Hyena

Because of old and stereotyped beliefs about hyenas, they probably depict an attitude of living on other peoples vulnerability or weakness; taking advantage of someone or being taken advantage of; underhandedness; messenger or bringer of death; feeling parasitized. In fact the hyena is a resourceful hunter and pack animal, and the spotted hyena, the one we mostly see, kills 95% of its food, so is not a scavenger.

 But remember that anything you dream of is a projection of your own feelings, attitudes or fears. So it is worth asking yourself what traits of yours are shown in the dream.

 Example: Hi-I had a long dream that involved interaction with a hyena last night. I was at work in the greenhouse with my friend/boss and a big huge animal was walking around and it was sniffing around about to head into the woods and then it turned and sniffed us from a far and we said “It’s a hyena!” in amazement and then tried to close the greenhouse doors slowly but it came through the sides of it through a little tunnel; everything was really slow, we moved slow, the hyena moved slow. We were both bracing ourselves a bit for a rampage or charge; we both just stared and waited and it came right to us slowly just sniffing and it went out the door. We were very relieved but it started coming back through the side again and I started packing things into the hole that it came through but it got through again-it was not fierce or fast, it was just walking very deliberately and slowly. It came again into the greenhouse, shuffled past us and then it morphed into half-man and he proceeded to take a bunch of our food, packing his bag full of our stuff and talked about how he lived right down the way and how convenient that he now has a nice food supply, it felt like he was mocking us, that he knew he was stealing from us but didn’t care. We were pissed but he was very nonchalant.

Then later I was at some type of party and I started telling someone about how there was a hyena that showed up at my work and how it took all our food and that it was going to now continue to take our food and I was pissed and I was telling them my plan, I was going to either shoot it or get rid of it somehow. And the guy to my side started smiling slyly and said “I am the hyena, don’t you recognize me?” and at that moment I did recognize him to be the one who the hyena had morphed into. And I turned to him and said “oh yeah, well I don’t appreciate….” and started telling him how I felt about how he was taking advantage of us. I found him to be kind of charming.

We started to take a walk and I babbled on about how he couldn’t just take our stuff like that and he just listened. He seemed to like me and like listening to me. And at one point he would softly touch me as we rounded a corner. We brushed up against each other a couple times. I was enjoying his company, enjoying that he was listening to me. I did not judge him to be dangerous or bad, I just didn’t want him to take our food and mess with out stuff; and I understood that different animals have different habits and ways of living. It was very mysterious penetrating dream. Very visceral. I Googled hyena dream and came up with a whole slew of nonsense. And then I found yours, thank you.

As can be seen from this dream it starts of from the stereotyped attitudes mentioned; that of taking advantage of other people. But it soon becomes clear that the dream is examining human/animal attitudes. Then it is realised that “different animals/people have different habits and ways of living.” See Animals

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

Does the dream hyena shows traits that you can idenitfy as your own?

Can you recognise that you yourself are an animal?

How do you treat or feel about the animals around you?

See Levels of the Brain – Animal Children – Life’s Little Secrets – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Summing Up

Comments

-amanda 2013-10-14 13:07:15

Hi-i had a long dream that involved interaction with a hyena last night. i was at work in the greenhouse with my friend/boss and a big huge animal was walking around and it was sniffing around about to head into the woods and then it turned and sniffed us from a far and we said “It’s a hyena!” in amazement and then tried to close the greenhouse doors slowly but it came through the sides of it through a little tunnel; everything was really slow, we moved slow, the hyena moved slow. we were both bracing ourselves a bit for a rampage or charge; we both just stared and waited and it came right to us slowly just sniffing and it went out the door. We were very relieved but it started coming back through the side again and I started packing things into the hole that it came through but it got through again-it was not fierce or fast, it was just walking very deliberately and slowly . It came again into the greenhouse, shuffled past us and then it morphed into half-man and he proceeded to take a bunch of our food, packing his bag full of our stuff and talked about how he lived right down the way and how convenient that he now has a nice food supply, it felt like he was mocking us, that he knew he was stealing from us but didn’t care . we were pissed but he was very non-chalant .we seemed to have give him this extraordinary power over us in some ways. Then later i was at some type of party and I started telling someone about how there was a hyena that showed up at my work and how it took all our food and that it was going to now continue to take our food and i was pissed and i was telling them my plan, i was going to either shoot it or get rid of it somehow. and the guy to my side started smiling slyly and said “i am the hyena, don’t you recognize me?” and at that moment i did recognize him to be the one who the hyena had morphed into. And I turned to him and said “oh yeah, well I don’t appreciate….” and started telling him how i felt about how he was taking advantage of us. He was this non-chalant guy who gave off an aura of subdued power, controlled but not stiff, not mean at all, but somewhat secretive and not all the way trustworthy because i didn’t understand his motive. Also very passive in some way and very sure of himself and confident in an unassuming way. I found him to be kind of charming.
We started to take a walk and I babbled on about how he couldn’t just take our stuff like that and he just listened. He seemed to like me and like listening to me. And at one point he would softly touch me as we rounded a corner. We brushed up against each other a couple times. I was enjoying his company, enjoying that he was listening to me. It also felt like he was humoring me. It was very hard for me to discern his motive; I did not judge him to be dangerous or bad, I just didn’t want him to take our food and mess with out stuff; and I understood that different animals have different habits and ways of living.
It was very mysterious penetrating dream. Very visceral. I googled hyena dream and came up with a whole slew of nonsense. And then I found yours, thank you.

-Anki 2013-01-13 16:50:02

Ah, Mr Crisp ~ yours were the first book I read when stumbling upon dream analysing. To this day I consider it an excellent starting point, so my massive thanks for that!

Since then I have often been lost in my dream work, but to substantiate your interpretation, I had a dream of being attacked by a Tiger last night, & it was accompanied by a Hyena who attacked me as well. I dealt successfully with both (hurling Tiger down a massive set of stairs & killing it, for which I was a bit sad as my intention was not to kill). A couple of weeks back, I dreamed a snake emerged to bite me, followed by another seemingly weaker snake who attempted to bite me too. My hunch already at the first dream is that it may relate to two friends of mine, one being a very strong character and the other slightly less so ~ both are very intelligent & witty, but tend to be too savage & biting with their sarcasm. I am very fond of them both, but aware of their nature & I have assumed the dreams to either be addressing an unconscious concern they will turn on me (since people have turned on me in the past) or an actual warning that this is a likely thing to occur. I shall come back and let you know which.

If this is an actual event about to take place it is clear that the more flamboyant one of my friends will openly attack whereas the other (the lesser snake/hyena) will simply back him up in some way. In the first dream I did nothing to defend myself, but seemed only to be mystified – in the other I react with firm counter violence. Potentially I am bracing myself for the worst and working out the best policy should it happen.

In both dreams I appear calm ~ a token perhaps to my age & experience.

* I am consciously giving my dream a superficial external interpretation; I am of course aware that it can have a deeper meaning, but following my instincts and natural ‘instant thought’ upon awakening, I have linked it to this external situation.

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