The mind sometimes does some odd and/or illogical things in dreaming to convince some part of yourself of a sound thing. Dreaming will even bring up things one didn't want to look at about the self or surroundings but one very important message I received from dreams is that it is not a place to feel bad or guilty about these things. There is no pass or failure nor any bars held, just about anything goes and it's meant for you to be able to look and understand. Dreams can teach, guide, warn and protect just as much as vent steam. They are not meant to hinder even when they will be the vent of mind, body and spirit to release unwanted debris, washing them ashore. More potently, like slowly letting the gas out of a badly shaken bottle of soda. Beyond all that, when the debris are brushed aside, there is more room for the deeper matters such as guidance.

Long ago, among the many cultures of peoples our ancestors used dreams as a means to bring forward spiritual messages and meanings to the community. Not only did they do this with dreams, they also used the examples in their waking lives with all the plants, animals - which way the wind would be blowing. All things they observed was used the same as denoting all the details of a dream to understand the meanings and their messages and guidance. In the same accordance one should denote every detail they can remember about a particular dream, what direction was being faced, colors, numbers, even the most minute details that can be accounted for to get the most accurate interpretation.

Daily Waking Life
Take into account when working with your dreams your daily waking life and emotional state, what is going on in your present time by at least a month as most dreams will relate to the things going on in your present state of being. Dreams will not only relate to what's going on around you but how it is affecting you and what your present state of mind, body and spirit is, focusing on what is most significant, intense or potent first.

Suppression
Dreams do allot of venting, among the most potent ones are suppressions. You can find such representations in your dreams as being along the shore of a beach or ocean side for example. Note the condition of the tides and waves here and the coloration of the water such as clear, pristine or murky. The most turbulent pertains to all the debris not being allowed to wash ashore, suppressions and intense emotions creating chaos and turmoil.

You have to work with what is already there before you could try to work with dreams in finding other things. You have to get past the daily grind stuff, release the shallows and wade through the mid waters, mentally and emotionally clear, relax, unsuppress and let go of the debris before you could begin other works dealing with the dream world in a constructive manner.

You could say if your body was a vessel the first thing you have to tend to is if there's any holes in your ship or rips in your sails. It's never good to be pushed into areas ill-prepared. Such as it is possible to be under enough stress or intense fear to be pushed into venues of what is considered psychic arts but under this aray they would be speratic entanglements with useless static, fractures to which the person would also have great confusion in being able to determine their self as the antennae from what the reception is receiving. As a vase one would develop cracks in weak spots for the water to leak out of. In an example as a hollow straw one would have these blockages getting in the way of a pure flow. Dream wise it is also symbolic of having a turmoiled ocean where the debris have collected in the violent waves but have not yet washed ashore. I believe these can also be found as areas that have issues and need for healing in the example of the Charkas.

Your dreams work for you. You can use them to be many kinds of things for you. They can be your daily horoscope or tarot cards, they can teach, guide and help you in understanding about yourself and your surroundings. They can help you get through problems, solve problems, make solutions or even work out turmoil and see the things suppressed to let them go. Inevitably your spirit, your guides, totems, your higher power want you to succeed and your dreams are like this. Your dreams want you to heal, grow, understand and will encompass all the many things as intergal details of one great whole in your path.

Dream Work: Nightmares
When you are having bad dreams or nightmares you can do things like evoke upon colors or animal guides for their medicine teachings on these matters by going to bed at night meditating into sleep with certain colors and particular animals or even plants and stones in your mind, after you have cleared through the daily activity ramblings. This kind of dream work could take a few days and should be meant to call upon avenue of letting the negatives be seen, be healed and let go of rather than suppress them back again. It should be meant to evoke assistance from the positives and guides to do this without feeling hopelessly entangled in nightmare alone. Also as a means to fill the 'empty places' you have let go of some suppression with something like light, color, sound or even garden and totem. Suppression takes up space that doesn't allow growth, like a weed trying to drown out light and nutrients for your little dandelion sprouts that have just been waiting and waiting.

When such things are finally gone and let go of, taking quiet allot of trust and truth to get there, its a feeling like finding emptiness. Like being left on this plain where nothing is and you don't know what should be there. In some cases people allow the suppressions and negatives they had been so used to come back and be a security blanket for them. This is one good reason people bring up the metaphor of 'growing your garden within'. The seeds you shall plant of the good things need that space you just made to develop out of the dark where they have almost wilted away and died. It will come along. Don't take back the things you have released from yourself. You'll only be asking for the very same trouble all over again and it takes enough self empowerment to be willing to cut away the rope and fall down into the wilds of the unknown, to discover blossoms within like one has never heard of before.