Every symbol in a dream has personal, cultural and archetypal meanings. Read some cultural and archetypal meanings below, and write your dream into the box for a personalised AI interpretation.
A river is a flow of fresh water, moving downward and ultimately connecting to a larger body of water like a lake or sea. Rivers promote fertility and sustain life of many kinds, and they have been favored sites for
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A river is a flow of fresh water, moving downward and ultimately connecting to a larger body of water like a lake or sea. Rivers promote fertility and sustain life of many kinds, and they have been favored sites for human settlement since the dawn of history. Great rivers—the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus, the Yangtze—are virtually synonymous with great civilizations. Using dams and mills, humans have drawn energy from rivers, although at the cost of disrupting their free flow. Rivers establish boundaries, dividing one realm or territory from another. As a spiritual symbol, rivers suggest cleansing and transformation, as in John the Baptist’s ministry at the Jordan River, and the Greek myth of the spirits of the dead crossing the river Styx when they leave the land of the living. Rivers can also symbolize the passage of time and a quality of transience-in-permanence, as in the saying that you can never set foot in the same river twice. When you dream of a river, there’s a good chance it means something involving powerful movement and deep change, especially in relation to whatever you consider spiritually meaningful. It’s important to notice the conditions of the river, whether it’s high or low, clear or opaque, moving fast or slow, because these details can give valuable insight into the direction of movement and the quality of transformation this dream river offers you.
Kelly Bulkeley
Rivers and streams are particularly potent metaphors for the passing of time, and dreams of standing on the river bank may suggest that it is time for the dreamer to pause and reflect upon the direction and intensity of life. Rivers may also serve to remind the dreamer that it is possible to flow past obstacles that lie in the way, rather than confront them directly, and that like a river, life alternates between hectic rapids and deep slow-moving pools, shallows and depths. Water is a potent symbol of the unconscious, and attempts to dam a river, or stem the leak from a pipe, may indicate that the dreamer is trying to repress material that is flowing from the unconscious mind.
David Fontana
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