Dreaming about a bull: charging, calm or in the ring

Dreaming about a bull: the direct answer

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 bull does not announce an accident, a powerful enemy or a betrayal. The scene tends to appear in phases of pressure: a boss who keeps demanding more, a debt that keeps growing, anger the person holds in. When the bull charges, the dream tends to come with the feeling of being pushed by something bigger than you. When it is calm, it usually comes with strength at hand, work that pays off, a sense of security.

It is not a sign of virility or of anyone's "energy" either. For people who work with cattle, go to rodeos or bullfights, or live near a ranch, the bull is part of the routine and enters the dream through the simplest door: the day.

Read also: Dreaming about cows and bulls and Dreams about being chased.

Why the bull charges into the dream

Michael Schredl and Friedrich Hofmann showed in 2003 that dreams follow the activities and concerns of waking life. The bull turns up in many corners of daily life: the rodeo at the county fair, a bullfight on the news, the barbecue, a game featuring a team with a bull as its emblem, the Taurus sign in the horoscope you read on your phone, a food brand with the animal on the package. Any of these clues can become a setting at night.

Tore Nielsen and colleagues, in 2003, listed the typical dreams of university students, and being chased or attacked is among the most reported. A raging bull is a perfect pursuer for this common plot: big, fast and impossible to reason with. In many cases, the dream is not about the bull but about the escape.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Nielsen and colleagues, Dreaming, 2003.

Scenes that show up most in this dream

If the animal in the dream was a cow or a draft ox, the article on dreaming about cows and bulls covers other scenes.

See also: Dreaming about an eagle and Dreaming about sheep or a ram.

When the dream deserves professional attention

A bull chasing you is frightening, but it is almost always just a dream. If the scene turns into a recurring nightmare, with you waking up in panic several times a week or avoiding sleep, talk to a health professional. Frequent nightmares have recognized treatment, and the condition usually improves. See how to have fewer nightmares.

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

Freud, Jung and faith on this dream

In Freud's psychoanalysis. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud notes that wild animals serve the dream work to represent passionate impulses, whether the dreamer's own or those of other people the dreamer fears. A charging bull may be anger swallowed during an argument, or fear of someone who shouts at home or at work. Freud also insists that every detail is born from the dreamer's memories: the bull's color, the place, who else was there.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Joseph Henderson discusses the sacrifice of the bull in the cult of Mithras as an image of man mastering his own animal nature. In the Jungian key, facing or taming the bull in a dream can be read as an encounter with an inner force that frightens but belongs to the person. For Jung, the dream compensates: someone who makes themselves too small by day may dream of an animal that fills the entire pasture.

In symbols and faith. Chevalier and Gheerbrant, in A Dictionary of Symbols, present the bull as an image of strength and fertility in many cultures, from the Apis bull in Egypt to the Minotaur of Crete and the bull of Mithras. In the Bible, the golden calf of Exodus 32 shows the animal as an idol the people choose in place of God, and Psalm 22 uses "strong bulls" as an image of enemies closing in. These are figures of power, used to teach, not warnings about the dreamer.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows how the rodeo and the boss's demands reach the dream. Traditions ask whose strength you saw: yours, someone else's or a situation's. Both questions can go in the same notebook when you wake up.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols; Chevalier and Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols.

What dream books say

In O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book, L. P. Baçan gives the bull a homely reading, very different from the fright of the scene: in life, peace at home; in love, union.

Freud criticized this kind of book for swapping each image for a fixed meaning, in a method he called decoding, without listening to the dreamer. A cattle rancher, a sports fan and someone who was just reprimanded by the boss dream of different bulls. The entry is a starting point; the rest comes from each person's life.

Sources: Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 1900; L. P. Baçan, O Livro dos Sonhos, 2014.

Folk readings of dreaming about a bull

In Brazilian folk reading, a raging bull is a strong enemy or a fight to come; a calm bull, prosperity and protection. A black bull calls for caution; a white bull is peace and good news; a red bull is passion or anger. Riding the bull is overcoming a challenge; being thrown is suffering a setback. All of this is tradition, passed on by word of mouth, not prediction. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.