The Dream Book of Self-Knowledge

Sister, female cousin

  • a sister or female cousin in a dream brings awareness of oneself and is a benefit for the dreamer in any role (negative or positive) and depends only on the degree of understanding the sister's dream role; a very frequent dream symbol of the sister (female cousin) can thus instigate knowledge and spiritual progress.
  • for a man it is awareness of the female principle; in the negative sense the transformation of a sister into a lover is the degradation of the emotional anima into the instinctual; the transformation of the sister into the mother symbolizes a warped emotional relationship since we go from inner archetypes back to outer ones (see Anima – Animus archetype).
  • jealous or envious of sister (female cousin): symbolizes emotions taking over.
  • it can also represent in its dark aspect the shadow with which the dreamer wages endless struggles and endless disputes; in this case we must understand and assimilate the shadow's traits through compassion.
  • the antithesis of the dark aspect is the wise sister, who advises the dreamer not only with words, but also through negative acts to correct the dreamer in revealing the dreamer's own negative traits; if the dreamer recognizes the negative characteristics of the sister's behavior as his own and does everything he can in his daily life to remove them, then he acts with the utmost wisdom (see Wise Old Man archetype).
  • along with a brother: represents one of the antitheses (see Anima – Animus archetype and Alchemist archetype).
  • ill: the cause of problems of an emotional nature lies on a higher plane, i.e. on the non-impressionable spiritual level; then, in being notified on an emotional level (through a dream), the dreamer's physical body becomes ill as a result of the Law of Karma*34.
  • deceased: a worsening of the situation, primarily in the emotional realm; through the death of a sister or female cousin in a dream, the unconscious indicates the dreamer's fall from the emotional realm back to the instinctual realm.
  • of another person: a normal dream figure like other people.
  • the child of a sister: unless this is an actual image of physical reality, it signifies the spiritual animus or spiritual anima.
  • parting with a sister: the dreamer is moving away from the emotional plane of experiencing, and only the prevailing mind set will lead him downwards toward the instinctual or upwards toward the spiritual level of experience.
  • a man's mother turns into his sister: the mother occupies a completely independent place in the unconscious (see Father – Mother archetype), is elevated above the instinctual aspects (wife, lover) and in a higher sense above emotional aspects (sister), but also contains both of these aspects in a latent form; the self-improvement process will someday place a mirror before everyone, forcing the person to stand face to face with the instinctual and later emotional aspects of the Father – Mother archetype, and it is only up to the person whether he is able to deal with these phenomena; a prefiguration of this dream is when a sister replaces the mother in certain activities.
  • lament of a sister (especially for men): opens the dreamer's heart to emotional content.
  • step-: has the same meaning as a blood sister.
  • transformation of a prostitute into a sister: confirmation of an ascension to the emotional level, though even after many ascensions there is often a fall back to the instinctual level, back to the company of an easy woman.