Images · Animals

Dreams about animals: Jung, traditions and semiotics

This is not a dream dictionary. Each perspective below names where it comes from; traditions are shown side by side, not merged into one meaning.

Also covers: Dog, Cat, Deer

Start with yourself

What was the animal like — wild or tame, chasing you or keeping you company? Have you known an animal like it?

Jung · Instinct

In the Jungian book Man and His Symbols, animals in dreams are often read as instinct given a body — a part of us that is older than words.

What does this animal want? Is that something you also want, but rarely say?

Aniela Jaffé, “Symbolism in the Visual Arts”, in Man and His Symbols (1964)

Traditions, side by side

Semiotics: how an image comes to mean

Following C. S. Peirce, an image can work as a sign in three ways:

• Icon — by resemblance
  Does the animals look like one you have actually seen? Could it simply be a copy of a memory?
• Index — by connection
  Could the animals point to an actual cause — a bodily sensation, a sound in the room, something that happened that day?
• Symbol — by convention
  Does the animals mean what it means by convention — an idiom, a saying, a family phrase? Would it still mean that in another language or culture?

C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers 2.247–249 (icon, index, symbol)
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types (1921), “Definitions: Symbol” — a sign stands for something known, a symbol for something not yet fully known
Ellis (1911), ch. II, on verbal links between dream images

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Recorded dreams with animals

• Bears and snakes in an auspicious dream Western Zhou, China · c. 9th–8th century BCE
• The eagle and the twenty geese Ithaca, ancient Greece · c. 8th century BCE
• Wolves brought a lion without claws Messenia, Greece · c. 7th c. BCE (as told)
• A white elephant with a lotus Kapilavastu (Nepal–India) · traditional (c. 6th c. BCE)
• Seven lean cows Egypt (narrative setting) · undated (text c. 6th c. BCE)
• Rams speckled and grisled Haran, Mesopotamia · undated narrative
• I gave birth to a lion Athens, Greece · c. 495 BCE
• Three black dogs howling Wu (Suzhou), China · c. 475 BCE (as told)
• A snake became an eagle and carried me off Asia Minor · c. 470 BCE
• A barking dog with a human voice Athens, Greece · 450 BCE
• Meeting a god by the great marsh Pei (Xuzhou), China · c. 257 BCE (as told)
• Four great beasts from the sea Babylon · narrative set c. 6th c. BCE
• The great fish with a hook in its mouth Chang’an, China · c. 120 BCE (as told)
• A green lizard fell into my belly Huainan, China · undated (Jin collection)
• Ten men in black begging for their lives Jinyang, China · 4th century (Jin)
• The deer hidden under banana leaves State of Zheng, China · compiled c. 4th century
• Four people in black asked to live Runan, China · 4th century (Jin)
• A long green dog from the south Liangzhou (Wuwei), China · 376 (as told)
• Riding a green dragon up to heaven Jiuquan, Gansu, China · late 4th century (as told)
• An ox with two tails Luozhou (Luoyang), China · c. 650 (Tang)
• A parrot with both wings broken Luoyang, China · c. 698 (as told)
• Fell in the river, boots still dry Chang’an, China · c. 810
• I dreamed I was the fish Shanyin (Shaoxing), China · 837
• Driving an ox cart that carried the sun Chang’an, China · spring 846
• A boy mounted on a lion India (story setting) · c. 1070 (compiled)
• A Vetāla threw him into the sea India (story setting) · c. 1070 (compiled)
• Three horses at one trough Luoyang (setting) · novel (printed 1522); set 220
• The Dragon King begged the emperor for his life Chang’an (setting) · c. 1592 (novel); set 7th c.
• Bottom’s dream, which hath no bottom Athens (setting) · c. 1595 (play)
• Easter morning, cattle on the graves Grasmere, England · c. 1819
• The first animal he dreams of Upper Missouri · c. 1832
• Never cross the large lake Great Lakes region · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)
• A canoe with ten paddles ready Great Lakes region · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)
• A voice calling him grandchild Great Lakes region · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)
• Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream! Oxford, England · 1865 (novel)
• No proper dog at all Scottish moorland (dreamed) · before 1888
• A conversation with a cat England · before 1911
• Planting fowls’ heads to grow chickens England · before 1911
• A scarlet insect as large as a lobster Southern Spain · before 1911
• The dog in the old mangle England · before 1911
• Bread mingled with cinders England · before 1911
• A basket of cold squirming snakes England · before 1911
• A damson with a snail inside England · before 1911
• Pigs on the edge of a cliff Tokyo, Japan · 1908
• The animals fell out of Noah’s ark Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1910
• A crab hidden in the ford Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1916