Spirit Keepers

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Wild Animals

Wild animals may reflect an area of our lives that is out of control. Many animals have stereotypical meanings that can tell more of their presence. Think of what the wild animal means to you in waking life to understand the reason for its presence in your dream.

Wild animals that are domesticated in dreams may not be animal dreams, but rather dreams of interpersonal success or self-discipline. Many times, making peace with animals is a sign of harmony in our lives and hope for smooth interpersonal relationships.

Is a wild animal posing a threat to you in the dream or do you have it under your influence?

Vulture

This is the ultimate scavenger. If you dream about a vulture, it may be that you are feeling like a bottom feeder or that others are picking your bones clean. It is seldom a comforting dream or herald of good prospects for the future. A vulture appearing in your dream can also be symbolic of loneliness.

Was the vulture eating or hovering over the feast of other animals? What was it eating?

Wedding

Obviously, one would want to examine possible trigger events, such as other weddings in waking life, before too much interpretive work goes into this dream. This dream may be simple wish-fulfillment or personal anticipation. However, if you aren't in the midst of such activities, other scenarios may exist.

Initially, it is worth examining other commitments in your life. Are you becoming over-committed, or on the brink of making a major commitment to an employer, romantic partner, or other relationship? This dream may be commenting on how appropriate the commitment is for you. If the wedding goes well, you may see yourself as entering a sound union. If the wedding is a catastrophe, or your role in it is unclear, you may need to reexamine your commitments.

Birth

The birth event is the one sacred event that virtually every culture holds in common. Not surprisingly, it is one of Jung's archetypal selves-the self creating life for another. Since it is an archetype, there are lots of other dream images that lead back toward birth and life. Water and oceans are the two significant ones. Many cultures embrace the symbol of water as crucial to life. Many times, women who intuitively know that either they or a friend may be pregnant will dream of water. This may be related to the broken water images of pregnancy.

Emerging from a cave or isolated place as a new self is a Jungian version of birth themes. In this sense, birth is not limited to biological events, but also includes the advent of additional facets of personality or self-awareness in your waking life.

Freud held that entering back into small rooms or caves was symbolic of the womb. This could herald a desire to return to mother, be nurtured, or experience the mother's power as a protector in certain situations. Since all of us have been born, we have feelings about it for better or worse. We may feel as though life has been a fortunate or an unfortunate experience. Either way, these feelings play into our birth dreams as either positive or negative experiences as well.

How is the birth for the dreamer? Women may experience birth dreams out of either desire for or anxiety toward pregnancy. In this case, the medical, social, and sexual histories of the dreamer would be very significant. There may be moral, religious, or medical factors that make a pregnancy either desirable or dangerous. Examples may include a young woman who is sexually active against her moral or religious teachings or, a woman trying to conceive, yet unable to do so. In these cases, a guilt-producing deed may be construed as causing the birth or lack thereof.

Women who see themselves giving birth under positive circumstances may be affirming themselves not just in birth, but as archetypal women. They are able to see themselves as competent within their gender to complete the traditional roles of the gender. While this sounds incredibly sexist, it is true in the sense that all of us see men and women as particular and individual persons with strengths and abilities. It's what makes an archetype an archetype

Quitting

Quitting is an event that all of us are tempted with at one point in life or another. Whether it is home life, work, or planet earth in general, quitting may feel like the best choice. Virtually everyone has days when selling your possessions and buying a one-way plane ticket somewhere sounds mighty good. However, quitting is rarely about quitting altogether, but rather not wanting to continue under the current circumstances. Quitting is often elective as well. The quitter doesn't want to face the consequences of resigning from life, but rather to avoid the requisite hassles of participating in it.

In dreams, we are often granted the latitude to quit without having to experience consequences. Rather, we can simply eliminate unpleasant facets of life in its troubling condition. This is wonderful, as quitting dreams illuminates our most draining emotional conflicts in waking life.

Many times we quit things in life because we cannot conceptualize solutions to our problems. However, in dreaming, our quitting usually points to the solution to the problem. All of us have what we consider to be feasible and unfeasible solution choices. In dreaming, there are more choices. What you quit from and gravitate toward may be showing you resolution potentials you had not previously considered.

For example, if you dream of quitting your job, what you do next in your dream could be a symbol for a vocational path that holds more reward potential for you. Sipping margaritas on the beach is not very lucrative. However, being a travel agent is a reasonable carrier path.

If you quit your family in a dream, this may be a sign that you need to disengage for a while from significant others. This is not the same as physical separation. Rather, it means that you may need to back away from your usual emotional patterns to find a better modus operandi for relationships.

Quitting life in a Stop the world, I want to get off type of statement may indicate that you are tired of trying. This may indicate that either life truly is uncooperative to you or that you need to assess how you address situations in life. It may be that there are self-destructive patterns at work that are undermining your ability to function.

What facet of your waking life is most dissatisfying? Is there a correlation what you quit in your dream?

Missing Appointments

Many people live and die by the desk calendar these days. Ours is a time-conscious, time-driven culture. Most of us have more things to do on our schedules than we can comfortably manage. These pressures have created an environment where missing appointments and scheduled events is a constant threat.

Dreams to this effect are common. One of the trigger events for these dreams is the nagging fear that we may not get it all done as we should. Our anxiety about appearing competent to others is fragile and often assaulted in dreams.

Another interpretation of this dream is missing an opportunity. Life invites participation in more than could ever be accomplished. Every invitation comes with the promise that this event could change your life. The changes may include relationship or career rewards.

A final scenario revolves around fulfilling the relationship obligations that already exist in your life. In this case, dreams of missed appointments may be reminding you of personal obligations that already exist. You may be missing appointments as a sign that you are not fulfilling the needs of your spouse, family, or employer.

Kissing

Kissing is often associated with youthful love. It is teenagers, and not parents, who kiss until they are weak in the knees on the escalator in the mall. You can be kissing another, watching others kiss, or experience that I'm about to be kissed moment.

Kissing another is often wish-fulfillment or sexual acting out. The wish-fulfillment may not be to kiss per se, but to experience the youthful energy of love. Kissing in this sense is the desire for the awakening of passion, not necessarily the passion acted out.

Watching others kiss may be a sign of knowing too much about them personally or participating in their lives at too personal a level. The exception here would be if you are watching your partner kiss another, which is an obvious herald of infidelity or a desire for voyeurism in the relationship.

The about to be kissed moment is an interesting one. Often, it occurs as we wake up. This is the dream that may most accurately reflect a desire for actual passion with another. The reason we wake up is the taboo feeling that perhaps, while we want this, it would not be beneficial to actually participate in it.

Is the kissing comforting or threatening to you?

Is it something you sought after, or was it forced upon you?

Is your general experience repugnant, romantic, or passionate?

Department Stores and Malls

The department store is the personification of capitalism. Many people enjoy just wandering through stores and malls to experience the numerous choices. However, they can be a little overwhelming.

Dreaming of these places reflects a feeling of having choices or even too many choices. It may also be a reminder that you have not been careful with your money of late.

Depending on your status as a potential buyer, being in a mall may reflect your sense of power or competency given the choices you have. If the choices all reflect items you would find in a waking-world store or mall, the items you are most drawn to may be the objects of central meaning in a dream. The salespeople you are bumping into may be significant if they are familiar. Perhaps you feel as though you owe somebody something or someone expects particular actions from you.

Are the items that you want missing or available in abundance? This may be a metaphor of the balance, or lack thereof, in facets of your life.

Are clerks unable to assist you in finding your needs? Perhaps you are looking outside yourself for growth that can only come from within.

Cave

If you ever watched the old Kung Fu TV series, you may remember the powerful beginning sequence: Grasshopper (David Carradine) is in a cave. He seizes the smoking cauldron and burns the tiger and dragon images onto his skin as he carries the cauldron out into the sun. Upon doing so, his initiation is complete and he is an official Taoist monk.
The cave is the archetypal place of initiation. Caves are the first and most sacred of human dwelling places. As such, people may often feel a primordial sense of attraction to caves in their dreams. Initiation is the Jungian term for becoming a Self in the transition from childhood to maturity. Jung contends that there are rites of passage that need to be completed. The cave is often the place this is done. For much of human history, caves have been sacred places of shelter from the world; the place that became the extent of a person's kingdom in the face of uncertainty and peril. While the cave itself may not be a central image any longer, we have many metaphors for it.
These include small rooms with a sacred or significant object of our past in them, small bedrooms or studies, basement workshops, or other places of solitude and silence. There is also something in such a space that confronts you-not necessarily in an endangering way, but an existential one. This grappling is the business of the cave. To make peace with the object of your grappling is the act of initiation.
If your dream includes leaving the cave, you will probably feel a new unity with the world upon your departure. It's a far cry from being disillusioned; the peace you feel comes from a fuller sense of participation and belonging in the cosmos.

Sex

Sexual dreams are not about sex exclusively. Often they are about how we perceive people and how we think others perceive us. To construct a framework for interpreting sexual dreams, it is important to identify who is with us in the dream and how we feel about the experiences being had while dreaming.
Certain dreams are simply romantic. Boy and girl meet in the dream state and find themselves enjoying one another. This scenario commonly involves an attractive acquaintance and a generally pleasing environment. There is no violation of taboo, except for a sense that perhaps things are moving a little fast in the nocturnal relationship. Often, the dreamer has simply acted upon a desire for a relationship with a particular person.
Other dreams begin to press on the boundaries of our taboos. These include dreams with sexual content the dreamer would consider inappropriate in waking, but participates in during the dream. These dreams can be very troubling. One can wake up feeling as though a rape was committed, a fidelity violated, or that innocence has been stripped away. Dreams of this nature may require some more thorough examination.
Identifying the who or what that has generated discomfort is an important first step. Was it a boss, coworker, friend? Someone much older or younger than you with whom you have an affectionate, but platonic relationship? Or was it the nature of the encounter-coerced, cheating, public, or whatever-that is the most distinct feature of the dream? Who was forcing whom? Was it a stranger who reminded you of someone you know? Representation and displacement relationships are often components of sexual dreaming.
Some of these dreams indicate our own ambivalence about taboos. There is, after all, something exciting about what is forbidden. In other cases, we are expressing our own frustration with a sex life that is not satisfying. Still other times, others have violated our boundaries and we respond by perceiving them as taking unmerited favors from us.
In all of these cases, the dreams are worth noting and studying. By looking into what you may find abhorrent at first, you will see aspects of your personality and the relationships around you that have gone mostly unnoticed. Perhaps most importantly, you will become more aware of the various facets of your personality in those relationships.

Tarot Cards

Tarot cards have recently received renewed popularity. Often times, dreaming about a psychic reading indicates a desire for a third party to illuminate and validate some big decision(s) you are facing. A contrasting possibility is that you feel as though your decisions are not important and your life is in the hands of fate, outside your personal control. Whether or not you subscribe to psychic practices in waking life is the most important element of discerning the meaning of this dream event.

Body

Who you are in your dreams says a lot about your body image in waking. Many times, you experience your body in dreams as just a regular version of you. However, another time you may see it as idealized or disfigured. These feelings about your body may be communicating how you perceive yourself or how you think others perceive you, for better or worse. Often, how you think about your body reflects how you think about yourself as a whole person.

When an experience of body perception is central to a dream it is worthwhile to analyze the origin of your feelings about the body perception or image. At times, our bodies will dramatically change in dreams to acquire various mystic properties. These include walking through walls, flexibility increases, or changes in height and shape. These are often just problem-solving techniques. However, they may also reveal a sense of limitation from one's body or power over one's body.

Other times, we or others in the dream will transform from a human form into something else. Transitions of this nature can be absurdly funny, or a little frightening. Sometimes, we will adopt a human body that fits the needs of the dream circumstances. This is the anima/animus experience at work in the self. Other times, we can adopt an animal body to achieve a particular goal or character attribute. These events reveal areas where we feel either strong competence or distinct weaknesses in our character. Does your sense of body seem similar to that of waking life?

If changed for the worse, does your body completely prevent you from succeeding in the dream, or does it merely make things more difficult?

Running

Running is a traditional symbol of health and vitality in addition to being a means of fleeing potential danger. Thus running could be considered a dream of virility, as well as fear.

Usually, in a dream of running in which fear is the dominant emotion, you will find that you can either run all night and successfully escape the danger (albeit with a serious emotional drain), or you find that you continue to falter and stumble, making the object of your fear even more terrifying. In the latter case, try to relate the dream situation to a situation in your life where you are feeling incredible pressure. Sometimes a simple change of perception can solve the problem

Moon

The moon is often an archetypal woman image. In many cultures and religious orders, the moon is identified as a mother figure. This is true in Native American, African, Christian, and Eastern literature and lore. The moon dream may come with or generate an intuitive feeling that someone in the inner circle of your life is pregnant.

Another moon scenario is a product of the twentieth century. Specifically, the desire for space travel. These dreams can be based on either the scientific desire to experience the event or the spiritual desire for absolute separation from the churning, tumultuous human experience on earth.

The moon can also evoke feelings of magic and mystery.

It is interesting.....the culture differences in some of our decoding.

In Native American tradition, the VULTURE is not necessarily a bad bird. It is a scavenger, but BECAUSE it scavenges, disease and putridness are stopped. It is because of its feeding on carrion that bad things do not get into the soil or other animals. It does not have feathers on its head to prevent IT from getting disease. It pees on itself to clean its legs so that microbes cannot attach there, either. (I hope no one is eating right now as they read this!!!!!LOL)

So sometimes the vulture is "cleaning up the messes" of the world....preventing disease or illness or bad things from continuing. Sometimes it deserves our gratitude, not our disgust. Because of this, many NA view it as an abundance symbol....that it is clearing out the bad making way for the good.

There are so many different interpretations..I hear you Odonata. And yes, they do clean things up very well and the interpretation makes more than perfect sense. If you have other interpretations you want to post, please feel free to do so...it helps to have various methods to decipher what our dreams truly mean...some are not all correct. I have gone through so many books in my lifetime that I just go with instinct and try to decipher according to the message I feel is being relayed to me.

Friday, November 30

Weather

Dreams can have very unique weather. It may be sunny and thundering, or pouring rain everywhere except for where you are standing. Weather images in dreams often reflect your feelings about your environment. You may view the world as contrary to your goals; thus a dream would have bad weather in it. On the contrary, pleasant dreams or dreams at a time when life is going well usually feature good weather. The weather in dreams is generally not as significant as other images unless it is somehow aberrant from normal, waking world weather.

Did the weather in your dream prevent something good from happening, such as a planned event?

Saturday, December 1

Anima / Animus

These are terms that Jung created to describe the opposite-gender self that lives within each of us.

The anima is the feminine component dwelling inside a male's unconscious mind. The animus is the masculine component dwelling inside a female's unconscious mind.

In dreams, this opposite-gender self can be a helper or an antagonist. These dream figures can appear as translations of persons we meet with whom we have a tremendous sense of romantic love or platonic camaraderie. One of Jung's interpreters held that the anima/animus character was only understandable to those who have known true love.

However, our opposite-gender selves may reveal to us negativity in ourselves or negativity we perceive in dealings with the opposite sex. It is important to note that sometimes, when you dream about a person of the opposite sex, they may be representing your own inner self. Carefully consider all persons of the opposite sex in your dreams as a possible appearance of your own anima / animus.

What do these strangers teach you about how you view the opposite sex-do you fear, lust for, or despise these strangers for any apparent reason?

Sunday, December 2

Plants

Plants are often not a specific item of dream interpretation because most of the time they function simply as background scenery. The exception to this rule is when a particular type of plant is identified in the dream.

Plants that are significant are those that have historic importance in literature or your personal experience. For example, you may dream of visiting a friend who is sitting in a thicket of hemlock. Obviously, this plant is significant because of the implications of hemlock and suicide in ancient lore.

Other plants that may be significant are those that remind you of a childhood memory, a particular place, or a particular person. In those cases, identifying the relationship of your current circumstances with your memories is important.

Wednesday, December 5

Tidal Wave

Dreams of impending disaster generally indicate that the dreamer is feeling out of control. In the case of the tidal wave, this out-of-control feeling is often combined with the need to make a fresh start.

A 16-year-old boy reports dreaming: I am running, trying to get away from a tidal wave before it crashes over me. Finally, I realize it is hopeless. I turn around and let the full impact of the wave crash over me. Remarkably I stand up in spite of the wave's power. When I turn back to the direction I was running, everything -- my house, my parents, my car -- it's all gone.

This youth presented numerous complaints at the outset of counseling, all of which revolved around home life and the absence of his father. Upon further inquiry, the youth admitted that he was a drug abuser with sexual identity problems. He desperately wanted a second chance, feeling as though he had undermined his own life.

Often to dream of a catastrophic event is to wish for a catharsis in real life. See Armageddon

Tuesday, December 4

Loss of Sensory Ability or Motor Ability

Images also include Blindness, Deafness.

Usually, this is a very symbolic event in a dream.

A 34-year-old man reports: I dream of being in a situation where I need to act resourcefully to help a stranger avoid danger. Suddenly, I go blind for no apparent reason! It is very frustrating.

Becoming suddenly impaired in this way is different than being injured in a physical accident. The lights just seem to go out without explanation. With a dream like this, it is questionable whether or not the dreamer feels competent to fulfill his duties in waking life. However, this can also refer to his reluctance to accept the challenge of the hero self.

Seeing oneself as a hero is kind of daunting, and the fact that it is your dream doesn't mean that you will necessarily and easily assume that role. Suddenly, the awareness of caring for those to whom you have no obligation is quickened. It's a hassle. Many of us can barely fulfill responsibilities to the people around us in ordinary situations.

Another scenario for loss of a sensory ability is to exchange it for something or someone else. The old saying, I'd give my eye teeth for ... articulates the human willingness to exchange one ability or attribute for something else of value. There are many times when our minds use the principle of exchange to help us verify the relative worth of relationships or objects.

There can also be a distinct martyr image attached to this kind of loss. This is especially true when the dream includes loss of ability through some potentially painful means. The loss may be seen as an exchange for something that was gained during the dream or in waking life.

Saturday, December 8

Disproportionate Objects

Woody Allen, in the movie Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), gave us a breast as big as a house. This breast was a terrifying and consumptive thing. Yet breasts receive so much attention many times, it is hardly surprising that they occupy tremendous perception power in our world.

In dreams, certain objects may assume unusual proportions. This significance often reflects the importance of the object to the dream story as well as the emotional dimensions of the object. Emotional dimensions refer to the importance people place on others, on things or on situations. For example, it is often difficult to help people perceive the emotional power of family members. If you ask them to draw their childhood house-apportioning rooms based on the amount of influence and memories they have about the places-the emotional dimensions of the home become clear.

Many times, people have attached emotional dimensions to very positive or very negative experiences that alter the dimensions of those objects in their subconscious perception. A spouse who feels emotionally chastised may dream of oversized silverware, reflecting the dimensions of a spoon used to give spankings in childhood.

Saturday, January 5

Baby / Child

As an object in dreams, a baby or child represents something that requires great care and attention. The meaning is at issue regarding whether it is your original responsibility or one that has been passed off on you by someone else. These dreams may also have wish-fulfillment content for women who are in their childbearing years.

For men, the dreams may be anxiety-related, especially if you are sexually active without wanting to experience the consequences of fathering a child.

Sunday, January 6

Paralysis

One of the most troubling dream events, and startling physical side-effects of REM, is paralysis. Large muscle groups often become paralyzed during a dream, presumably to prevent injury to the dreamer in case the dreamer's instincts would cause a physical reaction to dreaming visuals. It can be troubling if the dreamer becomes aware of his body in a paralyzed state without being aware of the fact that the mind is still in a dream state. Suddenly stripped of every physical capacity for defense, the dreamer can experience great panic or victimization in the dream. This scenario is a troubling version of the lucid dream. Instead of mind awareness and body control, the dreamer has body awareness and no mind control. Hundreds of years ago, this phenomenon was observed and named having a witch on your back. The idea was that an unfriendly spirit within the dream had pinned you to your bed. Indeed, it is not uncommon to have a sense of spiritual oppression in a dream that includes paralysis.

Monday, January 7

Blood

Blood in dreams is rarely a well-received image, unless it is connected with an anger object. The blood of another in this case may reflect seeing oneself as ultimately victorious. Most times, blood represents depletion, injury, or death. This depletion may be physical, or it may reflect the loss of other essential resources, including emotional or financial assets.
Blood can have a kind of direct meaning as life source. In this regard, blood may be seen as a metaphor for becoming one with another person-this type of feeling is conjured from our exposure to Native American blood brother images.
Blood also may serve as a sacrificial metaphor-as in the sacrificial lamb or other animal. It also may have occult implications for persons involved with such practices.
Draining, drinking, or drawing and/or writing with blood are practices of this nature. Many genres of cult literature often include this type of reference. Whose blood are you seeing in your dream? Can you discern who caused the bleeding? Is the presence of blood accompanied by a feeling of threat?

Tuesday, January 8

Pearls

The pearl has become an archetypal semi-precious stone. Individual pearls in dreams usually have to do with moments of personal discovery. Most people who dream of pearls understand where they come from and view the pearl as a treasure to be discovered. However, in dreams the pearl is rarely discovered in an oyster but simply found and conveyed to the dreamer or from the dreamer to others. Usually, this is done as a metaphor for some other kind of conveyance of intimate personal knowledge between the dreamer and other characters in the dream.
Pearl jewelry is often a gift of wealth and is something associated as classical, rather than contemporary. Metaphorically, this could be contrasting old versus new money.
How did you come to possess the pearl or jewelry in your dream?
Was the pearl a material possession or did it seem to have heirloom-quality emotional features to it as well?
Did you experience the pearl as a gift from the world, a gift from another, or a gift you gave to another?
Who was involved in the gift-giving? Did it seem like an event that is congruous with your waking life?

Wednesday, January 9

Snake

The snake is a difficult dream symbol because it is so widely interpreted among various cultures. Interpretations run the gamut from blood-curdling fear to wisdom and peace. These options are determined by literary history and folklore from different cultures, as well as personal experience.

In waking life, it is not uncommon to be afraid of snakes. For some people, this fear is disruptive and pathological, even to the point that a photo of a snake represents an oppressive threat. For these people, snake dreams are almost universally bad. If the dream includes someone who handles snakes, whoever tames the object of the fear is likely a source of wisdom and control in the dreamer's world, and may be a representation of some aspect of themselves or someone else they know.

Among Asian and Native American cultures, the snake is a wisdom symbol. The idea of wisdom comes from the snake's ability to shed its skin and renew itself. If one dreams of snakes from this perspective, it is a dream of renewal, problem-solving, and good tidings in general.

In Judeo-Christian cultures, the snake is a symbol of temptation or spiritual opposition against reaching one's goals. This concept is derived from Bible when Satan tempts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake. Sometimes, a snake dreamt in this context will remind you of a particular person in your waking life with whom you have a competitive relationship.

Finally, Freud and classical psychotherapy have also thrown interpretations into this pit. The contention is that the snake is a type of phallus. The snake often embodies fear about intercourse and an aversion to it.

Coming up with an insightful interpretation for your dream snake could be tricky. What emotions are prevalent regarding the snake: fear, respect, or opposition?

What is your attitude about snakes in waking life: neutral, fearful, or friendly?

Did the snake appear when you were alone or were others with you when the snake entered the dream scene? What are your feelings about those others?

Answering these questions should lead towards a productive interpretation of the snake dream.

Thursday, January 10

Losing a Valuable Object or Person

The things we value most often serve as an extension of our self-awareness. A favorite hat, car, or relationship reflects a part of how we feel about ourselves. Therefore, the loss of such an object in a dream is significant. It is equally significant whether you actually own the object in waking or not.
If the thing lost is an inanimate object, what does it symbolize for you? Examples would be jewelry, favored clothes, or pictures and family heirlooms. In losses of this kind, the indication may be that you are nervous about losing an expensive or important new object in your life.
If a person is lost, the first question to ask is, Who? It may be that you have questions about your commitment to another or their commitment to you. However, it is not to unusual to be looking for a stranger.
Why are you searching for this person?
Do you find this person? Where?

Friday, January 11

Horned Animals

The horned animal may represent a male power figure in your life, or, if the horn is nonsensical, it may be a displacement of another person's power (or your perception of unearned power that is being wielded by another). The goal is to discern your feelings about the animal and whether you see any relationship between the animal and individuals in your waking life.
If the horned animal is a nonsense creation, such as a horned dog, it may indicate sexual tension in a relationship. Do you feel as though someone close to you has mixed motives for being in a relationship with you? Another scenario is feeling threatened by another's power to impale you.
You may sense this as being a sort of sexual-penetration anxiety, but the general indication of power and intimidation is more satisfactory.

Saturday, January 12

Team Sports

Team sports are prevalent in our world and seem to be increasing in popularity and diversity. Dreams of team sports include the dreamer as observer, player, or coach. Many times, it's a dream of wish-fulfillment -- just wanting to be a sports legend. However, it the coaches and other players seem very familiar to you, or are actually people from facets of your waking life, the dream has more to say.
Most times, the dream is about participation and connectedness to the common goals held by others in your life.
Being a team player and getting with the program are emphasized often in work and family these days. Whichever of the three roles you most identify with determines your self-awareness within the team sport.
Observing from the audience may indicate that you are feeling off the team or outside the action. Observing as a player who does not enter the game indicates that you feel others are ambivalent about your skills, or you yourself may be so.
Being a player shows your willingness to participate in the game. If you have too many roles on the team or do the work of several players, it may be that you are feeling as though people expect too much from you.
Finally, being the coach is a position of leadership, control, and decision-maker for the success of others. In this case, determining how the team did is important to appreciating the message of this dream.

Royalty

Royalty is becoming more of a mixed dream symbol in contemporary dreams. Three hundred years ago, it would have been a universal symbol of wealth and power. However, as we become more aware of the struggles royalty face, it is more common to dream of them in relation to our own daily struggles.

Many times our dreams are a search for persons who can identify with our inner struggles. As royalty divorce, grieve, and grow-up in the public eye, we look to them as symbols to reinforce our own daily crises. Or we dream of them in an effort to attach the splendor of their lives to our normal lives.

Becoming a member of royalty is often a wish-fulfillment dream for wealth. However, if your dream includes an element of returning to the era of monarchy, the dream may also include a desire to assert oneself more powerfully in a particular area of life, whether it be in a financial or emotional realm.

Looking at who serve in your court and in what capacity would be a worthwhile examination.

Entering into the presence of royalty can be another version of the mirroring dream. However, it may also be a judgment dream, if you are holding secrets in your life that undermine your ability to function openly. Nobility often served as the final court of appeals in many nations.

Does a hierarchical society please or repulse your personal sense of social order?

In your waking life, do your conversations include discourse on who is better than or less than others?

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