Places

Cold hearth

A fireplace with no fire in it — the centre of the room with the warmth gone out of it.

A cold hearth in a dream is the dream's image of the centre of the room with the warmth gone out of it. The fireplace is still there; nothing is burning. The dream brings the cold hearth when something in your life — a household, a relationship, a community gathering place — has the structural centre intact and has lost the heat that made it the gathering point. A cold hearth honestly lit again at evening is the dream affirming the restoration of the warm centre. A cold hearth kept decorative, with logs arranged for show but not burning, is the dream noting that the appearance of the warm centre is being preserved and the actual fire is no longer being made.

Related symbols

Airport terminal

A large transit building for long journeys — anonymous, controlled space between two distant lives.

Altar

A raised place where offerings are made — a small, deliberate centre for ritual.

Amphitheatre

An open round space for performance — a structure shaped so the small voice carries to the back row.

Ashram

A spiritual community gathered around a teacher — a household organised by shared practice rather than by family.

Asylum

An institution for the housing of the mentally ill — a building dedicated to holding minds the household could no longer hold.

Attic

The room above the rooms — where the household keeps what is no longer in daily use but has not been thrown away.

Disclaimer: For entertainment and self-reflection only. Not a substitute for professional advice.