Letter
Last updated: · Pedram Dadgar
Psychological (Freud)
Depth psychology treats the letter as a message from the unconscious to the waking ego, an encrypted content that seeks to be recognized. An unopened or illegible letter points to a repressed truth or a feeling not yet admitted, waiting in concealment.
Oriental reading
In Oriental and Islamic interpretation the letter heralds news, a promise or incoming tidings, gladdening or admonishing according to its contents. A sealed letter points to a secret entrusted or an obligation drawing near, while a joyful letter signals good news and reunion.
European folk (dream-book)
By old folk belief, a letter in a dream always heralds tidings from afar. To receive a letter means news will soon come from a distant person, often glad news or an invitation; a sealed letter promises a secret that will be entrusted to you. But a torn, black-bordered or unreadable letter is held an omen of bad news, a disappointment or a parting, and to lose a letter warns of a falling-out with a dear friend.
Common dream scenarios
Receiving a love letter
A love letter promises, in Oriental reading, glad news in matters of the heart or an affection beginning to take shape. In depth psychology it announces a longing you have not yet spoken aloud, a part of you that wishes to be loved and answered.
Unable to open a letter
Being unable to open a letter shows fear of a truth you sense but are not yet ready to hear. Tradition reads it as delayed news, while psychologically the ego is shutting itself against a message from the unconscious that is pressing to be worked through.
A letter bringing bad news
A letter bearing bad news is rarely literal; more often it announces the inner end of a chapter of life. The old reading counsels watchfulness, yet in depth psychology something old in you is taking its leave so that something new can find room.
Writing a letter
Writing a letter yourself shows the wish to express something long unsaid or to restore a connection. Traditionally it foretells a clarification, while psychologically the ego is ordering its feelings to make a message to itself or another conscious.
Objects
This sign across the other arts
Dream interpretation is for self-reflection and entertainment — it is not a medical or psychological diagnosis.