What are judge 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 judges 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 judges in dreams. See how you feel about judges now, in your waking life.

The first possibility to consider when interpreting the meaning of a judge in a dream is linked with the verb “to judge,” meaning “to form an opinion.” It’s often referred to in the sense of judging the quality of a person, performance, or prospect. This use of the symbolism can connect with events in life, such as being tested at school or reviewed at work—you are “judged.”

Or, after you create something and reveal it publicly, your creation might not be formally judged, as in a contest, but it can feel that way depending on how people react to it. For an example of a dream involving the theme of being judged about a creative work, see: Fisting.

Being judged in your dreams might reflect a situation in life where someone has judged or criticized you. In such a situation, strong feelings and ego can be involved, in turn creating a higher likelihood of having a memorable dream in response.

You can be the judge. You are the one making critical evaluations or forming opinions. Or you are the final authority. In these dreams you might play the role of judge, or have that part of yourself projected onto a judge character.

Think of the qualities of a judge and ask whether those associations fit your dream. For example, a judge is supposed to be fair, impartial, honest. A dream about an angry or corrupt judge might reflect a situation where you or someone else is not being fair and impartial.

You can dream about a judge when you want the truth to be told or exposed. A courtroom setting is likely to be used to tell the story. See: Courts

Judges have power over people, so dreaming about a judge can come in response to a situation where power or authority is involved.

People are said to be judged in the afterlife. In this sense, the judge is God or even your own conscience. The psychic Edgar Cayce said that in the end we are our own judges, and we judge ourselves on the basis of how well we live up to our own ideals. See: Afterlife

You can dream about a judge when you feel wronged. You wish for an impartial authority to hear your side of an argument, or for someone to intervene in a situation that is out of whack.

You can dream about a judge when you have done something wrong and fear getting punished. This association branches out to include any scenario involving punishment. See: Guilty

You can dream about a judge when you want to see deeper into your psyche or a situation. For example, a woman dreams that she’s in court, at the defense table, in front of a judge. Her parents are seated in the gallery. A curtain separates part of the room, and behind the curtain is the prosecutor. He emerges and berates a girl in the gallery who is eating needles. The curtain symbolizes the woman’s being blocked from seeing a part of her psyche represented as the prosecutor. The girl symbolizes the other side of the equation, the part of herself that feels prosecuted. Eating needles symbolizes taking into herself things that hurt; namely, in the way she talks to herself. She’s sharply critical of herself, and eating needles is a hell of a metaphor for sharp self-criticism.

The judge in this dream represents the side of herself that knows the truth. It knows why she is so critical of herself—self-criticism is rooted in her family history, symbolized in the dream as her parents—and it knows, essentially, that she’s being unfair to herself.

A judge can symbolize the part of yourself that knows: knows better, knows you, knows people, knows the facts, knows the system.

A judge can symbolize the side of yourself that compels you to do the right thing. You might not listen to anyone else, but when it comes from the judge, you’re all ears. In this sense, the judge is your conscience, or what Sigmund Freud calls the superego.

This idea extends to when you need isolation. Being sentenced by a judge can be a sign that you need time to reflect on yourself and your life, which is supposed to be one of the purposes of being sentenced to jail, but you need to feel that you have permission to do it.

For example, a man dreams that a judge sentences him to ninety days in jail. Immediately he thinks about all the idle time and feels distressed about it, but he also realizes it could be a blessing in disguise if he uses the time for introspection. The judge in this dream is the side of himself that knows he needs time to turn within himself and figure out some of the big questions about his existence. The ninety-day sentence is just a way of saying this isn’t something that can be fixed overnight.

A judge in a dream can mean you are pondering a situation that involves, or could involve, a judge. For example, you sense a divorce is coming from your spouse, or a dispute with a neighbor can’t be resolved, and going to court is the only option. If you have a court date coming up, you can dream about a judge in connection with it.

See also: Alimony, Crime, Courts, Break ups, Executing, Guilty, Innocence, Jails, Jury members, Kings, Numbers, Prisoners

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.