For this topic, I’ve scanned across a collection of dreams written down, for the symbol of ‘hands’. Ever-present, often passed over, hands are also often meaningful symbols in dreams which are easy to forget.
So, in this exploration, we will walk through fragments of larger dreams that involve mentioning hands, and see what we might make of the significance of hands in dreams.
“You held your hand up and somewhat scanned the air, and felt back a shape of colours.”
We have hands as a diagnostic, field-reading tool here. It is primary information, unfiltered by, say, an xray machine, a camera, or your thinking process. Reaching out to feel a situation or object, we can receive impressions. In the dream we watched someone else perform this with skill and ease. It helps us see that this kind of thing is possible for us too, particularly if we’re interested in healing, diagnostics or deeper reading of a situation. I’d perhaps call this dream occurrence of hands a ‘possibility awakener’.
“We were able to climb up the cliff because it was covered in a net and had hand and foot holds everywhere.”
Here we have hands as locomotion, as movement enablers, helping us climb up a vertical surface. We are helped by a net, which allows our hands something to hold onto that’s easier than the cliff face. It suggests we have support for our hands as they are – we don’t need to become rock-climbing champions in our dreams to ascend a cliff. This cliff might symbolise an adventure you are on in waking life – perhaps of learning, skills development, or getting to the next level in your work or practice. The appearance of the helping net suggests the climb is not as hard as it could be and our hands are welcomed to ascend rapidly. Hands are a key enabler to hold, steady, grasp and find our way. It could be seen as another example of leading movement with a primary unfiltered sense. It might ask where in your life are you more supported in your endeavour than you realised.
“Each time we passed a certain place on a looped track, we paused to look at our hands and painted fingernails, resting on the gatepost.”
A moment of reflection, repeated. Stopping to notice function and decoration – hands and painted nails. We see how they are capable and beautiful, we see how each time we pause they’re still there, faithfully. This dream could be a call for us to notice what is supporting us and providing beauty effortlessly. It’s a part of us and we just need to pause a moment, and see it.
“We reach for the tangle of multicoloured cords, and untangle them in our hands for a while before we braid them neatly.”
Here, we have hands as active agents in creating clarity and beauty from a tangle of coloured cords. The cords could be anything in your life that feels melded together, knotty, a bit confused. In the dream we see that with a few moments’ dedicated attention, we can pull apart the threads and put them back together in a harmonious way that’s pleasing to us. Hands, as agents of responsibility and action, allow us to do this. We can observe the tangle as long as we like, but it’s only when we bring responsibility and agency to it that we can untangle and create something beautiful again.
“We quickly held our hand up, fingers curled towards us, so they could see the ring we wore.”
This hand movement, of quickly creating a fist and raising our hand up, not to fight but to potentially ward, and showing a ring which acts as a talisman, is a short, sharp movement which nevertheless conveys a lot within it. Our hand acts as boundary and holds a talisman or guardian ring on a finger. It’s another direct communication, and quick, quicker than words. In this dream it was able to enable instant comprehension and words may follow, to elaborate. Hands in this case can signal meaning directly, assuming a level of shared meaning between the people in the communication, which can be then followed by nuance.
As we explored in this edition of The Dream Stream, hands are often about agency, power, responsibility. They are enablers, supporters, and can heal or harm.
What have your hands showed you recently in your dreams?