In dream interpretation, I have talked about the “Great Rule“, anchoring or “bridging” the dream to the waking) life. that nearly all dreams are directly related to the waking life. Dreams have little chance of being interpreted properly without that knowledge,
In addition. This relationship is existential, day by day. Dreams are commenting on what is going on in the waking life now. One can have a nightmare one day, a happy dream the next.
I ask in all my dream interpretation sessions first “When did you have this dream and what was going on in your life at the time”.
Here we delve deeper into the nature of that connection with something I developed. I call it the “Four arcs of the Dream.”
Below is a symbolic representation of this process. My hope is this will further aid in the clarification of how one interprets dreams.
I encourage you to draw a stick figure on a piece of paper with ears showing. Draw a semi circle from one ear over the head to the other. This is the first arc of the dream. It represents the trigger, the event in daily life (almost always the day of the dream) that sets the dream in motion.
The trigger opens up the dreaming mind to the Second Arc. Here draw a semi circle from one shoulder, over the head and first arc to the other shoulder. This arc represents the most substantial and what seems to be apparent content of many dreams. These are the the symbols and narrative that express and reflect our inner world at the time of the dream, our feelings, responses, attitudes, beliefs concerning the events, people and situations in our life. This is where the focus of much dream interpretation lies and is quite valuable.
However there is a third arc. Draw a semi circle again from one foot, over the head, above the other two arcs, to the other foot. Hidden in this arc are our lifetime issue, those issues unresolved from our earliest and most formative experiences. These issues connect to and weave with the content we currently are experiencing found in the second arc, triggered by the first. Sometimes in dream interpretation, this level is not fully unlocked and explored.
The forth arc is unbounded and represents the Universal Unconscious beyond the subconscious (where most dreams come from) and can be called the Higher Self. Here is the land of visitations from deceased loved ones, Angelic or higher light messages, premonition dreams, many lucid dreams, etc.
Often these dreams follow the rule of relationship to the current waking life, but because they are outside time, they often are not. One may have a dream in childhood, for example, that relates to events far in the future. I recently helped a friend interpret a prophetic dream he had 12 years ago. The dream vividly projected his spiritual expansion in the coming decade. It was a fourth arc dream clearly coming from the “Higher Self”
Here is a video presentation on this topic to help those who process visually.
If we understand which arc we are working with, or which arc the dream is expressing, we are better ale to interpret it. Often third arc, (lifetime) issues are more hidden, but by knowing this arc exists is profoundly important and allows us tools to access it for deeper and clearer interpretation..
In other posts we will examine some examples of second, third and fourth arc dreams. (You can see the posts on “Visitation dreams” which are fourth arc dreams.)
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