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Dream Meaning

Dreams of Lions: Jung's Archetypes, Daniel 6, and Mesopotamian Dream-Precedents

Dreams of lions: Jung's archetypal sovereignty-reading, Daniel 6 lion's den dream-precedent, and Mesopotamian oneiromantic traditions.

Published

Glazed brick lion from the Processional Way of the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, c. 575 BCE.
A Babylonian lion from the Ishtar Gate Processional Way, c. 575 BCE. Lion dreams in Jungian analysis represent the animus (in women) or the 'heroic ego' and its shadow (in men); a confrontation with a dream-lion is typically a threshold encounter with power the dreamer has not yet integrated. C.G. Jung's own lion-dream is recorded in Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962). Ishtar Gate lion, c. 575 BCE. Pergamon Museum, Berlin. CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Lion dreams in Jung's analytical psychology typically represent sovereignty, royal-self-integration, or shadow-power. Daniel 6 (Daniel in the lion's den) is the canonical Biblical lion-dream-adjacent scene. Mesopotamian oneiromantic traditions (the Assyrian Dream-Book, Oppenheim 1956) treat lion-dreams as specific royal-portent imagery. See our lion spirit-animal page.

Dreams of lions: Jung + Daniel 6 + Mesopotamian Dream-Book. See our lion page.

Frequently asked

What does it mean to dream of a lion?
Jung: sovereignty, royal-self-integration. Daniel 6 Biblical precedent. Mesopotamian Dream-Book royal-portent imagery. See our lion spirit-animal page.

Sources

  1. PEER-REVIEWEDC.G. Jung, Archetypes — Princeton, 1959.
  2. PRIMARYDaniel 6 — BHS / JPS 1985.
  3. PEER-REVIEWEDA. Leo Oppenheim, The Interpretation of Dreams in the Ancient Near East (with the Assyrian Dream-Book) — Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 46.3, 1956.
  4. REFERENCEOur lion spirit-animal page