Mourning expresses grief, a coming to terms with loss. In the spiritual sense we may believe in life after death but we still no longer have the physical presence of the individual. In many cultures less emotionally repressed than our own, the period of mourning is seen as a way of assisting the departing soul on its way. In dreams we may find that we are helping ourselves to create a new beginning throughour mourning for the old. Psychologically, we need a period of adjustment when we have lost something (for instance when a relationship ends) and need to grieve for ourselves as much as for what we have lost. The process of mourning is an important one in all sorts of ways. We not only mourn death but also the end of a relationship or a particular part of our lives. Since sometimes mourning or grieving is seen as inappropriate in waking life, it will often appear in dreams as a form of relief or release. You might also like to consult the entries for Death, Funeral, Weeping and Wake.