Dreaming of a Dragon

What does it mean to dream about a dragon?

Dragons come into dreams as a great challenge in front of you, or a strong, hard-to-tame passion within. The dragon is the greatest monster of fairy tale and legend: it breathes fire, flies, guards treasure, and stands in the hero’s way as the final test. Beneath the dream dragon’s scales lies an intense feeling such as anger, ambition or desire, or a great obstacle in your life: an exam, an authority, a big goal. Where it waited is a clue as well: a dragon on a mountaintop describes a test at the height you want to reach, while one curled at the bottom of a cave describes a passion asleep in your depths.

Notice how the dragon behaved towards you and how you responded. An attacking dragon speaks of facing a frightening power; a sleeping one, of a passion not yet awake; a friendly one, of accepting the strength inside you. Its colour and size show how intense the feeling is.

A fire-breathing dragon, slaying a dragon and other common dragon dreams

A dragon breathing fire

A fire-breathing dragon describes uncontrolled anger, intense passion, or a scorching conflict in your life. If the fire came at you, you feel someone’s anger, or your own, burning you. Shielding yourself from the flames shows you finding a way to cope with that intensity.

Slaying a dragon

Defeating or killing a dragon shows you overcoming, or being ready to overcome, a great difficulty, a fear or an authority. Winning after a hard fight shows the victory is the fruit of your effort. If sadness settled on you after the kill, part of what you defeated belonged to you; perhaps you suppressed a passion of your own.

Riding a dragon

Riding a dragon through the sky shows you claiming the great strength inside you and rising with it. A joyful flight shows you channelling passion and ambition in the right direction. Failing to steer it shows the power carrying you is not yet under your control.

Running from a dragon

Fleeing a dragon describes a big problem or a strong feeling you are reluctant to face. Managing to hide shows you postponing the confrontation for now. A dragon that found you wherever you went shows running no longer works, and the dream says plainly that it is time to stop and face it.

A dragon guarding treasure

A dragon lying on a hoard describes a great obstacle or fear standing between you and something precious. Getting past it to the treasure shows you ready to face your fear for what you want. Taking the treasure while it slept shows you seizing an opportunity with your wits.

A sleeping dragon

A sleeping dragon describes a strength not yet awake, a suppressed passion, or a problem waiting quietly. Walking past without touching it shows you choosing to leave the matter alone for now. A dragon that woke up shows a feeling you have long held down beginning to stir.

A friendly dragon

A dragon that befriends and protects you shows you accepting your inner strength and passion, seeing them as an ally rather than a threat. The dream describes a time of growing self-confidence and readiness for big undertakings.

A baby dragon

A small, young dragon describes a developing power or a passion that has not grown yet. Feeding it shows you taking care of a new talent or goal. A baby dragon trying to hurt you shows a small-looking problem that needs solving before it grows.

Talking to a dragon

Speaking face to face with a dragon shows you ready to open a dialogue with a power you fear, or a strong side of yourself. A calm conversation shows you beginning to understand and tame that power. If the dragon offered you wisdom, there is a lesson behind your fear.

A dragon flying overhead

Watching a dragon glide across the sky from a distance describes a big change or power that affects you but has not come close yet. If it filled you with awe, you feel the pull of a great goal. If it frightened you, you are wary of the scale of a change that is approaching.

The emotional and psychological meaning of dragon dreams

Jung read the hero’s fight with the dragon as the struggle of the self to free itself from the devouring power of the unconscious and win its own identity. The dream dragon is a scene from that struggle: on one side a great fear or passion that threatens to swallow you, on the other a self that grows stronger by facing it. Making peace with the dragon is as much part of the journey as defeating it.

Your feeling towards the dragon describes your relationship with that power:

• Fear shows you still see the challenge, or the feeling inside you, as bigger than yourself.
• Curiosity and awe show you coming closer to claiming that power.
• Courage and resolve say you are ready for a great test.
• Unease after a victory suggests that what you met was not something to fight but a side of yourself to get to know.

Give the dream dragon a name: which big matter or feeling in your life does it stand for? Write down the smallest step you could take towards it this week.

Dragons in folk tradition, myth and old dream books

Old Turkish dream books read a dragon as a powerful enemy, a great obstacle, or a feared figure of authority. Slaying a dragon is read as overcoming a great trouble and getting the better of an opponent, and escaping one as keeping clear of a danger.

In Anatolian folktales the dragon often seizes the water source: it blocks a town’s spring or fountain and demands a sacrifice, until a hero defeats it and gives the water back to the people. The motif casts the dragon as the obstacle standing before plenty and life itself. In Chinese tradition, by contrast, the dragon is no monster to fear but the bringer of rain and a symbol of luck and wisdom. In the West, Gustavus Hindman Miller’s dream book of 1901 went its own way, reading a dragon as a sign that you “allow yourself to be governed by your passions” and urging the dreamer to “cultivate self-control”. These readings show the dragon’s two faces: power unbridled, and power that has become wisdom.

Tarot and Katina cards linked to dragon dreams

The Seven of Cups is the card of dreams and choices. Seven cups float in the clouds of the Rider–Waite–Smith image, holding a castle, jewels, a laurel wreath, a snake, a shrouded figure, a head and a dragon. The card describes the difficulty of choosing between what is real and what is imagined. With a dragon rising out of one of the cups, it reminds you that imagination sometimes makes what you fear larger than it is. Ask how much of your dream dragon was real, and how much the work of worry.

The Ruby of Fire in Katina reads fire kept in the hearth, under control. In a dream of riding or befriending a dragon, it suggests the fire inside you can warm you without burning you.

In your note on the Divinations › Dream path of the Larisa app, give the dragon’s colour and the moment it came closest; the heat of its breath belongs to that moment too.