It Ain’t Greek to Me

The first dream to come up and smack me in the face occurred when I was around 30 years old. This dream, brimming with loaded dream symbols such as a green traffic light and a destroyed condo, ended up predicting an imminent romantic break-up. A dear friend of mine from Greece helped me interpret this dream using age-old dream wisdom passed to her from her aunt from Greece.  

In this inaugural blog post, what better place to start the journey than in Greece, a country and culture which has had such a profound influence on Western philosophy, politics, literature and mathematics. The Greek form of dream analysis was relayed to me by my friend and her aunt. It relies heavily on symbols and emphasizes the emotional tone of the dream to predict future events. Ironically, in this tradition, emotions are often predictive of having an opposite outcome.  For example, seeing yourself in tears portends a joyous occasion, and laughter is an omen for news that will be disappointing. Similar to how emotions often mean their opposite, symbols, too, can have their share of irony. Some symbols can be intuitive while others might mean something completely unexpected. Below are a few dream symbols and their Greek interpretation:

• Mouse: You will hear of a break-up or divorce in the near future. I suppose nothing good can come of a mouse in one’s house. Sorry, Mickey!
• Fish (raw or living): You will become aware of an unexpected, happy incident. Once, I had a dream of a live fish swimming in water. The very next day, I heard from a friend I hadn’t spoken to in ages. Remembering my dream, I had a hunch she was calling with some good news. I asked her if she was pregnant. Sure enough, she was and was calling me to announce the news.
• Oven: Success in business endeavors you have planned. Contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t mean your plans have gone up in smoke. Instead, you’ve got something good cooking there!  
• Graveyard: You will attend a party, celebration or other joyous occasion. There will be many people in attendance, and you will have a wonderful time. Now that’s an ironic one, unless your idea of fun is hanging out with a bunch of zombies.
• Any form of correspondence such as a letter, phone call, text message or email: The events described in the message will occur exactly as they are in the dream. For example, a friend of mine interviewed for a new job, but hadn’t heard back from the company in two weeks and was skeptical about being hired. In a dream, she saw an email offering her the job. Two days later, she received an email from HR saying they would like her to join the company- an unlikely outcome given the radio silence she experienced.
• Perfume: Someone really loves you. Some things are obvious and transcend culture.