Back

In general the back of someone or something usually refers to being unconscious, to unknown things. One seldom looks behind oneself, and so does not know what is going on. Therefore it may represent the hidden, or what is going on out of sight.

But your back indicates your strength, particularly moral fibre; confidence physically; decisiveness, ability to stand in face of opposition; power to endure without being overcome. A psychiatrist once told me that many men in a tramps home were diagnosed C.W.B. It meant ‘congenitally without backbone’. That is, lacking the inner strength to deal with everyday life.

Example: ‘I was looking across a hedge at a bull. I seemed to be just looking at its back.’ Andy.

Andy was a teenager, uncertain of himself. In this dream he was looking at and discovering his strength. This was a revelatory dream for him because he suffered a great deal of anxiety and from this felt he was inadequate as a person. So the dream was a turning point after which his ability to explore and be active outwardly was hugely enhanced.

So the back can also indicate what you are holding back in yourself, or even what is happening to you ‘behind your back’.

The different strata of the back may also indicate different aspects of yourself. The lower back for instance suggests the earliest stages of your development such as life in the womb and birth; but also the earliest levels of experience such as sensuality and sexuality.

The back at about waist height links with your process of growth and digestion of experience, along with sympathetic links you have with others and the world.

The back connecting with the chest indicates your emotional and feeling development and the way you connect with the world through empathy – especially what you take in and put out of yourself.

The neck connects with your ability to express yourself and communicate with other, along with such things as asking for your needs and speaking your inner truth.

Carrying something on your back: The influences and burdens you carry from your past. This can be useful or difficult depending upon what you carry. This also suggest your karma, or the results you face in the present of all past events and actions – cause and effect. See: dweller on the threshold.

If you are carried on someone’s back: It suggests you are gaining support when you need it, or that you are being giving a ride as when a child – enjoyment.

Sitting on the back of an animal: Being supported by your inner and instinctive strength, wisdom and animal self.

Somebody on one’s back: Feeling dominated by someone else; feeling the ‘weight’ of one’s parent’s, or someone else’s wants and decisions instead of your own. Carrying an influence from the past.

Idioms: Back breaking; back to the wall - and note the use of the words ‘back against the wall and what it implies; behind one’s back; flat on ones back; get off my back; put somebody’s back up; rod for one’s back; pat on the back; stab in the back; turn one’s back on; scratch my back.

Useful questions:

Is this indicating strength. If so what strength does it help me become aware of?

Is this an injury or weakness – if so what vulnerability or weakness does it help me become aware of?

What does the theme of the dream tell me about myself?

The back of a house or wall: More private, less formal, hidden social situation.

The ‘back’ of ones body: Your strength or moral uprightness. What is past or behind you.