Today, we are here to talk about a very strong dream symbol, that of snakes. Pretty much every dream dictionary since ancient times has addressed the issue of snakes in dreams. Depending on the tradition, snakes can be given different meanings, but one thing is undeniable – they always carry strong symbolism with them.
Now, dreaming of snakes is one thing, but dreaming about snakes attacking you is something completely different. These dreams can be downright terrifying, but we should remember that they can also be carrying powerful messages.
Today, we’ll try to guide you towards finding the right interpretation of your sake dream.
Meaning of Attacking Snakes in Dreams
What does it mean to dream about snakes attacking you? As mentioned, there are multiple possible interpretations. In Freudian dream interpretation, a snake is a symbol of the penis. This doesn’t have to mean the dream is connected to sex, but instead, think of the snake as a symbol of male energy, fertility, and authority. This could be the right interpretation of snakes in dreams for some people, but not everyone subscribes to Freud’s theories today. Even though he was a great psychologist, his theory of dreams tends to interpret pretty much everything as a phallus.
In ancient dream dictionaries and folklore, snakes are often interpreted as symbols of luck. Dreaming of a snake attacking you can mean unexpected financial gain.
Attacking Snake Color Symbolism
In waking life, it is quite rare to have a direct encounter with a snake. Even when one encounters a snake in the wild, the snake will rarely attack you directly, they usually either freeze in place or run away quickly. The snake will only attack you if it’s feeling extremely threatened. Considering all of this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the snake encountered in dreams can look quite weird. After all, most of us don’t have a reference image from waking life of how it looks like to be attacked by a snake. That is why people who dream of snakes are often confused when trying to remember the dream. Was it a cobra? Was it something else? Was it poisonous? Who knows. But one thing we usually do remember is color, and the color of the snake can be really important for interpreting the dream. So what does the color of the snake in your dream represent? Here we go:
Dreaming about a black snake attacking is very common. As you might guess, it is generally not a good omen. It means you are trying to escape something in your life, but running away is not an option.
Green snakes, on the other hand, have a more positive symbolism attached to them. Green snakes are usually a sign of new beginnings.
Dreaming about a yellow snake usually means that the message of the dream is connected to your financial situation.
Seeing a white snake is quite rare in waking life, but they do appear often in dreams. White snakes in dreams point to problems with communication.
If the snake in your dream is red, it could symbolize your enemy, or in general something connected to anger and aggression.
Dreaming About Snakes Attacking You
To dream about a snake attacking you is not entirely positive but not entirely negative either. When you dream that a snake is attacking you, the snake almost always symbolizes some form of conflict or problem. You might have been trying to run away from this issue, whatever it is, but dreaming about a snake attacking you is a sign that this problem will have to be dealt with whether you like it or not.
This problem, or the enemy, that the snake represents does not necessarily have to be something you are aware of. Snake as a symbol is connected with the subconscious, therefore it might represent unresolved feelings or past trauma. The good news is that fighting with the snake in the dream means you are facing these problems and growing out of your shell.
In any case, it’s always worth thinking about all the details you can remember from your snake dream in order to come up with a wholesome interpretation. We’ve already talked about different colors of snakes in dreams, but you might also want to think about how you felt in the dream. Being attacked by a snake should be terrifying, but how did you really feel in the dream? If you were brave and fighting back fearlessly it generally indicates positive changes. However, it could also mean you are aiming too high in some aspect of your life.
In general, dreams in which you fight a snake mean you are facing a challenging situation. However, this does not necessarily mean anything bad. Being able to deal with everything life throws at us is what life is all about, and if you do it successfully you’ll come out stronger than before.
Attacking Snakes and Water
If you have not had this dream, you might think – what are we talking about? What do snake attacks have to do with water? If this is the case, you might as well skip this section and look below for an interpretation that pertains to your dream. However, dreams that mix snake attacks and water are actually quite common.
There are examples of this in waking life too. Many venomous snakes like to live close to water, and there are also water snakes that might attack you while you are swimming in a pond. It is a common trope in dreams to dream that you are swimming naked when a snake attacks you.
So what exactly does that mean? Water in dreams is always connected to our emotions, to the subconscious, to the irrational side of ourselves and to feminie energies. Being attacked by a snake in water in a dream strongly suggests some internal struggle within you. The snake represents your own emotions. You might be having trouble controlling them or you might be refusing to let go of some negative emotion that is harming you such as anger or resentment.
Dreaming of yellow snakes in water is another common trope. Yellow snakes in such dreams are usually interpreted as positive signs, as harbingers of happiness and new beginnings. It might be worth it to think about what kind of snake it was. Did it look like the yellow viper, a nimble and poisonous reptile, or maybe more like the Jamaican boa, which is not poisonous but can strangle it’s prey?
Freud, Jung, and Their Interpretation of Snakes
We have already mentioned the Freudian interpretation of snakes, but it might be worth it to explore his theories a bit further. As you might know, Freud connected a lot of our dreams, and things that happen in our subconscious mind in general, to our sexuality – and specifically the development of sexuality in childhood and trauma that inevitably comes with it. In such interpretations, a snake is always a symbol of the penis, but perhaps not in a literal way.
If you are a woman, snakes in dreams might represent a certain male in your life, or maybe just some unresolved issues with your sexual energies. On the other hand, if you are a man, a snake in your dream could represent your own sexuality, or otherwise another man you might find threatening. It could also be a symbol of the fatherly figure.
The second most famous psychologists that considered dream interpretation, Jung, thought that snakes have a completely different meaning. For him, the most relevant feature of the snake is the fact that it changes its skiing. Thus, the snake in dreams is a symbol of transformation and new beginnings.
Why Are Snake Dreams So Common?
Dreaming about snakes is certainly not the most common dream in the world, but it is one that still appears fairly often. What’s even more interesting, dreams about snakes appear in almost every culture and every corner of the world. No matter if you live in a big city or in a village in Africa, you’ve probably been dreaming about snakes at least once in your life. So what gives?
Well, first of all, we could ascribe the frequency of snake dreams to the ubiquity of snakes. Almost everyone has seen a snake at least once in their life. Depending on where you live, you might be seeing them in nature, or otherwise you have seen a snake at least in a zoo or in a movie. What’s more, snakes are common characters in children’s stories (Jungle Book for example), so they become engraved in our consciousness quite early. Considering all of this, it shouldn’t surprise us that snakes appear often in dreams. Some would say that the frequency of snake dreams you will have greatly depends on how much you see snakes in everyday life. For example, if you have a fear of snakes, they might figure more strongly in your dreams as symbols of evil and enemies.
Meaning of Snakes Attacking in the Grass
Finding a snake in the grass is the most common snake encounter in waking life, so it shouldn’t surprise us that it appears in dreams too. Seeing a snake attacking you from the grass can be an especially scary dream as there is usually an element of surprise and suspense involved. When a snake is moving through the grass, we might see there is something moving, but we can’t see what exactly it is. In that sense, the snake might represent our anxieties – a hidden enemy we are afraid of but unsure what exactly it is. A snake in the grass might represent any worries that have been on your mind lately.
In addition to this, a snake in the grass could be interpreted like a person in your life with hidden motives. There might be someone around you who is not showing their true colors. The fact that the snake actually attacked in your dream means that this person might show their true intentions soon.
What Does the Snake Represent in Our Subconscious?
Our dreams are often messages from our subconscious mind. Often, we are aware of much more than we realize. Our conscious thoughts are just a small part of our mind. Sometimes, things we already know intuitively are revealed to our conscious minds by means of dream symbols.
So what exactly does the snake represent in that case? As mentioned already, snakes in dreams are often symbols of any worries that might be troubling us. You might be suffering from anxiety but not really knowing what causes it (the definition of anxiety is, after all, generalized fear). Or otherwise, the snake might just be representing some unresolved emotions or grudges we might be holding against others.
In any case, it is important to remember the transformative symbolism of snakes here. The snake sheds its skin in order to emerge stronger than before. In a similar way, you can shed emotions and patterns that no longer serve your best interest. Your snake dream might be your subconscious guiding you to that goal.
What Does It Mean to Be Swallowed By a Snake in a Dream
Being swallowed by a snake is a very interesting dream. Of course, these kinds of things don’t usually happen in waking life. In your dream, you might have seen yourself getting swallowed by a snake from a third-person perspective and the dream might have felt more like a fairytale. On the other hand, you might have dreamed this from a first person perspective, so to say, actually experiencing being swallowed by a snake. In that case, it is very interesting to consider – how did the dream end? Did you wake up at this moment? Or were you still alive in the dream after being swallowed and saw the inside of the snake? If that is the case (although such dreams are quite rare) do think about what the inside of the snake looks like.
In any case, this dream usually means you are having trouble dealing with something in your life. You might be feeling overwhelmed, unable to deal with all of life’s troubles. This dream is a wake up call telling you to get yourself together and start standing up for yourself.
What is the Message of Snake Dreams?
Dreams about snakes can have somewhat contrasting messages. In most contemporary dreams, the snake represents an enemy (physical or metaphorical) you are dealing with. However, snake dreams usually offer hope. If you interpret it right, your snake dream might be telling you how to deal with anything that’s troubling you. In that sense, dreams about snakes might be telling us how exactly to grow and transform ourselves into better people.
This is definitely the most common type of message coming from snake dreams, but there might be others too. For example, if you feel that a snake is your spirit animal, the sake in dreams might actually represent yourself.
Meaning of Snakes Attacking You in Your House in a Dream
If you dream about a snake attacking you inside a house, it is important to consider the meaning a house or a home carries in dreams. Your own house in dreams usually represents yourself. Different rooms might be symbols of different aspects of yourself or different areas of your own life. If, in your dream, the snake is attacking you inside the home you live in now, it strongly suggests there is some negative influence in your life coming ‘from the inside’. What does that actually mean? It depends. You might be sabotaging yourself unconsciously in some aspect of your life, or might be that people closest to you are hurting you. If you live with your partner, this dream could also indicate cheating.
If you dream about a snake attacking you in your childhood home where you don’t live anymore, it’s a symbol of some conflict or misunderstanding with your family members.
Dreaming of Being Chased By a Snake
Being chased by a snake (see also Chasing In Dreams Meaning) in a dream means you are trying to run away from your problems. These kinds of dreams indicate panic and fear in your waking life. Running away from a snake is usually impossible. Trying to outrun a snake doesn’t work in most cases – they are fast and they can catch up with you. Turning around, staying calm, and facing the snake is usually a much better option – but it requires strength to face your fears.
This dream is telling you there is no point in trying to run away from something. Whatever the challenge is in your waking life you are trying to avoid, face it sooner rather than later. It might even turn out to be easier than you thought.
Islamic Interpretation of Snakes in Dreams
In islamic traditions, the snake is strongly connected with evil. Dreaming about snakes is always a sign of danger, of some problems that are coming your way. In Islamic understanding, dreaming about snakes usually means there is already some negative influence developing in your life – you just might not be aware of it. The dream is telling you that it’s time to deal with this and fend for yourself.
The optimistic part of the Islamic interpretation of snakes in dreams concerns fighting back. If you manage to defend yourself from the snake in your dream or scare it off, it is considered a very positive sign. It means you will progress greatly in some aspect of your life.
Biblical Symbolism of Snakes
So far, we haven’t talked about the Biblical interpretation of sakes, but you must surely be aware of it. Who doesn’t know about the Garden of Eden, after all. Let’s remember that it was a snake that tempted Eve to taste the forbidden apple (see also Dreaming Of Apples). This is why the snake is generally considered a symbol of temptation and taboos. Many interpret the apple and the snake as symbols of sexual desire and impurity of humankind. That means that the snake in the dream might represent a temptation to do something forbidden. If the snake is attacking you, it might mean you are trying to fight this temptation but finding it hard.
Final Thoughts
As you have seen, dreams about snakes can have a very rich meaning. When the snake is attacking you in your dream, it adds a personal layer to the interpretation. Have you been dreaming about snakes lately? Did this guide help you understand your dream? Did we miss some important information regarding snakes in dreams? We’d love to hear your story!
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