What is the meaning of the church in dreams? What does it mean to dream of a church?
It is a frequent question because frequent is the image of the church in dreams.
The emotions that awaken are an important signal that brings to the surface the character aspects or needs of the dreamer: spirituality, trust, security and protection, but also dogmatism and rigidity.
Church Symbolism in Cultures
The church in dreams is a symbol of guidance, comfort, acceptance and protection.
It is the place where the power of human faith is concentrated in transcendence and in the divine which contributes to accentuating the sacredness and relevance of the experience that is consumed there.
Connected to the archetype of the divine Mother who protects, consoles, welcomes and gives security, she also identifies with the ideology that sustains her and in which the faithful recognize and become a reason for union and communion with others, but also for rules, precepts and rituals to follow.
Thus we see that the meaning of the church in dreams can indicate an authentic religious feeling, a marked sensitivity, the need to find comfort and protection in religion and prayer, the need to rely on the spirit and to God, the need to be part of a group and to be recognized, to acquire the strength and to be confirmed in the ideas.
Or it may indicate excessive security and a closure towards the ideas of others that can border on dogmatism and fundamentalism.
The church in dreams is a symbol of the welcoming mother (think of the expression “Great Mother Church”) and therefore represents the security of maternal love, the place where you always feel accepted or feel remorse and guilt for having disappointed, for having derogated from the values and expectations of those who love us.
But to understand the real meaning of the church in dreams, one will have to start from the believer or non-believer dreamer, to know what his idea of church is, how much he feels supported and protected by the security of faith or feels alien, judge and reject it.
Dreams about Church – Meaning
The church in dreams should not be considered only for aspects related to ritual, beliefs and religious observances.
The church is a sacred building used for ritual celebrations, often built on earlier and more ancient places of worship (including pagans) which were the scene of miraculous facts and apparitions and this material dimension, made of form and volumes, of beauty and elegance it can bring out in the dreamer attraction or rejection, emotion and awe, respect, fear, all sensations that can serve to contextualize the church in dreams and to decipher its meaning.
The design of churches, shrines or temples, combines symbolic elements of great power such as the cross, the square and the circle, to represent, together with the tension of the pillars and the amplitude of the domes, the fundamental polarities of life:
– the low and the high, the earth and the sky, the push towards the spirit and the call of the matter.
While the strength and power of the perimeter walls of the church in dreams will be a symbol of what protects and closes the “profane”, the danger and the influences of evil, but also the crude reality, the prosaicness and the difficulties of the everyday , as happens in the following dream made by a woman who is going through a difficult moment of her marriage: I dreamed of walking with my husband at night, we are in a city with dark and dark streets, and we decide to go and visit a church.
We go through a low door, we have to bend to enter, we go down a few steps, I think of introducing myself in a crypt and instead I find myself in an immense church, I can’t identify the time it is high, it looks like a sanctuary, all of very light marble, statues wonderful and grandiose surround us.
Dreams about Church – Symbolism
Dreaming of visiting a church – indicates need for security; fixed points and recognized values to count on. It may reflect a difficult moment when you feel the need for external support, inspiration or superior help.
Other meanings are linked to the need for sharing, inner research and introspection and the need to express one’s beliefs. It can also symbolize entry into social life.
Dreaming of taking refuge in the church to escape danger – represents the comfort of one’s own security and convictions in the face of something destabilizing or facing an alternative that scares. It can indicate the need for serenity, tranquility and escape from the world.
Dreaming of being in church and praying with other believers – connects to the need for protection and help, to the need of the group, to the importance given to one’s family and social environment and to one’s own ideas.
It represents the fear of the unknown, of different ideas, of experiences that are unknown and considered dangerous or destructive.
Dreaming of sleeping in the church – it can be linked to moments of vulnerability and insecurity, to feeling uncovered and abandoned, to the need for refuge, for protection, for regeneration. It can indicate the need for healing by relying on the energy of the sacred and on the influence that comes from a higher power.
Dreaming of waking up in church can refer to a spiritual awakening.
Dreaming of a church full of people – if the sensations felt are positive it may reflect one’s need for confirmation and to feel part of a group, while if one feels suffocated or feels oppression the image will refer to similar oppression or the annoyance felt towards the dominant ideas in one’s environment or towards rules and precepts observed rigidly and not heard.
Dream of an empty church – may indicate the loss of one’s religious convictions and faith. Perhaps the dreamer feels lost and alone and feels the void of the church in dreams as an abandonment or an internal emptiness.
On the contrary, the dreamer can feel in the empty church in dreams a sense of intimacy and recollection that reflect the need to be alone with himself or to seek a deeper contact with himself and with the divine.
Dreaming of a church and an altar – when the sensations are positive it can represent the need to celebrate and give value to one’s life, to recover its sacredness; in a negative sense it can bring to light a sense of rejection for the imposed rituals and for a religiousness of the facade transmitted as a tradition.
Dreaming of church and nuns – indicates the need for authoritative, protective, comforting reference figures in a secure, accepted, recognized context. We are confronted with our own conscience and our own system of values.
It can also indicate guilt and the need to confide or confess. It can reflect aspects of the dreamer’s personality sexually repressed, rigid and framed.
Dreaming of church and saints – the symbol of the Madonna is a facet of the archetype of the Great Mother and the feminine. It is easy to see it in the church of dreams as a symbol of protection, warmth or image of one’s mother, just as it is easy to see in the statues of saints in dreams needs to be filled, requests and prayers of the dreamer.
Each saint will have precise characteristics that will influence the meaning of the dream.
Dreaming of an illuminated church – it is a consolatory and positive image that can arrive as an answer of the unconscious, as a message for the dreamer who perhaps gropes in the dark.
Dreaming of a dark church – it is a metaphor for a situation of doubt, uncertainty and uncertainty. It represents not being able to find a way, a purpose, a consolation, not being able to count on the ideas of the past, not having more faith and more hope.
Dreaming of an ancient church – depending on the sensations felt, it will refer to the values rooted, to faith, to feel part of everything, or to the oppression and influence of the past that is no longer in line with one’s own growth.
Dreaming of a burned church – it can be linked to the rejection of what the church represents, rejection of its apparatus and its immutable structure, or to the fear that one’s instincts and passion will destroy idealism and spirituality faith.
It can indicate a situation of internal conflict between sexual and spiritual impulses and the judgments of a primary self towards the most instinctive and spontaneous self.
Conclusion
The church in dreams of this example is an image of the inner world of the dreamer and of the consoling power she has for her.
This fascinating space, large and full of beautiful things, is placed in a church, and this indicates its “sacred” character, its importance, the strength it has in his life.
It is an intimate space that even the husband has access to (or in which she would like him to enter), and seems to be revealed by contrast to the “dark and straight” world (daily reality) and to the difficulties and disappointments that may arise.
This church in the dreams that both decide to visit can also represent the search for security and stability at a difficult time in the relationship.
Answering will be essential to start probing your dream and compare yourself with the images that are listed below.
Always remembering that these are a starting point for reflection and NOT an “arrival”, and a definitive answer.