Spider dreams come with a reputation they haven't quite earned. Dreamers wake expecting the worst, and then Miller and the Golden Wheel Dream-Book turn out to be surprisingly kind to the spider itself. That split, between the dread we bring and the patient builder the books saw, is the key to reading this dream.
| Variant | What the old books read | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A spider biting you | Unfaithfulness; enemies in business | Miller 1901 |
| A spider coming towards you | Someone soon paying money | Golden Wheel 1862 |
| Killing a spider | Quarrels at home; in one scene, a fair estate | Miller 1901 |
| A huge spider | A swift rise to fortune | Miller 1901 |
| Many spiders | Fortune, good health and friends | Miller 1901 |
| A tarantula | Enemies bringing loss; wicked people | Miller 1901; Artemidorus |
| A spider web | A secure home; deceitful friends | Miller 1901 |
What does it mean to dream about spiders?
Miller's 1901 dream dictionary (Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted) was kinder to the spider than to most creatures. Dreaming of one, he wrote, meant the dreamer would be "careful and energetic" in their work, with fortune "amassed to pleasing proportions". A spider building its web meant happiness and security at home. Only the bite, killing and running away turned his entry. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) was even more cheerful: a spider coming towards you meant money soon paid.
Artemidorus, whose Oneirocritica (2nd century) we cite in Friedrich Krauss's 1881 German translation, disagreed. He put spiders with newts and lizards among the small creatures that brought the dreamer into the company of petty, contemptible people, able nonetheless to do real harm, and he read poisonous spiders with scorpions and centipedes as wicked, unscrupulous people.
So the books split over the spider, and Miller even split with himself over the web: under "Spider-web" pleasant associations, under "Web" deceitful friends. Whatever the verdict, the spider's work mattered more than the spider.
What the spider did
These are readings from the old dream books, reported as history — no dream foretells the future.
What does it mean to dream of a spider crawling on you?
A spider on your arm, your neck, your face: the version people wake from brushing at their skin. The three books cited here don't read a spider crawling on the dreamer. Psychologists hear intrusion at the closest range, something small that has got past your guard and onto you: a worry, an obligation, a person who takes up more room than they should.
What does it mean to dream of a spider biting you?
The bite is small and yet it's what people remember. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read being bitten by a spider as falling victim to unfaithfulness and suffering from enemies in business; a large spider's bite meant enemies taking one's good fortune, a small one's, little spites and jealousies. The modern reading hears a small hurt, often from close by, that has lingered longer than its size.
Was your dream different? Dreamlock reads the one you actually had →
What does it mean to dream of a spider coming towards you?
It lowers itself on a thread, or walks steadily across the floor to your feet. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) read a spider coming towards the dreamer as a sign that someone would soon pay them money, and a spider spinning down before one's face the same way. Psychologists hear something approaching that you can't yet name, and the dream's mood, dread or curiosity, says which it is.
What you did
What does it mean to dream of killing a spider?
A shoe, a glass, a sudden decision. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read killing a spider as quarrels with one's wife or sweetheart, yet in his longer scene of a large and a small spider, killing it meant eventually coming into a fair estate. The modern reading hears a small, persistent threat finally dealt with, and it often turns out smaller than it looked.
Was your dream different? Dreamlock reads the one you actually had →
What does it mean to dream of running from a spider?
You back away, then run, and the spider keeps pace. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read running from a large spider as losing fortune by slighting opportunities. Psychologists hear avoidance: pursuit dreams are about what we won't turn to face, as in being chased, and the spider adds its own mix of fascination and dread.
Its size, number and kind
What does it mean to dream of a huge spider?
A spider as big as a hand, a dog, a doorway. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read a large spider confronting the dreamer as a swift rise to fortune, unless the contact was dangerous. It's one of his more surprising lines, and modern readers tend to hear the opposite first: a problem that has outgrown the space you gave it. Which one fits usually depends on whether you stood your ground.
What does it mean to dream of many spiders?
A ceiling full of them, webs in every corner. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read many spiders hanging in their webs around the dreamer as the most favourable conditions of all: fortune, good health and friends. Psychologists usually hear the reverse, an environment, a workplace or a family season, sticky in every corner at once. The books and the modern ear rarely disagree this openly.
What does it mean to dream of a tarantula?
A large, hairy, venomous spider, the one people fear most. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read seeing a tarantula as enemies about to overwhelm the dreamer with loss, and killing one as success after much ill luck. Artemidorus read poisonous spiders, with scorpions and centipedes, as wicked, unscrupulous people. Psychologists hear a threat felt to be genuinely dangerous, not merely unpleasant.
The web
What does it mean to dream of a spider web?
A web across a doorway, silver in the light, or one you've walked into. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary read a spider building its web as happiness and security in one's own home, and spider-webs as fortunate ventures; under "Web" he read webs as deceitful friends working the dreamer loss. Psychologists hear something intricate that formed slowly around you, and ask whether you're the one spinning it.
Was your dream different? Dreamlock reads the one you actually had →
What does a spider dream mean psychologically?
Psychologists call the spider an ambivalence symbol: fascination and dread in one small image. The common modern readings cluster around feeling trapped in something intricate, a situation woven slowly around you, thread by thread, until it held. In the Jungian line there's a second reading: entanglement with a powerful caretaking figure, care that binds as much as it holds.
Either way, the web usually matters more than the spider. Ask not "why a spider?" but "what in my waking life has been quietly assembling around me, and how stuck am I, really?"
A question to sit with
What in your life right now was built slowly, thread by thread, while you watched, and are you the one who was spinning it?
Miller and Artemidorus never saw where your spider chose to spin. Maybe it's your office doorway; maybe it appears the same weeks your calendar fills up. Your own dream record can show that, given a few months. Dreamlock, on the App Store for iPhone, builds that record with you: it listens to the dream you record, paints it, and remembers every web that comes back.