Male and female sexuality, as well as family life in general, are symbolized by the utensils and vessels used in cooking. The cooking fire or oven is traditionally the focus of the household and can symbolize the deepest center of your being; something burning in the kitchen should therefore alert you to problems in your family life.
If you are preparing a meal in your dream kitchen, this may suggest a quest for love and affection.
If you are frying food in your dream, there is the constant risk of getting burned; the smoke billowing around your kitchen may be warning you that a problem could get worse if you avoid it or don’t deal with it. Cinders or a grate in your dream kitchen can represent ruined hopes as well as the potential of projects yet to be born.
If you dream of a kettle, even though its spout it is a symbol of male sexuality, it suggests that someone can get hurt if passions are not handled carefully. On the other hand, it could also indicate your present mood: steamed up and about to explode. At the other extreme, the image of a broken kettle may mirror feelings of emptiness, as if all zest for life has gone.
If you are cooking with pots and pans, the association is with male or female sexuality, depending on whether the pot or the handle is featured.
When a cup is seen to represent female sexuality, drinking out of it is erotic wish-fulfillment.
If it is hurled across a room by a man, it may express fear of, or anger towards, female sexuality; if by a woman, the dream suggests that the dreamer is using sex as a weapon. For Jungians, the cup is a homely symbol of the abundance of life’s opportunities; it is also a symbol of self-realization in that it is an echo of the Holy Grail. A full or overflowing cup often symbolizes excitement and new opportunities, but an empty or smashed cup indicates the opposite.
Cutlery in dreams may suggest a desire for domestic security or the taming of aggression. Spoons may have a similar symbolism to cups, but they can also represent a desire to be spoonfed. A teaspoon may be telling you to take things in one step at a time. A silver spoon may refer to someone you envy. A colander or sieve may be seen as standing for the process of developing a new outlook on life and sifting out unhelpful attitudes and ideas.
See Also: EVERYDAY THINGS.
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