Dream symbolism trough history

Quest for Lucidity General Lucidness
1

Hi guys.

I haven’t been active in a long time, but I’m still very much involved in lucid dreaming and dreaming in general. I guess the forum just slipped from my mind over time.
Anyways.
I thought of you guys since I’m working on a project and I need your help. I’m looking for symbols that used to mean “dream” trough history. I’ve read that Sumerians and Egyptians were the first civilizations that documented their dreams while also placing great importance to them. However, I haven’t managed to find any of the symbols they used to depict dreams or the word “dream” itself.
Every time you search google for “symbols for dreams” (or different wording) all you get is “dream symbolism” which are just a bunch of webpages talking about the meaning of certain symbols INSIDE dreams. Which is not what I’m looking for.

So basically I came here in case someone here knows more on the subject and can link me to some good information. It doesn’t need to be exactly Egyptian or Sumerian symbolism (although that would be awesome), just as long as it’s historic.

Thanks in advance

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Here’s a link to the Sanskrit word/symbol for “dream”:

spokensanskrit.de/index.php?tinp … pt=DI&link =yes

I’d recommend coming up with own symbol for “dream.” Perhaps even dreaming one up directly.

But be wary as you investigate the words/symbols for “dream” in cultures past. The concept has certainly changed. In the American culture, the word carries a lot of baggage.

Case in point, on thesaurus.com, if you type in dream, these are the first six synonyms that come up:

In other cultures, the equivalent of “dream” may not have had the meaning of “delusion” whatsoever.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, our modern word, “dream,” appeared in Middle English in the 1300s (at least in writing).

oed.com/view/Entry/57600?rsk … ced=false# eid

Obviously, the word was around before that, having an Old English variant and before that who knows. It could have come into English from the Norse or the Gauls. I think, once, I heard that it was borrowed from a Germanic language.

At any rate, a quick search yielded a couple of Old English words for “dream:”

maeting and swefn

I used this website:
oldenglishtranslator.co.uk/

Looking over the list, it appears that Old English was far more expressive than modern English when it comes to dreams. For instance, they had these nouns:

swefnracu: the interpretation of a dream
geswefnian: a person to appear in a dream

The website also gives “meeting” as also meaning “dream” in Old English, which is interesting.

From a modernist neurological perspective, there’s one definite human experience that is dreaming—a specific pattern of brainwaves that usually comes in the night, coupled with muscular atonia and characterized by visionary content. As this forum shows, one word can’t embrace all experiences, though. Nearly everyone on this forum insists on distinguishing between ordinary dreams and lucid dreams. Why? Well, they’re not the same thing, really. They overlap. Some distinguish between lucid dreams and OBEs; others insist they’re same. And so on.

“Dream” is so broad. [/list]

3

Thanks for the detailed reply man. Sanskrit isn’t an option since (I believe) it is still a live language, meaning people still speak it.
And I actually did just what you said - made the symbol up. I also thought about getting one from a dream, but I’m not confident enough in my lucid dreaming skills yet, and my project has a time constraint. If I do manage to lucid dream in the nights following, I might include it tho.
What I did was make a sigil. Sigils are symbols that people who are into magic use in order to achieve whatever it is they want. If you’re into that you could make one to achieve lucid dreams :wink: I just made one out of some key words because I just find sigils to be really good looking.
So I guess I managed to solve my problem, but thanks for your help anyway!

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I don’t believe that any emphasis of ‘delusion’ america has in dreams is any stronger than any other culture. In fact this post is the very first time I’ve ever been exposed to the words delusion, and dreams, in the same concept.

That coming up as a synonym for dreams, I can see how the definitions for delusion, and dreams could relate, but it’s still a stretch to say that dreams are nothing more than delusions.

I couldn’t tell you why that’s a synonym, but I can assure you, it is not a representative view of american society.

–Edit
I can actually see why that’s a synonym now that I think about it. As I said, the definitions could relate, but I think you’re interpreting that a bit too critically.
I believe it’s a synonym simply because they share a similar definitive attribute of “visions and experiences that are not reality”. This doesn’t mean that it is an American view. It’s just the mechanics behind the dictionary relations.

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Just in reference to this I’ll point out that when looking at any thesaurus you have to take note of which meaning of the word it is providing synonyms for. What dreamosis pointed out is actually the first six synonyms for:

Hoax, I don’t really understand. Why are you looking for a symbol? What kind of a symbol? A symbol can be anything from a word to a letter to a sign. Are you sure you aren’t actually just looking for a sigil? While you might think sigils are just used by people who practice magic, this is a misconception. Sigils are prominent in ancient pagan religions because they are used synonymously as what we would call an “emblem”.

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You have a point there. And I don’t think the relationship between “dream” and “delusion” is specifically American, just specific to some English speakers in some contexts.

Which contexts? I suppose the ones in which a reported dream departs radically from the typically passive experience.

Lucid dreaming is fairly well-established now, but when Freud was writing his landmark book on dreams he didn’t (originally) include information on LDs because he thought that his patients—who did report LDs—were either lying or mistaken. (He wasn’t a lucid dreamer himself.)

On this forum you can find many threads in which people’s experiences in dreams are called into question. American culture, in general, has a bias that dreams are “not real.” So anyway claiming some real connection between their dreaming life and waking life (beyond the psychosomatic, that is) are usually thought of as misguided or prone to wishful thinking.

“Delusion” is a harsh word, though it can simply mean “a false belief or opinion.” To many, in American culture, if I have an opinion that I dreamt about an event before it happened, I’m mistaken, having a false belief about what I experienced.

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I’m working on an art project. At first no, I wasn’t looking for a sigil, I was looking for a good looking symbol for the word dream and I figured old civilizations had some interesting looking ones. I wanted to use that symbol by itself or at least incorporate it into a symbol that I’d make to make it look better. I am now pleased with the sigil I made, since it holds the meaning that I wanted it to have. If you happen find some old symbols anyways, let me know!

I understand how emblems and sigils are very similar in their concept but I think the definition of a sigil is a symbol used in magic (at least according to wikipedia). I see how one could use one for religious rituals or religious symbolism and I think what “magic” means in that context is that there is no empirical way to prove that sigils work, other than just holding a certain meaning to the people who know what it means. Maybe saying that sigils are used for mystical purposes would be a better way of putting it.