Picture the ginormous dinosaur bearing down on you. You run away but it’s faster. Hide and it will find you. Fight it and see how that turns out.
Now think like the storyteller that chooses the characters in our dreams. Why is a dinosaur right for the role? Well if the story is about something that’s huge and bearing down on you, that you can’t outrun, escape or beat in a fight, then a dinosaur is a great symbol for it. The storyteller has other options but for some reason the dinosaur is the best fit for the role. Why? It’s the question you ask as you interpret the dream. For example, the dinosaur can symbolize a bully or an overbearing boss.
The dinosaur could be a good fit because it’s primitive and something about a situation or condition feels primitive. For example, the electricity is out and you joke that you’re living like a caveman while dealing with a big problem. The dinosaur is big and primitive and just one look at it gets across the idea of a big problem. It could be a good fit because it’s immovable, implacable, loud, dominating, dangerous, and fearsome, and when a dream wants to get across the idea it gives you a dinosaur. No matter how big, bad and scary it is in a dream, it’s still just a symbol, a meaningful byproduct of the interaction between the ego and the unconscious mind. At the Owls School of Dreaming you can learn the process of interpreting symbols.
Some dinosaurs are small compared to a behemoth like a T-Rex but the approach to interpreting them is the same. What makes a small dinosaur a better choice to get across an idea? Take for instance the scenario where the power is out. It’s a big problem that spawns smaller problems, such as the food spoiling in the refrigerator and the lack of digital entertainment. The dream chooses to tell the story as numerous small dinosaurs that plague your home, because they are good symbols for small problems.
When a dream wants to express the idea that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, it has various types of dinosaurs to choose from. Dinosaurs are known for being ferocious competitors and that might be why a dream uses them. Also, reptiles are instinctive, and when a dream wants to talk about an instinct, especially a primitive one, it has the option of using a dinosaur. But why a dinosaur instead of a lizard or snake, creatures also known for their primitive instincts? As you interpret a dream you try to understand the reasoning of the dreaming mind. It creates a story by stringing together symbols and every choice is deliberate. A dream may choose a dinosaur as a symbol because the instinct in question is really powerful. By that logic, the dinosaur is the better choice because it’s a more powerful creature than a lizard or snake.
Also, instincts are hard to control and the same can be said of dinosaurs. A dinosaur is the perfect character to play the role that expresses the idea.
A dinosaur is a relic from the distant past.
Oftentimes, dreams express ideas through metaphors. Take for instance the dream a teenager had about hiding from a dinosaur that sniffs around looking for him and his friends. One of them makes a noise and he says shut up or else the dinosaur will find them. The dream is a story about his life while living with his grandpa, the “old dinosaur” with outdated notions and strict standards. He avoids the elder’s scrutiny as best he can but his friends have a habit of saying things that spark suspicion. It’s a clever use of the metaphor of the ‘old dinosaur’ to tell a story about avoiding grandpa’s unwanted attention.
The idea of outdated includes old habits and obstacles. Keep stretching the idea and it can mean that it’s time to put something behind you. A dinosaur is a relic from the distant past. Dead and gone.
If one chases you in a dream it may symbolize something about your past that’s catching up with you, or that can’t be escaped. It could be a symbol for something that won’t take no for an answer — it just keeps coming no matter what you say or do, like your thoughts about an old relationship that just won’t be put to rest, or your ex who won’t go away.
A dream can refer to the distant past and archaic ideas and notions as dinosaur bones or fossils. Finding dinosaur bones can symbolize discovering something about yourself that relates to your ancestry or heritage. It can symbolize something buried deep in the subconscious mind. It can symbolize a passion for history or any sort of passion, especially the single-minded pursuit of it, an association that grows out of the fact that dinosaurs aren’t known for their subtlety but are known for their relentlessness.
Don’t forget that dreams use a symbol as part of a story. The story is how the dream defines what it means. Take for example the dream a woman had where she’s stuck in a cave and afraid to leave because dinosaurs roam outside. In that context, the cave is her comfort zone and the dinosaurs symbolize her fear of leaving it. The dream imagery also captures the deeper dynamics of why she stays in her comfort zone; leaving it feels dangerous, like stepping outside where the dinosaurs roam.
Dinosaurs can be the stuff of nightmares and that’s a subject covered in my book that helps you understand why you have nightmares, what they mean and what you can do to stop them.
But dinosaurs aren’t all bad. We’ve covered the scary associations with them in this post, but some are dare we say kinda cute. Your reaction speaks volumes because when you encounter a symbol in a dream you sense subconsciously what it means. Your feelings guide you. For example, if a dinosaur makes you feel safe it might be a symbol for an older friend or relative you can count on or your old-fashioned, comforting ways.