Sextant
An instrument for fixing position by the angle of the sun or stars — navigation by what is overhead.
A sextant in a dream is the dream's image of navigation done by taking the angle of what is overhead. The sextant fixes a position not by landmark but by the sky; the ship at sea has no landmarks and needs the sky instead. The dream brings the sextant when something in your life — a phase without familiar reference, a stretch of open water, a self-reading without the usual company — has put you in a situation where the fix must be taken from a higher source than the immediate surroundings. A sextant used carefully to a clean reading is the dream affirming the method. A sextant unused, with the deck navigating by hope, is the dream noting that the instrument is on board and the discipline to use it is currently absent.