Dream of House with Rain Falling Through

I have a recurring dream where a house has rain falling through the roof and ceiling, and sometimes part of the house is submerged in water being washed away with sea waves flowing through it. It took me 20 years to figure out the meaning of this dream. The house was mine that I partly recognised, and the rain was not pouring in through just one place of the ceiling but it was falling from everywhere as though there was no roof on the house. I could see water pouring down the walls to the ground floor and seeping through the carpets and floorboards. This type of dream began sometime after 1991, however after 2001 it changed and this time one room in the end part of the house was partly submerged under water and there were sea waves crashing into it. The rest of the house was fine, but the end room was gone forever. There was a feeling of helplessness that I could not save it, and a feeling of profound grief that everything was lost. Sometimes I would wake up with tears in my eyes and a sadness that takes a day to shake off.

To me, a house in its very basic form represents a belonging and a shelter, and everything in it is a cherished possession. This shelter has roof and this part represents safety from the forces of nature. Perhaps belongings represent desires, for it was desire that collected these things in the first place for safe keeping under the shelter. We often keep precious belongings for the future thinking that we may need them, and therefore possessions also represent precious hopes for the future.

The purpose of a roof is to give shelter, but when the rain falls straight through it as if it never existed, then it no longer meets its purpose. In my dream, I ask myself why the rain is falling through the roof like this... It is not supposed to do this. Therefore the very purpose of the roof and shelter are in question. In some dreams the house is near the edge of the seashore where it will eventually be engulfed by water as the tide comes in. In my dream I often wish I could afford a house in a better location, but there is a feeling of hopelessness. Therefore the location of this shelter is under question as well because it makes me feel I have no belonging anywhere. In some dreams the house is missing a vital support causing a part of it to sink under water.

The sea and rain are forces of nature and they represent events that occur in life that are outside of one's control, just as the tides of the sea are outside anyone's control. To me, the waves of the sea in the partly submerged room also represent erasure because waves can erode anything over time. When it goes under, it is buried and gone for good. In the dream I see these forces of nature destroying belongings and ruining them and literally washing them away essentially erasing them from reality. This imagery gives a feeling of total helplessness and powerlessness because I cannot save them. I think the symbolism in the imagery represents hopes, desires, and future being washed away and erased from existence. It represents the erasure of an alternate reality, another possible future that would have existed but can no longer exist. Since that reality is no longer viable and has no purpose, it is no longer necessary to keep these desires and hopes. Consequently they are literally being washed away.

I think that feelings are represented by objects and events and staged in the theatre of the mind to see how it all plays out in the hope of finding a possible solution. Sadly this is a difficult problem without solution and therefore the dream is repetitive as the soul continues the search. The variations in the dreams are additional problems that occur in life which are also added to the theatre in the same play.

When I make a list of all the objects in play in this theatre, in many ways, it mirrors my reality.

• House without a roof or poor roof
• House without support
• House in an awful location
• Cherished possesions always being washed away
• Having no belonging in life
• Rain constantly falling in
• Powerlessness
• Helplessness
• Hopelessness

Maybe in your life something precious was taken away from you, something that meant a lot to you and you were helpless and powerless to do anything about. Maybe you suffered profound sadness and because of that event you now have a life that is different from the one you could have had. In my life there were tragedies where things were taken away from me and I was powerless to do anything about it. Two of these events occurred in 1991 and 2001.