Real Dream Interpretation: What Does it Mean to Dream About an Alligator?
Alligator Dreams Symbolize an Enemy or Foe…
Below is a Dream Submitted for Analysis:
I recently had a dream that I was at someplace like an auditorium. I was with a group of people I’ve never seen but have dreamt of before. We used to play a game and I forgot how, but I needed to battle someone. I left my cards in the back of my moms car on the floor so I sat outside to look at the cards i would duel with instead. While out there my dog and a skinny stray greyhound appeared and my friend and her mom and little brother touched it. A book from a friend I actually know is suddenly next to me and he’s texting me a secret about it. “The first few verses of my bible…” were all I got to see because the bible refused to open for me as if someone were turning the pages back. An alligator with red eyes appears where the greyhound was and squeezes through the bars in an attempt to kill my dog and my friends brother. I make it inside but have to throw my dog to the alligator. I get my dog out the gators mouth and tell her to hold it so I can take her to the vet though she looks dead. I mount the gator forcing it flat on the floor and rip its head off while telling someone to look up animal exorcisms and demonic animals. The alligator reattaches it’s head and my dream ends. But I see a google page of animals doing magic.
Please help me understand what this means because my friend has never given me a book and the other people I’ve had dreams with before along with the game.
This dream definitely falls under the categories disturbing and creative! On the one hand, you can feel how troubling it must have been for the dreamer, but you also kind of have to appreciate the creativity of this dreamer’s subconscious mind. Many people who have such creative minds are some of the most talented artists, authors, and creators in the world.
Of course, when you’ve had a disturbing dream like this, all of that means very little. You just want answers. That’s what we’ll try to get at below as we look at the different dream symbols.
Alligator. (Also Crocodile) Alligators and crocodiles represent very imposing enemies – this could be another individual or even a situation or goal. Some people “animalize” situations in life, such as disappointments, broken promises, lost dreams, lost jobs, money problems, etc. An alligator or crocodile usually represent something pretty large that the dreamer feels has attacked him/her or could possibly attack.
These animals could also appear in the dreams of people who frequently watch shows such as Swamp People or other shows/movies/games involving these animals.
Dog or other pet – dreaming of a dog or pet is very common. We feel protective of our pets and often think of them as family. It’s perfectly natural for them to appear in dreams. When a pet appears along with something dangerous or threatening, it often indicates that the dreamer wants to protect someone from something. In their daily life, there may be an individual they care about that they’re concerned for and wish to protect from harm.
Game – dreaming of the game (and even the cards) implies something that the dreamer needs to do… but, more importantly, needs to do well. A game in our dream suggests that our brain believes we have “one shot” to get it right. That we will, in essence, either win or lose. The fact that “battle” and “duel” are also mentioned adds to the weight of this burden. This dreamer obviously had something pretty heavy on their mind – something that probably involved trying to protect someone from something devastating.
The presence of a Bible and “demonic” animals is the perfect (make that PERFECT) example of conflict. These are such powerful opposites that you can literally feel the conflict the dreamer is under. While it’s not 100 percent certain, this implies that the dreamer isn’t sure how to approach their real-life dilemna. There’s someone they want to protect, but this conflict implies that they aren’t sure which way to go. They know very well that one way would be the right way (the Bible) – where everything is good and perfect but the other way (the demonic animals) would be disaster – in fact, it would be “hell.” The phrase “hell to pay” may even come into play.
Google is symbolic of searching – which goes along with this dream beautifully, as the dreamer is searching for answers. Animals doing magic somewhat suggests that the dreamer has even thought of their dilemma (wanting to protect someone) in terms of needing a “magic key” or a “miracle.”
Red. I’m also not the least bit surprised that red comes into play in this dream. As pointed out on our Dream Colors Page, red usually means something along the lines of “Alert!” or “Pay Attention!” in dreams. It is in keeping with the urgency the dreamer feels.
It’s also worth mentioning that people who are fans of “The Hunger Game” books or movies will often dream of large crowds, auditoriums, and “games.” Dreams are, in many ways, movies our subconscious mind creates while we’re sleeping. Fans of a particular type of entertainment will often see a recurring theme in their dreams – it simply means that their subconscious mind prefers this setting to the rest.
The crowd of people are probably just part of the scene, however, if they “feel” important to you, they could indicate that you feel everyone is watching you or that “all eyes are on” you.
The fact that the alligator reattaches its head simply means that the dreamer feels what they are up against is uncommonly powerful and fears that even their best efforts may not be enough.
While troubling dreams like this can rock our emotional world, it helps to think of them as helpful messengers. This type of dream can be used to help you step up in life and do whatever needs to be done. After all, whatever you fight today… at least it will NOT be a demonic alligator!
Thanks for sharing your dream and I hope your next dream is much more agreeable!
~ Joi
See our growing Dream Dictionary for more dream symbols, meanings, and interpretations.
What Dreams About Exes Mean: During Breakups and Divorce
It All Depends on How You Feel About Saying Goodbye
I hear from a lot of dreamers who are haunted by dreams during breakups – whether they’re broken engagements, divorces, or broken relationships in general.
Some dreamers have nightmares during this period. They’ll dream their “ex” is trying to harm them or that they are in a situation and the “ex” refuses to help them.
When the dream revolves around an ex not coming to the dreamer’s rescue – it speaks of a feeling that the ex was “never there for them… never around when they were needed most.”
Dreams of an ex trying to harm the dreamer in any way doesn’t have to indicate that there was EVER any physical or even emotional abuse. In fact, it’s much more a sign of pain from the separation. Our dreaming mind puts physical pain and emotional pain AND physical fear and emotional fear on the same level – it really isn’t able to distinguish between physical and emotional.
All it knows is that there is pain, fear, and great emotions going on at this time. It responds to this with disturbing dreams that are apt to continue for up to a couple of weeks. The sooner the dreamer is able to move on with their life… finding other interests to engage their mind and attention… the sooner the subconscious mind will say, “Oh, okay, we’re good.” and move on to happier, more upbeat dreams.
I recently read about a dream from someone who left a comment on Dream Prophesy. He and a girl he very much liked had recently broken up and his dreams involved a “backyard” and a “flood.” As someone who LOVES dreams and LOVES the way the subconscious mind works.. I loved reading this. While my heart breaks for two people who may not be able to be together (more about that in a minute!), I think it’s fascinating that the subconscious mind expressed itself in this manner.
- The backyard is symbolic of “looking back” or even “going back.” This could be the dreamer wanting to “go back” and give it another chance or it could be the dreamer not wanting to “go back and make, or repeat, a mistake.”
- The flood is beautifully symbolic of a flood or rush of emotions. Flood and/or rain dreams are common whenever a loss is involved – loss of a loved one through death or through a broken relationship. The flood (or rain) represents emotions and, sometimes, even tears. The amazing thing is these emotions can range from love to hate and from fear to relief. Someone who had been in a terribly stressful and unhappy relationship may have as many “floods of emotions” as someone who’d been in a relatively peaceful and happy relationship. However, these emotions may be those of great relief and even freedom as opposed to sadness and regret.
One Last Word
Because I do hear from so many people who are dealing with breakups – and who are so haunted by these breakups that their dreams are even affected – I want to say one last thing. When I hear from someone who has gone through a divorce or a breakup that was a lousy relationship, I can’t help thinking, “Good – now go and find someone you can be happy with. Relationships aren’t supposed to be filled with so much unhappiness, distrust, and control issues. They should be fun and happy MOST of the time, not just every now and then!”
The breakups and divorces that stick with me are the ones where…
- … the couple was happy and got along beautifully.
- …. the two individuals actually loved one another.
- …. there was respect involved – a two way street.
- …. but, for whatever reasons, one or both of them feel “it won’t work” or that there’ll be trouble down the road – so they end it.
What the what?!?! If it’s working NOW, what leads you to think it won’t work THEN? If you have differences of opinion on a lot of issues NOW, don’t base that on what may or may not happen THEN. People change and, over the course of a few years, sometimes they change so much in their outlook on life they can’t even believe it!
These days it is extremely, extremely hard to find someone. That’s why there are SO many online dating sites, match up programs, etc. Problem is, some of these have the potential to be unreliable at best and dangerous at worst. It’s just incredibly difficult to find someone. Period.
If you have been blessed enough to find someone you love and who loves you, letting them go may be one of the worst mistakes you ever make. One of my favorite sayings is this, “Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about.”
If love and respect are there, then you need to make a couple motto that goes something like this, “We will make this work.” Keep lines of communication open, respect one another’s opinions and even encourage freedom of thought.
Relationships are, basically, family we choose for ourselves. We’re born to parents who aren’t our choosing. Some of us have siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents who aren’t our choosing.
Think about it: We never throw a brother or sister aside simply because we don’t see eye to eye on everything. As parents, we don’t put one of our children up for adoption because they have different political thoughts than we do.
In my own family, I’m not sure any two of us agree 100% on every single political or current news topic. We may see a lot of the major issues similarly, but everything… not a chance. We’re all individuals and individuals were built to think for themselves.
However, we love one another with all our heart and we respect one another and applaud freedom of thought. That’s what families do. They may disagree, they may even argue, heck… sometimes they may even stomp around and yell!
But, in the end, when all’s said and done – they’re family and quitting is NOT an option.
If the love is there, everything else will follow.
What Does This Weird Dream Mean?!
Dreamer Has a Rare Dream About Daydreaming
Okay, here’s a weird dream I hope you can interpret for me. I just know there is some important meaning behind it but I can’t figure it out. I dreamed that I was with my mom (who died suddenly 3 years ago). I miss her very much and dream about her a lot. In the dream we were in a plane. I am scared of planes and heights more than anything, so being in the plane made me very uneasy. As the plane began to start going down – crashing – my dream suddenly switched to me on the ground – daydreaming about the whole plane situation. I’ve never done that in my dreams before – “daydreaming” or imagining something. That would seem almost impossible, but it’s exactly what happened. Then, in the dream, I began “playing out” scenarios – like wondering what different people would say if they found out our plane had crashed, who would cry, who would miss me, etc. I even imagined that all my family would find it very ironic that I died doing something I feared so much. What does this weird dream mean? It has shaken me and unsettled me a great deal. Thank you. – T.B.
This type of dream is – in my experience – VERY rare, indeed. I’ve personally had kind of similar dreams a few times in my life and each time – like you – I wondered, “How is that even possible?!”
The mind is so incredibly complex that almost anything IS possible. The subconscious mind doesn’t have any “rules” it has to live by, so pretty much anything goes.
When reading over this particular dream, one thing stood out – this is what I call a “troubled” dream. The dream, itself, isn’t troubled (of course), but the dreamer is… or at least has been very recently.
The fact that your mother – who you lost a few years ago – was with you in the dream coupled with the fact that one of your greatest fears – flying – was taking place points to a fear surrounding illness, injury, or even death. You could have been EXTRA worried about a loved one recently or even fearful of your own well-being or health.
I believe this dream indicates that your fears are “in your mind” and that, deep down, you realize this.
This sort of insight can sometimes create complex dreams as your mind tries to sort everything out.
- You’re fearful for someone (or for yourself)
- You realize the fear is in your mind
Is it any wonder the subconscious mind has trouble making sense of it?!
We’ve all been there, though. We worry ourselves sick about something – the whole time knowing that we’re creating the drama.
Just more examples of just how COMPLEX the mind is.
I hope you’ll use your dream to help you let go of excessive worrying and release fear that you create in your own mind. Thanks for sharing your dream with us – what you think of as “weird,” the rest of us think of as “fascinating!”
Closed Signs: Are These “Signs” More Than They Seem?
When Your Dream is Trying to Tell You Something Important
I recently had a dream submitted that involved a very interesting dream symbol: Closed Signs. The dreamer pointed out that they are a recent college graduate who (like a LOT of young people) is struggling a little in their career.
Below is an excerpt from the dream:
2 nights ago i had a dream, i was with my friend in a condo and we were about to leave and i said to the other person in the same room that i will just bring my friend home and we walked towards to the elevator and we found out that the elevator is not working on that floor so we decided that to maybe go down to another floor to ride the elevator.so we did, we used the stairs and when we
reached another floor down there’s a sign on the door and it says “CLOSED” then, we went down again until we can enter a opened door. But as we go down again, We saw the “CLOSED” sign again and another floor down “CLOSED” sign was there again and then on the 4th floor down there i saw no more “CLOSED” sign and we entered then i woke up after that.
What a frustrating dream! This is one of those instances where the description of the dream (frustrating) sums up feelings the dreamer has recently experienced. It’s as though the subconscious mind uses the emotions of the conscious mind to “set the theme” for dreams. It picks up on the frustration and more or less runs with it – up elevators, down halls, up stairs, down stairs..
However, I think there might be a little more to it. While it’s clear why your mind created such a frustrating scenario in your dream, I believe it was – in the process – providing you with a little advice.
Before I get to what I personally think this advice was, I just want to reiterate something I frequently say on Dream Prophesy: Our subconscious mind is one of our greatest allies in life. It has access to all of our struggles, our strengths, our weaknesses, our problems – everything that is US and everything that is OUR WORLD. The subconscious mind knows everything our conscious mind does – but it has a “superpower,” if you will.
It doesn’t get in its own way!
That’s why it is so vital to interpret our dreams (or to have someone do it for you, of course). Our dreams are basically our subconscious mind painting a picture for us and, many times (if not most of the time), we can find valuable clues and priceless advice within the picture it paints.
In this particular dream, I believe the dreamer’s subconscious mind is saying, “Keep looking for the answer…” Furthermore, because of the nature of the dream, I believe the subconscious mind is also saying, “Look places you haven’t yet looked.”
We can EVEN go a little deeper. Because there were “levels” in the dream – clearly indicated by stairs and elevators – I believe the subconscious mind is encouraging the dreamer to “look up” and possibly even to “aim higher.” Why? Because all of the “downs” were closed!
When a dream presents us with clear options (up… down or hot… cold, etc), many times the clue to the dream’s interpretation is in the choice that was successful in the dream OR, by process of elimination, the choice that was unsuccessful in the dream.
Obviously, when you have a dream like this, it doesn’t mean to march into work on Monday morning and demand a raise. I’m pretty sure telling your boss, “But my dream said aim higher!” won’t win you the title employee of the month! However, a dream like this can serve as motivation and inspiration to aim higher, look up, and keep on keeping on.
The key dream analysis here is to look UP, aim HIGHER, and… whatever you do… don’t “lower” your expectations or get DOWN… because there isn’t anything for you there… it’s all CLOSED!
Thanks so much for submitting your dream – when dreamers do so, inevitably other dreamers are helped by their interpretation.
Confusing Emotions in Dreams
Sometimes, Nothing is As it Seems
Dreams don’t always make sense, do they? Sometimes you’ll dream of hurting someone you love or you’ll dream of loving someone you’d kind of like to punch.
If you’ve ever had these disturbing dreams, maybe it’ll help you to know that you’re not alone. I hear from a lot of dreamers throughout the week and many are troubled by just these types of conflicting dreams.
I always feel bad for anyone who has been kind of turned inside out by a dream because, really, there isn’t a lot you can do about it. It simply takes the mind a little time to recover from especially unsettling dreams. I’ve heard instances of people taking months to get some dreams out of their systems, but the norm is closer to about a week.
One of the most disturbing types of dreams I hear about are those that involve the dreamer harming someone they love. Someone who.. in REAL life… they wouldn’t hurt for anything. The most unsettling dreams I ever heard was from a mother who dreamed of hurting her little boy. Her agony came through in her e-mail and I spent over an hour replying because I wanted so desperately to help ease her mind.
In dreams of this nature, the dream interpretation is almost always the same: If a dreamer dreams of hurting someone they love, they feel (in their subconscious) that something they are doing – or not doing – could actually bring harm to this person. I’ve had instances with dreamers where this particular “thing” was smoking (harming them with secondhand smoke), not enforcing seat belt usage, etc. Some parents even experience dreams like this when they take their children to school for the first time!
Many times dreamers will dream of harming someone they love because they have a secret they fear will be exposed.
Finally, we sometimes take on the “guilt” of hurting them when we don’t deserve any whatsoever. A dreamer may dream that they harm someone they love simply because they question whether or not they’re doing all they can to protect their loved one from harm. This was the case with a father who dreamed of hitting his son relentless in his dream. It turned out that the son had just gotten his driver’s license and the father wasn’t convinced he’d prepared him ENOUGH to drive safely. Through reasoning that could only come from a parent, he was prepared to take on the guilt if anything ever DID happen to his son.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read words such as, “I was so angry in my dream! Why was I so angry?!” The anger simply represents intense emotion – sometimes even intense love. When we love someone, the thought of them being hurt causes us intense emotions, so the fact that they’re represented in dreams by one of the most intense emotions we possess (anger) isn’t really surprising.
The flip side of this dream is nearly as disturbing to dreamers: When they dream of being in love with and/or affectionate with someone they “hate.” I’ve gotten a lot of dream interpretation requests and questions along the lines of, “Why did I dream that I was kissing my ex-boyfriend?! I HATE him so much!”
Some will go so far as to say, “Please tell me I don’t still have feelings for the creep!”
Again, these intense emotions and actions in dreams simply stand for intense feelings in real life. I honestly have no idea why the sleeping mind won’t allow someone to simply give their ex-boyfriend a slap in the face in the dream (it’d be infinitely more satisfying, right?). Somehow, our sleeping mind simply sees the need to symbolize “intense emotion” and pulls one from its file.
It isn’t always accurate, that’s for sure.
When you have emotionally conflicting dreams like these, remind yourself that, as far as the sleeping mind is concerned, emotions are emotions. In these instances, think of your “dream brain” as a librarian trying to pull a book off the shelf in the dark. She knows she’s in the “Fiction” section but doesn’t know if she’s pulling an old Agatha Christie mystery or a Stephen King novel off the shelf .
Just as there’s a world of difference between these two authors, sometimes there’s a world of difference between your dream emotions and your real emotions. Needless to say, the latter are the only ones you really need to worry about.
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