Dreaming about
meat

Meat is food that used to be an animal, and most of us go to some trouble not to think about that, with neat packaging, nice names and a butcher who does the hard part. Dreams aren't so polite. Dreaming about meat usually points to raw feelings and instincts, appetite and physical strength, or something in your life that needs dealing with before it goes bad. How the meat looked, raw, cooked or rotting, is the first clue to which one.

The rest depends on what you did with it and who you were. Eating a steak at a barbecue is a different dream from finding a fridge full of raw meat, and for someone who has given up meat, a bite of bacon in a dream can feel like a disaster. Your waking life comes into it too, especially any strong feelings you've been keeping under wraps.

What dreaming about meat means

Meat has been a sign of plenty and strength for most of human history, and also of slaughter and blood. Those two sides give most meat dreams their meaning.

Raw feelings

Raw meat is something that hasn't been processed yet, and in dreams it often stands for feelings in the same state, like anger you haven't voiced, grief you haven't faced or desire you haven't admitted to. People even talk about a "raw" wound or feeling "raw" after an argument. If the meat in your dream was bloody and unpleasant, look for a feeling that's still fresh.

Appetite and instinct

Meat eating is tied to hunger, hunting and the animal side of being human. A dream where you're eating meat greedily or with your hands can be about appetite in a wider sense, for sex, power, success or simply more of life.

Nourishment and strength

A good meal of meat has meant comfort and strength in many families, from Sunday roasts to holiday dinners. A meat dream that felt warm and satisfying can be about being looked after, having enough, or gathering strength for something ahead.

Dreaming about raw meat

Raw meat is the most common meat dream, and it's usually about something unfinished. It could be a feeling, an argument that's still sore, or a situation that hasn't been sorted out. Where the meat was matters. Raw meat in your kitchen points to something at home, while raw meat at work or in a public place points to something more exposed. If there was a lot of blood, the feeling may be sharper than you've admitted.

Dreaming about eating raw meat

Eating meat raw is the more intense version, and it tends to point to taking in something before it's ready, like acting on a feeling before you've thought it through, or rushing into a decision. It can also be about a wild or primal side of yourself, especially if you enjoyed it. If the dream disgusted you, ask whether you've been forced to swallow something unpleasant at work or in your family.

Dreaming about eating meat

Eating cooked meat is usually a more comfortable dream, about nourishment, reward or sharing a meal. A family meal points to belonging, a lavish feast to abundance or celebration, and eating alone to a need to look after yourself. Who was at the table and how it felt are what to remember, since eating in dreams is often more about company than food.

Dreaming about rotten meat

Rotten meat is something left too long. It might be a problem you've avoided, a relationship that's turned sour or a habit that's no longer good for you. The smell in these dreams is often strong, which matches how hard it can be to ignore something that's gone bad. If you threw the meat out, you may be ready to deal with it.

Dreaming about eating meat when you're vegetarian

If you've given up meat, dreaming that you ate it, usually by accident, is a very common dream and often comes with a jolt of guilt. It doesn't mean you secretly want to go back. Dreams pick up what has been on your mind,^[2] and a change you care about is very much on it. The dream can also be about breaking a different promise, to yourself or to someone else.

Meat in sayings

A meat dream can act out a phrase. Someone might have a "beef" with you, a talk might have had "no meat to it", you might feel like "dead meat" after a mistake, or a plain, solid person might be called "meat and potatoes". And "one man's meat is another man's poison" may fit a dream where you enjoyed something that disgusted everyone else.

Dreaming about meat according to Jung and Freud

Jung: raw meat and the shadow

For Jung, the shadow holds whatever you'd rather others didn't see in you.^[1] Through that lens, a dream of tearing into raw meat may show an instinct you're uncomfortable admitting to. That's his framework applied to meat, with no meat reading of his own behind it.

Freud: the roast meat nobody ate

One of Freud's examples of a wish dream is a boy not yet four who dreamed of a large dish with a big piece of roast meat on it, which was suddenly eaten up by someone he couldn't see. The day before, the boy had been kept on a diet of milk and then sent to bed without supper as a punishment, and he had learned not to say he was hungry. Freud's reading was that the unseen eater was the boy himself, a child who knew the meal was forbidden and so didn't dare sit down to it in the dream.^[3] Applied to your own dream, the question is what you were denied, or told to give up, the day before.

The spiritual meaning of meat in dreams

Meat in the Agni and Matsya Puranas

The Agni Purana, a Sanskrit compendium of myth, ritual and lore, devotes an entire chapter to good and bad dreams and lists eating raw meat among the good ones. The Matsya Purana, another Sanskrit text, which sets out the dreams a king should take seriously, agrees on that point and counts eating cooked flesh among the bad.^[4][5] Both lists often run against what you'd guess (they also count a dream of your own death among the good omens), so they're best read as old omen lore, nothing like the "raw feelings" reading above.

Questions to ask about your meat dream

Meat dreams can be comforting or grim, so Oniri's questions, like these, start with what you saw.

• Was the meat raw, cooked, rotten or still bleeding?
• Were you eating, buying, cutting or avoiding it?
• Did it feel comforting, disgusting, guilty or exciting?
• What feeling in your life is still raw right now?