Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams - Theresa Cheung, Theresa Cheung - Страница 341

A dream about a child (under the age of thirteen or so) may be a dream about yourself. If you are having a wonderful time playing and dressing up, the dream may be encouraging you to have more fun in your adult life. A dream about a child refusing to share or being inconsiderate may be a comment on your own weaknesses. Has your recent behavior or approach to life been a little childish? If you are the child in the dream, this can suggest a need to shed some of your current responsibilities in real life or express your real self.

If you are caring for a child or infant, and not really wanting to, perhaps someone in waking life is being demanding and requiring too much attention. If you want to have a child and dream of one, you may become a parent in the not-so-distant future. If you lose a child, whether your own or an unknown child, you may be anxious that you have taken on responsibilities you cannot handle. If the child is one of your children, look up son and daughter. If your dream did not evoke specific memories of your own childhood or an unknown child appeared, your unconscious may have summoned up an archetype in the staring role—that of the inner child. Whether your inner child was portrayed by you or by another character in the dream, he or she represents the part of you that, Peter Pan-like, has never grown up, or a part of you that you have banished from your waking life, but longs to be rediscovered. Your unconscious may therefore be highlighting your own immature behavior, or else your longing to recapture childhood innocence. Once again, the clue lies in the child’s behavior.

If the child in the dream is bullying another child, this could be related to how you are cruelly treating someone in real life. If, however, you are the victim in the dream, do you feel vulnerable, abused and powerless in waking life? If the child in the dream is happily playing with their toys, do you long to return to the optimistic, childhood state of mind before the realities of life closed in avenues of opportunity? Do you long to return to a time when anything seemed possible? Try to remember the child’s behavior—was he or she friendly or unfriendly, smiling or throwing a tantrum and consider whether the dream is commenting on your own current life and behavior. Do you have a tendency to fly into a childish rage when you don’t get your way in waking life?