Bird
Birds often carry the emotional weather of a dream — their flight can feel like freedom longed for, their silence like connection lost. Perhaps the question is less what they mean and more how they moved: were they soaring, struggling, or simply present in the quiet margins of the scene?
A live archive of what the world is dreaming tonight: which symbols are rising, the collective mood, and where the dreams are coming from. Free, always.
See what’s rising tonight →What the old dream-books say
These are the entries the historical dream-books record for bird, in their own words. They are period voices, not predictions, and they do not always agree with one another.
Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901
It is a favorable dream to see birds of beautiful plumage. A wealthy and happy partner is near if a woman has dreams of this nature.
Moulting and songless birds, denotes merciless and inhuman treatment of the outcast and fallen by people of wealth.
To see a wounded bird, is fateful of deep sorrow caused by erring offspring.
To see flying birds, is a sign of prosperity to the dreamer. All disagreeable environments will vanish before the wave of prospective good.
To catch birds, is not at all bad. To hear them speak, is owning one's inability to perform tasks that demand great clearness of perception.
To kill than with a gun, is disaster from dearth of harvest.
Fontaine, 1862
To dream of birds is much better for the rich than the poor; to dream of little birds, the contrary; to dream that you hear birds chirp is a good sign; to see birds fighting, signifies adversity; to see birds fly over your head, signifies prejudice by enemies.