Dreaming about Oxum: what tradition and science say

What dreaming about Oxum 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 Oxum is not a promise of marriage, pregnancy or money. In the Afro-Brazilian religions, such as candomblé and umbanda, Oxum (Oshun in the Yoruba tradition) is the orixá, or deity, of fresh waters, rivers and waterfalls, associated with love, fertility, beauty and gold. In a dream, these images tend to accompany phases in which affection, self-esteem, motherhood or self-care are on your mind.

Nor is the dream a message with a set date or a request to do something in a hurry. Research sees memory and emotion in it; the religious meaning belongs to each house of worship. If there was a terreiro (an Afro-Brazilian place 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 waterfall.

Where the image of Oxum in a dream comes from

According to the continuity hypothesis (Schredl and Hofmann, 2003), dreams follow what occupies waking life. A dip in a waterfall on vacation, a festival for Oxum, Brazilian songs that mention her name, an image seen in a shop or a grandmother who was initiated in the religion: all of this becomes available to the night. Love life comes in too, with a new relationship, the wish for a child, a pregnancy or a phase of taking more care of your appearance.

The bedroom takes part. In the experiments of William Dement and Edward Wolpert, outside stimuli, such as water sprayed on the skin, were woven into the plot of the dream. The sound of rain, of a fan or of a dripping faucet can turn, in the scene, into the sound of a waterfall.

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

Oxum in psychoanalysis, in Jung and in faith

In Freud's psychoanalysis. For Freud, the dream is largely the disguised fulfillment of a wish. An Oxum who hands over gold or cradles a baby may be tied to very concrete wishes of the dreamer. His method asks you to look at each detail separately (the mirror, the color yellow, the water, who else was there) and to ask what each one brings to mind.

In Jung's psychology. In Man and His Symbols, Marie-Louise von Franz presents the anima, the inner image of the feminine, which in dreams can appear as a beautiful figure full of strength. In the Jungian tradition, water is also one of the images most often linked to the unconscious. A luminous figure by the river brings the two ideas together. 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, Oxum is the lady of fresh waters, linked to gold, fertility, love and vanity, and she appears in several myths alongside Xangô, the orixá of thunder. In several regions of Brazil, she was syncretized with Our Lady, especially Our Lady of the Conception (Nossa Senhora da Conceição). In A Dictionary of Symbols, Chevalier and Gheerbrant treat water as a source of life and of purification, and gold as a symbol of light.

Bringing both readings together. Science explains how the waterfall from your vacation and the wish of the moment reach the dream. Faith, for those who have it, asks what Oxum came to remind you of. The two can live side by side without one erasing the other.

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

Frequent versions of dreams about Oxum

If the mirror or the gold caught your attention most, it is worth reading dreaming about a mirror and dreaming about gold.

See also: Dreaming about Ogum and Dreaming about Exu.

When a dream about Oxum calls for care

Dreaming about Oxum is usually a peaceful experience. Sometimes, though, the scene with a baby reawakens the pain of a pregnancy loss or of a wish for a child that did not come true. If the dream leaves a sadness that does not go away, if you often wake up distressed or start avoiding sleep, talk to a health professional. If you are in intense distress, in the US you can call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). See also how to have fewer nightmares.

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

Oxum in dream dictionaries

O Livro dos Sonhos, a Brazilian dream book by L. P. Baçan, has no entry for Oxum. The closest ones are lagoon (in life, tranquility; in love, a loving friendship) and gold (in life, losses; in love, infidelity). Notice that the book reads gold negatively, the opposite of what it represents for Oxum in the tradition. It is one more sign that these lists do not talk to each other.

Man and His Symbols points in the same direction: for the book, dreams are individual phenomena, and their symbols cannot be catalogued as in a dictionary.

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

Folk readings of dreaming about Oxum

In folk reading, a smiling Oxum is usually associated with love and harmony at home; clear water, with a good phase; murky water, with emotions that need care. Yellow and gold appear as signs of sweetness and prosperity, and honey as a request for more gentleness in relationships. People considered children of Oxum, as followers describe those under her guidance, often hear that the dream asks them to pay attention to their own heart. These are readings from the tradition, not predictions. See what dream meanings look like according to science and culture.