You open a cabinet, and out come a thousand daddy long-legs spiders. You look down at your hand, and there's a black widow crawling up your arm, ready to bite. You put your hands in your pockets, and out come a whole crew of baby spiders. Sounds gross, but relax my friends, they're just spider dreams, and they're totally common. While the presence of these creepy crawlers may never be a particularly welcome addition to your slumber, dreams about spiders don't have to mean something sinister, even if you utterly hate these spooky bugs.
Now, like many things in life, dreams are 100 percent up for interpretation, and when you start trying to glean some meaning from your own, I suggest starting by simply considering the underlying feelings you have while you're dreaming. Are you anxious? Angry? Feeling confused? Once that emotion becomes clear to you, it will likely be easier for you to discern what certain symbols in the dream mean or don't mean to you.
And whether or not you're a believer in the whole dream symbolism thing, interpreting dreams has long been incorporated into therapeutic practices. Dr. Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., a psychologist, clinical assistant professor of medicine, and sleep and dream specialist at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine, told TIME,
Dreaming is a second gut. It sifts through all of the experiences we consume during the day.
If nothing else, dreams can be thought of simply as your mind digesting all the information you take in while you're awake. So, if you're dreaming about spiders, maybe you simply saw one making a web in the corner of your bedroom. Or, yes, maybe they are indeed a symbol of something more. Here are a few speculated interpretations to consider.
Yes, those many-legged little pals are believed to have something to do with mom, or another important female figure in your life, and possibly a woman in your life who feels domineering or particularly powerful in some way.
As the site DreamsCloud says, spiders have long been symbolic of general feminine energy, so seeing one in your dream could also indicate your own badass feminine energy!
Spiders weave webs, right? And they do so in order to trap prey. Therefore, seeing a creepy crawly spider in your dream could also indicate that a potentially "trapping" web is being weaved in your own life, either by you, or by someone else. As Cynthia Richmond, author of the book Dream Power, told Huffington Post,
As such, spiders are associated with manipulation. Depending on the rest of the dream, the spider may indicate that the dreamer is being manipulated or that the dreamer is the manipulator.
Yikes! Sounds scary, but if this resonates, take a moment and consider what situations or relationships you're in that might be getting a little confusing. There are always ways to unravel those webs, girl.
While some of these dream interpretations seem a little on the dark side, spiders — and spiders weaving webs — can also mean positive and constructive things. According to the online guide Dream Moods, spiders and webs can also mean "the weaving together of the different aspects of your life."
Additionally, you might want to think about how you feel exactly about spiders in your waking life. Do they scare you? Do you generally think they're cool, or annoying, or scary, or fascinating? Whatever your reaction usually is to these eight-legged creatures might also shed some light on what they're doing in your dreams.
Perhaps because spiders aren't exactly considered the most popular of creatures, seeing one in your dreams can also mean you feel like an outsider, or somehow on the fringes of a situation in real life, according to Dream Moods.
If this seems to ring true for you, maybe you're involved in a situation you would do well to bow out of, or it could also mean that it's time to be a little more assertive and put yourself out there in a situation that requires you to speak up a bit more loudly.
Richmond also told Huffington Post that a spider could potentially symbolize a deadly or destructive force with which the dreamer is contending. She explained that substance abuse might be an example here, but if this feels in any way true for you, consider it in a broader sense. Are there things you're doing in your waking life that might not be in your best interest? Bad habits, perhaps?
If so, consider what you might you be able to do to shift some of this behavior. Identifying a problem is always the first step to solving it.
Sweet dreams guys, and don't let the spiders bite!
