As mentioned in my previous article on dreams meaning of hair, money and nightmares, I am offering further descriptions of dream symbols from my list of Top 25 Dream Symbols.
Today, animals are the dream meaning topic. As in dictionaries for a particular language, there are some words that can be used for various meanings. There are also basic words and symbols in all languages that are understood collectively as to their meaning. The same goes for dream language. There are basic symbols which are understood by all of our minds as to their meaning.
Animals in general represent habits, urges, instincts and aspects we attribute to them which are found in ourselves. Personality/characteristic of the dreamer. In many societies animals are revered and respected for their qualities; speed, beauty, strength, courage, vision and so forth. Unfortunately, some “civilized” societies take animals for granted and look at them as lower creatures to be exploited. God gave us dominion over animals to take care of them not to abuse and exploit them for our own use. However, you feel about animals and particular types of animals you may dream of will depend on your view/feeling within yourself as to what habit, urge, instinct or characteristic you associate with that member of the animal kingdom.
Animals in dreams can symbolize good or bad strong emotions, survival instincts, attitudes, behaviour,untamed desires and sub-conscious urges. They too can mean playfullness, intuition, natural urges. And since each animal is known for particular traits then that trait is usually what it symbolizes within ourselves or phase of life or how we are portraying ourselves to the outside world – maybe a little of both when we dream of particular animals.
Domesticated animals such as dogs and cats represent partially trained aspects of ourselves. In some cases if they belong to another person it could represent some clue to that person it belongs to. For example, if you dream your friends cat hisses at you, this could mean your friend had a hissy fit recently with you!
Remember, when interpreting your dreams the meanings I give are general guide lines and how you feel and your experiences are what really matter when understanding what a dream symbol means in your dream. Also, take into consideration your culture, history and spiritual beliefs as to what animals or any other symbols mean to you. For me, personally, a wolf means independence, fierce, leadership, family commitment, resourcefullness, beauty but most people think of wolves as sneaky, deceptive, vicious, scary – big bad wolf or wolf in sheeps clothing. Most dream dictionaries have a wolf as a negative conotation.
Dreams Meaning: Animals
Dog(s) can represent faithfullness, friendship, loyalty, protection, disciplined behaviour and love IF you like dogs or have a dog. However, if you don’t like dogs and your experience with dogs has been negative then your dream of a dog could mean pain, loss or fear. Again, look at the type of dog and its actions and your actions in the dream to understand the message.
Your Dog: Partially trained aspects of yourself that you are aware of and are trying to train or control. How do you feel about your dog and what characteristics do you feel about him/her? List these in your dream journal for reference. For me personally, I love dogs and love my dog. The first things I think of when I think of him are: true love, loyalty, commitment and faithfullness. I often dream of him running away, or I have lost him and can’t find him and I am so broken hearted. This I know refers to my feelings and painful experience of losing someone I really loved. It points to my fear of loss of love and not finding love.
Cats: Intuitive, sneaky, playful, detached, aloof, curious, sensous, stubborn, independent. Or can be catty, scaredy cat. Remember ask yourself first what cats mean to you.
Horse: Strong physical force, energies, freedom, will power. How you control the “horse” is how in control within you or your situation.
Fish: Fish symbolizes religious or spiritual meaning for Christians – Christ, spiritual food or thought. Can also mean something is fishy, slippery, hard to catch which then could indicate caution for the dreamer.
Bear: Powerful, destructive, scary, bad tempered or playful and protective. Over’bearing’, pushy and uses power to scare others into doing their bidding.
Cow: Good provider, cash cow, peaceful, obedient tends to go along with the herd (the group).
Lion: King of the Jungle! royal qualities, power, courage, dominion. If you are taming a lion it means you are in control of your lower instincts within yourself.
Mouse: Meek, fearful, mousey-lack of assertiveness. Could symbolize small irritations or problems.
Rat: Poverty, sneaky, underhanded, filth and disease. Could also mean tattle tale, squealer. Reference to ‘ratting’ someone out. Or “you dirty rat” meaning betrayl, bad dealings, liar.
Snake: Sex, sexual energies, temptation or fears. Or can be a pun snake in the grass for sneakiness.
Serpent: Mind power, clarivoyance, wisdome, creative force, spiritual awareness or kundalini when the emotions in the dream are positive. Could also mean sex, sexual desire, lies, temptation, evil and deception.
There are many, many animals to dream of but I hope these few animal dream symbols I have listed are of help to you interpreting your own dreams. Remember, it is YOUR dream and I can help and guide you to understanding the message with dream symbol guides but you must look at the dream as one big picture – the background, people, emotions, animals, etc and put it all together. I invite you to explore your dreams and utilize dreams as therapy to further your personal growth.
Have blessed and dreamy day!
Cheri
What about a frog?
Frogs are known as being a symbol of unclean or dirty in ancient times. However, that is just one of many meanings. They could indicate a feeling of jumping from one thing to another or could be a symbol for disguise, like a prince hidden in a frog form.. you know you got to kiss a lot of toads/frogs and one might turn into a prince! Frogs also are used in witchcraft and magick or represent change and the unexpected. You could be a big frog in a little pond and need to leap to your bigger dreams. Ask yourself what you remember feeling or the background etc or your actions or inactions with the frog in your dream.
I had a dream not so long ago that i was standing next to a jeep. My friend was in the drivers seat. I look in front of me and a black stallion horse is staring at me. It approaches rapidly with a mean look. I get in the car and the horse starts hitting the car breaking windows…then i wake up..
i’ve thinking about this dream and what it could mean.
Hi Luis:
I am happy to help you find the meaning of this dream could you give me a little more background? What were your emotions or feelings in the dream and when you first woke up from the dream? Where was the dream taking place? i.e. was the jeep in a field or street etc? And who is the friend? maybe the first 3 charaterstics or words that come up in describing this friend.
From what you have written it could be mean a lot of different things so the more specific you are about remembering your dreams the more you can learn from them and what they are telling you.
In general: Horses are representative of our energy, emotions, chakras and physical force. Could also be just a pun on “horsing around” A particular horse as in your dream a black stallion would add mysterious, dark force and emotions, you said the horse was angry and aggressive so I would start with those emotions and see where maybe in the few days prior to the dream you may have been facing some anger or strong aggressive emotions in a situation at work or in your personal life.
Or issues of power and control over yourself and or person or situation in your life at the time.
Hope this helps.
Many blessings to you.
Cheri
Brandy Clouse · Sub Teacher at Garfield Re-2 School District
Hello, I am interested in finding the symbolism in some incidents that have recently happened in my life, not my dreams. I can not find any information about them other than through the dream interpretations. Can you possibly give me an explanation? In the span of 1.5 weeks I accidentally killed a snake, a bunny and a bird, all with my vehicle. The bunny and bird both happened within a few hrs of eachother around the same location, and I was with the same person for the snake and the bunny, and just dropped him off before the bird incident. Is there any meaning behind these? I would really like some more info, or atleast pointed in the right direction to find out more meaning behind these deaths. Thank you for your time 🙂
Hi Brandy: There isn’t really a short answer to this! But I will do my best in this short space. Symbolism and signs are the language of the universe and your soul’s way of communicating to you/us. The immediate thing I get is that you are going through alot of changes in your life. The first thing I suggest is remembering your feelings/emotions about each of these “accidents” and the creature you killed. Also, your feelings and what is going on with the situation/relationship with the person you were with each time. In general, a snake is a symbol of healing, of temptation, sexual energy, transformation of the self like a snake sheds its skin, or basic is someone being sneaky like a snake in the grass? Rabbits can symbolize fertility, prosperity, or fear and timidness (are you being fearful or timid around someone?) birds symbolize freedom, messengers,. I would ask yourself if you are killing a part of you that these animal represent? Are you transforming? Also note the place this happened and what that place means to you. Could also mean this is where ______ends, stops here… NO more.
I hope this helps and makes some sense. Also I recommend a really good book on signs by Denise Linn called The Secret Language of Signs.
Many Blessings to you.
I have a dream I’d like help with interpreting:
I was in this urban outdoor setting ( outside of a corporate type structure with bushes and sidewalks) I was alone. I saw a HUGE snail (size of a volleyball). I turned it over to see if it was empty but it was not empty as it had a snail inside. My first thought within the dream was to smash the shell and kill it and even remember wishing I had some salt but the. I changed my mind and said ” you’re too beautiful to hurt.” at that moment I felt “something” in my left ear moving and to my amazement I pulled snail shell after snail shell (with snails inside of them) out of my left ear. I got up to 6 shells before I woke up shrugging in my bed. It was an unpleasant feeling if you could imagine. About an hour before I went to sleep, my landlords girlfriends daughter came up to me with a tiny dime sized snail shell that was empty and I remember saying to myself it looked cool. Is there any significance spiritually and metaphysically to this dream or was a dream just manifested by the earlier event of being shown a snail shell? Thanks. Please post your reply to my email. Thank you
Hi Robert,
Dreams that take place “outside” are usually spiritual as in spiritual growth, blessings, your connection to your natural self (soul) etc. Prior to sleep you actually seeing a snail (with you landlords daughter) does play a part by triggering your subconscious mind speaking to you. A snail can mean something moving slowly in your life or indicate a protective and cautious attitude about something. The size is huge so this emphasis is on how big you think this “issue/situation” is that the snail represents. why did you want to kill the snail upon seeing it in your dream? 6 snails pulled out of your ear: 6 is the number that represents the cycle of creation, e.g. God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Ears obviously we hear with but they are connected to our head/brain and so this equals understanding what we hear. Equally important in the dream as all the symbols is your feeling/emotions felt in the dream.
My interpretation of this dream is: You are a very cautious person who ponders on ideas, situations, for a long time rather than just “kill it”. You look at things differently and see the beauty of things and not immediately discard these things, ideas, situations no matter how big they seem at first sight. Understanding that what seems so big, that you feel there is no way you can deal with it, that you just kill it but instead you say wait…there is beauty in this and I can break it down in (smaller size) and can handle it.
Many Blessings,
Cheri