Dreaming of red: what can this symbol evoke?

The colour of the living

From prehistory onwards, red ochre was placed in graves and painted on cave walls. Red is the colour of blood: the blood that flows from a wound, the blood of births, the blood that rises to the face. It says that there is life, and that it is at stake.

Jung saw red as an emotional colour, that of blood, passion and fire. In a dream, it often signals that a strong emotion is present, even if the dreamer does not name it: a desire, an anger, a love, a shame. The question is: what in you asks to be felt rather than thought?

What must be seen

Red stops and attracts at the same time. It is the colour of the red light and the no-entry sign, but also of the carpet for great occasions, and of the bride's dress in China and India. In old Russian, the same word meant both “red” and “beautiful”.

Dreams use red for what cannot go unnoticed: an alarm that can no longer be ignored, or, on the contrary, a part of oneself one finally dares to show. A red object in a dream, a car, a door, a garment, is often the very place the dream wants you to look.

What is red changes the reading

• A red garment — showing oneself, drawing the eye, or feeling too visible.
• A red car — moving forward with drive, desire or pride; a way of leading one's life that gets noticed.
• Blood — a wound, a loss of strength, or on the contrary life circulating.
• A red light — a necessary stop, a limit to respect.
• A room or landscape entirely red — an emotion flooding everything, anger or passion.
• A red that fades or washes out — a passion dying down, an energy ebbing.
• Blushing in the dream — embarrassment, or an emotion that can no longer be hidden.

A psychological reading, not a ready-made box

Alchemists called rubedo, the “reddening”, the last stage of their work: it came after black and white, and announced the philosopher's stone. In his reading of alchemy, Jung saw in it an image of fulfilment: what, after long labour, finally takes on body and warmth. The red of a dream therefore does not only say danger or passion. It can mark the moment when something becomes fully alive.