Hi Everyone!
I'm an intuitive dream interpreter, dreamwalker, and lucid dreaming practitioner and here I'm going to present a condensed guide to interpreting your dreams.
Dreams are an extremely personal experience. No one experiences your dreams but you. When you wake up and sit down and have breakfast with your family that is a shared experience. Even though you are all having breakfast in the same room together you are each experiencing it uniquely and differently.
When it comes to your dreams not only are you experiencing uniquely no one else can experience it but you yourself. Within that unique singular experience you come across all types of characters, scenarios and symbols and many of us want to know what these mean or signify.
Now you can come to a consultant or intuitive interpreter like myself but really you know yourself better than me or anyone else and if you at least have a basic understanding of how the dreamscape and your subconscious works you don't need to consult with or pay anyone to interpret them for you. You can intuit your dream language for yourself.
First things first. Have a journal. Keep it and a pen or pencil by your bedside and even if you can't fully remember your dream in much detail write down your first thoughts and impressions you have upon awakening.
The more emotional impact a dream has the more likely you are to remember it. If you happen to go spontaneously lucid (that is you come to the conscious realization you are dreaming while in the dream) you will remember it in great visceral detail. Either way write it down.
Now you need to clear your mind and come to a few basic realizations:
A. Your dreams are not a premonition or prophecy of the future. Even if it seems premonitory in nature those premonitions are only based on a certain set of variables. I generally tend to avoid divination, prophecy and premonition and advocate the practice of deliberate intention. So please get the idea out of your head that your dream relates to future events. What it relates to is rather your present here and now circumstances.
B. People and characters in your dreams are aspects of your own personality otherwise known as archetypes. They do not relate to people outside yourself, people in your life or past selves. Male characters represent male aspects of your personality or Yang and female characters represent the feminine aspects of yourself also know as Yin. If you don't know the differences between Yin and Yang Google is your friend. Understanding the feminine and masculine aspects of you overall nature will help you immensely. Age and behaviors of these dream personas represent the maturity and characteristics of these archetypal aspects of your inner self and personality. This is something to take into great consideration when you are self-interpreting because they represent the Yin and Yang energies that you need to pay attention to.
C. Dreams are how your subconscious mind communicates with you and it does this through symbology. Pay special attention to symbols presented in your dreams that may represent common idioms. For instance in a dream I was planning a party for someone which to me meant "it's time to get this party started".
D. Animals in your dreams may represent your inner spirit/totem animals or the animal's characteristics may be indicative of certain self behaviors that mirror the animal behaviors. For instance dreaming of a snake shedding it's skin may represent the shedding of certain behaviors or beliefs that are no longer serving you.
E. Pay attention to colors in your dreams. Colors represent energy points in your body also known as chakras and possible blockages contained within. ROYGBIV is the best way to remember you the colors associated with your chakras.
Red - Root Chakra
Orange - Sacral
Yellow - Solar Plexus
Green - Heart
Blue - Throat
Indigo - Third eye
Violet - Crown
White is your Soul Star. Black is your Earth Star and Gold is your Stellar chakra.
If certain colors predominate your dream you may want to look into opening and unblocking those particular energy points associated with the colors you dreamt of. Eat foods of that particular color and pay special attention to the energy points of your body associated with that color.
F. Lastly if you have physical pain during a dream in a particular area of your body this is really serious. I don't mean emotional pain or upset but actual physical pain. This is a very rare occurrence and you may want to consult a doctor in regards to that area you dreamt was in pain. Your subconscious is looking out for your best self interest and when a dream becomes so intense that you are experiencing physical pain as a result that is your subconscious saying "wake up" you need to really pay attention to this area of your body. It may indicate a medical issue that you are unaware of.
So that's pretty much what you need to know to interpret your own dreams. Understanding the nature of archetypes especially will help you in your dream journey.
One last note on nightmares, high anxiety/stress or emotionally upsetting dreams. You never have to accept a dream at face value. If you become frightened or upset as a result of situations you dreamt of you don't need to carry those feelings with you for remainder of your day. In the morning hours as your waking up take a little quite time to go back to that dream scenario and change it. Intentionally react positively to upsetting situations, embrace or vanquish your dream monster or replay the dream in your mind with a better happier ending. if you get in the practice of doing this not only will you avoid "getting up on the wrong side of the bed" but you will also prevent subsequent nightmares and anxiety dreams from happening or replaying themselves. You may also develop better techniques for responding to knee-jerk emotional reactions in your waking life.
Hope this helps you get a better understanding of your dream life. If you have any other questions relating to how to better self-interpret your dreams I will be more than happy to answer them for you in this thread.
Wising all of you very sweet dreams!