White

This colour has an enormous number of different associations. Most commonly it depicts being aware with a clearness of mind. But as with wedding gowns, it indicates purity, virginity, cleanness or light feelings. A brilliant white light usually shows a real and experienced inner realisation or enlightenment. It suggests something from your core self shining through to your waking self.

In certain dreams white is very threatening. Perhaps we have connections with hospitals in these dreams, and depict the anxieties and fear we have about illness or death. Maggots, mould, dead or sick people and shrouds can also be white, so white can depict the same sort of feelings. In some Eastern cultures white is associated with mourning and death.

Example: ‘There was a huge white kitchen. I was scared when I entered it and there was a door leading out of it into a white corridor with a turquoise carpet which scared me even more.’ H. H.

White can also be used to denote attraction, something noticeable or plain to see.

Example: I was looking at my right forearm which was bare. It was very brown from the sun, and at the top of the forearm near the elbow was a white slash. This surprised me and I ran my finger across it, and it felt something like a scar because the skin was slightly raised. The main thing about the slash was its intense white. It was so white it is difficult to know whether it was shining like light, or was simply incredibly white. Miche

In this dream Miche felt the whiteness was a very noticeable part of him, representing hurts (the scar) that had been transformed by hard work and skills (the right arm) and were now apparent to other people.

Black and white: The opposites appearing together. In ourselves the good and bad coexist, and one balances the other. So this would suggest such coexistence and balancing.

Shining white: The emergence of powerful life energy in a pure form. This is often connected with new insights amounting to enlightenment – i.e. the realisation of a much wider understanding.

White animals: Urges and sexuality that have been accepted or integrated with conscious activities. This means urges that at one time you were in conflict with or anxious about, and have been transformed in urges and feelings that are acceptable parts of your present life. They become available and creative energy.

White clothes: A sense of wholeness; purity or marriage. Attitudes that express or allow a lot of your core energy.

White face: Often a sign of feelings to do with sickness or sick attitudes. Sometimes it indicates fear.

White flowers: Love that has grown beyond the physical needs and dependencies.

White hair: Sometimes this is about feelings or fears regarding ageing, but it often indicates you accessing greater insight or wisdom about life and yourself.

White horse: As with any white animals, it shows sexuality and basic instinctive urges or energy that have become transformed into greater and acceptable release, It is the difference between holding back on your feelings and creativity because of doubts or conflicts, and then finding a great flow and ease with self expression.

White powder: Often suggests thoughts or feelings about drugs and your relationship with them, or poison. The dream might be indicating that you are doing something, or have taken in something that is detrimental.

White rabbit: Because of the almost universal connection of this with either a pet or with the rabbit Alice followed into the rabbit hole, it depicts feelings about vulnerability or dependence, as with a pet. If it is linked with a pet, it can also connect with feelings of caring and warmth – even love – felt for the pet. Being white suggests good clear feelings and inspiration. The Alice type of white rabbit links with an entrance into your inner world – a descent into your feelings and the world lying under the surface of your everyday life.

Example: I had relaxed deeply and entered a state of lucidity in which I felt like I was falling down a very deep hole. This wasn’t frightening, but reminded me of Alice in the rabbit hole. As I fell I passed through memories of things that had hurt me during my life, like the time I broke my nose.

Then I hit the bottom, experiencing a womb like feeling of great peace. I realised as I observed, that it wasn’t the womb, but the very basic level of my personal awareness.

Useful questions:

What are the feelings in the dream connected with the white, and what do I gain from them in my waking life?

Is there any fear in this dream, if so can I define what the basis of the fear is?

Am I finding something new here, a new release of innate creativity or realisation perhaps?

Comments

-Cecilia 2012-09-17 4:58:13

I had a dream two nights ago- i was at school (a school i’ve never been to in real life) i went into a room that was right next to my classroom. as i turned around (still in the room) the whole room changed and turned into another room. darker and creepy looking. i left the room and started walking towards an empty hallway also dark and quiet. im not sure what happened after that but again i saw myself in the room and i think this time i was looking for something. i put my backpack down for a second (again im not sure why) when i decided to get my bag, i saw that my bag wasnt there anymore. when i looked behind me, the room had changed to something else. and i saw my bag in a dim room with rocks on the ground. it was a room with no wall, it almost looked like a tunnel. i felt like it was a trap so i left the room and as i walked out, there was someone outside in the middle of the hallway. he asked me if i was okay. and gave me an orange beed bracelet. he told me to always keep it close to me so i wont experience anything “strange”. i didn’t wear the bracelet but i kept it in my backpack. i still saw people going in and out of that room. and when they opened the door i would see spirits in the room looking at me but going away as they closed that door. After that i woke up. do you have any idea what any of this means?

-linda campsie 2012-09-07 11:26:22

Hi Tony!

Im a dreamer!!! always dreaming something or orther…. but last night I dreamed of a dead white rabbit and it was lying in my mothers back garden (my mother has been dead for 3 years) it was lying inside a circle…. that had been sort of dug out… I was inside the house with my mother and we were decorating… I woke up feeling very very sad and cant shake the feeling off! is it a warning of some kind? Thanks Linda.

-Lee 2012-07-29 21:39:36

I dreamed that I was in my room with my sister searching for something when we heard a bumping and scratching noise and noticed it was coming from my pile of laundry. The laundry was being pushed up with each bump. It was then I realized it was probably my pet rabbit (I do not actually have a pet rabbit in life). I had completely forgotten I had a pet rabbit and in fact thought it was dead. I said to my sister – I thought it was dead! So we dug through my laundry and found a blue plastic bin which had been where I had kept the pet. I was afraid of what it would look like because I had clearly neglected it – not fed it and thought that it had died. I was afraid I’d see a mangy, infected, starving rabbit, but instead, when we opened the bin, out popped a healthy looking white rabbit, although it was just a little dirty. I was amazed it had survived for an unknown period of time trapped in a closed plastic bin without food or water or air. I immediately held the rabbit and comforted it and started to take care of it. But throughout the dream my pet cat (which I do have in real life) kept trying to kill it and I would have to keep saving it from my cat’s jaws.

-Jenise 2012-06-11 17:59:31

Hello! I had a dream last night that I was looking in the mirror and I had blonde curly hair, with large blue eyes and eyelashes; I was wearing an all white outfit that consisted of shorts, a t-shirt and a blazer with a white hat. In real life, I actually have dark brown hair and chinky dark brown eyes in real life. The funny thing is that while I was saw the blonde hair and blue eyes in the mirror, I also saw my dark hair and eyes at the same time…it was weird. Do you have an idea the meaning behind this? Thanks and I love your website!

    -Tony Crisp 2012-06-14 11:56:39

    Jenise – I think this is you looking at yourself in a different way. It is like trying out what it would be like with blue eyes and blonde hair – rather like women do trying wigs, different hair styles and make up except that in dreams you can go anywhere you like. Today make-up artitsts can do the while thing for you quickly.

    I believe you saw the two faces at once so you could see the difference.

    Thanks for your comment about the site. I am about the do what your dream did, try a different look.

    Tony

-M Lawton 2012-06-04 6:49:00

Unsure whether mine was actually a dream as I just dozed for a short while early morning approx 7.30am. The dream consisted of myself, within a dark space with neither walls or floors. I was standing with my arms outstretched to the side of my body. In front of me I could see a moving small white engery. Then I was viewing myself from above when all of a sudden the light rushed into my chest and instantly I awoke , very fearful.

-Michelle 2012-02-18 3:46:56

My husband and I were driving in the country or a rural area. We were one of the only cars around. We looked up and dark clouds formed with spinning vortex clouds mixed with lots of bright lights. Then I looked around and saw all kinds of cars when just a few moments before…we were alone? I looked back up to the skies and from the clouds spun out 6 to 8 tornadoes but they were bright lights. They were so beautiful and bounced around like a tornado but once sucked in they acted like a portal or black whole. We were so stunned, just trying to absorb it and not scared? I also notice a huge portal where hundreds of cars were coming thru to and the people were so confused after passing thru. This portal was fluid like and the size of a foothill. But my eyes couldn’t stop staring at the beams of light that had properties of a tornado. I couldn’t’ figure it out? Was it a storm? God? Aliens? But it felt so natural and felt good or spiritual. All of sudden one of the tornadoes (light filled and magnetic) hit our car. I reached for my husband’s hand and called his name. Everything slowed down, became so bright and we were sucked up like a vacuum. I then couldn’t move. It became so bright that I couldn’t see and then I was paralyzed. I wasn’t scared. I had a hard time waking up. My entire body was tingling unlike I have ever felt before. It was like I was energized but so confused. I had the craziest dream. What in the world?

-Wilma 2012-01-27 19:40:20

Last night in the middle of some dream that I don’t remember, suddenly EVERYTHING turned white. It wasn’t exactly like a white light shining from a source, it was more like fog that completely obliterates everything but it wasn’t fog either — it was just like looking at pure white, the ground, the sky, everything is white with no objects or definition. I’m not sure how to describe it but I’ve seen this kind of image in fantasy type movies (Harry Potter comes to mind but I’m not sure what scene). Although it didn’t seem threatening at all, I think the oddness of it made me fearful and consequently I woke myself up. My first thoughts then were that I should have stayed with it and that if I have the dream again I will try to explore it. What do you think?

-Michelle 2011-11-29 2:20:32

Amazing! I have your dream dictionary on my kindle and consult it nearly every morning. I looked up rabbit this morning, and found insights to think about (but not specifically “white rabbit”) which was key feature of this morning’s dream. Now that I did a quick google search; I’m so happy that your website comes up. … The dream is — I’m looking out the window at the back yard and I see a lanky white rabbit (built more like a thin, adolescent cat; but it was definitely a rabbit, even though the appearance wouldn’t say so) The rabbit is laying on its side on top of a round sewer cover and is not moving. I am concerned and keep looking at it, thinking it might be dead but I can’t tell. I keep periodically coming back to the window to look out at it. Then I look at it the next day (a whole day has passed) and I am amazed that I see it is breathing and starting to move, although it still doesn’t get up. The rabbit has been there, out in the open, completely vulnerable, unhidden, and was not killed. I can hardly believe it. I wonder if it had been dead, or if it had been sleeping. It still seems weak. I’m concerned for it and continue to watch it, but for some reason I don’t go out and actually help it, and I’m annoyed with myself, but another part of myself thinks that I can’t interfere in that way. …I have some thoughts on this dream, but in some ways still mystified by it (I suppose that is the way dreams intrigue us and compel us to pay attention) and I would very much appreciate your insights. Thank you!

    -Tony Crisp 2011-12-01 10:00:13

    Michelle – Well it is amazing for me too to, as it were, stand beside you thinking about your dream; the magic of the Internet. Good to see your smiling face too.

    The dream starts with you looking out into your back yard. Although it feels as if you are looking at the world outside you, you are looking at things that are happening within you that perhaps you do not recognise as yours. So perhaps some experience of intuition or gut feeling, the white rabbit can be a lead into falling down the rabbit hole of interior exploration.

    Whatever it means, it hasn’t been cared for, so it hasn’t filled out and looks dead. But you notice it because you do look into the back yard of your dreams. But because you are interested and give it attention the dead is brought to life – as dreams do. Having seen it is now breathing you keep seeing it and it is still weak, and I wonder what the issue is that stops you going to it. I do not know, as you might have a good reason.

    That it started out on top of a sewer cover suggests that it was blocked from being relegated to the waste. So it sounds as if it is there for a very good reason and has a lot of potential for growth. A rabbit can mean something that is quite vulnerable and lives underground – in your unconscious. So it could mean ideals or viewpoints that are quite not strong, and you thought were dead, but are apparently gaining new life and strength.

    Tony

-Lady Tee 2011-11-05 8:23:37

This is the second time I’ve had this dream. A white rabbit keeps jumping up (hopping) and biting me on my hand. I think I am calling to my sisters or someone to help me get away from it. I think the rabbit looks a bit vicious. It’s not a real clear dream.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-11-06 10:45:29

    Lady Tee – Considering that each dream image is an expression of your own inner world, and that the rabbit is white, I do not have the feeling that it is trying to harm you. It seems more like it is a desperate attempt to get your attention, but you keep trying to get away from whatever the feeling is.

    It reminds me of the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps if you imagine listening to it and seeing what it so urgently wants it might lead you somewhere important – your unconscious for instance. It is a creature that lives underground, which points to things within you that are worth knowing. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-in-your-dream/ for more information.

    Tony

-Diane 2011-11-05 3:53:20

I dreamed of white clothing surrounded by a black hole in my living room.

What i understand thus far if the focus is marriage I am already married and dealing with id theft. clarity would be helpful because my faith have been shaken with abused symbolism.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-12-01 13:55:19

    Diane – I wish you could have given me a bit more details, even background, as it is out of all that is said that a picture of your dream builds up – and it takes time.

    Clothing is only a cover up for our naked truth. Although white it can easily get dirty. Also clothing is changeable, like our thoughts. The real thing in your dream is probably the black hole. That is where your identity is found. Black is not nothing, but every thing. Light is only visible when it is partly absorbed by something material. Until then it is the blackness of space, which is not empty but full of invisible things.

    So if you close you eyes and observe for a while what your body sensations are, your thoughts, memories and images – all of which are shifting and changing, and are not you, not your identity – and then you look where all those things we take to be so real emerge from, you will find and empty dark space.

    Tony

-Stefany 2011-09-21 12:28:29

I had a dream where someone that used to be close to me and no longer talk to had a beaded bracelet that consisted of two colors in a pattern. And they had lost a bead that was very important given to them by someone special. Somehow I found it, the bead landed next to my feet and I picked it up and gave it to them it was a “WHITE SINGLE BEAD”. That was the image that stuck to my head, clearly, and I feel it mean something? Does this mean anything? What does a white single bead mean?

    -Tony Crisp 2011-10-28 12:20:44

    Stefany – It isn’t the single white bead that has meaning, but as with all dream imagery and language, it is that it is in context, alongside other things. The ‘someone special’, that it was part of a bracelet, and it was lost are all very important.

    Also as it was your dream ‘the someone you used to be close’ to is a part of your own character – (see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-dreaming/ ) so a part yourself you have neglected and are now helping to claim something you had lost. It could relate to what I call women’s magic. For instance if we think back to the time when humans emerged from an ape like body, there must have been at time when a woman wore what we now call jewellery or make up. This would have made her stand out form the other women, and so appear more attractive. Women still recognise the magic they can do by altering their appearance with dress, make up and jewellery. A bracelet can signify intensification of your personality, social attractiveness, or it could be a charm or amulet – a sort of psychological protection.

    The white bead is a completion of something that was missing, and you must have thought about it often to appear in your dream. It seems to be a gift from a higher or important part of you – so it could relate to a gift of the spirit.

    Tony

-Ema 2011-08-07 12:37:55

I dreamed that I was laying down/reclined almost like in a hospital bed, except I asnt in a hospital because I was surrounded by nothing but whiteness.
To the left I knew there was a doorway because I saw children walking back & forth, amongst the children I saw Ronald McDonald walking around too.
Then I saw this short little chubby boy with glasses(who I can vividly remember) stop & Ronald McDonald asked him, “hey! why are you here?” The boy replied: “I had a CVA(stroke)”, McDonald then said, “Oh! Okay! Why don’t you go in there?” The boy shrugged his shoulders ad was like okay. Whatever the boy walked into caused a huge burst of white light.
Then McDonald walked into my room & gave me a huge happy smile and without saying a word kissed me on the cheek and left. Then another burst of white light came and I woke up.
In the dream itself, I felt no fear, I felt nothing. When I woke up I was scared.
I have no health issues, but I do work as an EMT so I can probably attributethe use of “cva” medical term to that. But everything else I don’t know.

-Stephanie Moore 2011-05-27 2:19:00

I had a dream of a black room with a white couch and a black cat sitting on the couch. that was it! i never have dreams. This is the first one in quite awhile do you have any idea what this means?

    -Tony Crisp 2011-06-06 9:04:25

    Stephanie – It could mean that you have been raised with very marked ideas of right and wrong – black and white.

    It seems that you are comfortable with you home life, but there is a healthy ‘black’ side of you that feels out of place with the homely side.

    It need not be like that. It is only a matter of standpoint or viewpoint. As I wrote to someone recently – I see that as humans we have polarities. It is a law of nature – the north and south poles. Such poles are a way of keeping balance, and if we swing too much in one direction there has to eventually be a swing in the other – unless we keep a balance between the opposites. So the black and the white are simple polarities, both of which need to be honoured.

    Tony

-Shana 2011-04-13 21:00:16

My partner of whom i am in a relationship with had a dream i was being attacked by a white tiger? does this mean he is distancing himself emotionally from me or is this a good thing? im not sure. Thanks.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-04-20 12:08:11

    Shana – I would need to know what he felt about the tiger attacking you. If he was protecting you or was afraid to intervene.

    The white tiger is interesting though. It can represent a purified form of an angry woman, a mother/a woman as a protector or destroyer. But also anger, spitefulness, the power and authority of animal strength, or anxiety or fear, as in flight or fight.

    When we call someone a tiger we either mean they are fierce, capable of defending themselves, or very successful at what they do. But we also say a woman can protect her children or loved partner like a tiger. So it is also about strength and passion to protect and care. This aspect of the tiger depicts the primeval and passionate power of motherhood and the love and care of nature itself emanating from the unconscious.

    So again it is important to know his feelings in all this.

    Tony

-Ronda 2011-02-08 23:15:34

I was slowdancing with a big white great pyrenees dog in a dirt driveway. It was on it’s back legs with it’s paws on my shoulders and head on my shoulders. I was uncomfortable that people might see us and think I’m nuts but I was happy dancing with him.

    -Tony Crisp 2011-02-14 10:36:46

    Ronda – Whatever people think of you, smile it off. The Great Pyrenees Mountain dog is one of the old breeds that were always regarded as protectors of sheep and of people. Dancing with the dog shows you are in tune and share love with the protective instinctive part of you, and that cannot be bad. That protectiveness would show itself in intuitive urges to protect you from danger.

    Tony

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