Dreaming of a Face

What does it mean to dream about a face?

Faces in dreams speak of your identity, the self you show the world and your feelings about how others see you. The face is a person’s window onto the outside: feelings appear there, and others recognise us there first. That is why a face in a dream is tied directly to two questions, “Who am I?” and “How do others see me?”

Notice whose face you saw. Your own speaks of how you see yourself, a familiar person’s of your relationship with them, a stranger’s of a side of yourself you have not yet discovered. The expression sets the tone too: a smiling face shows acceptance, an angry or sad one a feeling that has not been spoken.

Your own face, a faceless person and other common face dreams

Seeing your face in a mirror

Looking at your own face in a mirror describes a time of assessing yourself, questioning who you are and where you are heading. A bright, calm face shows you at peace with yourself. A face that looked like a stranger’s shows a recent change that has turned you into someone you do not yet recognise.

Washing your face

Washing your face describes being cleansed of a burden, an embarrassment or tiredness, and wanting to turn a new page. Cool, refreshing water shows the renewal doing you good. A mark that would not wash off shows a matter from the past still leaving its trace.

Spots or blemishes on your face

Seeing spots or marks on your face describes worry about a small flaw or mistake showing, or fear of being criticised. Trying to hide them shows the pressure to look perfect. Not minding them shows a time of being at peace with your imperfections.

A scar or a cut on your face

Your face being scratched or wounded describes worry that your reputation, your image or your self-confidence has been damaged. Hiding the wound shows reluctance to let your hurt be seen. Watching it heal shows you getting through the shock.

A faceless person

A figure with no face, or whose face you cannot see, describes an anxiety you cannot define or an influence you cannot identify. If it chased you, a fear you cannot name is pressing on you. If it stood quietly beside you, a side of yourself you do not yet know is waiting to come forward.

Your face changing

Your face turning into someone else’s describes a change in identity, taking on a role, or growing too much like another person. If the new face belonged to someone you know, you are noticing one of their traits in yourself. If the change disturbed you, you want to protect what is truly yours.

Wearing a mask

Putting on a mask describes hiding your real feelings and showing the world a different face. If the mask protected you, you need to defend yourself at the moment. A mask that would not come off shows the line between your role and yourself has blurred.

A beautiful face

A radiant, beautiful face describes a quality you admire, an ideal, or a beauty you are starting to discover in yourself. If it belonged to a stranger, you are seeing a potential within you. If it belonged to someone you know, you carry admiration or love for them.

An angry face

A face glaring at you describes believing someone is upset with you, or your own buried anger. If it was a familiar face, there is unspoken tension between you. If it was your own, you are facing an anger you have not voiced.

A crying face

A face with tears running down it describes a sadness you are holding in, or sensing that someone close to you is hurt. Comforting the crying face shows you ready to show tenderness. Watching from a distance shows hesitation about coming close to that feeling.

The emotional and psychological meaning

The face is the image of identity and of being seen. What Jung called the “persona”, from the Latin word for an actor’s mask, the face we present to the world, often appears in dreams as a mask, a mirror or a face that changes. This dream tends to come when you are thinking about how you look in others’ eyes, taking on a role, or redefining who you are.

Peace and acceptance show you are at ease with yourself, and the face you show matches what is inside. Shame, especially over a marked or wounded face, shows wariness of other people’s judgement. Confusion, in dreams where the face changes or becomes unrecognisable, describes uncertainty about your identity. Curiosity shows you ready to discover a new side of yourself.

Tomorrow morning, look in the mirror and say one sentence to yourself: how am I feeling today? Noticing the distance between the face you show and the feeling inside is the answer to the dream’s question.

Faces in folklore, myth and dream tradition

Turkish dream lore reads a beautiful, bright, radiant face as honour, respect and joyful news. A face turning dark or ugly is tied to shame or trouble, and washing your face to being cleansed of a worry and finding relief. Seeing a smiling face is read as good news and a light heart.

In Turkish the face is the measure of honour and standing. Someone with a “white face” has kept their honour, someone with a “black face” is in disgrace; to “give face” to someone is to show them too much familiarity, and a “faceless” person is shameless. Not being able to “look someone in the face” describes a rift, and “making someone’s face laugh” means making them happy. English has its own version in “saving face” and “losing face”.

In ancient Rome, Janus was the two-faced god of doors and beginnings, one face looking to the past and one to the future; the month of January takes its name from him. In these stories the face is both a sign of identity and a threshold between what was and what is coming.

Tarot cards linked to face dreams

The Sun is the card of a radiant face. The Rider–Waite–Smith Sun shows a naked child on a white horse carrying a red banner beneath a great sun with a human face, with sunflowers and a wall behind. The card describes joy that is not hidden and the freedom to show yourself as you are. After a dream of a bright face in the mirror, the Sun reminds you how much it is worth to show yourself without hiding.

The Rider–Waite–Smith Moon has a face too, but it is drawn in profile, half turned away: drops of light fall from it towards the ground. The card describes uncertainty between what is shown and what is hidden. If you saw a faceless figure or someone masked, the Moon suggests that the side left in shadow is waiting to be recognised.

The face you show in your relationships is exactly what the “Your conscious attitude” position of the Relationship spread in the Larisa app takes up.