Water

Common Associations

Water is one of the most common dream settings. It is associated with emotion, the unconscious, cleansing, the flow of life, and the depths beneath the surface of the mind. It appears as rivers, rain, pools, and oceans.

The Jungian Lens

Jung treated water as a classic symbol of the unconscious — the vast, moving, non-personal layer of the psyche beneath the ego. The state of the water often mirrors the state of the inner life: still pools, clear streams, floods, stagnant ponds, and tidal seas each describe a different relationship to what lies below awareness.

The Shadow Lens

The shadow lens asks what feeling you are in relation to. Water may invite you to examine what you have been holding beneath the surface, what is rising unbidden, or what you have tried to keep contained — and whether the containment is still serving the life it was built for.

But What Does It Mean to You?

No symbol carries one fixed meaning. Sit with these questions; let your own association rise before you reach for an answer.

• ◇Was the water still, moving, rising, or receding?
• ◇Were you in it, beside it, or watching it from a distance?
• ◇How did the water feel against you — warm, cold, heavy, weightless?
• ◇What in your waking life feels like it is rising from beneath the surface?

Integration

Consider what the water is asking you to notice about what moves beneath the surface of your waking life.