A Guide to Interpreting a Dream Involving Water

Consider a situation where you dream of sitting by a slow moving stream. It is a sunny day with a few clouds in the sky, and you are drinking some refreshing water from a canteen. As the dream progresses, the sky becomes a bit cloudier, and rain drops begin to fall. Your foot lands in a puddle of water as the rain increases, and you try to take cover from it. Once you reach shelter, your canteen drops on the floor, spilling all of its contents.

During the process of interpreting this dream, you will need to start by determining which water element in the dream seems to be most important. Were you more disturbed by getting wet in the rainstorm, or by the water being spilled from the canteen? Alternatively, did you pay more attention to the beauty of the dream, or do you still remember the taste of fresh water on your lips? As you go through each of the steps associated with dream interpretation, you will always need to keep this information in mind. That said, even if a particular symbol seems unimportant, it can add weight to other symbols in the dream to create a different interpretation.

Understanding Water Types and Archetype Meanings

In this dream example, you must interpret not just one, but five separate activities related to water. Typically, if you want to know more about the archetypal meanings, most dream interpretation dictionaries will give you the information you are looking for. Today, you can find dictionaries that provide ancient meanings, as well as ones dedicated to modern times. While these books can give you a good starting point, or a framework, you will still need to gather other information to complete your interpretation.

Water and Cultural Meaning

Did you know that in Feng Shui, water is related to wealth? On the other hand, if you often work with Tarot, or live in a western society, water is usually related to emotions. Depending on your cultural background, you may find that you need to adjust archetypal symbols to fit the standards of your culture. This is especially important if you are immigrating to a different country, or if you dream of people from other cultures along with water symbols. For example, if you dream of an Asian person drinking a glass of water, you might want to interpret that dream in relation to your financial outlook instead of in terms of your love life.

Working With Your Own Reaction to Water

No matter how attached you may feel to being a human being, or immersed within your culture, your individual nature is still the final determinant of each dream's meaning. For example, some books may tell you that being drenched in a rainstorm means money luck is approaching. On the other hand, if you were completely miserable or caught a cold in the dream, you may not want to go with the archetypal meaning. By the same token, if you normally associate water with emotions, it may to your advantage to consider that the dream is not related to your financial life at all. Unfortunately, you will not know which meaning to assign until you build up a number of dream records, and then compare them to your daily life over time.

Many people interested in dream interpretation tend to take water in daily life for granted. Among other things, you may let water run endlessly down the drain, forget to fix leaking faucets, or avoid drinking it as often as possible. That said, as your daily life would be impossible to live without water, it is also virtually impossible to escape interpreting the presence of water in your dreams. Therefore, focusing on the presence of water in your dreams can easily enable you to form a basis that will help you interpret other dream symbols.