Aglaia – This is in fact a very strange dream. It has several links with death, and I need to ask you whether when the dream started there was a death of someone you knew or were acquainted with?
The reason I ask is simply a feeling I have that there was something amiss about the death.
But if I look at the dream itself it obviously refers to death, but a death that was not finalised in any way. Also the mention of raw meat is another link with its strangeness. To quote: ‘It was found that some themes not only appeared in widely separated cultures, but that they also evoked very similar responses. C. G. Siligman, for instance, found that dreams about raw meat occurred in Ireland, Switzerland, China, Greece, the Ukraine, Nigeria, Tanganyika, Borneo, and Achin in Sumatra - and that in all these places such a dream was associated with some impending misfortune. In the Ukraine it presaged a burial; in the Zungeru district if Nigeria, the death of a friend; in Tanganyika, it was a symbol of a funeral feast. The origins of this common belief may be simple: for many poor societies, the consumption of large quantities of meat would be limited to funerals and similar occasions, and the association would therefore be direct.’
Then the black dog is another symbol that for some people brings feelings about death. It links to depression or death in dreams, and is a living energy in us that has gone ‘bad’ and thus causes the depression or death. Such depression is usually the result of past painful experiences that are like lumps blocking free flowing positive life energy. In mythology the dog has symbolised the guardian of the gates of death, or a messenger between the hidden and the visible world. The dog was also thought of as a guide or guardian of the hidden side of life entered in sleep and death. The following example illustrates the dream dog guiding the dreamer to what was hidden or unconscious.
Considering that you have had this dream for three years it cannot mean death is near, that is why I asked if there was a death at the beginning of these dreams. If it does refer to you it could mean you are not in good health and need a health check.
Tony