Dreaming of a window : what can this symbol evoke?

Seeing without being able to go

That is this object's peculiarity and its whole charge : it gives access to an image and to nothing else. One sees the outside in detail, separated from it by a thickness that cannot be crossed.

Dreams often use this figure for what you know well and stay apart from. A life observed without taking part, a relationship followed from afar, a possibility perfectly identified and never attempted. It is not ignorance : it is a transparent separation.

The question it poses is direct : what you have been watching for a while — what prevents you from going there? Those who dream of windows generally know very well what they are looking at.

Which side you were on

A window always has two faces, and dreams choose one. Being inside looking out does not say the same as being outside looking into a lit room where others are.

The second form is harder, and very frequent : it designates exclusion seen from outside, a family one no longer belongs to, a group carrying on without you. Nobody drives you off, the light is visible, and the glass is shut.

The decisive detail is therefore your position. Inside looking out speaks of a desire ; outside looking in speaks of a lack — and dreamers rarely confuse the two on waking.

What the glass shows changes the reading

• Looking out from inside — an identified desire, and a separation not crossed.
• Looking into a lit room from outside — exclusion, without anyone having driven you off.
• A window that will not open — a known possibility, materially closed.
• Dirty or misted glass — a view one has stopped maintaining, more than a view prevented.
• A reflection in the glass instead of the outside — seeing oneself while believing one looks elsewhere.
• A window flung wide — the air coming in, which distinguishes opening from mere looking.

A psychological reading, not a ready-made box

Depth psychology uses buildings to figure the person, distinguishing openings by what they permit : the door lets one through, the window lets one see. It notes that window dreams often accompany situations perfectly understood and not acted on, which distinguishes them from dreams of obstacles. Other readings retain the reflection, frequent in these dreams, where the inside substitutes for the outside.