Full moon
The moon at maximum face — light reflected fully into the night, a long-tracked marker of cycles.
A full moon in a dream is the dream's image of the moon at maximum face, the night briefly filled with reflected light. The full moon has marked human time for as long as there has been human time — the lunar calendar of harvest and festival, the Buddhist Vesak, the Jewish Passover, the witches' esbat, the harvest moon of farming cultures — and the dream uses that long lineage when it shows the peak of a cycle rather than its beginning or its end. The full moon is distinct from the sun: the sun is direct illumination and active drive, the moon is reflected light and inner reception, and the full moon is the moment when the inner side is as visible as it ever gets. It is also distinct from the new moon, which is the dark seed of a cycle; the full moon is its open flowering. The dream brings the full moon when something in your life — a long phase of work, a slow relationship, an emotional rhythm that has been building for months — has reached its peak and is briefly fully illuminated. A full moon stood under in stillness is the dream affirming the peak. A full moon reflected in water is the dream marking that the inner light has reached the feelings, and the two are briefly in conversation. A full moon described as too large, low on the horizon, pressing against the world, is the dream marking that the inner cycle has grown beyond the room you usually keep it in. A full moon hidden behind cloud, with the expected illumination missing, is the dream noting that the peak has come and the visibility you were promised is not, in fact, available.