I was wondering how to tell when to take a dream literally and when to take it symbolically
Or when it means both,
Like the other night I dreamed that I was on a journey and I saw the exact mountains in the picture below,
I was excited but upset saying to my son that I couldn't get to them because there are too many obstacles blocking the way here in Pennsylvania, I kept hearing Tetons and the next thing I knew I was standing right there in front of them.
Then I saw a sand art of one buffalo, then one of an Indian, then one eagle.

When I woke up I was thinking I've heard of plateau's and things like that but I have never heard of mountains being called TETON's. I googled it and got pictures of the exact thing in my dream,

I had gone to a dream interpretation seminar a few days earlier and the speaker said that when your dream is in color it is a message from God. Usually I dream of one or two or a few objects in color but this dream was entirely color.

Symbolically I looked the things in this dream up and they mean the same thing as my dream of climbing the steps to a tree house and seeing blue, green, yellow and purple bottles. The dream interpretation speaker told me that that dream meant that God wants to raise me to a high spiritual position and I need to get connected with leaders

I have always wanted to move West BUT Southwest like Arizona, I was wondering if this dream may also mean that I may just end up going to Wyoming someday as well?

Thanks

You can end up a lot worse places than the Grand Tetons. That's beautiful land up there. You know the wolves they reintroduced in Yellowstone are spreading through that range. Magnificent animals, unless you're a cattle or sheep rancher, I suppose.

I've been drawn for years to Central America, and as I've researched it more, there's a particular town in El Salvador at the foot of a volcano that I think may be the right place. I plan to go there, and all I can imagine I'll do is just show up, say to God, "Here I am. Now what?" and see what happens.

In your case, this seems like that would be wise. If the dream is meant to be interpreted literally, then when you get there, you will discover something interesting. You don't necessarily have to live there your whole life. I think it's fine to make a contract with Spirit to the effect of, "Ok, I'll go, I'll stay two weeks. If you want me to stay longer or do anything in particular while I'm there, you'll need to let me know that before the two weeks are up."

Personally, it sounds to me like the dream expert you met views everyone's dreams through her own agenda-goggles, but then don't we all? ;) That's not to say it's not a good interpretation, though. Maybe you are being called to spiritual work. Going to Wyoming or Montana isn't the point. Hearing the call and being willing to respond to it is the point. It's like God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. He didn't want Isaac's blood, he just wanted to see that Abraham was faithful. So no matter what the dream means, or even if it's just a random synapse bringing back something you saw five years ago in a dentist office travel magazine, you are still showing the Universe in a very powerful way that you are ready and willing to serve, ready and willing to live an extraordinary life. You make an offer like that to the Universe, the Universe will take you up on it.

Any dream can be literally true, and powerfully transform your life, if you choose to manifest it. Any time you take something you saw in a dream and bring it into your waking world, wacky hijinks ensue.

Re the treehouse dream, treehouses suggest stepping up above the normal level of life (Cf. the Tarot Hanged Man). They suggest the inner child, and the trickster (Bart Simpson spends a lot of time in his treehouse). In a child's imagination, a treehouse can become the deck of a pirate ship or an enchanted castle or the bridge of the starship Enterprise (if you were a wide-eyed geek kid like me growing up in the early seventies). The bottles remind me of a story about a blue bottle on Mars by Ray Bradbury, but generally I see the bottles as lots of potential gifts, potions, genies, all sorts of new possibilities to be opened, talents you can discover in yourself if you are willing to follow your inner child into that wild play place and risk a skinned knee or two.

If you decide to go to those mountains, by all means let us know the story of what happens. On the subject of timing, you can do that as a contract with Spirit, too. I told Spirit: "I plan to go to El Salvador when my kids graduate high school. If you want me to go sooner, fine, but you'll have to tell me in a way that I can't mistake, and make it obvious, because I can be dense sometimes." So far, I haven't gotten any indication Spirit wants me there sooner. Rather, Spirit has been putting the time to good use teaching me all kinds of intense life lessons (not to mention Spanish lessons) so I will be equipped for whatever I encounter when I get there.

Blessings on the journey!

Alder

P.S. I'm being a bit optimistic (naive) in saying God didn't really want Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. There are myths from all over the world that describe human sacrifice in the oldest version of the myth, but then have more recent versions in which there was some substitute (like the ram). Seems the later, more "civilized" tellers/writers did some editing so it could aire in prime time. For example, it was eithr Menelaus or Agamemnon who sacrificed his daughter so they could get favorable winds to sail to Troy, but there's a later version where she is magically rescued and goes on all kinds of interesting mythic adventures of her own.

Thanks Alder it really did help a lot. I would love to go West and I have been 'telling God" that I want to do whatever pretty much wherever. I would love to get out of Pa. I feel maybe it is time but I don't want to move on my own whims or anything. I am hoping everything falls into place--right time, right place, etc...
So far all my life 'bad luck' has been holding me back,, I figure that it has been because I need the learning experience first.
I like what you said about the bottles being potential because that really fits into the interpretations of my dreams.

When I get laid off in May I plan to look up jobs and things on the internet on where to go in life from here. So now I will include Wyoming in my search.
I know Pa is not where I am meant to be in the long run all it is is obstacles and dead ends.


I always believed God didn't want Abraham to really sacrifice Isaac either but that he wanted to see if he was willing to do whatever it took. I also believe Abraham probably trusted God enough to know that he would not lose his son either,

In the final analysis, the meaning of a dream is the meaning you choose to give it. Choosing to believe dreams are meaningless is very unfun. Choosing to believe dreams are meaningful can make one's life meaningful, so long as one doesn't abrogate control to the messages one believes one is receiving in dreams. If you do go to those mountains, you name and claim yourself as a dreamer, you prove yourself to be a person who dares to follow your dreams. That's big.