When people interpret dreams and visions, they often do not identify the primary symbols. This is a big mistake because the primary symbols divide the dream or the vision into extinguishable parts which makes interpretation a lot easier. However, it is of the utmost importance not to misinterpret the primary symbols.
I always recommend people to read through the meanings of the symbols every time that they interpret a dream or a vision. We need to refresh our minds and we need to take all different variations of meanings into consideration before we interpret any dream or symbol. Of course, people do get very good at this and they eventually know all symbols and all variations of symbols by heart and that is wonderful. They even end up following all steps and all recommendations and strategies in this manual automatically without any hassles. Some people can interpret dreams and visions almost instantly the moment they read or hear it.
The concerns with the misunderstanding or wrong interpretations of symbols are the following: If a primary symbol is misunderstood, the whole meaning of the dream will be lost or it will lead to the dream being interpreted unsuccessfully or incorrectly. If a secondary symbol is misunderstood, part of the dream will be lost or interpreted incorrectly.
I want to illustrate this by an example. A person I know, who is a Christian by the way, had a dream of him standing next to a dam. It was daylight but the scene was shadowy or dim. The following moment a fly flew towards his face and sat on his forehead. The fly began to dig into his forehead. The person attempted to get rid of the fly but it went right into his head. The fly emerged again and laid some eggs underneath his skin near the small hole. The eggs hatched almost instantly and the person tried to remove the little maggots (larva) with his right hand. The next moment a much larger hole fell into his head at the spot where the fly laid the eggs.
The same thing happened to his right arm (fly, eggs, hole). He then got in a car and reversed into the dam. The car immediately sunk into water and mud and was completely covered by the water real quick. The person struggled to get out of the car and another person who was standing nearby rushed toward the scene in an attempt to get him out of the car and out of the water. This was the end of the dream. We do not know if this person actually succeeded in saving him.
With this dream I could identify a few primary symbols; the dam, the man’s face, the man’s arm, and the vehicle. Each of these primary symbols had a few secondary symbols (sub-symbols) connected to them:
The face; the fly, the eggs, the maggots, the man trying to remove the maggots with his right hand, and the hole.
The arm; the fly, the eggs, the maggots, and the hole.
The vehicle; the man reversing the vehicle into the dam, the vehicle sinking, the vehicle completely covered by the water, the water, and the mud.
The dam; the man next to the dam, the man reversing his vehicle into the dam, the person who attempted to help the man.
One of the major requirements for dreams interpretation is that we need to know the language. We really do need to know the meanings of the symbols. It is just like any other language. If you do not know the meanings of the different words in English you are going to struggle to understand English. This is also true for the Biblical language of symbols.
This is very important when it comes to primary symbols. It is also true for secondary symbols but with secondary symbols, the impact of misunderstandings is not as negative or as profound as it is with primary symbols. For instance, if we do not know the meaning of a man’s “face” in dreams and visions, we would not know the real meaning of what the fly and the eggs and the maggots and the hole in his head imply.
The face of a man symbolizes his personality or character. It speaks of why and how a specific person lives or acts or how he conducts himself in general or in a specific situation. A fly symbolizes thoughts of disorder and confusion. Just as flies usually gather around rotten things or things decaying, so is a person who is pondering on destructive or negative things. A person thinking bad things are, in fact, eating rotten words (the lies and the deceit and the temptation to ponder on vile things). Insect eggs and maggots symbolize birth, reproduction, and growth (eggs and maggots) and destruction (maggots). Maggots symbolize reproduction and growth of bad things and destruction because of the maggots eating and destroying the body in which it was reproduced. The destruction of the human body in dreams and visions often has a spiritual connotation. It may mean physical sicknesses and disease but it may also mean spiritual sicknesses and diseases.
A hole in a body part symbolizes a spiritual condition that has weakened a person in a spiritual sense. Holes mean weakening. In the head, it speaks of spiritual weakening in terms of the word of God. In the arm, it speaks of spiritual weakening in terms of spiritual strength and power when it comes to performing certain tasks in the kingdom of God that needs the power of a powerful person (in a spiritual sense) to perform. See “Arm”. It speaks of a person’s ability to overcome challenging and negative situations in his life.
A “right arm” speaks of power and actions. To summarize these dreams I would say this: Because of negative thoughts (in this incident, around rotten things or things decaying which speaks of selfish ambitions and sexual unfaithfulness and alcohol and cigarettes and other vile sins) this person became so oppressed (shadowy and dim scene which speaks of evil influence and activities) that he could not get rid of the spiritual attacks on his life (symbolized by him unsuccessfully trying to remove the fly and maggots) that first damaged his personality and character (face) and then he lost his ability to overcome all sorts of challenges and situations in his life (right arm) which means he could not act in power and authority anymore. Sin does cause us to feel condemned and that causes us to lose our authority – 1 John 3:22: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. If we do not keep his commandments and if we do not do those things that are pleasing in his sight, we cannot ask him whatever we want and we cannot act in power and in authority.
This led to him moving backward in terms of his job situation (car moving backward) and because he did not react on numerous warnings from friends and from people in the church and from the Holy Spirit, this was going to cost him his job (car falling into the dam) and he will experience spiritual deterioration. The whole incident was going to be very overwhelming for him (symbolized by the water completely covering the car). And then the dam symbolizes this person losing financially (water, which symbolizes financial and spiritual blessings). This person did, in fact, lose his job and he lost a lot of money in the process.
So this dream was a serious warning. It was the last warning which could still have prevented calamity in the life of this person if he decided to heed to the warning. Unfortunately, he did not.
The four primary symbols symbolized the following: You had a complete character or personality change, that change will cause you to lose your spiritual power and authority and natural ability, it will lead to spiritual deterioration and you will also lose your job and you will lose a lot of money.
Whilst the primary symbols indicated what was going to happen, the secondary symbols indicated why it was going to happen.
The secondary symbols symbolized the following: The constant thoughts on vile and rotten and toxic and sinful and sexual things caused you to change. You will not be able to do anything about it and it will spread and impact you in a bad way and the situation will escalate. It will reproduce even more thoughts of a destructive nature. Not only your personality but also your actions will be affected.
So what was the consequences of these thoughts: This man wasted a lot of time and energy on useless and bad things. It led to bad actions and it prevented him from addressing the situation and the problem. People probably noticed these changes and these actions and they lost trust in him. People were probably disappointed in him and eventually, he lost favor in their eyes. They did not have sympathy for him and they probably could not rely on him anymore. He in fact even decided to steal money from the company that he worked for and he eventually lost his job.
The reason why this man could not do anything about the situation was the fact that he refused to repent. He stubbornly persisted walking down this path of self-destruction that he embarked upon. He did attempt to stop it in his own power but he could not succeed.
So a misunderstanding of the primary symbols are therefore a major problem and a misunderstanding of the secondary symbols, not the end of the world but still a problem. It is for this reason that an authentic dream symbols dictionary is so important. This is the reason why it is an essential aid to interpret dreams and visions successfully and correctly. It is also for this reason that I recommend that people who enrolled for the Dreams and Visions Interpretation Course, read, study, and learn the symbols by heart.
A very effective way to do that is to start interpreting people’s dreams and visions for them. This will force you to look up the symbols and it will force you to get familiar with the meanings of symbols a lot faster. The better we know the meanings of the symbols, the easier and the faster and the more successful we will be interpreting dreams and visions correctly.
By the way, any symbol in dreams and visions can be a primary or a secondary symbol. It depends on the context in which it is used in the dream or vision. In one dream a specific symbol may be a primary symbol but in another dream or vision, that same symbol may be part of a group of secondary symbols.
The purpose of this section was to emphasize the fact that we need to know the meanings of the symbols. We need to be able to identify the primary and secondary symbols and we need to understand all variations of all the symbols.
Assessment: Lesson 19
Test yourself on the following:
- Explain how you will identify the primary symbols in dreams and visions and how you will build the secondary symbols on this foundation.