In Chinese tradition · 周公解梦 · 钟
周公解梦 reads the clock or bell as 钟 — the marking of one's allotted time; a steady clock marks life in good order, a stopped or racing one a sense that time is slipping or pressing. It is the measure of your season.
Symbols / A clock
Dreaming about a clock
A reading for meaning, not prophecy
A clock is read as time and mortality felt — in the East the turning of one's allotted time (钟), in the West anxiety about deadlines and the life you are spending, in Ibn Sirin's tradition the passing of one's term or an appointed matter.
Three readings
In Western psychology · Jungian
Jung would read the clock as the ego's anxious relationship to time — deadlines, aging, the life being spent. A stopped clock can mark a wish to halt time or a part of life frozen; a racing one, the pressure of a moment you fear missing.
In Islam · Ibn Sirin
Ibn Sirin's tradition reads the marking of time as the passing of one's term and appointed matters — a reminder of the finite and of duties in their season. Framed as meaning: what is time asking of you right now?
Common variations
- a stopped clock
- a clock running backwards
- time running out
- a loud ticking
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