WHITE

If white appeared in your dream in connection with someone you know, your dream may have reflected your faith in that person’s goodness, or perhaps you feel that in some respects this person can show you a better way. In addition, whilst black or darkness obscures surroundings, white or brightness illuminates them, which is why it can denote transparency and truth.

If you dreamed of being bathed in white light, your unconscious may have been indicating a sudden burst of self-knowledge that will enable you to put the past behind you and make a fresh start in the world. If, however, the feeling in your dream that featured white was one of sadness or frustration, could the suggestion have been that you are tired of your colorless waking life and long for more excitement and color?

A white sky may be wishful thinking for a purer, simpler life, a white room may symbolize a state of calm or a sense of peace, whilst white trees could be connected to a deep-rooted wish to make a fresh start and end a difficult personal conflict. A white book may be a symbol of insight and knowledge, and a white hand the beginning of a new friendship. White food or drink is linked to notions of emotional purity, and if the food or drink is tainted in any way, this may suggest that the dreamer is in need of cleansing in some aspect of their emotional life. However, bear in mind that in many Eastern cultures, white is associated with death and mourning. As an absence of color, white may therefore evoke desolation or the bloodless, lifeless corpse or ghost. Keywords: purity, perfection, peace, innocence, dignity, cleanliness, awareness, and new beginnings. You may be experiencing a reawakening or have a fresh outlook on life.

A desire to go through life undefiled.

The color white in a dream points to purity—the dreamer is either living a pure life or is longing for it. One is seeking cleansing, and probably is already cleansed in a certain sense, simply by having a dream about the color white. But it could also suggest exaggerated cleanliness, an addiction to washing and cleaning, etc.

On the other hand, white can also be an expression of fear, such as the white whale in Moby Dick and the great white shark. Here the reference is to a blinding white color. Ghosts, like those appearing as mice during delusional episodes (delirium tremens), are always white.

The archetype of the wise man is usually clad in white (the guru, and also the physician). White is also the fundamental symbol for the animus; it addresses the male intellect and also male aggression (when white is experienced as blinding and gleaming).

The union of Red and white is that of contradiction: it is the symbol of the mystical marriage and Tantric sexuality (white semen and red menstrual blood). Here is where innocence meets the physical body and where heaven meets hell. Red and white are the colors of alchemy as well as the colors in the coats-of-arms of England and Switzerland.

Mabinogion, the ancient Welsh epic poem, refers to the white dogs of the underworld, except they have red noses and red eyes.

According to Freud, white always points to the feminine.