The first crack is so loud the dream seems to jump. Then the long roll across the sky, and the second or two of waiting for the next one. Thunder dreams are often remembered by sound alone. They are also one of the scenes where the old dream books argued most openly, and where the Japanese and Chinese books read the danger in the opposite direction from the Western ones.
| Variant | What the old books read | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Hearing thunder | Unexpected profit; or reverses in business | Yume handan jikkensho 1908; Miller 1901 |
| Being frightened by thunder | Trouble over one's dwelling; or so much the better | Yume handan jikkensho 1908; Golden Wheel 1862 |
| Being struck by lightning | All things accomplished; or unexpected sorrows | Yume handan jikkensho 1908; Miller 1901 |
| Lightning striking near you or your house | No house entry; a shock nearby as gossip | Miller 1901 |
| Lightning without thunder | A flash as illness; light on the body as joy | Yume handan jikkensho 1908 |
| A relative struck by lightning | A child of note; or kin scattered | Yume handan jikkensho 1908 |
What does it mean to dream about thunder?
The richest entries come from Japan. Karasawa Shōkaku's Yume handan jikkensho (1908), a Meiji dream manual organised by heaven, earth, people and things, gives thunder a run of short lines in its chapter on the sky. Thunder rising from all four directions meant profit in trade. Thunder rolling overhead meant an unexpected gain for a merchant and a larger stipend for an official. Thunder climbing up into heaven meant a wish that would not be granted. Many of these lines visibly adapt the Chinese Zhougong dream book, which in its 1880 print reads being struck by a thunderbolt as wealth and honour, and lightning shining on the body as happy events.
The 1906 Yume handan, a Japanese translation of the Ming-era Menglin xuanjie, has a whole section on thunder and lightning, and it is more divided. Being struck by a thunderbolt was marked good, a sign of being helped by one's superiors and rising in the world. Thunder striking the head was a sign of calamity coming. A sky of cloud, rain and rolling thunder was good for everyone, high or low.
The Western books lean darker. Miller's 1901 dream dictionary (Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted) read hearing thunder as reverses threatening one's business, and being caught in a thunder shower as trouble and grief close by. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) took the Japanese side: heavy thunder meant large crops for farmers and a successful speculation for tradesmen.
So the honest answer is that there is no single traditional meaning of thunder. There are at least two, and they contradict each other.
What you heard and saw
These are readings from the old dream books, reported as history; no dream is a forecast.
What does it mean to dream of hearing thunder?
A rumble far off, or a crack directly overhead that shakes the windows. The 1908 Japanese dream book read thunder rolling as an unexpected profit for a merchant and a larger stipend for an official. Miller's 1901 dictionary read the same sound as reverses in business, and the terrific peals that make the earth quake as great loss. The modern reading hears news: a voice raised somewhere, a decision about to land, a mood that has been building in a room.
What does it mean to dream of being frightened by thunder?
You flinch, cover your ears, or wake with your heart pounding. Two old books connect this fear to the home. The 1908 Japanese dream book read being startled by thunder as trouble concerning one's place of residence, and the Chinese Zhougong list read being afraid at the sound of thunder as a good time to move house. The Golden Wheel Dream-Book (1862) added, after its reading of heavy thunder as prosperity, that being terrified by it was "so much the better". Psychologists read the startle more simply: something in waking life has made you brace.
What does it mean to dream of lightning without thunder?
The sky goes white for an instant, without a sound. The 1908 Japanese dream book read flickering lightning as a sign of illness, one of the few gloomy lines in its sky chapter; most dreamers who see it are simply tired, and the reading belongs to its time. The same book read lightning shining on one's own body the opposite way, as a child for a woman and happy news for a man. Miller read lightning as "happiness and prosperity of short duration". The modern reading is sudden clarity: a flash of seeing something you can't unsee.
Where the lightning struck
What does it mean to dream of being struck by lightning?
The worst moment of the dream, and often the one that wakes you. Here the old books split most sharply. The 1908 Japanese dream book read being struck by thunder as good, a sign that all things would be accomplished, and the Chinese Zhougong list read it as wealth and honour. Miller's 1901 dictionary read a strike as "unexpected sorrows" overwhelming the dreamer in business or love. Psychologists usually hear a life-changing jolt: news, a realisation or a meeting that hit with a force you weren't ready for.
What does it mean to dream of lightning hitting your house?
The flash, the bang on the roof, the smell of burning. No book cited here has a line for a house struck by lightning. Miller's nearest entry reads lightning striking something near the dreamer, with the shock felt, as being worried by gossip or harmed by a friend's good fortune. The modern reading follows the house: a jolt to home life, a family argument, a change that lands under your own roof rather than out in the world.
What does it mean to dream of someone else being struck?
You watch it happen to a husband, a child, a brother. The 1908 Japanese dream book had a separate line for nearly every relative. A husband struck by thunder meant a wife conceiving a wise child; a child struck meant the child would rise high; brothers struck meant kin scattering. Psychologists read the scene as worry projected onto someone close: a sudden change you fear for them, or one that has already shaken them.
What does a thunder dream mean psychologically?
Psychologists usually read thunder as part of the storm: an emotional atmosphere that has become charged, with tension that has been building and is now breaking. Thunder dreams often accompany conflicts that have been avoided too long, or stretches when forces outside your control seem to be deciding the weather. The sound matters: thunder is the storm announcing itself, so the dream often comes just before something unspoken is finally said.
The calm afterwards is as telling as the crack. Dreams where the thunder moves off, or the rain settles into something steady, tend to come when the tension is easing. For the wider weather, see dreams about storms and dreams about rain.
A question to sit with
What in your life has been rumbling in the distance, and what would it take for it to break?
A dream book can tell you that one Meiji writer thought being struck by lightning meant success, and an American one thought it meant sorrow. It can't tell you why your thunder comes in the weeks before a family visit, or only after you've kept quiet in a meeting. That shows only when your dreams are recorded and kept together. If you wonder whether reading dream meanings helps at all, we wrote an honest answer: should you stop reading dream meanings? Dreamlock, on the App Store for iPhone, is a private dream journal made for keeping them together: it listens to your dream, paints it, and notices when the same weather comes back.