The Element Encyclopedia

by Theresa Cheung
In their positive aspect, spiders represent the feminine capacity for creating something beautiful that has not existed before. Spider energy is also connected with patience and success through skill. On the negative side, spiders represent small or hairy things that create big fears and a dream featuring scary spiders may be associated with personal fears to which your dreaming mind believes you are overreacting. To see a spider in your dream can also indicate that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation or that you may want to keep your distance

A spider may represent a fear, or something or someone who makes you feel vulnerable. Perhaps you feel trapped or entangled by emotions or fears from which you cannot escape. Alternatively, are you a spider trying to trap someone else in your web or is someone trying to trap you? Freud believed that dream spiders represent the devouring mother who consumes her children through possessiveness or the ability to arouse guilt. Try to get to know, not only your mother, but more importantly, what your mother means to you. One way of doing this is to converse with the spider: hold it in your mind and ask it searching questions. Or perhaps you are feeling trapped by another relationship in your life?

Dreams of a spider in your bed may suggest that intimacy with a loved one is triggering a lack of self-confidence and fears about being vulnerable and exploited. The spider can also depict any emotions you don’t want to‘handle’, such as those surrounding a spouse leaving. It can suggest that you want to ensnare someone or something, or that you are feeling trapped yourself. It may even represent the most basic survival instincts in us—can I eat, or will I be eaten by this person or situation? Superstitions dating back to the Middle Ages claim that it is a good sign to dream of spiders. To see a black widow in your dream suggests fear or uncertainty regarding a relationship. You may feel confined, trapped or suffocated in this relationship. You may even feel hostility toward your partner. Because the female black widow has the reputation of devouring its mate, it thus also symbolizes feminine power and domination over men.

Ten Thousand Dream Interpretation

by Gustavus Hindman Miller
To dream of a spider, denotes that you will be careful and energetic in your labors, and fortune will be amassed to pleasing proportions.

To see one building its web, foretells that you will be happy and secure in your own home.

To kill one, signifies quarrels with your wife or sweetheart.

If one bites you, you will be the victim of unfaithfulness and will suffer from enemies in your business.

If you dream that you see many spiders hanging in their webs around you, foretells most favorable conditions, fortune, good health and friends.

To dream of a large spider confronting you, signifies that your elevation to fortune will be swift, unless you are in dangerous contact.

To dream that you see a very large spider and a small one coming towards you, denotes that you will be prosperous, and that you will feel for a time that you are immensely successful; but if the large one bites you, enemies will steal away your good fortune.

If the little one bites you, you will be harassed with little spites and jealousies.

To imagine that you are running from a large spider, denotes you will lose fortune in slighting opportunities.

If you kill the spider you will eventually come into fair estate.

If it afterwards returns to life and pursues you, you will be oppressed by sickness and wavering fortunes.

For a young woman to dream she sees gold spiders crawling around her, foretells that her fortune and prospect for happiness will improve, and new friends will surround her.

The Bedside Dream Dictionary

by Silvana Amar
Some believe that the spider is symbolic of an unkind and sneaky individual. Are you the spider building a web, or are you being dragged into one? A spider’s web might represent entanglement and the general complexities of life. Depending on the details of the dream, it could also symbolize a smothering individual. Ironically, very old dream interpretations say that the spider is an omen of good luck! Alternatively, Carl Jung felt that the spider’s web was a symbol of wholeness due to its formation (circular shape), construction and complexity. He called circular symbols “mandalas” and said that they hold valuable meaning for the dreamer.

The spider and his web may be calling for an integration of the dream’s personality leading to greater self-awareness and resulting in feelings of completeness. Therefore, the spider and his web may be considered profound and spiritual dream symbols that call for greater self-understanding and encourage us to derive meaning and satisfaction from the intricate framework and interplay of life.