Dreaming about Obaluaê or Omulu: what the dream may point to

Dreaming about Obaluaê: what it points to and what it does not

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 Obaluaê or Omulu does not mean that you are sick, that you are going to fall ill or that an illness is going to be cured. In the religions of African origin practiced in Brazil, such as candomblé and umbanda, he is the orixá linked to illness and healing (known as Obaluaye or Omolu in the Yoruba tradition). Orixás, or orishas, are the deities of these religions, and Obaluaê is shown covered in palha da costa, a raffia straw, and honored with popcorn. In dreams, these images tend to appear when health is on your mind: a scheduled test, a relative in the hospital, a period of exhaustion, the memory of an old illness.

If you have symptoms or are in treatment, the path is the doctor, not the dream. Faith and medical care can go together, but the dream does not replace an appointment, a test or a medication. If the scene had a terreiro (an Afro-Brazilian house of worship) and atabaque drums, also read about dreaming about macumba or umbanda.

Read also: Dreaming about illness and Dreaming about a hospital.

Why Omulu shows up in the dream

The continuity hypothesis (Schredl and Hofmann, 2003) links dreams to what a person lives through while awake. Someone who spends days searching for symptoms, taking a relative to the doctor or caring for a family member tends to dream about illness and healing. For people who have contact with the religion, this worry takes the shape of Omulu: the straw, the popcorn, the popcorn cleansing bath, the August celebration.

The body also enters the plot. In the experiments of William Dement and Edward Wolpert, stimuli applied during sleep, such as water sprayed on the skin, showed up woven into the dream. Heat, itching or pain can turn into a scene of fever or of sores. This shows how dreams use sensations of the moment, not that they are able to detect illness.

Sources: Schredl and Hofmann, Continuity between waking activities and dream activities, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003; Dement and Wolpert, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1958.

The dream is not a diagnosis: when to seek help

No dream confirms or rules out an illness. If you have a symptom that worries you, see a doctor or a health service, even if the dream seemed like a sign of healing. Anyone in treatment should not stop it because of a dream. Faith can bring comfort, and many people pray or ask for blessings while following medical advice.

If dreams about illness keep repeating, if you wake up in panic or if the fear of getting sick takes over your days, talk to a health professional or a psychologist: frequent nightmares and health anxiety can be treated. See how to have fewer nightmares. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

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

Common versions of dreams about Omulu

If the center of the dream was the medicine or the injection, read dreaming about medicine or an injection; if it was the corn, dreaming about corn. For the animal, see dreaming about dogs.

See also: Dreaming about Jesus returning and Dreaming about a child drowning.

Omulu between psychoanalysis, Jung and faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. The model dream of The Interpretation of Dreams is about illness: Freud dreamed about Irma, a patient whose treatment had been only partly successful, and concluded that the dream fulfilled his wish not to be responsible for her suffering. The lesson applies here: dreaming about illness usually speaks of worry, guilt or responsibility, not of a diagnosis. Freud did not write about the orixás; his method asks what each detail (the straw, the popcorn, who was sick) brings to mind.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Jung discusses the idea, found among many peoples, that falling ill can also be a "loss of soul", which the healer tries to recover. In the Jungian key, the figure that brings together illness and healing can stand for the part of the person that knows that caring for the body and caring for the soul go hand in hand. It is a psychological reading, alongside the religious one.

In symbols and faith. In the orixá myths collected by Reginaldo Prandi in Mitologia dos orixás, Omulu is the lord of illness and healing and, in well-known myths, the son of Nanã raised by Iemanjá. In tradition, he covers his body with raffia straw, and popcorn, called deburu (or doburu), is his ritual food. Many houses of worship hold the Olubajé in August, a banquet in his honor. Historical syncretism brought him close to Saint Lazarus and Saint Roch, saints Catholics remember alongside the sick and in times of epidemics. Linking Omulu to something evil is the product of a historical prejudice against Afro-Brazilian religions.

Bringing both readings together. Science shows that worry about health becomes a scene; faith, for those who have it, offers comfort and hope. Neither one replaces the doctor.

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

Omulu in dream books

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for Obaluaê or Omulu. The closest ones are straw (in life, abundance; in love, support) and corn (in life, prosperity; in love, commitment). Curiously, the book reads illness positively (in life, defeat of enemies; in love, joys), which shows how these lists do not work as warnings about health. This is folk tradition, not prediction.

Freud said that, in this method, everything depends on the reliability of the code, the dream book, and that there is no guarantee of it at all.

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

What folk tradition says about dreaming of Omulu

Among practitioners and sympathizers, dreaming about a serene Omulu is often read as protection for health and for the family; popcorn, as a call for cleansing and renewal; the straw, as a reminder of humility and of respect for what cannot be seen. Many followers say the dream asks you to take care of your body, which, in practice, fits with getting routine checkups and listening to your doctor. People who dream about Omulu together with Nanã often hear that it is mother and son gathered together. Each house of worship has its own reading, and those seeking religious guidance turn to their own spiritual leaders. If the fear in the dream came from the idea that the orixás are evil, the article about Exu explains that confusion. These are interpretations from tradition, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.