Dream Colors
Using the Questionnaire for Personal Dreamwork
ref: Bob Hoss MS, Dream Language, Innersource, 2005
The table contains emotional themes, related to common human associations with color. The table is intended to trigger your own personal associations as they might relate to the dream. It does NOT represent the "meaning" of color. The table was derived from color psychology literature, the Color Test by Dr. Max Luscher, augmented with the works of C. G. Jung, plus research by the author.
1) Select from the dream the colored images you feel are the most important or that you feel most drawn to.
2) Pick the color below that best matches the color of the dream image. If it was a mixed color you might even try the dominant color then the secondary color to see if either associations triggers meaningful waking life associations. If the dream image contains a pair of colors, try both colors on the table and explore whether the waking life situation involves both emotional themes, perhaps as conflicting views or feelings about a situation.
3) Read each expression on the table for the color, pausing and reflecting after each.
4) Ask the Question: “Do one or more of the statements relate to a way I have felt recently in waking life?”
5) Reflect: recall the situation that the statement reminds you of, and your feelings and decisions at the time. How might that statement and the situation it reminds you of relate to the dream?
What does Color Mean in Dreams
Color in dreams appears to relate to emotions associated with that dream image. Dreams seem to be stimulated somewhat by the limbic system – which is a part of the brain that associates emotion with incoming visual stimulus (including color) as a part of our instinctual response system to alert us to dangerous situations. So that part of our brain, which is active during dreaming, assigns emotions to color and thus creates color in our dreams to represent those emotions.
Research shows that our autonomic nervous systems react unconsciously to color in pretty much the same way in all Humans - red increases and blue decreases heartbeat, breathing, and other automatic functions
Dream Color Chart
Red
|
1) I feel intense, vital or animated. 2) I
feel transformed. 3) I feel assertive, forceful. 4) I feel creative. 5) I
want to live life to its fullest. 6) I want to win, succeed, achieve. 7) I
feel sexy or have strong sexual urges. 8) I have a driving desire. 9) I need
something to make me feel alive again. 10) I need to be more assertive and
forceful. 11) I need to get out and enjoy myself. 12) If red appears as
blood or inflammation – it may relate to an illness or injury |
Orange
|
1) I want to expand my interests and develop
new activities. 2) I want a wider sphere of influence. 3) I feel friendly
and welcoming. 4) I want more contact with others. 5) I feel enthusiastic,
outgoing and adventurous. 6) I am driven by desires and hopes toward the
new, undiscovered and satisfying. 7) I feel driven but need to overcome my
doubts or fear of failure. 8) I must avoid spreading myself too thin. |
Yellow
|
1) I feel a sense of joy and optimism. 2) I
feel alert. 3) I am seeking a solution that will open up new and better
possibilities and allow my hopes to be fulfilled. 4) I feel the new
direction I am taking will bring happiness in my future. 5) I am hopeful. 6)
I need to find a way out of this circumstance or relationship. 7) I need a
change. 8) I may be compensating for something. 9) I am acting compulsively. |
Green
|
1) I need to establish myself, my
self-esteem, my independence. 2) I want recognition. 3) I need to increase
the certainty of my own value and status, through acknowledgment by others
of my achievements or my possessions. 4) Hard work and drive will gain me
recognition and self esteem. 5) My opinion must prevail. 6) I must hold on
to this view in order to maintain my self-esteem. 7) I want what I am due.
8) I must maintain control of the events. 9) Things must not change. 10)
Detail and logic are important here. 11) I need to increase my sense of
security. 12) I need more money to feel secure. 13) I want to withdraw and
retreat into my own center. |
Blue |
1) I feel tranquil, peaceful and content. 2)
I feel a sense of harmony. 3) I feel a meditative awareness or unity. 4) I
feel a sense of belonging. 5) I need rest, peace or a chance to recuperate.
6) I need a relationship free from contention in which I can trust and be
trusted. 7) I need a peaceful state of harmony offering contentment and a
sense of belonging. |
Violet
|
1) I like to win others over with my charm.
2) I feel an identification, an almost "mystic" union. 3) I have a deep
intuitive understanding of the situation. 4) I feel a sense of intimacy. 5)
The feeling is erotic.
6) I seek a magical state where wishes are fulfilled. 7) I yearn for a
"magical" relationship of romance and tenderness. 8) I seek to identify with
something or someone. 9) I need intimacy. 10) I engage in fantasy in order
to compensate for my feelings of insecurity. |
Brown
|
1) I seek a secure state
where I can be physically comfortable and relax or recover. 2) I am uneasy
and insecure in the existing situation. 3) I need a more affectionate
environment. 4) I need a situation imposing less physical strain. 5) I want
to satisfy the physical senses (food, luxury, sex). 6) If it is a Natural or
wood brown: a) I am concerned about matters of family, home, or my "roots".
b) I am concerned with a son or daughter. c) I am searching for my true self
or natural state of being. 7) If Dirty Brown: it may relate to a physical
problem or illness. |
Grey
|
1) I want to shield myself from those
feelings. 2) I feel emotionally distant, only an observer. 3) It is as if I
am standing aside, watching myself mechanically go through the motions. 4) I
want to remain uncommitted, non-involved, shielded or separated from the
situation. 5) I do not want to make a decision that will require my
emotional involvement. 6) I have put up with too much and wish to avoid any
further emotional stimulation. 7) I am trying to escape an anxious
situation. 8) I am compensating for something. |
(Black)
|
The unconscious realm. Moving
into darkness = suppression, “death of the ego” (first stage of
transformation). Beautiful shiny black = a positive view of the unconscious
from which a new self and new potentials emerge.
Try: 1) I am anxious and don't know why. 2) I am fearful of or intimidated
by the situation. 3) I have been dealt an unacceptable blow. 4) Nothing is
as it should be. 5) I refuse to allow it/them to influence my point of view.
6) I can’t accept the situation and don’t wish to be convinced otherwise. 7)
I feel the need for extreme action, perhaps in revolt against or to
compensate for the situation. |
White |
WHITE -1) This is a new
experience. 2) I’m becoming aware of new feelings. 3) I’m experiencing a new
beginning, a transformation. 4) I have a new outlook, a new awareness. 5) I
feel pure and innocent. 6) I feel open and accepting. 7) I feel unprepared.
8) I feel alone, isolated. 9) It feels cold or sterile. Note: White
transforms the emotions associated with the colors it mixes with; adding a
coolness, peacefulness, newness, and renewal.
[COLORS MIXED WITH WHITE]
- appear to represent a newness on one hand, or a lack of maturity on the
other, with respect to the emotion associated with that color. The dreamer
may have avoided and is thus not used to dealing with that emotion,
resulting in a display of that emotion in an immature or inappropriate way.
Alternatively they may be experiencing a new emergence or revival of that
emotion. Ex: Pink (newness of white with the red of energy/transformation)
often relates to feelings of rebirth, freshness and becoming alive.
Alternatively (with a violet hue) it can represent an immature desire,
intimacy or magical view of things. |
Color
Groups
(Jung)
|
RED/YELLOW/BLUE/GREEN – a
grouping of the 4 “primaries” represents a state of completion within the
personality. A missing color, may be associated with an emotional element
missing from the dreamers life needed for closure.
BLACK & WHITE (patterns)
- may represent the forces of unification, an integration of conscious
(white) and unconscious (black) from which a greater self emerges; a unity
of opposites; an internal change.
Gold: the divine, the sun, value, the masculine, conscious; Silver:
the moon, the feminine, the unconscious. |
Also See:
| Dream Color Questionnaire
| Meaning of Bible Colors |
|
