Theresa Cheung - The Dream Dictionary from A to Z [Revised edition]

Maternal and paternal instinct; your basic childhood need for love and protection or your own experience of being parented. A baby animal can refer to yourself when young and vulnerable; feelings or memories concerning your childhood; desire for babies; vulnerability; fundamental survival instincts such as crying out for protection and comfort and the need for dependence and bonding. If the young animal is injured or dying, this could suggest problems with maturing or dealing with adult life.

Caught or Caged Animals

To see wild animals caged suggests that you are in control of your instincts. If you are in the cage with them, it could suggest a need to break free from constraints. If you dream of an animal tangled in barbed wire or in a trap, this could suggest an unhappy relationship with yourself or someone else. If the animal seems calm, it suggests inner strength during adversity, but if the animal panics, unhappy memories or unhealthy habits are limiting your potential for development and growth.

Changing into an Animal

Also known as zoomorphism, to dream that you are changing into the form of an animal indicates that you are becoming less civilized and restrained, and becoming more free and instinctive. You may be expressing your new-found freedom and independence. Alternatively, taking the form of an animal can also suggest repressed urges that need to be understood and managed. Consider also the qualities of the animal that you turn into and what happens to you in the dream. According to Jung the end of the dream is particularly significant. Favorable resolutions direct us to the most constructive ways of solving problems, while unfavorable dream resolutions contain a warning of negative changes. Dreaming of animal skin could mean you may have found or need to acquire the traits, power, and wisdom of the animal concerned.

Cold-blooded Animals or Reptiles

The unfeeling, cold, almost inhuman element in some human instincts is often suggested by cold-blooded animals or reptiles.

See also FISH, REPTILES.

Composite or Deformed Animals

To dream of animals mixed up with each other, for example half-animal/half-man, could suggest confusion in finding the best approach to a situation in waking life. Perhaps the qualities of the animals in the dream need to be assimilated and integrated? The dream could also suggest that the dreamer is recognizing their potential for development.

Domestic Animals

Domestic animals symbolize fundamental urges and drives in ourselves which we have learned to meet and direct with reasonable success. They still have to be cared for, though, or they may rebel against what we ask of them. Buying and selling an animal may indicate the need for the dreamer to be aware of possible tensions with the people close to them. If the dreamer is selling an animal, this could indicate delays and frustrations; the need for inner calmness to help the dreamer through until they see the light at the end of the tunnel.

See also PETS.

Killing or Eating an Animal

Attempting to kill the animal within (our lower brain functions) can cause tension, depression, and illness; giving in entirely is no answer, either, as our higher brain functions need expression also. One of the challenges of maturing and growing is to meet and relate to our ‘animal instincts’, and if possible find ways to express them positively. To dream of eating an animal suggests that you need to draw upon your own inner wisdom and energy, but it can also suggest a desire for sensual pleasure.

Neglect of Animals

This is a common dream symbol that typically represents neglect of some aspect of your inner nature. For example, you may have been given an animal to look after, usually somebody else’s pet, while they were away on vacation and then completely forgot about the animal, only to discover it later starving, injured, or even dead. This dream is reminding you that you have a responsibility to yourself and to see that your own sexual, nutritional, and bodily needs are met.

Parts of Animals

These have the same interpretation as parts of the human body (see BODY ). If a four-legged animal has a leg or legs missing, it suggests a personality that is not fully rounded. If you dream of a tail, this could signify a need for balance and adjustment in tough circumstances. It can also indicate sexual arousal or the penis. If claws figure prominently in the dream, this could suggest spitefulness; desire to hurt; hidden aggression; clinging; or ‘getting your claws into someone’.

Watched, Attacked, or Chased by an Animal

Hiding from or being trapped by animals can suggest you are feeling controlled or threatened by your urges or the emotions or feelings of others. If the animal is watching you, your unconscious is reminding you not to forget or neglect the instincts that it represents. If the animal is attacking you, this could indicate that you are in the grip of a rage that you fear you may unleash. Your dream is urging you to express or deal with your anger in a controlled way. If an animal is chasing you in a dream, this may suggest that in real life you are in flight from some area of your personality that wants to be expressed. If you are trying to find refuge from animals – either by building a defense or running away – this indicates a struggle with instincts that threaten your safety in waking life. In some cases dreams of being threatened or attacked by animals may be telling you that you are repressing your instincts – perhaps being too civilized – and you should try and loosen up more. Being bitten by an animal could indicate aggression from someone close to you, or that your own aggressive instincts are not under control. Any threat from a sinister animal suggests fears and doubts you may have about your ability to manage your emotions.

Wild Animals

A wild animal is the symbol of a deep-rooted instinct or the beast within you. Freud suggested that dreams of wild animals represented our most sensual passions, and sometimes the ‘evil instincts’ that lie deep within our unconscious. The more wild and dangerous the beast, the greater the danger that suppressed aspect of yourself will break free from the control of your conscious mind and force you to confront and deal with it in waking life. If you dream of a herd of wild animals, this could suggest you are meeting, or need to meet, aspects of yourself you have not yet learned to direct or usefully integrate. Taming or harnessing a wild animal indicates a need to control your instincts and if possible make them productive and useful.

Wise or Talking Animals

To dream of wise animals suggests important information from your intuition or inner wisdom. This intuitive wisdom is within every one of us and the result of thousands of years of life experience. Many cultures all over the world represent great wisdom and holiness as animals or animal-headed beings. To dream that animals can talk represents a wisdom inside yourself that is innocent and simple. It could also represent your potential to be all that you can be.

Animals A to Z

More than anything else, dream animals represent powerful instinctive reactions to situations; for example, fight or flight, the urge to find a mate and protect our young, the desire to have standing and recognition within a group, and so on. When instincts need to be understood, expressed or controlled in some way animals can often appear in our dreams to symbolize them. By understanding animals in dreams and the qualities they represent, we can approach life in a more instinctive, simple and natural way.