EXCREMENTS IN DREAMS: Waste, rejection, but at the same time matter that contains vital, fertilizing principles (think of feces that nourish the soil, or urine that in Eastern cultures and in urinotherapy is considered "water of life"). Excrements are also associated in dreams with the idea of dirt, something that provokes disgust and repulsion, but which is deeply connected to the individual, to the self, something to be expelled, a product of the body that has been processed and digested, yet still tied to individual creativity.
Waste, rejection, but at the same time matter that contains vital, fertilizing principles (think of feces that nourish the soil, or urine that in Eastern cultures and in urinotherapy is considered "water of life"). According to the principle of opposites, excrements are linked to wealth, gold, life. Seeing feces in dreams is still considered a sign of luck, a good omen, individual enrichment in popular culture today.
For Paracelsus, human excrements were the "prima materia," the starting point of the alchemical process, the opus from which the philosopher's stone emerges. For Freud, the relationship between feces and money is very close; it appears in dreams as well as in individual neuroses and originates from the child's interest in their anal region and its products, an interest that will sublimate into attraction towards money and wealth. Jung examines excrements, connecting them to distinctive traits of the dreamer's character, as well as to their need to eliminate "psychic waste."
In general, when feces and urine appear in dreams and capture the dreamer's attention, they are to be regarded as linked to the need to "let go" of some situation, to eliminate control over something or someone, to expel from one’s life what has become unnecessary or even "toxic." Seeing oneself in a dream in the act of defecating may allude to the above: eliminating to regain well-being, to "live."
The symbolism of this process is death-rebirth, life renewing itself through what dies and ends. But one must not forget the disgust normally felt in front of excrements, hence seeing in a dream someone dirty with feces, or wetting them with urine, may connect to a feeling of rejection or disdain towards the indicated person, while seeing oneself eating feces may represent both the need to regain a vital force feared to be lost, and the fear of remaining in poverty, of being destitute, of no longer having the necessary economic sustenance, as well as having to swallow something too ugly, being forced to live in a "disgusting" situation.
Seeing oneself dirty with excrements without feeling disgust or discomfort may allude to a need for regeneration, for recovering a concentrated force, both physical and psychic, as well as a pride of the self that draws upon its inner resources.
