Iro Nrọ: The Art of Dream Interpretation

*Mythical Origin of Akpụkpala as described in “After God is Dibia Vol 1” page 86, origin-of-afa*

You are probably wondering, is there a formula to dream interpretations? Does one not have to be some sort of diviner with mystical powers, to be able to interpret dreams? My response to the first thought is yes infact, there is a formula to dream interpretations, which we prefer to refer to as Dreamwork. We will attempt to lay out its essential principles with this post. To the second thought, no, you do not have to be a diviner with “mystical” powers to be able to remember or interrogate your dreams and explore their inner meanings. You will however need your intuition, which as far as we know is innate to all human beings. So as long as you are a human being you have the sauce. You have what it takes, so let’s get to it!

We will restrict this post to providing information on key questions anyone can ask themself, and some important factors to consider when attempting to interpret dreams. Those should be enough to set us off on the right track.

What is Dream Interpretation?

Dream interpretation is basically a process one engage to analyze and assign meaning to the symbols and images that may appear in their dreams. Dreams have been studied overtime as a subject of psychology and metaphysics, and they have been understood as a way to connect us to the unconscious part of ourselves, which is beneficial for insight and personal growth. Dream interpretation is not as simple as using a fixed dictionary of symbols to attempt to interpret dreams, because every dream is unique and has its personal meanings, just as every person is unique and has a different individualized context of life that could be completely seperate from the experience of another person. The art of interpreting dreams is consequently a very subjective affair, even within the grand scheme of things. You will understand my point better as you read on.

Documenting Your Dreams:

The first thing to consider with dreamwork is documenting your dreams. If you want to be able to recall your dreams more often, or get the most out of the messages they can bring, a great practise is to always write down or record your dreams as soon as you wake up or at any point point when the details are still at their clearest to you. Write down or record every single detail that you can recall from the dream in question. Document the story plot, the colors, taste, smell, activities, whatever senses that were made available to you in the dream, take note of everything you can remember. Especially how those incidents or activities that took place in your dreamspace made you feel in the course of dreaming. Document how you felt about the things that took place in the dream while you were dreaming. That part is very important. Ask yourself the question, what do i remember from this dream? Write or record all the details. Then ask what feelings were present, write or record the details. Take everything you can recall into consideration, both animate and inanimate things.

Noting the Symbolic Elements in Your Dreams:

Another thing to consider with dreamwork is the symbolic elements of your dreams. The symbolic elements within your dreams, and the possible meanings they can project are essential to dream interpretation. A symbolic element is an object, action, person, place, word, or concept that represents or suggests something beyond its literal meaning. When it comes to this factor of symbolic elements, this is where we advise you to make sure you consider your cultural context. Cultural context refers to the social, historical, and environmental circumstances that shape and influence your beliefs, values, behaviors, and even your practices, including that of the community or particular group of people you come from. It encompasses the shared knowledge, customs, traditions, language, and totems, which have been passed down from generation to generation. Cultural context provides a framework for understanding and interpreting the meaning and significance of the symbolic elements that might show up in your dreams. It plays a crucial role in shaping individual and collective identities, shaping perspectives, and influencing behavior.

Do you see why it is important to consider your cultural context while interrogating what a symbolic element from your dreams might represent? Because what a symbol might represent within your culture might be seperate from what it represents in someone else’s culture. You contain multitudes. You come from a lineage of great people who had and most likely still have spiritual as well as cultural practices, totems and much more which whether knowningly (consciously) or unknowningly (unconsciously) you are a part of, as you share in their subjective consciousness. In other words, it’s easy to miss out on a whole world of possibilities as to the strength of the messages the symbolic elements that show up in your dreams might be bringing to you, if you do not consider this essential factor of cultural context. So ask yourself this question, what were the symbolic elements in my dream? Then take note of them.

Further Clarification on Symbolic Elements:

For those who are still probably wondering about the symbolic elements factor, and would appreciate some examples that could bring to light what a symbolic element could possibly be, let’s provide some examples. Let’s say one has a dream that took place in the setting of their former highschool or university or college, a symbolic element in that dream is the school setting and the presence of old classmates or collegues.

Let’s say one also has a dream where crocodiles or alligators were present, or maybe dogs or pythons (snakes), a symbolic element in these dreams would be the presence of the animals, and if they were to be in a body of water by chance, the presence of that body of water would also be a symbolic element.

Let’s also say that one has a dream where they were being pursued by masquerades, a symbolic element in that dream would be the masqurades in pursuit. And, if by chance the masquerades were present in the dream but there was no chase, the masquerades would still be a symbolic element and the state they were in (non pursuit) would be noted and taken into consideration as well.

Let’s say finally, that one has a dream where (familiar) little children where present, a symbolic element would be those familiar little children. What each of these symbolic elements represent in your culture or the world view of your people might be completely different from what they represent for someone else’s culture etc. Please note that in highlighting symbolic elements in each example we always use “a” and not “the”, because you could have more than one, even multiple symbolic elements in a dream. Also note that these examples we gave are just a tip of the iceberg, as there are tons of multiple possibilities that anyone could dream up. We only did the example exercise to provide further clarifications for those who might have missed the definition of what a symbolic element is, in the previous paragraph or for those who simply needed more clarity.

The Role Intuition Plays in Dream Interpretation:

On the subject of intuition, we would advise everyone to first do a self assessment of some sort. The purpose of this exercise of self assessment is to determine how much one is affected by, or make sure one’s conscious definitions are not heavily influenced by, religious dogmas or superstitions that breed fear. When it comes to dream interpretations, we must resist such falsities as dogmas or superstitions, as they can deter from sound interpretations or reduce ones chance of getting edifying and liberating intelligence. Which the unconscious mind could be presenting or bringing forward through dreams.

So conduct an honest self assessment, and take your spiritual development into consideration when relying on how you feel intuitively about your dreams in your waking hours. With an honest answer on how much you might still be influenced by false religious dogmas or superstitions, then proceed to determine whether or not you can rely credibly on what you may perceive to be your intuitive feeling about your dreams during your waking hours. It’s important to try our very best, not to translate or attempt to interpret dreams from a paradigm of fear. It can cost us valuable insight.

The Universality of Dreams and Conclusion:

On a final note, the act of dreaming itself is universal. It is done and experienced by (almost) everyone. It exists and is available for everyone at all times, in all places. However, the art of dream interpretations is not necessarily universal in the same sense.

For its best results, dreamwork has to be done as a subjective exercise; exploring many possibilities of translations or interpretations within the realm of subjectivity. If you must consider anything universal when it comes to dreamwork, it should be the universal belief systems of your own people (heritage). What certain things mean to them on a cosmic scale, and what it can consequently mean to you.

Regardless, that is not to say we cannot draw wisdom from constructive universal symbolisms, or the universal significance of certain symbolic elements as they resonate at any given time. All we have attempted to do with this post is provide information on key questions anyone can ask themself, and some other important factors one must consider when attempting to interpret dreams. We hope our response to the main question has been helpful. Leave a comment below, if there are any other things on the subject of dream interpretations you would like us to address.

Eleven Cool Igbo Proverbs & Axioms to Ponder on:

Ako bu Ije - Wisdom is the way.
Ebe onye oso ruru, onye ije ga eru ya! - Wherever one who runs reaches, one who walks would also reach.
Enu uwa bu olili, onye nosia, o naba - The world is a recreational ground, the players return home after the games / the world is for tourism; a visitor must go home.
Ife kwulu, ife akwudebe ya - When something stands/exists, something else will stand/exist beside it.
Ije nwa nkita aburo ogu - The quick pace of the dog does not mean battle.
Mmuo na mmadu na-azu afia, mana ofeke amaroo - Spirit and human beings are in constant communication, but the ignorant person does not know.
Ofeke amaho na nkita no n'uche we si na ula ji ya - The ignorant person does not discern that the dog is in deep thought and erroneously takes it to be falling asleep.
Okirikiri k'ana gba ukwu ose, anaghị ari ya-elu - The pepper tree is circled/danced around, it is not climbed.
Uwa bu ijele mmonwu, akwuro ofu ebe enene ya - The world is a grand masquerade, you can’t appreciate it’s entirety from a single view or fixed point.
Uzu na-amaghi akpu ogene lee egbe anya n'odu - The blacksmith who does know how to forge a metal gong should look at the tail of a kite.