Anima dreams are much more related to unnamed people, much more related to strangers, and more related to family than dreams in general. They are much less related to animals.

Anima dreams are much more related to happiness, much more related to sadness, and much more related to embarrassment than dreams in general. They are less related to grief and sorrow, less related to confusion, and less related to fear.

Anima dreams are more related to human-made places and much more related to schools than dreams in general. They are much less related to home, less related to work, and much less related to transportation.

Anima dreams are much more related to friendly acts, much more related to sex, and more related to eating and drinking than dreams in general. They are less related to aggressive acts, less related to disasters, and less related to death.

Dreams of animas are much more related to lucid dreams and more related to good dreams than dreams in general. They are much less related to nightmares, less related to recurring dreams, and less related to sleep paralysis.

Dreams of animas are more related to vision than dreams in general. They are less related to hearing, less related to smelling, and less related to taste.

You can gain insight from thinking about any dream, no matter how strange. Only you, as the dreamer, have final say on what your dream may or may not mean. Each dream is unique.

The DreamWell dictionary provides information on how each dream symbol appears in dreams in general. Finding how experience animas in dreams can be a key to understanding its meaning.

Our emotions in dreams can help us understand its meaning. Pay attention to how you felt in the dream. Pay attention to how you feel about animas in dreams. See how you feel about animas now, in your waking life.

This interpretation is from ""The Dream Interpretation Dictionary: Symbols, Signs, and Meanings" and is provided by J.M. DeBord aka "RadOwl". He is the author of several acclaimed books about dreaming, the host of The Dreams That Shape Us podcast, and is a moderator of r/Dreams, one of the largest dream sharing communities on the internet. In simplest terms, anima represents the feminine aspects of a male’s psyche. Everything in his psyche that’s traditionally feminine and unconscious summed up in one image, such as hunches, intuitions, moods, receptivity, and capacity to love himself. Anima is a man’s guide to assimilating feminine traits and the feminine principle, yin. She’s also the gateway to accessing the deepest layers of his psyche. Ideally, a man is fully masculine while also embodying traditionally feminine traits. Yin is discussed at length in the entry for Vagina. Anima can be the single most important dream character in a male’s life. Ultimately, it’s tied to a primary function of dreaming: to help harmonize and unite the conscious mind with the unconscious mind. See: Unconscious minds Anima’s main enticement is the promise of the best, most meaningful relationship of a man’s life if he goes the distance. He gets to marry his dream girl. She can be mom, lover, wife, muse, goddess, and best friend all in one—but usually not all at the same time. See: Brides Instead, as a male matures through his lifetime relationship with anima, she evolves. She first appears as a mother figure. When he reaches his teen years she morphs into an ideal lover. When he matures into manhood, anima matures along with him, becoming a mature and independent female. Finally, she evolves into a goddess figure such as the Virgin Mary or the Hindu’s Devi, the Divine Mother. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get fixated at an early stage of development and never evolve passed it. These roles played by anima are the best way of identifying them in dreams. Additionally, they can be identified by a feeling of close familiarity. They’re recurring dream figures, appearing time and again as the same figure or as a type of figure, so keeping a journal of your dreams will help you identify them. They can appear as females you know or know of, such as celebrities who embody the role, or as completely imaginary characters. The form and image of anima depends on what an individual male responds to: princess, professor, mother, queen, sister, biker chick, corporate gal, librarian, runway model, temptress, Playboy Bunny, African queen, Asian beauty. She’s alluring and can be powerfully attractive, but her appearance depends largely on a man’s relationship with this part of himself. If his relationship with anima is bad, she can appear as a witch, bitch, Siren, Mermaid, nag or hag. Anima can be thought of as short for “animated,” because that’s what she does for a man who lives up to her expectations—which are really his own expectations. He pleases anima when he does everything he can to mature and live fully, and in return she animates him with purpose and love. When the relationship between a man and his anima is bad, it leads to self-destructive behaviors and even violence. He’s an “addictive personality.” He tends to be listless and bored—or he goes to the other extreme and lives a life of constant adventure and challenge. He never stops to ponder what’s missing from his life. What’s missing is the deep and meaningful relationship he can have with himself. He’s moody, unbalanced, depressed, sometimes sexually uninterested—or at the opposite extreme, he’s a playboy or sex addict. His tortured relationship with his inner self can bring out the worst in him. In many cultures, a man in such a predicament is said to have lost his soul. See: Castration Anima is often described in terms of soul. And indeed, a man with a good relationship with his anima is usually quite soulful. It’s a recipe for disaster when a male projects his anima onto women in his life and expects them to live up to that image. It’s a tendency that begins in early childhood and can continue throughout his life. That man will never be happy for long with the women he tries to make into mates, lovers, or mother figures. No mortal woman can possibly live up to the anima ideal, nor should she try. Anima dreams can be a source of confusion and relationship troubles when misunderstood as desiring someone other than your mate. Married men dream about falling in love with anima, their ideal woman, and think it means they must subconsciously want someone else. Actually, they are called to have a special relationship within themselves. Anima isn’t just a dream character, it’s a relationship. Guys, respect it the same as you’d respect a soul mate or love of your life. Characters like anima arise from the deepest reaches of the psyche and are independent of the ego. They’re archetypes. Archetypes are shaped through a lifetime of experience, beginning from birth as a sort of blueprint that’s the same in everyone. A male’s mother or primary female caregiver is the first image given to his anima. She becomes the blueprint. Then the image is filled in throughout his lifetime by experiences with females of all types, but especially the ones closest to him. See: Egos His Shadow side won’t let him just have his anima all for himself. He has to fight for her like a knight fighting for his beloved, and the stakes are all or nothing. Shadow is a guardian at the gate to deeper access to a man’s unconscious mind, the ultimate test that must be faced. See: Shadows The female’s version of anima is called animus. See: Animuses See also: Animuses, Beauty, Brides, Castration, Collective unconscious, Egos, Love, Weddings, Psyches, Shadows, Unconscious minds, Wives