hello! i'm new here. i haven't had vivid dreams consistently throughout my life, but i go through phases where i can't go through a night without crazy dream experiences.

before i recount what i actually remember happening in thursday morning’s dream, i’m going to explain that the mansion of sorts mentioned in this structure is something i have dreamed about for many, many years. in the past dreams i have owned and lived in it with my parents, rented a room in it, been trapped in it, etc. with each dream i know it better - at this point, i know it as well as you could know a mansion with endless rooms.

in a dream a year or so ago, i saw the outside, which is quite surreal. it’s resembles a large all white baroque-style cathedral. the “windows” are also white (no stained glass). there are two white stone lions at the gate. surrounding this structure is a wide perfectly green expanse of land… the house is actually on a hill. oddly, it seems to be located on a southern, low income street, with small simple shotgun-style homes. i saw it as i “drove by” and was struck with a weird feeling - even in my dream - that i was the only one who saw it.

when i’m inside, i’m usually being transported from room to room via elevator or by a endless spiral staircase - in this particular one, however, that is not true. there are two consistent things that let me know this is the same place: every room is a bedroom (no bathrooms, parlors, kitchens), and every room is themed by a lowly-saturated color: there’s a pale green room, a pale yellow room, a pale pink room, a gray room, and a pale blue room - the dream always ends in the blue room. light is always soft but natural - however, there is no obvious source of light. i don’t see windows from the inside. as i travel throughout the house, i often see rooms that are dilapidated. the house is very old and apparently under constant renovation. usually these rooms have no color, ripped up wallpaper, and, strangely, giant holes in the floor. i never actually enter these rooms. i must not fail to mention that when in this space i don’t feel safe, but at the same time curious - i’m always perfectly aware i’m dreaming, but i can never quite will myself to enter the colorless rooms.

friday morning i dreamed that this place was a tourist attraction and that i and a handful of other visitors we were traveling room-to-room upwards via rope ladders that led to attic door-like openings to the next color room. there was no tour guide that i remember. i kept on getting distracted by small details in each room - i remember dried roses on a pink end table, a rocking chair in a russet-red room, etc. eventually i was left behind from the group. a dark man enters and i sit on the vanity table in the pale yellow room. he pushes up my dress and has hurried, soundless sex with me, and then leaves wordlessly. feeling indifferent about the whole ordeal, i continue on to the next rooms. i know i’m near the end when i see my cousin in the pale blue room - i’m surprised to see her, but i don’t really care to talk - suddenly i’m in a hurry to get to that last room. i clamber up the rope ladder, and open the door - for a brief moment, i see one of the colorless rooms, and am seized by the worst sense of fear - but compelled to go forward. before i do my cousin jerks me down. she says: “that room isn’t complete yet! there are over 300 rooms that aren’t complete! you can’t enter that room!”

The mansion in the dream probably represents yourself.

That's why it shows up in different dreams throughout your life, why it is so big and complex and why you see different parts of it in different dreams (because as your life changes you recognize different things about yourself and see yourself in different ways), why it is old but constantly being repaired (because you are always changing) and why you had the feeling that no one could see it but you.

The white stone lions could represent the protective facade that you put on so that people don't see the real you.

The different rooms in the house cold represent different parts of your unconscious - you don't go into them because you don't want to bring up repressed memories.

The holes in the floor could represent losses or traumatic experiences in our past.

When you dreamed that your house was a tourist attraction, it could have been a way for you to get to learn more about yourself and maybe facing some thoughts/memories that you have been repressing by distancing yourself by becoming a tourist.

The dark man who has sex with you could represent a part of yourself that you don't want to face but that you have to recognize is "inside you".

I think that the room that your cousin says you can't enter and that fills you with fear represents a very difficult, traumatic memory.


Here is some more information on houses in dreams.