alien

Universal Landscape: A Character Aspect that is utterly foreign to you.

Dreaming Lens: Were you in a familiar environment with alien beings? Was the environment alien as well? Were you abducted? Was there danger involved in the encounter? Were you curious about the alien’s origin? Were they here to teach or to conquer?

Personal Focus: The foundational meaning to this image connects to the word itself. An alien originally meant an individual who was from a foreign country. While this definition is still in use today, it is usually paired with the term “illegal” and has lost its general meaning. With the UFO phenomenon that emerged in the last century, the word now tends to conjure thoughts of beings from outer space.

The media initially created two distinctly different versions of what aliens look like. There is the short one with the large head and the tall, willowy one. It is not clear why this duality emerged, but a generalized interpretation might assign lower functioning aspects such as aggression to the short one, and gentler, more ethereal qualities to the tall one. More recently, the creative community has produced a wide array of alien creatures. There is an overall association with aliens from outer space that projects onto them violent and destructive intentions. This quality should be considered when you interpret this symbol.

As you would do with any person who appears in your dreams, use the Character Aspect approach, which recognizes a character (or alien) as a part of your personality. If the alien has human features, it may represent a part of your personality or psychic makeup that is new to you and, therefore, feels strange or alien to your nature. In such a case, it is crucial to uncover your meaning from the contextual images surrounding the alien in your dream. Its form and actions, and your feelings about the alien, will give you a sense of what is being brought to light.

Abduction by aliens might be revealing fears about unfamiliar territory or new environments in which you find yourself. The more fear you feel in the dream, the more frightened you may be of the changes that are occurring. On the other side of this equation, feeling an affinity toward an alien and actually wanting to make a connection may indicate a desire to break out of a constricting mold of sameness.

(1) A person of foreign appearance or encountered in a foreign land may represent some part of the psyche which is unfamiliar to you. You will need to get acquainted with that ‘foreign’ part of yourself if you are to realize a happiness or satisfaction that has so far eluded you. The first step, of course, is to identify the ‘alien’: what part of you is it that has been neglected and is now courting your attention?

The foreigner may symbolize the whole of your unconscious psyche, rather than a particular part of it.

(2) Journeying to or in a foreign country may represent an inner journey, an exploration of the unconscious, the not yet discovered or integrated realm of vour being. No matter how advanced you are in self-exploration, if you are still exploring you are still entering foreign territory (but see also Travel).

If the foreign country in the dream is one vou have visited in real life, the significance of its appearance in your dream may lie in what you associate with that country or what feelings you have about it. Of course, the same could apply even if the country was one you had never been to, so long as that country had particular associations for vou.

(3) What is ‘alien’ in the sense of‘unfamiliar often carries emotional overtones of‘alien’ in the sense of ‘enemy5. Getting acquainted with the ‘enemy’, however, will result in making the (potential or actual) enemy a friend. There is no part of vour psyche that will harm vou so long as it is not neglected or repressed.

If you learn to love yourself - the whole of yourself, all vour components - vou will have no internal enemies.

The alien may not be an adversary at all, but a helper. It may be that your alter-ego has something of value to offer vou, if only you will be courteous and hospitable to this hitherto neglected part of voursclf.

See also Fear. Journey, Travel.

Everyone in your dream is a part of your own consciousness, and an alien is a character aspect that is utterly foreign to you. This may connect to a higher, more spiritual side of you, but it could also be something that is new and different and therefore threatening. Your personal associations with outer space and aliens must feature in the interpretation you make of such a dream. Abduction by aliens might be revealing fears about unfamiliar territory or new environments in which you may be finding yourself.

The more fear you feel in the dream, the more frightened you may be of the changes that are occurring. On the other side of this equation, feeling an affinity toward an alien and actually wanting to make a connection may indicate a desire to break out of a constricting mold of sameness.