Old Father in dreams
Authority, structure, and the part of you that sets rules for yourself.
How old changes the reading
The base reading of Father
Your father in a dream points to the part of you that organises the rest — that decides what is acceptable, what gets put first, what you call yourself. A father absent in the dream is often that function gone quiet in you; a father overbearing in the dream is often that function gone harsh.
Receiving advice from your father is usually you giving yourself counsel you already had. Arguing with him is often you renegotiating an old rule you set for yourself a long time ago and outgrew.
Where you often see it. Your father in his current age. Your father at an age you remember from childhood. A father-figure who is not literally your father. The dream uses the father for authority, structure, and the part of you that sets rules for yourself.
What it is not. The dream's father is not always literal biography. It is the rule-setting function in you that needs attention.
Related in the dictionary. Read father with mother (the matched function), house, and any scene where authority is being negotiated.