The Dream Dictionary from A to Z [Revised edition]. Theresa Cheung

may have been expressing your desire to capture or kidnap the qualities you admire and make them your own. Alternatively, you may have a hidden desire to control that person. If, however, you were ambushed, abducted, or kidnapped in your dream, this suggests that someone or something in your waking life is trying to take control of you. Your dream expresses your surprise and uncertainty about losing control.

       AMETHYST

      See GEMSTONES.

      AMMUNITION Bullets or ammunition can suggest verbal attacks in the context of dream conflicts. If the ammunition belongs to someone else, this represents things that you feel other people can use against you, such as lies, anger, and so on. If you have the ammunition, it can represent assets you have that can build your confidence, things you could say or do to wound others if you had to. If you run out or don’t have any ammunition, you may be feeling hopeless about a situation and unable to defend your position.

      AMNESIA Typically a sign of avoidance or repression of something or someone in your waking life, but can also suggest unfulfilled potential.

      AMUSEMENT PARK Dreams in which you are visiting an amusement park may be a sign that you may need to incorporate more enjoyment within your life. They can also be symbolic of things that can easily distract you from your tasks. If the amusement park is empty or seems shut down, it signifies the need to stop taking yourself so seriously. Consider also how everything in the park is an expression of some aspect of yourself.

      See also FAIRGROUND.

       ANCHOR

      See ABANDONMENT.

      ANESTHETIC If you dream that you are having an anesthetic or are being put to sleep for an operation, this suggests that you may be trying to escape reality in some way in waking life or attempting to deaden some emotional pain. There may be something in life you don’t want to face or simply want to forget about for a while. The answer may be simple as taking a much-needed vacation.

      ANGEL Angels are celestial messengers sent to guard over us. To imagine one appearing is a symbol of spiritual protection and inspiration. If angels give you advice in a dream, what they tell you should always be taken very seriously. Nowadays, with a greater acceptance of the appearance of angelic figures, they are once again accepted as messengers of enlightenment. If you are religious, visions of an angel in your dream may be taken as validation of belief, but if you are not religious, you can take solace in the thought that you have a spiritual protector watching over you. Another interpretation suggests that dreaming of an angel suggests you are searching for this unconditional love and support in waking life, and the dream is urging you to find these qualities within yourself.

      See also ARCHETYPES.

      ANGER In a dream scenario, anger may express the tension between your conscious and unconscious urges. The aggressor in the dream will often represent the part of you that is demanding to be acknowledged. Freud spoke of an aggressive drive which he believed revealed itself in all walks of life and in all types of people. He believed that the aggressive drive was just as much present in sex as in war. Alfred Adler, an early disciple of Freud, believed that anger was the most fundamental force of the psyche and, if repressed, it could express itself in dream images of anger and aggression. Whatever may be the trigger, anger is one of the most common emotions to express itself in dreams, either by physical violence or by using symbols of anger such as weapons. Such dreams are likely to continue until the trigger for your anger is discovered and dealt with.

      If a person has recurring dreams in which they are assaulting, raping, or attacking someone, this suggests deep-rooted sexual problems that they might want to talk over with a doctor. A single dream in which aggression, sexual or otherwise, occurs is not so worrying and is actually quite common. Such a dream will be expressing negative feelings of anger, hostility, rejection, embarrassment, or envy that have probably been repressed in waking life. Dreams of assassination or murder have the same interpretation. Dreams in which you are evicting someone from their home or your home suggests that there is something in your life you are angry about and of which you desire to be rid. This may be some characteristic within yourself or another person. Dreams that focus on ambushing may have the same theme, but in this case there may be something about the person or thing being ambushed that you want to possess yourself.

      Libel dreams in which you are attacking someone verbally may suggest that you are spreading vicious rumors or someone is spreading them about you. Any dream in which you have a feud, dispute, or attack suggests either a disagreement with someone in your waking life or inner conflict with an aspect of your character. Dreams in which you are rebelling against someone or something have the same interpretation. Pay attention to the atmosphere of your dream as it may reveal much about your emotional state at present. The dream may also be describing your feelings of being threatened.

      ANIMA/ANIMUS A part of our persona is the role of male or female we must play. For most people, that gender role is determined by their physical sex. But Jung, like Freud and Adler and others, felt that we are all really bisexual in nature. When we begin our lives in the womb, we have undifferentiated sex organs that only gradually become male or female, under the influence of hormones. Likewise, when we begin our social lives as infants, we are neither male nor female in the social sense until society molds us into men or women.

      In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ, but in our society today we have many remnants of traditional expectations. Women are still expected to be homemakers and nurturers; men are still expected to be strong breadwinners. But Jung felt these expectations meant that we had developed only half of our potential.

      The anima is the unconscious female aspect present in the collective unconscious of men, and the animus is the unconscious male aspect present in the collective unconscious of women. The function of the anima/animus is to help the dreamer establish a good working relationship with their male/female counterpart. This is an important step in the development of the personality.

      The anima or animus is the archetype through which you communicate with the collective unconscious generally, and it is important to get into touch with it. It is also the archetype that some researchers believe guides our choice of partner. We are, as suggested by an ancient Greek myth popularized by Plato in the Symposium, always looking for our other half – the half that the gods took from us – in members of the opposite sex. When we fall in love at first sight, then we have found someone that ‘fills’ our anima or animus archetype particularly well!

      If someone of the opposite sex played a leading role in your dreams or aroused feelings of deep yearning, attraction, and fascination, then your dreaming self has witnessed the appearance of the anima/animus, the opposite of your conscious personality. This is why if you are an indecisive, shy man your anima may take the form of a party-loving woman who is resolute – or if you are a cautious, rational woman, your animus may take the form of a spontaneous, passionate man. The anima/animus may be either positive or negative, and both can be symbolized by people you know or don’t know in waking life, as well as mythical, symbolic, and legendary characters, or by objects that somehow represent the masculine or feminine to you. Typically, the anima is personified as a single-figure image – for example a young girl, a witch, or an earth mother. It is likely to be associated with deep emotionality and the force of life itself. The animus may be a plurality of figures, for example a band of robbers or a council passing judgment, although it is also often personified as a wise old man. It is likely to be presented as logical, rational, and judgmental.

      By introducing the anima/animus, your unconscious is urging you to seek balance and compensate for those attitudes or behaviors that dominate your thinking and being in waking life. Heeding