Dreaming of ashes can be quite unsettling, as your first assumption may be to panic, imagining that it is a bad sign. We often associate ashes with death, endings, and ill-health.
But what do ashes mean when they appear in dreams?
What Do Ashes Mean in Dreams?
The symbolism behind ashes appearing in a dream varies wildly depending on the dream’s context.
How the ashes were created, how you felt when you saw them, and how you interacted with them, all have a role to play in determining the meaning behind the dream.
Ashes can appear as a warning in dreams, or a reflection of how you feel in waking life, but they can also be a sign of good luck for the future, depending on the context.
More regularly than not, what we regard as typically ‘bad’ symbols or images appearing in dreams are rarely a prediction of the future.
More likely, this dream is a way of processing how you feel, especially if you are holding onto a lot of negative emotion, or you’re in the middle of a stressful time.
Something is Coming to An End
This dream meaning will come as no surprise, as ashes are the byproduct of something ending. Dreaming of ashes represents something coming to a close in waking life, whether that’s the end of a bad habit, a job, or a relationship that’s no longer working for you.
It can also manifest a desire for something to end. Maybe something in your life has dragged on for far too long, such as a long-term project that you can’t see any benefits coming from, a career which isn’t progressing, or you don’t find fulfilling, or a relationship that is over in everything but the formality.
Think about how you feel when you have a dream like this, but don’t panic if it’s a negative reaction.
More likely, this is your own expectation of something going bad after seeing ashes, because of the association with death and endings, rather than this dream being a prediction.
If you dream of sifting through ashes, and you find something valuable or unusual, this dream is telling you not to fight the coming end of something, as it will make way for something much better.
Doubt
Dreaming of ashes can suggest you don’t have a lot of faith right now. Maybe you’ve seen some warning signs of something not resembling what it should, and your subconscious is warning you to take notice.
If you’ve been working hard towards a specific goal, and you see it crumble to ashes within your dream, this is a representation of your fear, rather than things actually going badly.
If you dream of someone covering themselves in ashes, this indicates that you don’t trust them.
You feel they are working towards a purpose they are hiding, or their sentiments don’t match up with their actions. If the person was a stranger, the mistrust you have is within yourself.
Grief
As we associate ashes with death, in dreams they are connected with grief. You have lost someone close to you, or a chance you took didn’t end well, and now you’re going through the grieving process.
A dream of feeling incredibly hollow or sad when you see ashes is a way of your subconscious allowing you to process your grief in a healthy way. You’ll still need to come to terms with it in waking life, when you can.
You Need to Change Something
Dreaming of ashes can refer to the desire or desperate need to change a part of your life. If you dream of eating ashes, for example, this indicates that you need to look after your body, and your overall health.
Your subconscious is telling you that something needs to change, and this change won’t come about by itself.
You need to actively decide to make a difference in your life in order to see the change you want.
Dreaming of Scattering Ashes
Dreaming of scattering ashes is a positive dream. It implies that you will meet or smash other people’s expectations of you in the near future.
This may be in terms of a job, where you’ll exceed all your targets and things will turn out better than you could have dared hope for, or in terms of how you’ve handled something in your personal life. You’ll make someone proud.
If you dream of clearing up scattered ashes, this is a negative sign. It implies that something will go wrong in your professional life, where you overestimate your own abilities, or assume that something is easy because you haven’t taken into account all the variables.
Throwing Ash At Someone
Dreaming of throwing ash at someone indicates a willingness to go after what you want by any means necessary.
You may resort to manipulating or influencing others in order to skip corners and to get exactly where you want to be, rather than achieving things under your own power alone.
It also points to a tendency of wanting to control every aspect of a situation, and you can only attempt to do that by influencing others. Complete control over something is overrated.
Dreaming of Tobacco Ash or an Ashtray
Dreaming of tobacco ash, or using an ashtray in your dream, represents a desire to cast off old emotions, habits, or ways of thinking that only seem to get more circular as time passes.
You’re afraid of always being in the same place in life, or having learned little or made no progress towards your goals in life.
Ashes From a Fire
If you dream of a bed of ashes still warm from a fire, this dream is telling you that something in your life is being reduced to its most simple form.
You may be at the edge of a realization, where all your choices or behavior boil down to one idea or motivation. Maybe you’ve been confused about why you or someone else has been acting the way they have, but it will become clear soon.
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