When I first began studying and researching dreams, I was surprised how often snakes slither into the collective dreamscape. All these years later it still amazes me how many snake dreams are reported to me daily, and the majority of them are rather frightening… with good reason. Snakes evoke fear in most of us, even to the point of phobia! They have sharp teeth, a demonic forked tongue. They can strike at lightning speed and inject you with their poison. Shudder.
Because of these widely-feared characteristics, the dreaming mind often uses a snake to represent the dangerous, venomous behavior of someone close to you, and most often, of someone who is typically male. Yes, the phallic shape of the snake plays a big role in its meaning.
I recently dealt with a snake dream in my nationally syndicated newspaper column The Dream Zone.
Dear Lauri,
Last night I dreamed there were lots of snakes in the carpet and they were fighting spiders. I was watching from another room. I could see hundreds of them. I knew that during the day they hid in the room but at night they took over the rug. I could see hundreds of them, not lethal, just swarming. – John, Chicago, IL
Lauri: You’re a spectator in the dream so it may be connected to an issue in waking life where you are watching things go down, so to speak, rather than getting involved. Or perhaps you are feeling disconnected from something you feel you should be a part of.
Snakes can represent health issues but more often they can represent someone with lowdown poisonous behavior. There were lots of snakes so that can mean that the waking issue is either multifaceted or that this issue involves lots of people that you feel exhibit low down, poisonous behavior. And sometimes, the more there is of something in a dream, the more space the issue is taking up in your head.
The spiders suggest that this is something that has really been “bugging” you and that you may even be conflicted about since the snakes and spiders were in a conflict. The snakes and spiders only coming out at night makes me think that this is about people you feel operate in a dark and shady manner. Since you had the dream last night, something from yesterday triggered it.
John replies: I am in the media and I talked to a friend yesterday who is also in the media. We were discussing our frustrations with how people operate in field of work and how we are in the same boat, sort of in limbo, as we were both recently passed over for respective opportunities. It really bugs me the way the media is and it’s so easy to take it personally. I am so over it and do feel I should disconnected from it. That is a daily feeling, actually. Thank you.
Hi my name is Michele and I had a dream about Superman or maybe it was someone dressed like Superman. Superman was standing in front of me staring at me but moving. I felt very afraid next thing I remember he is laying on top of me massaging my left Brest. I literally could feel my breast being touched. When I looked over his shoulder he didn’t have a Superman bottom it was bare legs and underwire but the top of him was Superman. I woke up when I was feeling my left breast being massaged. Please tell me what this means
This is interesting, but has left me conflicted. When i was pregnant with my daughter, i had multiple dreams with snakes in them. Sometimes they looked cartoonish, sometimes there was just one, most had multiple snakes in them, and on quite a few occasions, there were snakes with multiple heads (one time it was covering the outlining of an inner doorway i needed to cross through, but it’s multiple heads were hanging over top). At the time, a friend of mine indicated that snakes in a dream was a good thing. I took that for what it was worth and didn’t tend to give it any more thought. It recently has come to my mind again and that is how i came across this article. Now i am a bit worried as to what this may have meant.
Hey, this is *very* late, but I’m only just discovering this now so sorry about that. In the wild, owls will sometimes take snakes and have them watch over young hatchlings while the parents are away hunting. For this reason, some species of snakes could be a metaphor for nurturing, or caring for a child. I don’t really know how dreams work, but it’s something to think about
Dear Lauri, I always dream of my former village home, and church compound where I spent my youthful life..
Some time this year I dreamt with a big gold snake in my bed and felt like it had sex with me. I woke up terrified and praying.
I have lost my job under unclear circumstances and just wondering, could this be a spirit of stagnation in my life?
Hi. I need help with my dream. I had this dream 4 times already and everytime I just go a little further in the dream. I dream about a house with a lovely white arch. I dream I walk through it went to the back yard and there was lots of white tables and chairs on this perfectly green grass. On the other side there is a man that I am speaking to but can never remember who it is. But in every dream there was a lot af snakes and everytime it’s because of the snakes I wake up. 1st time as I walked through the arch the snakes fall from the top down on me so I woke up. 2nd time I walked in the path at the backyard a small snake that looks like a huge worm bites me on my ankle so I woke up. 3rd time everything the same but I was walking up to the man and the snakes were coming to me so I woke up. The last time I was talking to the man and the snakes surrounded us so I asked him Why are there so many snakes and before I could year the answer I woke up. I am scared to go back to sleep so scared that I am going to dream again. This dream is bothering me and is the same whole time same house and everything just keep waking up because of snakes.
Dear Lauri, I always dream of my former village home, and church compound where I spent my youthful life..
Some time this year I dreamt with a big gold snake in my bed and felt like it had sex with me. I woke up terrified and praying.
I have lost my job under unclear circumstances and just wondering, could this be a spirit of stagnation in my life?
Charlie, is there a man in your life that you don’t trust but are being forced to follow? Maybe you want to ask him questions that you have been afraid to ask to know whether or not he is actually trust worthy. The fact that there are tables and they are outside says to me that maybe he is part of a group that you are in (Maybe work, church) but you want to talk to him privately without others around. The arch and the white house represents to me a place of formality. Maybe this person is someone you look up to that you are afraid to find out something bad about. What do you think?
House= our psyche, it’s “ where we live” or want to live.
White =purity, innocence or tendency for perfectionism
“Arch” – you walked under could be the archetype showing up. So the man you speak to is an important aspect of your self
Snakes- often can misinterpreted. Bit you on the ankle? Could you be working in an environment where your suspect shady behavior (careful where you “step”) ?
Something is trying to break through from the unconscious to consciousness. May be related to your not being aware of “the snake” in your midst.
Hi i had two dreams the first one i dream of a black and silver snake crawling in my bed behind my back and my fiance saw the snake and chopped it by the head my 2nd Dream is i was getting married with my fiance we are both happy and excited in the dream also the people around us and i look bea9 in my white wedding dress
Although before that he was playing with the snake (he referred to it as a condor snake and it had a huge square head) and said it would be fine. I was scared though and went to go get help, on my way I stepped on a piece of glass from a fallen chandelier but was able to take it out of my foot and keep going. When I got back to my apartment was when I saw him being strangled around the neck, and his arms and legs were being wrapped around. I grabbed the scissors and stabbed the snack in the middle but it just bit my boyfriend. Then I tried cutting it in half but its body was to thick and I woke up.
This is really interesting! I had a dream about a very large snake strangling my boyfriend and I was trying to kill it with scissors but it bit him in his arm instead and then I woke up. What does that mean?