What Does It Mean If You’re Dreaming About Spiders?
If you are not thrilled to encounter them in waking life, then you will certainly not be pleased when spiders invade your dreams, ruining your rest with their skittering. When you dream about spiders, it could be your brain sending you a warning about sticky situations ahead — however, according to dream analyst and author of Bird of Paradise: Taming the Unconscious to Bring Your Dreams to Fruition, Jane Teresa Anderson, the symbolism of a spider in a dream will depend on your personal associations with spiders.
“I look at dreams as processing your conscious and unconscious experiences over the last couple of days to try to make sense of your world,” Anderson tells the Cut. At the same time, it’s also placing that information in the context of your personal history. Therefore, Anderson says, the meaning of a spider in your dream “will depend on your personal experience of spiders. If you had a particularly frightening experience with spiders when you were 3,” for example, “then a spider may call back to that.”
Em Hexe, dreamworker and tarot reader, says that often the most meaningful symbols in our dreams are the ones that we least want to look at. “Our ego is not interested in the thing that it doesn’t want to unpack,” they explain. That’s why they recommend a dream-interpretation modality in which you talk about your dream as if you’re explaining it to an alien. “If you’re telling me, ‘Oh, I had a dream about a spider,’ I’m like, ‘Well, tell me what a spider is,’” says Hexe. “You might say, ‘A spider is this beautiful creature that weaves webs and makes paintings out of silk at night, and they’re fastidious and delicate.’ Another person might say, ‘Spiders are disgusting and terrifying.’ It truly comes down to what the dreamer’s relationship to the symbol or object is.” Hexe highly recommends focusing on that relationship rather than the straightforward symbolism you might find in a dream-interpretation dictionary. “It’s a disservice to the dream to look something up and try to transpose it. You’re missing out on the deeper meaning that that image is presenting to you.”
This is super important of course because, as Samantha Fey, author of The Awake Dreamer: Lucid Dreaming, Astral Travel and Mastering the Dreamscape, explains, the dream state is the only time our subconscious can speak to us directly. “But here’s the thing, the subconscious does not use words; it only uses pictures,” she says. “That’s why we dream in all of these symbols.” She agrees that the meaning of your dream about spiders is highly dependent on how you feel about them. But there is one universal commonality she points out. “Spiders create these beautiful webs, and no web is the same. They’re like snowflakes. They’re all unique and different. So often if you have a dream about a spider and a web, it can be a call to be more creative.”
Autumn Fourkiller, Indigenous mystic and writer behind the Dream Interpretation for Dummies newsletter, recalls experiencing an uptick in dreams about spiders when she was regularly facing them in her waking life. “I once lived in a very haunted house (long story), and there were spiders everywhere, even in my dreams. For me, I knew this manifestation was a reflection of the physical. I was afraid of being bitten and the possibility was looming. If you don’t live in a spider-infested hovel, however, the spiders in your subconscious probably have a different meaning.”
On a more abstract note, Fourkiller adds that times like these (with pandemics, wars, and global warming) could also spark dreams about spiders. “Times of great fear can bring about the spider, but it doesn’t have to be a wholly negative experience. Weaving a new web of support, of love, in trying times could also be a possible interpretation!”
Anderson says that often, animals come up as symbols in our dreams because there’s an instinct we’re trying to repress; they can represent something deep in our subconscious that we’re just beginning to understand. “If we dream about people, we’re dreaming about specific personality types or approaches,” she says. “Things that are more unconscious that you’re just beginning to get a feel of, you’re gonna dream of an animal because you’re not conscious enough to put a face to it.”
Many people, Anderson explains, probably think of spiders as “creatures that can suddenly come out of the dark. So in that sense, spiders may represent our fears of what may suddenly appear in our lives, what scary things may suddenly come out of the dark corners, emotionally or physically.” But again, Anderson stresses, dream symbolism is highly subjective, and a spider in my dream may not mean the same thing as a spider in yours. “Is there something that you’re just beginning to get in touch with?” asks Anderson. “You feel like, ‘I’m creating this web to trap people. Is there a part of me that feels like that or I’ve got to push that down?” Or it might be, ‘I’m frightened because I feel like someone in my life is trying to trap me. I feel like there’s a spider energy around me.’”
Culture also plays a role in how one might interpret a dream about spiders. “In Cherokee tradition, the water spider, considered too small and slow by the other animals, ends up being the savior of everyone,” says Fourkiller. “The story goes that a long time ago, when we could still understand what the animals were saying, they prayed to the Creator for fire so that they might live through the winter. A lot happens after that (too much for this space we have together) — a lot of animals try and fail, and the one no one believes in comes out triumphant. I like to think about this story when interpreting a dream about spiders, even though almost always, the person who I am interpreting for does not share a lineage with me. Even so, the universe brought them to my hearth, did it not?”
Amanda Takuapu, a Guarani spiritual practitioner and apprentice to the Tupi-Guarani traditions, says that within the Guarani cosmovision, they recognize a spider spirit called nhandu. “The great spider is also the goddess who taught us Guarani how to weave,” says Takuapu. “From her we learned how to weave baskets, nets, clothes, arts and crafts, and philosophies.” A dream involving spiders is considered quite powerful and is something to pay close attention to. According to Takuapu’s spiritual leader, Luã Apyká, spiders show up in our dreams when we need to connect — with other people and with the natural world around us.
Takuapu says that for the Guarani, spider dreams are sacred and represent a warning and sometimes a reminder to follow the djapytsaká spiritual philosophy. “The kyá, the web, was created to hunt, to catch,” she says. “And every time we dream of webs or nets, we may be in danger of a disease system or colonization that is designed to harm your body and ‘catch’ you. We are not born to stay in nets, but to relate as a web.”
“I love spider symbolism,” says spiritual dream teacher and psychologist Athena Laz. “These are archetypal dream symbols because they’re so common in the collective.” Of course, individual cultural interpretations will vary. But “spiders in so many cultures are about creation,” says Laz. That might be because in waking life, spiders are always creating. “If you watch a spider create a web, it’s huge, intricate patterns.” The dream, then, could relate to a creative project, she says. “It could be a relationship, it could be a baby, it could be anything that has to do with a life-giving principle.”
In general, Fourkiller says, “Spiders are one of those symbols that have such a myriad of meanings it is hard to nail down just one, especially if the culture you spring from has a prescribed meaning to the sign of the spider, if you will. That said, I think any time of transformation, of rebirth, of cycles and life and death can bring about the visage of an arachnid, for sure.”
That said, here’s what it might mean if you’re dreaming about spiders.
In general, Fourkiller says, “Spiders are one of those symbols that have such a myriad of meanings it is hard to nail down just one, especially if the culture you spring from has a prescribed meaning to the sign of the spider, if you will. That said, I think any time of transformation, of rebirth, of cycles and life and death can bring about the visage of an arachnid, for sure.”
That said, here’s what it might mean if you’re dreaming about spiders.
If you dream about getting caught in a spider’s web …
Fourkiller urges you to pay attention to how you’re interacting with the web. If “you’re not caught in it, but perhaps just admiring or viewing it from afar, it is a signal to let your inner creativity out, let it breathe, show it to the world.”
Conversely, Anderson warns this could be a red flag from your sleeping brain. “Spiders produce sticky webs, and we can get caught in them very easily, walking into them without seeing them, or trying to clean them up and they get stuck on your fingers,” Anderson notes. “Spiders may come up in your dreams when you’ve got that sense like, ‘I feel like I’m very stuck in something that I can’t get out of, or I feel like I’m maybe afraid of somebody — I feel like there’s a sticky situation around me.’”
If you dream the spider has you all wrapped up like a bug and is about to feast on you …
This, according to Anderson, may be “an escalation of that same theme.” When you wake up, ask yourself: “Where in the past few days have I felt like I’ve been totally prey to something and I’m going to get eaten alive?” Once you’ve pinpointed the situation, she adds, “you can look at it and say, ‘Well, is that my perception of that or is that my illusion, can I actually change, can I turn that around?”
Fourkiller adds, “The image of a spider that has you all wrapped up like a bug and is about to feast on you feels kind of like an Indiana Jones booby-trap setup, but I digress. For me, this signals that there is something eating at you, and your brain (or spirit, depending on your attitude toward such things) has thrown you an obvious metaphor: Figure it out before it consumes you.”
If you’re dreaming about a bunch of spiders or one big one …
Similar to tornadoes in dreams and alligators in dreams, dreams about a large quantity of spiders and/or one giant spider could be your subconscious “upping the ante,” Anderson suggests. “Your dream brain is like, ‘Now, look, this is really big; really notice this, there are loads of spiders here.’ It could just be making a dramatic point … ‘Everywhere I look, there’s a spider in my life; everywhere I look, there’s a web; I can’t manage it. I can stamp on one spider but I can’t stamp on this many.’ It’s more a feeling of overwhelm about the situation.” Ask yourself: Do you feel trapped by multiple people or factors?
If you dream about a spider biting you …
Anderson says bites come up more often in dreams about snakes, but they’re also a feasible plot twist in dreams about spiders. Getting a spider bite in a dream may “relate to the last couple of days, where you felt you actually got in touch with a painful feeling about something,” she explains. “The bite is when you actually get in touch — particularly if it’s on your hands, because it’s usually your hands that touch things — with something painful that’s happened … So a spider biting you might be, ‘Yep, that thing that I thought was hidden or in the dark corners, or that feeling I had that I might get trapped, I can feel it now. It’s bitten me, I’ve got it.”
If you dream about spiders crawling on you …
Many people have dreams about bugs crawling all over their bodies, Anderson says, and they speak to “the sense of the dreamer’s that there’s something really, really irritating on my skin and I can’t brush it off.” This scenario, she continues, “can come up when you’re literally feeling irritated.”
“Our dreams are helpful in showing us that however much we manage our lives and do the right kind of thing, we do have unconscious feelings and emotions,” Anderson explains. “No matter how much we try to keep them down, they actually affect how we do things.” Spiders crawling on skin may have been particularly common dream symbolism amid the coronavirus pandemic, with so many people isolating at home and unable to get space from their family members or housemates.
If you dream about catching a spider …
Admittedly, Anderson says she hasn’t heard about this scenario from her clients before, but if she did, she would encourage them to consider when, in the last couple of days, they had begun to feel “able to catch those things, those worries and concerns, and have the potential to throw them out the window.” If you dream about catching a spider in a jar, or caging it under a glass and releasing it into your yard (you have a yard?!), it would appear to be a positive sign. Ask yourself: “What actions can I take to stop my fears from eating me and biting me.” And, if you suspect your dream pertains to the coronavirus, ask yourself what extra steps you can take to protect yourself and protect others.
If you dream about a spider’s egg sac …
Spiders need not always be a negative sign in a dream, even if the dream itself is scary. “Spiders can represent that creation sense, that artistic sense,” says Fourkiller. “It’s about this incubation. They lay all these eggs and only some of them survive. When you think about what you’re putting out into the world, what’s going to hack it?” She says more than one client has come to her with a dream about spider eggs — or more specifically, the web-enshrouded egg sac. Especially in cases where you dream that it’s near your head or around your ears, it could be a message related to your creative practice, whatever it may be. The delicate egg sac could represent ideas you’ve been growing and might be ready to give birth to. Fourkiller says you should ask yourself, “What is it that you’re putting out into the world? Is there something artistic that you’re pushing down? What can I sow?”
If you dream of spiders invading your space …
If you’re dreaming of creepy crawlies showing up in your home, where you’re supposed to feel comfortable, it could have a connection to your boundaries being invaded in your waking life. It’s possible that if someone has encroached on your boundaries or made you feel unsafe at home, it will show up in your dreams. “Do you have this overarching anxiety and fear that something’s about to get ya?” asks Autumn. If so, ask yourself why.
If you dream about clearing away spider webs or cobwebs …
The image of clearing away spiderwebs, says Fourkiller, is a powerful one. “In most spiritual practices, places where things are unclean or have been left to rot is where bad things hide, whatever that means to you,” she says. “Spider webs are a physical manifestation of those things that have been left to rot.” This is especially true if the dream takes place in a house you know well; the spiderwebs can represent whatever is cluttering up your everyday life, whether it’s literal clutter or lingering traumatic experiences. “Of course, one cannot just start sweeping away years and years of trauma. But it is a sign that maybe in the ways we can, we should start working towards clearing a few cobwebs away to make it livable for ourselves.”
If you dream about killing a spider …
Fourkiller says the way you should think about this dream is quite dependent on your personal feelings about spiders. “If you like them, we have to think about what you are crushing within yourself for other people,” she explains. But if you hate them or feel afraid of them, “Why do you hate this little tiny thing that’s not doing anything to you? Is there anger running amok in your life? What’s like poisoning your well?” It can be an opportunity to look a little more closely at your own blind spots and figure out what you might need to work on in your interpersonal dynamics. “What are you pushing down in the hopes to feel bigger?” asks Fourkiller.
The Takeaway:
In order to get to the bottom of your dream about a spider, however it manifests itself, Fourkiller suggests asking yourself a series of questions. “Are you afraid of spiders? Are they with you now? Did you ever read that ‘fact’ on Tumblr that was like ‘people swallow eight spiders in their life’ or whatever? Could that be the reason for your dream?” She continues, “If none of the above rings true, think about if there are any cobwebs you need to clear in life, any dark corners you’re hiding things in. Look at the shadow self, is what I’m saying. You’ll be surprised what you might find!” Finally, Fourkiller urges you to look at the dream through a more sympathetic lens. “Don’t shy away from the spider dream, even if you find the creatures themselves creepy. They are also lovely artists with innate knowledge of geometry. I think we all can appreciate that.”
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