Alligator

Hidden enemies (could be hidden internal patterns causing you to self destruct) and health hazards. This cold-blooded animal could hold several different meanings in your dream. It could symbolically represent something from your memory, emotions, or a current situation or individual in your life. Some think that the alligator represents verbal power used in a destructive way (angry and hurtful words). Others believe that it represents an enemy. Consider the details in your dream and your level of fear. This dream symbol should encourage you to look at some of your more “dangerous” emotions, memories, and experiences.

The alligators in your dreams will begin to lose the power to frighten you as your understanding increases. Carl Jung said that all wild animals indicate latent effects (feelings and emotions that we do not readily deal with). They are also symbolic of dangers (hurtful and negative things) being “swallowed” by the unconscious.

To see an alligator in your dream represents dishonesty, deception, and a false facade. It may indicate that you should step back and reevaluate your position or view of a certain matter. It may also represent your ability to move between the material world of waking life and the emotional, repressed world of the unconscious. In addition, the alligator can symbolize the ability and talent to cure or revitalize.

To dream that you are running away from the alligator denotes your refusal to face a distressing or upsetting matter. You may be harboring a negative feeling. There is some potentially destructive emotion that you don’t want to admit you possess. According to biblical interpretations, an alligator means that you will fall victim to the sin of arrogance and vanity.

All reptiles connect with a primitive orientation toward survival and other basic instincts. Since alligators are water dwellers, their meaning and power are associated with emotional territory. They have a level of ferocity, so they also connect with scary and dangerous feelings that live just below the surface of consciousness. When dreaming of alligators, you are connecting with the power to protect yourself by lying in wait.

The flip side to this is being vulnerable to your own reactivity when matters of emotional vulnerability are present. Alligators relate to precision and control in all states. Alligators and crocodiles are often confused, but the symbolic meaning is essentially the same for both.