Digging
Digging often carries the weight of effort without easy reward—the sense that progress requires your hands in the dirt, literal or otherwise. Perhaps the dream is asking what you're unearthing in yourself, whether the ground feels fertile or exhausting, and what it means to keep going when the work feels unfinished.
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See what’s rising tonight →What the old dream-books say
These are the entries the historical dream-books record for digging, in their own words. They are period voices, not predictions, and they do not always agree with one another.
Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901
To dream of digging, denotes that you will never be in want, but life will be an uphill affair.
To dig a hole and find any glittering substance, denotes a favorable turn in fortune; but to dig and open up a vast area of hollow mist, you will be harrassed with real misfortunes and be filled with gloomy forebodings. Water filling the hole that you dig, denotes that in spite of your most strenuous efforts things will not bend to your will.
Fontaine, 1862
To dream of digging in clean and healthy ground, is a sign of thrift, and good luck generally: if the ground be dirty or wet, it shows trouble: if you are digging for gold, and find large and rich lumps, it shows you'll have some good luck, but if the product is meagre, or if you don't find any, it foretells disappointment. If you lose any of your tools it is a sign of a quarrel.