What are group dreams about?

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 groups 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 groups in dreams. See how you feel about groups now, in your waking life.

Family, social, and work lives involve groups of people, so it is natural for groups of characters in dreams to symbolize something related to those areas of life, such as relationships with family, fitting into society, and correct behavior.

How you behave and think in a group can contrast with how you behave and think when alone. Fitting into groups, or not fitting in, raises issues related to inclusion, exclusion, and self-image, which in turn open many avenues for dreams to explore. Socialization, a huge part of life, will be a subject of many dreams throughout your lifetime.

A group can symbolize a subject related to the group. For example, a group of friends can symbolize the subject of friendship. A group of your cousins can symbolize your relationship with your cousins in general, not with specific ones. A group of co-workers can symbolize your general relationship with them. For example, a dream about hiding from your co-workers can symbolize hiding your personal life from them. See: Family

Groups can be used in dreams anytime you’re thinking about how people will react to something you have done or created. For example, dreaming about a group of people who are hostile toward you can symbolize cutting against the grain or falling outside expected social behavior, such as when a liberal works among conservatives, or a fan of a particular sports team finds him- or herself in “enemy territory.”

On the other hand, being welcomed by a group of people in a dream can symbolize good social behavior, and beliefs and opinions that conform to a group or group thinking.

Groups of animals can symbolize groups of people and your perceptions of them. For example, a group of lions can symbolize the “in crowd,” or a pack of power-hungry or prideful people. Then again, animals quite often represent instinctual qualities in yourself and groupings of related parts of your psyche.

A group of sheep can symbolize people who are easily led (or misled).

A group of wolves can symbolize family or friends, because wolves are very social animals with strong familial bonds. Or they can symbolize a group of ruthless or predatory people, similar to the symbolism of a group of sharks.

A group of fish can symbolize people moving in the same direction with each other, or in a coordinated fashion. This analogy works particularly well with students and teachers in dreams because groups of fish are referred to as “schools.” See: Fish

Groups of characters in dreams can symbolize interrelated personal characteristics and personality traits that work in tandem or in support of each other. For example, as a parent you might draw on your organizational skills, inner authority, and compassion. For your job you might draw on your social skills, rationality, and motivation. These are simplistic examples. In reality, many more aspects of yourself come into play as a parent or employee. The point is to make you aware that groups in your dreams can represent internal dynamics. See: Psyches

On the other hand, characters at odds with each other can symbolize working against yourself and disorganization inside yourself.

Groups of all males or all females can symbolize your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about men in general or women in general.

Similarly, a group of people of the same profession can symbolize your impressions of the profession, the people in it, or a related subject. For example, a group of computer technicians could symbolize the subject of computers.

Groupings of four can symbolize what Carl Jung called the “primary mental functions,” also called cognitive processes. Each character represents one of the functions. A grouping of three characters implies that something in yourself is incomplete. A grouping of four implies completeness in the sense that all four functions are in a balanced configuration in the psyche, especially likely in dreams that feature squares. See: General thinking, Squares

Three is an incomplete psychological grouping because functions of the psyche come in pairs. A grouping of three implies that the other half of a pair is missing—though not technically “missing,” just underdeveloped, underutilized, or repressed. Jung said that one of the four functions is dominant, or primary, meaning it is the main function used in the psyche. Its counterpart function is “inferior,” meaning sub-dominant.

For example, some people are predominantly intuitive, some factual, some rational, and some “feeling.” Feeling is not synonymous with emotion. Instead, it means judgment based on value, as opposed to the thinking function’s judgment based on utility. Everyone has a dominant function, though the degree of dominance is lesser or greater depending on the person. People who are especially intuitive can devalue their factual function, and vice versa. People who are especially rational can devalue their feeling function.

The devalued function is “inferior” and will be portrayed in a group as one character of your opposite gender and three of your gender.

Consciously, you might have no awareness of the mental functions, but your unconscious mind is well aware and will portray your mental functions as groups of characters.

People you know can be portrayed as a mental function if they embody it. For example, someone you know might be highly rational and embody the image of the thinker. However, usually the functions are portrayed by generic characters—for example, your thinking function can be symbolized as a scientist or professor.

The subject of mental functions and their relationship to dreams is fascinating and can go on seemingly forever. The intent here is to introduce you to the subject and provide enough information for greater insight into your dreams and exploration on your own.

Groups of characters can symbolize archetypes, especially if the characters within a group are strongly contrasted between old and young, rich and poor, black and white, and other polar opposites, or they’re mythological. In which case, groups of three are “strong” because the internal configuration of an archetype is made of three parts. See: Pyramids

See also: Coworkers, Family, General thinking, Neighbors, Numbers, Pyramids, Shapes, Squares, Teenagers

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.