Dreaming about Nanã Buruquê: what tradition and science say

What dreaming about Nanã 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 Nanã is not a warning of death, illness or punishment. In the religions of African origin practiced in Brazil, such as candomblé and umbanda, Nanã (Nana Buruku in the Yoruba tradition) is the orixá linked to mud, to the still waters of swamps and lagoons, to ancestry and to death understood as a passage, the return to the earth from which everything came. Orixás, or orishas, are the deities of these religions, and Nanã is honored as the oldest of them. In dreams, these images tend to appear in times of grief, of memories of the family, of aging or of the end of a cycle.

The dream also does not ask for hurried rituals. Research sees memory and emotion in it; the religious meaning belongs to each person's faith. If there was a terreiro (an Afro-Brazilian house of worship) and atabaque drums in the scene, also read about dreaming about macumba or umbanda.

Read also: Dreaming about Iemanjá and Dreaming about a preto-velho.

Why Nanã shows up in the dream

The continuity hypothesis, tested by Schredl and Hofmann in 2003, links the content of dreams to what fills waking life. Nanã arrives by very concrete paths: the feast of Saint Anne in July, a grandmother who was initiated in candomblé, a conversation about the family, a visit to a farm with a marsh, the rain that left the backyard muddy. She also arrives through the subject she represents: someone caring for an elderly relative or who has just lost someone has old age and death close at hand.

Dreaming about people who have died is common during grief. Joshua Black and colleagues, studying people who had lost a partner, propose that these dreams can serve different functions, such as processing trauma, keeping the bond with the one who is gone and regulating emotions, and that some bring comfort while others bring distress. An ancient, serene figure in a dream can be part of that work.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Black and colleagues, Comforting versus distressing dreams of the deceased, OMEGA, 2020.

Frequent scenes in dreams about Nanã

If the mud was the center of the scene, read dreaming about mud; if it was the still water, dreaming about a lake. For the grandmother figure, see dreaming about a grandmother.

See also: Dreaming about Obaluaê or Omulu and Dreaming about Oxalá.

Nanã in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for Nanã. The closest ones are mud (in life, losses; in love, enmity), lagoon (in life, tranquility; in love, loving friendship) and grandparents (in life, disorientation; in love, doubts). Notice that the book reads mud negatively, while in the tradition of Nanã it is the very matter of life. This is folk tradition, not prediction.

Freud explained why these lists fall short: the same element of a dream can have different meanings for different people or in different contexts, and a fixed code cannot reach that.

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

Nanã in psychoanalysis, in Jung and in faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud did not write about the orixás, but he did write about what is old and comes back. In The Interpretation of Dreams, he compares wishes from long ago, covered over by others, to the shades of the Odyssey, which woke to a kind of life when they tasted blood. An ancestral figure in a dream can bring to the surface family matters that seemed buried. His method asks what each detail (the mud, the color, the age of the figure) brings to mind.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung speaks of archaic remnants: just as the body carries the mark of a long evolution, the mind also carries very ancient images. In the Jungian key, an old woman tied to the origin and the end of life can stand for this deeper, older layer of the psyche, which surfaces when life asks us to look back.

In symbols and faith. In the orixá myths collected by Reginaldo Prandi in Mitologia dos orixás, Nanã is the owner of the mud at the bottom of the waters, and one of the myths tells that it was from this mud that Oxalá, the orixá of creation, shaped human beings, who return to it when they die. In well-known myths, she is also the mother of Obaluaê, the orixá of illness and healing. Historical syncretism brought her close to Saint Anne, whom the Christian tradition venerates as the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus, which is why her feast is often remembered on July 26. In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant treat mud, a mixture of earth and water, as an image of first, fertile matter.

Bringing both readings together. Science explains how grief, family and old age become a scene. Faith, for those who have it, sees in that scene the lap of the eldest. Both speak of origins and of farewells.

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

When a dream about Nanã calls for support

Because she is linked to death as a passage, Nanã may appear on nights of grief. Crying when you wake up is part of it. It is worth seeking help when the dreams keep repeating the death or the burial, when you become afraid of going to sleep or when sadness keeps you from your routine for weeks. A psychologist, ideally one with experience in grief, or another health professional can help; frequent nightmares can be treated. See how to have fewer nightmares and dreaming about someone who has died.

If the pain comes with a wish to disappear, do not stay alone with it. In the US, you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). And it is worth remembering: linking the orixás to the idea of a bad omen is the legacy of a historical prejudice against religions of African origin, not something they teach.

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

Folk readings of dreaming about Nanã

In folk reading, dreaming about a serene Nanã is often associated with the protection of the elders and the ancestors; Nanã in the mud, with a call for patience, because what is standing still is yet to be transformed; a clear lagoon, with peace; a murky lagoon, with sorrows that need care. Many followers say the dream asks for respect for the family and for your own roots. These are interpretations from tradition, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.