Dreams about fish
The meaning of dreams about fish may be unveiled by analyzing the fish symbolism. What lies behind the symbol of the fish in dreams?
As I have already described in a previous article “Animals in dreams“, when we happen to dream of an animal (including insects), we must investigate its elementary characteristics. In essence, we draw on our common knowledge or, if we come across animals we know little about, by browsing an encyclopedia. Better still, as Carl Gustav Jung suggests, equipping us with a medieval bestiary. The knowledge of symbolic language was in fact much deeper in the past than today.
Fish symbolism
What can we say about dreams about fish?
Fish are creatures that live below sea level, are dumb, though with a mouth, and have eyes that are always open. They are among the first forms of life and constitute an ancient form of nourishment for man.
Trying to translate all this into a symbolic language, let’s start from the idea that the sea in dreams is a symbol of the unconscious. That is, what lies beneath the surface of consciousness. This is a theme that also recalls the recurring dream of drowning. We can then infer that in our unconscious swims a possible enrichment. Fish is nourishment but also a form of silent intelligence. The fish, notes Jung, is mute but its eyes are always open. In short, there is something in our depth that we can “fish” and bring back to the light of our consciousness.
Meaning of dreams with fish
Dreaming of fish can signal that a concrete opportunity for inner growth is available in our unconscious.
We are facing an opportunity for self-awareness, a new and immediately expendable psychic energy. It’s just about fishing it! In which way? For example, “working” creatively with the dream, trying to understand why we had this dream in this particular stage of our live and realizing what new energies we feel are emerging from the depths.
OniroTarology and symbols of the Moon
In Tarot, the symbolic theme of the fish is similar to the crab of Arcanum XVIII. The Moon represents the world of the mind, of the psychic, where everything is double and appears in contrast.
From the depths a new unitary entity emerges, which in the depiction of the Moon Tarot seems to long for unifying the conflicting elements on the surface. In fact, in the Moon Tarot a fight between animals is depicted (two opposing dogs or wolves), a motif dear to alchemists. Even the two towers facing each other express conflict, opposition.
The crab has a disturbing and sometimes monstrous appearance. But only with a critic engagement of consciousness the apparently hostile and dangerous creature can be rescued, enhanced, integrated, thus making it assimilable and “digestible” by the consciousness. We would then discover the delicious and nourishing treasure that is hidden under the shell of the crab.
