I can certainly understand how this dream could be a stressful. But, as we know, the messages of our dreams do not necessarily reflect our conscious thoughts. Instead, the message of our dreams is typically feedback to the dream to let the dreamer know how he/she is progressing spiritually and psychologically. BTW – in our dreams, death rarely means a physical death.

Most of our dreams are not meant to be taken literally but are, instead, symbolic messages from the unconscious – especially the collective unconscious, which is the source of archetypes as per the late Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. An archetype can be almost anything. It can be an object, a plant, an animal or a person. It could even be an event. Although the identification of archetypes in our dreams can be very helpful, we will never have a complete understanding of the meaning of an archetype.

When our dreams contain friends or relatives, we are faced with a dilemma. Do they represent our actual friends and relatives, or are they symbols from the unconscious? However, I usually interpret virtually all dream people as being symbols.

According to the Jungian approach, then there are four cogitative functions: "thinking," "feeling," "sensation" and "intuition." Sometimes, some or all of these four functions may appear in our dreams as people. When all four appear in our dreams, they usually show themselves as three people who are the same sex as the dreamer and one person who is the opposite sex. Assuming that the dreamer is male, the dreamer probably represents the primary function as well as the dreamer’s ego. The brother would be the auxiliary function while the other male and the female would be the inferior functions.

As a little aside:
· For a Jungian, “ego” has very little to do with “egotism.” For a Jungian, the ego is defined as the center of the consciousness.
· The “inferior functions” are not inferior because they are less important but are called inferior because we are less consciously aware of them.

In this dream, the dreamer is probably the primary function while the brother would be the auxiliary function. The other man would be the dreamer’s shadow and the female would symbolize the anima.

Now for some specifics –
1. The book is probably the story of the life of the dreamer or his dream brother.
2. When the dreamer is told to stop his education, the astrologer is probably saying that the dreamer is developing faster than the other functions. Additionally, the “education” probably does not refer to traditional education such as college. Instead, it refers to the spiritual and psychological education that we learn in the school that we all attend – the school of life.
3. The predicted death of the dreamer probably refers to the death of the dreamer’s ego. This is the shaman’s death. As for the 7.5 years, this may actually refer to some time period in the future but not necessarily years.
4. The girl or girls that suffered because of the dreamer probably symbolize the dreamer’s anima. The anima has the potential of growth. Thus, two girls could actually represent the anima at different stages of development. Problems with the girl friend(s) could impact the development of the anima.
5. The building probably represents the dreamer’s body. The ladder could symbolize the spinal cord.

Although the dream continues, I believe that my comments help to convey the gist of the meaning of this dream.

Hope this helps and is not too confusing.
Lugus