What Animals Symbolize in Dreams, Part 2: Feather (Bird)–Mouse
As we all know, dreams can be very symbolic; recognizing what those symbols mean can help you interpret your dreams. Animals are some of the most commonly occurring symbols in dreams and nightmares. In these guides, you will learn what each animal can symbolize in your dream.
Animals in Dreams
Animals represent your deepest emotions, instincts, and desires. When an animal appears to you in a dream, you are sending yourself an important message about who you are right now and where you are going. To dream of many animals together suggests your instincts have overcome your ability to be civilized. To see animals in cages suggests you’ve reigned in your instincts, perhaps too far. Sick or dying animals suggest you’ve lost touch with your instincts almost entirely.
Feather
1. To dream of a feather means you need a lighter touch. You ve been too heavy-handed or obvious. Subtlety, even a little light-hearted teasing, will work better now. 2. Feeling a bird’s feathers or seeing feathers falling from a bird symbolize your desire to escape a situation. 3. Feathers are also good medicine. To dream of a feather means you are able to fly above your present situation. Look down and learn.
Firefly
Fireflies represent spirits of those who have passed away, or messages from the spiritual realm. To see many fireflies in the dark means many voices seek to connect with you. Perhaps some come from the “other side”? To catch a firefly in a jar means that someone is acting as a spiritual messenger to you, even though they might not even realize it.
Fish
Fish symbolize your deepest emotions, feelings you might not even realize you have. 1. To see fish swimming in your dream symbolizes desires and urges you’ve recently begun to feel. They may be rising up to the surface, looking for light. 2. To be pursued or attacked by a fish suggests anxiety connected to an emotion you are having. You fear it might overwhelm you. 3. To dream of eating fish means someone has been very emotional with you, and you have taken in these emotions and felt true empathy in order to help this person make it through a difficult time.
Flies
At a basic dream level, flies represent rot, filth, and neglect. 1. To dream of flies in your house symbolizes neglect of your home and family, and guilt and hopelessness at being unable to change. You’ve really let things get out of hand. 2. To dream of flies on your food represents a lack of personal hygiene. You’ve slid into some bad health habits and your body is sending you a warning. 3. To dream of flies buzzing around you or following you, or being chased or surrounded by a swarm of flies, means you have been compromising your ethical principles or you have become financially irresponsible and you are suffering from the effects. You’re starting to get a bad reputation, and it’s time to clean up your act and turn things around before it goes any further. 4. To swat or kill flies in your dream means you’ve decided to do something about the problem.
Flying
1. To fly (or float) with feelings of joy or ecstasy means you have a strong inner self-confidence. Life is good. If the sky is blue or sunny when you fly, you are on the right track. 2. Pleasant flying dreams can also mean you deeply crave an escape from your mundane life and responsibilities. Think about how you could relieve your boredom and routine, capturing the temporary freedom of flight in your waking life. You might desperately require a vacation right about now. 3. If you are a bird in your dream, you have tapped into your inner avian, and such dreams signify a leap in spiritual growth. Some Native American cultures believe you are actually having an out-of-body experience, getting to travel by bird. Being a bird can also mean that, deep down on an instinctual level, you crave more freedom. 4. If you look down and see the ground far below when flying and find it interesting or beautiful, you have the ability to see things from an overarching perspective. The dream may also be telling you to step back and look at the big picture for the answer to a current dilemma. 5. To fly but feel fearful about it, unsteady in the air, or to be afraid of falling from your shaky flight means you feel you have taken on more than you can handle, but so far, you are still airborne. You need a shot of self-confidence. Flex those wings and take control, in your real life if not in your dream. 6. To fly in a vehicle like a plane, hot air balloon, hang glider, helicopter, and so on means you have taken the wheel of your life and are navigating yourself. If the vehicle seems to steer without you, or the balloon or hang glider blows off course and you can’t control it, external forces control you. Think about how you can take back the wheel. 7. If the sky is dark or stormy when you are flying, you may be headed in a dangerous direction. Best to land and watch out for lightning. 8. Watching someone else fly, or watching birds fly, while you remain grounded, means you have the desire to escape but you don’t know how to find the inner resources to make it happen.
Goat
Goats represent sacrifice, blame, rebellion against societal rules, and also destruction. 1. To dream of an injured or dead goat symbolizes a sacrifice you have made for someone, or that someone has made for you. 2. To dream of a goat inside your home or workplace or in any other place where a goat wouldn’t normally belong means you have shifted the blame for something onto someone else, or someone has decided to blame you for something. 3. To dream of a person who is part goat, or a goat in the forest, represents your desire to escape society’s rules and restrictions and really let go. You are ready for a party. 4. To see a goat eating or destroying something symbolizes a situation so carelessly managed that you won’t be able to repair all the damage.
Goldfish
Goldfish represent protection, insulation from the outside world, and untouchable beauty. To dream of a goldfish symbolizes your admiration for something pristine and elevated beyond your reach, or your desire for a quiet, simple, protected life free from the interferences and crass influences of the world.
Horns
1. To dream of seeing (or being) an animal with horns symbolizes your need to be assertive in a situation right now. You need to take control. 2. To dream you have devilish horns suggests you have done something you may feel guilty about, or, as in tarot’s Devil card, you may feel imprisoned in a hellish reality. If the horns are awkward and silly looking, you fear someone is cheating on you or making you look foolish. 3. To dream someone else has horns means you are suspicious or fearful of someone. You think that person, or someone that person represents, may have an evil streak.
Horse
Horses represent personal freedom, instinct, and travel. 1. If you dream of riding a running horse, you want to escape a situation, a habit, or a rut you’re in. You want to break free and feel the wind on your face. 2. If you dream of seeing a horse, you should listen to your instincts right now. They are trying to tell you something your logical side wouldn’t see. If the horse is black, something in your life is about to change. If the horse is white, someone needs your help you can make a small sacrifice or take a small step that will make a big difference to someone else right now. 3. If you see someone else riding a horse away from you, someone has slipped out of your control. They need to find their own way now.
Hunting
Hunting represents your search for something you want or something you desire. 1. If you dream of hunting, and hunting is something you actually do and enjoy in your waking life, you crave a break or a vacation. You need time out in nature, away from that desk. 2. If you dream of hunting but you have never hunted or would never actually go hunting, the hunting symbolizes the thing you want most right now. 3. To dream of hunting and killing an animal and finding this upsetting symbolizes your instinct that winning what you seek might not be as great as you thought it would be. You might prefer to let your desire for that object remain unfulfilled. 4. If you dream you are being hunted, someone wants you for something. You feel pursued, even stalked, by someone’s attentions or needs.
Jungle
1. To find yourself exploring or traveling through a jungle in your dream signifies an adventure, if the dream is exciting. You crave challenges in exotic locations and maybe even a little danger, or you see a current situation as a thrilling chance to prove yourself. 2. To dream of being lost and frightened in a jungle or fighting for survival against the elements or wild animals means you have been feeling overwhelmed by a hostile or difficult situation. You feel like you are barely hanging on. 3. To dream you live in the jungle and feel comfortable and at home there suggests you have a wild, untamed side that isn’t fulfilled by technology, society, and culture. If you can communicate with jungle animals in the dream, more contact with nature and animals is a path of spiritual growth for you.
Lion
This ancient symbol represents courage, boldness, leadership, and action. If you dream of a lion, you desire these characteristics, admire them in someone else, or feel the potential to bring them out more strongly in yourself. In any case, the current situation demands bold action.
Maggots
Maggots crawling on food, in your house, or on you symbolize neglect, bad hygiene, bad habits, and moral degradation. Something is rotten, disintegrating. Is something eating away at yourself or your life? It’s time to focus on cleansing and the pursuit of rejuvenation.
Maze
1. Working your way through a maze or labyrinth in a dream suggests a difficult or convoluted path ahead. You are working your way through, but you aren’t sure what direction you are supposed to go. 2. Helping or leading someone through a maze suggests you are playing an important role in someone else s progress right now. 3. Watching animals navigate a maze, such as mice in a laboratory setting, means you have good objectivity about a complicated situation. What behavior modifications should you make?
Meat
1. Dreaming of eating meat can symbolize a need for more protein in your diet, but it can also symbolize a need to get your head out of the clouds and ground yourself in the world. Eating meat, especially ground beef, is among the more grounding and worldly experiences, and your body is telling you to live a little more, right here, right now. 2. If you are a vegetarian, it is common to dream about eating meat, just as anyone who gives up anything—smoking, drinking, eating carbs—often dreams about doing that very thing. If you feel guilt about eating meat, you are worried you have compromised your principles, possibly in some way that doesn’t involve meat-eating at all. 3. Dreaming of cooking or serving meat for others signifies your wish to bring others into the present moment with you and to provide earthy and comforting nourishment. 4. Dreaming of killing an animal for its meat symbolizes a flaring-up of deep survival instincts. (Or maybe your ancestors survived by climbing the nearest tree!) Something has challenged you to use your natural ability to provide for yourself, or you are struggling with a violent instinctual response to something.
Monster
1. Children have monster dreams all the time, but adults don’t have them nearly so often. If you have a nightmare about a monster, something truly frightens you, and it might be a grown-up version of what typically frightens children: starting a new job instead of starting school; a dangerous or undermining colleague instead of a bully; or the universal fears of change, the unknown, or the future. Whatever it is, it has come to life in your dreams to frighten you. 2. If you dream of defeating or befriending a monster, you are ready to face a new and difficult challenge with confidence.
Mountain Lion
1. To dream of being threatened or attacked by a mountain lion means your instinctual sense of danger has been activated. Something threatens you. 2. To see a mountain lion from far away means you sense danger is lurking, even if it hasn’t affected you yet. 3. To dream of escaping from or killing a mountain lion suggests that you feel ready to meet a dangerous challenge or foil a threat. 4. To dream of befriending or making a pet of a mountain lion symbolizes your desire to tame something, or someone, that seems wild or out of control.
Mouse
1. The answer is in the details if you dream of a mouse. 2. If you dream of a mouse infestation in your house, you’ve gotten lazy or irresponsible. You’ve let things go too far. 3. If you dream of killing a mouse, your heavy-handed approach may be effective in the short term, but you may also be missing out on the subtle side of the situation. 4. If you dream of watching a mouse, saving a mouse, or keeping a mouse as a pet, you are curious and courageous.
For more animal dream interpretations, check out our quick guides What Animals Symbolize in Dreams, Part 1: Alligator–Elephant and What Animals Symbolize in Dreams, Part 3: Owl–Zoo.
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Dream Dictionary by Eve Adamson and Gayle Williamson (a.k.a. Dream Genie)
