Pigs are farmyard animals that most people now meet mostly in pictures, and yet they turn up in dreams surprisingly often: fat and pink, deep in mud, loose in the kitchen. To the people who wrote the old dream books, a pig was simply wealth on four legs, and they read it that way.
| Variant | What the old books read | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A big, fat pig | Brisk business and safe dealings; reasonable success | Miller 1901; Golden Wheel 1862 |
| A thin pig | Vexing affairs; a speculation of little account | Miller 1901; Golden Wheel 1862 |
| Piglets | Abundant crops; plenty for a farmer | Miller 1901; Golden Wheel 1862 |
| A pig in the mud | Hurtful associates | Miller 1901 |
| Feeding pigs | An increase in belongings | Miller 1901 |
| Eating pork | Gain, quick if roasted | Artemidorus |
What does it mean to dream about pigs?
The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) read seeing pigs as good, plain and simple: for someone in trade, "great increase in your business from foreign parts", and for someone in love, a sweetheart of good temper, faithful and sincere. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read pigs by their condition: fat, strong hogs meant brisk business and safe dealings, lean ones trouble, and pigs wallowing in mire bad company.
Artemidorus, in his Oneirocritica (2nd century; Krauss's 1881 translation), was more philosophical. He counted the pig among fast-growing things that bring both luck and bad luck quickly. He also recorded a short, sharp case: a woman dreamed her lover gave her a pig's head, and soon left him, because, as he put it, the pig has no sense for love.
So the books agree that a healthy pig is a good sign and a hungry or dirty one is not. Where they part is what kind of good: Miller and the Golden Wheel see money and plenty, Artemidorus speed and appetite. None of them describes a pig chasing the dreamer.
Fat pigs, thin pigs and piglets
These are readings from the old dream books, reported as history — no dream foretells the future.
What does it mean to dream of a big fat pig?
A huge, round, well-fed pig, almost comically large. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read fat, strong-looking hogs as "brisk changes in business and safe dealings", and a fat, healthy pig as reasonable success in affairs. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) read well-kept, happy-looking hogs as luck and success. The modern reading hears plenty, and sometimes too much of it: comfort, appetite, a life that is full or a little overfull.
Was your dream different? Dreamlock reads the one you actually had →
What does it mean to dream of a thin pig?
A lean pig with its ribs showing, nosing at an empty trough. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read lean hogs as "vexatious affairs and trouble with servants and children". The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) read lean, hungry hogs squealing as a speculation that would come to little, if not a loss. In modern terms a thin pig is plenty gone missing: a resource, an energy or a comfort running low.
What does it mean to dream of piglets?
A sow lying in straw with a row of piglets asleep against her. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read a sow and her litter as "abundant crops to the farmer", and advancement in the affairs of others. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) read a sow with a large litter as abundance for a farmer. Psychologists hear fertility and plenty, and often a protective tenderness: something small and growing that you want to feed.
Was your dream different? Dreamlock reads the one you actually had →
What does it mean to dream of lots of pigs?
A herd of pigs pressing against a fence, more than you can count. The old dream books have no reading for a crowd of pigs as such. In modern terms many pigs can mean abundance, or a situation grown noisy and hard to manage: too many appetites in one place, your own included.
Mud, feeding and fear
What does it mean to dream of a dirty pig in mud?
A pig wallowing happily in a black puddle. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read pigs wallowing in mire as "hurtful associates", with engagements open to reproach, and for a young woman a jealous, greedy companion, though probably a wealthy one. The modern reading is less stern. Pigs wallow to keep cool, and a muddy pig can be about pleasure without shame as much as about mess.
What does it mean to dream of feeding pigs?
Pouring slops into a trough while the pigs jostle. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read feeding one's own hogs as "an increase in your personal belongings", and dealing in hogs as property gained through much rough work. Psychologists hear care and effort: feeding what will feed you later, or looking after people whose needs never seem to end.
What does it mean to dream of a pig chasing you?
A pig, or a wild boar, charging across the yard toward you. The old dream books have no entry for a pig that chases. Psychologists read it as an appetite or a mess catching up with you: a habit, a debt, a situation you hoped would stay in its pen. The animal is not usually dangerous; the feeling of being pursued is the point.
What does it mean to dream of killing a pig?
The old farmyard scene of slaughter, or a sudden blow in a dream. The old dream books give no reading for killing a pig. In modern terms the dream is often about ending an indulgence, cutting off a habit, or a hard practical decision you have been putting off. Farm families once marked the yearly slaughter as a feast, and some dreamers feel that mix of loss and plenty.
What does it mean to dream of eating pork?
Roast pork on the table, crackling and rich. Artemidorus read eating pork as the most beneficial of all meats to dream about: roast pork meant quick gain, because of the fire, and boiled pork slow gain. The modern reading hears appetite and comfort, and sometimes guilt, depending on what pork means to you and to the people you grew up with.
What does a pig dream mean psychologically?
Psychologists usually read the pig as appetite: for food, comfort, money, pleasure. The animal carries centuries of judgement in everyday language, greedy, dirty, lazy, and dreams borrow that language freely. A pig dream may be about your own appetites, or about someone you see as taking more than their share.
That is only half the picture. Pigs are also intelligent, social and affectionate, and the old dream books read them mostly as plenty. A calm, well-fed pig in clean straw often goes with a sense of having enough. A thin or muddy one tends to go with a worry about running short or about mess you haven't dealt with. If a pig dream leaves you embarrassed, it can help to ask whose judgement that is: your own, or one you learned.
A question to sit with
What do you have plenty of right now, and what are you still hungry for?
Miller can tell you what a fat hog meant in 1901. He can't tell you why the pigs in your dreams always live on your grandparents' farm, or why they get thinner in the hard months. That pattern appears only when your own dreams are kept together. Dreamlock, on the App Store for iPhone, is a private dream journal built for it: it listens to your dream, paints it, and remembers what you were hungry for.