Dreaming Lens: Where was the smoke in your dream? Were you aware of the source? If the dream included a person smoking a substance, what was being smoked and by whom? Was there any color to the smoke? Were you in danger of asphyxiation? Were you creating the smoke? Was it increasing or decreasing in your dream?
Personal Focus: The saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Since fire represents drastic change, smoke is an indication of the occurrence of transformation without necessarily having the ability to see the actual source of the shift. Smoke can cause asphyxiation by blocking the lungs from receiving oxygen, so dream smoke may indicate a suffocating life situation about which your unconscious is sending you an alarm.
A smoke screen is a mechanism for keeping something hidden. It is a battle technique that was used during the Civil War and thereafter, associating it with danger and violence. It has entered our language as something that indicates a deliberate desire to obscure a person’s true intention or create a diversion in order to perpetrate some act of betrayal. If your dream smoke obstructs your sight in any way, you may want to consider what current difficulty in your life may be blocking your view of things as they really are. Ask yourself if you are focusing on what’s really important and not being distracted in some way.
Cigarette smoking is a hotbed of controversy in today’s society, such that the symbolic meaning attached to it can be complicated. The media has always connoted smoking as glamorous and sexy, though that is changing. Those who smoke may have a relationship with their smoking that runs the gamut from frustratingly addicted to apathetically indifferent to the consequences. Health conscious, nonsmoking individuals can be quite virulent in their objections and many states and cities have banned smoking in public places altogether.
Given these radically different perspectives, if a cigarette features prominently in your dream, you must use your own associations with smoking to arrive at an accurate interpretation. No matter what your Personal Focus is, the health risks associated with smoking make the symbolic meaning connect to making choices that are not impacted by your knowledge of the consequences. The factor of addiction is an important element to consider. Smoking can represent any choice in life that is not healthy, but difficult to avoid.