The Element Encyclopedia

by Theresa Cheung
Dreams in which obvious changes occur, and people and things are transformed into something or someone else, suggest changes in awareness. A landscape might change from dark to light (negative to positive), a person may change from male to female, or objects may take on human characteristics. These changes are often depicted as occurring immediately in dreams, like a speeded-up movie, and they reflect changes in waking life.

Bizarre transformations of objects into living things, such as a pencil turning into a snake, a doll into a donkey or a table into a swarm of wasps, suggest untapped potential within you that can help you cope with change. To clarify what this potential is, refer to the symbolic interpretation of the objects that have been transformed. Shape-shifter dreams, in which people you know suddenly transform into something else, typically a monster or beast, represent unpredictable people in your waking life. For example, someone might be kind and caring towards you until they transform under the influence of alcohol. On the other hand, the shape-shifting may be some kind of moral test.

Can you uncover the beauty behind the monster’s mask? What lies below the outer skin of the dream beast? Try to make a connection to your waking life.

Sudden changes from winter to spring in a dream, or from night to day, may also suggest new directions and developments in the dreamer’s life.

If the other way round, and the switch is from day to night, or spring to winter, this may suggest the need to confront and deal with dangerous impulses.

If the landscape suddenly becomes unfamiliar in your dream, this can point to an unwillingness or an inability to cope with the new. However, if the new environment is welcoming and friendly this is a positive sign. A return to the comfort of the childhood home or a familiar environment is widely interpreted by Freudians and Jungians as a desire to return to the security of the womb during times of change and conflict.

If something is transfigured in a dream, such as when an object or person is surrounded by light, this suggests that light has entered the person during a period of transition and they are becoming more self-aware.

If you become invisible in your dream, it can indicate that you feel ignored in waking life—that you and your life are insignificant to others. It can also mean that you are hiding from others or yourself.

If you have this type of dream, it might be time to look at how you present yourself to other people.

A Guide to Dreams and Sleep Experiences

by Tony Crisp
Any dream in which an obvious change occurs in one of the dream figures shows transformation. Each of us go through major transformations during growth— not just physically, as when we change from a toothless baby to a walking, toothy child, but also psychologically.

Example: ‘On a hot summer day I was walking with a beautiful black woman through countryside. She stopped and told me she had a problem.

To show me she pulled down the strap of her dress. On her shoulder the black skin was peeling to reveal golden white skin underneath. She said that if she kept seeing me she would become completely white. She was going to ask advice from her mother about what to do. As we walked on two black men fought with me. They wanted to take her back to the village. I woke feeling I was winning’ (paraphrased from The Way of The Dream, Fraser Boa). Here the dreamer is relating well to his own feelings of sexuality and sensuality. However, he is beginning to see a female part­ner as a real person, not just as his sexuality paints her. Also, the reference to seeking advice from the mother suggests his ability to love is still not freed from emotional and erotic connections with his mother, and needs transforming. One often hears people, even in their 40s, saying It is difficult (developing a relationship) with that person because my mother doesn’t like them.’ The dreamer ‘fights’ the opposing drives, which want to take the man’s love back to the village, his childhood level of love—thus he moves towards becoming independent in love and life.

The transformation is towards mature love and relatedness.

For a further description of the major areas and themes of transformation, see individuation.

Islamic Dream Interpretation

by Ibn Seerin
(Changing form) Transformation by substitution in a dream where one thing is converted into something else.

If a withered tree is transformed into a blossoming one in a dream, it means political changes, changes in worldly conditions, or reversal of conditions from good to bad, or from bad to good. This element includes the transformation of inner substances or physical ones.

For example, if sees himself as an old person in a dream, when in real life he is young, it means progress in his spiritual life and gaining honor.lfhe is an old person and sees himself as a young boy in a dream, it means indulging in wrongdoing.

If one sees a known old person regaining his youth, it means that the material conditions of the person seeing the dream will turn around to one’s advantage or otherwise. i.e., richness into poverty and vice-versa, or ifhe is sick, he will recover from his illness.

If one is transformed into a beautiful shoot of green or a blossoming branch of a tree in a dream, it means that he may die within a short time. Becoming taller in a dream means longevity, prosperity, or begetting a son. Ifone finds himselfmissing partial mental keenness or physical abilities or a limb in a dream, it means that he may suffer losses relating to his worldly interests.

If a man sees himself transformed into a woman, and wears her apparels, ornaments and make-up in a dream, it means that he may suffer humiliation, adversities and abuse.

If a woman sees herself transformed into a man, or if she grows a beard in a dream, it means that she will reestablish her connection with a missing child. As a man in the dream, and if she is pregnant, it means that she will beget a son who may die in his early youth, but if she is not pregnant, it means that she is no longer fertile. Ifone sees himselfflying with wings in a dream, it means travels.

If one sees himself transformed into a wooden staff in a dream, it represents his insolence.

If one sees himself transformed into an iron rod in a dream, it means longevity. Ifone sees himself transformed into a bridge in a dream, it means that he may become a ruler, a wise man, or a man of knowledge whom people will seek to benefit from his wisdom.

If a person sees his sick child turn into a bird in a dream, it means the death of the child.

If one sees himself turned into a beast in a dream, it means that he will be segregated from the believers to live alone because of his evil qualities.

If one sees himself turned into a deer, a gazelle or an antelope in a dream, it means that he will become obsessed with his sexual life, or that he will become mentally deranged to the degree of indulging in bisexual practices. Ifhe turns into a pig in a dream, it means prosperity surrounded with absence of human dignity.

If one sees a steer transformed into a wolf in a dream, it represents a government employee who will turn unjust. However, according to Islamic interpretations of the human transformation into a lower category of creatures phenomena, if such transformation takes place in real life, it connotes a curse and a punishment, and it does not last for more than three days, and it will culminate in death.

(Also see Changing form)