Dragons in Dreams

I had a dream… it was about a dragon. It wasn’t terrifying, but it wasn’t pleasant. The creature certainly wasn’t Puff, the Magic Dragon. But what did it all mean?

Throughout history, dragons have symbolized power and depending on the culture, good or bad. Eastern culture has traditionally seen dragons as wise and beneficial, good fortune, and a sign of a spiritual or personal quest. Western culture, on the other hand, has presented dragons as bringers of hardships and destruction, guardians of treasure, and representations of greed. So does the regional symbolism apply to dreams?

What about Biblical symbolism? In Revelations 12, we are told of a dream in which Satan takes on the form of a red dragon. So are dragons diabolical?

In most explanations, across traditions of belief, dragons almost always symbolize a conflict; a significant problem in your life that you will have to deal with. Being chased by a dragon is an anxiety dream, similar to those in which you are standing in front of the classroom in your underwear. Maybe you even find yourself being chased by a dragon in your underwear if something is really weighing on your mind.

Winged dragons are often said to represent some sort of transcendence, insight. For example, if you are dreaming of riding a dragon, you might be in for some type of spiritual change.

Perhaps your dream dragon is standing in front of a cave, guarding its entrance. Numerous sources decipher that the cave is your subconscious and inside that cave is treasure, which in turn is your true self. In this interpretation, fighting the dragon represents fighting your own fear regarding reaching and understanding your true self.

Dragons in dreams are also associated with power, fire, and passion. Some people believe that these creatures are representations of your sexual and emotional domains. However, it is also cautioned that these dreams are there to remind you to use self control, which when not utilized, can lead to all sorts of destruction.

Still another explanation comes from Freud and Jung, who, as you may have guessed, attribute dragon dreams to a person’s “devouring” aspects of his or her mother or if you are male, your inability out of fear or misunderstanding to incorporate your feminine side into your personality.

So the next time you wake up startled from a dream about a dragon, don’t turn on all the lights and hide under the covers. Instead, take a close look at the things that are going on in your life-the conflicts and fears. Most of the times these are harder to face than fire-breathing creatures. That said, just remember that your dream is sending you a message and that is that you can do it-you can face and slay your dragon.