Dreaming about
lions

Long before most Europeans had seen a lion, they were painting it on their flags and shields, and it's still the most common animal in heraldry. That borrowed royalty is what most lion dreams are about. Dreaming about lions usually points to authority, whether it's someone whose power you answer to, the courage a situation is asking of you, or your own pride, roaring a bit louder than you'd like.

The lion's mood and yours are what decide between those readings. A lion that stalks you down a corridor is a different dream from one lying peacefully at your feet, and a lioness hunting is different again. And it helps to think about who in your life acts like a lion, because the answer is often the person you'd least want to argue with.

What dreaming about lions means

Lions are the only big cats that live in groups. A pride is mostly related females and their cubs, with one or a few males who defend it, and the lionesses do most of the hunting. The males roar to mark their ground and spend much of the day asleep (a job description many of us would take). Every one of those facts has turned into a way people read the animal, and into a way dreams use it.

Authority you answer to

"King of the beasts" is still how most people think of a lion, and in dreams it's very often a person in charge. It might be a boss, a parent, a teacher or an institution, anyone whose word decides things for you. If you felt small and careful around the lion, ask who you feel that way around in waking life. And is their power over you as total as the dream makes it look?

Courage you need

English calls a brave person lionhearted, after Richard the Lionheart, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz goes looking for the courage he already has. So a lion dream often turns up when something is asking you to be brave, like a hard conversation, a new job or standing up to someone. Did you face the lion, or hide from it? The answer is often a fair picture of how ready you feel.

Pride, yours

A group of lions is called a pride, and the pun is too good for dreams to pass up. A lion that roared at everyone, or one that wouldn't back down, can be your own ego, the part of you that needs to be seen and respected. That isn't a bad thing in itself. But the dream may be asking whether your pride is protecting you or getting in your way.

Family and who leads it

Because lions live in prides, a dream full of them can be about your family or your team, and who really runs it. The lionesses do the work while the male gets the credit, and plenty of people recognize their own household in that.

Dreaming about a lion chasing you

A lion chasing you is one of the most searched lion dreams, and it's usually about authority on your heels, like consequences you've been avoiding, a person you've disappointed, or a responsibility you keep running from. Lions rarely chase prey far, they rush it over a short distance, so a dream chase that goes on and on is your mind stretching the threat. As with any dream of being chased, it helps to ask what you'd have to face if you stopped running, and whether that's really worse than the chase.

Dreaming about a lion attacking you

When the lion catches you, the confrontation you were dreading has usually arrived. It might be a dressing-down at work, a family row or a public mistake. English says someone was "thrown to the lions" when they're left to face hostile people alone, after the Roman arenas, and that's often the feeling of this dream. If someone else in the dream stood by and watched, look at who in your life you expected to back you up and didn't.

Dreaming about a mountain lion

Despite the name, a mountain lion isn't a lion at all but the cougar or puma of the Americas, a solitary cat that hunts by ambush and is seen far less often than it sees you. A mountain lion dream is usually less about authority and more about a quiet threat close to home, like someone who watches you or a worry you sense without being able to point to. Park rangers advise standing tall and making yourself look big rather than running, which is a good way to read the dream too, as a question about where you need to stop shrinking.

Dreaming about escaping from a lion

Getting away from a lion usually brings relief, and it often follows a real escape, like a job you've left, a relationship you've ended or a deadline you've survived. But how you escaped matters. Did you outrun it, outsmart it, or just hide in a car while it paced around outside? Hiding tends to mean the pressure hasn't gone, it's just waiting, while outrunning or outsmarting the lion points to something you really have put behind you.

Dreaming about a lioness

A lioness is the working half of the pride, the hunter and the mother, and dreams use her for strong women and for fierce care. She might be your mother, a sister, a female boss, or your own ability to provide and protect. If the lioness was gentle with you, the dream is often about support from a strong woman in your life. If she hunted you, look at whose expectations you feel you can't meet.

Dreaming about a white lion

White lions come from one corner of South Africa, and their pale coat comes from a rare gene (they aren't albinos). They're striking and few, and in dreams they tend to stand for a gentle kind of authority, power held calmly, without the roar. A white lion that guided or watched over you can be a mentor, or a sign that you're growing into a role with more grace than you expected.

Dreaming about a lion in your house

A lion indoors usually means authority at home, and it's worth asking whose. It could be a parent who still runs things, a partner who has to have the last word, or your own pride taking up too much room in the family. A lion sleeping in your living room that everyone tiptoes around is a power nobody in the house dares to question. If the lion was yours and tame, it can also mean your home is where you feel strongest.

Dreaming about a friendly lion

A lion that lets you walk beside it, or lies down at your feet, is one of the best lion dreams to have. In an old Roman story, a runaway slave named Androcles pulls a thorn from a lion's paw, and when he's later thrown to a lion in the arena, it turns out to be the same one and refuses to harm him. A friendly lion in your dream is often authority on your side, a boss or a mentor who's backing you. It can also be your own strength, finally on your side.

Dreaming about lions according to Jung and Freud

What follows is Jung's and Freud's ideas applied to the lion, and says so each time.

Jung: the lion as shadow and as persona

Two of Jung's ideas fit this animal. The shadow, in his writing the part of yourself you disown, often arrives in dreams as a pursuer,^[1] and a lion that runs you down in one short, hard rush is a good picture of strength you've pushed out of sight, whether it's courage, anger or ambition you don't let yourself use. The persona is the front you present to others, and a lion roaring at everyone is that front at its loudest, the confident front over whatever sits underneath. If the lion was after you, the first fits better, and if you were the one roaring, the second.

Freud: the lion as a parent

Freud's list casts kings and queens as parents and has the prince or princess play the dreamer.^[2] The lion is the king of the beasts and a lioness the queen, and the readings above already found authority you answer to and a household's real leader in these dreams. Read his way, a lion can be a parent in animal form, the one whose approval you wanted and whose anger you feared. He'd have started from the day before and from what a lion means to you, and he used his list only as a fallback when the dreamer had no associations.

The biblical and spiritual meaning of lions in dreams

The lion is one of the few animals that scripture uses on both sides, as danger and as courage, and the gap between the readings is useful.

The lion in the Bible

The Bible has some of the most famous lions there are, on both sides. Daniel spends a night in the lions' den and comes out unharmed because God "hath shut the lions' mouths".^[3] Samson tears a lion apart with his bare hands, later finds bees and honey in its body, and turns it into a riddle ("out of the strong came forth sweetness").^[4] Peter warns that the devil "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour".^[5] And Proverbs says that "the righteous are bold as a lion".^[6] If your dream feels spiritual, the lion can be the danger or the courage, and the tradition holds both.

The lion in the Talmud and the Gita

The Talmud, the rabbinic collection of law and teaching, saw the same split. In its long section on dreams it counts the lion with the images that cut both ways, a lion that roars like the voice of God (so that anyone would prophesy) or a lion that destroys nations, and it advises saying the good verse first.^[7] In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's teaching in the Mahabharata, Krishna lists himself among the beasts as the lion, the lord of beasts.^[8]

Questions to ask about your lion dream

A lion can be the person in charge or the courage to face them, so a few questions help you tell which.

• Did the lion feel like a threat, a protector or a test?
• Was it a male, a lioness, a cub, or a pride?
• Who in your life has a lion's kind of power over you?
• Did you run, hide, fight, or stand still?
• What are you being asked to be brave about right now?

Tell Oniri your lion dream and it'll ask you much the same things, since a lion guarding your door and a lion stalking your hallway can't share one reading.