Dream: What does it mean when you dream about snakes?
DreamsMaster: A snake often represents one not to be trusted, as depicted by the expression “a snake in the grass” when describing someone slithering about ready to strike. Is there someone in your life you feel threatened by in this way?
A snake may also be a symbol of transformation, as in the shedding of one’s skin.
What a snake means in any given dream depends upon the dreamer’s personal association to snakes, combined with the events and feelings in the dream and in the dreamer’s waking world.
For example, let’s say a person likes snakes and even has one as a pet. A snake in that person’s dream may mean something quite different from a snake in another person’s dream, who is never around snakes and very much fears them.
If you’d like help interpreting a specific dream about snakes, here are some ideas on how to get started (read more about this on the Dream Interpretation pages):
1) Write out the dream in detail, then look for the general dream theme (for example, someone is doing something to someone else).
2) In regards to the snake itself, write down some adjectives that come to mind when you think of a snake.
3) Try this: role-play being the snake and interview yourself! Ask questions such as, “Who are you?” and “What is your purpose here?” Some very interesting aha! moments can come out of role-playing your symbols!
A change is taking place, some painful growth, as in a snake during the shedding of its skin. It is difficult to adjust because I do not know who is adjusting; I am no longer that old person and not yet the new.
– Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard