Dreaming of a ruby : what can this symbol evoke?

An ardour that has taken form

Every tradition likens the ruby to blood and to fire, and for the same reason : it is the deepest red one can hold in the hand. But it does not burn and does not flow — it is hard, cold, lasting.

That is what makes it so particular a symbol. It does not speak of passion, it speaks of what passion becomes when it sets : a commitment that no longer goes out, a love that has ceased to be a blaze, a calling that has entered a life rather than its plans. Alchemy sought precisely that — a red stone issued from fire, which would no longer need it.

The ruby in dreams therefore questions what in you survived its own ardour. What you wanted fiercely ten years ago : is there a stone left of it, or only ash?

What is shown and what is hidden

A precious stone always poses the same practical question : does one wear it or keep it? Shown, it attracts — admiration, but also covetousness. Kept, it serves nobody, not even its owner.

That dilemma runs through ruby dreams, and it rarely concerns a jewel. It concerns what you hold most intense and do not know what to do with : a talent, a conviction, an attachment that showing would expose. Many dreamers describe a stone in a pocket, a closed hand, an object one dares not bring out.

The decisive detail is what showing it produces. If exposure draws danger, the dream speaks of caution ; if it produces nothing, it speaks of something else — of the fear of a gaze that might, perhaps, not come.

What you do with the stone changes the reading

• A stone kept in a closed hand — what you hold most intense and do not expose.
• Wearing it visibly — a commitment owned before others, with what that attracts.
• Losing it — the fear that an old ardour has dissipated without your noticing.
• Finding one in an ordinary place — recognising value where you were not looking for it.
• A false or glass stone — suspicion cast on the authenticity of a feeling, yours or another's.
• Giving it to someone — passing on what mattered most, with the stripping that entails.

A psychological reading, not a ready-made box

Analytical psychology places precious stones among figures of the Self : a hard, incorruptible centre that circumstances do not dent. Jung notes that such images often appear at the end of long work, as the result of a transformation rather than a starting point. Other readings stress the covetousness a stone arouses, and what possessing does to the possessor.