Common dream themes: School

The benefit of long-term dream journaling is that recurring themes may demonstrate, over time, a “story arc”. This is a sign of progress for anyone interested in self-development; if a recurring dream never changes, it’s a sign that the message it brings has not been learned or acted upon. My style of recording dreams is to put a keyword at the top of my journal pages that note a recurring theme, like “school”, “travel”, or “new house”.

Dreams of school reveal our attitude to learning and our progress as a “student” of this lifetime, especially for those of us who have left our school days behind. Learning should never stop, and our dreams reveal how well we’re going with our knowledge or wisdom accumulation.

Some school dream settings and scenarios:

Revisiting an old school
It’s a common theme or nightmare for some people to feel anxiety when dreaming of their old school environs–especially if it’s a dream of being “sent back” and needing to complete a class or an exam that should have been tackled already. This is usually our subconscious telling us that in waking life, we feel inadequacy in an area that we think we should have mastered already. Either there really is some learning/re-learning needed, or that feeling needs to be addressed.

I have an uncommon slant to my “old school” dreams: I’m usually there just to visit, and will note the improvements to the school grounds and curriculum that show how differently the current students have it, contrasted with my own (relatively crappy) experience. I will usually feel a pang of injustice at this–a recurring theme and real happening in my own life. I know the message is that I still have wounds from my own early (stifling) school experiences, and I resented being in an earlier suffering batch of students. If you’re from my generation (and/or an Indigo) and this sounds a theme in your own life or dreams, these hurts need to be released.

College or University
These are places of higher learning and it’s been said that they represent places in dream-time where we acquire life skills and/or spiritual lessons. (Higher learning, see?) If you’re in a class or an exam, it would be interesting to note what the topic is, whether you’re ace-ing the class/exam or feel as if you’re unprepared or failing miserably. Are you also there voluntarily, and what are the feelings associated with the dream?

Campus Dorm
Dormitories are shared spaces, for longer-term stays than hotels, and everyone in a dorm is there for the same purpose–learning. There’s a real social slant to dorm dreams, as opposed to dreams where you find yourself in your own living space. Not surprisingly I had quite a few dorm dreams at a time when I was trying to find a spiritual/social group that fit me.  The nature of the dorm room can reveal a bit: Are you in the middle of the “party” dorm, or staying off campus? Are you sharing the space with many people, or are you in a more private and secluded place? Are you comfortable there?

Campus
This is very familiar territory to me; I dream more often of walking and exploring campuses than being inside the classrooms. I like well-designed and beautiful campuses in real life, and in dreams, it’s no different! But I am always more at-home in dream campuses, especially now when I’m no longer obsessed with establishing my dream place of residence. The entire campus is home. Still being a place of higher learning (but outdoors), you can take note of your feelings of being there, how neat or chaotic the landscape may be, whether it’s day or night, and what the weather is. Is the environment welcoming, or scary?

Campus Museum
A museum is a place that collects artifacts of the past. The dreamed state of the museum and its exhibits will say whether there may be things from one’s past that need repair or spiffing up. How we view the old artifacts and records may reveal our attitude to our past. A campus museum, in a place of higher learning, may well reveal our past spiritual accomplishments.

I once dreamed I lived in the campus museum, and it was a cause for celebration for me–I love beautiful old artifacts! Not everyone may have the same reaction that I did. In my case, I wanted to share and show this small but beautiful building and its contents, and I also loved having a separate part of the museum as my private residence.

Campus Library
A place that holds collected knowledge and information, whether it’s one’s own wisdom, or a collective’s. Dreaming of these places remind us that the answers exist, either within us or around us within reach. The state and size of the library and its shelves reveal the accessibility and amount of information we feel we have at hand.

Graduation
A good dream, one usually telling you’ve qualified after a major learning period.

School uniforms
Anything related to how we dress and present ourselves in a dream is showing us our concern over our role and appearance in life. Uniforms may reveal social anxiety: If everyone in school is wearing uniforms but you’re not, it shows your feelings of not fitting in or conforming in real life.

The colours you wear and how you appear in a dream are always revealing and worth noting–your subconscious is telling you something very important about yourself. Note how comfortable you are (or not) in what you’re wearing.

In my own school dreams, I don’t usually see uniforms, except for once where the colours I wore seemed to be specific for my rank as a graduate and/or educator. (I later learned that both the cut and the colours I wore were what old sages in the School of the Law of One wore in the days of Lemuria!)

Teachers/Teaching
Teachers are dispensers of knowledge, and in a dream, how they treat us and how we treat them reveal our attitude to those in our life who are real sources of wisdom and inspiration. I try actively to learn all the time, so to find a teacher in a dream is a blessed thing for me; I personally don’t spend too much time wondering if the teacher is “real” or an aspect of myself–I just try to pay attention and show them respect. I love that the teachers I’ve run into seem very flesh-and-blood, with quirks and features that distinguish them from one another. If they look familiar, it’s a bonus to run into them again and see them happy.

If you’re teaching in a dream, you are being told you have wisdom and knowledge worth sharing, and that you’re qualified to teach. How the lesson goes over or how well the class is attended may reveal your anxieties over this role–but those are just that–anxieties! It’s funny to me that my dream-teaching “story arc” made linear sense–the first time I had to teach in a dream, I stumbled before getting into stride. And all that was required was enthusiasm and sharing from the heart, from being to being.

Last word

I love journaling the layout and feel of the various campuses I visit in dreams. Some places come back again, other campuses are new, and very seldom do I re-visit my previous real-world schools. Some old teachers or classmates may pop up in the dreams, but the contexts will be different, and I take note of who they are and what “type” of people they represent to me, and what lessons they may be bringing to my attention.

School dreams are some of the most enjoyable I’ve had, and definitely a theme in which I can find trends (my “story arc”) and some immediate lessons on my real life.