This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic.
No dream symbol can be separated from the individual who dreams it, and there is no definite or straightforward interpretation of any dream
A dream that is not understood remains a mere occurrence; understood it becomes a living experience.
I have no theory about dreams. I do not know how dreams arise. On the other hand, I know that if we meditate on a dream sufficiently long and thoroughly — if we take the boat with us and turn it over and over — something almost always comes out of it.
The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul.
Dream analysis stands or falls with [the hypothesis of the unconscious]. Without it the dream appears to be merely a freak of nature, a meaningless conglomerate of memory-fragments left over from the happenings of the day.
I have always said to my pupils: "Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it when you are analyzing a dream."
The general function of dreams is to try to restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium.
The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends.