Dreaming of Clouds

What does it mean to dream about clouds?

The weather of your thoughts and moods at this moment shows up in a dream as clouds. Clouds change shape and position constantly; they cover the sun, they bring rain, and none stays the same for long. In a dream they show a situation that has not cleared, a passing uncertainty, or a thought or a hope taking shape. A cloud is feeling that has not yet turned into rain, something not yet named.

Their colour, height and speed set the tone. White clouds drifting high describe a peaceful, dreamy mind and a lively imagination. Clouds sinking lower and darker show a worry gathering in you, or a sadness you sense approaching. Notice whether you were looking up at the clouds or down on them: from below you are inside the uncertainty, from above you can see it from a distance.

Dark clouds, white clouds and other common cloud dreams

Dark storm clouds

Dark clouds covering the sky describe worry, hurt, or a difficult conversation you sense coming. If they turned into rain, the feeling is being released and emptied out. If they broke up without a drop, what you feared is lighter than you thought.

White fluffy clouds

White clouds sailing across a blue sky describe a peaceful drift of mind, creative ideas and a lighter head. Smiling as you watched shows a calm inside. Puffy, bright clouds mean your hopes are vivid and doing you good.

Flying above the clouds

Gliding above the clouds, or climbing through them in a plane, describes rising above your worries and seeing events from a wide angle. A calm, pleasant flight shows a joy or a success lifting you. Fear of coming back down shows a wish to put off returning to everyday reality.

Clouds parting

Clouds opening up and the sky reappearing describe an uncertainty or a sadness coming to an end. Sun breaking through means the question on your mind is clearing. Clouds dispersing slowly show the opening arriving through patience.

Low clouds and mist

Clouds that have come down to the ground, wrapping everything like fog, describe a time when you cannot see ahead and feel undecided. Walking on inside the cloud shows you moving forward despite the uncertainty. Stopping to wait shows you have chosen not to rush until things are clear.

Shapes in the clouds

Seeing a face, an animal or an object in the clouds describes your unconscious pointing something out. If you remember the shape, it is a person, a wish or a fear occupying your mind today. A shape that changed as you watched means your feelings on that subject have not settled.

Clouds racing across the sky

Clouds rushing past describe events speeding up, plans shifting and feelings that come and go quickly. If the sight excited you, you are keeping pace with change. If it unsettled you, you fear falling behind events.

A cloud covering the sun

A cloud passing in front of the sun and dimming everything describes something that gives you joy being covered for a while: a hope, a relationship, a goal. A short shadow means a temporary pause. Waiting patiently for the sun to return shows you holding on to your optimism.

Touching a cloud

Reaching out and touching a cloud describes drawing close to a dream or an idea you thought was far away. A soft, cool cloud means that dream is good for you. Your hand passing straight through shows you looking for a way to turn the dream into something solid.

Clouds passing over the moon

Clouds drifting across the moon at night describe your intuition or a feeling being covered for a while. The moon reappearing between them shows that inner knowing returning. Clouds hiding the moon completely show you finding it hard to trust your own instincts on something, and waiting calmly does you good.

The psychological and emotional meaning

Clouds are the most fluid image of thought and mood there is. This dream tends to arrive when your head is muddled, a decision has not crystallised, or your feelings keep changing. Clouds speak of impermanence rather than permanence; no cloud stays in the sky forever. That is why even a dream full of dark clouds carries a part of you that knows the trouble passes.

Peace in the dream shows your mind resting and making room for imagination. Confusion means the choices in front of you have not separated yet. Sadness describes the heaviness that comes with dark clouds and a hurt that has not been voiced. Curiosity and wonder show a lively, imaginative state of mind, the one that looks for shapes in the sky.

At some point today, look up at the sky for a few minutes and let your thoughts drift past like clouds. Note which thought keeps coming back. That one is the real cloud.

Clouds in folklore, literature and dream tradition

Turkish dream lore reads white, soft clouds as good fortune, plenty and gentle rain on the way. Dark clouds stand for sorrow and passing trouble, and clouds parting to let the sun through for that trouble ending; walking on clouds is read in some sources as rising in the world. Turkish speaks of a hard time ending as “the black clouds have scattered”.

English gives clouds a hopeful edge. “Every cloud has a silver lining” grew from lines in John Milton’s masque Comus (1634), in which a dark cloud turns its silver lining towards the night: even the blackest cloud has light along its edge. Being “on cloud nine” means being blissfully happy.

Much earlier, in 423 BC, Aristophanes staged The Clouds in Athens, a comedy in which the clouds appear as goddesses of airy talk and hazy ideas, mocking thinkers who live with their heads in the sky. Between these traditions, clouds are both the shadow that worries us and the softness that lets us dream, and your dream tells you which one you met.

Katina and tarot cards linked to cloud dreams

In Katina the Clouds belong to overcast moments, when you cannot quite make out the road and what is said does not match what is meant. If clouds blocked your view in the dream, the card suggests not forcing the uncertainty: waiting for the weather to open is less tiring than rushing about in the mist for a firm answer.

Seven cups float on clouds before a figure standing in shadow on the Rider–Waite–Smith Seven of Cups, and from them rise a castle, jewels, a laurel wreath, a dragon, a snake, a veiled figure and a head. The card describes an abundance of dreams and options, some of them illusions. After a dream of seeing shapes in the clouds, it asks you to tell which of your daydreams is real.

The colour of the clouds and how much of the sky they covered are the first details to record in the Larisa app’s Dreams section, with Confusion as the feeling.