Wolf
Although the wolf can depict a feeling that ‘things’ are out to get us, the wolf in our dream often depicts just our fear. Fear is one of our instinctive reactions to situations, so is shown by an animal. We may find ourselves a prisoner of such feelings, as Anna in the example below. The wolf, as is suggested by such fairy stories as Red Riding Hood, also represents the female fear of powerful male sexuality; repressed sexuality or anger; emotions and drives that frighten you. See Animals
Also whenever we dream its images are not like real life. Because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear. So all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind. In the early days of moving pictures, a film was shown of a train coming fast toward the audience; the viewers all fled in terror, fearing the train would crush them. That is exactly the same response if you are terrified of any thing you dream of. See Masters of Nightmares
But the wolf also appears in our dreams as a master of life in the wild. It is a group animal and has tremendous loyalty and protectiveness to its family and group. As such it can depict your intuitive understanding of life on earth, the seasons of life and death, and the deep wisdom of group relations. In some dreams the wolf is a protective companion on your life journey – what in the past has been called a spirit guide or totem animal. This sort of wisdom tells us that aggressive urges are natural to us, but sometimes they can turn back on ourselves and injure our well being. You might then even dream of killing the wolf or animal in you. But love can resurrect that vital animal life and consciousness within you and the world. The following dream and commentary illustrates this.
Quote: We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we have deliberately and mistakenly perceived it to be… the mythologized epitome of a savage ruthless killer… which in reality is no more than a reflected image of ourselves. Harley Blake.
To see the wonderful nature of wolves watch https://www.facebook.com/AppreciateENG/videos/1763709230595548/?t=63
Example: I dreamt two great wolf like dogs were on a headland. They had to be killed for some reason. I shot them. They seemed to take a long time to die and I felt compassion for them. Now horses seemed to be lying with them. The death struggles became the horses – mares – struggles to give birth. I saw the vagina parted to show a head. Birth would follow. Nathan.
Nathan explored his dream and had the following intuitive response to it as if someone was explaining it to him:
“When you were trying to murder the animal forces in yourself they would not die, they only thresh about, trying to survive. Try bringing life to them. The bringing of love is represented by your desire not to have them suffer. Great love turns the destructiveness of the lower forces into creativeness. The gun was the destructiveness of the fears and angers in you turned against yourself. The love redeemed this power, directing it in a new way. Love enables new life to emerge. The new life promises strength where there was only fear. When you love yourself, you lift parts of your being into new life.”
EXAMPLE: “I was in a caravan in the middle of a field and in this field was a large black wolf. Every time I tried to run from the caravan to the edge of the field, the wolf chased me back, so I was a prisoner in the caravan. It all sounds so simple now, but at the time I was truly terrified.” Anna S.
This next example from Oliver, a boy of six, illustrates how such fears can be met with a little courage. It is a dream which recurred several times, so his description is of a series of dreams.
EXAMPLE: “I am in my bed in my own room and I hear what I know to be a wolf wearing the sort of clogs worn in Lancashire. When the wolf gets to a certain point, there is a bang, and I wake terrified. My Mother’s reassurances do not help. Each night he gets a bit nearer before my panicky awakening. The night came when I know he will reach me. Sure enough he arrives, and the bedroom door – in my dream – is flung wide open with a tremendous bang. There is no one there. I never dreamt it again.”
When something gets nearer to us in a dream, it means that it is moving nearer to consciousness. So Oliver’s wolf – or at least, what it represents, namely his response to his childhood fears – is becoming ever more conscious. This means he is facing his fear and thereby dealing with it. If he had run away or fought to keep the door closed, then it would have gone on haunting him.
The wolf can also be a protective and life-giving symbol as in the following dream. In the dream Cathy is demonstrating a loving and unified relationship with her natural or instinctive feelings.
Example: I dreamt about a white wolf. I know you won’t believe this but I actually feel like I touched its fur in my dreams. I was protecting it and it was protecting me, and it was so real I woke up looking on the floor next to my bed to see if it was there. Cathy
IDIOMS: Wolf at the door; wolf in sheep’s clothing; cry wolf; throw to the wolves; a wolf – meaning a man who lusts after women and pursues them like a predator.
Useful questions are:
Am I still dealing with anxiety with my dream wolf – if so how can I change this?
Do I relate to the wolf as an ally or an enemy?
Is my dream wolf showing a negative relationship with my fears and aggression?
Are you accepting the wolf as a protector and giver of wisdom?
See Programmed – Levels of the Brain – Being the Person or Thing
Comments
I have been seeing a red-tail hawk who has moved to my farm every morning now. He flies over me when I leave. I have also seen 3 coyotes dead on the side of the road this past weekend at different spots. Then I had a very vivid and real dream of a black wolf mother and underneath a old car on what appeared to be my farm was like 100 black baby wolves–she wanted me to take care of them and I was thinking I didn’t know how I could…she was just staring at me. I am part Cherokee and part of the wolf clan. Can you help me to interpretate this dream please? I also saw a huge owl on my trail in the woods and he looked at my little dogs–I picked them up and shook my finger at him…told him to leave them alone they were mine. He did not leave the tree and we stared at each other for like a good 2 minutes or so. Then I turned and left..He did not bother me. I have also been seeing during these past two weeks 111, 1111, 222, 333, 444, –444 being the most recent one. Sorry to say all of this in one email but I am very aware that all of this is very important and that there is an attempt to communicate with me but I do not know how to reciprocate the communication….
I dreamt last night I was/living in a village/group in the countryside by the looks of it. It was very green and hilly.I was very happy living here but the people in the group were not my blood family but felt very close to me. I was young, maybe a teen or younger. I walked pass a building with a glass front where it looked like someone was working. There is a man who isn’t my father but he keeps a watchful eye on me and he tells me off from not going to school or work. I feel close to everyone and even more so him. Suddenly a hostile group of men arrive and they take over the village where they start rounding up some of the people and takes them away. I also get taken and feel very scared and upset. I look at the friendly man upset and he can’t do anything.
I was in what looked like a doctors surgery and there is a lady looking at something, I’m facing the front. I could feel myself getting very angry and upset with these people. Then a ‘family’ member walks in, distracts the lady and I run out. I run up in the hills. The hostile men are in the distance. As I run I turn into a wolf. Suddenly I stop and look down the hill and more were being taken away. They try and trap me, I hear someone say “just let her go” and then I wake up.
Thank you,
Jenny
I forgot to say the running wolf was carrying an infant.
I dreamt that a black wolf was running at me very fast in the snow.
I am a foster parent of three siblings, all due to neglect. In our state decisions to take away parental rights takes 4-5 years, these girls are already 12. I am wondering what my dream means in my situation.
Rae – Blessings on you and your girls.
The black wolf is a projection of your own feelings, and should be welcomed. I mean that you should imagine yourself back in the dream and allow the wolf to run to you and literally take it into your body. After all, where do dream images come from except from inside us, and taking an image back into you allows you to feel the emotions, the thoughts or the fears that gave rise to it.
I think the wolf in carrying the baby to you is bringing you a very special message, one that only you can know. That it is black shows it has come from what was previously unconscious. It is probably about your inner strength and power, and you can find out by using the following: http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/ and http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#YouProjector
Tony
I had a dream, twice, about a large wolf that is cut in half and growling at me. He is only walking on his front two legs (somehow). Once he walked beside a wall and smeared blood all over it. He growls so loud it vibrates and i can feel him breath on me in both dreams. He seems like he wants to kill me but hasn’t attacked (yet). Since I dreamt about him twice i figured it definitely meant something. Plus his back-end missing is very weird. Any ideas ?
HI…I had a dream last night that I was looking out into my front yard, that didn’t look like my yard…and it had long grass. I could see a black wolf roaming around sniffing and looking at things. I knew he was hungry, but was too nervous to go outside. A bird came flying close to him and when he tried to jump up and catch it (which was what I wanted because I knew he was hungry), he just missed it. I noticed then that he was walking with a limp and had injured his front right paw. I felt sorry for him so I went outside on the deck. He walked up to me but as he got closer, started snarling. I knew he wasn’t going to attack me but I was still scared…I put my hands on his long snout to keep his mouth closed and away from my face but couldn’t figure out a way to get to his paw without taking my hand off his mouth. We were holding eye contact intently. Then my partner came outside and knocked him out so I could work on him. I pulled the big brown thorn from his paw…he woke up and walked back down onto the grass where a lion and a bird were waiting for him. I wanted him to come back because I hadn’t cleaned the wound and didn’t want it to get infected. Then I woke up.
Any thoughts? I’m pregnant by the way…I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, or my psyche. =)
Also, this has nothing to do with wolf but coyotes.
Last night I dreamt I had a puppy which I don’t (although I do have a fully grown dog) that was scared by two cats as it was backing away from the cats it came near to a pack of coyotes, fearing for the puppies life I grabbed it and ran up my steps, this action pissed off the coyote and it came after me.
Before my husband and I finaly made the decision to put our dog to sleep after she got real sick and could barely walk I had several dreams where wolves were constantly trying to attack her and I always protected her from them. My interpretation of those dreams were I was trying so hard to keep her alive and the wolves were mother nature calling to her and to me saying its her time, because I should have made the decision sooner. Wolves only attack the weak and sick.
I dreamed of being in a gangway and a wolf appeared barking and growling we somehow were face to face. I wanted to get out and I had a striped scarf- orange, yellow and off white. I had courage in the dream (because I wanted to get out of the basement gangway) I wrestled with the wolf, covering his nose and mouth and I escaped. Not sure if the wolf died but I got away
Also, the gangway was between two buildings, I used to live in both buildings but I recently moved. the woldf and I were eye to eye, his fangs were showing when he being to growl and bark. after I got away, I noticed my left arm (in the dream) had two surface scratches that’s it… I was amazed in the dream how I got away.
Tony…. Comments?
Joyus – How can anything die in the amazing world of your creative imagination? For that’s what dreams are – a world in which you create creatures to scare you, gods and angels to uplift you, and in which you are totally alone in sleep and dreams. Do you actually imagine that a real wolf is there in your dreams? So if it isn’t why are you afraid of it? It is like a realistic computer game in which you have creatures attacking you, presumably to scare yourself – but why, when you could make friends of your own inner powers; for each creature in our dreams is a projection of our inner world and its powers. As examples of this I quote three dreams from different people.
1) I’m always having dreams of me running free in a field on all fours but in my dream I was an all black wolf. Also in one of my dreams I was running on all fours chasing something and I was chasing some thing and killing it with my pack, but other times I just be running on all fours in the woods or a field
when its dark and misty.
2) The fourth was a large White Wolf with green eyes that spoke gently with a deep soothing voice. He still comforts me to this day. He would storm in & stand in front of me, snarling at the demons who moved back like the wolf’s presence was hurting them.
3) I was overlooking the forest from inside a building/resort, (stilts levelling the building on a hill/mountainside, so everything was far below me from the window), snow covered pines to my left and just forest straight ahead. As I admired the beauty of the scenery, and eagles flying over the forest, I noticed a pack of wolves far below in the dry area of the forest. A split second after I saw them I was down in the forest right in the middle of the pack. Only a moment of uneasiness took me before I realized, even though in human form, I was part of them and they were part of me. I was one of the pack and feared no danger. End of dream.
So you see, you can be anything you like in your dreams once you deal with your fears. And that is what dreams are for so that you can face the many fears we have in our inner world, and grow into a whole human person.
Tony
Hi um I’m always having dreams of me running free in a field on all fours but in my dream I was a all black wolf also in one of my dreams I was running on all fours chasing something and I was chasing some thing and killing it with my pack but other times I just be running on all fours in the woods or a field
when its dark and misty…it be misty sometimes
Precious – This shows you can be anything in your dreams – a shapeshifter such as the Native Americans talk about.
It also means that when you dream you are knowing your natural animal self and feeling the wonderful freedom of it. Keep in touch with that part of you a it will guide you through your feelings when times are difficult.
Tony
Last night I had a dream that I was at my childhood home, which is a farm with a small woods in the back field that my brother and I used to play in when we were children. This woods has been featured in a number of my dreams that are more mysterious dreams. Anyway, in the dream last night there was a pack of wolves and they were at the edge of the woods. I can’t recall anyone being with me at the farm house or not, but I called to (or howled at) the wolves to see if they would respond and they did – howling back at me. After that they started moving across the field, toward the house. I was nervous because of the fact they are wild animals and they came right up to the door. I only clearly recall one. I believe she was a female and she was pure white. I did not let her in the house but she looked at me as though she knew me, almost the way a pet looks at a human that it recognizes. Any thoughts Tony? I wonder if this is connected to my kitten dreams somehow? I have a feeling that I am getting to know my wilder/animal side.
Sarah – Yes, lots of thoughts, because it seems you are letting the ‘wild’ in you surface more fully. It is certainly a development of the kitten dream.
And wild means you are no longer set on the path of the rational, but you can let you ‘nature’ call you and lead you. A wonderful dream.
But the wild has to be balanced by the surface you, because it can be difficult, but the white wolf is a promise that you have purified the wild animal side of you.
Tony
I dreamt with a pack of wolves on a mountain, i was with a group of friends inside a destroyed castle, it was midnight, and the wolves appeared on there right in front of us, my group of friends were scared, but i said them to calm down and i staid close to the wolves, the wolves were suspicious so they kept a certain distance, but then i howled to their leader, they came close to me and they became very friendly, so me, my friends and the pack of wolves walked through the abandoned and destroyed castle, wondering in the mountain woods, with a beautiful night-sky. It was one of the most beautiful dreams i have ever had, i love wolves and i’m trying to find the meaning of this dream, im sure it has a beautiful meaning
Andy – Yes it has a beautiful meaning, and it also means you have a beautiful soul. You are not afraid of Life or nature, so you are a source of confidence to those around you.
You are also blessed because you are not cut of from your inner world like most people today are.
Tony
Brief Background: I am a student studying conservation biology. I had this dream whilst camping in my tent in the white mountains of arizona.
I dreamt I am in my tent in the woods sleeping. There are other people around in tents who whisper in quiet shock and awe. I peak out of my tent. Across camp, there are two wolves light in color. They both look right at me. One begins to charge aggressively, and the other stays put. I can see the wolf’s shadow outside my tent. It is snarling. I lean back against the tent to look up at the mesh and see the wolf, but I never see it. As I am leaning back, I awake.
Lauren – The dream starts as you are immersed in nature, without the protection of civilised life. That is a great step forward in meeting a larger and more balanced self. And of course you face things you do not respond to well. In the dream world you are facing things you react to as if they are outer reality – or at least what you feel as real. And that is not so. In the world of dreams our most intimate fears and longings are given an exterior life of their own in the form of the people, objects and places and animals of our dream.
So the wolves you met were images clothing areas of your own feelings, fears or even intuitions. And it was a shadow that was in the end apparently going to attack. Better to welcome it into you and take its strength. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-yoga/
Tony
My dream was of a wolf accross a cliff behind a metal fence i was with my late dog who died 11 years ago; star. Star found a way to get to the wolf by following a wide bend on the hillside i tryed to run to catch up with him to stop star but i was to late and the wolf ran round to meet us. I finally caught up with star and realised it was too late to save us both so i sicked star on the wolf so i could get away. The wolf was enormous must have wiehghed 250-300lbs with long grey brown fur. It ran past star and came after me. I froze when it got to me it stopped and began talking to me about its life in winter and summer and how its master took care of him. I was still suspicious of the wolf so i briskly rubbed its head and all my fear was gone