What are the different meanings of house in our dreams?

Dreams invite themselves into our sleep with its good and less good surprises. They can give us pleasant sensations, or on the contrary, wake us up with a beating heart, like when a house burns down or collapses. What hide these dreams in which our habitat seems to escape us? Olivier Cochet, dream specialist, enlightens us.

1. Three reading grids to interpret our dreams

Barely awake, we think back to that dream done overnight. In front of the coffee, when getting ready, in transport, we wonder what its meaning could be. Olivier Cochet, author of the book “Onirotherapy, playing with your dreams to better experience reality” published by Jouvence, specifies that there are at least three reading grids for interpreting our dreams. “The first refers to Freud. Here, the dream represents a repressed impulse following a frustration. All the dust we put under the rug is then revealed. Then comes the interpretation according to Jung. Our dreams would reveal our animus or our anima, our masculine or feminine side. We would therefore be more in the collective unconscious. Finally, the last interpretation grid is more personal. It pushes us to ask ourselves questions such as: “How does the dream push me to transcend myself and go beyond my ego? How does he invite me to reconnect to my soul and to what is deepest in me? “.

2. I dream of a burning house

Olivier Cochet reminds us that each dream must be reflected, including nightmares. “Often, we prefer to skip the dream. We tell ourselves that we already have enough to worry about. If we also have to dwell on the misfortunes of our dreams, we can’t get out of it. But a nightmare is like a somewhat tactless friend. It jostles us, stings us and confronts us with what we neither want to see nor hear”. A burning house is considered a nightmare, but it “sends a healthy alert to be heeded so that we can change course, even if it is unpleasant”. Before embarking on an interpretation, it is important to ask the following question: where the House is she burning? If the fire starts in an attic, it can refer to the need to get rid of a memory to be reborn. If it begins in the bedroom, it can concern the dreamer’s sexual life, bodily and sentimental dimension, which are also burning. “Fire is one of the most ambivalent symbols. It destroys, but it also allows rebirth. Like the phoenix.

3. I dream of a flooded house

“For Freud, a leaky house would refer to the overflowing unconscious. We are in denial about something. This dream sends a signal that the person should take into account. For Jung, water is the symbol of the anima, therefore of the feminine. Dreaming of a flooded house questions: does the dreamer or the dreamer not take into account his feminine or masculine dimension? Is he sufficiently in tune with his emotions and his intuition? says Olivier Cochet. In a more personal reading grid, the flooded house means that we are overwhelmed by something. “In 9 cases out of 10, it is about that. We are overwhelmed, we take on water. It is a metaphor that imprints the unconscious and helps us to structure ourselves”.

4. I dream of an empty house

An empty house echoes a new beginning. This dream can refer to the end of a stage, to a place or a person that one would like to leave. “You also have to know if the house smells good, if it is clean. A habitat without any furniture also refers to a spirit that is not sufficiently nourished”. Olivier Cochet remembers a patient dreaming of an empty and dirty house. This woman was in between, she had just separated from her partner and was thinking of quitting her job. “The void was a signal for her to completely rethink her own person. She also had to to clean this house to realize what is necessary for her. The void is then like a purgation. In any case, a habitat without furniture pushes us to concentrate on the essential things”.

5. I dream of a house that is collapsing

“There is no need to search too long. A collapsing house echoes our own collapsing world. The reasons can be multiple: a person left us, disappointed, betrayed. Our certainties waver. We witnessed something that shook us deeply.” But Olivier Cochet wants to highlight the positive side of a dream where the house collapses. It can also invite us to make a clean sweep of the past. “Even if this dream is destabilizing, it is a real call to build new, stronger and more solid foundations. The more powerful an image in a dream, the more the invitation has changed course and being in tune with who we are must be taken into consideration. The dream is beneficial. And this, whatever the tenor of his message. He is always there to reveal something to us”.