The Secret Language of Symbols: The Toilet

Photo by Curology on Unsplash

The toilet may not be the most glamorous symbol in the gallery.

It does not have the majesty of a tree, the mystery of a snake, or the poetic shimmer of a river. It is unlikely to appear on a greeting card alongside the words “follow your dreams”.

And yet, symbolically, the toilet has a great deal to say.

In dreams and the inner life, toilets often appear when something needs to be released. Something old, unwanted, toxic, embarrassing, private, or simply no longer useful. The toilet belongs to the part of life we prefer not to put on display, which is precisely why it can be such a powerful image.

It may speak of the need to let go.

Old shame. Old grief. Old resentment. Old stories. Other people’s expectations. Emotional material we have been carrying for far too long, possibly with the same determination we use when refusing to throw away a drawer full of cables that fit nothing we own.

Toilets are also about privacy. We need a safe place to deal with what is most basic, bodily and human. So when toilets appear in dreams, especially if they are exposed, dirty, blocked, missing a door, or impossible to find, they may point to feelings of vulnerability, lack of boundaries, shame, or not having enough private space to process what is going on inside.

In therapy, the toilet might invite us to wonder:

What am I ready to release?

What am I still holding onto?

Where do I need more privacy, dignity or space?

And what has become blocked because I have not been able to let something move through me?

A blocked toilet is rarely subtle. Symbolically, it may suggest that something is backing up. Feelings, needs, anger, grief, fear, perhaps even words that have not been spoken.

As with all symbols, the meaning is never fixed. For one person, a toilet may feel comic. For another, shameful. For another necessary cleansing, exposing, or oddly liberating.

This theme of releasing what no longer serves us is also part of the deeper work explored in my book, The Seeds of Change: How Therapists Cultivate Personal Growth.

So perhaps the question is not, what does the toilet mean?

But:

What am I ready to stop carrying?

What needs to be flushed from my life?

And where might I need a little more privacy, compassion and decent plumbing?

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