The Dream Dictionary from A to Z [Revised edition]: The Ultimate A–Z to Interpret the Secrets of Your Dreams

by Theresa Cheung

Have you ever wondered what your dreams are trying to tell you? Now you can finally find out. This dictionary presents an extensive collection of the symbols that appear in your dreams and how to interpret what they mean for you.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Psychology, Self Help, Witchcraft, New Age

604 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2008

About the author

Theresa Cheung is an internationally bestselling author and public speaker. She has been writing about spirituality, dreams and the paranormal for the past 35 years, and was listed by Watkins Mind Body and Spirit magazine as one of the 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2023. She has a degree in Theology and English from Kings College, Cambridge University, frequently collaborating with leading scientists and neuroscientists researching consciousness.

Theresa is regularly featured in national newspapers and magazines, and she is a frequent radio, podcast and television guest. She hosts her own popular spiritual podcast called White Shores and her own weekly UK Health Radio show: The Healing Power of Your Dreams.

Reviews

[catherine ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always had super vivid dreams, and this is really interesting to reference afterward. I'm not entirely sure it's accurate, but it's still cool to read!

[Emilie Belisle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freakishly accurate.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes my dreams are funky. Like, someone spiked my punch funky. And looking them up in this books is vastly entertaining... HAH

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love referring to this about my different dreams.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve recently become very interested in sleep and what our dreams reveal to use while we sleep. This book had so much useful information on how to analyze your dream and the most common interpretation of the most frequent dreams and the definition of often seen objects and situations in dreams. I’m very much looking forward to diving more into this world and analyzing my own dreams and applying the analyses to my life, learning what my subconscious is telling me.

[Elle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anyone vaguely familiar with modern psychology understands that the importance of dreams in a Freudian context has debunked in modern times. The random activation theory of dreams, which is most plausible, suggests that dreams arise from the random firing of the most recently used and most developed neural pathways. I.e., dreams are completely random and don't carry unconscious significance.
It's so evident by the passages that the author made things up or just stole from Freud and Jung, psychologists with extreme views. She gives multiple interpretations for every entry, so that you can pick and choose a meaning to your liking. Here's an example:
"Spy-- If spies feature in your dream or you actually become a spy, this can reveal a disturbing ambivalence, or lack of trust and love, towards someone or something in your waking life. Alternatively, spies may be an analogy for whatever worries you or gets you down. The image may also refer to loss of privacy or feeling as if you are being observed or watched."
Okay, so there's a lack of trust in my life, or something's worrying me, or there's some sort of lack of privacy? How vague can you get?
This is a book that pretends to give insight when it really just gives you meaningless blabber. Don't buy it.

[☿ giah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning about the meaning of the dreams is fascinating. From time to time, I would get recurring dreams of the same place but it felt like it was a sequel. So, picking up this book was amazing, and it will be forever in my reach if I wanted to have more understanding about my dreams.
Some con’s: regarding the meanings not a lot of topics were talked about i wish there were more detailed options.

[Twidlebug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book on sale for $4.99 at Barnes and Noble. I have some crazy dreams so I thought it woudl be fun to look up what they mean. It has been fun trying to use this book to figure out what my subconscious is trying to tell me.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I have found the interpretations in this book really insightful. I am enjoying having this as a resource to decrypt my psyche.

[Lura Lacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was on sale. What can I say?

[Heidi Domian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprensive.

[Rebecca Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book to use to reference mine and others dreams.

[Ciara Áine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have some pretty wild dreams so I love coming to this book and trying to decipher what it all means. Simple and perfect for dream analysis.

[Stevie Lacika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book with detailed information, I have not found any book that is similar. It is my main tool when waking up from a dream. It is imperative to me to fully understand dreams, as they (in my opinion) are gateways to our psyche.
However, sometimes, I have some “main topics” in my dreams that aren’t exactly “too specific” to not cover, but it does leave me a bit frustrated, considering the plethora of information in this dictionary. For comparison, it’s like looking something up on Google and getting no results.
I digress, there is so much in this book. Tiny details like colors, species of birds, type of bodies of water, written fluidly and thoroughly it’s incredible. Other dream books I have give small summaries, usually taking a small portion of a page. This book covers a topic with such depth and consideration, it makes sense. When you dream of something and go to this book for guidance, it reflects right back on you and presses questions about your waking life, making you, the reader, contemplate and reassess what is going on in your life and why you feel and dream that way.

TLDR; Overall I rate this 4 stars. There are some topics in this book that are not covered, but majority of the time you will find the answers you need comprehensively to “translate” your dreams. This book is like an entire vault of information at your fingertips.

[Jerry Balch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference and incredibly interesting to read if you want to get an idea about what specific things in your dreams could mean. It's a dictionary with mostly everything you can think of in it. This book is very entertaining when it comes to trying to make some sense out of your dreams. Even though a lot of the definitions are quite speculative, there are several things that are helpful when it comes to understanding dreams. My friends and I have had good laughs while reading this book and have found many helpful insights while interpreting our dreams. What Cheung writes about in this book is very thought provoking and causes the reader to truly ponder about what is going on in their "waking lives," as the author puts it. I would have liked to see more references and ideas from more than just Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, but what she uses from them is helpful in many aspects.

[Jay · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first I thought this book was okay, but honestly after a couple more days, the book became completely useless to use, as a spiritual person with a background in psychology, I wouldn't recommend, this as it is either too vague or non-existent for both basic and complex dreams, genuinely just feels like the author went on google to find all of these, and the A to Z layout is misleading, for example if you want to look up the meaning of what a gate means, it tells you to look under the countryside interpretation where gate has got the most basic 10 word paragraph and only applies if the context of the dream is negative. Overall it is rather aggravating to use, it's not helpful when it's a valuable/important dream and the psychologists who are basically mentioned in every page, are known to not have been properly tested and had no scientific evidence or proof, just outdated.

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me knows I love analyzing my dreams!!! While I think this book was good, I have two major qualms with it:
1. It's not as comprehensive as you'd think it should be. For example, no instance of the word "gym"? I'm not exactly desperate for an answer to that word, but it struck me as odd it didn't have that one. I backtracked to "exercise" but it wasn't what I was looking for.

2. It was just too sexual at times. I saw this mentioned in a few other reviews and I agree. Not every dream is indicative of some unconscious sexual desire ok!!!! grow up

Will I still use this? Yeah, I will, but I'll still stay alert to other editions of this type of thing and look online like I normally do. I still (sort of) recommend this though for anyone interested in starting their dream analysis journey ig

[Lauren Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource for dream interpretation with a spiritual/Jungian lens. It's extremely well organized with a lot of information packed in.

A lot of the descriptions lead you on a trail to other related meanings, so I'm usually able to find something I connect with when struggling to understand what the eff I just dreamed about. Spirit guides (subconscious, angels, whatever name you choose) get loud sometimes, and we just need a little help. And this book helps. Can I get an amen?

Thank you Theresa Cheung!

[Torirosas · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a psychology student this book is great, because it explains to you how dreams are part of the unconscious mind, and also gives you context about past known psychology figures that are important in dreaming theories such as Sigmund Freud with his psycho sexual theories and Carl Jung with the collective unconscious. The definitions of the dreams are great and they give the necessary information for understanding.

[Kat S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on a whim because it was on sale.
This book has been so helpful, my friends often barrow it for insight into their own dreams.

It helps to take everything with a grain of salt, & context- sometimes an example that doesn't immediately apply to your dream is the best explanation for your life experiences.

Over all I fully recommend this book.👍👍

[Shoshanna]

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[Ally Puri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Will definitely be referring to this later. Can't wait to start my dream journal!

[Tawnie S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a little better than the symbol counterpart. Simple and easy to read.

[Antonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good descriptions, but odd variety of things that are covered. More basic themes not included

[Pazinho · Rating 3 out of 5]

average

[Serenity Magne Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most detailed dream meaning book I have come across. It has almost everything in it (except for lightening!). Very worth having on your bed night table!

[Nguyen Nhung · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like that the author explains the meaning of dreams under the influence of Jungian psychology.

[Rainne Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love it, love the concept, and I love dictionaries. Only problem is that a lot of the time I don’t know what to look up or where to look in the book. Which will probably get better over time.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this book, but as a Dictionary, it's never really 'read' as I find myself constantly returning to it to find answers to my questions. Lovely Hard-Backed Book.

[Lavinia B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un dicționar practic pentru începători. Nu are profunzimea analizei jungiene, dar e util pentru cei care vor înțelegeri rapide. L-am recomandat multor clienți care începeau să țină jurnal de vise.