Dreaming about tree
Trees 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.
Also searched as: a tree, trees, a big tree, a fallen tree, climbing a tree
The single tree in an open space is the characteristic image, and dreamers describe its position and its size with unusual precision.
Recurrence is the notable feature. People who dream of a particular tree tend to dream of it repeatedly, and describe it as the same tree, which very few dream objects achieve.
A tree that has grown or fallen since a previous dream is reported, and that sense of elapsed time is the pattern this whole file rests on.
Climbing is a separate group and belongs closer to the ladder and mountain material: effort, height, and branches that do not hold.
Common associations
- A fixed point in a landscape, which is what the reports contain.
- Elapsed time, in the grown and fallen reports.
- Shelter and position, rather than growth as a metaphor.
- Ascent, in the climbing ones.
Positive readings
These are calm dreams and among the more restful images people describe.
The recurring-tree reports are worth having: a stable dream object across years is unusual and dreamers who notice it find it interesting in its own right.
Difficult readings
A fallen or dead tree is reported with real sadness, disproportionate to the object, and dreamers frequently connect it to a person unprompted.
The database records that connection as the dreamer's rather than the dream's.
Psychological perspectives
A tree is a good anchor for a dream landscape: it is large, static and does not require motion to be generated, which may be why it recurs so stably where most dream objects do not.
The elapsed-time reports are the interesting part. Dreams produce states rather than transitions, so a tree that has grown is a state plus a supplied conviction that it grew, which is the same unearned-certainty machinery this database describes elsewhere.
Continuity is moderate, and people regularly report a tree they have actually known.
Cultural and historical
World trees and cosmic trees appear independently across a striking number of traditions, from Yggdrasil to the Bodhi tree to the trees of Eden, and they are among the most widespread religious images there are.
Sacred groves and individual sacred trees are living practice in a number of places, not folklore.
The family tree is a much more recent and much thinner image, and the modern reading of a tree as personal growth is idiom rather than tradition.
What the sleep science says
Reasonably supported: dreams generate states more readily than transitions, and supply the sense of change separately.
Anecdotally reported, not tested: stable recurring dream objects and locations across years.
Not established: any meaning for a tree.
Your own context
- One tree or many?
- Where was it, and can you place it exactly?
- Had it changed since last time?
- Is it a tree you have actually known?
If this recurs
This is one of the better things to log over years. A stable recurring object is rare, and dreamers who record the tree's state each time frequently find a sequence rather than a repetition.
Emotions often reported
- calm
- peace
- nostalgia
- melancholy
- wonder
- safety
Specific tree dreams
Each of these is written separately, not generated from this page.
What happened
Where it happened
What state it was in
Questions for reflection
These are for your journal, not for us. Nothing you write is shared.
- Where exactly was it?
- Have I dreamt this tree before?
- Had it changed?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
4 references. What these labels mean
- 1.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.
- 2.The dream narratives of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament (Genesis 20, 28, 37 and 40 to 41; Daniel 2, 4 and 7; Matthew 1 to 2 and 27; Acts 10 and 16)Religious or philosophical text
Various, compiled
Cited for: What the biblical texts themselves record about dreams: that they are treated as a channel of divine communication, that interpretation is presented as a gift rather than a technique, and which specific dreams and readings appear. Cited for what the text says, never as evidence about dreaming.
- 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.
- 4.Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural LightReligious or philosophical text
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (1992) · Snow Lion Publications
Cited for: The Tibetan Buddhist dream yoga tradition as described from within it, including its aims, which are contemplative rather than recreational.
Dreamers’ accounts
How dreams of tree 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
- PlaceGardenGardens are described more positively than almost any other setting, and the two states that dominate the reports, tended and overgrown, are described very differently. The state of the garden carries the dream, not the garden.
- SymbolLeavesLeaves are one of the few things dreams reliably show in motion, and falling leaves are reported far more than leaves on a tree. Motion is expensive for a dream to generate, so this is worth noticing.
- SymbolRootsRoots 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.
- PlaceForestForests in dreams are about limited visibility more than about trees. The recurring reports are of not being able to see far, losing a path, and the specific quality of being watched by nothing identifiable.
- SymbolDustDust is how a dream says time has passed, and dreamers read it that way immediately. What is worth noticing is the second detail: whether anything has disturbed it, which is the part reports return to.
- SymbolA crackCracks are one of the few things dreams reliably show growing, which is unusual: dreams produce states far more readily than transitions, and a spreading crack is a transition being watched.
Records that mention tree
These pages link to tree, either as something reported in the same dream or as a related subject. This page does not point back at all of them, so the list is assembled rather than chosen.