Christian dreams dream interpretation

Interpretation of dreams in Christianity

At the beginning of the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, the Romans stopped persecuting Christians. They say that a dream forced him to change his faith. It is not surprising that early Christianity followed the Hellenistic concept that dreams are a dialogue with the gods. Tertullian (early 3rd century), one of the first Christians to write about dreams, states that “mankind came to know God through dreams.”

How did ancient Christians interpret dreams?

Ordinary sleep is mentioned sparingly in early Christian sources. They mainly describe visions. Since antiquity, asceticism has been a way to achieve visions similar to those that arise through the process of incubation. Incubation continued to be practiced, but no longer in the sanctuary, but at the grave of the martyr. Christians retained the fasting and prayer adopted by the pagans, but an official ban was imposed on the interpretation of dreams, contrary to what the Bible says: “I speak to him in a dream” (Numbers 12:6) and “Your young men will see visions, and your elders you will be enlightened by dreams” (Acts 2:17).

Tertullian believes that Christians should interpret dreams differently. The new approach, described in books but limited by accepted ideology, inspired Christians to seek visions but discouraged them from having ordinary dreams. This approach helped replace the pantheon of pagan gods with a monotheistic God, and consequently the host of demons became embodied in the only force capable of opposing God, Satan. Most dreams were attributed to Satan, and therefore they sought to get rid of them.

Features of dream interpretation in Christianity

Christian authors, wanting to move away from the Hellenistic classification of dreams, turned to other methods based on a new perception of man's relationship with the divine. And yet Tertullian talks about the same sources of dreams as the Greeks (Stoics) - god, soul, demons. Only now they are presented in the spirit of Christianity. In Christian interpretation methodology (as Tertullian explained) it was necessary to first establish the source of dreams. Do they come from God (if all ideological requirements are met), the Devil (the most common source) or from man himself. The last source was also called the soul, which is influenced by the mind, body and daily worries. “It is considered a bad sign when dreams arise from excessive eating or drinking or from the needs of the flesh” (standard explanation of wet sleep).

St. Augustine (354-430) believed that dreams help to understand how the human mind works, but in a dream one cannot comprehend divine truth. When, following the views of Christians, we turn to the vision of St. Peter about his ascension to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 1-4), we have doubts. Are we talking about physical vision coupled with sensations or about spiritual experience? Was the apostle asleep or awake when this happened? Does the text describe a dream or an ecstatic vision? To resolve this contradiction, St. Augustine established differences between different types of visions.

Types of dreams in Christianity

The cycle has ended. Dreams gradually lost their magical nature. They were no longer miraculous messages. Dreams did not remain the privilege of rulers and priests for long; they came to all people without exception.

How did Christians' interpretations of dreams change in the Middle Ages?

Aristotle and Hippocrates expanded the boundaries of the understanding of dreams when they added bodily sensations to it. Artemidorus and Macrobius had no doubt that dreams generated by subjective emotional sensations are unworthy of attention - enupnion. Gradually, the belief in the divine origin of dreams underwent changes so much that Artemidorus, in a dispute about whether dreams come from the gods, says: “I do not ask, like Aristotle, whether the cause of our dreams lies outside of us and comes from the gods, or whether something causes them within us, which in a special way inclines the soul to what is natural for it. And yet I agree that we are in the habit of calling everything unexpected a gift from God.”

Christians have returned to the early belief that dreams are revelations sent by God to a chosen few. Such communication was not available to ordinary people. Their dreams were the devil's instigation. In Europe, the Church held political and spiritual power for centuries. She dictated to the proletariat a way of thinking and norms of behavior. The belief that God communicates directly with man threatened the authority and interests of the Church. The Word of God could only be proclaimed by the Church at the behest of the Pope. People no longer needed to communicate directly with God through dreams. Any form of communication with God outside the Church was undesirable. Anything that contradicted this doctrine was considered heresy. Gradually, people abandoned the belief in the divine origin of dreams, and over time, the art of dream interpretation simplified to the level of prejudice, becoming the craft of gypsies and fortune tellers.

The discrediting of dreams in the era of Christianity led to the fact that they had no value in the European world. And even the semantic significance inherent in dreams by nature, which nevertheless remained, was lost with the advent of Cartesian mechanistic dualism in the 17th century. Dreams were finally thrown into the world of fantasy, hallucinations and irrational experience.

From the Pacific coast of China to the Atlantic shores of Europe, from the equatorial zones of the Indian subcontinent to the Arctic reaches of Scandinavia, theories abounded, often interpreting dreams in the same way. New ideas were required for their development. Previous knowledge was no longer enough, and the subject of study itself acquired a dubious reputation, as people increasingly believed in science. It is possible that you and I have partly inherited the prejudices of the past. The long wait ended when the 20th century arrived and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) gave us the next key to the secret of dreams.

Source

An ancient Jewish dream book. Interpretation of dreams based on the Bible, Kabbalah and Talmud

What is sleep and why is it needed?

“The night was created for nothing other than sleep,” says the Talmud, explaining that sleep is necessary for a person for several reasons.

Firstly, in order to disrupt the very process of continuity of life. Just imagine what would have happened if we had not slept at all. Our existence would turn into a single stream of events and impressions with the same constant need to process them and make certain decisions, which in the end would simply become an unbearable burden for our psyche.

Sleep interrupts this chain, allowing us to start life every morning, if not anew, but with a “new leaf”, sorting and sorting “on the shelves” of our brain the information received during the day, reviewing and thinking about our perception of reality and plans for the future. This is exactly what is said in the 30th Psalm of David: “And even if a person goes to bed weeping in the evening, he gets up in the morning with joy.”

But we also need sleep for rest and recuperation. This idea would be banal if the Jewish sages did not immediately ask themselves the question of what kind of strength would be restored - physical or spiritual? If only physical, then why is it not enough to just sit or lie awake? Why can a person sleep for eight hours in a row and wake up exhausted, or maybe, like Napoleon, take a nap for 5-10 minutes and get up full of strength and energy?

The key word in this case is “energy”. According to Kabbalah, just as our body constantly needs physical nourishment in the form of water and food, our soul needs constant energetic nourishment from its Source, that is, the Creator of the world himself. Without this, normal human existence is impossible - that’s why sleep deprivation torture is considered one of the most terrible and cruel tortures.

The appearance of modern electronics in our lives makes it easy to explain this using its example: just as you need to recharge any of the most sophisticated mobile phones from time to time, you yourself need periodic recharging with higher, spiritual energy. And just as during the period of recharging a mobile phone you cannot use it, at least to its full potential, in the same way a person during sleep is deprived of the freedom of movement and connection with the surrounding reality that he enjoys while awake, during disconnection from the Source.

Christianity, by the way, adopted from Judaism not only an array of Sacred texts, but also an attitude towards sleep as a time of wandering of the soul in other, higher, non-material worlds.

Created by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (RASHBI) in the 2nd century AD. e. and the book “Zohar”, which is the basis of Kabbalah, formulates this very clearly: “When a person goes to bed (in the original it sounds like “ole le-mita”, which, thanks to the play on words, can be read simultaneously as “ascends onto the bed”, and as “ascends down” - P.L.), his soul ascends upward and various (spiritual) entities communicate with him, and tell him the secrets of the world, and also inform him about various matters. And some of these messages are lies, and some are true.”

The greatest Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato (RAMHAL, 1707–1746) argued in his books that the human soul consists of five levels - “nefesh” (the directing activity of the physical body and brain; it is also found in animals), “ruach” (guiding our intellectual activity), “neshama” (determining our spirituality), “haya” (that which continues to exist after the physical death of a person) and “yechida” (literally “the only one” - a kind of genetic code of our personality, then, which makes it unique).

During sleep, Luzato emphasized, the lower component of “nephesh” remains in the human body and therefore all life processes in it continue. But the remaining parts of the soul, being connected to the body by an invisible channel, begin their journey through the spiritual worlds, where ideas about time and space are different than in our world. That is why in a dream a person can live his whole life in a few minutes and sometimes receive information about what is happening to people dear to him who live hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from him.

Based on this explanation, we find in Jewish sources two, at first glance, opposite, but in fact closely related statements.

On the one hand, the sages of the Talmud believed that “a person who never dreams is a bad person,” and one must beware of him. On the other hand, the great Jewish mystic Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772–1810) said that “the more holiness a person possesses, the more he moves away from sleep,” that is, he needs to spend less and less time sleeping.

The thought of the Talmud is clear: if sleep is a manifestation of a person’s spiritual activity, then the absence of dreams is evidence of his lack of spirituality, excessive down-to-earthness, and the fact that for some reason (most likely, for sins against other people) they decided to disconnect him from the Divine source. You really should be wary of such a person: most likely, he is one of those for whom the end justifies the means; who puts rational considerations and their personal interests above moral standards, which are often irrational.

Rabbi Nachman’s idea is that the more a person strives for holiness, the more he is engaged in spiritual reflection, the closer he approaches the Creator. This means that the less he needs to disconnect from this world to recharge with spiritual energy - after all, he can connect directly to the Source.

According to Jewish legends, King David had this ability - in the second half of his life he hardly slept, except that he dozed off several times a night, for a few minutes. This was not painful insomnia, as one might think, because, waking up from his slumber, David was full of strength and began to play the harp or compose a new Divinely inspired psalm. These psalms themselves, still striking today with their poetic power, testify to the heights of spirit to which King David was able to rise.

In connection with this story, another question involuntarily arises: how much does a person really need for normal sleep?

The Talmud's answer is clear: no more than a third of a day, that is, no more than 8 hours. A person who sleeps more than this time harms his physical and spiritual health. Daytime sleep, the sages of the Talmud believed, is generally harmful, since it is unnatural, and is often generated by excessive gluttony.

It is curious that modern research confirms this opinion expressed almost two thousand years ago, although there is debate among scientists about the benefits and harms of daytime sleep (“siesta”).

Well, now, after we have become acquainted, albeit in the most superficial way, with the view of Jewish mysticism on the nature of sleep, it’s time to move on to what our dreams are like and what they mean.

Christian dreams dream interpretation

AIRPORT:

Place of Preparation Expectation, Change Ready to Soar in the Spirit Training (Preparing) Prophets

Treasures Are Gathered to Heaven Church Protected, Safe Storage

CAFETERIA (CAFE):

Church service Systematic supply of the Word Choosing what you want to eat Repeated service Compromise

CHURCHES:

Church service Construction Corporate structure Meeting

CITY:

Corporate (general) Church Knowledge of its founder

CLASS, SCHOOL:

Training Place Instruction Small Groups Teaching Ministry Mentoring Ministry Discipleship

COURT, COURTROOM:

Time of trial, difficulties; The pursuit; Slander, accusations; Solution

ELECTRONIC STORE:

A place to acquire the heavenly gift of seeing and hearing; A new level of communication is coming to you

FACTORY:

Place of spiritual productivity; Place of disorganized and inefficient activity

HOSPITAL:

Church with Healing Ministry; The wounded (damaged) Church needs healing; A place of care, love and peace

HOTEL, MOTEL:

Churches together within the city Place of rest, Communion Temporary Position Transition Temporarily stay in the church

Church Your home Your body Your family Home church

PARTS OF THE HOUSE:
BASEMENT:
Data storage, memories Past experience Hidden sins Natural nature, lust Flesh Thoughts, relationships Sins of fathers and grandfathers, Hidden deeds of iniquity

ATTIC, ATIC:

Spirit; Spiritual Kingdom; Stored Memories; Thoughts, Attitude; Training, Preparation

Christian interpretation of dreams from A to Z

“How should we react to what we see? Can believers interpret dreams?

The mystery of dreams... who writes their scripts? Yes! Over the past few nights, I visited a terribly neglected boarding school for disabled children with Putin. I sat with Stalin, discussing the details of the house (he asked me to build it for him), studied in the Chinese special forces, demonstrated miracles that surprised famous illusionists. Where does this come from? What to do with what you see? Run to dream interpreters? Don't run too fast. Buy "Dream Book"? They will tell you that you will live in fear, and all your thoughts will be captured by expected events.

A) What does the Bible say about dreams? “Dreams come with a lot of worries” (Eccl. 5:2).

The body, having passed through the day’s mass of video and sound information, having worked itself out, turns off hearing and vision at night. Eyes and ears need rest. But there, beyond reality, we again see and hear, speak and actively participate in various stories. This is already a soul that does not require night rest.

Ancient cities were surrounded by walls. The city gates, open during the day, allowed everyone through and were closed at night. And different people remained in the city: travelers, traders, swindlers, spies... and everyone took on their own business.

What happened during the day often becomes an idea for a dream scenario, sometimes extremely modified by the play of imagination and fantasy, and sometimes very similar to reality. I remember the past

In stagnant times, it was a dangerous luxury for Christian youth to “knock out” a bus, for example, for a May rally. Through friends, we once “knocked out” and went to the mountains. We were seduced by a ravine away from roads and prying eyes. We moved down. The location is great. But during the day there was a downpour, the grassy slopes became soggy and we found ourselves trapped. Until three o'clock in the morning we unsuccessfully pushed the bus upstairs, until we found a three-axle Ural on a neighboring collective farm.

A week later we visited a church in another city. We boys were laid out in a separate room on the floor, like mackerel in a jar. In the corner there was a single bed. In the dead of night, one of those sleeping on the floor jumped up, muttering something loudly, grabbed the headboard and began to pull it. Everyone woke up.

Dreams and their interpretation in the light of the Bible

In the history of mankind, dreams have always played a special role. This was reflected in the works of literature of different times and peoples, as well as in their religion. Dreams in most cases were considered by people as inexplicable actions or revelations of a mysterious Providence. We will get acquainted with the Biblical view on the issue of dreams and their interpretation. Let us immediately note that vision and dream are two different things. We will talk about dreams, not visions.

1. Terminology of the Old and New Testaments

Dream: Hebrew noun "
khalom
";
Greek noun " onar
".

3. Three aspects of sleep

Man is a complex being, having a physical and spiritual beginning. Speaking about dreams, it is necessary to note three aspects of dreams: physiological, emotional (or mental) and spiritual.

A. Physiological and emotional aspects of dreams

We are physiological beings with a body. Sleep is a necessary part of the daily schedule, during which the body rests and recovers. Most of our dreams are the result of the activity of the organism: body and soul:

B. The spiritual aspect of dreams.

The Bible contains stories when the Lord God appeared to people in a dream in order to warn them about something.
For example, God warned Abimelech not to touch Sarah: Genesis 20:3
"
And God came to Abimelech by night in a dream, and said to him, Behold, you will die for the woman whom you have taken, for she has a husband
."
Similarly, the Lord warned Laban about Jacob: Genesis 31:24
“
And God came to Laban the Aramean by night in a dream and said to him, “Beware that you do not say good or evil to Jacob
.”

4. Revelation from God through dreams is a characteristic feature...
A. ...The early era of the patriarchs (fathers of the faith):
Jacob -
Genesis 28:10-16
;
Joseph - Genesis 37:5-10
(two dreams on the same theme).

B. ...Eras of the reign of King Solomon:
1 Kings 3:5-15
“
In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, and God said: Ask what he will give you
.”

C. ... God's communications with the rulers of the pagan world, in particular, with the kings and nobles of the land of the Philistines, Egypt and Babylon:
Genesis 20: 2-3
“
And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.
And God came to Abimelech at night in a dream and said to him, “Behold, you will die for the woman whom you have taken, for she has a husband ”;
Genesis 40:5
“
One day the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were imprisoned, dreamed dreams, each with his own dream, both in the same night, each with a special dream
”;
Genesis 41:1
“
At the end of two years Pharaoh dreamed...
”;
Daniel 2:1
“
In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his spirit was troubled, and sleep departed from him
”;
Daniel 4:1-2
“
I Nebuchadnezzar was at peace in my house and prosperous in my palaces.
But I saw a dream that frightened me, and the reflections on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me .”

D. A dream as a revelation from God for those who are outside the Kingdom of God.

In almost all cases where the Lord spoke in dreams to the rulers of pagan nations, He also sent them the people of God with the gift of dream interpretation so that they would correctly interpret dreams from God: Joseph ( Genesis 40:5-23

;
Genesis 40:8
“
They said to him, “We have dreamed dreams;
and there is no one to interpret them. Joseph said to them: Are not interpretations from God? tell me ";
Genesis 41:1-32
) and the prophet Daniel (
Daniel 2:19-45
;
Daniel 4:5
“
At last Daniel came in to me, whose name was Belshazzar, after the name of my god, and in whom was the spirit of the holy God; to him I told a dream
").
According to Genesis 40:8
, true interpretation of dreams comes from God. This is God's gift. And, as we know, God gives people spiritual gifts for edification, building up the church (the people of God) and glorifying the Lord.

2. Interpretation of dreams as a type of fortune telling

3. Two periods in the Old Testament era of dream interpretation

The Old Testament describes two special cycles during which dreams were interpreted by experts with a special gift from God. The first cycle dates back to the life of Joseph: Genesis 37:5-10

“
And Joseph saw a dream, and told his brothers: and they hated him even more...
” The second cycle refers to the life and ministry of the prophet Daniel:
Daniel 2
. Dreams from these two periods are classified as prophecies about the future.

Dreams and numbers in the Bible: their meaning and importance

What do numbers and dreams mean in the Bible? Research by theologians shows that this is a very important part of God's message to man. Also in the Bible we find that almost a third of it talks directly or indirectly about dreams or visions. If you take into account the fact that we sleep 8 hours a day, then this is a third of our life. When a person turns 60 years old, the part of his life devoted to dreams is equal to 20 years. God can say a lot in 20 years.

Christian dream book

Dream Interpretation Christian dream book dreamed of why you dream about a Christian dream book? To select a dream interpretation, enter a keyword from your dream into the search form or click on the initial letter of the image characterizing the dream (if you want to get an online interpretation of dreams by letter for free alphabetically). Now you can find out what it means to see a Christian dream book in a dream by reading below for free interpretations of dreams from the best online dream books of the House of the Sun!

Hello! Blood and bleeding are bad signs. You are in danger and may get sick. Trading-

For those who are on trial, this dream promises bad trade, ruin. If you are in love, then your boyfriend will cheat with your girlfriend and marry her,

There is no need to worry at all. Since you didn’t make anyone angry, it means everyone was kind. The image of a mother in a dream does not indicate your mother in reality. This is her projection, image.

Your escape from a gang through the mud, in reality, means that you are avoiding negative emotions, and people who provoke such emotions. Your castle, your fortress, is communication with your friend and mother. The guy in the car, like the smiling entity, is your spirit, well, or an angel (they just look scary at the lower levels)

The dreamer now needs to take care of herself and her family.

But you can be saved in different ways, depending on the specific Situation, since the same method will not suit different life scenarios.

The dreamer and her family will have to use versatile “savvy.”

Your dream belongs to the category of everyday dreams and fully reflects experiences and thoughts hidden in the subconscious; more than 90% of people have such dreams. So, by and large, you should not pay attention to dreams, even vivid ones, especially if interpretation is difficult or frightening.

Dream Interpretation: Why do you dream about the Dome?

Interpretation of sleep in the dream book:
Meaning significant, important ideas and thoughts. Church domes are reminders of eternal truths. The cross on them, seeing the church dome cracked or destroyed is a bad sign, saying that in some way you have crossed (or are about to cross) a forbidden line, and this threatens...

We spend almost a third of our lives sleeping. And it is almost not illuminated, the only thing you can hear in the temple is “don’t believe in dreams,” but I want to know more, because not everything is so simple. There are also prophetic dreams. I tried to combine in this post everything that the holy fathers said in the Philokalia regarding dreams: “In dreams, demons bring images into the mind, setting memory in motion; because the sense organs at that time are kept asleep and inactive. They set memory in motion through passions. This is clear from the fact that the pure and dispassionate do not tolerate anything like this. Whatever images the soul perceives with the body, the memory reproduces them without the body (passionately or dispassionately). The same thing happens during sleep, when the body is at rest. (1,550) Abba Evagrius

There are three types of dreams: dreams, visions and revelations.

Dreams are dreams that do not stand unchanged in the imagination of the mind, but in which objects are mixed up, some crowd out others, there is no benefit from them, and their dream itself disappears with awakening.

Visions are dreams that remain unchanged all the time, are not transformed from one to another, and are so imprinted in the mind that they remain unforgettable for many years: they show the fulfillment of future things, they deliver benefit, bringing her into awe with the presentation of terrible views.

Revelations are the essence of being above any sense of contemplation of the purest and enlightened soul, representing the wondrous ignorance of divine deeds and understandings, the secret knowledge of God's hidden secrets, the occurrence of the most important things for us, and the general change of worldly and human affairs. (5,139) Nikita Stifat

Of the above types of dreams, the first are characteristic of sensual and carnal people, for whom God is the belly and reproachful saturation, whose mind is enveloped in darkness due to a careless life, and at whom demons mock through dreams; the latter are characteristic of careful zealots who purify their spiritual feelings and, through the visible, are led to the comprehension of divine things and increased prosperity; still others are characteristic of those who are perfect, effectively inspired by the Divine Spirit. (5,140) Nikita Stifat

Not all people have true dreams, and not all of them are imprinted in the dominant part of the mind, but only those whose minds are purified and whose spiritual feelings are enlightened, who have risen to natural contemplation, who have no concern for everyday things, no concern for real life , whose long fasts were established in general abstinence, and their sweats and labors for God found peace and whose success in sacred silence raised them to the level of prophets of the Church of God, about whom God said in the book of Moses: “If there is a prophet in you, I will appear to him in a dream.” , and in the vision I will speak to him” (Numbers 12:6), and in the book of Joel: “And it shall come to pass from now on that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream, and your young men will dream. they will see your visions (Joel 2:28).” (5,140) Nikita Stifat

“When the desired part of the soul moves towards the passions, joys, pleasures and pleasures of this world, then the soul sees dreams similar to this. When the irritable part of the soul becomes brutalized and becomes furious against people of the same kind, then in dreams one sees attacks by animals and reptiles, wars and battles, disputes and battles in courts with those with whom they are at odds. When the intelligent part of the soul is filled with vanity and pride, then in dreams one dreams of soaring into the air on wings, or sitting on the high chairs of judges and rulers of the people, ceremonial exits and meetings, etc. (5.61) Simeon the New Theologian

Terrible dreams usually occur after angry anxiety, and nothing else forces our mind to break ranks (deserte) as much as anxious anger. (1,507) Abba Evagrius

Some of the unclean demons always sit down next to the readers and manage in every possible way to distract their minds and needs. They often induce a heavy sleep, much different from the usual one. We suffer all this from them because we do not maintain sober attention when reading, and do not remember that we are reading the words of the Living God. (1.516) Abba Evagrius

The imagination of vague faces indicates the remnants of a long-standing passion, and the imagination of certain faces indicates new wounds of the heart. (1,520) Abba Evagrius

The irritated one dreams of indignant dreams, and the angry one dreams of animal attacks. (2,268) Neil of Sinai

When lust increases, then the mind dreams in a dream about things that bring pleasure, and when it is irritation, then it sees things that cause fear. (3,206) Maxim the Confessor

In demonic dreams, they do not remain in the same image, and they do not show their appearance for a long time without being confused. At the same time, they talk a lot and promise great things, and they frighten even more with threats, often taking on the appearance of warriors; sometimes they sing to the soul and something flattering with a noisy cry. (3.29) Blessed Diadochos

During bodily sleep, delusion attempts to steal the feeling of love for God by tasting something pleasant, despite the fact that the mind is to a certain extent healthy in relation to the remembrance of God. (3.26) Blessed Diadochos

The long-suffering man sees in vision the councils of the holy angels, and the unmemorable man practices spiritual words, receiving the resolution of mysteries at night. (2,268) Neil of Sinai

A sign of perfect dispassion is when, both during wakefulness and in sleep, the ideas of things always come to the heart as simple. (3,191) Maxim the Confessor

Dreams that appear to the soul out of God’s love are undeceiving indicators of mental health. They do not change from one image to another, do not instill fear, do not excite laughter or sudden sadness, but approach the soul with all calmness and fill it with spiritual joy; why the soul, even after awakening the body, with all lust seeks this joy experienced in a dream. (3.29) Blessed Diadochos

It happens, however, that good dreams do not bring joy to the soul, but a kind of sweet sadness and a non-painful tear. This happens to those who have already succeeded in great humility.” (3.30) Blessed Diadochos

Demons... even in a dream, our dreams are made rich in imagination: whereby the demons of lust are sometimes transformed into pigs, sometimes into donkeys, sometimes into misogynistic and fiery horses, sometimes into the most intemperate Jews; demons of wrath - sometimes into pagans, sometimes into lions; demons of fearfulness - in the Ishmaelites; demons of inconstancy - to the Edomites; demons of drunkenness and gluttony - to Saracens; demons of covetousness - sometimes into wolves, sometimes into tigers; demons of wickedness - sometimes into serpents, sometimes into vipers, sometimes into foxes; demons of shamelessness - into dogs; demons of laziness - into cats. It happens that demons of fornication sometimes turn into snakes, sometimes into crows and rooks; The most aerial demons turn into birds. Our imagination changes the imagination of demons in three ways, due to the tripartite nature of the soul, imagining them in the form of birds, animals and cattle, according to the three forces of the soul - desirable, irritable and thinking. For the three princes of passions arm themselves against these three forces, and with whatever passion the soul is characterized, they take on an image akin to it, in which they approach it. (5.209) Gregory of Sinaite Recommendations of the holy fathers regarding dreams:

“When the soul begins to feel healthy, then it will begin to have pure and serene dreams. (3,190) Maxim the Confessor

We will determine the signs of dispassion during the day through thoughts, and at night through dreams. (1,520) Abba Evagrius

Do not allow yourself during the day to think about the dreams that were in your sleep; for the demons have the intention of desecrating us who are awake with dreams. (2,557) John Climacus

May the memory of death fall asleep and rise with you, and together the Jesus Prayer; for nothing can give you such strong intercession during sleep as these doings. (2,557) John Climacus

Let us, however, more than ever, as a great virtue, have the rule that we should never believe in any sleepy dream. For dreams, for the most part, are nothing more than idols of thoughts, a play of the imagination. If, adhering to this rule, we sometimes do not accept such a dream that will be sent to us from God, then the loving Lord Jesus will not be angry with us for this, knowing that we dare to do this out of fear of demonic intrigues.” (3.30) Blessed Diadochos

I hope this post will help you in the fight against passions that are revealed through dreams.

*- Many words have been rearranged and changed, without changing the meaning.

**- Philokalia Moscow Pilgrim 1998 (volume, page) Holy Father

A) What does the Bible say about dreams? “Dreams come with a lot of
worries” (Eccl. 5:2).
The body, having passed through the day’s mass of video and sound information, having worked itself out, turns off hearing and vision at night. Eyes and ears need rest. But there, beyond reality, we again see and hear, speak and actively participate in various stories. This is already a soul that does not require night rest.

What are you doing?

Like what? I push the bus.

Solomon is right that with a lot of worries there are dreams. The builder often continues to build in his sleep. The lover also continues his meeting. The student is gnawing on the granite of science. “In many dreams there is much vanity,” concludes his thought (Ecc. 5:6).

But those who read the Bible are also aware of other passages of Scripture.

“Your elders will be enlightened by dreams.”

“Your young men will see visions” (Acts 2:17).

Drowning in the bustle of the day, in the noise of everyday life, a person cannot hear the voice of God. It is heard more clearly in spiritual silence. Therefore, the Lord sometimes uses a dream to talk with a person. The dream of Abraham, the dreams of Joseph, the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh.

Closer to us: the dream of Lomonosov, Abraham Lincoln and the mother of the Decembrist Ryleev (details in the book “Man”), the dreams of my co-worker and the “driver for three nights” are also described there.

But dreams from God are not always and infrequently, and they do not, as a rule, need interpreters, “God speaks once and, if they do not notice, another time, in a dream, in a night vision, when a dream comes over people, while dozing on the bed. Then He opens a person’s ear and seals His instruction in order to lead a person away from any enterprise and remove pride from him, in order to lead his soul away from the abyss...” Job. 33:14-18. And every believer has seen such a dream at least once.

Me too. But these were only a few dreams in a long life. And the rest are countless.

Dream interpretation

I’m not talking about the Dream Book yet, but about the attempts of believers to find for themselves and others the hidden meaning of what they see. And here - woe to the impressionable!

One such believer, having seen something in a dream, woke up her whole family at night, believers and non-believers, forced everyone to dress well and told them that God had pronounced judgment on their family. This act threw the unbelievers even further away from the faith.

There are dreams that are attacks on someone’s happiness, on the peace of the heart and family. A husband saw in a dream that his wife was flirting with someone. And in another family, the wife saw in a dream her husband’s infidelity. They wake up with a heavy feeling, look suspiciously at the other half (isn’t this a revelation?) and now security questions are being asked, and loving people gradually turn into two icebergs in one apartment.

There are dreams-temptations. Using them, a Christian can check the level

his righteousness. If I allow something in a dream, it means that not everything is going well for me in reality. Let it be even only at the level of thoughts and imagination. I personally checked myself in this way when I was young. And I don't regret it.

It is true that only those to whom He has given such a gift can interpret dreams from God. And there are only a few of them. But there are too many interpreters, and their interpretations are lies.

This is the opinion of God himself.

“I have heard what the prophets say, prophesying lies in My Name, they say: I dreamed, I dreamed. How long will this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, who prophesy the deception of their hearts? Do they think of bringing My people to forget My name through their dreams... The prophet who saw a dream, let him tell it like a dream.”

The Lord did not give revelations and instructions to His prophets every day. But the title of prophet was obligatory, and people came to them to find out the will of God. And they slipped into the realm of dream interpretation. This irritated the Lord: “Behold, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the Lord, who tell them and lead My people astray with their deceptions and deceptions, while I did not send them or command them” (Jer. 23: 28, 32).

In addition to false prophets, there were many whose profession was to interpret dreams and predict the future. They were called teraphim and prophets:

“Teraphim speak empty things, and prophets see false things, and tell lying dreams” (Jer. 10:2).

And they are carried out by God under one article with fortune-tellers, wizards and astrologers. Jer. 27:9.

Their crime is that, firstly, they introduce lies and force people to believe lies. Secondly, they bring confusion to the people and lead their thoughts into captivity of the expected events they predicted, which may never come true. Thirdly, all this is most often presented as God’s will. Fourthly, taking advantage of the fog in concepts about the essence of the dream, demons confuse the guidelines and begin to take over the minds of those who should belong only to God. Soothsayers are grist for the devil’s mill and practically go against God.

Virgin land of dreams

For many, sleep is a land untouched by the plow. If we really don’t have enough time for studying the Bible, for creative work, then the hours of sleep at night are an additional 7-8 hours of wonderful time when we don’t have to go to work, run to the market, sit in the kitchen, or jostle on buses. In a dream, these interferences are absent; you can develop themes, write poetry, and catch melodies coming from somewhere. Only before this you need to put yourself in order during the daytime, and before going to bed, drown in spiritual reflections.

Features of the Great Tafsir of Dreams

Many scientists and researchers have devoted their lives to the study and interpretation of dreams, trying to discern in them something more than just mental images coming from the depths of the subconscious. Just as there are several approaches to dream interpretation, different religious beliefs also have their own approaches to deciphering dreams.

Fact. There are three popular dream interpreters in Muslim culture. Each of them is based on the Koran and Sunnah, but the interpretation of individual images differs. The most famous can be considered: Muslim and Islamic dream books. The third most famous is the dream book of Ibn Sirin.

Like other collections, Ibn Sirin’s dream book divides all dreams into three categories: good, bad and everyday.