Why dreaming of death is not necessarily a negative sign


Dreams of death are common, both in adults and in children, in men and in women. And if it can be scary, it is not necessarily a bad sign! Discover the meaning of the dream of death according to Freudian and Jungian interpretations among others.

Interpretation of the dream of death according to Nostradamus

  • To see a dead man crowned is an omen of illness.
  • Having the dream of being dead or seeing one’s death is a sign of imminent luck and if the dreamer is resurrected, it is even better it augurs well, of honor and bliss.
  • Dreaming of the death of a friend announces the reunion of a protective friend.
  • The dream of an animal dying on the road brings relief from some worries.
  • To be at the table with an unknown dead person and to eat with him in a dream is a sign of great near prestige.

Interpretation of Artemidore’s dream of death

For Artémidore the dreamer who sees the dead in a dream without speaking to them will have joy and fortune, but if a dead man steals the clothes, the money or even the dishes of the dreamer, then it is a fatal dream.

Giving money or clothes to someone who died in a dream is an omen of great unhappiness or serious illness.

There are scenarios and variants of the dream of death. Death in a dream can come in various forms: death of a loved one, illness, death directly from oneself or from someone else … In other words, more than a dream, it is more about a nightmare!

If it is very rare to dream of your own death, because the unconscious has a lot of trouble imagining it, dreaming moments before your death or the death of one of your loved ones remains frequent.

There are different variants that allow you to better analyze your dreams thanks to symbolism: dreaming of finding a skeleton, being chased in a cemetery, drowning, seeing someone being crucified, finding a decomposing body, to be buried or burned dead or alive, to be killed, to commit suicide, etc. And each of these variants can complete the analysis of his dream.

Jungian interpretation of the dream of death

Associated with the mystery of the afterlife and the unknown, the dream of death does not mean that we are going to die or that one of our loved ones is going to die. It rather reflects the emergence of a renewal in life, from the passage of an ordeal to reach a higher level of self-fulfillment.

According to Jung, such a dream often occurs during transition periods and shows the desire to move on. He considers that through the death of the body, the dreamer aspires to the immortality of the soul.

Dreaming of death would therefore be relatively positive and would testify to the disappearance of obstacles to make way for a more harmonious lifestyle. Contrary to all that one could think, one realizes by following the rules to interpret his dreams that it is a positive dream, a dream translating more lucidity and surpassing oneself in what concerns the dreamer. In this case, the dream of death attests to the dreamer’s desire to live.

Freudian interpretation of the dream of death

For Freud experts, the dream of death is interpreted quite differently since it shows a need to escape from one’s sexual impulses.

It is the sign of an internal conflict between the desire to fulfil one’s frustrations and the need to respect the order established by society. Dreaming of death, like many things we don’t know about dreams, actually has nothing to do with physical death.

The dreamer would therefore find himself faced with the choice of accepting his impulses or burying them forever. Death then appears in the dream as the ultimate punishment for not having managed to assume its frustrations and results in the guilt of the dreamer.