Little physical effort is required when playing board and card games, so games of this nature tend to focus on your intellectual performance or ability to think and react quickly. Pay attention to the tactics you use whilst playing and to your overall strategy. Were you calm and controlled with a set of tactics, or were you out of control? Was your game defensive or offensive? What is the dream telling you about your ability to respond to external stimuli in the directing of directing of your life? Are you self-motivated, continually striving to better your skill, or do you rely on competition for motivation? Your answer to questions such as these will tell you much about your current approach to waking life.
Consider too the colors of the pieces or cards you were using and what they might signify. For example, if you were playing with white chess pieces, do you associate yourself with kindness and your opponent with malevolence? If you are accused of cheating in your dream, are you deceiving anyone in waking life? Games in which pieces are moved around a board at the throw of a dice are often designed to mirror life’s challenges and this is often what they represent in dreams, suggesting fears or concerns about factors you can’t control. The game board reveals the moves you make in life and a games room stands for a meeting place in which plans and strategies are devised. A game show cautions against a desire to consider yourself intellectually superior.
Specific dreams may have their own symbolism; for example sexuality in snakes and ladders and the repercussions of your actions in games that require dominos. A game of backgammon may point to your desire to resolve the secrets of your unconscious (the inner table) before time or the other player stops you. Pool, billiards or snooker suggest clever scheming, combined with the skill to accomplish a goal. The condition of the poolroom will give you a clue as to whether this refers to healthy competition or dirty dealings, whilst the pool table refers to the issue or subject of your plans. [1]
Dreaming Lens: What was the game being played? Did you know the rules of the game? Was it an actual game you know from life, or was it an imaginary game? Who was playing the game in your dream? What were your feelings about the players? What level of skill and ability was being expressed? Were you winning, or losing?
Personal Focus: A board game is a civilized approach to expressing competitive impulses and conflict-solving skills. In a dream, it may be an analogy for the “game” in life it is designed to represent. Popular board games are created to convey certain themes of life experience through the process of playing them.
Your first clue to investigating this symbol begins with the game itself. If it is known in the dream, the theme of the game is central to your interpretation. For example, the game of Risk would symbolize the risks we take in life that can lead to power and control. Another is Monopoly: the way we deal with acquiring and managing material abundance. Consider the game you encounter in your dream and determine the theme it expresses. If you do not know the game being played, the meaning you assign your dream should reflect this uncertainty. Your daily life may be reflecting a game plan and strategy that feels unfamiliar.
If you are winning in your dream, you may be expressing recent experiences of successful negotiation of life’s complexities. If you are losing, the dream may be reflecting back to you where you are blocked or challenged. If the surreal environment of the game is the dreamscape itself, an overwhelming situation may literally be enveloping you. If the environment is more a source of fascination, your dream may be illuminating a sense of awe that some moments can inspire. With any game in a dream, there may be unconscious feelings that are demanding a strategic approach to understanding and ultimately, winning. [2]
If you are winning a board game in your dream, you may be expressing recent experiences of successful negotiation of life’s complexities.
If you are losing, the dream may be reflecting back to you where you are blocked or challenged. [3]
A board game in a dream may also indicate that you arc facing competition or opposition at work.
A board game may literallv mean that someone is playing games with you or deceiving you. Finally, it may indicate you are “bored” with a situation or with your present Life. [4]