Rapist Dream Meanings

Rape in a dream is a positive symbol even though the association with it is very negative because of its abhorrent nature from waking life. Sex is ultimately about integration and the bringing together of aspects of personality. This is true in the world of symbolism even when the act is forceful and violent. Because rape is an act of violence, this, combined with the absence of consent, puts a very different spin on how to interpret it if it should appear in a dream. When a dream includes something as heinous as rape, it is important to remind yourself that dreams are symbolic, not literal. Rape in a dream is not like rape in life. It simply means that the integration that is occurring within your psyche is being experienced as so abrupt and potentially frightening that the symbolic expression of it appears dramatically.

The unconscious will often use nightmares and frightening dreams to get our attention.

If you were raped in the dream, consider the rapist.

If the person was known to you, then use that individual as a character aspect to see what part of your own personality is demanding to be dealt with.

If the person was not known to you, then consider the dream a precursor to a powerful shift that is going on under the surface and is not yet clear.

If you cannot glean more helpful insight from this dream, trust that future dreams will inform you of whatever shift is taking place.

If you witnessed a rape, you must look inward to see what aspects of your personality are at odds with one another, for they ultimately need to be integrated and made whole.

The rapist would be the part of you that is demanding to be recognized, and the victim is the part of you that needs to accept the merging, but may be in resistance to the process.

If you were the rapist in your dream, consider the victim as a character aspect that represents the part of you that you wish to subdue. Rape fantasies are common for many people and can be quite erotic and satisfying when handled in an appropriate manner.

If the dream of rape was erotic in nature, the meaning is the same, but the integration that is taking place has much lower stakes and may in fact be a source of pleasurable anticipation.... rape dream meaning

Did you dream of someone, perhaps a stranger, or someone you know who behaved in a repulsive, hateful or shocking way and your instinctual response was one of loathing? If so, you may have encountered your shadow. In waking life, your consciousness represses your shadow, but in dreams it can come to the fore. A useful indicator of your shadow is the quality you despise most in other people, such as boastfulness or cowardice. When your shadow appears, it may be telling you to embrace that part of yourself you find hard to accept, so that you can enhance your creativity.

The shadow is the unacceptable or unknown aspect of ourselves. It derives from our pre-human, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren’t self- conscious.

Symbols of the shadow include the snake, the dragon, monsters, and demons. It can appear in many different dream disguises: a foreigner, gypsy, tramp, prostitute, murderer, thief, stranger, alcoholic, drug addict, rapist, burglar, crippled, deformed, blind, a servant or someone following you. It often guards the entrance to a cave or a pool of water, which is the collective unconscious.

The shadow is not always represented as an enemy in dreams. It often contains values that are needed by consciousness and only becomes hostile when ignored or misunderstood. Although it suggests the ‘dark side’ of the ego, the shadow is actually amoral—neither good nor bad, just like animals. An animal is capable of tender care for its young and vicious killing for food, but it doesn’t choose to do either. It just does what it does. It is ‘innocent’. But from our human perspective, the animal world looks rather brutal, inhuman, so the shadow becomes the part of ourselves that we can’t quite admit to.... the shadow dream meaning