Dream symbols: People – and what they mean

The biblical and spiritual symbolism of people in dreams, what that means in practice, with real dream examples plus infographics.

If you are interested in understanding your dreams, it is likely that sooner or later you will want to know why certain people are in them!

Why is your old school friend in your dream, or a ‘random’ colleague that you hardly know? These things are intriguing – and they are usually there for a reason!

In this article we will explore what they could mean, with real dream examples, plus infographics to summarise the main points.!

I approach dream interpretation from a biblical perspective. My belief is that our dreams can come from God, and understanding them is best understood within the context of an ongoing relationship with Him.

The symbolic nature of dreams

Firstly, if you have just come across this post and are new to dream interpretation, it is worth mentioning that dreams are symbolic in nature. You might find it helpful to read Understand your dreams: A bible-based introduction to dream language and my 3-step dream interpretation method to give you a foundation.

Secondly, remember that dreams are personal, so the meanings that I suggest may not apply to your specific dream. But please feel free to use my ideas as a springboard to thinking and praying about dreams yourself. Don’t take my ideas as gospel, but rather let them help you start to think metaphorically.

Are people literal in dreams?

Dreams are normally symbolic. They are like parables: i.e. little stories or illustrations that contain messages about our life.

When a person appears in a dream, our first thought is often that the dream is literally about them, or something they are doing. This could be the case – but more often they are symbolising someone or something else.

For me, most of the time, the people in my dreams are symbolic. That means that the dream is probably not actually about the person in my dream, but something going on in my own life.

I am aware that some people have a greater proportion of literal dreams than I do. But if we start by asking the question, ‘Is this person representing themselves or are they symbolic?’, then we will at least cover all the possibilities. (I will share some clues below to help with this.)

Start by asking, “Is this person symbolic of something in my life?”

People are used symbolically in the bible

Many of the parables and metaphors in the bible use people as illustrations. In fact, if you want to learn to think about people symbolically, the parables of Jesus are a great place to start. Here are a few examples from Matthew’s gospel:

PARABLE	REFERENCE	PERSON	SYMBOLISES
Parable of sower	Matthew 13:1-23	Farmer	God, sowing his word
Pearl of great price	Matthew 13:45-46	Merchant	People seeking God’s Kingdom
The lost sheep	Matthew 18:12-14	Shepherd	God, as our shepherd
The tenant farmers	Matthew 21:33-45	Farmers	The chief priests and Pharisees

Note how Jesus used the image of a farmer to represent himself in one story and the religious leaders in another. In the same way, the meaning of a person can vary from dream to dream!

There are many more examples than the ones I’ve listed. Check out the list of parables in the article below, see how many people you can find in them, and try to work out what they symbolise. The same type of person could appear in your dreams with the same meaning!

The Parables of Jesus at biblestudytools.com

There is a also great illustration in 2 Samuel 12:1-14 from the life of King David. On that occasion, the prophet Nathan came and told David a God-given story about a man, and it subsequently turned out that the man symbolised David. God uses people in our dreams in similar way – to reflect aspects of our own life.

Potential meanings of people in dreams

So, you have a dream with a person in it. What could this person represent in your dream?

People can mean many things; sometimes they represent one thing, and sometimes another. I have seen people used in lots of different ways in my dreams, so over the years I have developed a mental checklist of potential meanings to try.

I have found that people could potentially represent any of the following:

1. Themselves (literal)
2. Reflecting ourselves
3. Other people
4. An organisation or movement
5. God
6. Angels and other spiritual being
7. Anything and everything!

Let’s unpack each of these possibilities:

1: Themselves (literal)

In any dream there is a chance that the people could be literal. We have already talked about this in the introduction.

So, a person could literally be representing themselves, and our dream could be about them. This is more common when we are mainly observing the action – but could happen in any dream.

Knowing which they are in a specific dream is something that can only be learned by experience – and can be different from one dream to another! The context will help us discern which it is.

Examples:

• Sometimes when I am doing something in a dream with my husband or family, it really is about something that we are doing together – in real life – and they represent themselves. But at other times they are symbolic: my husband is usually Jesus, and my family represents my church family.
• Sometimes my church leader appears in a dream representing God, but sometimes he is literally himself.

2: Reflecting ourselves

A person in our dream could be a reflection of ourselves, like in the example of King David that I shared above.

The dream character could be any unknown person that vaguely resembles us, or an aspect of our name/character. Or it could be a younger person or child, representing our stage of maturity in the area that the dream is about.

Examples:

• Sometimes I dream of an unknown person with fair hair, and I know that they represent me. I am observing this ‘person’ doing different things and gaining insight into my life as I do so. My name means ‘fair and trusting’, which I think is one of the reasons God uses a fair-haired person to represent me.
• I have a friend who looks a bit like me, and we served as church elders together for a number of years. When I dream about her, I know from experience that it is really about me – and is probably about an area of church leadership that I am facing.
• I sometimes dream about a friend who has a baby. This usually reflects me and a new area of responsibility that I have. For example, my blog is a fairly new area in my life and can be represented by a baby or toddler. So, I might dream about someone I know with a baby/toddler of that age – and I know it could be about me and my blog.
• The same can be said of dreaming of someone we know that is pregnant. They can represent us and something new we are going to start soon.
• God uses situations in our lives to speak to us. So, if we have just been to a wedding, we might dream about the people who got married, but it could really be about our own life, such as our relationship with God.

Different aspects of ourselves

People in dreams can also reflect different aspects of our own life and character. By this, I mean that the dream is displaying the different things that are going on below the surface in our life; the things that we are thinking about or weighing up.

We often say things like:

• ‘Part of me wants to do it but part of me doesn’t’
• ‘My heart tells me one thing, but my mind tells me another’
• ‘I have an outgoing side but also a quieter side’.

We all wear different ‘hats’ in different situations, and we have different roles. We have internal struggles and conflicts, particularly when it comes to making decisions.

All of these scenarios can play out in our dreams.

Examples:

• An outgoing person we know might appear in our dreams to represent the part of us that is like that.
• A warm, affectionate person could represent our heart, while a thinking type of person might represent our mind, and so on.
• Young adults or children can represent areas of our life that are less mature (e.g. children playing up), or where we are still growing in experience (e.g. children at school).

We also talk about our ‘higher self’. In Christian terms we might call this our spirit – the part of us that is connected to God’s Spirit and is in tune with Him. This is the part of us that knows the right thing to do – our true path.

• Sometimes in my dream I seem to be the person who knows the right path – watching another part of myself (represented by another person in the dream) doing silly things.
• But sometimes I am dreaming from the point of view of my struggles – but someone else in my dream will represent the true perspective and point me in the right direction.

3: Other people

Oftentimes, one person is used in a dream to represent another person, such as someone else we know. (Animals can also be used in dreams to represent people we know).

It would be easier if the actual person the dream is about appeared in our dream, but, generally, a symbolic person seems to be the norm.

Examples:

• A man called Barney appeared in my dream to represent someone I know who lives in Barnstaple (it was a wordplay).
• My cat was used to represent my husband and the things that were going on in his life.
• A dog will often represent a friend.
• An unknown person in a dream can represent a real person (e.g. recently a random lady in my dream represented a friend of mine. There were some similarities in appearance and character which I later identified).
• Our physical brother or sister in a dream could represent a spiritual brother or sister (such as a fellow Christian).
• Our physical mum or dad could represent a spiritual mum or dad in our life, or a mentor.
• I recently dreamed about a nurse (sister) who represented my real sister-in-law.

4: An organisation or movement

Sometimes, a person in a dream will represent a whole group of people, such as a church, ministry, business, or organisation.

And don’t forget – a group could easily be an online group that we belong to! It doesn’t have to be a physical group.

Examples:

• The bible talks about the church being the ‘bride of Christ’, so a church or ministry could be represented by a pastor’s wife, any female leader, or the person who usually acts like a ‘mum’, bringing people together in that place
• People groups / organisations are often represented by a female person. This is because women tend to be generally more relational in character. However, any person in our dream could represent a group of people. For example, a man (or lady) in a suit could represent a workplace or business. The clothes that the person is wearing would be the main clue there.

Real dream example: VISITING MARILYN’S HOUSE

The dream: I dreamed I went to my friend Marilyn’s house. She was showing me a building she had in her garden. She showed me the living room, and a kitchen area at the back. It wasn’t perfect – there were some things that needed updating – but it was very nice, nonetheless. I thought it would be a good place to live.

The person: The main question for me was, ‘Why is Marilyn in my dream?’ She was someone I only knew vaguely, and I don’t remember dreaming about her before. I thought about the various options of what she could represent, as per this article.

I suddenly realised that she had the same name as someone else I knew: the wife of the man who founded a family of churches we were thinking of joining. l realised that this lady in my dream was representing the organisation – i.e. the family of churches – and the house was a pictorial representation of the organisation too.

The interpretation: God was confirming that it would be good for us to be a part of this family of churches. Although I could see it wasn’t totally perfect, it would be a positive place for us. Subsequently we did join, and it has been a great experience, just like the dream assured me.

5: God

Another option to think about is whether a person in a dream could actually be God! I always look for God in my dreams and have discovered that He often appears in covert ways. I have written more about this in the following articles:

Examples:

• Sometimes in dreams we have someone with us who is helping or accompanying us. Sometimes we have conversations, or they give us advice. This can sometimes be a person that we never quite see, or someone that feels very familiar, but we can’t quite place them. I have come to realise that this is in fact God!
• However, God also shows up in the guise of many other people: our mum, our dad, our brother, friend, or husband; our leader, our pastor, our doctor or hairdresser. The list goes on.

I have come to recognise His presence in my dreams, and you can too. It just takes a little bit of effort to record our dreams and look for God in them!

6: Angels and other spiritual beings

Angels don’t all have wings and halos! We know from the bible and from testimonies that people have entertained angels in real life, or met them, and not realised at the time. This is also true in our dreams. Heavenly beings do appear in our dreams to help us and bring us messages.

Sometimes we know in the dream that it is an angel. There are lots of examples of this in Matthew’s gospel, in the dreams around the time of the birth of Jesus. But sometimes they just appear in the form of a person who is helping us.

Examples:

• I have a cousin who I have known since childhood. I have been convinced for years that she is one of my ‘guardian angels’ when she appears in my dreams. Her name means ‘light’ which is a good clue. Recently I actually saw her in a dream in angelic form (hovering in the room), so I think I was right!
• I have also encountered people in dreams who turned out to be evil or deceptive spirits. We can usually tell this because there is a bad feeling. Either they are an unknown person that feels unpleasant, or they could appear in the form of a movie villain, a thief, or an attacker, to name a few examples.
• The main thing to discern is whether they are positive or negative, and it is usually fairly obvious.
• Sometimes I don’t know whether a good person in my dream in an angel sent from God, or the Holy Spirit. I have discovered that it doesn’t actually matter! God uses angels to represent Himself to us.

7: Anything and everything!

I know this one sounds like an opt-out! But my point is that people in dreams can represent things that aren’t actually people or heavenly beings. They can be things too! The best way to explain this is by giving you a few examples.

Examples:

• Someone coming to our door called Grace could be God’s grace coming to us.
• I have a friend with the surname ‘Rich‘. In a dream recently they represented ‘riches‘.
• I had a colleague who worked in clinical trials. He used to represent times of trial or testing in my dreams.
• Someone called ‘summer’ could represent a good (‘summer’) season in our life.

The bible uses people in visions in a similar way – to represent things like famine, difficult times, or peace. The horsemen in Zechariah and Revelation are good examples of this. It is exactly the same in our dreams, except they appear as people we know.

People can represent times, seasons, gifts from God, attributes and many other things.

What does this person mean in my dream?

So far, we have explored the type of thing people could represent in our dreams. But how do we work out which one they are? To help with this, I have identified 7 clues in the form of questions we can ask about them.

I have previously written a general article on how to understand the symbols in your dream. You can read that here:  

The following questions build on that and are specific to people:

1. How do you feel about the person?
2. What is their relationship to you?
3. What is their appearance?
4. What is their name?
5. What is their personality?
6. What is their job or gifting?
7. What stands out the most?

1: How do you feel about them?

I have come to the conclusion that the most important indicator of what a person represents in our dreams, is how we feel about them in the dream. It doesn’t matter whether we know them in real life or not.

While we are dreaming, I find that our spirits are more alert and we have an inbuilt sense of whether the person is positive or negative, and I find that this indicator is pretty accurate.

How did you feel about them while you were dreaming?

If the person is helping us, giving us advice, bringing a good gift, or some other positive function, then they are probably representing something good: God, a representative of God, or a part of us that is on the right track.

If the person feels unpleasant or is trying to harm us, then they are probably representing something negative: something that is not from God, or a part of us that is not seeing/doing things in the most helpful way.

2: What is their relationship to you?

If you know the person, particularly if they are a significant person in your life, it could be their relationship with you that is the important thing.

Take your natural feelings about the person out of the equation for a moment and engage your clue-solving side. Consider what that ‘relationship’ might represent symbolically.

The best way to explain this is to give you a few examples:

• Mum – The motherly side of God; a leader who is like a mum to us; the part of ourselves that is running our life or ‘holding it together’; something that is our source, such as a group that we inherited our opinions from.
• Dad – God the Father; a spiritual dad or leader; the part of us that is leading our life; the culture that has shaped our worldview.
• Brother – Jesus as our brother; a fellow Christian; a good friend.
• Husband/wife – Anything that we have come into agreement with; wife could be our church, ministry, or any group that we are responsible for; husband could be Jesus; wife could be the Holy Spirit.
• Ex-boyfriend/girlfriend – An old habit; something we used to think/do.

Consider whether their relationship to you is the defining thing about them – and if so, what that relationship could mean symbolically.

3: What is their appearance?

This question applies if there is something noteworthy about the appearance of the person.

Dream characters can sometimes be like the cartoon caricatures – with the relevant feature highlighted. You can probably recall drawings of politicians with huge ears or noses. Their natural feature is grossly exaggerated to draw attention to it.

In dreams, things are sometimes emphasized to draw our attention to the important feature (and the associated symbolism). For example, any of the following might seem to stand out:

• Hair colour
• Age
• Gender
• Culture
• Prominent features
• Clothes / accessories
• Acting in an unusual manner

For example, the lady in the picture below is dressed in red, and has dyed her hair red. If she appeared in your dream, then the colour red would probably be the main indicator of what she represents. You can’t miss the red!!!

4: What is their name?

With people in dreams, sometimes it can be their name which defines what they represent. I have often found that the meaning of a name turned out to be the key to unravelling a dream

I have found this to be likely when they seem to be a bit random, yet we know their name. For example: a work colleague that we don’t normally have much to do with; a person we haven’t seen for years; or a random acquaintance. These are people that don’t have much other significance in our life.

It’s always worth looking up the meaning of a name. Here are some ways the name could be important:

• The meaning of their name: For example: CLAIRE means ‘light’, so could represent clarity, direction, or even a heavenly being (an angel of light).
• A wordplay on the sound of their name: For example: An old teacher of mine with the surname STANHOPE was used to represent hope in one of my dreams.
• A bible character with the same name: For example: Someone called SAMUEL often represents hearing God’s voice in my dreams. Samuel was notably known for hearing God’s voice in the bible.

There is a very useful book called The Name Book by Dorothy Astoria, whch gives meanings of names plus spiritual connotation and associated bible verses. I have often found these to be relevant to my dreams.

5: What is their personality?

Some people stand out to us because of their personality. As soon as we think of them, some aspect of their character jumps into our mind.

For example, they could be a particularly kind person, or very bubbly and engaging. Conversely, you might think of them as being a bit tight-fisted or critical.

Often when people like this appear in our dreams – acting in the way that confirms our opinion of them, we fall into the trap of thinking that the dream is about them. But I’ve got news for you: Most of the time, when this happens, they are reflecting that trait in ourselves – like in the example of King David I mentioned earlier.

Most of the time they are reflecting that character trait in ourselves.

When this happens – they are being used as a caricature to overemphasize a certain tendency that we have – or to highlight a characteristic. That could be good or bad!

Example:

• I have a friend who is exuberantly outgoing and good at making connections with people. I would call her very ‘socially engaging’ – to an extreme! God recently used her in dreams to represent myself – to encourage me to engage more in some social media groups.

6: What is their job or gifting?

If someone in our dream has a well-defined job or ministry gift, that could be the clue to their meaning.

Here are a few examples from my own dreams:

• I have a friend who is a school teacher by profession. God uses her in my dreams to represent my gift of teaching.
• I also have a friend who has an exceptional ministry gift of teaching. It’s not his paid job – but everyone knows that it’s his ‘thing’. God also uses him to represent my gift of teaching.
• I have a relative who has a highly respected level of authority in a national news company. He sometimes appears in my dreams to tell me something. He represents an authoritative voice – the ‘news’ that I need to hear – and his presence alerts me that I need to take notice of this information.

There could also be unknown characters who appear in our dreams, but we know they have a certain character, or job – such as a dentist, a fireman, a builder, or a businessman.

So, when you think about this person in your dream, does their job or profession seem to be the most important thing about them? If so, then consider what that could symbolise for you.

7. What stands out the most?

I have provided many ideas to think about, so it might seem a little overwhelming – but the chances are that you can quickly narrow down the options. Some of the questions won’t apply to the specific person in your dream.

Additionally, something will probably stand out to you about the person. You might even find, as you record the dream, that you are noting down certain things. Those things are likely to be important, so don’t skip the details.

Note what stands out to you about the person – and record those details.

Another thing you can do is imagine you were describing this person to someone else. You might say, ‘Let me tell you about so-and-so… he’s a doctor!’, or, ‘This lady was being quite unpleasant in the dream’, or, ‘They looked really strange because…’. Pay attention to those things.

The thing that stands out most is probably the key to understanding their meaning.

Unfamiliar/unknown people in dreams

It’s very common to dream of people that we don’t know. It could be a random child, helper, teacher, faceless person, etc.

When that happens, it’s probably because they are symbolic. They could be literal (I have heard testimonies of people dreaming about someone they don’t know and subsequently meeting them in real life) – but that’s rare!

Sometimes we know who the person is ‘meant’ to be (like our Mum, son, friend, etc.), but when we consider their appearance in the dream, they don’t actually look like that person. That’s a very good indication that they are symbolic, not literal.

Therefore, an unknown person could be symbolic of any of the possibilities I shared in this article, and we can apply all of the questions to work out what they represent.

An unknown person could symbolise of any of the possilities shared in this article.

God sometimes appears as a person we don’t know – either male or female – but they feel somehow familiar. He can also appear as someone we can’t quite see – we just know they’re there! If we have a relationship with God, we can usually identify when it was His presence as we reflect on the dream.

A faceless person could also be a negative spiritual influence – if they feel unpleasant.

So take time to reflect:

• If you ‘know’ the person, was it really them – when you stop to think about it?
• If you don’t know the person, what seemed important about them?
• Use the same clues that I have shared in this article.

Real dream example

I was in church leadership when I had this dream; I was very busy and frustrated with how things were going. I had a vision, but couldn’t see how it could possibly happen.

Conclusion

We have considered seven general possibilities of what people might represent in dreams – both familiar and unfamiliar. We can use this as a mental checklist to work through if we are stuck on a dream person. We have also considered seven clues for identifying which one of these they could be.

Once we start to identify what certain people mean in our dreams, we can start to build our own personal dream dictionary. If we do this regularly, as time goes by it will really help speed up the process.

Some closing thoughts:

• People in a dream could represent any number of things. The above pointers should give you a good starting point. 
• I believe that only God can tell you what a particular person means in a specific dream, so you can try praying through the dream.
• Consider the atmosphere and context of the dream to see whether the person is being used in a positive or negative sense.
• In addition to the meanings that I have shared, remember that it could mean something personal or culturally significant to you, that isn’t mentioned here.

And finally… have fun investigating the people in your dreams! If this article has helped you interpret a dream, please leave a comment!

Infographics

The main points in this article are summarised in the infographics below:

Further reading

There is also a list of more types of people in dreams at Joshua Media Ministries, link below:

People – Dream Dictionary

Dream interpretations

The purpose of this blog is to provide biblical foundations for interpreting dreams and encourage others to make their own dream journey. I am primarily a writer and bible teacher – who loves dreams, and I hope you will be inspired to learn to interpret your own dreams.

It is not currently my aim to routinely engage in dream interpretations or provide training, except through writing blog posts. You can read my most up to date position on interpreting dreams here: Requests for dream interpretations.

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