Coffin
This is nearly always a reminder of one’s own mortality. So it often points to your thoughts and feelings about death, as these are often in the background of our mind, and dreaming of a coffin suggests you may be exploring how you relate to death. (i.e. are you at ease with it, do you understand it as an integral part of life, or are you still feeling fear or a belief it is the final end of everything?) The coffin might also be showing you the death of a part of yourself – a hope, feelings about a relationship, things lost and buried in your earlier years. See Dreaming of Death.
Seeing your own coffin in a dream has several possible meaning. The first is obviously to do with feelings and thoughts about death as described above. The second is to do with a reminder that there is an end to your life, so live fully and daringly now. Do and be now with those you love what is in you to do. This sometimes means that you have buried your real self and need to really come alive. The third is that you have a presentiment of your own death and the dream is preparing you. Soemtimes people want to see what their funeral will be like.
If you are in the coffin, apart from what has been said above, it might also show you feeling trapped in a life situation, feeling you have no future and life is like a death. At such times you need to let old parts of you, old attitudes and fears really die, as such dreams suggest a great change and a resurrection into a new way of life – almost a return to the womb.
If the coffin is linked with someone you know, Sometimes it may show a hidden desire to get them out of your life, or perhaps worries about the health of the person, or fear of losing them. This includes the death of a relationship and the feelings of loss, or one’s feelings about the death of someone such as husband. If it is the coffin of someone dead, it can also be a link with their influence in your life now they are dead, or if it is a parent, it can stand for the influence of family traditions in your present life.
Example: My father died when I was 3 – 1973. I recently dreamt I was carrying my fathers coffin at his funeral. On the way to the church I dropped the coffin and the lid fell off exposing his face at the advanced stage of decomposition. I replaced the lid so as not to grieve my mother further. But I followed my father’s spirit into the gaps of the coffin. Rosina.
What Rosina’s dream shows is that because we all need a relationship with a male figure f to fully mature from childhood, and Rosina missed this, she is figuratively carrying his dead body around with her to deal with what she missed in life. The dream shows how she is ready to actually progress in the relationship and marks a turning point in the way you will relate to males. The lid is coming off because those old feelings that are not healthy any more are being exposed. The dream says she is trying not to disturb her mother, so may be ‘putting the lid’ on those feelings again.
Example: I am sitting in a large comfortable room when my husband comes in and starts to take off his overcoat. The garden outside is full of flowers so it seems to be summer. As I turn to greet him I see his dead body lying in an open coffin between us. My husband starts talking of our plans for the following day. Pointing to the coffin, I say, “Yes, but we must do something about this first. We can’t leave it here much longer.” My husband goes close to the coffin, takes a long look at the body, his own, says, “Yes, we must. It is beginning to smell.” There the dream ends. I wake up feeling very sad and haunted. I can’t forget it. My husband died over eight years ago. Mrs P.M.
The dream is clearly pointing to the negative feelings of loss that Mrs PM is still carrying around inside her that she needs to deal with. The garden – her potential for growth – is full of colour and possibilities, so she can actually move on.
In some dreams, death, caves, underground, tombs or coffins often appear together. The living process in us – life itself – is fully acquainted with life and death, birth and resurrection. They are all fundamental processes of life in its fullness. We pass through them all while still living in the body at certain times. Such times are usually when great inner or outer change is occurring, perhaps when we have lost something or someone important to us, or have left behind a way of life or work, or a period of ones life such as parenthood. Thus the coffin can also depict these processes of death and rebirth.
Putting a coffin in the ground is in some ways like planting a seed. Within ourselves the fruit of that person’s life, or of our own past, can now emerge in a new way, shorn of its old forms. See: burial; funeral; tomb.
Example: When I was 17 I met a guy and quickly became involved. I met his grandfather only a couple of times during our relationship before he passed. He had raised my boyfriend, he had only sons and grandsons.. Never had there been born a girl in their bloodline. About six months after we started dating, his grandfather died. I went to the funeral with my boyfriend. Shortly after I had a very vivid dream of the funeral. As I walked to the casket to view the body, the grandfather raised up looked me right in the eyes and said, ” You take care of my baby girl.” The next week we found out we were pregnant. I did give the first girl born to that bloodline!
Useful Questions and Hints:
How am I feeling about the coffin, and what does this suggest about my relationship with death or the person in the coffin?
Is this connecting me with something of myself that died recently or in the past?
Is there a suggestion here of my connection with the long past, my ancestors – their bones – and how it influences my present life?
See Near Death Experiences – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams
Comments
I dreamed that my husband was laying awake in a coffin in one bedroom biting his nails. In the next bedroom I seen my husband laying in his coffin, this time dead with eyes closed. I hugged & kissed him while my current boyfriend stood beside me watching. I walked out the room to let someone know, when I turned around my husband was standing in the hallway looking for a restroom, I pointed him in the direction of the restroom & ran out looking for my boyfriend! I found him sleep in yet another bedroom with my mother.
I was very frightened in my dream. My husband has been dead for 14years. I have been with my boyfriend for 10 years now. My mother is alive and well. What could this mean?
MzT – Dreams are mostly a reflection of what is happening in our inner life – but most people mix it up with their physical life – which they believe is the ‘real’ world.
Your inner world is all your convictions, fears, beliefs and abilities and failings. Mostly people do not recognise they have an inner world because they are so focussed on the outer world, what they call the ‘real world’ – yet it is their inner world that forces them to see the outer world in a particular way. People take the views of the outer world – created by their inner world – as the truth.
The truth is that we are always a dual being. In fact, you are a dual being in many other ways. You have a hidden side of being both female and male; of having a huge heritage of experience gathered from your forebears and the past that you are barely conscious of; and many other aspects of duality you become conscious of as you journey more fully into your unconscious self. You live in duality, night and day, sleeping and waking, birth and death, male and female, and so on and on.
So your dream shows you as being in a very mixed up state about death, about love and about life. You obviously still love your husband and are confused about what his death means, so you haven’t digested it. So you have a connection with your husband and boyfriend with your feelings of love. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/digest/
The restroom – dreams tend to take many words seriously. So rest room might mean your dead husband needs a rest from being involved in your dreams. This because the dead can exist in a state where they sense every thought or worry about them. So by all means give him a loving hug. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dreaming-of-death/
The part about your boyfriend I am not sure about, does he need a mother’s care?
Tony
Hi there, my friend was killed last week. He would have actually been my boyfriend but I never gave him a chance & now I regret it. I had a dream of him last night. I was at his viewing in front of his coffin. Holding his hand & kissing his forehead then he opened his eyes and I woke up. Does it mean anything or is he trying to talk to me. I’ve been crying all week and I’ve been sad.
I had a dream last night that we went to a wake> when I reached the place I saw a white coffin and on it are the pictures of my sister. Beside the coffin seated her husband. My sister is currently outside the country for work and she is 43. I spoke to her the other day and asked her if she’s fine and she replied yes. Could you please provide me an idea what is the meaning of my dream?
I witnessed my grandmother in law die a horrible death she hemmriged out of her trake, mouth, nose, and throut in front of my husband and myself last year on may 30,2015. We were her full time caregivers. She good us 3 months before her death she was going to die soon but she didn’t know when. She suffered from copd. I felt helpless as I could not Save her even as I gave her a towel to stop the bleeding. As the EMT’S showed up she was gone within 10minutes.We stayed with her the whole time and never left her side even as she breathed her last.After her death I have recurring dreams from time to time. My dream is at the funeral home a brown casket and its open. Inside the casket its white. My husband and myself are walking towards the casket to pay our respects and to say our last goodbyes. When she sits up in the casket turns her head towards us and blood comes pouring out of her mouth and she’s saying to us why couldn’t save me. And I wake up crying Every single time. What does this all mean?
I dreamed about a really good friend who passed away several years ago. He was dead sitting up in his coffin but when I looked at him I noticed tears around his eyes ( both eyes were black) he then opened his eyes and was trying to grab my hand like he needed to tell me something but couldn’t speak. I kept telling him I was there for him and would help him any way I could. He got out of the coffin and I hugged him and held his hand. He never spoke to me then when he calmed down he got back into the coffin. I did not attend his funeral because I felt like his wife killed him intentionally and I didn’t want to see her. It was ruled an accident but I have never felt like it was an accident. Please help me understand what this dream means.
A friend of mine is having reocurring dreams that she sees her 10 yr old daughter in a coffin. Her 10 year old daughter is now in her 40s. What is the interpretation of her dream? It just doesn’t want to go away & how can she make it stop?
I keep dreaming of dressing my daughter’s hair while she is deceased in a coffin, but she is alive. What does this dream mean.
Dear Vickie – It would have helped if you would have described one or your recurring dreams more fully; like what does your own dream figure think and feel when she is dressing the hair of your deceased daughter; how old is your daughter in the dream and how old is she in your waking life; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/give-us-enough-information/
Dreams appear to present clear indications of what you are facing in your present life. They reveal past experience that through trauma may need to be met in order to live your life more satisfyingly or efficiently. There is neurological evidence that brain cells undergo a learning process during dreaming. In the area of personal growth, inquiry into dreams such as recurring dreams or nightmares show them to be an attempt to bring to consciousness and release past traumas such as abandonment in childhood, involvement in war environments, or car accidents.
Recurring dreams can therefore arise because there is a need to learn or to heal something.
Also the growth instinct is incredible powerful one and pushes us through growth, sometimes unwillingly. And if we resist it can cause recurring dreams.
Your daughter in your dream may reflect a part of your inner child that is not expressed anymore and dressing her hair may reflect your attempt to clarify or bring order to your attitudes or thoughts.
While it does not bring any change in your recurring dreams, you may want to explore another approach that works deeper than “thoughts and attitudes”; http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
Please also read; http://dreamhawk.com/health-and-healing/inner-baby-and-child/
Anna 🙂
Hello,
I dreamt that I am carrying a small white coffin… I knew there was a child in there… it was a boy… but I intend not to see the face… and I put the coffin in front of the altar in church… do you have any interpretation with my dream? Looking forward for your response.
you see coffin in your dream by a graveyard next to where your mother was buried. you are told to enter into the coffin to be buried. You declined saying you do not mind because you are dying in Christ but you are not ready to die now. you have alot of work to do,You won’t die and you wake up. What does it mean? Kindly reply.
I buried my lover the father of my son the past sunday. Last night i dreamt of his funeral but he never reached the cemetry we were just driving around in the street with his coffin in the harse the dream, it seems like the destination was really far or no distination
Dear oliswa Dlomo – Your dream reflects the process you are going through after losing the physical relationship with the man you love.
Your dream may be expressive of your attempts to deal with your feelings, guilt or anger in connection with your lover who died; or your own feelings about death. When someone close to us dies we go through a period of change from relating to them as an external reality, to meeting and accepting them as alive in our memories and inner life.
In your inner world you are not sure yet where to go with “him” and so you take your time, which I feel is okay.
See also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dreams-about-dead-people/
Dreams can guide you through this process (too); http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-incubation/
Anna 🙂
I dreamt somebody ordered a coffin for me and to be placed outside the house for the meantime. What does it mean ?
My father passed last year on March 27. I had a dream of his funeral last night as I have had many before but this time was different. His whole funeral was white and his coffin was covered with a white sheet so you could no longer view the body and he was sitting looking at himself at the end of his own coffin.
Dear Danishia – The colour white has an enormous number of different associations; most commonly it depicts being aware with a clearness of mind.
This awareness I see reflected in the last dream you had about your father’s funeral, because it shows that your father is alive in your inner (dream) world; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/father-dad/#InnerFather and http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/life-after-death/
Your dreams may reflect the process you have gone through from relating to your father as an external reality, to meeting and accepting him as alive in your memories and inner life.
Anna 🙂
Hi, I dreamt that I was with my mum and sis by the road and there is like a chingay kind of thing but there were just multiple coffins by the road with pictures in front of each. And I actually spotted my mum’s pic…. Are there any possible interpretation for that?
I keep going to funerals in my dreams sometimes many caskets and coffins……but this time the person was wrapped in a white sheet and silver decorations and look nothing like the picture of the featured body(the picture was someone from my past encounter or friendship but it didn’t match……I always see the people in caskets so many I don’t even know old pictures and this has gone on since I was young seeing grav es in my living room in my dreams realtives etc….. but never a mummy or someone wrapped beautifully away it was a white casket if that means anything ….Mrcrisp anything to help thanks if you see this or not
Hi there I dreamt that a mysterious girl was in the coffin and hanging halfway on the ledge in a diagonal manner (going to fall) . My boyfriend wanted to see her for a last time but I don’t know who is she . Kept wanting to ask my boyfriend but just accompanied him up. Saw her in the coffin with blood stains and her hands tied up behind her . After I woke up I kept wondering who is that and what does this dream means ?
Dear Bella – Do you feel in your dream that your boyfriend feels okay with seeing her for a last time? Please use http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson for both your dream figure in your dream and for your boyfriend.
When you use “Being the girl in the coffin with blood stains and her hands tied up behind her” what do you feel then?
I ask these questions because your hands tied up is a symbol for those fears, feelings of guilt, self-judgements etc. that restrict the freedom and expression of your innate wholeness and health.
So your dream may suggest that rather than expressing the beautiful mystery of Life that you are by staying true to your inner self- you rather lose that part of you than your boyfriend or his approval – you put this part of you in a coffin to please your boyfriend.
“Kept wanting to ask my boyfriend but just accompanied him up” suggests that you struggle with where, when, and how to draw the line between your own desires and the demands of your boyfriend; http://www.amazon.de/Disease-Please-Curing-People-pleasing-Syndrome/dp/0071385649
Anna 🙂