SYMBOLISM IN DREAMS
First of all, don't buy or use a book that purports to explain dream symbolism. They're nearly all based on either Freudian or Jungian psychology, and as such are fraught with error.
Both Freud (the so-called “Father of Psychology”) and his contemporary Carl Jung were both troubled by inner torments and by their own admission, directed by “outside forces” that Jung called Spirit Guides. In other words, demons! I include this here as a warning, because some Christians have wandered into psychology and used concepts and practices that are based on false teaching.
This brings us to a consideration of dream symbolism. I have found that usually when God communicates to us through dreams and visions He often shows us a symbol that is both “ancient” or found in the Bible.
By “ancient” I mean something that isn't normally found in our modern day. For example, it's remarkable how often 21st century people will dream of knights on horseback, or ancient warriors setting out on a journey of discovery. It seems that there's an underlying group of symbols from the ancient past that evoke certain emotional responses in us.
When we look at the Bible (even though it's historically an “ancient” book) we find symbols that readily still speak to us today. This isn't just due to the fact that we've read the Bible and its imagery has “sunk in”, because even people who aren't Christians or regular Bible readers, will often have the same images in their dreams. For this reason I find that the best reference for decoding symbols is the Bible.
In order to correctly understand Biblical dream symbolism you will need to dig out the treasures of typology. This is the explaining of symbolism and imagery that gives insight to certain Biblical truths and principles. There are a number of books on this subject (see Bibliography; page 76).
However the Lord isn't confined to using Biblical symbolism. We can have God-given dreams that have trains, racing cars and computers in them. Remember that the imagery in a dream is pointing to a particular truth or principle that the Lord wants to highlight for us. If He has to use an