A fear of something coming to and end with dire consequences as a result. Experiencing extreme stress and lots of tensions in your life. Fear of death, or an end to something in your life. Overly religious attitudes.

Fear of unconscious contents.

An end to some phase, event in your life. Also see death. This is a symbol representing fear and evil. What is in your life that gives you fear or makes you want to do evil?

Losing control. Setting your goals too high and fearing failure. Drastic changes in your life. A fear of flying.

Dependency on something or someone. A loss of control and/or weakness. Driven by unconscious fear or attitudes. Surrendering self-awareness to someone else or something else other than what is best for you.

Dreaming that you are breathing rapidly indicates that you are experiencing some anxiety, tension, or fear concerning a new situation in your waking life. Dreaming that you are breathing underwater, represents a retreat back into the womb. You want to return to a state where you were dependent and free from responsibilities. Perhaps you are feeling helpless, unable to fulfill your own needs and caring for yourself. Alternatively, you may be submerged in your emotions. Dreaming that you are holding your breath indicates your stubborn state of mind. Your views may be one-sided and the dream is telling you to be open to the opinions of others. Dreaming that you cannot breathe indicates that you are feeling exhausted. Dreaming that you have bad breath, suggests that you are misleading others. {from hyperdictionary}

Parents may appear in a dream in the guise of animals. It then would represent a love-hate feeling toward that parent. May represent other people in which the meaning would symbolize a slyness or aggressiveness that is characteristic of that person. May be symbolic of some primitive or animal part of your psyche; thus the emotional response to the animal would represent a fear (if the animal in your dream is feared) of an instinctive urge. May represent your animal nature; aggression or anger buried in your unconscious. Perhaps you need to pay more attention to your instincts instead of listening to others.

If the child in your dream is you as a child, the significance of the dream may have to do with a childhood experience.

The child may be a symbol of your true self, That which is essentially you and which you are capable of unfolding. The fact that your real self is represented by a child suggests that your true self is a a beautiful unspoilt product of Nature; that is worthy of unreserved love; and that it needs the nourishment of your love if it is to grow.

The child may represent the transcendent nature of the self; it is much more than just your conscious ego or your present image of yourself; it holds together the opposites that are within you, "head" and "heart", extroversion and introversion, masculine and feminine.

The child may represent a new beginning, a new development in your psyche - a new attitude to life, a new set of values, a new reconciliation of previously conflicting forces.

There is in all of us a child - our emotional self - that often needs reassurance, to be told that all is well and there is no cause for fear, or anger, or guilt, and that love makes all things good and dissolves all pain. At the same time the child sometimes needs to be chided and corrected if it is eventually to - as it should - grow up.

Going through transformations, changes. Changes in your unconscious self that can be beneficial to your conscious being. Changes having to do with heavy emotions, anger, fear, passion.

Devil

Basic Meaning - A fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, when acknowledged the very forces that could bestow a harmonious and balanced life.

(1) The Satan of Jewish - Christian - Islamic tradition was originally a horned fertility god, a personification of the fertilizing power of Nature {the tradition of God is separate from Nature}. In psychological terms, a fertilizing agent is something within the psyche that can inaugurate a new phase in the individual's development.

(2) The evil connotations of the devil figure may reflect the dreamer's fear of those repressed contents of the unconscious that are, in fact, the very forces that - if mobilized and utilized - could bestow a new and fuller life. What we repress is invariably something that had great value for us but on some occasion in the past gave rise to guilt-feelings or a fear of punishment. It is our fears that invest the unconscious with the fearsome characteristics of a dark underworld inhabited by evil monsters. In reality, the unconscious contains all the energy and wisdom we need for healing and wholeness.

It might be said that our fundamental human task is the conversion of the devil within ourselves, that is, converting negatively charged {dissident, destructive} psychic forces into positively charged {life-enhancing and unifying} powers. But you won't convert the devil with brute force, only with love. The negatively charged psychic forces are the ones you neglect and despise or fear. They become positively charged when you acknowledge them and integrate them into your conscious life.

If we do not recognize the "devil" within ourselves, we shall project him onto others and thereby give more scope for hatred and destruction {the real devil!} in the world.

{3} In certain contexts - if, for example, he has horns or is sexually involved with naked women - the devil may be a sexual symbol. If sexuality is repressed in such a guise in a woman's dream, it is possibly because she has a fear of sexual relations. In a man's dreamthe indication might be that he has a guilt-ridden attitude towards his own sexuality {which Freud might trace back to anxiety arising out of the normal male infant's erotic feelings for his mother}.

Demons

Demons in dreams probably represent parts of your unconscious mind that have been repressed and neglected and are now threatening to disrupt or mutilate the psyche. They should be approached lovingly, given attention and integrated into your conscious life. This will bring about their "conversion": They will cease to threaten and will contribute their vital energies to the enhancement of the self.

Self-knowledge - knowing what we are carrying around with us in our unconscious - is the only sure defence against what in ancient times was called demonic possession, which in psychological terms means the conscious ego being taken over by unconscious forces {obsessive fear or anger, or whatever}.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

(1) If seen as mindless automata, insects may symbolize either (your attitude towards) your instinctive drives or unconscious forces that seem to constitute a threat to the rule of reason. In either case, you probably need to overcome - or at least examine - your repulsion.

(2) If it is a solitary insect, it may be bringing a message from your inner self. That your inner self should appear in such a paradoxical guise or employ such a dispicable and unlikely ambassador is a reflection of your (very unwise) contempt for your inner self, as shown perhaps in the way you exclude it from your conscious life. (Remember the cricket in Pinocchio's adventures?)

Spider

A spider is a common symbol of mother as an object of fear or dislike and particularily in a mansdream. Freud sees it as a symbol of 'the phallic mother (big surprise), of whom we are afraid; so that the fear of spiders expresses dread of mother-incest and horror of the female genitals" (Freud's own italics). Try to get to know, not only your mother, but - more important - what your mother means to you. One way of doing this is to converse with the spider: hold it in your mind and ask it searching questions.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd

May be symbol of the penis. The firing of a pistol would then represent the sexual act.

Pistol Dreaming that you are aiming a pistol indicates that you are trying to target a specific goal. However, if the overtones of the dream are that of fear, anger and aggression, then the pistol means power by which you need to defend yourself against the fear and anger.

Emotional release; fear; cooling down a heated situation

And Childhood Recollections

{1} If the child in your dream is you as a child, the significance of the dream may have to do with a childhood experience. But don't be too ready to understand it this way {see Childhood Recollections at bottom}.

{2} The child may be a symbol of your true self, that which is essentially you and which you are capable of unfolding. That fact that your real self is represented by a child suggests that your true self is a beautiful unspoilt product of Nature; that it is worthy of unreserved love; and that it needs the nourishment of your love if it is to grow and unfold all its loveliness.

{3} If the child has some divine aura {e.g. if it is the Christ-child}, waht is symbolized is as in {2} above. The aura represents the transcendent nature of the self: it is much more than your conscious ego or your present image of yourself; it holds together the opposites that are within you {e.g. conscious and unconscious aspects, "head" - intellect and "heart" - intuitiveness and compassionate giving, extroversion and introversion, masculine and feminine}, and it is your ultimate goal and fulfillment.

{4} The child may represent {the possibility of} a new beginning, a new development in your psyche - a new attitude to life, a new set of values, a new balance of your psychic forces, a new reconcilation of previously conflicting forces. The child in you is the growing-point in you.

{5} There is a child in all of us - our emotional self - that often needs reassurance, to be told that all is well and there is no cause for fear, or anger, or guilt, and that love makes all things good and dissolves all pain. At the same time the child sometimes needs to be chided and corrected if it is eventually to - as it should - grow up.

(1) Abundant hair may signify virility or male sexuality.

(2) Long matted hair or a (long white) beard may symbolize wisdom - available in your unconscious depths.

(3) Cutting hair may symbolize loss of virility, or castration.

(4) Pubic hair and (in a woman's dream) hair in armpits or on legs may symbolize sexuality.

(5) Loss of hair/baldness may express (fears of) getting old and/or unwanted.

Reference: Eric Ackroyd