How We Source Our Entries

This page explains where our interpretations come from, how we handle traditions that contradict each other, and when an entry gets revised. It exists because the fair question to ask of any dream dictionary is simply: on what basis was this written?

What we draw on

Dream symbolism has no single authoritative text. Our entries draw on three strands that we keep clearly separated rather than blended: analytic psychology in the Jungian tradition, folk and oral interpretation, and classical religious interpretive literature. When a reading belongs to one of those strands, we say so in the entry.

When traditions disagree

Disagreement is the normal case, not the exception. A snake is renewal in one reading and a concealed adversary in another. We do not resolve that by picking a favourite. Both are stated, attributed, and left standing — because which one fits depends on the dream, and the reader is better placed to judge that than we are.

How entries are written

Every entry is written in our own words, never copied. We lead with the reading that is most widely shared across traditions, then work through the contexts that shift it. Where a popular belief has no support in the interpretive literature — the flat claim that snake dreams are simply bad omens, for example — we say that too.

Review and updates

An entry is revised when we find a source that contradicts it, when a reader sends a correction we can verify, or when the explanation turns out to be thinner than the subject deserves. Entries that fall short of our completeness standard are held back from search engines until they meet it.

Corrections

If you know a reading we have missed, write to [email protected] and name the symbol along with the tradition your version comes from. Regional variation is part of the material, not an error in it.