Interpretation basis

Basis of the service

What is the basis of the symbol dictionary?

It clarifies where the interpretations come from. The criteria for dividing 2056 symbols into eight categories, the reason for attaching original text passages to each meaning, and the principle of not filling in empty spaces.

We only show what is written in the dictionary.

Dreams-Link's interpretations come from a pre-written symbol dictionary. We find symbols in the text you provide and show the meanings recorded in the dictionary for those symbols as they are. We do not create words that are not in the dictionary.

Currently, the dictionary contains 2056 symbols, and all those symbols have a total of 7153 meanings. Some symbols have only one meaning, but most have several, and for each meaning, the situation in which that meaning applies is also noted.

Divided into eight categories.

We grouped what appears in dreams into eight categories based on their characteristics. The number currently listed is in parentheses.

  • Objects(728) · Actions(471) · Animals(160) — the three thickest categories. These are mainly what old dream interpretation books discuss: visible objects, beasts, and actions taken in dreams.
  • Nature(193) · People(255) — large and ancient things like water, fire, sun, and moon, and people who appear in dreams like kings, thieves, and the deceased.
  • Places(133) · Body(114) · Colors(2) — locations like houses and graves, body parts like teeth, hair, and blood, and colors.

To view them by category, you can see the complete list in the symbol dictionary.

Each meaning is accompanied by an original text passage.

Each of the 7153 meanings in the dictionary is accompanied by the original text passage that served as the basis for that meaning. All 2056 symbols have this — if there is no original text passage, the entry itself cannot be created.

The original texts used as the basis are two. Zhou Gong's Dream Interpretation is a dream interpretation book that has been read for a long time in East Asia, and Miller's Dream Book is a Western book published in 1901. When you open a symbol, you can see which original text the meaning comes from, along with the passage and its meaning.

We do not fill in empty spaces. Adding plausible origins would make the document thicker, but at that moment, this dictionary would no longer be a translation of what has been handed down but rather a fabrication. We do not write what is not in the original text, and for what we write, we must attach the original text.

Good and bad are predetermined by the dictionary.

Each symbol is accompanied by indications of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. Good 271, ambivalent depending on the situation 973, cautionary 693, and neutral 119.

Among the four categories, the most are those that vary depending on the situation. This is not something we balanced; it is how it is written in the original texts — even for the same symbol, there are many places where it has been interpreted oppositely depending on what was done. This value reflects the nature of each symbol, and the overall atmosphere of the dream is recalculated by gathering the found symbols.