What Does It Mean to Dream of a Snake Bite?

What Does It Mean to Dream of a Snake Bite?

Though medicine is now more capable of treating snake bites than it used to be, the idea of being bitten by a snake can still evoke deep fear. Snakes, some of which have poisonous venom, are a historic enemy of humans in this regard.

Dreaming of a snake bite can therefore be scary. It may, however, alert you to a threat lurking in your life.

Snake Bite Dream Summary

Snake Bite Dream Symbolism

The general dream symbolism of snakes has a range of positive and negative meanings including deception, healing, temptation, and rebirth. A dream of a snake biting you, however, focuses more on the destructive end of snake dream symbolism like lying and betrayal.

A snake bite dream also shares symbolism with dreams of being attacked by other animals such as dogs. Any dream of being attacked can symbolize a situation where you feel powerless or like things have broken down.

Unlike bigger predator animals like wolves, however, snakes generally do not overwhelm humans with sheer physical force. Instead, snakes, like bees, inject their prey with toxic venom. In this way, a snake bite dream could symbolize a threat that is insidious, even if it does not look particularly large.

Common Snake Bite Dreams

  1. Dream of a snake biting you in nature
  2. Dream of a snake biting you in a city
  3. Dream of a snake biting you in your house
  4. Dream of a snake biting someone else
  5. Dream of dying from a snake bite
  6. Dream of being bitten by a snake of a particular color
  7. Dream of seeing puncture marks from a snake bite

Snake Bite Dream Symbolism

Snake Bite Dream Symbolism

Contamination

Many snakes can inject venom into people when they bite them, and the venom is toxic to humans. Even the bites of non-venomous snakes, however, may become infected from the snake’s saliva, as noted by WebMD.

A dream of a snake bite can therefore symbolize a situation where you are worried about something becoming contaminated with a toxic substance. An example might be having a food allergy and being afraid that you will inadvertently eat something you are allergic to.

Lack of Control

The prospect of a snake biting you can be scary if you feel like you don’t have any control over what the snake does or what the outcome will be. Dreaming of a snake biting you can therefore symbolize that you feel powerless to protect yourself from an attack by someone or something in your life.

Deception

Snake dream symbolism in general includes deception, so dreaming of a snake bite could symbolize that a situation in your life involving deception has come to a crucial point. You might suddenly become aware of a lie someone else has told you and feel betrayed.

Alternately, a snake bite dream could symbolize that a lie you told someone else may come back to bite you.

Relief

Sometimes if you can see a scary thing like a snake bite coming, the worst part is the anticipatory anxiety leading up to the event. To dream of the snake bite actually happening could symbolize relief that you no longer have to worry about some looming threat because whatever you were worried about finally happened.

Common Snake Bite Dreams

Dream of a snake biting you in nature

a snake biting you in nature

If you are out in nature, getting bitten by a snake might be a risk that comes with the territory. Nature, after all, is where snakes are supposed to live, so you are a guest, wanted or not, on their turf.

A dream of getting bitten by a snake while out in nature could symbolize that you are in an environment that has some inherent risks. Whether or not you made an informed and intentional decision to be there fully aware of the risks in advance, there are some environments that cannot be made entirely safe.

This may be hard to accept, as people often want to identify someone to blame for anything bad that happens. The interpretation of your dream could therefore have an element of finding a way to deal with a difficult situation that might not really be anyone’s fault.

Dream of a snake biting you in a city

If you dream that you are walking in a populated area, like in a shopping district or residential area, and a snake bites you, this could symbolize that there is trouble afoot in the city where you live or in human society more broadly. Even if things look normal on the surface, there could be difficult elements in your midst that people don’t want to acknowledge.

Dream of a snake biting you in your house

a snake biting you in your house

While your house is a place where you should feel safe, as noted in house dream symbolism, Critter Control reports that it is possible for snakes to get inside houses and bite people there. A dream of a snake attacking you in your house can therefore symbolize that there is a threat to your safety in an intimate realm of your life.

The room where the snake attack took place in the dream could have symbolic importance in identifying what is dragging you down. If it was in the kitchen, for example, maybe something you regularly eat is causing health problems for you.

If the snake attack took place in your bedroom, it could symbolize trouble in your sexual relationship. However, sometimes snakes are regarded as phallic symbols in a good way, so dreaming of a snake attack in your bedroom might be positive if you have been wanting your partner to take more initiative sexually.

Dream of a snake biting someone else

a snake biting someone else

Dreaming of a snake biting someone else could symbolize a situation like survivor guilt, where you feel guilty that someone close to you suffered a misfortune while you were left unscathed.

In any dream where the focus is on someone else being attacked, the attacked person can represent a part of yourself that you feel vulnerable about. If it is a specific person you know, the dream could also make a comment on your relationship with them.

Regardless, when someone else was attacked in your dream, what were you doing? If you felt powerless to do anything about it, this could symbolize a situation where you see someone else getting hurt, but you feel like there is nothing you can do to intervene. Examples might include being a bystander to bullying in a workplace or school.

If you were able to help the person who got bitten by a snake in your dream, this could symbolize that you feel confident about your ability to support others in their time of need.

Dream of dying from a snake bite

dying from a snake bite

Death and dying dreams in general may symbolize that something in your life needs to end so that you can transform into a new version of yourself. The way that snakes shed their skin is a potent allegory for this type of transformation. Dreaming of dying from a snake bite could therefore symbolize that you need to follow the snake’s guidance and shed your skin in some way.

In a less favorable context, dreaming of dying from a snake bite could symbolize that some situation in your life has become so toxic that it has reached a point of total breakdown. Even then, the total breakdown may be liberating in the sense that you have no choice but to start over.

Dream of being bitten by a snake of a particular color

being bitten by a snake of a particular color

If the color of the snake that bites you is significant in your dream, the interpretation could have to do with a need to develop qualities associated with that color as discussed in color dream symbolism.

For example, dreaming of a black snake biting you could symbolize that you need to develop qualities associated with the color black like adaptability and transformation. Meanwhile, dreaming of a red snake biting you may suggest that you need to become more comfortable with your own natural urges or capacity for aggression, as red is associated with those things.

Dream of seeing puncture marks from a snake bite

seeing puncture marks from a snake bite

If you dream of seeing the distinctive puncture marks from a snake bite on your body, yet you don’t recall being bitten, this could symbolize that you are beginning to assemble clues that will help you find a threat in your environment. Even if you don’t know exactly what the problem is, you may have a sense that something is up.

As WebMD points out about snake bites, “Serious venom effects can be delayed for hours. A victim who appears well at first could still become quite sick.” A dream of seeing a snake bite’s puncture marks could therefore symbolize a situation where you feel like you got through some difficult challenge but have more lasting effects from it than you are currently aware of.

Conclusion

A snake bite is not a pleasant experience, and many of the possibilities for what a snake bite dream could mean are not too uplifting, either. Knowledge is power, though, so you can reflect on your snake bite dream to identify the threat in your life that needs to be addressed.