  Who would listen to a lecture every time they went to sleep?  No one, of course, but we can learn a great deal from our interesting lessons that are symbol filled.

A symbol is a thing that typifies or represents something else.  Often it is a material object representing an immaterial thing, another object, or function.  It is important that we be aware of what any given symbol actually tokens.  Symbols are both consciously and unconsciously recognized and known.  Some are intuitively known, others are taught to us.  On a regular basis symbols are modernized.  Once a symbol is used, understood, and accepted by an individual it will be used consistently by that person.

Throughout our ancient past our ancestors used the symbol of a human head connected to various animal bodies to symbolize different thoughts.  The Sphinx has a human head and the body of a lion.  It is a reminder that the spirit of humanity is grounded within powerful animal instincts.  Centaurs have the head and torso of man and the body of a horse and Satyrs are shown with the head and torso of man and the body of a goat.  Each is used to symbolize the tendency of humans, who can think and know there is more to humanity than carnality, to place too much emphasis on sensual feelings, sexual appetites, and physical comforts.

Archetypes are not things.  Archetypes are the original patterns of principles and beliefs that are represented in some type of symbolic form.  Humans have used archetypes throughout time to grasp principles such as truth, beauty, honor, loyalty, peace, and wisdom at a level above our consciousness that allows us to bring these principles into our lives in a conscious state.  What, you might ask, is our consciousness?  It is our ability to be critically aware.  To be able to perceive or notice, with some degree of controlled thought, when we are using our mental faculties, physical sensations, and emotional feelings. Because archetypes and principles are greater than our currently evolved state of consciousness can readily understand, they remain outside in the unconscious state where we may draw in selected portions that allows us to have some limited and restricted view of them.

An archetype is a non-structured form coming from the formless.  Archetypes are not images, yet they are the principles that we ultimately use symbols to represent them so we can understand the principles in some way.  The archetype is the original principle and the image is a symbolic pattern created in our minds to represent it.  Wisdom is not a thing.  Truth is not a thing.  Beauty is not a thing.  These principles are always lessened when placed into a concrete object or symbol.  Any thing we create in our conscious mind becomes limited by our consciousness.  It is placed within some type of structure, including the limitation inherent in the keeping of time.

Wisdom is not a thing.  We understand it as a principle that may be represented as an ancient woman or man.  However, no matter how ancient or numinous the symbols used to represent wisdom, it is still a symbol that reflects an individual's conscious understanding and is thus based within some limitation.

Everything on earth is captured within matter, requiring fire, water, air, and solidity.  Prior to any energy being fixed or crystallized into matter, it is first found in the collective conscious of the universe.  It is known as the foundation or storehouse of images.  All energies of the universe pass through this field prior to coming into the earthly plane.  This area of concentrated energy is said to be the field of illusion.  Humans are able to extract energy from the field just prior to it becoming visible things and images, in what we call physical reality; shaping it on the basis of what we believe.

Energies, while in this field or state, are as yet physically unformed and are viewed in dreams, visions, or non-conscious conditions.  We draw from the unconscious, but we limit what we take from the field because of our beliefs and emotions that reflect and control our conscious ability to create the events in our lives.  Once we draw the energy into the field of consciousness, or the earthly plane, it becomes matter that is physically seen and felt.  The collective unconscious is the storehouse of archetypes, symbols, and myths to which all humanity has constant access.  Carl Jung, the world-renowned psychoanalyst, indicated it is the source of society’s individual and collective myths.  We are also affected by the collective consciousness.  That is the collective awareness of our group, society, nation, and world.  The more aware we are the less are marketing companies able to sway us into buying whatever they are selling.

When dreaming or first learning to meditate people often draw energy from the unconscious, to see and experience those non-consciously formed energies.  The patterns are not consciously visible, yet they are recognized.  Very likely recognition comes because the patterns have taken the form of some personally accepted demons representing our fears. Within this energy field a person experiences taught, or untaught, but none-the-less truly known entities.  The energies take some shape that is reflective of our personal beliefs about our worthiness.  These forms act as guards possibly set up by our ancestors, or perhaps ourselves, as protectors.  They are the obstacles placed at the door to the universal consciousness preventing entrance by anyone who believes they are unworthy to explore it.

Children are affected by these entities that are often encountered in their dreams, and seek advice, guidance, and protection from adults or others kids who have already conveyed that they have different answers about the energies and vibrations of this world.  The danger of not understanding what is actually going on is that without any knowledge people will make up answers that are generally frightening.

Our lives are shaped by our life experiences.  Yet each of us is the progeny of innumerable years of human existence.  We can use the inherent experiences of past humanity.  The source of this knowledge is DNA, race-history, cellular memory, the unconscious, collective or universal consciousness, and the intuitive. Combined they form the cumulative experience of mankind.  All knowledge is held within a vast universe filled with many mini-warehouses where entrance is easily gained.  We can bring information, knowledge—even wisdom—into our mind by being still and stilling our perpetually active conscious minds.

There is little mystery about us creating our own lives on the basis of what we believe.  Our uninformed ancestors believed the world was flat. Travel was considered very hazardous because once you got to the edge of the world you fell off.  Travel was obviously only experienced by the hardy or foolish.  People lived their entire lives based on a belief that we now see as very limiting and unnecessary.  There were many social, economic, and political reasons why that belief was encouraged even though it was known to be false by the educated.  Modern science has been very helpful in removing some of the methods of control experienced by our ancestors.  Yet, many modern people have equally limiting beliefs.  The pendulum has swung and now numerous people believe that if a thing cannot be empirically proved it has no scientific basis and is therefore not possible.  But, quantum science is starting to move that pendulum again.

Atoms are the tiny particles that make up everything.  The nucleus of the atom is made of protons and electrons.  Quantum mechanics is the expression of the indivisible atomic unit in which waves may be emitted or absorbed as it exhibits its wave-like form.  Since scientists involved in quantum physics are still trying to figure out how those electrons and protons are affected by the person conducting experiments with them it might be best to think of everything as being what it really is, energy.  People and things are protons and electrons set into infinite patterns of motion.  The air we breathe is composed of electrical charges.  So are our thoughts that travel faster than the speed of light.  And beliefs, no matter their origins, energize our thoughts.  People are made up of atomic particles and thoughts are waves in the ocean of awareness.  Thoughts are not physical, nor made up of some active neurons in our brains.  Even if every neuron in our brains is mapped out and examined not a single thought is seen.

All beliefs are permeated with self-interest.  What people have learned guides them towards fulfilling all of their self-interested wants and desires.  And all beliefs are controlling in some way because beliefs are expressions of our Self perception.  Every person lives what she or he believes.  Yet beliefs are not necessarily aligned with what people say they believe.  Many of our personal beliefs are not popular and have been sent underground into our sub-conscious in a misguided effort to protect our conscious awareness, because those beliefs are in conflict with what we want to believe.  Often people struggle to make a change in regard to a phobia without any apparent improvement because their body knows and remembers what to do in a given situation without conscious thought being able to affect or resolve anything.  Only when people address their underlying beliefs can real and permanent changes occur.  Our options are endless.  What the right side of our brain images the left side of our brain brings into our reality.

The fewer life experiences we have had, the easier it is to be affected by the collection of impressions, experiences, and energies that surround us.  Archetypes are not formed beings or things.  They are invisible to our actively conscious mind.  They are energies shaped into patterns by our individual consciousness, but generally only noticed during dreams or during altered states of consciousness.  They are visible in the sense that we feel them on an intuitive level.  Intuitively we receive information as feelings from both the collective unconscious and universal consciousness.  We often call our intuition our sub-conscious. Intuition is not our sub-conscious.  Intuition is the channel we may open and use to receive knowledge from another source outside our personal rational thought process.  Our sub-conscious is the place where we store our conscious beliefs that cause us trouble if left in our openly conscious state.  Humankind has the ability to hold separate, opposed, and even contradictory beliefs in our minds at the same time.  They are the beliefs that are too uncomfortable for us to leave open for us to be consciously exposed to them.  So they are forced into our sub-conscious in an erroneous effort to protect our conscious mind.  As we are taught and learn we affect the orientation of this energy, forming molecules that are visibly seen by our conscious minds.  We thus put into effect our beliefs and create our reality.  However, energy is infinite, making it simple for each of us to unconsciously understand and express our current evolutionary position.  Intuitively we grasp what ever it is we need to know to continue our growth to ever higher levels of consciousness evolution. 

The earliest memories about my dreams included images of houses that had something evil in their basements or in the earth below their foundations.  Those dreams really frightened me.  I now know my dreams about those basements and the ground underneath them were symbolic of my sub-conscious beliefs that were causing me trouble. My investigation of its contents allowed my beliefs to be changed and adjusted for use in my emotional healing. 

One of the most exciting things about dreams is that a person can learn by having a vicarious experience without the need to actually manifest the experience in her or his daily life.  Dreams are learning tools intending to teach without pain or embarrassment.  There have been many times that I have had a dream where I act out an experience and am shocked at my behavior.  I am appalled that I would be so timid, greedy, cruel, or seemingly stupid.  My dreams give me a chance not to act the way I did in my dream.  I am given an opportunity to look at what I did in the dream and then not do it in my waking experiences.  In these dreams I am shown what I do believe and continue to hold in my sub-conscious.  The information is passed on to my consciousness revealing my ignorance, or perhaps my arrogance, to allow me to really make changes in my beliefs.

Dreams have the wonderful ability to use the same symbols to create more than one level of meaning in a dream.  The exact same dream can be used, analyzed, and interpreted from a daily (physical story), emotional (impact on our feelings), and spiritual perspective (message). 

When analyzing my dreams I noted that I could use the same symbols in my dreams with their various interpretations to get different, yet still accurate information about me and my life.  One set of interpretations of symbols could be easily used for knowledge— fortune telling—about what would occur in my immediate future and another set of interpretations of the same symbols gave me information about my beliefs and how they were affecting my thoughts and actions which led up to the creation of events in my life.  I started to see how my beliefs, conscious or sub-conscious, led me to make decisions and select choices that causes events to occur, and my life’s experiences to take place along a specific path.  All of this information impressed me.  I began to take more time to uncover the multi-faceted nature of the symbols.

Dreams are highly personal.  Many dream books do offer and suggest universal meanings of symbols, yet when a person gets seriously involved in working with dreams she or he will understand that each symbol must be looked at from their own personal point of view.  And dreams are often filled with puns which are a humorous way of using words that suggest a different meaning or application when they have the same or nearly the same pronunciation; homonyms are words spelled and pronounced the same, but have different meanings; homophones are words that are pronounced the same, but have different spellings and meanings; euphemisms are contemporary slang words that generally have detrimental connotations; acronyms use the initials from a group of words or a phrase that forms another word. 

As I progressed with my dream work I started creating a personal dream dictionary of my own.  This book is the result of gaining knowledge of the symbolic meanings from thousands of dreams—mine and others.  Still, I strongly agree with Carl Jung’s admonition to his pupils:  Learn as much as possible about symbols and then forget all of it when interpreting a dream.

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ARE ALL THOSE PEOPLE REALLY ME?

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No, not always.  Spicy foods, alcohol, drugs, hormones, your altered brainwave patterns and the brainwave patterns of others that you might listen to from recordings can all cause dreams that possibly are not peopled by the dreamer.  Also there are rare prophetic dreams that contain dream messengers who are probably not the dreamer, either.  However, often they are, and if not specifically as that entire person playing some part in the dream, at least they represent some aspect or characteristic of the dreamer. 

Think about the various people in your dreams.  Are they people you know and recognize easily?  Have they got characteristics and traits that you are immediately able to recognize them by?  Perhaps the dream character(s) represent an aspect that you, the dreamer, wish to hide—even from yourself.  Whenever a person is extremely agitated about some characteristic or action taken by another person, it is sometimes because that exact same characteristic belongs to the one who is agitated by it. 

It is imperative that people acknowledge their heritage.  When it is not acknowledged there is the risk that personality splintering will occur without the person recognizing where her or his discomfort originates.  Dreams based on or coming from a person’s DNA can be very useful for self-understanding.

Some of my dreams are of me watching a play, with ME being one or possibly all of the primary actors.  In those dreams, I believe that I am shown aspects or characteristics of myself in each of the people in the dream.  Whenever there are people in the dream whom I actually know, I am able to tell what character they are playing because I have already made some conscious assessment about them.  When I have dreams that include my husband he is really himself as often as he is representing a masculine aspect.  Although, more often than not, he is both at the same time since dreams occur on more than one level.

When I started to purposely use my dreams for improving my life, I also realized that many of the changes I would have made in my past dreams were probably not as good for me as they could be.  Previously I would have selected dream outcomes for material gains or simply for pleasurable escapism.  And by using the dream tool of expediency, for immediate gratification, I sought happiness outside of myself rather than gaining real understanding for joy to be experienced in my life.  Thus, as I learned about dream analysis I became less inclined to change my dreams because I wanted to find out how my dreams would go and end without any interference from me. 

MY actions in my dreams show me how I act, based on my current beliefs__my beliefs about me and my world.  Generally, my understanding of those aspects that the other players have in the dream requires thought on my part after the dream is over.  Perhaps my dreams are more instructive now, because I choose for them to guide me.  At times my dream actions are shocking to me.  I still retain sub-conscious beliefs that generate behaviors not in agreement with my conscious thinking.  Rather than always changing the outcome of a dream, I discover what my sub-conscious beliefs are so they can be understood and changed on a conscious level.  I realize that much of my life is self-actualized and I want to make inner changes that will correspondingly change my outer world.  I use my dreams to help me locate those conflicted beliefs so I can change them for all times, places, people, and events.

Many modern books written about dream interpretation and analysis give the impression it is necessary to set alarm clocks, interrupt sleep, and write down every detail of a our dreams as soon as it is dreamed. That might be correct and necessary when conducting a scientific research study, but it is not mandatory for a normal person conducting dream work.  It is interesting to note that the Greek philosopher, Pythagoras, known as the founder of modern mathematics, conducted his entire life, including his eating habits, in such a way to allow for dream incubation.  He would not allow himself, his family, or any of his followers to eat beans, cabbages, or any other foods that cause flatulence.  For the average person using their dreams as an entertaining form of personal growth, I am comfortable in saying they can be less strict with their dream efforts.  By relaxing and being willing to use dreams, they arrive, are remembered, and when interpreted and analyzed they provide desired help__even profound enlightenment.

Using our dreams is a great way to learn what we actually do believe.  Every individual is the best analyzer of her or his dreams.  In ancient times, even prior to temples being established for priestesses and priests to worship and heal in the Greek and Roman Dream Temples, the dreamer was expected to help with the interpretation.  Modern Jungian therapists also must have personal input from their patients.  To help dreamers understand their dream symbols, which occur in their dreams because they can represent principles and difficult concepts and make them more easily understood, there are numerous books that are available__including a normal dictionary.  A person’s individual interests are important in deciding what type of dream symbol guide is appropriate.  It is especially important not to dismiss or minimize the dreamer’s religion, society, heritage, culture, family, education, and personal experiences, all of which affects what a symbol represents.

No matter which dream symbol guidebooks you use, do not pick out one or two symbols in your dream, leaving the rest of the dream out of your interpretation and analysis efforts.  That can be very detrimental, especially regarding nightmares, and prevents you from getting the dream's full message. 

Also, we often have tiny snap shots or a series of little dream episodes that are actually all part of a continuing serial dream.  Those little dreams are less involved and are generally easier to interpret.  A single lengthy and complex dream might be less readily understood.  It is your analysis of them that will bring their relativity together.

Often books of symbols supply the history behind them or offer helpful suggestions about how the readers can improve their attitudes and actions.  This book gives little background about the symbols and hopefully makes no dubious judgments about a person's behaviors.  The purpose of this book is to help make dream work easier.  It is not intended to make judgments or criticize the actions, ideas, thoughts, or beliefs of anyone.  The dream message is found in the entire dream story where guidance comes from the dream message, not by the author of a book.  You are always the best interpreter of the symbols and have the right to make your own choices about the dream symbol definitions and how you live your life.

Still, this book is not intended to be used as a superficial symbol guide.  It is mandatory that anyone using this book understand that all people are affected by symbols, archetypes, and colors, therefore nothing written on these pages has been nor ever will be an absolute.  Since we are all individuals with ideas and ideals of our own, there has to be numerous exceptions to all rules, including—perhaps especially—those precepts concerning guidance. 

I strongly recommend that intuition play a large role whenever symbols are used to interpret and analyze dreams.  Intuition is the ability to have or gain knowledge without using rational thought.  It is often experienced as one of those ah ha moments.  Intuition must be an important provision and factor whenever this material is used. 

Intuition is not learned, nor can it be pursued.  Be still, listen, it will come to you.

PART II

TREASURY OF THE

SYMBOLS IN DREAMS

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Our dreams are gifts.  The symbols are the pieces of treasure contained within them, so remember to use your entire dream to gain the richness of its full meaning.  Foods in your dreams can have the additional practical message that you have an insufficiency or excess of it in your diet.

Language is made up of the words we use to explain what we mean, so every word is a symbol that expresses our meanings.  This list is meant to be helpful, so the noun and pronouns I, me, and, my are intentionally used in the definitions. You must decide whether it is appropriate in your dream, because you remain the best person to interpret any symbol in your dreams.

A

ABACUS 

A foreign mechanism I likely seldom use to count up all of the emotional gains or losses in my life.  I calculate by moving the beads that represent my efforts paid in sweat and blood from one side to the other.

ABANDONED 

I am concerned about breaking away or being torn away from a close relationship; a withdrawal of support or protection. 

I am moving away from dangerous actions, characteristics, or emotions I no longer need. 

Some right or interest is given up. 

High emotionalism is expressed without restraint.

ABATTOIR  

A slaughterhouse is where my animal instincts, sexual appetites, sensual feelings, and physical comforts are transformed.

ABBEY 

Represents a place where I can contemplate many of my religious beliefs, ceremonies, and practices that are either comforting or uncomfortable to me. 

Also see CONVENT and MONASTERY.

ABDICATE 

Concerns giving up my Self’s or perhaps it's my ego's rule. 

I am renouncing some position or function I was initially given that required me making no effort to get it in the first place.

ABDOMEN 

Located between the thorax and pelvis, this is where I feel and deal with my creativity, my childhood issues,