What Does It Mean to Dream of a Dragon?

Some people think of their dreams as movies. If you see a mythical creature like a dragon in your dream, you might as well be watching the latest fantasy blockbuster.

Your dream of a dragon can touch on this distinction between fantasy and reality. Any fantasy that is relatable, however, touches on real emotions, and your dragon dream can definitely speak to real conflicts in your life.

Dragon Dream Symbolism

Fantasy

Dragons are a staple of literature and movies in the fantasy genre. Your dreams tend to reflect your daily life, so, if you regularly see dragons in the entertainment you consume, your dragon dream might be processing that.

But why are you drawn to books and movies with dragons in the first place? This might reflect that you are looking for an escape from daily life.

Your dragon dream meaning could therefore symbolize an interest in adding more excitement to your life. You might be bored with your routines.

Another difference between fairy tales and daily life is that fairy tales tend to have endings where justice is done, and good wins in the end. Real life of course does not guarantee that, but dreaming of a dragon could symbolize a desire for such an outcome in your waking life.

Childhood

The song “Puff, the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary tells the story of a boy who regularly played with a magic dragon, building a relationship. The boy then abandoned the dragon when he grew too old for that kind of play, and the dragon was left lonely.

A dream of a dragon could therefore symbolize that you have ambivalence about growing older and moving on to a new phase of your life. You are excited for new opportunities, but you are also sad about what you will be leaving behind.

Power

Dragons are known for being large and powerful. Dreaming of a dragon could symbolize that you feel like someone else in your life is bullying or oppressing you in a larger than life way.

Alternately, if you were a dragon in your dream, this could symbolize that you feel like you are or would like to be really powerful.

Danger

In many stories, dragons are dangerous villains who harm or kill humans and others. Dreaming of an aggressive dragon could therefore symbolize that you feel something or someone is a threat to you or others in your life.

If you dream of slaying dragons, this could symbolize that you see yourself as a hero defending your loved ones from danger in some way.

Assistance

In other stories, dragons are helpers to humans, such as in the movie How to Train Your Dragon. To dream of a dragon who is a helpful presence could symbolize that you have or soon will have a powerful ally in your corner.

Your dragon dream might symbolize that you have some ambivalence about an ally in your life if the help they give you comes at the cost of intimidating you or others. Alternately, maybe you like it that a powerful ally of yours intimidates your enemies.

Anger

Dragons are known for breathing fire when they are angry. Dreaming of a dragon could therefore symbolize that you are so angry you wish you could breathe fire on someone. Maybe you feel like your anger is already out of control, and you suspect you are raging at people who might not deserve it.

Alternately, this could symbolize that someone else in your life is angry and volatile. When they blow up at you, it feels like they are breathing fire on you. You might be afraid of this person and feel like you need to tiptoe around them to avoid setting them off.

Unintentional Destruction

In some variants of dragon lore, dragons breathe fire whether or not they are angry. They therefore can destroy things with flames even if they do not mean to do so.

This could symbolize a situation where you or another person in your life seems to break things unintentionally. Maybe, as with a dragon who breathes fire as part of their nature, the person involved can’t change their basic tendencies, so the answer is to change the environment so that breakable things stay out of their way.

Hunger

Dragons, like other predator animals, can attack prey out of hunger. If you dream that a dragon is trying to eat you, it may not be about you personally – it may just be that they need food, and you’re around.

This perspective may be useful for a situation in your waking life where you feel like someone is attacking you personally. They may indeed be attacking you, but it may be more about them than about you.

Dreaming of a dragon can therefore symbolize that you have some need that you can only meet at someone else’s expense – or that someone else in your life has a need they can only meet at your expense.

See also wolf dream meaning and killing dream meaning.

Greed

Dragons are associated with hoarding treasure. This part of dragon symbolism is explored in a satirical piece for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, where a “Dragon seeks smart, motivated intern to help manage a sprawling cavern of various golden treasures.”

Dreaming of a dragon can therefore symbolize that you are concerned with holding on to your material possessions and protecting them from others. You might also be trying to acquire more possessions.

Alternately, this could symbolize that someone else in your life is acting this way. You could feel like they are treating you as a threat to their property, even if you have no interest in taking their property.

Common Dragon Dreams

Dream of dragons chasing you

Dreaming about dragons chasing you would have a pretty similar meaning to any other dream of being chased by a predator animal. It symbolizes you feel threatened by something or someone in your life.

The main difference between being chased by a dragon and being chased by a wolf or a bear is that dragons are not real. Interpreting this distinction could go in two ways.

One possible interpretation is that your problem is so big that it seems larger than life. Even a wolf or a bear is not threatening enough to capture the magnitude of what is going wrong for you.

The other possibility is that, however big your problem seems, it’s actually not a real problem in the way you think it is. After all, dragons are not real.

Dream of a dragon egg

Dragons are generally thought of as large reptiles, so, like other reptiles, they would hatch from eggs. As would be the case for a dream of any other sort of egg, a dragon egg dream would have to do with beginnings and the potential to become something.

A dragon egg dream specifically could symbolize that you are developing qualities associated with dragons, such as power and a sense of being larger than life. Hatching from an egg requires effort, so you may have to work to bring these qualities into being.

Dream of a baby dragon

While fully grown dragons can be dangerous, baby dragons, like any other kind of baby, generally are not. The baby dragon dream meaning could therefore encourage you to look at the innocent side of someone you have judged as scary or dangerous.

As would be the case with any baby, what you nurture is what will grow. Dreaming of a baby dragon could symbolize that you need to nurture the positive qualities of dragons in your life, like power and strength.

Alternately, dreaming of a baby dragon could show you that you or someone else in your life who seems to be harmless is actually on a path toward developing some of the more difficult dragon qualities like anger or greed.

Another possibility is that a baby dragon dream symbolizes trouble relating to a human child in your life. If you feel that the child may as well be a different species from you because you just don’t connect with them, you may have to work to adapt to their unique style.

Dream of a dragon with multiple heads

If you dream of a dragon with multiple heads, this could symbolize that you are dealing with a complex problem that has multiple components. It could also symbolize that you are getting bullied by a group of people.

If the dragon has too many heads to count, you could just feel overwhelmed by the situation in general. If you know how many heads the dragon has, the specific number could be significant. For example, a three headed dragon dream meaning might refer to a situation where you are in conflict with your three sisters.

If you can’t connect the number of heads on the dragon in your dream to a group of people or other obvious situation in your life, you might look at the number symbolically. For more information, see What Does It Mean if You Dream About Numbers?

Dream of a dragon of a particular color

Many depictions of dragons are green. This makes sense, as dragons are generally thought of as similar to reptiles, and many reptiles have a color that is some variant of green.

Especially if the dragon in your dream is some color other than green, it may be necessary to look at the color of the dragon symbolically. A general guide to the symbolism of colors is given at What Does It Mean if You Dream About Colors?

The game Dungeons & Dragons assigns elaborate symbolism to different colors of dragons, as broken down at CBR.com. If you are a regular player of Dungeons & Dragons, this may be relevant to the interpretation of your dream, as your dreams try to communicate with you in a language that you understand. Likewise, if you are not very familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, the content of Dungeons & Dragons is probably not relevant to interpreting your dream.

Red dragon dream meaning

Dreaming of a red dragon could emphasize the aggressive potential of the dragon. It could also represent a strong and vibrant life force.

Historic UK reports that the red dragon on the Welsh flag refers to a legendary battle in which a red dragon represented the Welsh and a white dragon represented the English. This story may be relevant to the interpretation of your dream if you are in or from this part of the world.

White dragon dream meaning

White dragon dream symbolism could include innocence, which is a strange contrast with the overall destructive image of a dragon. Perhaps someone you have thought of as dangerous is actually harmless. Alternately, maybe someone in your life who portrays a gentle image is actually covertly aggressive.

A dream of a white dragon could also be related to the battle between the Welsh and the English, as noted above, if that is part of your cultural heritage.

Black dragon dream meaning

Dreaming of a black dragon could emphasize the scary and intimidating quality of the dragon. This would be more likely the case if the dragon were also behaving in a menacing way.

Alternately, a black dragon could symbolize the potential for transformation and renewal. This interpretation would be more applicable if the dragon in your dream was a calm presence.

Yellow dragon dream meaning

Dreaming of a yellow dragon could emphasize the playful quality of the dragon. A dragon that looks like Pikachu or Big Bird might not be that scary.

Yellow, however, tends to be an assertive color, so a dream of a yellow dragon could be an indicator of strength in taking action.

Blue dragon dream meaning

Blue dragon dream symbolism could include intellect and contemplation, as that is part of the general symbolism of the color blue. Think of blue-haired Sailor Mercury, the intellectual one on Sailor Moon.

Blue reptiles are uncommon but do exist in waking life, as shown at ReptileWorldFacts. The rarity of blue reptiles in nature gives a blue dragon dream the vibe of something more likely going on in the intellectual realm than in the physical realm.

Purple dragon dream meaning

A purple dragon dream could symbolize royalty or other authority. Dragons are usually powerful because they commandeer power with their aggression, but purple signifies a more stable sort of power, so a purple dragon could signify that you are able to restrain your aggression and pursue authority through more legitimate means.

Dream of a sea dragon

Dreaming of a mythical sea dragon like a Leviathan – as opposed to smaller seadragons, which are related to seahorses – could symbolize a primitive form of power.

The sea dragon dream meaning could also have to do with your attitude toward exploring the unknown. Water symbolizes the unconscious, as discussed in Dream about Water – Interpretation & Meaning.

Dreaming of seeing a sea dragon in the water could symbolize that you are afraid to explore your unconscious because you might find monsters there. If you saw the sea dragon from the vantage of a boat in your dream, you might also check What Does It Mean to Dream of a Boat?

Dream of a dragon snake

A dragon snake is a type of snake native to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, according to Reptiles Magazine. It does not survive long in captivity.

The dragon snake dream meaning would be more like that of a snake dream than that of a dragon dream. Snake dream symbolism includes sexuality and rebirth, as discussed further at Snake Dream – Interpretations, Meanings & Symbolism.

Conclusion

Dragons, like other predator animals, can symbolize issues relating to aggression and meeting your primal needs. The fantasy nature of dragons, however, gives you a unique vantage point for viewing these issues.

If dragons appear in your dreams, you may need to suspend the limitations of consensus reality and consider an alternative perspective on your challenges. Dragons can be powerful enemies or powerful allies, so you want to have their strength on your side.