To dream of a Child may involve a personal regression into ones past, back when the little dream boy or girl ‘assumed’ almost no responsibility whatsoever. This was simply because all needs were fundamentally fulfilled. The dreamer may be expressing the anxiety of a ‘high-pressure’ adulthood, where he or she must answer for their actions, create and reinforce their own support systems and yes, reach old age. In an entirely different sense, the dream child may be symbolic of the renewal of life found in spiritual conversion or any profound worldly awakening.
For interpretation, the dreamer needs to analyze the activity, facial expressions and dress of the child to better understand its allegorical presence alongside the other components found within the dream. Is the child’s innocence refreshing and pure, or, does it lead the child into danger? Moreover, is the child existing in his or her own world of fantasy? As the child represents ourself, WE must determine whether the child is enacting a form of wish-fulfillment, or, if his or her behavior is real, vituous and immaculate.
Childhood symbolizes innocence. This is symbolized in many traditions by a return to the womb; childhood is closely akin to it. The child is the symbol of natural simplicity, of spontaneity, and this is the meaning given to the word by Taoists. ‘Despite your great age, you have the gloss of childhood’ (Chuang Tzu ch. 6). Children are spontaneous, unaggressive, self-contained, without forethought or afterthought (Chuang Tzu ch. 23, commenting on Lao-tzu 55).
In the development of the human psyche, puerile or infantile attitudes - which should in no way be confused with the child symbol - mark periods of regression. On the other hand the image of a child may indicate a conquest of some anxiety or complex and the attainment of inner peace and self-confidence.
Freemasons are called ‘Widow’s children’. Some interpret this particular widow as isis searching for her husband’s dismembered limbs, others as the architect Hiram’s mother, others again as a personification of ever-fruitful Nature. The phrase is indicative of the bond which unites Masons; whether it is light, energy, strength or nature, they are sons of light, energy and so on.
