Symbols in Signs, Dreams, and Visualizations Send You Important Messages
But what do they mean? Here’s an easy way to find out.
Signs flash around us attempting to pierce our haze of distraction. They offer insights, point to unseen possibilities, and warn of potential trouble.
Signs speak symbolically and have their own agenda.
If you immediately know what the sign means, you’re probably wrong. Dreams, visualizations, etc. don’t bother to tell us what we already know. Delve deeper. Cast the net wider.
Here’s some help in opening your messages.
When I met a dragon in Notre Dame cathedral, the oddness of it told me it was important. Problem was, every area of the world had something different to say. A dragon could mean strength, courage, fortitude, a guardian, luck
When decoding symbols, an ‘aha’ feeling blooms when you’ve hit a match. It’s not fireworks… more an internal fluttering of excitement or pieces falling into place. You’ll know it when you feel it.
Then I found the dragon in China. Cosmic energy. Aha! Now we’re cooking.
Then I found in western culture, a dragon = primordial power. Folks like Carl Jung went a step further. Dragon = the subconscious. So, this is a cross-cultural meaning. Cool.
My slide under the cathedral did feel like going beneath the surface into the unseen/ the unacknowledged. So, that fits.
Next, dragons are mostly portrayed as masculine in the Western world. In my visualization, the dragon seemed agitated. A woman soothed it, the feminine. Did it mean some deeper, hidden forces with in me were not at peace and I needed the power of the feminine to work with them?
Was it more about the energy of the area or church itself? Both?
Possibly.
Dreams and visualizations often have more than one meaning.
Now I need to discover my personal connection. Any interpretation will be half-baked if it’s only lifted out of books.
What the symbol means to someone else doesn’t matter. Only what it means to you.
And it doesn’t have to make sense. Except to you.
One easy way to interpret symbols is to free associate. To find out what the color blue means to me, I repeat to myself quickly –
blue is… my favorite sweater, blue is… a sky blue is… water blue is… ice blue is… high blue is … fresh
And so on.
Warning. Don’t spin off into free-associating on the association. It’s easy to fall into. Blue is … my favorite sweater… my favorite sweater is woolen… woolen is winter… winter is Christmas. You’ll be miles away from your symbol by the end of it and stuck with a handful of nothing.
As you free associate, write down (or record) everything that occurs to you, no matter how strange.
Keep going, altering the question a bit, (blue means, I feel blue to be, blue represents), until you draw a blank.
Wait a couple of minutes. Then reread the list looking for the ‘aha’ feeling or something that pulls your interest. I find reading them aloud helps.
Read relatively quickly: Pause, but don’t ponder.
If it’s confusing, put it aside and come back later.
This is all about sensing, not thinking.
So, my free association turned up — a dragon is…
Fairy tales, fire, blood, fierce, flying, big, giant, myth, old, wise, leathery, scales, nostrils, eyes, egg, grey, fat, heavy, dangerous, ancient, magical, sword, slayer, green, powerful, deep, symbolic, me, Chinese, hard, fable, strong, dark, misunderstood, maligned, outcast, battle, magician, jealousy
I’ve bolded my ‘aha’s’ — old, dangerous, powerful, dark — definitely the shadow, stuff of the unconscious. I need to tend to my inner dragon and the lady in blue can help me. Which she did later in my visualization. (Link to full story is below.)
Be curious, you never know what you’ll find.
On a whim, which is often good thinking in my world, I did a search for virgin, blue, dragon. And, lo and behold, this is not new news. Up comes a blog with a picture showing a blue virgin and a blue dragon stating…
We see images of the Virgin Mary empowering peacefully a 7 Headed Dragon as early as the 8th Century AD in manuscripts, tapestries, commissioned altarpieces, icons, and paintings.
Looking at the narrative, it is strangely serene not combative in nature and this is perplexing somehow. How can a woman conquer a fierce 7 headed dragon with inner peace as her only strength?
This leads one to look for a hidden meaning within this empowering narrative and envision it as the power of peace and love: The white light conquering the shadows of evil and darkness of not only the surrounding world in calamity but within oneself.
I compiled a selection of works of art to show the peaceful energy portrayed in this narrative. The works are diverse with surrounding elements within the narrative, but we always see the same outcome: the Virgin Mary faces directly and conquers this fierce creature without weaponry or by any combative means of expression… She has conquered the light of darkness without force, with radiance, peace, and love.
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!
Plus, in Chinese astrology, I was born under the sign of the dragon.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Post experience, I discovered the Chinese call ley lines dragon lines. We’re back in China.
Ley lines are said to be the Earth’s vital energy traveling over the planet, the same as acupuncture meridians do on the body. Notre Dame cathedral is a major, if not THE central vortex of the ley lines in France.
An interesting place to find a dragon, no?
Go on a symbol quest. You never know what you’ll find. It’s bound to be illuminating.
Here is my inner journey tale.
Share your experiences in the comments or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear about them.
