Dreaming about roots
Roots are reported for one thing above all: extent. Dreamers describe a root system far larger than the plant above it, and describe knowing that without seeing it.
Also searched as: tree roots, roots in a dream, roots under the ground, exposed roots
The disproportion is the characteristic report. What is below is bigger than what is above, and the dreamer is certain of it without evidence.
Exposed roots, lifted by wind or erosion, are a second group and are reported with unease, usually because something that should be covered is not.
Roots under a floor, through a wall or into a building appear in a small and quite unsettling group, and those belong with the house material.
Roots as an obstacle underfoot, tripping the dreamer, occur in chase reports and belong there.
Common associations
- Extent that is known without being seen, the unearned-certainty pattern again.
- What is below, structurally rather than symbolically.
- Something uncovered that should not be, in the exposed reports.
- Origins, in the idiom.
Positive readings
Little directly. The certainty-without-evidence is an interesting thing to notice in yourself and is a workable dream sign.
Difficult readings
Exposed roots produce a specific unease, and roots entering a building produce more.
The idiomatic reading, about origins and belonging, is available in most languages and will be reached for whether or not it fits.
Psychological perspectives
Knowing the extent of something invisible is a clean example of the unearned certainty that runs through this database: the conviction is generated and no evidence is required.
The entry exists partly to say that, because roots produce it so purely.
The growing-into-a-building reports are a good example of dreams ignoring the boundaries between categories: nothing prevents a plant from behaving like a structural failure.
Cultural and historical
Roots as origin and belonging is a widespread idiom and appears in a great many languages, which makes it available and unremarkable rather than meaningful.
Specific traditions attach significance to particular roots and to their use, and those are practices rather than dream readings.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dreams generate feelings of knowing independently of content.
Not established: any meaning for roots.
Your own context
- How did you know how far they went?
- Were they exposed?
- Were they where they should be?
- Did you see them, or know about them?
If this recurs
Log with the tree reports. Roots rarely recur independently.
Emotions often reported
- unease
- curiosity
- wonder
- dread
- detachment
- fascination
Specific roots dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
What state it was in
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- How did I know how big they were?
- Were they above ground?
- Were they somewhere they should not be?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
3 references. What these labels mean
- 1.Dreaming: A Conceptual Framework for Philosophy of Mind and Empirical ResearchAcademic book
Jennifer M. Windt (2015) · MIT Press
Cited for: A modern philosophical treatment of what dreams are, including the immersive-spatiotemporal-hallucination account and the status of dream reports as evidence.
- 2.The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development and Content AnalysisAcademic book
G. William Domhoff (2003) · American Psychological Association
Cited for: The continuity hypothesis (that dream content largely reflects waking concerns) and a sustained critique of symbolic dream interpretation as an evidential method.
- 3.The Content Analysis of DreamsAcademic book
Calvin Hall and Robert Van de Castle (1966) · Appleton-Century-Crofts
Cited for: The standard coding system for dream content, and the normative frequencies that later studies are compared against. The reason claims like "aggression is more common in dreams than friendliness" can be stated numerically at all.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of roots have gone for other people, in their own words. Nothing here is an interpretation of anyone else's dream. It is a record of what happened and what it was like.
Nothing here yet. Be the first to say how this has gone for you.
Related records
- PlaceHouseHouses are the most common setting in dream reports, which is the first thing worth knowing: a house in a dream is usually where the dream is, not what the dream is about. The details that vary, whose house it is and what state it is in, carry more than the house does.
- PlaceBasementBasements produce a narrower and more consistent set of reports than any other room: descending, dark, a sense that something is down there, and a reluctance to go further. The consistency is real. The standard explanation for it is not established.
- SymbolTreeTrees are reported as fixed points. Dreamers describe a single tree in a landscape, remember its position precisely, and return to it across dreams more often than to almost any other object.
- SymbolA holeA hole is an absence with edges, and dreams handle it the way they handle every absence: the edges are generated and what is beyond them is not. Dreamers report being unable to see in, and being certain about what is there.
- SymbolFootprintsEvidence of a person who is not there, and the reports turn on a single question the dreamer answers without evidence: whose. The certainty arrives complete, as it does throughout this database.
- SymbolMilkMilk is reported almost entirely through spoiling, and dreamers describe the discovery rather than the substance: pouring it, and finding it has turned.