Dreaming Lens: What was the reality of the image in the mirror? Was there a disparity between the image and the object it reflected? Was the image clear? What was the integrity of the mirror (cracked, broken, or whole)? What was the style and age of the mirror?
Personal Focus: Mirrors can be confounding and confusing. Not only do they reverse everything that they reflect, but their images can give a sense of reality that they do not actually possess. They accurately reflect an image, but are not the image itself. A mirror is comparable to the basic principle of cause and effect. You can use it effectively as a tool to examine the current state of things. However, in order to change what you don’t like in the reflection, you must work on the object being reflected rather than alter the mirror itself.
Who or what is seen in a mirror in a dream represents that which the unconscious mind is seeing. Consider whether the mirror image is accurate to how you see yourself in life. Looking straight into the mirror and being comfortable with what you see says that your self-appraisal is honest and real. If what you see seems off kilter in some way, it could be an invitation to look at where you are being inauthentic. This could indicate something you are deliberately hiding from others or something more mundane, such as being more concerned with how others see or how you wish you were being in the world, as opposed to how you really are being perceived.
The condition of a mirror should also be taken into account. For instance, a cracked mirror may be helping you process a feeling of ominous bad luck due to the Old Wives’ tale common in Western culture that breaking a mirror brings dire consequences to the one who breaks it. A handheld mirror might be offering an intimate glimpse of self, one that is designed to privately monitor the image you project to the world. A full-length mirror could be pointing toward the need to see more of the whole picture of one’s current life situations. Someone else’s mirror might mean your individual sense of self is being determined at this time through someone else’s values or perceptions. A mirror can contain the magical property of showing the truth about a situation when called upon, such as the queen’s magic mirror in the story Snow White. Explore the theme of the dream for its profound truth.