Should I use online/book interpretations?

I've never really used online dream interpretation sites to find meaning from my dreams. Instead I've used my own perspective and observed others opinions. And ever since I first started a journal I knew of Carl Jung. His belief we all possess the necessary tools to interpret our own dreams. That every dream is a unique occurrence that is to be held close and examined by oneself to be connected in a meaningful way.
But now I am beginning to have a desire to expose myself to widely accepted explanations of dream symbols and such. How many people here use online and book interpretations to find more meaning from their dreams?
I wouldn't begin believing full heartily everything I read but would analyze with full interest. I'm interested in any opinions. There is a part of me that feels I'd be narrowing my own subconscious ascertainment.
I can think of only two things I've ever used online sources to draw some meaning from. The meaning of seeing an ocelot in ones dreams and albino animals. Results of both were decent.

I don't think that the explanations online or in any book will have reveling coincidences with my dreams. But could help at exploring them in new angles. Only at the risk of introducing contents outside the dream and making things arbitrary. You dig?

Yeah, I'm not sure where I stand on using Dream Dictionaries. I used to be dead set against them, until I actually looked at some and found they don't tell you exactly what anything is supposed to stand for, they give you a loose basis to use to search for meaning.

Example (from Dream Moods online dictionary):

Quote:

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Spiders
To see a spider in your dream indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. Or perhaps you want to keep your distance and stay away from an alluring and tempting situation. The spider is also symbolic of feminine power or an overbearing mother figure in your life. Alternatively, a spider refers to a powerful force protecting you against your self-destructive behavior. If you kill a spider in your dream, then it symbolizes misfortune and bad luck.

To see a spider spinning a web in your dream signifies that you will be rewarded for your hard work. You will be promoted in your job or recognized for your achievement in a difficult task. Spiders are also a symbol of creativity due to the intricate webs they spin. On a negative note, spiders may indicate a feeling of being entangled or trapped in a sticky or clingy relationship.�It represents some ensnaring and controlling force. You feel that someone or some situation is sucking the life right out of you. Alternatively, if a spider is spinning a web in your dream, then it could be a metaphor for the world wide web and global communication.

To see a spider climbing up a wall in your dream denotes that your desires will be soon be realized.

To dream that you are bitten by a spider represents a conflict with your mother or some dominant female figure in your life. The dream may be a metaphor for a devouring mother or the feminine power to possess and entrap. Perhaps you are feeling trapped by some relationship. If you eat a spider or dream that a spider is in your mouth symbolizes your control over a situation. You are not afraid to exert your dominance in a relationship.

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So, there's a wide range of possible meanings included, and none of them are too concrete - they give generalities that can help you to think about some situation in your life the dream might be referring to. This can be very helpful because people trying to interpret their own dreams usually get caught up in the surface level - the 'story', and think about it in literal terms rather than symbolically. Looking at a dream dictionary can help break you out of that tendency.

I'd say try first to interpret it yourself, then when you're done with that check the dream dictionaries and see if that adds anything valuable that helps you interpret it.

Yeah, ultimately what a dream represents for you will be based on your own psychology. There may be some common psychological meanings for certain dream elements among most humans, but I think you need to decide for yourself. I don't think one can get a much better interpretation than that attained by thinking about what you're feeling in the dream, and trying to figure out when, in real life, you've gotten that same feeling.

I use dreammoods.com as a "base" on which to build my own explanations/interpretations, using my intuition..

Thanks everyone. :sleepmeditate2:
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I've been using a dream dictionary book that my friend got me for Christmas. At first, I wasn't too sure about it like you, but I quickly realized how useful a tool it is. It's like a dictionary for words in a language. If you are trying to understand a sentence and there is a word or two that you don't know, a dictionary would help a lot. But when you look in the dictionary, you have to pick through the multiple definitions that words often have and apply what you think best fits to try to understand the meaning of the whole sentence. While dream symbols don't have set definitions, there are common interpretations for them. Dream symbols are the words in the language of dreams :).

I had a successful experience with a dream dictionary a few days ago actually. In one of my dreams, my brother dropped a lizard on my bed and I hurriedly covered the lizard with the bedsheets. I wasn't sure of the significance of the lizard until I looked up an interpretation and it made a whole lot of sense in the "sentence" of the dream. It actually was a bit of an eye opener for me.