Meaning of Dreams about Animals

What is dreaming about animals or animal dreams with your pets trying to tell you?

What does it mean to dream about animals or have animals in your dreams? Dreaming about animals sometimes isn't about the animal at all. The animals we dream of express the wealth of our own feelings and depth of our unconscious understanding of life. Carl Jung said that all wild animals indicate latent affects (feelings and emotions that we do not readily deal with). They are also symbolic of dangers (hurtful and negative things) being "swallowed" by the unconscious.

The interpretation of the animal in your dream depends on your relationship with it in daily life. Animals represent the qualities in our character or specific aspects of our personalities. They could symbolize our more intuitive and instinctive parts, or they could serve as messengers for the unconscious. Please look up each animal individually by name. Depending upon how the animal in our dream is presented, and what it is doing, dream animals represent our fundamental drives such as the fear reaction, flight or fight response, aggression, need for food, urge to breath, sex or procreative drive, parental urges, drive for recognition or dominance in groups; survival drive; love of offspring; spontaneity; home building.

As such the animal can portray your relationship with the fundamental life processes in you. Dreams depict these processes as intelligent and responsive, not just as chemical actions and reactions as modern medicine so often does. Therefore our conscious attitudes influence these fundamental living processes in us - processes that maintain health, digest, beat our heart, rebuild damage and fight infection. Negative feelings or attitudes can cause these 'animals' is us to despair or lose motivation, and thus lead to depression or illness.

Animals are one of the most frequent of symbols that appear in dreams. Because we see them in so many ways, such as the cunning or trickery of the fox or coyote, the strength and mystery of the elephant, the loving fierceness of a lioness with her cubs, and the almost unconditional love dogs give us, the animal in our dream can express a very wide spectrum of meaning or feelings.

Because we project these characteristics onto animals, we may occasionally dream of an animal to represent the feelings we have about a person. An attacking dog for instance may be used to depict how we see someone who is being aggressive toward us.

Thus dream animals are complex symbols, and there are many shades of meaning in animal dreams. Some animal dreams for instance display personal need for affection, desire to be touched, or the need to care for another creature and thus feel needed. Others are about our sexual needs or desires. Some display ways that we enter into or avoid love. Because of these huge variations, the long commentary at the end of the individual description of animals has been added to help awareness in looking at such dreams. Each animal is also given an entry, as the character of the various animals suggests different things to us. Pets, for instance, have given to each of us very different experiences. We therefore have very personal associations and feeling responses to pets we might dream about.

 

The Interpretation Of Animals In Your Dreams:

Animals in dreams are generally associated with behavioral patterns

See also meanings below for individual animals

Before you delve into interpreting your dream, it will help to understand some important points about dreams so you can use your dream life to discover more about your inner self.

Physical Animal Dream Interpretation

Group consciousness or mass consciousness.

Emotional Animal Dream Interpretation

Being bitten or attacked by an animal may suggest feeling hunted, vulnerable or doubting your own strength.

Spiritual Animal Dream Interpretation

Your natural instincts, the beast within

See also animal dream meanings for individual animals:

Also See: animals, animal dreams, dreams about animals, dream dictionary, free dream dictionary, dream symbols, dream dictionary, dictionary of dreams, dreams dictionary, dream symbol, dream interpretation dictionary, a-z, dreams, drams, dream, alligator, antelope, ape, badger, bat, bear, beaver, bird, buck, buffalo, bull, calf, camel, cat, chameleon, circus, cobra, cougar, cow, coyote, crab, crocodile, deer, dinosaur, dog, dolphin, donkey, elephant, elk, fish, fox, frog, game, giraffe, goat, hare, hide, hippopotamus, hog, horse, hyena, jackal, kangaroo, lamb, leopard, lion, lizard, lynx, mole, monkey, moose, mouse, mule, octopus, otter, panda, panther, pet, pig, porcupine, puma, puppy, rabbit, rabies, raccoon, ram, rat, rhinoceros, scorpion, shark, sheep, skunk, slug, snail, snake, sow, spider, squirrel, stag, stud, tadpole, tail, tick, tiger, toad, tortoise, turtle, vet, whale, wolf, worm, zoo

Alternative Meanings of Animals In Dreams - What Animal Dreams Mean:

Alternative interpretations of dreams about animals:

If physically pregnant, then it most often refers to this, and the fears, hopes, attitudes, desires, ideas and physical condition regarding it. It can also symbolize the development of some new approach to life, new outlet of expression, or new faculty. If you are pregnant, don't be too worried by anxiety dreams about the baby. Virtually all women have them. Only get worried if they persist. A scan can quickly see if you are anxious or intuitive.

 

Animal Dream Interpretations ANIMAL SITUATIONS IN DREAMS

 

ANIMAL WITH ITS YOUNG: Parental feelings; one's basic childhood needs; ones own childhood experience of being parented.

ANIMAL SKIN: The traits, power or wisdom of the animal concerned; the instincts - for example yogis are often depicted sitting on an animal skin. This means they have found a new relationship with their instincts and gained the wisdom and power latent in them.

ATTACKED BY ANIMAL See: Wild animal(s) attacking: below.

BABY ANIMAL: Oneself when young; feelings or memories concerning ones own babyhood; desire for babies; vulnerability; fundamental survival behaviors such as dependence, crying and bonding. See: example in eating.

DOMESTIC ANIMAL: Urges in ourselves which we have learned to meet and direct with reasonable success. They still have to be cared for though, or they may react against what we ask of them. A horse for instance is broken in, or socialized, when it is young, as we are. But if we are keeping a horse, we must still make sure it has proper food, exercise and rest, as well as an expression for its herd instinct and sexual drive.

EATING THE ANIMAL: Integrating our natural wisdom and energy; absorbing strength from sources other than or conscious personality; sensual pleasure and nutrition.

FEAR OF ANIMAL: Although what has been said generally covers the possible meaning of fear of an animal in a dream, some people have phobias about animals in waking life. See: Animal phobias at the end of the animal section.

HERD OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:  The domestic animal depicts the urges in yourself and society, such as the sexual drive, aggression and self interest, that have been directed socially for thousands of years, and is usually amenable to finding some level of social integration.

HERD OF WILD ANIMALS: The herd is often to do with our relationship with groups of people, social relationships. So the wild animal depicts your own urges or feelings in this area that you feel uncertain about controlling or directing. A herd of them therefore suggests you are meeting aspects of yourself you have not yet learned to direct or usefully integrate.

HIDING FROM OR TRAPPED BY: Feeling controlled or threatened by ones urges or emotions. See the wolf entry below.

NEGLECT, MUTILATION OR KILLING OUR 'ANIMAL': A common theme. In the example below, Lynda's feelings show how she senses what she is doing to her inner nature, but she dismisses this by convincing herself such feelings are not 'true'. We have a responsibility to care for our animal drives, to see our sexual, nutritional and body needs are met.

EXAMPLE: "I am given an animal to look after, usually somebody's pet while they are away on holiday. I then completely forget the animal, go away and when I return the animal is either dead or very dried up or has been got at by another animal and is in the throws of dying. When I wake from the dream I feel most dreadful and it is only when I am fully awake and realize it is not true do I feel better." Lynda E.

TALKING, HOLY SHINING OR WISE ANIMALS: Important intuitive information; a meeting with the gathered wisdom we have unconsciously. This wisdom is the result of millions of years of life experience now built into us as instinctive or unconscious urges or responses to situations. It was gathered not only by our prehuman ancestors, but also from long before that. This is one of the sources of religious inspiration, and many older cultures represent their origin of great learning or holiness as animals or animal headed beings. This is most likely because a great deal of innate information is held unconsciously. Our animal or instinctive self holds much of this, so communication with it can lead to enlightenment.

TAMING OR LOVED BY WILD ANIMALS: Learning to relate to urges and energies in yourself that were previously unavailable to your will or needs. For instance some people face difficulties and their mind and body does not appear to support them. Instead emotions of anxiety rage within and they become ill. So this might suggest their instinctive flight or fight impulse is over stimulated in some way. Fear is a fundamental response in animals, but often gets out of hand in humans due to thought and imagination. Other people have such a good relationship with their emotions they manage good health even when meeting stressful events.

WILD ANIMAL: Urges and spontaneous feelings which may not respond in the way we, or our social training, may wish. Wild animals in dreams are not something ultimately different to our personality. They are an expression of energies and needs which we have not previously related to in a cooperative or mutually helpful way.

WILD ANIMAL(S) ATTACKING: The wild animal represents our unrepressed instinctive reactions such as sex and anger. In the attacking mode however it is unleashed aggression. In some dreams being attacked depicts what we feel in relationship with other people. The attack, the criticism and malign emotions directed at us by others are frequently shown as an animal attacking or biting us, as is our own internalized anger or fear. Sometimes we may be aware of this, but often remarks are made which we miss, yet are sensed as an attack by our unconscious. Or we feel things and do not express them in any way, so they become directed inwardly where they can cause harm.

WOUNDED ANIMAL: A hurt that has caused instinctive reaction, such as unreasoning reactive anger or fawning submission.

The Meaning of Animal Dreams - Animal Dreams and Consciousness

Like any other animal, human beings have developed certain physical and behavioral traits. Some of these traits, such as a new born baby attempting to suckle the breast, and attempt to bond with its mother, are rooted in millions of years of past experience and can be thought of as instinctive. To be abandoned by ones mother, even for a short time, was a life threatening danger in the past, and is still felt as such today by an infant because of the millions of years of imprinted experience.

We can observe such traits in a dog in such behavior as cocking of the leg in male dogs. We can see some of our own traits in such things as the human desire to elect leaders. Many of these habits are psychobiological or social. In our dreams we represent these drives or habits in the form of various animals. Our restrained sex drive or aggression may be shown in our dream as a dog on a lead. The power of drives such as the urge to parenthood via sex might be shown as a horse which we are trying to control. More than anything else though, our dream animal represents our powerful feeling reactions to situations - reactions developed through centuries of human experience in frequently terrible situations. This aspect of ourselves is rooted in the older portions of the brain. The feeling reactions indicated are those such as the fight or flight reaction; the drive to protect property or territory even to the point of killing another human being; the urge, often not accepted in its naked power, to find a mate and to have sex in order to procreate; the desire to have standing and recognition in ones social group; the drive for dominance - or the resulting depression or sickness if no recognition or place in the group is found.

Because dreams exhibit a powerfully precise way of using symbols, there is a difference in meaning between the wild animals and the domesticated animals we dream of. In general the domesticated animal such as a cat or horse represent urges we have more conscious control over and are therefore less threatening to our conscious desire to be in charge. The wild animals in our dreams often pose a much greater threat to our ego, but nevertheless offer rich rewards if we can develop a working relationship with them. After all they are aspects of ourselves, so the relationship can release more of our usable potential.

Dream Symbol - Animals
Animals, Animal, Dream Animals
Meaning of Dreams about animals

 

Animals in my Dream

EXAMPLE: I am sitting in the hotel staff room eating lunch at a large dining table. One by one I am joined by perhaps a dozen women. The atmosphere is pleasant, easy and light hearted. I enjoy the feeling of being the only male among a dozen attractive women. Then I notice a strange thing. One by one all the girls around me turn into cats, but carry on laughing and talking as if nothing is happening. I find this interesting and not alarming. I am aware each girl turns into the sort of cat that is right for her - a vivacious redhead becomes a purring orange tabby; an aloof, slightly superior lady becomes a Siamese; the only ex-girlfriend of mine present becomes a black witches familiar.

I remember turning to my left and asking: "Tell me Rebecca, how did you do this?" The Rebecca cat giggles with a human voice and says: "He doesn't have a clue, does he?" As I look at the Rebecca cat I realize she still has her human eyes. This I realize is true of all the cats, they have human eyes in feline faces. As I realize this one says: "I think he's beginning to understand now" and laughs.

This graphic dream so well illustrates how our human personality exists within our animal drives and urges.

The animal in our dreams has commonly been seen only as the sex drive. A careful examination of animal dreams shows this to be untrue. The animal represents all aspects of sexuality and relationship. If this wider sexuality in an individual is damaged or traumatized, the person might become a parent who has lost the natural bonding and care for their child; an individual who has no sense of social status or responsibility; criminally violent; someone with disturbed and misplaced sexuality, a person unable to love or care for someone else.

Dominating or attempting to kill the animal in us can cause tension, depression and illness. The escape into dry intellectualism that might occur if the 'animal' aspect of oneself is denied, can be a cause of internal conflict. Complete permissiveness is no answer either. Our higher brain functions need expression also. So one of the challenges of maturing is how to meet and relate to our 'animals', and perhaps bring them into expression in a satisfying way. Such drives are fundamentally a push toward LIFE. Our dreams are selective in what animal is used to portray our situation. For instance a dog or horse are creatures that have been socialized for thousands of years, whereas a dinosaur has no history of socialization. These different animals - domesticated or wild - can therefore be used to represent the socialized or untrained elements of ourselves.

In considering what our dream animal communicates to us, consider how you feel about that animal, what view you have of it, whether it excites, disgusts or frightens you. Is it funny because it exhibits some aspect of human nature so openly, like monkeys making love in public? Is it to be envied because it is so honest, like the dog growling at someone it doesn't like or is frightened of, and giving obvious affection to someone it has a link with? With such straightforward questions we can arrive at what our dream animals represents to us personally.

Animal Phobia in Dreams & Fear Of An Animal in a Dream

ANIMAL PHOBIAS IN DREAMS

Some research suggests that our dream animal may represent a conscious phobia, and that left handed people, or those from a family in which left-handedness is frequent, may suffer phobia more frequently than people who are right handed. This is thought to arise out of the way the two brain hemispheres inter-relate. For instance the left hemisphere deals with rational thought and verbal concepts; the right deals with non-verbal ideas and feeling responses.

In most men and in right-handed people, the division of activity between the brain hemispheres is marked. In these cases the two hemispheres are said to be "lateralized." But in women and people who are left-handed, the brain's hemispheres share many functions and are not so segregated, and the hemispheres are less lateralized.

In studying the frequency of animal phobias in left-handed people, the psychologist Paul Chemtob, found that left handedness occurred in twenty percent of phobics whose problem was bad enough for them to seek treatment. Chemtob believes that where the lateralization of the brain is high, the rational left side of the brain inhibits the action of the feeling responses in the right. In left-handed people however, this inhibiting action is not so pronounced, so the feeling reactions arising in the right brain hemisphere more readily break through into consciousness. This may explain why ninety five percent of phobic sufferers are women, and many of the men are left handed.

Connecting this with the animals we dream about, waking animal phobias, unless rooted in an actual encounter with an animal - for instance being bitten by a dog - may still represent our personal struggle with and fear of our own instinctive reactions and feelings. It is also probably true that all of us, left-handed or not, experience deeply moving feeling reactions such as anxiety in response to many events of our everyday life. But as Chemtob's findings suggest, some people are physiologically, and thus also psychologically, better equipped to deal with such high levels of impulse than others. This can be thought of as a stronger or more resistant threshold for impulses as fear or aggression to pass through before they impact upon the conscious personality. Therefore, in some people, such as women in general, and the left-handed in particular, their 'animal' is a much more insistent beast in their life.
 

DREAM MEANING Of SPECIFIC ANIMALS IN DREAMS

 

AARDVARK/ANTEATER - Dreaming about an anteater or aardvark is a warning to be cautious in your business dealings. It indicates that you might be exposed to new elements, people or events, that will threaten your business discipline and work ethic.

ALLIGATOR/CROCODILE - Feelings or fears of being attacked or overwhelmed, possibly from within oneself, or by a powerful mother - i.e. ones internal dependence upon mother. For instance a mother in law with a reputation for being an accurate prophetess, and not liking her daughter's choice of man, told them both she had an intuition the relationship wouldn't last beyond eighteen months. The relationship had many difficulties anyway, and at these times the prophecy would come back and undermine the man's confidence. The attack was therefore now from within himself, although its origins were originally from his mother in law. In fact the relationship is still going well after 16 years. The alligator and crocodile often represent this hidden form of treachery, apparently harmless until it opens its mouth to eat us. Another attack from deep within can be from repressed emotions.

The Egyptians worshipped a crocodile as a guide to the dead in the underworld. It represents not only a threat, but also a wealth of wisdom about unconscious things. It possibly represented the forces of the unconscious because of the observation of the crocodile emerging from hidden depths to lay its eggs on the river bank. In this sense the crocodile or alligator in some dreams represents a personal confrontation with eternity. Depending upon the dream, the crocodile may well depict your fears about your inner hugeness. When we meet this it shows a personal awareness of merging with the many lives held in the collective unconscious. It is illustrated by the Christian idea of being cells in the body of Christ. We retain individual life, but know ourselves as part of an eternal life. This is possibly a natural stage in ageing, as our physical prowess and motivations fall away, this immense inner life begins to open to us.

As some people keep pet alligators, there might be a very personal meaning if one has actually kept an alligator.

ANTS - Expect good business activity. Feelings of general satisfaction in all things. You must cooperate to achieve your desires.

APE - Impulsive unreasoned urges such as self centered grabbing of food or sexual expression without concern for the other person; mischievousness; mimicry; instinctive or intuitive wisdom about relationships, social interactions and life; folly or foolishness or feeling an idiot.

Can represent a world of experience human beings have lost and feel sorrow at its absence. Many humans have also lost the wonderful directness and ability to express their wide range of responses to life and people. In developing self consciousness, with its labyrinth of ideas and decisions, humans lost a sense of oneness with life around them.

Animals have enormous remembered wisdom; remembered through instincts and complex social codes. Without it humans can feel alone in the world, a meaningless existence in the midst of uncaring circumstance. They are confronted by choices which, because they have lost an awareness of their instinctive wisdom, they often feel inadequately equipped to deal with. This wisdom is still accessible to humans who know how to listen to the unconscious, and thus discover the enormous wealth of information they have about such things as social behavior and body language. The ape can depict this wisdom, especially if it is white haired. Or it might show the personal folly of trying to let instincts dominate us now we have self awareness. Idioms: He is just aping.

The following is taken from a man's dream journal, in which he describes how he feels when he identifies with the image of an ape.

EXAMPLE: I feel like a powerful ape at the moment. I am not holding myself back in regard to my fellow creatures. I am ready to fight, play, love, laugh. All the different bits of me are available. The question I am asking myself is how do you get people to feel it - that basic animal experience of oneself. The wonderful experience of existing, of being alive with all the powers of a living creature - physical strength, emotions of anger, tenderness, passion and sexual excitement, curiosity, awe and wonder in meeting life and the stars.

ASS OR DONKEY - The basic life processes in the body, which uphold or carry us through the years; the plodding long suffering body; foolishness, a sort of living on whims and fancies, or being used and abused by others. Also a foolishness or stupidity arising from a limited view of things; in the bible the ass carries the Christ, and so represents the unconscious automatic functions of the body which can support the wider awareness; stubbornness arising perhaps out of long entrenched habits and automatic behavior, but also out of the hungers and needs of the body. This aspect of the ass also represents humility and patience along with common or everyday life. If the ass or donkey is being ridden by or pulling someone else: You may be feeling you are doing all the hard work in a relationship, or working like a beast of burden. Riding a donkey or ass: This may represent humility or feeling in a lowly position. But may simply relate to ones relationship with the body's needs and responses.

BABOON - See: ape.

BAT - Nocturnal. Eerie. Quarrels. Sorrows and calamities from hosts of evil work against you.

BEAR - Through television and the many 'nature' films which are now a part of our wider education, we can see that the bear is largely a solitary creature, capable of living alone and surviving. This, and its human way of standing and holding its arms out in a hugging posture, may be the major factors from which a 'bear' dream arises.

We may therefore associate the bear with feelings about living alone or surviving by ones own strength; it can refer to the confrontation with feelings we have about independence, or the meeting with strength and independence in someone else; massive or dangerous rage, such as 'the bear with a sore head'. In this case it might represent your relationship with someone who is touchy or grouchy; powerful possessiveness or a smothering relationship, as or by a parent or lover; withdrawal or hibernating; the 'animal' side of our relationship with our parents; a play on words, such as 'bare', bare facts, bearing with something or someone, 'bearing' ones soul; bearing in mind, a 'bearer' of tidings, come to bear, overbearing; getting ones bearings, bear fruit or bear-hug. Because of traditional cultural associations, and it ability to hibernate, the bear can represent the ability to die and be reborn. Three bears as with father bear, mother bear etc.: Family situation or parental relationship.

If hint of money in the dream: might refer to 'bear market'.

Victory over enemies. Bear is significant of overwhelming competition in pursuits of every kind.

BEAST - Many dreams have as their main feature a beast who is of no particular characteristic or type. Often this beast is horrific and we feel such terror we cannot sustain the dream and awaken in dread. Such a creature is a combination of many associations and fears. Perhaps it even holds in it memories of past hurts so deep we find it difficult to meet and redeem them. Thus it usually is an expression of drives and parts of our nature that have been repressed or avoided for one reason or another. See: beast; nightmares.

BEES/BEE - Activity. Productivity. Social life. Happiness in life. Success in love. Good earnings. Bees signify pleasant and profitable engagements.

BIRD - Flying birds are a sign of prosperity to the dreamer. Feelings of freedom, liberation from weight of responsibilities. See: birds.

BOA (snake) - Seeing a boa constrictor snake in your dreams indicates stormy times and bad fortune. Will be wise not to listen to flattery.

BUFFALO - Augurs obstinate and powerful but stupid enemies. By diplomacy you will escape much misfortune. See: bull below.

BULL - The symbol of the bull often refers to the instinctive responses in us that are powerful enough to drag us along, cause us anxiety if we are in conflict with them, or carry us further in our endeavors if we can work with them. Such instinctive urges may be in connection with sexual attraction and desire, feelings about people invading our territory, and protectiveness for family; sex drive, or the aspect of it that has generally been under control, but may be occasionally wild if provoked; the basic drives toward parenthood, and caring and providing via sex; an aggressive, 'bullish' trait in oneself or someone else; personal traits to do with being very basic or earthy, and perhaps sexual in ones relationships; being moved by impulses such as sex or aggression, without being aware of this; strength; ferocity; obstinacy; maleness; power. The aggressive bull: Often shows the frustration arising from these basic drives being taunted or thwarted. For instance a person may wish for a family, yet be frustrated by a form of sexuality in their partner which does not care for children. The killed bull: A killing of the natural drives to sex and procreation. If sacrificed: May show self-giving. The ridden bull: Shows a harmony between self awareness and its decision making, and the basic 'animal' drives. Idioms: Like a bull at a gate; bull in a china shop; red rag to a bull; score a bull's eye; sacred bull; take the bull by the horns.

As an astrological sign the bull is the sign of Taurus. Therefore with Taureans the bull may depict their innate characteristics and how they are dealing with them. Taurus is a 'Fixed' 'Earth' sign. The bull, and the time of year it is within, symbolizes being in tune with the instinctive earthy side of oneself. An animal born out of season, a calf for instance, would find it difficult in nature to survive, because there would be less food, and it might not be strong enough to face the winter. Therefore the Taurean is born 'in season' and has a harmony with the natural cycles. The sign denotes bodily, mental or spiritual strength; also inherited qualities or possessions; practical, useful powers or gifts. Its essential characteristic is that of service. The person born with their Sun in Taurus is said to be a steady-going, reliable, practical, rather conservative person; slow to anger, but likely, if angered, to be a formidable adversary.

In past cultures the bull was considered sacred. In Egypt for instance the bull was never sacrificed. But in Mosaic times, and in the Persian cult of Mithras, the bull was used for sacrifice to God. In these approaches the bull was a symbol of servitude. But there are many different cultural approaches to the bull. In Christianity it was seen as representing brute force or the earthy quality of human life. In other cultures it was male procreative power, or the power of nature or God in action.

There is a theme which appears in many cultures or myths connected with the bull. It is of the Hero confronting and overcoming the bull. Lao Tzu for instance found, struggled with and eventually rode the bull, representing the human struggle and victory over instinctive or reactive forces influencing consciousness. Also Theseus saves Ariadne from the Minotaur, suggesting that the conscious self has to meet the entangling forces of emotional dependence upon cultural norms, mother and public opinion. Theseus, or our active growing self, frees Ariadne, the feminine or intuitive feeling principle in oneself. From this a new life can be born or emerge.

BUTTERFLIES - Everything related to beauty and grace. They are an indication of prosperity, fair attainments and abundance.

CAMEL - Portraits of endurance. To see this beast signifies great financial gain, perhaps inheritance. First there will be hardship and obstacles to overcome.

CANARY - A dream of having a canary at home translates into a happy and comfortable life full of exquisite refinement, wealth and satisfying friendships.

CAT - Because a cat is often an easy source of physical contact and affection it can depict the need to be cared for and warm affection, even sexual love accompanied with intense warm feelings; for some women cats are a substitute baby, it is therefore used in many dreams to represent a woman's urge or need to care for someone, or directly her need to reproduce, therefore desire for sex; refined female sexuality or ruttiness unless the cat is markedly a tom; in a man's dream may therefore refer to a woman or to the female, intuitive side of his nature; can be our intuition and feelings, perhaps warning us through its sensitivity to moods of unseen dangers; cattiness - showing one's 'claws', jealousy, anger or vindictiveness in a relationship; ones mother; independence; stealth; fertility; in some dreams definitely represents the fear of bad news or general fears. If you have bred cats it may well represent your own, perhaps unconscious, desires to have a baby. Jungians see the cat as representing a deep psychological secret, a hidden side of ones nature.

1.) Alley cat:  Sexuality; promiscuity; down on luck.

2.) Black cat: Depends what dreamer associates with it - so may be good luck or bad luck and evil - i.e. events working for or against one; anxiety.

3.) Cat's claws: Spitefulness; desire to hurt; hidden aggression; clinging, or 'getting ones claws in someone'.

4.) Cat having kittens: Desire for or feelings about babies or ones own babyhood; fertility.

5.) Fear of cat: Fear of the female in oneself; fear of females; difficulty in meeting feelings and intuition; sense of danger. See: Animal phobias at the end of the animal section.

6.) Group of cats: Group of women; relating to the different moods or feelings.

7.) If allergic to cats: If you are allergic and dream of a cat it would signify a negative and threatening reaction to a situation or relationship.

8.) Kitten: Feelings about vulnerability or babyhood; feelings about caring for someone or something vulnerable; parental urges, perhaps protectiveness.

9.) Speaking cat: Ability to express feminine feelings, intuition or sexuality; a realisation of feelings of physical hunger or emotional or sexual attraction. See last example below.

10.) Wild cat: Stealth, ferocity, cunning, ability to survive.


EXAMPLE: "I went to the fridge to get out some mince meat to feed the cat. It came in. As it fed I had a strong urge to touch it, such strong feelings of love were pouring out of me. The animal looked up at my face as I wanted to kiss it. The lips had pink lipstick on. I kissed it, it's paw came up around my arm, I could see the black claws. We were rolling around on the floor, it felt very sexual." Monica.

EXAMPLE: My husband died over a year ago, and I live alone, no pets. Yet I dreamt I opened my front door and there was a cat waiting to be let in. It was my cat, and I knew I hadn't fed it for ages or looked after it. I felt awful that I had neglected it for so long. The strange thing was that the next day as I walked around the supermarket, I kept wanting to go to the cat-food section to buy food. - Winnie P. - Exeter

In losing her husband Winnie has lost her source of given and receiving affection.

EXAMPLE: I was with a young boy and went to his house. I believe his mother was there and a cat. The vivid part was that the cat spoke to me. It spoke in a rather female voice, very clearly. As it spoke I felt great amazement. I had lots of thoughts about how it had learned language - that it could speak because of human language - what did language do to its psyche - and so on. I didn't reach any conclusions. I noticed as it spoke that it had tiny lips, but they were perfectly formed like a woman's. They had lipstick on - or at least were red and attractive. Ben.

Ben's dream has a mixture of sexual attraction, femininity and the ability to express in it.

See: First example under the general information at the end of the separate animal definitions.

IDIOMS: Copy cat; bell the cat; cat and mouse; cat's whiskers; cat out of the bag; cat and dog life; cat on hot bricks; something the cat brought in; a cat's paw; cat among the pigeons; while the cat's away.

CATERPILLAR -

CHICKEN - Easy available. They represent fortune in love, joy and happiness in all aspects of your life.

CLAM/CLAMS - Dealings with an obstinate but honest person. Will enjoy a comfortable life.

COCK/ROOSTER - A dream about hearing a rooster crow means great prosperity and good news. Cocks fighting means family quarrels and unexpected sorrow.

COW - Similar to the bull, but representing the female side of one's nature, especially the easy self-giving of oneself and one's body to others, or a baby; one's mother, motherliness or the mother role; a woman; the forces of nature or life in oneself, especially as they relate to receptiveness or nurturing and the feminine which can lead or direct the masculine positive energy in oneself; being taken advantage of.

In ancient cultures the cow represented fecundity of the earth, and therefore the universal mother earth the provider and nourisher.

Cow being milked: Giving of oneself; taking support or nourishment from someone else; taking, or being taken, advantage of.

IDIOMS: Sacred cow; milk cow; till the cows come home; silly old cow; being milked - meaning being taken advantage of; to be cowed - meaning beaten or conquered.

Docile and productive. Great prosperity in all ventures but watch out your own affairs carefully. Cows promise abundant fulfillment of hopes and desires.


COYOTE - In general similar to dog or fox - see below. It is sometimes used to represent the 'trickster' element of life, as is the fox. Trickster. Rogue. Thief. This means doomed for disappointment or serious disaster ahead.

CRAB - Crabs relate to love affairs. This dream portends to lovers a long and difficult courtship. Also, avoid rivals.

CRICKET - To see crickets in your dream indicates hard struggles with poverty. They also indicate famine and distress among the poor.

CROCODILE - See alligator above.

CROW - Seeing a crow in your dream means disappointment in everything. Grief and misfortune. See: Raven.

CUCKOO - See: birds

DEER - The soul, the gentle harmless self that is often hurt or wounded by our aggressiveness and cynicism, or by other people's criticism; vulnerability; the unsocialized or wild, but gentle side of our instincts; love-sickness. In a man's dream: The deer may depict a young woman the man is in pursuit of.

DINOSAUR - Exploring dreams is like uncovering different strata of human psychological history - history we all share. The dinosaur is our very basic urges of survival such as fear, reproduction, and survival reactions to situations. This does not make these 'brutal'. They are fundamental and necessary in today's life. Because these aspects of ourselves are so old, and have survived so long, there is often great wisdom in them to be made conscious. Such urges as fighting over our territory or mate - grabbing what is available for ourselves - striving aggressively to provide for family, also need to be integrated in a way that socializes them, otherwise they exist in a primitive form still, perhaps in conflict with our personality. This is similar to most animal symbols, but the difference is that the dinosaur portrays them at their most primitive or unsocialized level. Also: Something that has not survived or will to survive; something, or some element of ones attitudes or feelings that is outdated or has no survival value.

EXAMPLE: I was walking past a large building site which had been excavated for foundations. Rain had filled the excavated pits and a large lake had formed. As I walked past I could see ancient primitive creatures rising out of the water. One of them a large dinosaur came toward me. I was scared and ran away. The dinosaur followed and started speaking to me. I couldn't understand what it said. Don.

Don explored his dream and says - I realized that through my internal digging into myself I had uncovered some feelings I had never met consciously before. This was about anxiety, which I had suffered a lot, and about the anger I felt toward my step children for not appreciating the work I was putting into building them a home and working to provide. Seeing these things helped me understand what was behind my difficult feelings and fears. For instance I saw that fear is fundamental to all human experience, and I needed to meet it and help it to meet the modern world instead of be repressed and remain primitive.

EXAMPLE: It was darkening and the street was very appealing to me. I could just discern a house at the end of the street, facing me, and I walked toward it. I was not far advanced along the street when I saw, coming from the direction of the house at the end, in my direction, a very large dinosaur - as high as the house itself. It was walking upright on its large hind feet and the front feet were quite small and held in front. I was very nervous and frightened, but thought, 'If I walked very slowly, it might not notice me and pass by me But as I was just past it- it passing me on my right - I quickened my steps in fear. It turned and caught up with me, and I thought, 'If I talk to it in a gentle voice, it might know I was a friend.' I talked to it in a soothing voice, saying "Good evening, and what are you doing with your little feet in the air?" It turned its head down to me and said something in a very sweet voice, and I knew at once it was a friend, but I couldn't understand what it said. I asked again what it did with its small feet, and it repeated what it had said before, softly, while we were walking toward the house at the end of the street. But I could not understand, though I knew it was something nice. Mrs. G.A.

Here there is an obvious meeting with fear, but this is transformed through communication.

DOG - The dog appears more often than other animals in dreams. It depicts our natural drives that are well socialized, but still have the tendency to revert back to the spontaneous or 'wild' state quite easily. For instance our anger might usually be well under control, but if someone teases us we might surprise ourselves by the amount and strength of our anger. Similarly our sexuality may be usually expressed in a socially acceptable way, but if we are in a situation where our sexual pleasure is stimulated or allowed easy expression we might deeply shock other people and ourselves by what we do; easy expression of such aspects of ourselves as aggression - maybe because dogs show their teeth easily - sexuality, especially male sexuality, friendship; the parts of self we usually keep out of sight, but which may express spontaneously; our easy flowing natural feelings; devotion, perhaps to a lover or child; for some people a dog was the only source of expressive love in their childhood, so may well depict this; fidelity and faithfulness; as the sheep-dog it is also the guardian of our welfare; like the cat, the dog can be a substitute baby for childless women, or represent affection or caring. See: cat.

In mythology the dog has symbolized the guardian of the gates of death, or a messenger between the hidden and the visible world. The dog was also thought of as a guide or guardian of the hidden side of life.

1.) Black dog: The black dog figures in quite a lot of people's imagery. Bernard Levin uses it to represent depression. For some people it is death. The sense or meaning the dog gives in relationship to depression or death is that it is a living energy in us which has gone 'bad' which causes the depression or death; urges which are largely unconscious; messenger related to death.

2.) Dog attacking: Either being attacked by someone and so represents their anger or snide criticism or your own anger or aggression. See: Animal phobias at the end of the animal entry.

3.) Dog on lead attacking: If you are holding the lead - restraint of your aggression toward someone. If someone else is holding the lead - feeling attacked by someone. As in Cornelia's dream in the example below, there may be a sexual connection.

4.) Dog on lead: Restrained or controlled urges; urges we have trained or directed; holding back or restraining parts of oneself.

5.) Woman's dream - attacked by dog: Could well be feelings about male sexuality or a relationship with a male. Possibly the dreamer is holding back her own female strength and cannot meet the male strength.

IDIOMS: Die like a dog; dirty dog; dog eared; dog eat dog; dog in the manger; gay dog; go to the dogs; let sleeping dogs lie; etc.

EXAMPLE: "I continue on my path, and suddenly the nettles disappear and the path is clear. Ahead the wall has curved round to face me, but there is a gate in it, and I can see my dog waiting for me on the other side." Mrs. M. G.

In the dream from an elderly woman the dog is leading the way through the experience of meeting death. Mythology has often shown the dog in this light, as an inner sense of knowing how to find transformation through death - or as the ravaging threat of death.

EXAMPLE: I was with a female friend who is a lesbian. Two dogs attacked us. My friend ran away but I couldn't. Cornelius.

On exploring her dream Cornelius discovered feelings about her own womanhood and relationship with males. She realized the dogs represented her relationship with male sexuality, and that her friend was afraid of males.

EXAMPLE: I was aware of the danger of two, or maybe one young child. They had been allowed to carry a small animal which acted as a scent lead for large tracker dogs which were hunting and would attack and kill whatever they were tracking. I found one of the boys trying to hide under a pot or a basin in the spare ground behind the house I lived in London. I pulled him out from his attempts to hide. He had no idea of his danger. Two of the dogs - perfectly harmless and friendly when not hunting, were coming close to me and trying to lick me. They had huge mouths. I got very angry with one man, a farmer type, who I thought had been careless in the way he was urging the dogs to hunt. I swore at him in public, calling him something like a 'fucking idiot'. There was a large public gathering and I wondered what the public would think of me swearing. D.G.

There is an obvious reference in this dream to the unconscious urges some people have to hunt and hound others. The dogs especially depict this unleashed aspect of human nature, harmless when not set into motion.

DOLPHIN See other dolphin entry.

DONKEY - See: ass.

DOVE - See: birds.

DUCK - To dream about a duck signifies fortunate journeys, also they could indicate thrift and a fine harvest. It also denotes marriage and children in a new home.

DRAGON See other dragon entry.

EAGLE - They are associated with far-sighted vision and power. You will realize your ambitions and will gain your desires. Fame, wealth and a higher position are attainable.

EEL - Slipperiness. A dream about them is good only if you can maintain a grip on it, otherwise fortune will be fleeting.

ELEPHANT - Although the elephant is much like any other animal in our dreams, it tends to represent the power and influence of the potent forces active in our body and mind that if we relate to well bring about health and success, and if badly illness and ruin. For example the elephant can refer to the powerful responses in us such as fear, sex, survival, and the power of imagination to evoke great anxiety or great pleasure. Often our personality evokes these forces in a destructive and disorderly way. A person may have read an article about cancer for instance and develop a great fear they have the disease, causing much stress and actual physical illness in some degree. So some elephant dreams revolve around how we relate to this power, and the attempt of the elephant to place us on its back to direct it. Also: The totality of self rather than awareness of only conscious ego; what is referred to in Christianity as the 'spirit', the divine influence which can heal or instruct, thus power from our unconscious; strength; unforgiveness from association of long memory; patience; fidelity; intelligence or wisdom of the unconscious.

If we run from the elephant: Being afraid of our own strength or inner power. The question is, can we meet this enormous energy in ourselves enough to direct it? Sometimes represents the collective unconscious.

Elephant's trunk: Sometimes a sexual symbol; ability to get ones own needs - see example below.

In ancient cultures the elephant was often seen as a holy animal. In India the god Ganesha has the form of an elephant, often seated. It represent good fortune and prosperity, the overcoming or removal of obstacles. Idioms: White elephant; pink elephants; rogue elephant. See: the self under archetypes.

EXAMPLE: During an experience arising from the use of psilocybin, I had a very clear mental image of a baby elephant. It was like a bas-relief made out of clay, but mobile. I could see that the baby elephant had some problem with its trunk, and I wondered why my unconscious had produced this image so clearly and what it meant. Immediately the image disappeared and a series of associations arose unbidden. It was that the elephant actually ate with its mouth, but it had to reach out for everything with its trunk. As a baby the elephant would suckle, but as it matured it would have to learn to get its own needs with its trunk, therefore the problem was about me reaching out for my own needs.

ELK/MOOSE- Like horse but wilder, less tamed - so the force of drives or emotions that carry us along or trample us. The moose or elk sometimes appears as a magical animal that brings a feeling of loving connection with the world.

FERRET/ERMINE - Inquisitiveness, sexual forcefulness that can injure another person's feelings; the ability to ferret out things from the unconscious, but usually through force or fear or by denying other feelings; survival. The ermine was traditionally linked with virgin saints and thus purity.

FISH - To dream about fish or fishing denotes energy and economy. A fish in clear water expresses freedom related with your feelings.

FLEAS - They denote sickness and minor irritations. You are feeling the need to deal with old troubles also.

FLIES/FLY - You are feeling annoyed by friends and maybe thinking of doing something foolish. There is a postponement of success.

FOX - Shrewdness in dealing with what faces the dreamer in life; a tricky person or relationship; street wise; trickiness in regard to events or self judgments. This usually relates to ones mistaken interpretation or attitudes to the situation; shrewdness or wisdom gained from life experience; unpredictable behavior; the ability not to conform. See: trickster under archetypes. Also, to dream about a fox means that an enemy or rival is among your acquaintances. If the dream involves the killing of a fox you will overcome a threat of trouble and will win in every engagement.

FROG - The deeply unconscious psychobiological life processes, which transformed us from a tadpole/sperm, into an air breathing frog/adult. The enormous information such symbols hold if we explore them gives them their power; meeting with what we find difficult or repulsive in life and ourselves, which if we can accept transforms into personal potential and power - the frog into the prince story. It is often a form of love that transforms the dark sides of oneself, the toad or beast, into something which is life enhancing. The frog has also been associated with the power of resurrection and renewal.

GAZELLE - Grace and beauty. Dreaming about them brings joy, genuine love and affection.

GEESE - They might bring an extensive journey surrounded by good fortune.

GOAT - Rutting masculine sexuality, or if a female goat the fertility and procreative power; ability to climb, personally or socially; tough ability to survive difficulties; sometimes connected with repressed natural drives which become reversed or evil/live when symbolizing the devil - or the animal drives or instinctive and pooled consciousness prior to ego development if connected with Pan; somebody butting into your life, or conflict with someone if the goat is attacking; sure-footedness or meeting difficulties with ease; if you have kept goats it may well represent responsibility or caring. If you have bred them you might use the goat to depict your own reproductive urges; in the Bible the goat represents the bad guys in the phrase 'separating the sheep from the goats'.

As an astrological sign the goat is the sign of Capricorn. For Capricornians the goat may represent their basic character. Capricorn is a "Cardinal" "Earth" sign. It is the sign of hard, long struggle, and finally, high attainment. It's symbol is a compound creature, half goat, half fish. The front portion has the head and front legs of a goat, the hind portion a fish's body and tail. The "Goat," with only his front legs, is patiently and perseveringly struggling to climb a mountain, but is handicapped and hindered all the time by having to drag with him his Piscean after-part. This represents a stage in human evolution during which humans were developing personal identity, but their instinctive drive were still powerful and difficult to deal with. It still depicts this in a person's life today. The Capricornian is said to be ambitious with definite aims and purposes. They are patient and perseverance in overcoming difficulties. Thus they finally succeed in the attainment of their Zodiacal goal. Idioms: Get my goat; an old goat, meaning an ageing man still lusting after women.

GOLDFISH - To dream of goldfish, is a prognostic of many successful and pleasant adventures.

HARE - Intuition; creative ideas; the crazy irrational notions we sometimes call intuition. This probably arose because of the hare's habit of suddenly bounding up from its hiding place unexpectedly, as intuitions often do; the victim or hunted feeling; swiftness; timidity or shyness. The hare occasionally appears as a supernatural figure giving advice; or as a sacrificial animal. As such it depicts our ability to make great changes in life, or to draw on potential that has enormous unexpressed resources.

In past cultures the hare was often given great respect. It stood for intuition, rejuvenation and resurrection, and thus of the immortal nature of humans. The hare was sometimes the messenger of the gods. It was also seen as a fertility symbol, and was predominantly female and connected with the moon. In this connection the hare is the Easter Bunny, connected with the Moon Goddess Oestra or Eostre. The Amerindians saw the hare as a hero/savoir, the personification of light. For some reason early Christianity saw the hare as representing lust - many animals represent lust in Christianity. It seems to be a faith that has difficulties with sexuality. The Jewish faith see hares as unclean. This rests on a law that only grass eaters with cloven feet should be eaten.

HAWK - Generally a dream of hawks means increase in your fortune but if the hawk is flying you could face losses caused through intrigue.

HEDGEHOG - This probably refers to the sort of response we sometimes have of being easily hurt by situations or peoples remarks or actions; could also mean we feel someone we know is very prickly or easily offended or irritated; memories which create pain or irritation; a vulnerable part of oneself which easily withdraws, but can react by hurting others.

HIPPOPOTAMUS - In present times may be associated with being ungainly or overweight. In ancient Egypt the goddess Taueret was in the form of a pregnant hippopotamus with large sagging breasts. She represented motherhood and the care of children.

HORSE - There is not so much difference between the horse and the dog. They are both Domesticated animals, and so represent urges and drives in ourselves we have learned to harness or direct. The big difference is that the horse can carry us.

Pleasurable energy and exuberance, the sort of enthusiasm or feelings of well-being that can 'carry' one through the day easily; dynamic sexual drive; the physical energy and life processes that 'carry' us around. As such it is the life processes which carry - or pull - us through growth and ageing. Therefore in old age the unbidden processes which move toward death may depict the horse in a threatening role. The horse depicts human instincts that have been harnessed or socialized for generations. But they have perhaps been let slide into non-use. It is also survival drive, sexuality, love, all yearning toward service, toward metamorphosis. See: Example in rescue.


1.) Black or dark horse: Unaccepted passions; threat of death; the unknown or threatening changes.

2.) Blinkered horse: Not allowing oneself to see what is happening around you; anxiety about life.

3.) Controlling the horse or fear of it: Trying to control, or fear of, feelings of love and sexuality, of our own natural drives and emotions that are powerful enough either to give us motivation in our activities, or drag us along unwillingly.

4.) Dead horse: Serious loss of energy or motivation which could lead to illness or depression; an old and dying set of habits and motivations or way of life.

5.) Falling off horse: Relating badly to ones urges and needs. This could result in tension, breakdown or illness.

6.) Grooming a horse: Taking care of ones basic needs such as food, shelter, sex.

7.) Horse and carriage: The natural processes of life that move us through youth to old age; forces that can move us, either from within or as natural events.

8.) Horse dragging the dreamer along: Impetuosity of feelings; feelings dragged along by natural urges.

9.) Horse loving you or expressing sexual feelings: The flow of positive sexuality and warmth from within.

10.) Horse race: The events of everyday life, and your relationship with people; everyday competition and where you rate yourself in it; what happens in the race shows how you are relating to opportunity, or how you feel about your accomplishments.

11.) Horse running freely: Allowing ones emotions or sexuality free reign; love of life.

12.) Horse unwilling to move or carry: Your inner reaction is against the action or direction you are trying to go.

13.) Horseshoe: Good luck, receptivity if prongs upwards; bad luck or lack of receptiveness if prongs downwards.

14.) New born horse: Emerging energy or new motivations.

15.) Old or worn out horse: State of your feeling, perhaps worn out from overwork; may refer to a member of the family.

16.) Riding or leading horse easily: Good relationship with inner drives and emotions; the harmony between instinctive drives and personality.

17.) Running away from a horse or horsemen: Fear of sexuality, which includes responsibility for parenthood and relationship; fear of ones own strong desires or urges; avoiding the responsibility of directing ones own feelings and desires.

18.) Sick or dying horse: loss of health, energy, enthusiasm.

19.) Speaking horse: Realization of what you are feeling but have not been aware of; expression of levels of feeling or body processes usually unconscious.

20.) Strange or unknown horseman/woman: Message from the unconscious; a new opportunity or event.

21.) Struggling to control the horse: Fighting with ones urges and natural drives; difficulty in controlling ones emotions or sexuality.

22.) The mare: femininity, receptiveness, fertility.

23.) The stallion: masculinity, power and virility.


24.) The winged horse: Shows how our life or drive is not limited to sexuality or survival, but can lift into wider activities - a woman turning her love of her children into social caring; suggests experience of a form of awareness which goes beyond personal memories and experience. See: Cayce, Edgar.

25.) Tied up horse: Inhibition; need for release of feelings and allowing ore freedom of expression to ones feelings and creativity.

26.) Training a horse: Developing new habits; directing ones energies in a socially acceptable way; learning to direct ones sexual and emotional energy.

27.) Uneasy on ride: being taken for a ride; feeling ones emotions are dominating.

28.) White horse: Changing sexual drive into love and wider awareness; a meeting with expanded awareness of ourselves.

29.) Wild horse: Undirected energy; sexuality which might not take care of personal or interpersonal needs.

30.) Working horse: The energy or motivation needed to work; how you feel about yourself, that you are only a work-horse, or perhaps treated as such.

IDIOMS: Back the wrong horse; from the horse's mouth; don't look a gift horse in the mouth; horse sense; you can lead a horse to water; wild horses; workhorse; horsing about; getting on your high horse; eat like a horse; back the wrong horse; beating a dead horse. See: spiritual life in dreams .

The astrological sign of Sagittarius is depicted by the half man half horse. Sagittarius, the Archer, is a "Mutable" "Fire" sign. In it the free, unrestrained activities of Aries which became "fixed" qualities in Leo, now become balanced and harmonized, and work toward high aims. It is represented in the Zodiac as a Centaur-like being, half man, half animal, turning to shoot an arrow at the "Scorpion." The Sagittarian is said to have high ideals and philosophy, prophetic insight, and the power that overcomes sin and death. In this sign the animal nature is ruled and directed by the human spiritual nature. The symbol of Sagittarius - half beast and half man represents this new emergence. The emergence of the human out of the animal, and the different sense that human beings had of themselves. It suggests a new type of human being in fact. If we look at the Zodiac from there on - Capricorn, we have the half goat half man figure - until we arrive at Aquarius, a fully fledged human figure. The human faculty is to transcend, to make that change. To switch across seasons, physiological changes, to actually attain consciousness. This allows us to look at the seasons, to adjust to them in a completely new way than the animal.

EXAMPLE: "As I talked to the pale golden horse it felt more and more as if I were talking to a male companion who was in union with me." Alison B.

Alison's horse is obviously portraying her feelings for a man. The dream shows how easy and integrated she is with these.

EXAMPLE: Quoted from Dreams and Dreaming by Norman Mackenzie - page 23. "I dreamed that I was awakened by the sound of horse's hooves in the street. I saw a white horse, with no rider, stopping at midnight in front of our house. I knew it came for my younger sister. I went to the door and opened it to call her, when suddenly I saw her coming down the stairs, all dressed in white. She did not say a word to me, but walked with stately steps down the stairs, through the hall, and out of the door. She mounted the horse and rode away. I woke up crying."

The woman who had the dream thought it foretold the death of her sister (which in fact occurred about a month later) whom she hated for marrying the man that she herself loved.

EXAMPLE: I was driving along Tottenham Court Road with my wife and my youngest son. As we neared Euston Road I saw the magnificent sight of hundreds of horses coming full gallop toward me. I knew it was a great horse race - something like the Grand National. There was every sort of horse - many riderless, all surging in a mass so thick there seemed no space between them. Then we were walking in the Covent Garden area, and it was still a market. I was crying openly at the wonder of what I had seen. Edward.

HYENA - An attitude of living on other peoples vulnerability or weakness; taking advantage of someone or being taken advantage of; underhandedness; messenger or bringer of death; feeling parasitized.

JACKAL - As dog but a wild version; a trickster figure like coyote and fox; a deceiver; being a scavenger it has sometimes been associated with death as with crows and vultures; due to being able to see in the dark and the light, the jackal was seen by the Egyptians as a pathfinder in the underworld - i.e. the unconscious - leading the dead to the other world.

INSECTS/BUGS - Overall a dream of insects denotes financial gains, abundant means, and also a mystery will be solved.

JAGUAR - Anger; power of assertion and fierceness.

JELLYFISH - A dream of jellyfish is associated with passive aggression in you and the way you are looking to express yourself more forcefully. Don't give away your heart.

KANGAROO - Hostility of someone will cause great anxiety. You need exercise great care of reputation.

LAMB - The childlike, dependent, vulnerable part of self; innocence; Christ; as innocence and purity the weakness of the lamb has enormous power, and can defeat evil. It means that prosperity will be gained through the sacrifice of pleasure and contentment. Lasting friendship.

LEECH - To dream of leeches, foretells that enemies will run over your interests. Doomed for disappointment.

LEOPARD - As with any of the big cats, anger, temper; spitefulness, cruelty; courage; because of the leopard's spots, which can be seen as eyes, the leopard has represented The Great Watcher - i.e. wider awareness. See: wider awareness. Enemies seek to cause injury but will fail. You will be embarrassed in business or love, but by persistent efforts you will overcome difficulties.

LION/LIONESS - The power of our physical strength, of our temper, of our emotions or sexuality; love that has become anger through jealousy or pain; leadership; ones father or fatherhood, or mother if it is a lioness; an image of the father/mother God; leadership; watchfulness or guardianship; self assertion or boasting because of the power of the lions roar. The story of Androcles and the lion shows how the pain felt by our 'animal' life process, if tended by the conscious personality, brings a loving relationship between conscious and unconscious.

Many children experience recurring dreams of a lion chasing them through their house. This is most likely due to a developing struggle with their natural feelings of anger and aggression. This because their parents might attempt to quiet or control the child's temper, or criticize it as 'bad'. Idioms: Brave the lion's den; lion's share; head in the lion's mouth.

As an astrological sign, the lion is the sign of Leo, a 'Fixed' 'Fire' sign. In the dream of a person born with the sun in Leo, the lion may represent their basic character. It is said to be the heart of the Zodiac. In it all the activities of Aries have been concentrated and given purpose, permanence, passion and a certain nobility. It is the Royal Sign denoting Love, the Ruler of Life. Subjects of this sign are said to be proudly 'faithful' and scorn what is weak, small-minded, or mean. It is the sign of the Sun - the physical and also the Divine Sun. In terms of human evolution the sign of Leo represents rulership of the animal kingdom, to become a dominant creature, expressing the best of the instinctive and natural within human nature. Thus in The Witch and The Wardrobe, the greatest strength and unifying influence is the lion. But there is a step beyond this into independent awareness where one recognizes oneself not only as the powerful and creative universal animal life, but as an individual human being as well.

LIZARD - Enemies will cause you injury, but if in the dream you are killing a lizard means you will have a good reputation and will regain lost fortune.

LOBSTER - To dream of seeing lobsters, denotes great favors and riches will endow you.

LYNX - Keenness of perception - lynx eyed; vigilance; otherwise same as other large cats. See: leopard above.

MERMAID See other mermaid entry.

MICE/MOUSE - They foretell domestic troubles and business affairs will assume a discouraging tone.

MOLE - Living a secluded life; attitude of a recluse; short-sightedness; an avoidance of human company; unconscious forces or influence; something going on beneath the surface - this may be something you can't actually perceive, but suffered the consequences of, as with molehills; an undermining influence.

MOLLUSK - Mysterious happenings will claim your attention, therefore do not believe too readily all you hear.

MONKEY - Foolishness; thoughtlessness; being ruled by impulse; ones instincts; the frivolous surface workings of the mind or expression of frivolous emotion - or impulsive difficult to control urges; greediness and self-centeredness; frivolous; irrational in the sense of being stupid; mimicking or aping other people or the group, thus being a follower; the struggle involved in becoming conscious. But sometimes same as ape. Idioms: Make a monkey of; monkey business; monkey with; monkey tricks; monkey's uncle; monkey on your back. To dream of a monkey ,denotes you have deceitful friends that will flatter you to advance their own interest. Opposition in love.

MOSQUITO - If you killed mosquitoes in your dreams, you will eventually overcome obstacles and enjoy fortune and domestic bliss, otherwise you will strive in vain to the sly attacks of secret enemies.

MOUSE - Minor irritations; fears and worries; the mousy or timid part of self; shyness; the activities within us - our house - which go on unconsciously, which might be important though small, or gnaw away at one; the sexual organ which goes in and out of a hole.

OCTOPUS - There are associated with shyness and grasping. You will be loved for your sweetness of disposition.

OTTER - Ability to 'swim' with skill - i.e. to meet the ever changing moods and feelings without 'drowning'; skill in seeing what is under the surface of our everyday life and mind; ancient cultures saw the otter as a clean holy creature. To see them diving and sporting will bring you happiness and good fortune. An absent friend will soon return.

OWL - Warning of the approach of a deceitful person. It denotes a narrow escape from desperate illness or death.

OYSTER - There is something or someone of great value in your life that you're not seeing/recognizing.

OX - Interchangeable with the bull, except oxen may be castrated; strength; patient endeavor; wealth for people who live in agricultural lands; self sacrifice; in China the ox or buffalo represented the untamed instinctive desires and reactions that needed to be trained to a new relationship with the conscious self. See: bull.

PANTHER - Fierceness; temper; anger; I Christian symbolism it represented power to protect against evil. Wild beauty and grace. Enemies will fail in attempts to injure you. See: leopard.

PARROT - You have confidence of friends, but will received flattery from a deceitful person. There is a place in your life where you lack originality.

PEACOCK - You want to be admired but will be disappointed. Maybe you are too ambitious.

PET See other pet entry.

PIG - Fertility; physical appetites; life directed only by physical needs; sensuality; ungoverned passion or appetites; uncleanness; untamed human nature. The sow represents giving of oneself and sustenance; procreative fertility; lack of spiritual directive. Idioms: Pig in a poke; happy as a pig in shit; make a pig of oneself; pig in the middle; pigs might fly; pig headed.

PIGEON - To dream of seeing pigeon flying, denotes freedom from misunderstanding, and perhaps news from the absent.

PORCUPINE - See: hedgehog above.

QUAIL - To see them alive in your dream means a very favorable omen; if dead, you will undergo serious ill luck.

RABBIT - Sexuality - due to human associations with its rapid breeding; softness and non aggression, sometimes to the point of depicting us as a victim, or foolishly passive - may thus represent unworldly idealism. Perhaps because of its tendency to be the victim of predators, is often used as a sacrifice in dreams, which suggests the hurt we might experience to the soft, vulnerable parts of our nature as we experience the pain of meeting reality in the maturing process; feeling hounded by someone; ones vulnerable child self; docility or humility.

If the dreamer hunts rabbits: Some element of self or others being criticized, attacked, 'hunted down' or hounded; instinctive urge to dominate.

1.) Pet rabbit: Wanting to be petted or cared for; gentle contact and caring; responsibility.

2.) Rabbit hole: Alice down the rabbit hole illustrates this - a going within self; into the unconscious; the womb; attempting to escape from problems by turning within. See: inner world; unconscious.

3.) Rabbit in your garden: A quiet attack on your resources or personal growth; also may connect with the general definitions above.

EXAMPLE: Then they brought in a white rabbit, and thrust its eyes through with heated irons. And as I gazed, the rabbit seemed to me like a tiny infant, with human face, and hands which stretched themselves towards me in appeal, and lips which sought to cry for help in human accents. And I could bear no more, but broke forth into a bitter rain of tear. Anna Kingsford, From Dreams and Dream-Stories.

EXAMPLE: The nightmares returned - one terrible one in February 1896 about a tramp, seen holding over a well 'washing, but with a kind of amused tenderness, an object that I thought was a rabbit, but I presently saw that it was a small deformed hairy child, with a curious lower jaw, very shallow: over the face it had a kind of horny carapace. . . made of some material resembling pottery. ..... The horror of it exceeded all belief.' A. C. Benson, quoted in David Newsome, On the Edge of Paradise.

RAM - Masculinity; sexual drive; the aggressive defensive side of 'sheep' - i.e. of ones conformity, being one of the group, the passive employee; power of renewal; leader of a flock or group of people, or the less dominant aspects of self; being dominant or pushy. Idioms: Battering ram; ramming ones point home; like a ram among sheep.

In ancient cultures the ram was often a sacrificial animal, and possibly represented to offering of ones power or seed - genitals - to God to bless. Also the ram is the symbol for the sign of Aries in the Zodiac. This is the 'Cardinal' 'Fire' sign. It depicts the pouring out of new life, power, energy, impulse, activity. The person born with the sun in Aries is said to posses initiative, a pioneering spirit, etc. The sign is represented as a young "Ram," lying down with one foot bent under it, and its head turned backward, looking as if it had been slain as a sacrificial victim. This possibly shows an early stage in the psychological development of human beings, in which the instinctive drives were killed out or purposely repressed in order to develop the personal will and identity. If one is born as an Arian, a ram in ones dreams may represent ones fundamental qualities. See: sheep below.

RAT - What the dreamer senses as sick or negative inside self; fear or anxieties; physical sickness or anxieties about health; feelings of sexual repulsion, or using sex to gain material aims; intuitions about a person being a 'rat' - doing things behind one's back or underhandedly - or deserting a relationship when difficulties arise; threatening things going on without one being clear about what they are; seeing the underhanded side of oneself or others; the evil side of human nature; dirt and squalor; time gnawing away at our life; the unacceptable parts or oneself. Idioms: Rat on someone; rat race; smell a rat; feeling ratty; cornered rat; rats leave a sinking ship.

Street smarts. Sneaky and untrustworthy. They foretell serious trouble to come but unfinished business will be successful.

Pet rat: Quite different to general rat associations; vulnerability, instinctive intelligence, the caring feelings or drive to care; responsibility for caring.

RAVEN - Disaster and unhappiness to come. Injury caused through deceit.

REPTILES - People are gossiping against you and beware of hidden enemies. Need to be cautious in business affairs.

RHINOCEROS - To dream about them, foretells you will have a great loss threatening you and that you will have secret troubles.

SALMON - It could mean advancement within own position and approaching money but beware of a rival. (See, fish).

SARDINES - Troubles are ahead for you, maybe a disagreement among relatives. You have a black mark of dishonor on you.

SCORPION - They are related with destructive feelings, thoughts or words against you.

SEAL - You have many faithful friends and security in love. Secret enemies are working against you.

SHARK - There is a powerful feeling threatening you, but you will overcome obstacles.

SHEEP - Conformity; feeling or being 'one of the herd'; blind following of a leader or others; the aspects of oneself that are the same as other human beings; sheep may depict the way me might be led into situations, sometimes awful, by conforming to prevailing attitudes and social pressures; a passive female; vulnerability; sexual feelings about females.

Caring for sheep: Helping people to grow perhaps spiritually.

Herd of sheep, or sheep in rural setting: Innocence; natural feelings and peace; quietness of mind; the following customs or a leader instinct in human.

IDIOMS: Make sheep's eye at someone; follow like a sheep; being sheepish. See: shepherd under roles.

EXAMPLE: "I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colors surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE SHEPHERD." Brian C.

In the example Brian is not only aware of the sheep, but also THE Shepherd. The sheep is his experience of being one of the crowd and the Shepherd is his sense of his own unique potential or love transforming his ordinariness.

EXAMPLE: A young female sheep wanted to make love with me. We were rubbing our heads together vigorously - like a dog does when playing. Someone, a woman, was going to cleanse its vagina, perhaps by injecting disinfectant. It seemed we would have sex. Arthur C.

SNAKE - A snake ready to strike means treachery from one you least expected; killing it means victory over enemies. See; snake dreams

SPIDER/SPIDERS - To dream of a spider, denotes you being careful and energetic in your labors and fortune will be amassed to pleasing proportions. Domestic happiness. See; spider dreams

SQUIRREL This could refer to the ability to hibernate, to pull back from outward activity. Also the squirrel is industrious in the summer collecting/saving food for the winter. So it can depict the habit or need to save. It is also a very nimble creature, and so could refer to the ability to move around in life with great ease. To see squirrels in your dream foretell you will acquire a few new friends and there is happiness in the home.

STAG - Masculinity; male sexual drive; in a female dream it might depict her response to male sexuality; the joy of life; courage; the life energy; virility; healing energy.

EXAMPLE: The three of us were on our way to a lively night out and I suggested a short cut through Richmond Park. Suddenly this old man stepped out and advised us not to do so as stags were rutting. I thanked him and replied they would be too busy to care about us. As we walked through, trying to ignore the fact the stags seemed to be stuck together, we felt relieved. Suddenly an enormously big stag with tremendous horns and a leering and vicious expression came swaying toward us after breaking free of a female deer. Jasmine C.

EXAMPLE: The following comes from the notes of a man exploring a dream about a bull: As the bull, when I put my nose into the grass the earth tells me what has lived and died in this field. I hear the earth tell me things. I hear this voice in me calling out 'ME! ME! ME!' There is that one voice calling out from deep in me saying everything. It is the bull calling a mate. It is the stag saying - I AM - I will fight - I will kill - I will care - I live - I die - I lust - I want. It is saying I am alive. I've got something - LOOK . I have this precious gift of the seeds of life. I am Life. I am the baby crying for the mother. I am the death cry. It is sex which turns this energy on. It is the female which calls it. When I see the cow wonderful things happen. In the erection the blood pressure alters, the guts change. But I believe that can be redirected. It can create a new life at another level. It can leave its old path of reproduction of the body, and create a new life in the eternal - waking up in eternity. The bull or stag must come of its own accord - but the direction must be indicated for it.

STALLION - See: horse above.

SWAN - To dream of seeing swans holds prosperous outlooks and delightful experiences. Also they ring good health and revelation of a mystery.

TARANTULA - To dream you see a tarantula, denotes disagreeable prospect for health or for pleasure. Will be disappointed in a love affair. See; spider dreams

TIGER - Although similar in many ways to the lion, the tiger has a more feminine quality. It can therefore represent an angry woman; ones mother/a woman as a protector or destroyer; anger; spitefulness; the power and authority of ones animal strength; anxiety or fear; like any other animal, the tiger can also represent aspects of sexuality, depending upon how it is presented in the dream. As a symbol of sex it would most likely include elements of uncertainty - will I be attacked or overwhelmed - power and instinctive responses. Idioms: Fight like a tiger; paper tiger. See: lion.

EXAMPLE: A person approached me holding quite a large animal. As they handed it to me I saw it was a tiger cub, large and very well built, with a thick neck. I was surprised, but even more surprised and disturbed when a huge tigress came through a doorway above us at ground level and came down the stairs to us. I thought she was going to attack us, but she took the baby cub and placed it down. She then came with something in her mouth, probably money, and placed it near me. She gave off a powerful feeling of not wanting the cub, and with the money handing it over to me or us for our care. There was an atmosphere of irritability about her. Peter G.

In this example the tiger has an obvious connection with the mother. The dreamer had often been threatened by his mother that she was going to give him away, or put him in a home. So the dream probably dealt with his need to confront these feelings of abandonment which, like the tiger, were threatening. Interestingly, almost exactly five years later, in the same month, Peter dreamt the following.

I am in a house. There is a feeling I am sharing it with a number of people, as if there is a connection with a friend Mike. Suddenly I notice there is a tiger cub running around the room. It is a large room and empty except for myself and the cub. I realise this must mean there is a mother tiger about and worry that it will be angry or aggressive because of its cub. I go to walk through a doorway, but the mother tiger walks through. I stand still, not daring to move. But she brushes against me in a friendly way and strolls over to look at her cub.

TURTLE - Opportunity for advancement is available to you. You have secret enemies around.

VULTURE - To dream of vultures, signifies that you are unable to reconcile misunderstandings with a friend, and maybe a long illness that may bring death and misery.

WHALE - To dream of a whale is related with power and strength. Good times are coming. There is a great truth that you are ready to accept.

WOLF - Although the wolf can depict a feeling that 'things' are out to get us, the wolf is often just fear. Fear is one of our instinctive reactions to situations, so is depicted by an animal. We may find ourselves a prisoner of such feelings, as Anna in the example below. The wolf, as is suggested by such fairy stories as Red Riding Hood, also represents the female fear of powerful male sexuality; repressed sexuality or anger; emotions and drives you are frightened of.

EXAMPLE: "I was in a caravan in the middle of a field and in this field was a large black wolf. Every time I tried to run from the caravan to the edge of the field, the wolf chased me back, so I was a prisoner in the caravan. It all sounds so simple now, but at the time I was truly terrified." Anna S.

This next example from Oliver, a boy of six, illustrates how such fears can be met with a little courage. It is a dream which recurred several times, so his description is of a series of dreams.

EXAMPLE: "I am in my bed in my own room and I hear what I know to be a wolf wearing the sort of clogs worn in Lancashire. When the wolf gets to a certain point, there is a bang, and I wake terrified. My Mother's reassurances do not help. Each night he gets a bit nearer before my panicky awakening. The night came when I know he will reach me. Sure enough he arrives, and the bedroom door - in my dream - is flung wide open with a tremendous bang. There is no one there. I never dreamt it again."

IDIOMS: Wolf at the door; wolf in sheep's clothing; cry wolf; throw to the wolves; a wolf - meaning a man who lusts after women and pursues them like a predator.