Dreaming about
eagles

The eagle is on more flags, coins and coats of arms than almost any other animal, from the standards of the Roman legions to the Great Seal of the United States. People have always used it for power and for the view from the top. So dreaming about eagles usually points to one of three things: ambition and the wish to rise above where you are, seeing a situation clearly from a distance, or someone powerful who has you in their sights.

Which one depends on where the eagle was in relation to you. An eagle high overhead, one perched close enough to touch and one diving straight at you are different dreams. And what you felt, whether that was awe, envy or the sudden fear of being prey, tells you whether the eagle was something you want to be or something you're up against.

What dreaming about eagles means

Eagles hunt from high up, see detail from a great distance and can soar for hours on rising warm air without flapping, and their readings come straight from those habits.

Seeing the bigger picture

An eagle's eyesight is several times sharper than ours, which is where "eagle-eyed" comes from. If the dream gave you an eagle's view (flying with it, or looking down from a mountain), it's often about stepping back from something you've been too close to, like a problem at work or a family argument. What would you spot from up there that you miss from the ground?

Ambition and rising

An eagle doesn't climb by flapping harder. It finds a column of rising air and lets it carry it up. A soaring eagle in your dream is often about ambition (a promotion, a project, a version of yourself you want to reach). If it rose easily, you may be in the right current. But if it struggled, or if you watched it from the ground with envy, the dream may be about a goal that feels out of reach.

Someone with power over you

Empires chose the eagle because it hunts everything below it, and Rome marched every legion behind one. An eagle that watched you from a branch, or circled over you while you felt exposed, often stands for a person or an institution with power over your life, like a boss, a landlord or the tax office. They may mean you no harm at all, but the dream is about how small you feel next to them, and whose banner you've been marching under.

Dreaming about bald eagles

The bald eagle isn't bald at all, since the name comes from an old English word for white, after its white head. It's also the emblem of the United States, and it nearly disappeared in the twentieth century before a long recovery took it off the endangered list. A bald eagle dream often carries that national weight (duty, pride, how you feel about your country right now), but just as often it's about recovery, something you thought was nearly gone coming back strong.

Dreaming about an eagle flying

Watching an eagle soar, or soaring with it, is one of the most freeing dreams people describe, and it's close to the flying dreams that nearly half of us remember having.^[1] It tends to come with relief, after an exam, after leaving a job, after a decision that's finally made. If you were the eagle, notice how the height felt. Calm points to confidence, and dizziness to a step up you aren't sure you're ready for.

Dreaming about an eagle attacking you

An eagle diving at you is pressure from above, sudden and hard to see coming. It's often about criticism from someone senior, a harsh review or a phone call from a parent that knocked you over. Where it went for you matters. Talons in your shoulders can be a burden you've been made to carry, and an eagle going for your eyes is often about how you see something, and whether someone wants you to stop looking.

Dreaming about an eagle carrying something off

In Greek myth Zeus took the form of an eagle to carry the young Ganymede up to Olympus, and an eagle was sent to tear at Prometheus every day as punishment. A dream eagle grabbing something from you, a bag, an animal or a person, is usually about losing something to a power you can't argue with. If it carried you, the feeling decides it. Being lifted can be an opportunity that's sweeping you up as easily as it can be a loss of control.

Dreaming about an eagle landing on you

An eagle settling on your arm, like a falconer's bird, is power that has come to work with you. It's often a dream about confidence, a skill or an authority you're growing into. If you felt its weight or its claws, the dream is often about responsibility that came with a new role.

Dreaming about a dead or injured eagle

An eagle that can't get off the ground is ambition grounded, though not always for good. This dream tends to come after a setback, like a rejection, an injury or plans that collapsed, and it can also be about someone you looked up to losing their power. If you tried to help the eagle, you may be ready to nurse an old goal back to health.

Dreaming about eagles according to Jung and Freud

Both men left tools that suit a bird that rides updrafts and strikes from above.

Jung: the view you don't allow yourself

The eagle isn't one of the images his lists single out, so this is his way of reading applied to it. He asked what a dream adds to the picture you have of yourself, and what an eagle adds is altitude.^[5] Someone who spends the workday with their head down may be handed the one thing they won't give themselves, a long view with nobody's orders in it. An eagle that lets you fly beside it is then an invitation, and one that dives at you may be that same sharp-eyed side of you, cast as a stranger who judges.

Freud: flying with a wish

Flying was among the typical dreams for Freud, and he thought a dream's wish arrives under cover.^[6] Put the two together and a soaring eagle is the wish to rise above something, drawn in the plainest picture there is. Applied his way, the disguise thickens when the eagle turns on you, and the wish to be admired comes back as the fear of being judged. He asked for your own associations first, like where you last saw an eagle (a flag, a coin, a nature show).

Other readings

Artemidorus, a 2nd-century Greek who collected dreams and what followed them from the diviners of Mediterranean markets, gave the eagle its own entry. He read one perched high as a good sign for someone setting out on something and a bad one for the fearful, so the same bird promised one dreamer a lot and threatened another, as most of his images did.^[7]

The biblical and spiritual meaning of eagles in dreams

The eagle in the Bible

The best-known eagle in the Bible is in Isaiah, which promises that people who trust God will "mount up with wings as eagles" and run without growing tired.^[2] In Exodus, God tells Israel he bore them "on eagles' wings" out of Egypt.^[3] And in Deuteronomy the eagle stirs up her nest and carries her young on her wings while they learn to fly.^[4] That last image fits a dream about being pushed out of a comfortable place, and caught when you fall.

Questions to ask about your eagle dream

Eagle dreams look grand, but the meaning usually sits in something small, like how close the bird came and what you did about it. These questions help.

• Was the eagle above you, beside you, or coming at you?
• Did you feel admiration, envy, or fear?
• Were you watching it, flying with it, or being carried?
• Who in your life has power over you right now, or wants yours?
• What would you see differently if you looked at it from much higher up?

Oniri runs through questions in this spirit with you before it reads a dream, because an eagle you envied and an eagle you feared need two different readings.