Dreams of Reptiles, Insects and Fish

Historically, dream was thought of as communication from the gods. Even though it is said that Egyptians were the first to interpret dreams, as early the 5th century BC, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, suggested that a person's dream world was something created in their own mind. They believe that dreams carried divine messages, but they could only be interpreted with the aid of a priest similar to those of the Babylonians and Egyptians. Plato realized how much dreaming could affect a personality or someone's life. Aristotle suggests that dreams are in fact believed to be a recollection of the days events.

Christianity, like other world religions have recognized the importance of dreams. The Bible has made many references to dreams: In The Old Testament, probably the most famous dreams was Jacob's dream of a ladder from Earth to Heaven. In the New Testament, Matthew's account of Joseph's dream about Mary's conception of Jesus was another well known dream. The Christian religion sees dream as communication between God and man, man and angels and between man and his higher self. http://www.dreams-online.com.au/bible.htm

The most well know modern philosophers of dream are Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Sigmund Freud's theory was that although dreams may be prompted by external stimuli, wish-fulfillment was the root behind most of our dreams. Freud's idea was that our dreams were reflection of our deepest desires going back to our childhood. To Freud, no dream was of entertainment value, they all held important meanings.

Carl Jung was a student of Sigmund Freud. Jung beliefs were contradictory to Freud's. Jung believed that dreams reminded us of our wishes, which enables us to realize the things we unconsciously yearn for, and helps us to fulfill our own wishes.

It is argued that most psychologists believe in Jung's theory of dream. Psychologists believe that it is through Jung's theory that dream analyst can be made applicable to our every day lives. Jung believed that dreams were meant to be understood.

As a child, family members were constantly talking about their dreams. They seemed to use their dreams as roadmaps throughout their lives. My curiosity in dreams began as early as five years old, when I would recall details of my dreams for family interpretations.

Dream about Snake (The Serpent)

Dreaming of snake, was asymbol of evil or satan, makes it a bad omen to have one show up in a dream. To see a lone snake and feel threatened by it shows that you have a bad enemy that is even then working against you, it also a warning against bodily harm from an enemy. To dream of many snakes in a pit is the foreboding of much bad luck in love or business. Should you overcome and kill a threatening snake in your dream shows that you will overcome your adversary and win out.

I can recall a dream that I had one night before I was to go on a school trip to the zoo. In the dream a snake had bitten my best friend who was sitting next to me on the bus. As she laid dying, I jumped on the snake and crushed it. That was a very "bad" dream. Snake in a dream represents enemy or bodily harm. Needless to say, I did not go on the school trip the next day. I learnt later that many of my friends who went on the trip had a bad case of food poison and some had to be hospitalized. This early dream experience has taught me that my dream holds information that I may tell me something of the future. This is a prophetic dream as it reveals something negative that would happen in the future. I believe that Jung may have interpret that the dream reveals my fear of the unknown.

Dream of Spider

All spiders except tarantulas are omens of good luck. If you see a spider climbing the wall you will have your dearest wish come true and if you see a spider spinning a web you will have an increase in your income due to hard work. A large spider sitting on a telephone shows you will have a phone call that will benefit you greatly. The larger the spider, the bigger the rewards.

The African story-telling tradition is an oral one, and Anansi, a spider is always featured as the unassuming hero who cleverly outwitting everyone. http://anansistories.com/Traditional_Stories.html Even though Anansi or spider is smaller in comparison to other animals or people in the stories, he could solve life's delimas by thinking them through rather than using physical strength, which it lacks. Anansi has always overcome in the end.

As a child, I however was very fearful of spiders, so any dream about spiders would freak me out. In my dream of spider, I was always very scared and resorted to crushing it. Which is ironic, because there was a saying that if you killed a spider that you would have bad luck. In one of my dreams, I saw a spider crawling up the wall in my bedroom. It was a big spider and it looked scary and mean. I grabbed a broom and crushed it. As it laid on the ground, I remembered looking at the innards with disgust. http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/s3.htm

Jung argues that dreams remind us of our wishes, which enables us to realize the things we unconsciously yearn for, and helps us to fulfill our own wishes. I believe that he would interpret my dream of seeing a spider climbing the wall as a reminder of my fears and how I react to them. Killing the spider, he would argue is how I unconsciously try to deal with the situation, thus getting rid of the source of my fear or eradicating my fear, in this case my fear of bad luck.

Dream of Fish

The fish is an ancient symbol of Christianity and Christian beliefs. Consider also the common phrases "like a cold fish", "fish out of water" or something that is "fishy" about a situation. It may also imply a slippery or elusive situation.

Dreaming of fish swimming may symbolize conception. It is said that if you dream of fish swimming, it means that the dreamer or someone close to the dreamer might be pregnant. Some women dream of swimming fish when they get pregnant. As a teenager, a dream about fish was not a good one. It was actually the worst dream a teenager could have. I remember one morning, my mother said that she dreamt about fish and she was concerned if any of her three girls were pregnant. Luckily none of us were, but we were all uncomfortable during breakfast. I believe Jung would argue that dreaming of fish in my mother case showed her fear that her teenage daughter might have early pregnancies. If on the other hand, we were grown women, it would represent her wish for her daughters.

Dream analysis continues to be a part of human attempts to understand his/her actions and emotions. Sometimes interpreting is not very obvious and so dream symbols are analysed to clarify our understanding of a situation or emotion. I believe like Jung that, dreams are ways in which the unconscious mind seeks to clarify what the conscious mind has not yet processed. Dreams can also be prophetic.

See also What Does Your Dream Mean?