Dreams of water1 are multifaceted, with many potential layers of meaning. They can point to the shifting tides of the unconscious psyche, the possibility for emotional currents to sweep us away, the invitation to dissolve our rigid structures in a healing bath. A first step in understanding these dreams is to notice what form water is taking and the emotional tones present while in the dreamscape.
Share your water dreams in the comments below. I’ll be offering some reflections (utilizing an archetypal and symbolic perspective). Feel free to comment on other dreams if you’re inspired or have an insight to share.
I often have dreams of the ocean in which I am submerged and completely safe. There's no fear, I am always taken to the water and shown what to do. Recently, I had one where I was along a rugged coast and then the bus I was in was submerged in a loch. We all explored the underwater and came up wrapped in blankets, wet, and okay.
I always have dreams where I am running late for something, usually for school or work, due to significant public transport delays. I'm usually finding it hard to find the correct train or bus station as it rains profusely. Sometimes I am looking for the station alone but usually, it's with a male companion or with a cohort of students. The roads are flooded and it's normally happening at night. Sometimes, I get splashed by rain water as the cars drive down the roads in a hurry, or it's raining so badly that I get drenched.
I have many water dreams. The most memorable one I’ve experienced was six days after my beloved grandfather died.
I was sitting on a beach shore focusing closely on stringing different colored beads together to make a necklace. I felt content and refreshed. Then I noticed my grandpa was sitting next to me. It was like he was really there, healthy and vibrant as ever. We didn’t speak but simply enjoyed each others company, admiring the waves and beauty.
After a few moments he said, very decisively, “I’m going in.” He pat my hand and smiled. I followed his figure with my eyes as he stood up, walked barefoot to the water, and waded in.
He ducked under waves and floated around, looking happy, as if he was home in the ocean. I admired him for a while before looking down at my beaded necklace. I suddenly felt like something was missing.
I stood up and hurried a few steps toward the water like I wanted to go out there to meet him. I quickly stopped, though, because I felt conflicted. I called “Hey, Grandpa!” - flailing my arms in the air trying to get his attention.
He turned around to look at me, smiling back. Another wave rolled in and he gracefully swam under it, then popped to the surface again, still holding gaze. Then a HUGE wave slowly formed, rising so high that he had time to glance a few times at the wave and at me and back again. As if in slow motion, the giant wave began to roll and my grandpa (underneath it by now) looked up at it in awe. Right before the wave broke, he waved at me and dove into it. I began to cry. The wave finally crashed in a giant rush. I watched for my grandpa to appear again but all I could see was ocean. The water eventually calmed and I stood there for a while in the breeze, crying.
I couple days ago I dreamed I was in my room about to take shower when I realized there was a shower inside my room, beside my bed, only when I opened it and the water started coming out then I realized it was strange and if I took the shower there my neighbors would see me naked as it was in front the window in my room, then I remembered I’ve always used the bathroom outside my room to take a shower, only this time there were family visiting and I could not use it. I could see the water still coming out from the shower and how it was getting wet all my stuff so I turned it off but I wasn’t really surprised or shocked.
I can’t remember all the details, but I was driving up the coastline with mountains on one side and the ocean on the other side lots of waves and it was not dark but also not day time, more like moment when the sun finally sets and you can still get a glimpse of blue light, I wound even say more like a full moon light, my dog was running along on the beach having a good time and we where going to meet up at the end of the road where there was a pier and a dock , I get there my dog is with me and I was going to take a boat I don’t know where I was going but then it started raining so I couldn’t get the boat. Some other things happen like someone gave me cotton candy but took a bite from it before handing it to me and I didn’t know the person who handed it to me.
Sorry if it seems all over the place but I couldn’t remember but and I apologize for any grammatical mistakes English is not my first language
I’ve had recurring dreams about a wave. It is a wild figure, but it also represents where opposites unite: the sky and water, the shore and ocean. Like nature, beautiful but dangerous if you don’t respect her
An academic colleague is in a large university office, but is head to foot in a black coat. There is a large pool, not a conventional swimming pool but one with lily pads and reeds. Irregularly shaped, it has several pools within the larger pool. I have to go into it to demonstrate something as part of an induction event. My colleague has not given me any script. Some male students are looking dubious. I feel as if I should represent some kind of water deity who sinks into, then surfaces from the pool with reeds in my hair, and it is about telling the students that there is this pool of unconscious creativity into which they can always drop, not having to keep everything head-oriented. I feel anxious because I don’t know what to do as far as my colleague’s plans are concerned, but fine about being this androgynous figure in the water.
Also one more brief image- I am watching huge creatures emerge from a body of water, but I can only see their backs and tails. I believe they are whales, but have prominent backbones. I feel a familiar sense of terror and awe in response to the emergence of something so powerful emerging from the depths.
(Similar to another dream I talked to you about) I am staring out at a large lake at night and a ball of fire shoots down into the middle of it. It goes down to the center of the earth and starts pulling in everything around it. I stand locked in place as I watch the entirety of my physical reality sink into the circle. I am met by a pervasive sense of existential terror. Others scramble around me, panicked. I don’t try to run. I stand and watch as the all consuming sinkhole unleashes fire, and then the flood, sensing the inevitability of death. I fall into a sea of black, a combination of fire and water. I am scorched immediately and feel my physical self dissolve almost in an instant, but my consciousness remains. I feel myself zooming through an inbetween, a light pulsing in the periphery of my awareness. I then drop back into my body and open my eyes.
I dream about water often. Sometimes I’m on a boat w the same people, some of them seem very disconnected, tired, there’s heaviness and also water is murky. Few days ago I had a dream about my tub overflowing. When I realised, I run into the bathroom and stepped into the water feeling stuck. I don’t remember what happened after that but I found myself in the kitchen w two of my closest friends asking me what kind of salt I eat and why. One of my friends felt frustrated w me and I started over explaining myself as to why I eat the salt. This dream is reoccurring xx
I often have a dream of being in a circular high drum like water tank in some kind of industrial room, high ceilings. And i have no way of getting out. No ladder or ledge to hold. I am frightened as I am not a swimmer. Thanks Alyssa.
I dream a lot with water, also influenced by the fact that I sleep with few quartz crystals near my pillow which are basically condensed water.
One dream that stands out thought is because I had it few nights in a row, very lucid and it always started the same, with a feeling of something innevitable that was about to happen and then witnessing a water apocalypse, a huge wave that would engulf everything. In the first dream I was somehow swimming trying to find my way to the surface but to no avail and woke up feeling like I drowned. But on the next day I had the same dream although this time when the wave came I managed to climb a huge building and so managed to escape but still had a sense of "what the hell is gonna happen now" while watching the tides. I had many dreams with innevitable tidal waves, some in which I survive, some in which I don't. But there's always some fascination, as in the dream I am aware of what is happening but I don't feel fear, more so curiosity.
I had the most wonderful dream where I went into a shower in a church. As the water poured over me, I began weeping with awe and I kept saying how grateful I was to have found my holy place.
I once dreamt that the earth (or the city where I was) flooded almost to the top. We had to swim around in attempts to find space to land, but at some point I discovered I could breathe in the water. It felt more like river water than ocean water, but it was deep like the ocean and we encountered helpful dolphins and orcas. It was stressful but so beautiful.
Oooh yes, I had a dream recently about a huge tidal wave coming towards the house where I was about to hold a retreat. Now having just completed the retreat, I have a sense of its symbolism - as a forewarning of sorts!!! Curious to hear your perspective on tidal waves in dream s
I often have dreams of the ocean in which I am submerged and completely safe. There's no fear, I am always taken to the water and shown what to do. Recently, I had one where I was along a rugged coast and then the bus I was in was submerged in a loch. We all explored the underwater and came up wrapped in blankets, wet, and okay.
I always have dreams where I am running late for something, usually for school or work, due to significant public transport delays. I'm usually finding it hard to find the correct train or bus station as it rains profusely. Sometimes I am looking for the station alone but usually, it's with a male companion or with a cohort of students. The roads are flooded and it's normally happening at night. Sometimes, I get splashed by rain water as the cars drive down the roads in a hurry, or it's raining so badly that I get drenched.
I have many water dreams. The most memorable one I’ve experienced was six days after my beloved grandfather died.
I was sitting on a beach shore focusing closely on stringing different colored beads together to make a necklace. I felt content and refreshed. Then I noticed my grandpa was sitting next to me. It was like he was really there, healthy and vibrant as ever. We didn’t speak but simply enjoyed each others company, admiring the waves and beauty.
After a few moments he said, very decisively, “I’m going in.” He pat my hand and smiled. I followed his figure with my eyes as he stood up, walked barefoot to the water, and waded in.
He ducked under waves and floated around, looking happy, as if he was home in the ocean. I admired him for a while before looking down at my beaded necklace. I suddenly felt like something was missing.
I stood up and hurried a few steps toward the water like I wanted to go out there to meet him. I quickly stopped, though, because I felt conflicted. I called “Hey, Grandpa!” - flailing my arms in the air trying to get his attention.
He turned around to look at me, smiling back. Another wave rolled in and he gracefully swam under it, then popped to the surface again, still holding gaze. Then a HUGE wave slowly formed, rising so high that he had time to glance a few times at the wave and at me and back again. As if in slow motion, the giant wave began to roll and my grandpa (underneath it by now) looked up at it in awe. Right before the wave broke, he waved at me and dove into it. I began to cry. The wave finally crashed in a giant rush. I watched for my grandpa to appear again but all I could see was ocean. The water eventually calmed and I stood there for a while in the breeze, crying.
I couple days ago I dreamed I was in my room about to take shower when I realized there was a shower inside my room, beside my bed, only when I opened it and the water started coming out then I realized it was strange and if I took the shower there my neighbors would see me naked as it was in front the window in my room, then I remembered I’ve always used the bathroom outside my room to take a shower, only this time there were family visiting and I could not use it. I could see the water still coming out from the shower and how it was getting wet all my stuff so I turned it off but I wasn’t really surprised or shocked.
I can’t remember all the details, but I was driving up the coastline with mountains on one side and the ocean on the other side lots of waves and it was not dark but also not day time, more like moment when the sun finally sets and you can still get a glimpse of blue light, I wound even say more like a full moon light, my dog was running along on the beach having a good time and we where going to meet up at the end of the road where there was a pier and a dock , I get there my dog is with me and I was going to take a boat I don’t know where I was going but then it started raining so I couldn’t get the boat. Some other things happen like someone gave me cotton candy but took a bite from it before handing it to me and I didn’t know the person who handed it to me.
Sorry if it seems all over the place but I couldn’t remember but and I apologize for any grammatical mistakes English is not my first language
I’ve had recurring dreams about a wave. It is a wild figure, but it also represents where opposites unite: the sky and water, the shore and ocean. Like nature, beautiful but dangerous if you don’t respect her
An academic colleague is in a large university office, but is head to foot in a black coat. There is a large pool, not a conventional swimming pool but one with lily pads and reeds. Irregularly shaped, it has several pools within the larger pool. I have to go into it to demonstrate something as part of an induction event. My colleague has not given me any script. Some male students are looking dubious. I feel as if I should represent some kind of water deity who sinks into, then surfaces from the pool with reeds in my hair, and it is about telling the students that there is this pool of unconscious creativity into which they can always drop, not having to keep everything head-oriented. I feel anxious because I don’t know what to do as far as my colleague’s plans are concerned, but fine about being this androgynous figure in the water.
Also one more brief image- I am watching huge creatures emerge from a body of water, but I can only see their backs and tails. I believe they are whales, but have prominent backbones. I feel a familiar sense of terror and awe in response to the emergence of something so powerful emerging from the depths.
(Similar to another dream I talked to you about) I am staring out at a large lake at night and a ball of fire shoots down into the middle of it. It goes down to the center of the earth and starts pulling in everything around it. I stand locked in place as I watch the entirety of my physical reality sink into the circle. I am met by a pervasive sense of existential terror. Others scramble around me, panicked. I don’t try to run. I stand and watch as the all consuming sinkhole unleashes fire, and then the flood, sensing the inevitability of death. I fall into a sea of black, a combination of fire and water. I am scorched immediately and feel my physical self dissolve almost in an instant, but my consciousness remains. I feel myself zooming through an inbetween, a light pulsing in the periphery of my awareness. I then drop back into my body and open my eyes.
I dream about water often. Sometimes I’m on a boat w the same people, some of them seem very disconnected, tired, there’s heaviness and also water is murky. Few days ago I had a dream about my tub overflowing. When I realised, I run into the bathroom and stepped into the water feeling stuck. I don’t remember what happened after that but I found myself in the kitchen w two of my closest friends asking me what kind of salt I eat and why. One of my friends felt frustrated w me and I started over explaining myself as to why I eat the salt. This dream is reoccurring xx
No, I hadn't heard of this. I've recently bought his Anatomy of the Psyche, after your post on alchemy. I will now locate this one too. Many thanks.
I often have a dream of being in a circular high drum like water tank in some kind of industrial room, high ceilings. And i have no way of getting out. No ladder or ledge to hold. I am frightened as I am not a swimmer. Thanks Alyssa.
I dream a lot with water, also influenced by the fact that I sleep with few quartz crystals near my pillow which are basically condensed water.
One dream that stands out thought is because I had it few nights in a row, very lucid and it always started the same, with a feeling of something innevitable that was about to happen and then witnessing a water apocalypse, a huge wave that would engulf everything. In the first dream I was somehow swimming trying to find my way to the surface but to no avail and woke up feeling like I drowned. But on the next day I had the same dream although this time when the wave came I managed to climb a huge building and so managed to escape but still had a sense of "what the hell is gonna happen now" while watching the tides. I had many dreams with innevitable tidal waves, some in which I survive, some in which I don't. But there's always some fascination, as in the dream I am aware of what is happening but I don't feel fear, more so curiosity.
I had the most wonderful dream where I went into a shower in a church. As the water poured over me, I began weeping with awe and I kept saying how grateful I was to have found my holy place.
I once dreamt that the earth (or the city where I was) flooded almost to the top. We had to swim around in attempts to find space to land, but at some point I discovered I could breathe in the water. It felt more like river water than ocean water, but it was deep like the ocean and we encountered helpful dolphins and orcas. It was stressful but so beautiful.
Oooh yes, I had a dream recently about a huge tidal wave coming towards the house where I was about to hold a retreat. Now having just completed the retreat, I have a sense of its symbolism - as a forewarning of sorts!!! Curious to hear your perspective on tidal waves in dream s