Decoding Dream Themes: Reoccurring Places
Have you ever noticed that your dreams keep happening in the same place? A mall? Airport? Office? Your childhood bedroom? An attic? Maybe it’s a place that is out of this reality or dimension, but also feels familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
Reoccurring dream themes are often a signal that you’ve either been missing or ignoring the guidance that has been sent to you by your higher self, your guides, spirit or the universe.
Familiar places and structure
Reoccurring places in our dreams can represent metaphorical structures of our memories, both physical and emotional. This is especially true when the place has a connection to a past era of our life, like an old home, old job or school, it may be like an archive file that your subconscious is bringing to the surface for you to tap into.
Even if there isn’t a deep personal connection to the place you keep returning to, like a generic airport, there’s still opportunity to dig into what feelings come up for you at an airport. We all have a variety of experiences and feelings connected to air travel, some people love every single part of it and some people are extremely overwhelmed by the entire experience.
You may also notice that the place you keep returning to isn’t always the same place, but the same type of place. For example, in one dream you might be at an airport that is old and another at one, you’re at an airport that is super modern. This is still a reoccurring theme worthy of your attention.
Some other considerations to take note of: is this place/structure large and open? Small and narrow? Bright or dark? Are their windows, does it feel like a maze? How easy would it be to navigate? Do you know what city or country you’re in?
Some of these observations may help you identify the depth, difficulty or ease of the messages, especially after you translate the meaning of the other details of your dreams.
Questions & reflections
What is your connection to this place? Does it represent a place that you’ve frequented currently or in the past?
Example, if your dreams keep taking you to a mall, when was the last time you frequented a mall?
Take time to think about that era of your life. Are there similar events, patterns or challenges playing out in your life now? Are there certain people connected to the place or era of your life?
Is this a place that you currently spend time at? What is your emotional connection to it? It is comfort? Excitement? Anxiety? Worry? Concern? Even if it is rather neutral, take note!
Example, you had a job at the mall ten years ago and you make a connection that you’re having similar feelings of a career plateau or burnout in your current job, that you did back then.
Reoccurrence of the reoccurring place
Have you already experienced this place reoccurring in your dreams before? Sometimes reoccurring themes and places can return after leaving our dreams for months or years.
In this case, consider the era of your life when this reoccurring place was in your dreams. Are there similar themes, patterns or challenges playing out in your waking life now? What were the outcomes, what did you learn about those experiences? Was there anything left unresolved?
*Major note* This is a perfect time to pull out your old dream journal to review past entries to help you recall what may have been happening.
Limitations & barriers
In our waking life, walls of a house act like barriers to protect us from the outside elements by keeping us dry during wet season, cool during summer and warm during the winter, but when I think of walls and structures in our dream world, especially familiar places, they feel more like metaphors for the limits or barriers that we’ve placed on ourselves whether consciously or subconsciously.
These are the types of barriers that can restrict our growth by keeping our emotions and our untapped ideas and energies locked away in that mall, childhood bedroom or way out of our reach in that unfamiliar reality.
Traits and energies
If you have drawn connections to your past self through this dream analysis and reflection, you may also want to consider some of the energies or attributes of your past self at that time.
Are there any traits or energies that you could benefit from reactivating and amplifying in this moment of your life? Alternatively, are there any that you would want to avoid or reel back in order to avoid self sabotage?
Astrology
Those who follow astrology, may also find additional insight by checking how current and upcoming transits are impacting your natal birth chart. What houses, signs or planets are particularly activated?
If you have connected this place to your past or to past reoccurring dreams, it can be interesting to also pull up transits during that time. Notice different retrogrades, nodal shifts and eclipses and which houses may have been activated at that time. How do they relate to current and upcoming transits?
Keep up with your dreamwork practice
Reoccurring dream themes are like an alarm system to let you know that you are entering a cycle with opportunities on offer that will help you break through the mental, emotional or physical barriers and limitations you have been facing.
The other aspects of these dreams will offer additional insight, guidance and clarity so we can make the necessary shifts in our waking life, so don’t skip your dream journal entries!!
I have no doubt that capturing these insights and reflections in your dream journal will give you a boost forward towards more growth, creativity and connectedness in this current era of life.
In case you missed it, I created a dream journal template that is now available on Gumroad.
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