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Dream Meaning

Dreams of Spiders: Jung's Weaver, Arachne, Jorōgumo

Dreams of spiders: Jung's weaver-archetype, Ovid's Arachne (Metamorphoses 6), Japanese jorōgumo (Sekien 1779), and West African Anansi dream-context.

Published

Scientific illustration plate of arachnids from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904.
Plate 66 (Arachnida) from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904). Spider dreams are among the most symbolically consistent in cross-cultural analysis: the spider as weaver of fate appears in Greek (Moirai), Norse (Nornir), and many Indigenous American traditions (Spider Woman). In Jungian analysis, spider dreams often activate the 'terrible mother' complex or the creative-destructive aspect of the unconscious. Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 66. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In Jung's analytical psychology, spider-dreams typically represent the weaver-archetype and self-constructed patterns. Ovid's Arachne (Metamorphoses 6.1–145) grounds Western literary spider-dream imagery. Japanese jorōgumo (Toriyama Sekien 1779) produces more ominous imagery. See our spider spirit-animal page for the full Anansi / Arachne / Grandmother Spider / jorōgumo treatment.

Dreams of spiders. See our spider page.

Frequently asked

What does it mean to dream of a spider?
Jung's weaver-archetype, Arachne (Ovid Met. 6), jorōgumo (Sekien 1779). See our spider spirit-animal page.

Sources

  1. PEER-REVIEWEDC.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious — Princeton, 1959.
  2. PRIMARYOvid, Metamorphoses 6.1–145 — Loeb.
  3. REFERENCEOur spider spirit-animal page