What it means to dream about snakes

What the traditional dream book says

Old dream books read the snake as a hidden enemy, a rumor going around, a temptation you keep circling. For a woman it usually points to a rival. For a man, to someone close by who is not being straight with him.

What the dream really reflects

Most of the time the snake is about something you already fear awake and have not admitted yet. It smells danger before your head does. If it bites you, the fear has won this round. If it slides past, the threat is near and it left you alone. Ask yourself who you have been wary of lately.

What changes the reading

The same dream reads differently, and here is what shifts it.

The snake bites

Fear got the upper hand and the thing you dreaded reached you. It struck you exactly where you had been doing your best not to look.

Many snakes

There is more than one worry here. A whole tangle of problems, or several people you have quietly stopped trusting all at once.

Killing the snake

You are ready to look the fear in the face and beat it. Sometimes it means you have already half solved the thing while awake.

A huge snake

The threat looks enormous in the dream. Check carefully whether it really is that big, or whether fear has been feeding it for a while.