What do Dreams of Snakes Mean? - Page 3
The Metaphor of the Snake is Timeless
So why snakes? Why have snakes made such a powerful impact on the human religious imagination, and what exactly is the spiritual significance of their frequent appearances in people’s dreams? What is it about this particular animal that has made it so prominent a figure not only in dreams but in myths, folklore, and art from all over the world? [xvi]
Looking at their “natural” characteristics, snakes are genuine dangers to people, posing a deadly threat either from the quick, poisonous bite of a rattlesnake or the slow, suffocating squeeze of a boa constrictor. At the same time, the capacity of snakes to shed their skins conjures up the image of regeneration, re birth, and new life. [xvii] Thus, snakes combine the threat of death with the promise of life. Another “natural” feature of serpents is their lidless eyes; humans find the unblinking gaze of snakes to be both captivating and horrifying, both transcendent and inhuman. This unnerving stare evokes in many people feelings of awe, mystery, and dread.
An obvious explanation refers to the central role that the serpent plays in the book of Genesis. Anyone who is at all familiar with the Bible knows that the serpent is the great tempter, the one whose seductive promises of power persuaded Eve to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowl edge. The serpent brings evil into the Garden of Eden, but also brings the possibility of knowledge: “when you eat [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [xviii] When God discovers what has happened, he ordains that man and serpent shall be eternal enemies.
Another, more “modern” explanation draws on the psycho analytic theory that snakes symbolize the phallus. Ernest Jones, one of Freud’s early followers, says with custom ary psychoanalytic modesty,
“The idea of a snake, which is never consciously associated with that of the phallus, is regularly so in dreams, being one of the most constant and invariable symbols: in primitive religions the two ideas are quite obviously interchangeable, so that it is often hard to distinguish between phallic from ophitic worship…very rarely can it also symbolize the intestine and its contents, but as far as I know, nothing else.” [xix]
For Jones, the snake is such a common dream symbol be cause it enables us to express our strong unconscious feelings about the phallus: the phallus is at once an object of desire and of fear, an object of proud potency and of dreaded impotency, an object that brings great pleasure but that can also bring great pain if it is cut off (as psychoanalysts say men continually fear it will be). The snake’s physical shape makes it a uniquely convenient way of representing (and yet disguising) the phallus in dreams, myths, and art.
Each of these explanations makes some sense, but none of them adequately answers the question of why snake dreams so often have such a strong spiritual impact on people. The “naturalistic” explanation does not account for the vivid dreams of people who have had little direct contact with snakes. The biblical explanation says nothing about the dreams of people who have never had any contact with the Bible. And the psycho analytic explanation merely side steps the question, rightly pointing to the symbolic connection between snakes, penises, and power but failing to relate any of this to people’s experiences of the sacred. [xx]
We gain a better understanding of snake dreams when we refer to the research of histo rians of religion like Rudolph Otto and Mircea Eliade. They have found that humans universally feel an ambivalence towards the sacred. In virtually all religious and spiritual traditions the divine is portrayed as both enchanting and terrifying; Otto says “the daemonic-divine object may appear to the mind an object of horror and dread, but at the same time it is no less something that allures with a potent charm.” [xxi] The power of the sacred is ambivalent in the true sense of the word–it is both good and evil, creative and destructive, attractive and frightening. If we consider snake dreams in this light, we see that these dreams portray the profoundly ambivalent nature of the sacred. Dream experiences involving snakes have provided people with intensely numinous manifestations of sacred powers that can appear beneficial to the dreamer but can just as often appear evil, violent, and highly destructive. Snake dreams reveal the potential of the sacred to be both a helpful and an antago nistic force in human life.
One way to appreciate the spiritual dimension of snake dreams is to contrast them with dreams of the dead. If dreams of the dead guide us into a better relationship with the sacred, dreams of snakes confront us with the raw energy, the primal potency, and the antagonistic power of the sa cred. Dreams of the dead tend to emphasize the beneficial gains that can come from con tacting the sa cred; dreams of snakes, by contrast, tend to emphasize the dangerous threats that can come from such con tact. The contrast is not absolute, of course, because some snake dreams have quite positive aspects. But on the whole, this type of dream brings the dreamer face to face with the darker, more evil aspects of the sacred.
While pursuing my graduate studies in Chicago I made a weekly visit to a small child-care center, operated by the mother of a good friend of mine. Her English was not especially good, so I helped her by reading stories to the children. Each visit I would read two or three books to them, and then ask each child to share his or her own story to the group. The kids would usual ly improvise a version of one of the books we had just read, or perhaps describe what they’d eaten that morning for breakfast. One day, however, a three-year old boy named Sam shared a dream with our little group: he said, in an even but intense voice, “I dreamed that there was a snake monster inside grandpa’s back, and it broke out and killed grand pa.” The other children were fascinated by this brief, powerful dream; after a moment of reflective silence, they all began clamoring to tell their own stories of dangerous snake monsters.
I later learned from my friend that Sam’s grandfather had indeed died recently (although she didn’t know what caused his death) and that Sam was quite upset by it. She said that Sam had told her the dream earlier in the day, with the same intensity he had expressed during story-time. I’ve often thought of Sam’s dream of the snake monster, and of the ways that death is like a snake monster–powerful, mysterious, and ferocious, tearing the people we love away from us forever.
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Notes
[i].. Van de Castle 1994, pp. 304-310.
[ii].. Park 1934, p. 101.
[iii].. Padwick 1939, pp. 208-209.
[iv].. King 1942, p. 232.
[v].. Oppenheim 1956, p. 251.
[vi].. Dronke 1984, p. 2.
[vii].. Eggan 1955, pp. 450-451.
[viii].. O’Flaherty and Greene 1989, pp. 113-114.
[ix].. Shaw 1992, p. 45.
[x].. Hosain 1932, p. 581.
[xi].. Holy 1992, pp. 93-94.
[xii].. Foster 1973, p. 111.
[xiii].. Driberg 1927, p. 142.
[xiv].. Artemidorus 1975, pp. 97, 213.
[xv].. Achmet 1991, p. 237.
[xvi].. See Mundkur 1983 for a detailed examination of snake worship around the world.
[xvii].. See Eliade 1958, pp. 164-171.
[xviii].. Genesis 3:5.
[xix].. Quoted in Mundkur 1983, pp. 263-264.
[xx].. Except, of course, in order to reduce people’s experiences of the sacred to psychoanalytic categories like “wish-fulfillment”, “illusion”, and the “cosmic narcissism”.
[xxi].. Otto 1958, p. 31.
If you rarely dream about snakes does it still mean anything? if so, what does it mean if it bites you….on your ear??!
I had a dream about a Snake. I was sitting in the front seat of the car next to the driver and a snake was on my left hand side on the road almost standing… as the car turned, it jumped over the car and went the other side.
Next day as I was driving my car, I took a turn, I saw a brown snake, on the left of the road almost standing position, ready to jump. This was real….
I cant understand that what I saw in the dream, actually alomst happened the same way.
Such an experience might be considered a synchronicity, Jung’s term for strange but meaningful coincidences.
just last night, i had a dream that i was over a friends house who had tons of pets, a snake being one of them..and my sister happened to be there sitting on the couch. i walk into the room where she was sitting and saw the snake slither right by her on the couch hitting her chin with its tail as it slid by, but then all of a sudden it came back and started coiling around her neck so i immediately jump up and try to dig my nails into the snake so i can pull it free. well i finally got it off and threw it outside…but then the same thing happened again and the look on my sisters face as the snake was tightening around her neck was horrid. her eyes wide open with fear looking at me with desperation, as i am now paralyzed and im trying to reach her but something wont let me and i have to watch her be strangled…but finally the paralysis lifted and i go to save her once again. is this supposed to mean something?
My aunt had several dreams about snake people. They were humanoid with a snake face and upper body. They carried big curved swords like a rapier in one hand and a strange sword with three or more snakes where the blade should be in the other. They surrounded her house and lit the outside on fire. The fire couldn’t be extinguished but for some reason never entered the house. She had this dream 20 or so times the month before she was in a fatal car wreck. She was dead for 4 minutes and brought back. She also had several other premonitions about her wreck.
My question, ever heard of any ’snake people’ as I described them here?
Last night I dreamt that I was in a place with a clear shallow water stream, plain rock brown bottom, there were a couple of big rocks and trees around. To my right, I saw a green, gray and black snake curled up on a tree. I was staring at it until I noticed it was a snake and became cautious. I had a newborn baby wrapped in white cloth and Im moving away from the snake walking backwards on the clear water shallow stream. I faced forward and to my right I noticed another snake curled up by itself on the ground looking at me, this one was black. Then I see two of my best friends passing on the stream like going down on a slide (they seemed happy), and I tell them there are snakes. I have the presence of a men to my right helping me cross the stream, while carrying the baby, to my left there was another green snake bigger than the other two. I jumped right next to it with cautiously but no fear. The place where I jumped to was a regular paved street I walked a couple of steps into a building with a feeling of relief, waiting for an elevator. ?!? I broked up with my boyfriend, of three years, a month ago. In two weeks, I will see my best girlfriends who have been giving me pep talk during these times. Its my bday celebration and they want to party like crazies although I dont feel like it. Maybe that is what the dream is about no? What is your interpretation of the dream?
Hello,
For several months 3-4 times a week, I have had dreams of snakes. Usually I see them in my house, or as im visiting friends, or even walking through a small low lit restraunt or pub. Its usually dark and sometimes I see the snakes as I’m walking through someones’ yard. Usually more than one and usually large coiled up in a corner watching or sometimes baby snakes racing across the floor in hopes to either scare me away or hide. I am very outdoorsey, love to hike in northeast TN, camp, garden. Im not scared of much of anything EXCEPT snakes. I am threatened by their sneakiness and the way they can be so agressive, fast moving and camoflauge.
Any help on this fear would help greatly!
Thank you, Terri
Also if there is any correlation to snakes and seeing demolished cars on the road that have been in terrible crashes and emergency personell trying to free the drivers please let me know. I have this re occuring dream but not as often as the snakes. I see EMT’s prying cars to rescue people, and I see blood and head impact prints and body impact marks, but not the actual people in the crash. Just morbid looking cars with blood and sometimes carseats. Knowing the ppl that had been in the cars didnt make the wrecks.
Ok, well any advice in my screwed up head would help.
Thanks,
Terri
I had a dream last night that I was on a rollercoast and I passed a huge big snake all coiled and looked like it just ate with a big bulge at the bottom of it’s tail. It was just staring at me as I passed. It did not strike at me or do anything. Then I was with 2 young children and 2 small snakes came out of nowhere and started slithering near the kids. They did not strike the children nor did they go away. I couldn’t reach them but they were just there slithering around the kids. I woke up before the rollercoaster ride ended or got to my destination. I was never hurt. What does this mean?
Snakes are ambiguous creatures, dangerous yet associated with healing and wisdom.
A rollercoaster ride can be a vivid metaphor of what life feels like sometimes!
The danger to the children could refer to actual children, and/or to a metaphorically “young” part of yourself.
The connection perhaps is a sense of uncanny creepiness in both types of recurring dream. The awful fascination with horror and danger–a snake’s lidless gaze, the aftermath of a bloody car accident.
Last night I had a dream that I opened the back door to my house and there were snakes everywhere. When I tried to close the door a snake stuck his head in and I could not close the door. I pulled and pulled and the snake turned into a komoto dragon and forced his way in. It began flying towards everyone. I wanted to to swat at it but it was so big I thought it would bite me, but then I realized it wasn’t trying to hurt me, but it was flying back and forth like a fly or a gnat. Then I woke up. What in the world could this mean???
That’s interesting how the snake changes into a larger, more fantastic reptile once it gets inside. If a snake were to force its way into my private space, then turn into a dragon, that would make me think there’s something about “snake energy” (something primitive? wise and ancient? masculine? alien? healing?) that I don’t want so close to me but I can’t hold back any longer. Then comes the realization it’s benign, harmless–that seems significant, like once it gets inside, the sense of threat and danger diminishes, and the energy becomes more manageable.
Last night I had a dream the a few friends and I (I don’t know who they were now, but in my dream I knew them) were on a walk through a forest with dead trees and dry brush all around, until my boyfriend said that we had to get to some play on time, we would have to go through the almost rain forest like area. I get up to that section of forest, and there were 3 snakes guarding it, besides the fact two were on the ground and one was in the tree, also everyone I was with had already passes them. The one snake in the tree looked huge almost like a boa constrictor, and the two on the ground, one was like the green snake above on this page, and the other had a red head and back and white striped body. By the time i was about to pass them I took one step and the red headed snake attacked me, for some reason I had my purse with me and I tried dropping it on the snake, that didn’t work and the snake bit me on my butt cheek. Everyone who was watching was worried, I didn’t feel it so I laughed and tried to keep playing with it. After that my dream went onto my boyfriend getting in his car I got in mine. He thought it would be fun to race me so he was in the lead, and I was trying to catch up with him, he fly’s across rail road tracks and skims by, and my car swerves and ends up parallel to the tracks, a half second later the train is screaming by my car and shaking it uncontrollably. After the train passes everyone in town saw another train coming, so i got out of my car because it was stuck, everyone gets to safe grounds, and all you hear is explosions and screaming. Next thing you know my car and half the town in up in flames.
Can someone tell my why I got bite by a snake and my car went up in flames in the same dream?
I had this dream the other night about snakes. I was in the grass jumping over the snake; almost floating. But there were more than one snake. I was jumping to someone. I believe it was my boyfriend.?.
Last night I dreamt that I picked up a rattlesnake and as I picked it up , it turned black. It was trying very hard to bite me but couldn’t as I held it right behind the head. All of a sudden it streatched out and it bit me on the hand, as I looked at my hand thae snake died and slowly turned to gold and fleked away to nothing, I was waiting to die but instead woke up.
i am with a friend and her children and we are collecting snakes for a collection i have. I am a teacher and have her children sometimes and she thought this was strange. Like a boa constictor and then i said we had to go back and get more and more cause i wanted a collection!
2 nights ago i had a dream that i was looking in the mirror and i saw something black globbing out of my ear and when almost was out it appeared to be asmall snake or worn that was black so i started screaming and trying to pull it out of my ear but it begin to bite me on the face so i woke up with my hand gripped to my left ear in fear what does this mean
ive had 2 snake dreams over a 3 day period.
in the first dream were somewhere where there’s a lot of rocks and suddenlt theres a normal snake (not very big or very long).someone tries to kill it with a big rock but misses so we run away. when i turn aroud its coming out of some guys mouth attacking me and i wake up
in the second dream theres this absolutly HUGE snake which is accompanying me and a friend at night ( we’re in the country) and its protecting us. i feel like i like it and i dont have bad feelings about it. and then something bad happens to the snake and i feel liek i want to help it.
does anyone have any explaination? cuz the second dream is very strange and i cant find any interpretation about it
i m seein snakes and scorpios in my dreams and even seeing them around me
i m even feeling very depressed . evrything is gong on well still i dont feel gooed.
i dont knw wats happening with me. can anyone help me in intreprting this pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee
Just had this dream. I was walking into a building. I was talking with a white man about something(I’m african american) he’s walking slightly ahead of me like we’re on the sidewalk of a building. I look behind me sensing a presence and there was a huge bright green snake a ways back that scattered off when our eyes met. As we near the end of the sidewalk a bright green smaller snake bites me and I’m like oh shi*! I knock the snake off me and the guy was like are you alright. I’m like yeah that snake bit me. The guy then says yeah, just because you see em doesn’t mean they won’t bite you. We kept walking and my dream went on. Weird.