Dreaming about
doves

Doves have meant peace for so long that the image barely needs explaining. A Picasso dove became the poster for a peace congress in 1949 and went round the world, and white doves are still released at weddings and memorials. Dreaming about doves usually points the same way, to a conflict ending, a wish for calm, or a sense that a hard stretch of life is finally over.

How the dove behaved decides most of the reading. A dove that flew to you is about peace arriving, one that flew away is about peace slipping out of reach, and a dead or injured dove is about calm that feels fragile. And what was happening in your life when you dreamed it is the other half, since the same dove means something different after a funeral than after a fight.

What dreaming about doves means

Doves are gentle birds, but the meanings people give them come mostly from stories, and those stories are where the readings start.

An end to a conflict

If you've been arguing with someone, or carrying a grudge, a dove often turns up as the conflict winds down, sometimes before you've admitted it's over. A dove landing between you and another person in the dream can be about a truce you'd like to offer. If you've been at war with yourself over a decision, it can be about finally making it.

Comfort after a loss

Doves come up a lot in dreams after someone dies, perhaps because they're so tied to funerals and memorials. A dove in that kind of dream usually feels calm, and many people take it as comfort. Whatever you believe about it, the dream shows that some part of you is beginning to settle.

Gentleness

Doves are the gentlest of birds, and "gentle as a dove" says as much. If the dove in your dream was soft and quiet, it may be about your own gentleness, whether you value it or feel it lets people walk over you.

Dreaming of white doves

White doves are the most searched version, and the most hopeful. They're often about a fresh start, a reconciliation or a period of peace you've earned. The white doves released at events are usually homing pigeons bred white, birds that fly straight home once they're let go, which adds a nice detail to the dream. A white dove can be about something good heading back to where it belongs.

Dreaming about a dove landing on you

A dove landing on your hand or your shoulder is a dream of being chosen by something gentle, and it usually feels calm. It often comes when you've been offered kindness, forgiveness or love you weren't sure you deserved. If you held very still so it wouldn't fly off, ask what in your life feels precious and easy to scare away.

Dreaming about a dead or injured dove

A dead dove is a dream about peace that has been broken, a friendship that ended badly or a calm stretch interrupted. An injured dove you were trying to save is often about a relationship you're trying to repair, or about someone gentle who's been hurt. It isn't a sign that something bad is coming, but it does show where you feel things are fragile.

Dreaming about a pair of doves

Pairs of doves are a common picture of love, and some species stay with the same partner for years. Two doves together in a dream are usually about a relationship, your own or one you wish for. If one flew away, think about distance growing in a couple you know, and where you fit in it.

Dreaming about doves according to Jung and Freud

A dove is about the most obvious image there is, and both men had reasons to look past the obvious.

Jung: a helpful animal

Jung gathered a whole set of images under the mother, among them the cow, the hare and animals that help us.^[1] A dove that lands on you after a loss fits that company, though he never named doves and the match is ours. It arrives unasked, it's gentle, and it wants nothing back, the way comfort feels when someone else is doing the looking after.

Freud: the wish on the surface

Freud left nothing on doves, so this is only his method. A white dove after an argument hands you the wish ready-made, peace, and he treated whatever a dream shows on its surface as a cover for something underneath.^[2] So the question becomes what the peace spares you from, the apology you'd owe or the grudge you'd have to drop. A dead or injured dove shows the wish running into a part of you that isn't ready.

Other readings

Artemidorus, a 2nd-century diviner from Ephesus who filled five books with dream readings, took doves, sacred to Aphrodite, as a sign of charm in business and as good for friendships and partnerships.^[3] It's an old match for the pair of doves above.

The biblical and spiritual meaning of doves in dreams

The dove in the Bible

Two biblical doves are behind most of the spiritual meaning people look for. After the flood, Noah sends a dove out from the ark, and the second time it comes back with an olive leaf in its beak, the sign that the waters have gone down.^[4] At Jesus's baptism, the Spirit of God comes down "like a dove" and lands on him.^[5] And in the Gospels, Jesus tells his followers to be "harmless as doves".^[6] If your dove dream felt spiritual, those are the meanings the tradition gives you, news that a hard time is over, a sense of being blessed, and gentleness.

Questions to ask about your dove dream

Your own life in the days before is the best guide to a dove dream, because peace always means peace after something.

• Was the dove white, gray, or another color?
• Did it come to you, fly away, or stay at a distance?
• Who were you with in the dream, or thinking of?
• What conflict or loss has been on your mind?

A dove on your windowsill or a wedding you went to recently can bring one into your sleep too.^[7] Oniri asks about the days around a dream before it reads it, which is how a dove gets tied to the right part of your life.