Dreams are a doorway to many realms. When you fall into a dream you can accomplish many things...if you learn to recognize them for the powerful teachers and healers that they are, or can be.
Some dreams are remnants of the day's activities; a way of working off stress, dealing with issues that you were unsatisfied with, or even the body's way of adjusting to rising and lowering hormones. But dreams have a magick all their own. Let's say you had a problem at work with one of your co-workers and you didn't feel that you handled the situation very well. That night you might have dreams that re-enact the situation in various ways that brought the situation to a place that you felt more comfortable with. Or maybe you have a job interview in the morning. You're understandably nervous and that night are likely to have troubled dreams because you very much want everything to go perfect. Now these 'job' dreams might be nightmares, leaving you a wreck in the morning. Or they might just bolster your confidence enough so that, when you go on the interview, you're ready for anything.
There are also many kinds of healing dreams. If you're ill your subconscious mind might chose to tell you about in dreams. I know someone who had recurring dreams about all sorts of different kinds of plumbing problems which left the Dreamer in a state of total chaos. Someone suggested that this Dreamer might be receiving a body message of great importance. The Dreamer went to the doctor, although she felt fine, and learned that, despite there being no symptoms, she had a severe kidney and bladder infection. Your Higher Awareness communicates many important things to you in dreams; the problem is learning to translate the images into something understandable.
One way of doing this is to Honor the wisdom of your Dreams. A good way of doing that is to keep a Dream Journal. (No rolling the eyes, please!) Alot of people tell you to keep journals for such reasons as it helps you keep track of things. The best reason isn't to keep track, but to simply physically act out the fact that your dreams are important. If you begin writing your dreams down, even if you don't remember the whole thing, your subconscious mind will respond to the attention and begin giving you better dreams and more informative ones! It's almost like your dreams say: hey, she/he is paying attention to us. Cool. Let's give her/him some more then! Many times people don't remember their dreams -- except for the really frightening or confusing ones -- for the simple reason that these are the only dreams that they pay attention to. So start paying attention to ALL of them by writing them down and you'll be surprised at the changes that take place in your dreaming life.
What about symbols? The truth is that your symbols are not the same as anyone else's. Sure, there will be similarities, but that's about it. So how do you figure out what your symbols mean? Well, that's pretty easy. What do you think they mean? Never mind getting all complicated and trying to apply Jungian or Freudian translations. Unless you're a Jungian or Freudian, that won't get anywhere but to the land of confusion. The fact is, our dreaming self is a simple minded self; it's blunt, honest, and a little touchy. If you 'feel' like that bad old wolf is your grandfather; it probably is. If that dark cave 'feels' like it's your present frame of mind, then it probably is. It's that simple. Sure, when you're first starting to figure out dreams you'll get a few wrong but, once more, your Higher Self will come to the rescue and correct you. In fact, if you have a dream that you simply cannot figure out, ASK FOR MORE INPUT and it will come, because your dreaming self WANTS you to succeed. If you need help, it will give it in as many different forms as it takes for you to get the point.
Some dreams are more than dreams. By that I mean that sometimes, when you fall asleep deeply enough, you astral project out of your sleeping body. Sometimes dream excursions like this are just great fun, like learning to fly, or sitting on a high, tree branch feeling like a bird. And sometimes you go see friends or family, just to see how they are. Other times you go to the Otherworlds, to astral levels. Sometimes adventures in the astral realms aren't too much fun. Since some of the lower astral levels are storehouses for psychic run-off and debris, as well as for nightmare entities. The higher levels, however, are filled with Healing and Learning Temples, Islands of Healing, doorways to different Time Corridors.
You can teach yourself to go to these places at will. Astral Travel isn't really any harder than you make it. If you read fifty books and do all the exercises in those books, you still might not be able to journey astrally. Why? Because nothing in those books was right for you and, by reading them and putting your expectations in line with the author or author's, you've set yourself up for doing a journey in exactly the same way as the book teaches. You might even go astral and then brush it off as nothing simply because it didn't go along with what the book taught you.
The easiest way to learn to astral travel is simply to look at it as an adventure. Open your child's mind. When you were a child, and sometimes even now when no-one is looking, you are fearless. Your mind expands to this place of complete open-ness. Everything is possible. And you can do anything if you just try. From that place of innocence your body relaxes, all expectations shift to a place of hope and wish and doors open for you. So if you want to take an astral journey become your child-self again, trust your instincts, and IMAGINE what it would be like and how it would work for you. Then play at it. THAT'S RIGHT I SAID PLAY.
Pretend what it would be like. Make it gloriously funny, beautiful, and healing. Think how you would be most comfortable leaving your body and then imagine yourself doing it that way over and over until you do it. For me going astral is a matter of shifting my inner attention to a higher, finer vibration. I think of a glen that I made up when I was little. I imagine myself standing on a bridge on the other side of the glen. Then I start walking, involving all my senses: I feel the bridge's stone under my feet, I reach out and touch the railing, I smell the sweet air of the flowers and trees of the glen, I hear the birds and animals, and after a few minutes, sometimes seconds, I am in that glen which has pathways to all other places and times. Figure out what works for you, how it would feel, how you WANT it to be and it will be.
If I were going to recommend any books on dreams it would be the following, all written by Robert Moss:
Remember: your imagination is the most powerful tool in your possession. Learn to use it!