Spiders are seldom anyone's favorite thing to dream about. For the purposes of this page, we will treat spider dreams as unpleasant events. I know of people who have had night terrors that were based in spider dreams.
Oddly enough, spider dreams are one of the larger warning dreams we can have with regard to our own anger and how we deal with it on a daily basis.
Spider dreams are most often stress related. They are a sign that you are taking things too personally. Things happen. People are only human, and so are you. But you are too wrapped up in yourself, your need to perform flawlessly to see it.
(Spider webs, being tangled up in them can indicate you are too wrapped up in your own stuff to see what is going on around you. You can miss warnings of danger, sickness or worse. You can miss that your own behaviors are getting out of hand and your over reacting to small events is causing more tension around you than you realize. The more tension, the more mistakes, the more tension. Bad cycle.)
Spider dreams are indications that you are allowing little things that "bug you" during your waking life, to become "personal". People don't make mistakes to make your life more difficult. They make them because they are human.
If this or that person is making you angry, you need to deal with it by first taking a good look at how important it really is. If it is not that important, you need to scale back your internal, even your external reaction to what they do. If it is that important, you need to find a constructive way to let them know and the two of you work it out.
Spider dreams also come when you feel you are being imposed upon or asked to do more than your fair share. You may feel like you are being taken for granted. Maybe you are. And maybe you are because you have not set clear boundaries for yourself, nor have you enforced them, constructively, when they have been breached.
Spider dreams are often terrifying. Oddly enough, it is because they are showing us the effects of our own over-reaction, our taking personally, events and issues that are not truly orbiting our sphere of existence, but rather events that have more to do with our being human and working with other humans who are fallible (as we all are).
You want to stop having spider dreams? Keep a diary of what little things "bugged" you during the day. What made you want to blow your cork. Keep track of the "stupid" interruptions to your day. Write these down before you go to sleep.
Look at them more objectively now. How important are they now? Are you still angry? Is it worth holding that anger? Is it worth having a Spider Dream?
Compare your journal to the timing of your spider dreams. You will find that only certain people/incidents trigger these dreams. Learn more constructive ways to deal with these problems in your waking life so you don't take them so personally.
Children who have spider dreams are often insecure. They are trying to be perfect and feel like they are being thwarted at the last second. They need to know they are loved, even when they make mistakes. They need to know that they don't have to be perfect to be loved. Oddly enough, telling a child how "good they are" all the time can make them feel like they have to maintain that level of perfection or lose everything.
Children naturally want to please their parents. It is their first mission in life. Find constructive ways to correct mistakes or deal with wrong behaviors. Best methods do not equate the person with the behavior. "Bad Boy!" or "Bad Girl!" is devastating to a developing psyche.
Better to say: "That was unacceptable behavior and I am NOT pleased." Than to condemn the child as worthless or "bad".
Your child made a lot of mistakes today? Had episodes that were surprisingly disappointing? Talk about it until you both understand what happened, why it happened and how to not let it happen again. Reassure your child that being a kid is not the easiest job in the world, but that learning how to be a more adjusted person is definitely worth it.
This won't solve all nightmare or all spider terror dreams. But it is a start.
Spiders are small things that bring fear. Ironically, it is the little things that bug us that can do the most harm if we let them get out of hand in the way we perceive them. We are all bigger than spiders. Therefore we all have the ability to overcome whatever is bugging us.
