(1) Darkness is a common symbol of the unconscious.
If the darkness is frightening, this represents your fear of the unknown forces in your psyche.
If the darkness is warm and velvety, you are being invited to regard your unconscious as your friend.
(2) Darkness pierced by a light may be a sign that ‘light shines in darkness5: that the truth you are seeking (about yourself, or about life) is to be found in the unconscious. Darkness represents the unconscious in its unknown aspect; when it has been integrated into one’s conscious life, all is light. (On the shadow)
(3) It may be that, in the dream, you cannot find your way to the light, for example, at the end of a dark tunnel. This may reflect desperate feelings; frustration; depression.
See also Tunnel.
(4) The dark place may be womb-like and represent your own mother or, more likely, your emotional relationship to your mother. The unconscious may be recommending that you liberate yourself from a dominating mother (or mother image) and become your own person.
It may represent, not your own mother, but mother in a vaguer and profounder sense: ‘Mother Nature5, physiological, natural, instinctive functions; the unconscious.
See also (I) above and (5) below.
(5) Darkness may represent death. (The womb, too, may be a symbol of death: the desire to return to the womb is a desire to escape from life’s pains and problems.) See also Dead / Death.