Spider
Often the dependent emotions and conflicts one feels ‘caught in’ connected with mother or family; any emotions you don’t want to ‘handle’, such as those surrounding a spouse leaving; wanting to ensnare, or feeling trapped by someone. Sometimes symbolises a mother’s power, as in the way we are caught in the web of her desires and emotions. So inability to become independent of the mother.
But it can also be feeling caught and wrapped up to be eaten later sort of feeling, so being ‘handled’ by someone; or having all the time to watch for subtle signals in order to survive. See big spider dream
The spider can also be used as a symbol of sexual orgasm, but only if we are terrified, disgusted or guilty about such feelings.
The spider can also depict any emotions you don’t want to ‘handle’, such as those surrounding a spouse leaving; wanting to ensnare, or feeling trapped by someone; the basic survival instincts in us such as a spider might have – can I eat, or will I be eaten in this meeting/relationship? This level of our sensory and feeling perception is important. Like a spider it keeps one of your feet/fingers on the web or influences that connect you with other people and the world. Like the spider, if you are wise, you thereby know something of what is coming your way – do you advance or run? See: Web.
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The following waking fantasy by a man undergoing depth therapy shows an aspect of the spider. |
I realise there is something I am looking for, and I don’t find it in my wife, or at least I don’t sense it in her. It is a frightening thing and partly exciting. This leads me on to fantasising a struggle with a young woman. It is about wanting to have sex, but seems to be some sort of power struggle. The image was of a smart very confident and aggressive young woman. She was attractive and attracted, but her approach was one of attack, so to have a relationship I needed to fight her. What I appear to be meeting is that I have the sex drive, but what I am facing is a monster. In fact I have the image of a huge spider that comes out from hiding and drags me helpless into its lair, its many eyes shining. I’m afraid. It’s not that my sex drive abates, but within this fantasy you have to time it just right. One must wait for the ‘beast’ to become passive then dash in and plunge into the wonderful hairy cavity. Otherwise the ‘beast’ will rip you apart. It is exactly like the horror films one sees of the monster that drags men or women back to its lair. It is actually all about my fear of women based on past pain. I want sex, but to get it I have to confront memories of being torn apart emotionally by a woman.
Here is fascinating dream about spiders, and its exploration:
I found your email on the internet for dream interpretation. If this is not correct, I am sorry to be bothering you.
I have had the same dream as I fall asleep for several years. I have it nearly every night just once, sometimes, rarely, twice as I fall asleep.
I dream that I find a dried piece of skin or scab somewhere on my body, usually my foot or my hand, tho it has varied over the years. I begin to pick at the skin/scab and scratch it until it comes off. When it comes off it unleashes a flood of seed spiders that engulf me. Another variation is I find some odd black hairs growing out of my body and when I examine them more closely they are regular sized spiders crawling out of me and they begin to engulf me.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Again, if this is not correct, I am very sorry for the disruption of your time. Best C
Here is a interpretation:
Dear C – What I see with your dream of spiders is that there is a possibility of an underlying fear, so that when you begin to sink just below waking, just under the surface of your mind, this feelings of being overwhelmed arises. If it were a big thing that emerged it would be easier to deal with. But thousands of little things are difficult to handle because you kill some but there are so many left to get at you. A big thing you could hit with a cricket bat or kill it in some way, but the small things are more difficult. They are a sort of ultimate enemy. You need to find an image that enables you to deal with those feelings. An image that might be helpful is that of jumping into a very hot shower, one you can just about cope with. The water is pouring down and is going to burn up the little bugs. Another image might be that you walk quickly through flames that you are big enough to pass through with perhaps only your hairs being burnt, but the little spiders are going to get burnt up.
Were you at some time frightened of sickness? A sickness that could engulf you and you would be powerless against? If not that, then perhaps an image of something, or an idea of something that has stayed with you just under the surface of your mind. Tony
Dear Tony: Thank you….THANK YOU for getting back to me with the dream information. I am fairly well educated about things but could not come up with anything for myself. I think I may have been too close to it.
You mentioned several things that seem to “hit the nail on the head” and I will explore those. The most important thing you mentioned was that of being “powerless against” illness. I do have a life long disease that is manageable but could be fatal. I think this is where I am going to start as that is what seemed to really set off bells.
I really do thank you for this. It has not been interfered with my sleep and the dream only occurs as I fall asleep….once asleep, I am fine.
I thank you so much and I am sure that my partner thanks you as well……
Thank you…thank you….thank you…. With gratitude, C
So having seen spiders in a dream occasionally indicate an illness, if you are in any doubts it is wise to have a health check.
Covered on spiders: If they are large it might mean you feel someone will smother. Or that you have no way of escaping from someone or something.
Comments
Dearest Tony;
First, I would like to explain this is the very first time I’ve attempted this so, if I’ve somehow applied on the wrong page or site, apologies. As it was by complete coincidence I even found this page….and so glad I did.
I was only asleep a very short period of time, think I may be dealing with some night terror issues, when I awoke starting immediately, looking for answers, or even educated guses would suit me fine
Never in my life have a had any true phobias. I may be a little terrified of complete darkness but….. I dreamt I was sitting upright in a chair, a rocking chair to be specific and realized from upper waist to the end of my lap, I was completely covered with spiders and even worms. All the spiders were typical black spiders but one was rather large, black, and had red or orange spots on his legs. Although frightening to look at, I had no feelings of fear or any negativity at all. Really, I guess the one emotion I remember feeling was more of a curious nature.
I’m not sure why I feel SO “affected” by this dream but, nonetheless, I do. I think it may mean something. As I said, I was completely covered in worms (I’m thinkin earth worms) and spiders, and don’t forget KING spider with all the colorful dots.
Anyway, Mr. Crisp, it would mean alot to me if you could perhaps take just a sec and give me your thoughts on this. I’ve had nightmares, night terrors for many years now, over 30 anyway but, I’m very excited to hear what you have to say.
Mr. Crisp, thank you deeply, in advance, for anything you could send my way.
In very best regards,
Lori Kelly
Lori – Wow, where do we begin to give you some understanding. To save me time in typing masses of information again I will probably put in some links, starting with http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
Night terrors suggest you have a deeply buried and traumatic memory stored away somewhere. These are very difficult to deal with because most of us have trouble meeting painful emotions. One evening, I was led into the experience of being a small child, crying in a cot, feeling abandoned in a hospital. As the experience developed I realised that I was the boy. I was the child deserted in hospital.
At the time the emotions were very real. The sobs shook my whole body. The memory was clear that this had happened to me. So I was led to believe that somehow I had released the pain of my child self left in that hospital. This was a complete misjudgment of the depths of misery a child can feel. Ten or more years later, through a series of events, I was led to revisit my three-year-old self. The events leading up to it are fascinating, because they were so perfectly tuned to produce the event that followed. So perfect that I am led to believe such things are not an accident. Also, considering the length of time between the original emergence of my abandoned child feelings, and this new meeting, I believe many such pains cannot be met until we have enough ego strength and skills to sail these rough waters.
This hell, imprinted in so many of us during our childhood, remains unknown in the majority. It thereby goes on poisoning lives, relationships and society. The only positive side I can see to it is that if we dare to descend into that hell, and find a way of returning, we gain great strength, we learn great wisdom, we absorb humility and compassion. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/
It seems from your dream that you are dealing with a lot of worries that at the moment are not to bad – the spiders and worms. I do not know exactly what your associations are with them, but it might be worth using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/association-of-ideas-with-dreams/#Working or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/practical-techniques-for-understanding-your-dreams/
But you can change the whole dream world by using http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/example-15-life-changes/
Tony
I had a dream I woke up and there were four little cases with tarantulas in them, they were all dead except one moved and I blew on it to see if it was alive and it crawled very fast towards me and I ran out of the room to the kitchen and my family was there, and I told them what happened and my dad lifted up the dishwasher and in the ground under it was a big black tarantula, and the weird thing is it was my grandparents house. Reply
I have thoughts recurrently that I see a spider. I ignore them because I find spiders are very strange characters to meet. They have thier own grouping, arachnids. Very peculiar things, and I do find them rather scary/intimidating. I have to very recent close fully awake aware daytime hallucinations with the spider. Both during a sexual encounter- same individual. One I literally thought my face was in the web and the spider was to my right undisturbed, yet full hanging right by my facei saw it. I freaked out grabbing at the webbing I thought was on my face. I felt it thick and sticky to my face an fingers as I removed it. Completely ruining the moment. I’m sitting up then looking for the residual of what I just removed there’s nothing. Being told I’m really freaking out there isn’t a spider nor web in sight. The other, the spider was above my head crawling over head crawling towards my crown an then I it disappeared. Didn’t freak out, but really questioned my partner do you see it, can you see that spider. No spider. Unsure how to interpret these very real very awake day time hallucinations
Jessie – First of all about waking hallucinations.
An hallucination is an experience of a ‘dream’ occurring while we have our eyes open. The voices heard, people seen, smells smelt, although appearing to be outside of us, are no more exterior than the things and images of our dreams. With this information one can understand that much classed as psychic phenomena and religious experience is an encounter with the dream process. That does not, of course, deny its importance. It also suggests that you have a psychic ability of you cared to develop it. But at the moment it is tied up with your sexual feelings. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/
I get the impression that the spider and the web are saying that you are in a situation that you want sexual pleasure, but it puts you in a sticky place and with emotions you do not want to handle or meet. The dream/hallucination is a warning that either you have issue connected with sex, or that you are going with people the dreams are warning you to keep away from.
Tony
I had a dream that I was in an older warehouse kind of building, I saw a black thing on my thumb just under the skin , I squeezed it like a pimple and a spider came out, then a bunch of other spiders started surfacing, some dead, some alive , some large, some still ” cocoon ” looking.. I kept squeezing until they were all out but there were hundreds of them
Dear Tony,
Last night I dreamt of carrying a large sized ziploc-type bag with two very large spiders inside. They were moving. It was like carrying a live lobster. I wasn’t sure if I was more afraid that they would puncture the bag and get out, or die first. Could this be related to fertility?
Thank you, Cleo
I keep having a reoccurring dream where my wife is missing. In a panic I search everywhere for her. Throughout the dream I notice every afternoon when I return home from the search, my patio has a few large black widow spiders, and every night that I return home from searching for her, there are a few more than there were the night before and there becoming increasingly larger. By the third night I begin to wonder if the spiders have killed my wife but I’m too afraid of the answer, and so I don’t go look I just keep looking for her. After the fifth day of looking for her I return home and decide I must know and I walk out onto the patio. It’s covered in webs and black widow spiders some so small they just look like moving dots some so large there as big as your hand. As I look around sure enough I find a cocoon shaped like a human body I charge through the spiders webs and begin to rip open the cocoon and I wake up covered in sweat. I do not have a fear of spiders, but I do remember fealing fear of the larger spiders when I first walk out on the patio with them. Just wondering why I keep having the same dream over and over.
What does it mean when spiders come out of holes in your body, the nose in my most recent case?
I recently had a dream that took place in a night setting. My brother and I were talking by a van. Two spiders began crawling down and I warned him. Then they began to crawl towards me. The quicker I moved the faster and larger they became. They chased me in circles. I’m puzzled by this. What do you think it means?
what does it mean when you dream of hundreds of tiny spiders crawling out of your scalp. I had a dream I was looking at myself in the mirror when a little spider was dangiling out of my bangs, I panicked and flung it off. two minutes later I did it again, then again but this time there were a few. next thing I know they’re coming out by the groups. I’m absolutely losing it then I faint. I wake up and they have stopped. I look at myself in the mirror to see where they are, and I see this hole in my head where they were coming out of. I told my roommate and she told me the spiders were nothing to be afraid of. I go to the hospital to wait and I feel my forehead to realize there is a soft pouch where my skull should be. I’m searching everywhere for the emergency room but the floor is marked by those stupid colour code maps. I’m so confused and it leads me to the basement where it is flooded. then the spiders come. please tell me what this means.
Audrie – Your roommate was right – the spiders are nothing to be afraid of. They are simply images you use in your dream to signify that you feel fear about knowing who or what you are. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
Looking in the mirror indicates that you were seeking to see who you are. But when you do that it waking life all you see is the limited impression your eye give you – and we are only sensitive to 1% of visible light so are almost blind.
But in the world of dreams your sight is a wonderful thing; like a magic mirror which shows you the real you – though one that scares you. It scare you because you live in a tiny little room of yourself that you call Audrie, a small image of you that is only a tiny part of you. But actually you are the miracle of Life that has failed to wake up to your wonder. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/ and http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/methods-of-awakening/
In the dream you realise there are parts of you that you never knew before – again it scares you. And the basement is the part of you that is largely ignored, the forces and processes of Life that created you and upholds your every moment of life – that somehow you have ignored and is flooded with what could be an entrance into the inner world. See Edgar Cayce
Tony
thank you for your reply! It has helped a lot! thank you again
Hi.
I keep having a reoccuring dream. Starts off with me and my friends and family in our local bar havin drinks and a laugh then out of nowhere small brown spiders start pouring in the door jumpin at everyone and poisoning them. The dream goes on with me trying to survive and at some point I aquire a can of bug spray which I use to kill some of them but they just keep coming. Also at one point I end up on the street anda can actually see a wave of spiders coming at me. They r definately not nice spiders they look like the spiders from the film arachnaphobia.
Mandy – Everything in our dreams is an expression of something in us – how could it not be. You are asleep, nobody else is there except you and you imagination. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing it will save a lot of explaining if you read it.
Of course you could not kill the spiders and they kept coming because they are probably your thoughts that you are not in control of. They keep coming because they are trying to get a message to you, but because you are trying to kill them and fearing them you cannot get the message. See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/inner-world/ and http://dreamhawk.com/news/avoiding-being-my-own-victim/
Try imagining letting the spiders come to you without trying to kill them – and watch what you feel. It is that feeling that is doing the damage inside you, not the spiders.
Tony
I had a dream 2 nights ago that led me to discover my C-PTSD.
The image of most redeeming significance was of many, many little spiders. I’m fortunate because I believe that in this particular dream I was finally able to desensitize myself a bit from phobia and traumas. The spiders weren’t attacking me, but rather crawling in a perfectly neat, orderly fashion and had no interest in me as I simply let them go by… Then the dream merely ended and I woke up. The dream didn’t show me where the spiders were going. It’s up to me now to fill in that blank.
It may sound funny…but it was almost as if my Subconscious Mind showed me a set of neat and orderly little spiders all headed in one-direction, invisibly controlled by the powerful mechanics of my Unconscious Mind, left to the disposal and decisive, imaginative will of my Conscious, Awoken Mind.
No, I don’t have an irrational fear of spiders… I don’t think so anyways. My phobia has more to do with deep, pervasive distrust of people. The spiders I believe seemed to represent all the scary, hair-raising people and events and feelings that the previous parts of the same dream had faced me with. Cruel and manipulative people. People who were literally switching faces behind my back. Silent, judging, watching people. Emotional blood-sucker types of people. All the types of people I have felt helpless to in my life.
Thanks for all your hard work Tony. I cannot begin to tell you how great your Dream Dictionary has been for me. Discovered it 5 years ago and now I’m very passionate about dreams!
Truly thankful for it Tony
Elliot – It is good to get your news about what you made of your dream.
I know the feeling well of scary people. I think some of them are so lost in themselves they really do not know what they are doing.
But anyway, blessings on your journey.
Tony
The dream:
I was sitting in my bed with my friend (male)and I leaned over to him and then jumped back. There was .a bright red and black fuzzy spider at the end of it, sitting at the end of the bed . I grabbed a peace of wood and smooshed it has hard as I could. But it wouldn’t die this I need help with it meaning
hiya, i had a dream that we found these deadly spiders in a house we had just moved into the mother was massive, biger than a dinnerplate. she had babies and they had all formed a line from the web to my sons bed. i wasnt scared of them atall and went to put my son into bed, my husband was very weary and kept saying no you cant put him in there they will bite him and i kept saying no he will be fine.
Krissi – It sounds like a difference of opinion between your rational work centred self and your mothering instincts. I would settle for your mothering instincts. Dream spiders are a totally different thing to external spiders. All living things in our dreams are potentially helpful.
Tony
Dear Tony,
I just had a dream where I was in a building that appeared to be quite old, with a medium thick layers of dust and clutter. I was sleeping here for what amount of time cannot be determined. The dream started with someone trying to make phone calls to find a particular woman. That woman was not me but the sister of someone I know. The people trying to find her were not around me. It felt like their conversation was far off and served as background for the dream itself. They were trying to find the sister of someone I knew to pay off a debt. Upon closing or the end of the conversation, the friend I know (the sister of the woman they’re looking for) is next to me sitting at a desk. It is nighttime or at least dark in the house as she has a light on. Someway somehow I leave the room and bring in a white pillow. My white pillow which has a huge black blob in it. I slide it over to my friend who is now joined by my brother and it ends up under her feet almost under the desk. I tell them I think it’s a spider. Sure enough the blob moves and my assumptions are confirmed. For some reason I leave out to the room to come back and it is now on the desk. My friend and brother are telling me to do something so I leave again. This time when I come back the spider is on the wall next to door but more like straddling the cracks between the wall and door. Positioned so that when I open the door maybe 1-2 inches ajar the spider is peering out at me with black eyes. It doesn’t try to attack me but I fear that is. I don’t try to close the door but before I even could my brother slams it. Then moments later hands me a plastic white bag with the spider in it unharmed. I go to a field to toss the bag and let it go. I come back in and to the wall diagonal the door to the room is a big brown spider with black eyes staring at me. I open the door to the room to tell them that there is now a brown spider. While telling them I look down to see 3 or 4 baby black spiders crawling on the ground. I suggest to them that maybe the pillow had eggs as well and they are hatching. For some reason I go back out to the field to find my father coming home. I tell him about the spiders and he asks did I kill the big black one that I put into the field. I say no and he is upset that I didn’t kill it. We go back inside. My father starts heading to the kitchen with a brown bag full of groceries and I start heading back up the stairs to the room. As I’m walking up the stairs, my father makes a comment about them being dirty and why haven’t they been cleaned. As I get closer to the top of the stairs, the layer of dust becomes thicker and I ketone hand prints in them. I reach the top and the brown spider is still there. I now have a small dark turquoise blue glass jar in my hand. A very antique one. I open the door and catch one of the baby black spiders in it. Set the jar down a table or dresser outside of the room. Look to my right to still see the brown spider and wake up…Any ideas on what all this means?
Nic – It seems to be about something on your conscience about a black mark on your character that you are not admitting to yourself. So instead of admitting you keep feeling there are things you want to get rid of – the spiders. But of course they will not go away because they are in you not outside. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
Gradually of course it gets nearer – meaning it is become conscious, not lost in dream symbols.
Tony
What does it mean to dream of a huge black spider sleeping above my head on a ledge and then i saw it run away from me very fast. In my dream i was not afraid of of the huge spider.