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Dreams about snakes—whether they’re biting, attacking, or simply appearing—are incredibly common. These dreams can symbolise everything from spiritual guidance and abundance to oppression and misfortune. Let’s explore what they might mean for you.
10 Min Read | By Liam Porter
Last Modified 6 February 2025 First Added 25 October 2023
Dreaming about snakes is often a symbol of challenges in your life. These dreams can carry various meanings, including:
Whether the snake in your dream is striking with its fangs or guiding you towards something, its presence holds powerful symbolism. Often, snakes represent deeper spiritual reflection—signifying hidden dangers or renewal through the shedding of their skin. Let’s take a closer look at what your snake dream could be revealing.
While snakes have a complex cultural significance, some common themes exist when interpreting dreams about snakes. We consulted with the therapist and founder of Dreamfist, Arouba Kabir Pathan, who said that ‘according to my experience, snakes can hold diverse interpretations in dreams, representing transformation, healing, fear, or hidden emotions.’
Additionally, given their historical link to sin and evil, these dreams can also indicate anxiety or a negative mindset. In some cultures, snake dreams are considered a positive sign, acting as guides towards a spiritual truth. In others, snakes symbolise evil or death.
For those with a fear of snakes—also known as ‘Ophidiophobia’—dreaming about snakes may feel more distressing compared to someone who only occasionally has an unusual dream.
As with all dream meanings, it’s important to reflect on your current circumstances and apply your own logic and reasoning as to what your subconscious may be trying to tell you. To help, let’s explore some common interpretations of snake dreams in different situations.
Dreams of snakes aren’t always a bad thing, especially if they are shedding their skin. This can carry an interpretation of change in your life. It could signify that you are ready for a new adventure, change, and renewal. Perhaps it’s time for a new job or relationship, or the dream could tell you it is time to stop hiding your true self.
Spiritual medium and dream analysis expert Lianne Smith expanded on this:
‘Dreaming of a snake can indicate that you’re going through a period of transformation. This meaning is enhanced further if you find snake skin in your dream or witness a snake shedding. This is a positive symbol that you are shedding what no longer serves you, and you are moving on to the next part of your life journey. Change is never easy, but know that this change is important for your growth.’ Spirit of Sapphire
‘Dreaming of a snake can indicate that you’re going through a period of transformation. This meaning is enhanced further if you find snake skin in your dream or witness a snake shedding. This is a positive symbol that you are shedding what no longer serves you, and you are moving on to the next part of your life journey. Change is never easy, but know that this change is important for your growth.’
Spirit of Sapphire
If you’re dreaming of snakes with multiple heads, this can indicate that you’re struggling with multiple options and need to decide on your course of action. This could be because of underlying anxiety you’re experiencing or stressful events and circumstances in your life.
The two heads often symbolise being led in two different directions but unable to choose which direction to commit to. They showcase inner turmoil and can be interpreted as a mental nudge to the dreamer to make time for self-reflection and introspection.
Are you dreaming that the snakes are everywhere? In dreams that deal with being surrounded or chased by snakes, interpretations often infer anxiety about the people in the dreamer’s life, especially if you can’t see the snakes but know they’re there. This suggests that the mind is encouraging a close appraisal of relationships for fear of a hidden enemy.
It can also mean that you’re experiencing toxicity in your life or a toxic person who is surrounding you. The more snakes there are, the more of an impact this person or people are having on your life. This could be through a toxic work environment or through problems in a friend group, to give some examples.
In various cultures, the snake can be seen as an embodiment of sexual energy and desire. Interpretations of snake dreams involving bedrooms and those where the dreamer is consuming or being consumed by a snake can indicate either intimidation by intimacy or a need for it.
Dreaming of snakes in the bed can also evoke fear, anxiety, and vulnerability. Snakes, often linked to danger and deceit, transform the bed—a symbol of rest and safety—into a source of unease and discomfort. This dream indicates that changes are needed to create a safe and connected environment. Be sure to take time for self-care and look after yourself, whether changing your bedtime routine, talking with your partner, or speaking to a professional.
Many cultures see snakes as spiritual guides, full of wisdom about both the natural and supernatural worlds. They often represent the balance between energies, both the conscious and the unconscious. So, seeing a snake in your dream can be a sign that you must follow your intuition and spiritual path to learn something new rather than be led by others.
Following this, Carl Jung, one of the pioneers of psychoanalysis, had an expanded view of snakes in this context. In his writings, seeing snakes symbolised transcendence, experiencing elements beyond your usual limits. This could be a personal breakthrough of some kind.
Dreaming of a snake attacking or harming you is a sign that you feel threatened by a toxic person in your life or that you may have an unresolved issue with them. This could be a friend, family member, loved one, or colleague. These dreams filled with anxiety might also represent a sensation of being trapped or incapable of solving a challenge.
The positive side to this nightmare is that it could just be the wake-up call you need to remove toxicity from your life, resolve an issue, or face a challenge head-on.
If you’re dreaming of rattlesnakes or other venomous snakes, it’s another warning of fear or toxicity in your life. Rattlesnakes can shake their tails to alert predators and humans of their presence. Therefore, your subconscious mind again warns you of a toxic person or a fearful situation. Clinical psychologist Lisa Lawless explains that ‘a rattlesnake’s rattle is a warning to potential predators and may represent a warning to you in your waking life.’
If you dream of snakes biting you, it can suggest an upcoming change in your spiritual consciousness. It may be trying to tell you that you should distance yourself from negative thoughts and behaviours that no longer promote your greater well-being. Dreams about snake bites could also mean you have concealed or untapped internal energies or that it’s time to face a particular situation you have been avoiding.
Dreaming of a snake in water often reflects deep emotions or unresolved feelings rising to the surface. Water in dreams is commonly linked to emotions, and the presence of a snake suggests something hidden within your subconscious is beginning to emerge.
If the water is calm and clear, this could indicate emotional healing, clarity, or self-discovery. However, if the water is dark, stormy, or murky, it may represent emotional distress, confusion, or suppressed fears.
Seeing a snake in your home in a dream can be unsettling, as homes often symbolise security, comfort, and personal relationships. A snake in your house may indicate underlying tensions within your family, personal space, or emotional boundaries.
If the snake is hiding or lurking in corners, it could mean you sense a problem but are hesitant to confront it. If the snake is moving freely, it might represent transformation or necessary change within your personal life.
The meaning of dreams about snakes is always situation-specific and relies as much upon the dreamer’s interpretation as any other interpretation. But it helps to know how such things have been interpreted throughout history. The snake, for example, plays many roles in dreams, and not all of them are negative.
One of the first studies of dreams, the Oneirocritica by Artemidoros, lists several potential interpretations—from the women who dreamed of snakes before giving birth and gave birth to sons who were orators (because of the snake’s forked tongue), thieves (because a snake never moves in straight lines), priests (because snakes are sacred to the gods), and more.
The same is true of many texts on dream interpretation. Carl Jung, for example, believed that snakes were ‘chthonic devils’ (spirits of the underworld), but also that ‘[the] serpent is an adversary and a symbol of enmity, but also a wise bridge that connects right and left through longing, much needed by our life.’
In dreams, snakes can be primal, sexual creatures but also oppressors. They can, in venomous snakes, represent death by stealth. They can also mean rebirth through shedding one’s skin or relate to health and spiritual problems. And according to Freud, they may even represent the phallus. However, it is interesting how such meanings share significance in some areas and diverge in others across religions.
Over on Tiktok, @tellyourdreams offers a quick summary of different meanings per culture:
@tellyourdreams Black snake meaning in the dreams #black #snake #meaning #dream #islam ♬ son original – Dream Meaning
Black snake meaning in the dreams #black #snake #meaning #dream #islam
♬ son original – Dream Meaning
According to the Islamic dream interpreter, Ibn Sirin, seeing your land filled with snakes can indicate a plentiful harvest on the way. In contrast, a similar dream for a member of the Jewish faith could be a sign that enemies surround a person. If a Hindu dreams of killing a snake, he can expect misfortune, while the reverse could be valid for a member of the Abrahamic faith.
All this is to say that dream interpretation is a culturally led practice, driven at least in part by the memes (in the anthropological sense) that pervade the individual’s upbringing.
Recurring or particularly vivid dreams may not predict the future, but they can indicate a feeling of imbalance—an unexplored or purposefully ignored anxiety. As such, the best way to deal with dreams of snakes is to meditate on the questions these dreams ask. Are you facing difficult decisions? Or perhaps you’re feeling trapped or lonely? Introspection is important to understanding what the snakes are trying to tell you.
Here are some tips on how you can engage with your snake dreams more and better understand your own psyche:
As with most archetypal dreams (dreams of things such as fire, drowning, the dark, snakes, etc.), the map will become the territory. So while the dream may not appear in many works of popular culture, the dream becomes the work leading to films that incorporate fears of snakes and snake imagery. The most famous examples include Anaconda, scenes like the snake pit in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, a certain film starring Samuel L. Jackson, and the proliferation of snakes and snake imagery in films dealing with the demonic.
All of this should help you understand your dreams better. Keeping a dream journal can help you compare your dreams to your life and uncover more profound meanings. Handling these feelings, such as anxiety, should help you have better dreams in the future – especially if you pair some of our tips for calming feelings of anxiety for a better night’s sleep with it.
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