Dreaming about
pigs

Pigs have the worst reputation on the farm, and most of it is unfair. They're cleverer than cows and about as clever as dogs, and they roll in mud because they can barely sweat and need to cool down, not because they like dirt. But dreams use the reputation more than the facts. So dreaming about pigs usually points to appetite and indulgence, to money and plenty, or to how you see someone's behavior, sometimes your own.

What you felt toward the pig is the quickest way in. A plump, happy pig in a sunny yard feels like comfort, a pig gorging at a trough can feel disgusting, and a pig that chased you is a third kind of dream again. Then ask yourself whether the pig reminded you of anyone, because "pig" is one of the first words people reach for when someone behaves badly.

What dreaming about pigs means

Pigs eat almost anything, grow fast and were kept for centuries as a family's savings on four legs, fattened all year and killed in winter. Those facts, and a few insults, give most of the readings.

Appetite and too much of a good thing

"Pigging out" and "greedy as a pig" make the pig the animal of excess. A pig that ate and ate in your dream is often about something you're having too much of, like food, drink, spending, scrolling or even work. Sometimes the dream is guilt after a weekend of overdoing it. And sometimes it's the opposite, a wish to stop being careful and enjoy something without counting.

Money and plenty

The piggy bank exists because the family pig was savings you could eat. In German, "Schwein gehabt" (literally "had pig") means you got lucky, and marzipan pigs are given at New Year. In China, the year of the pig is linked with wealth and an easy life. A healthy pig in your dream, or a fat one, can point to money, comfort or a time of plenty, but it can just as easily be the worry that you don't have enough of either.

Someone behaving badly

Calling someone a pig means they're rude, greedy or careless with other people, and "pigheaded" means stubborn. If the pig in your dream reminded you of someone, the dream may be voicing a judgment you haven't said out loud. But it's worth asking whether the pig is you, after a moment you're not proud of. In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the pigs who lead the revolution end up walking on two legs, as bad as the farmer they replaced. If the pig in your dream was giving orders, ask who has started acting like the boss they used to complain about.

Feeling dirty, or unfairly judged

Because pigs are cleverer and cleaner than their name suggests, a pig dream can also be about being misjudged. If you felt sorry for the pig, or the pig was you, look at where you've been treated as messier, lazier or greedier than you are. That's a common dream after an unfair comment from a boss or a family member.

Dreaming about piglets

Piglets come in litters of eight or more and are running around within hours. In a dream, a litter often points to plenty, many small good things at once, or to something multiplying fast (ideas, bills, children's demands). Holding a single piglet is usually about care and something new that depends on you.

Dreaming about a pig in the mud

A pig wallowing in mud is, in real life, a pig keeping cool and protecting its skin from the sun. In a dream it can be comfort, rolling around in something that feels good even if it looks bad from the outside. If the mud disgusted you, though, the dream is more often about a situation that feels dirty, like gossip, a shady deal or a relationship that has turned into a mess. Were you in the mud too?

Dreaming about a pig chasing or attacking you

Grown pigs are heavy and can be dangerous (we tend to forget that), so a pig attack isn't as comic as it sounds. A pig chasing you is often appetite chasing you, a craving or a habit you're trying to escape. It can also be a greedy, pushy person you keep trying to get away from. If you outran it, you may be winning.

Dreaming about a dead or slaughtered pig

For most of history, killing the pig was a winter event and meant food for months, so a slaughtered pig can be about cashing in, getting the reward for a year of effort. It can also be guilt, especially if you're thinking about eating less meat or have seen something about how pigs are farmed. A dead pig you found by chance is more often the end of an indulgence, or of a time of plenty.

Dreaming about pigs in your house

A pig inside your home is mess or greed getting into your private life. It might be a housemate who leaves everything dirty, a relative who takes more than their share, or your own habits taking over the place. Which room was it in? A pig in the kitchen is about food and appetite, one in the bedroom about sex or rest.

Dreaming about guinea pigs

Guinea pigs aren't pigs at all (they're rodents from South America), but they turn up in the same searches. A guinea pig dream is often about a childhood pet, or your own children's. "Being a guinea pig" also means being the one something is tested on first, so ask whether you feel like someone's experiment right now.

Dreaming about pigs according to Jung and Freud

The pig isn't on either man's list of symbols, so these are their ideas turned on the dream.

Jung on the pig as a shadow

Jung called whatever you've disowned in yourself the shadow, and it often shows up in dreams as an uninvited guest.^[5] Little gets disowned faster than greed, so a pig that shoulders into your kitchen and takes a second helping, then a third, is a likely stand-in for the side of you that wants more and doesn't apologize. His rule that your own associations come first matters here, since a farm summer and a bad breakfast make for different pigs.

Freud on the feast and the disgust

Freud read dreams as wishes in disguise.^[6] A dream of gorging that you wake from disgusted is a good place to ask which half was the wish and which the disguise, the pleasure of taking as much as you like or the disgust that makes it safe to dream. He also looked to the day before for the raw material, and a pig on a menu is easy to trace.

The biblical and spiritual meaning of pigs in dreams

Pigs in the Bible

The Bible treats the pig as unclean, and its two best-known pig scenes are both low points. In Luke, the prodigal son wastes his inheritance and ends up feeding pigs, so hungry that he envies their food, before he comes to his senses and goes home.^[2] In Mark, Jesus sends a crowd of demons into a herd of about two thousand pigs, which rush down a slope into the sea.^[3] Jesus also warns not to throw your pearls before swine, people who will trample what you give them.^[4]

Pigs in Hindu texts

In the Agni Purana, a Sanskrit text of the Purana genre, dream omens are sorted into good and bad, and riding a pig is listed among the bad ones.^[7] In the Ramayana, the demoness Trijata dreams of the demon king Ravana setting off on a boar, one of the signs of his fall.^[8]

Questions to ask about your pig dream

Farms, pets and the bacon at breakfast all count, since dreams use whatever you've seen that week.^[1] These questions take you further.

• Was the pig happy, greedy, dirty or aggressive?
• Did it remind you of anyone, or of yourself?
• Where have you been having too much of something lately?
• Is money, or the lack of it, on your mind?
• Do you feel misjudged by someone right now?

Bring those answers to Oniri along with the dream, and the pig gets read in light of your own week, your bank balance included.