Rat

Rats keep a close relation to sickness and death. In Egypt and China they embodied the evil deity of plague.

Dreaming of rats is not exactly pleasant, as they symbolize degenerative passions that are consuming you, such as rancor, jealousy, hatred, avarice, etc. It deals with those thoughts and feelings that you hide or reject, but that you have inside.

If in the dream you are aggressive towards the rat it is a sign that you have the capacity to dominate the situation. However, the dream could also reference a certain attitude of the dreamer: you may be behaving like a sewer rat in real life, and your subconscious is reproaching you.

Some superstitions believe that rats have human souls. Generally, their actions should be observed in dreams, and corrected if they are found in your behavior.

Rats probably symbolize those contents of your unconscious that may terrify you on first glimpsing them. They are emotions or instinctive impulses that at some time in your past gave rise to guilt-feelings (or fears of punishment that were later transformed into guilt-feelings) and were therefore repressed. You now need to rehabilitate those rejected parts of yourself, accepting them into your conscious life. Stop trying to get rid of the ‘rats’. As in the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, getting rid of your ‘rats’ means losing your ‘children’ - that is, the parts of your personality that are weak and undeveloped and need all the nurture and care you can give them. (For repression)

Your fears.

Something you judge as negative or unwanted (such as a person or an aspect of yourself or your life).

Stealth.

Hidden motives or actions (since rats are nocturnal).

Resourcefulness, adaptability, or a self-preservation.

“Gnawing away at” something (getting a project done bit by bit, spending your savings little by little, guilt that’s “eating at you,” etc.).

Dreaming of this animal can represent too much or not enough of one of those qualities, or someone or something you associate with the quality or animal.

Consider also the animal’s actions, context, and your feelings about it.

See Animal, Mouse, Hamster