OF TEETH AND DREAMS

'Dream teeth' can be quite sharp; when they 'bite', they usually leave a strong emotional imprint that's not likely to be blithely 'brushed off' or forgotten about... Some are the perennial 'bad tooth'- a dream that keeps coming back in recurring episodes like an uninvited guest-messenger...And many feel like a 'toothache', in the sense that they inspire in us a childish urge to keep poking at the 'root of the pain' till we can get it 'fixed' or 'removed'...

Figuring out the meaning of teeth in dreams is like toppling back into the post natal 'Teething Hole'...howling, finger biting...probable, untimely eruptions of verbal diarrhea...and this time around, in an age-old reversal of sorts, one should consider the possibility of 'losing one's teeth' in the bargain, and having to learn to cultivate charm in the mystifying vaccum of a 'toothless grin'...

ROLE OF TEETH- SYMBOLS AND ASSOCIATIONS

Our teeth play both major, and minor roles in our lives, all important though...They are our 'Mouth-Guards'- valiant little soldiers that line the visible entrance to our digestive tract, allowing us to tear, grind, chew, gnaw, and bite our way into essential nutrition, and survival...they are valuable accessories in the 'Game of Love'- pearly whites to dazzle and draw...or kinky toys to administer 'sweet pain' or love bites...Occasionally, they may prove handy as social deterrents in the act of 'baring one's teeth'... or as impromptu weapons in critical instances of self defense...

Many languages abound with tooth idioms and expressions which provide valuable references in terms of both tooth symbolism, and the various mental-visual, and auditory-associations that we unconsciously make to teeth. Of some in the English language alone:
'to have no teeth'( to be weak); 'to put teeth into something as opposed to merely paying
lip service'( to have an effective means of enforcement); 'to grind one's teeth'( to be
frustrated or stressed out); 'to be long in the tooth'( to be getting on in years); 'to be
dressed to the teeth'( 'dressed to kill'/ to make a strong impression); 'to be a bad tooth'
( to be a bad element); 'lose lips sink ships'( lips with no teeth/ not protected by sound
judgement, are indiscreet/ give away too much information)etc....

Old tales and legends also play their part in how we perceive teeth, such as childhood tales of the Tooth Fairy, offering a gift of money in exchange for a 'fallen tooth'...Various, more or less universal, myths of the Vagina Dentata, or 'Toothed Vagina'- cautionary tales that were meant to discourage promiscuity and rape, all while alerting men to the 'dangers' of a woman's 'hidden weapon /trap'...The Greek myth of the Dragon's Teeth which foretold that Dragon's Teeth, once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors, or Spartoi...

INTERPRETATION- ONE WORD, MANY POSSIBLE MEANINGS

In view of the complex web of references that is available to a would-be 'interpreter
of teeth', it wouldn't hurt to attempt to formulate some sort of 'tooth strategy':

1- Develop a 'sweet tooth' for teeth in general, or come 'armed to the teeth' with tooth
knowledge...
2- Be ready to 'fight tooth and nail' for an answer...might have to build an A-Team of
Teeth with the help of the dreamer and other interpreters- present day reincarnation
of Dragon's Teeth Warriors that can 'bite' into a dream and cause it to open up wide...
3- be aware of the necessity of taking as many of the different other elements of a
dream into account: context, images, feeling and mood, style of expression, choice
of expression, patterns etc...

From the literal to the seemingly esoteric
( The following 'list' is by no means meant to be exhaustive...)

Literal meaning

'tooth'= tooth...'tooth trouble'/ 'teeth worries'...pain, or anxiety over a dentist's appointment...

Symbolic meanings and associations

- teeth as a symbol of 'good nutrition'
losing teeth= malnutrition/ not getting enough food, and by extension could refer to
illness, or food disorders such as anorexia...

-teeth as a symbol of power and survival
bad teeth, loss of teeth= loss of control/ powerlessness/ vulnerability; lack of
confidence in one's abilities; lack of productivity;loss of an investment/financial
insecurity...

-teeth as a symbol of aging
losing milk teeth= growing up, coming into one's own, and by extension- ref 'Tooth
Fairy'- an influx of money...
losing permanent teeth, or trouble with permanent teeth= growing old; bad health/
disease; fear of aging; fear of abandonment...

-teeth as a symbol of pride and vanity
anxiety over appearance; lack of self-esteem/ lack of self confidence in one's
'sexual appeal'...or at the other end of the spectrum,excessive vanity; sexual
impotence; conflict over social/public identity; fear of embarrassment/ of 'losing
face'...

-teeth as a symbol of communication/speech tool
indiscretion/ tendency to 'talk too much'/ gossiping; tendency to tell lies; difficulties
in communication/ in 'getting one's message across'/ in having 'one's voice heard'/
in expressing one's feelings...

-teeth as a symbol of taste and appetite
losing one's taste for living/sadness/ depression...

-teeth as a symbol of the 'Mother'/womb
illness; death of family members, or close ones; falling out/ 'cutting the umbilical
cord'; issues over personal and/or psychological identity...

-teeth as a symbol of wisdom
lack of and need for learning, or for some 'deeper sense and knowledge'; loss of
faith, or by extension spiritual 'rottenness'...

Related/Miscellaneous

-'brushing teeth'= polishing up on some much needed skills; facing personal obstacles..

-'picking teeth'= being careful in one's choice of friends/ protecting oneself from
someone close or a family member...

-'having a nerve removed'= dealing with an issue that causes pain...

-'getting a filling'= recovering 'lost valuables', could be physical/concrete
or psychological...

-'bridgework'= bridging differences; building connections...

-'aching teeth'= emotional pain...

-'false teeth'= putting up a front; 'borrowing' a solution...

-'worn-down teeth'= deterioration of an important relationship...

-'knocked out teeth'= suffering a sudden misfortune etc etc etc...

A Dream Within A Dream

Chinese whispers
In a musical box
Shapeshifters
And musical chairs
Hidden camera
Til y get Punk'd
19 missed calls
Til y hit Hello
Inbox Outbox
U've got mail
Posting message
Send or Fail!
Worlds without
Drawn within
And worlds within
Trickle without
Inside out
Domino Worlds
@ Play in silence
The Silence of the Lambs
Awake
In sleep
In waking sleep
Asleep
In wake
In sleeping wake
Disturbia
In CHRONIC INSOMNIA-
erotomanianostalgiaegomaniaschizophreniainvisiovisumsomniuminsomniumoraculum
adinfinitumadinfinitumadinfinitumadinfinitum...................................................................
The Eye that sleeps
Is the I that wakes
That wakes to wait
Then wakes to sleep
To sleep in wait
And wait and wait
AND WAIT...................................................................................................................
.............................................................................................................til come Delete
And it slips
To Sleep...........................................................

GOOD MORNIN' 2010 :) I HAVE A DREAM...

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in dream history as the greatest demonstration for 'emancipation' in the history of our dreamscape ;)

We have come to this hallowed spot to remind Freudit of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of Bieberism, or to take the tranquilizing drug of Freullywoodism. Now is the time to make real the promises of learning, guidance, and vision that are held within a dream. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of 'excrement dreams', the stranglehold that consumerist pop culture has on our Unconscious, to the sunlit path of knowledge and healing through dreams. Now is the time to lift our community from the quicksands of 'globalization of the Unconscious', to the solid rock of 'emancipation of the Unconscious'. Now is the time to make enlightenment a reality for all of Freud's children...

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my fellow sheep. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Human Dream...

I have a dream that one day, our sheep will rise up and live out the true meaning of their creed: " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created dreamers, and all dreamers are at once potential students and teachers"...

I have a dream that one day on the blue hills of Morphea, the sons of former dreamers, and the sons of former dream interpreters will be able to sit down together at the round table of 'analysis', and come up with viable mind 'solutions'...

I have a dream that one day, even the state of Disneymania, a state sweltering with the heat of 'institutionalization', sweltering with the heat of 'hormonal dyslexia', will be transformed into an oasis of Light and advancement...

I have a dream that all sheep will one day sleep in a cloud where they will not be controlled by the color of our difficult times, but inspired by the vision of healthier tomorrows...

I have a dream that one day, down in Bootilicia, with its vicious annihilators of self-esteem, with its 'leaders' having their lips dripping with the words of 'you suck' and 'you're ugly'- one day, right there in Bootilicia, little 'black sheep' and little 'white sheep' will be able to join hands as dreammates...

I have a dream today!

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to sleep with...

I have a dream...
( Adapted from Martin Luther King's speech: ' I have a dream..')

A View of "Levels" and/or Types of Dreaming

One thing I find interesting about this site is it demonstrates so clearly there are different *kinds* of dreams. Some are just fragments of fact or memory or imagination or letting the mind wander or play: I dreamed I was walking with my boyfriend. Some are simply "wish fulfillment". A happy outcome corresponding to what you generally desire or find pleasant; gettin kissed by a celebrity. Dreams like these don't really offer much opportunity for, or need, comment or interpretation.

Then there are the ones that seem to have emotional color or a psychological/feeling charge that can tell something about what's going on subconsciously with the dreamer. They may have elements, items, which have personal meaning to the dreamer, meanings that have to be teased out by "feeling into" them. These are the dreams that can trigger an insight in an observer who might be able to see some significance that the dreamer may not be aware of, or be able to access, because of the general fact that we all tend to be "too close to ourselves".

Another category is the dream that has more or less obvious "universal symbols" or elements that correspond to what Depth Psychology calls the "archetypes", which are images that show up in all human dreams, mythologies, and folk-tales, such as the Father, Mother, gold, stars, water, sun, moon, ocean, flight, things that come in patterns, of, say, threes or sevens, ... and such like, though the list is infinite. These elements can be "worked with", "dialogued with", while awake, sometimes with help of an "interpreter" or counsellor, and be used to help the dreamer to "plumb the depths", "integrate" or transform/tame his subconscious "material" for the purpose of healing and growth (incidentally, the word "heal" has the same root as the word "whole". The goal of Depth Psychology, originated by Carl G. Jung, is "psychic wholeness"). [And, of course, this working and therapeutizing can also be applied to the category above, the emotional, personal, or feeling dreams.]

It seems there is another category of ... "night-time consciousness phenomena" (to call them something), which is rather controversial because of general lack of agreement about the relationship of the brain to the mind and associated issues. This is called "astral travel" which is related to / same as / "out of body experience". I think this is also perhaps closely related/parallel to "lucid dreaming" because in both there is a sense of "being awake" while in the dream state or "astral plane" ...if we ever come to understand what's really meant by these terms.

I feel I should mention another sub-condition/category found in this latter category, which is erroneously called "sleep paralysis" -- the experience of being "awake/aware" that one is in one's body in one's bed, but not able to move it or feel it. The reason, as I have understood it (and had some limited experience of ), is that you are "in" the "astral plane / dream world" and semi-"awake" or "lucid"..., *and* at the same time still located in the same physical location as - congruent with - your physical body, and aware of it. So, while you are actually in the same state as "asleep", i.e., not-in-the-physical-body, not "in touch with it", so to speak.., you know you are "right there" in bed, in the "same space" as your body, and wondering why you can't access it or move it. Hence, the sensation, and common associated panic, of "paralysis".

I have here tried to just briefly and rather crudely set out, from my present knowledge, four (or so; are there more?) categories or "levels" of what is generally referred to as dreaming, but have not done exhaustive research on the subject: 1., fragments or slices of life or memory of daily material or random mental 'play', and/or wish-fulfillment, self-pleasuring or self-scaring/exciting, etc., 2., psychologically revealing or affecting, 3., "archetypal/universal", useful for "wholizing" and healing, and 4., 'dream realm' phenomena (whatever that might actually be). Of course, with respect to any particular dream, any one, or more, or even all four, of these types or categories of material can appear simultaneously, and any attempt at interpretation can apply or employ any number of these approaches simultaneously. I intend this article to be just a very preliminary over-view which I hope will be added to or amended by future bloggers.

I also want to give recognition to an approach to interpretation that has been used a lot on this site, and which can, of course, sweep across all the "categories" -- and that is the *intuitive* approach used by many interpreters/commentators to express immediate impressions they receive reading any dream. I don't want my above "categorizations" to have any effect of discouraging that, or to devalue, or limit to only one category, any dream or insight that may be offered, but simply to help clarify what we're dealing with and perhaps offer a variety of "lenses" through which to view, or ways of approaching material.

Freudit Blog

Our 'Dream Team' is pleased to announce the launch of the freudit blog. By getting featured in the Top Interpreters column, our dreamers get an invitation to share a blog entry.