Sunday, July 21, 2002		Dream Theme

Dreaming of orphans
Vinaya Katoch Manhas

DREAMING of children is fairly common. But how does one know if one has seen an orphan in one’s dream? It could be that someone tells you or perhaps you know that the child is an orphan. Many times, it is your own children or yourself that you see as orphans. Such a dream may invoke a feeling of fear in the dreamer and bring with it a sense of foreboding.

According to Indian thought, to see orphans in your dreams is a good omen. Such a dream means that you will stand to gain money from some unknown person. Should an unmarried person see an orphan in his or her dream, it means that he or she will get married to a rich person. For a newly married person to see such a dream foretells good times ahead. To see your own children as orphans means that you and your spouse will have a long life.

As per western thought, to see yourself consoling an orphan means that other people’s troubles shall be a source of botheration to you. You may also sacrifice your own comforts for others. Should the orphans be related to you, then it foretells that new responsibilities will come your way.

Psychoanalytically speaking, to dream of orphans denotes one’s vulnerability, or a feeling of being unloved. To see oneself looking after orphans is an attempt on one’s part to heal one’s ego. To see oneself as an orphan indicates one’s need to be more independent and self-sufficient. One has to come to terms with the fact that one has grown up and has to move away from one’s parents. Generally, people who are extremely attached to their parents and are forced due to circumstances to move away from them tend to dream of being orphaned. For children to see themselves orphaned denotes rebellion against parental authority. It denotes their desire to be independent.

A woman of 24 would often see her children orphaned. She would dream that she and her husband had both become spirits and could see their children crying but were unable to console them. The dream denoted her fear for the future security of her children rather than a fear of her and her husbands’ death. There was no one in the family who was in a position to look after her children in the same manner and provide them a similar standard of living, which she provided them. This realisation had given birth to fear and insecurity within her as to what would happen to them in future should anything happen to her or her husband.