Dreaming about a big spider: tarantulas, wandering spiders, fear

What dreaming about a big spider usually points to

Dream interpretation is not prediction and not diagnosis. This article separates what sleep research observes from what popular interpretation associates with the theme, always saying which is which.

Dreaming about a big spider does not announce betrayal, illness or a powerful enemy. What the scene usually shows is a worry that has grown in volume: a debt that got bigger, a conversation you keep putting off, a deadline that seemed small and now fills the whole room. The dream enlarges the creature the way anxiety enlarges problems at night.

It also does not matter much whether the spider was black, brown or hairy: the fright comes from its size and how close it is. The general meaning of this animal in dreams is covered in dreaming about spiders; here the focus is on the huge spider, the tarantula and the Brazilian wandering spider, which many people in Brazil know up close.

Read also: Dreaming about a spider web and Dreaming about a scorpion.

Why the spider grows so big in the dream

In 2000, Antti Revonsuo proposed that dreaming works as a rehearsal of threats: the brain stages what our species learned to avoid and practices the reaction in a safe setting. In a rehearsal like that, a creature of exaggerated size makes sense. The bigger the threat, the stronger the practice.

Waking life comes in too, as Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann showed in 2003. Someone who lives on a farm has seen a tarantula crossing the yard after the rain; someone who lives in an apartment may only have seen a video, and that is enough. Even the bedsheet brushing against your leg can turn, in the dream, into legs walking over you.

Sources: Revonsuo, The reinterpretation of dreams, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2000; Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003.

Scenes with a big spider and what usually comes with them

If the spider was in a bunch of bananas, the scene has a very Brazilian origin, explained just below; and anyone who dreams of the creature hidden in a shoe may also want to read dreaming about shoes.

See also: Dreaming about a dead rat and Dreaming about a black cat.

What is real about the big spiders of Brazil

Tarantulas (called caranguejeiras in Brazil) are the big, hairy spiders that scare people with their size. Despite their looks, their bite is rarely dangerous to people. The most common nuisance comes from the hairs some species release from the abdomen when they feel threatened: they irritate the skin, eyes and nose.

The Brazilian wandering spider (known there as armadeira) is another story. Smaller than the big tarantulas but with long legs, it got its Portuguese name because it raises its front legs when it defends itself, as if "arming" for a strike. It tends to hide in banana plants, banana bunches, rubble, stacked wood and inside shoes. It is venomous: the bite causes severe pain and calls for medical care. Most cases are mild, serious ones are rare and more worrying in children, and there is antivenom to treat it. The brown recluse spider (aranha-marrom), small and discreet, is the one that causes the most accidents in part of southern Brazil, which shows that size is no measure of danger.

In case of a real bite, wash the area with soap and water and go to a health service, ideally with a photo of the animal if you can take one without risk. Do not apply a tourniquet. If you need urgent help, contact your local wildlife or emergency services (911 in the US). In a country house, shaking out your shoes before putting them on is a good habit.

When a dream about a big spider calls for attention

A single dream about a huge spider does not call for any action. It deserves attention when it becomes a recurring nightmare, several times a week, and you start to fear going to sleep or wake up with your heart racing. Frequent nightmares have treatment, and a health professional can guide you; the same goes for a fear of spiders that makes you avoid places or rooms in the house. See how to have fewer nightmares and, if the fright comes with the feeling of being unable to move on waking, dreaming about sleep paralysis.

Source: Morgenthaler and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2018.

The giant spider for Freud, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud summarizes the ideas of Karl Scherner, for whom the body appears in dreams in the form of a house. In one of the examples cited, a headache would show up as the ceiling of a room covered in repulsive spiders. Freud notes that other authors did not follow Scherner and prefers to ask the dreamer what each detail brings to mind. Even so, it is worth checking: did you go to bed with a headache or tension in your neck?

In Jung's psychology. Jung saw a compensating function in dreams: they correct what the conscious mind leaves aside. Someone who spends the day saying "it is nothing, I will deal with it later" may get, at night, a spider the size of a cat: the exaggeration would be a counterweight to the little attention the matter gets while awake.

In symbols and faith. In the Bible, in the Book of Job, Bildad compares the trust of those who forget God to a spider's web (Job 8:14), an image of something fragile that seems firm. In the Quran, one of the suras is called "The Spider" and recalls that the spider's house is the frailest of houses. In both traditions, what is striking about the spider is what it builds, and its strength is smaller than it seems.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows why the creature became enormous; psychology and faith remind you that the size may be an illusion. Ask yourself what in your life looks bigger at night than during the day.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

The big spider in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for spiders, big or small. The closest is the one for the spider web, which the tradition sums up like this: in life, problems; in love, possessiveness. The entry is about the web, not about the size of the creature.

Jung insisted that a dream cannot be interpreted without knowing the dreamer's life. The big spider of someone who lives on a farm full of banana plants and that of someone who has had a phobia since childhood do not tell the same story, even if the book gives both the same answer.

Sources: L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols.

What people usually say about the big spider

In Brazilian folk reading, a big spider is usually tied to a bigger problem, a manipulative person nearby or strong envy. A big black spider would be the heaviest version of this warning; a tarantula, a fear greater than the real danger; killing the big spider, overcoming an important difficulty. These are traditional readings, which vary from family to family, not predictions. If the scene had cockroaches or other bugs too, read dreaming about insects. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.