dreams, needles signify the power to heal through penetration. In other words, some concept or knowledge has to be introduced from outside. This may feel uncomfortable at first but it will eventually make us feel better. Depending on whether or not you are using the needle or it is being used on you, the ability to have penetrative insights can come from within or without. From a Freudian perspective, the needle can also suggest masculine sexuality.
Pins
If you dream that you are pricked by a pin, this signifies a difficult situation or relationship. You may be feeling anxious or feeling the need to hold together a particular relationship. Consider the pun of someone who may be a ‘prick’. Alternatively, to see pins in your dream may suggest you are feeling stifled or trapped, as indicated by the phrase ‘being pinned down’. If a pincushion appears in your dream, this can indicate stinging or hurtful comments in waking life. You may be feeling manipulated or attacked in waking life, or perhaps you are being hurtful to someone else. For particular materials used in mending, for example, cotton, linen, silk, see also CLOTHES AND IMAGE.
Scissors
In dreams, these can suggest cutting remarks or decisiveness and taking control. They can also suggest separation or independence—as in cutting the umbilical cord—or the need to get rid of someone or something out of your life that isn’t working anymore. The type of scissors may be important for the dreamer. Surgical scissors, for instance, could suggest the need to be more precise. Kitchen scissors might suggest a need to be more practical. If the scissors are blunt, this suggests you may be creating problems through speaking bluntly. If you are sharpening scissors, this suggests the need to be more tactful. If you dream of a hairdresser using scissors, this could refer to your fear of losing authority and status. In folklore, clean scissors suggest that you have nothing to fear from your enemies. If the scissors are rusty or broken however, this is a less favorable.
Tape/thimble/thread
Tapes are used to measure things in waking life. In your dreams they can suggest a need to measure and evaluate the potential of a current project you are involved in. To use a thimble in your dream suggests that you need to be thinking of the welfare of others. Ancient dream oracles say that losing a thimble is a sign of misfortune but receiving or buying a thimble signifies new friendships. To see thread in your dream suggests that you need to strengthen commitments and relationships in waking life. Ancient dream oracles say that to see broken threads in your dream signifies unreliable friends.
to Freudian interpretation, clay symbolizes feces. But to see a clay pot in your dream signifies devotion, healing, virtue or purity.
SCULPTOR
If you are a sculptor in your dreams, you are working on finding yourself and are overcoming obstacles by getting to the core of things. If a sculpture appears in your dreams, you may find it hard to accept things as they are really are. You may also be overly concerned about projecting a positive image. A statue, bust or obelisk often suggests the desire to put someone or something on a pedestal. If you are doing this, you increase the feelings of remoteness and unattainability of that person or thing in waking life. If a statue comes alive in your dreams, you may revive a long-lost interest or rebuild a friendship. Ancient dream oracles indicate that dreaming of being a statue is a sign that your fortunes will change for the better.
WEAVING
Weaving is taken to symbolize life itself and the way in which we run our lives. Most cultures contain images in which our fate is being woven in a pattern. Although at the mercy of chance, we are supposed to be in control of that pattern.
Any violence or negative action in your dreams is typically a reflection of your own inner feelings.
According to Jung, negative actions in dreams symbolize the shadow or dark side of your nature. The shadow is everything that you are repressing or denying, the hidden side of yourself that you refuse to recognize. By conjuring up such images in your dream, your unconscious is urging you to bring these hidden feelings into the light of day so that they have less hold over you, otherwise you are in danger of projecting this ‘other self’ onto other people.
Dreams about violence, crime and other actions may not only reveal your inner feelings about yourself, they may also reveal your feelings about the situation around you or in some cases, your feelings about other people in your life. The type of negative action highlighted in the dream will be worthy of your attention if you are to fully understand yourself and your situation. Although disturbing, and unfortunately more common than positive actions in dreams, dreams in which the action focuses on bad or negative feelings, words and actions are seldom predictive, so you don’t need to worry that the horrifying events will be repeated in your waking life. Recurring dreams of committing rape are a different concern, suggesting violent urges that are in danger of spilling over into your waking life. If this is the case, professional therapy and counseling is strongly recommended. See also ACCIDENTS, ACTION AND ADVENTURES; NEGATIVE EMOTIONS; NIGHTMARES.
Crime
DECEPTION
If you find yourself lying or cheating in your dream, or overhear someone else doing so, this indicates that you are feeling guilty about not being honest in waking life or that someone is cheating or being dishonest with you. If you have recurring dreams in which cheating or lying feature, your dreaming mind is suggesting that you are living a lie in waking life and that you need to be true to yourself. Dreams of stealing, cheating, forgery, fraud and blackmail send the same message. If you are an accessory or witness to a crime in your dream but didn’t commit it, this suggest your feelings of guilt about colluding with something or ignoring something you knew to be wrong. If, however, a crime or deception was committed against you in your dream, ask yourself whether someone is committing a wrong against you.
PUNISHMENT
You may have had a dream in which you committed a crime and found yourself being punished for your actions. You may have woken from such a dream feeling extremely relieved that you have not committed a crime or been punished, but lingering feelings of anxiety may stay with you. Try to identify your feelings about such a dream as they will help with the interpretation. Did you feel guilty or angry that an injustice had been done to you? If you can discover how you feel about the punishment, this may hold the key to the interpretation. If you felt guilty, perhaps there is something in your waking life that you feel is wrong or is destroying your peace of mind. If you are actually caught in the act in your dream and find yourself awaiting or being sentenced to punishment of some kind, this is a clear message of disapproval from your dreaming mind and a warning that if you don’t change your ways, you will be in danger of being found out in waking life. Try to identify who punished you in your dream. If it was someone you know, you may be feeling
