DreamWeavers' Circle . . . When we dream of something or someone familiar to us in our real waking life, we need to focus on the question of whether the dream object should be analyzed on the objective or subjective level, or both. As we analyze a dream on the objective level, we ask whether the dream's message relates to the person or object or situation that exists in our waking life. We do all the association work with the other key elements in the dream. It is unusual for the dream to have meaning on the objective level, although one should examine that level first.
Some people find warnings or affirmations in their dreams often.
This is rare. It is much more common for all the elements in the dream, even the familiar, to speak symbolically. Therefore, every dream about the familiar should be looked at closely by the dreamer on the subjective level. This means that the dreamer should do associations with the familiar element , and substitute those associations along with the other associations for key elements in the dream to find the dream story that is being told symbolically. This is the process that should be applied to any familiar element in a dream as well as the unfamiliar to find the symbolic, subjective level of the dream.