Dreaming Lens: What was your relation to the dead person? Was he/she known to you or a stranger? Did you experience grief? Were other feelings evoked by the knowledge of who was in the coffin? Was the coffin empty? Were you in the coffin? Was the coffin prepared for someone who was not yet dead?
Personal Focus: A coffin is made to hold a person after death. As a dream symbol, it should be interpreted by examining the individual inside the coffin as a Character Aspect of the dreamer. This applies whether you know who is inside the coffin or not. Any death is symbolic of change. When examined as a Character Aspect, the death represents sacrificing a portion of the personality that is no longer a useful part of the whole. An effective shift requires clearing out old ways of being in order to make way for new, more evolved functioning. Death is always followed by rebirth, but when a coffin is present, it signifies being at the beginning of the transformation process.
If you know the person in the coffin, consider their personality. It will tell you what traits of your own are dying away. For example, if the coffin contains a friend or relative who is demanding and overbearing, that quality may be dying in you, or you may need to let go of it as a way of being in the world. If you don’t know the inhabitant you may need to investigate what element of your life needs to change. If the coffin is empty and ready for use, you may not know what is getting ready to be sacrificed in you, but the dream may be a wake-up call to find out. Death in dreams means change of a powerful magnitude. If any of the trappings of death appear as symbols, such as funerals, urns, etc., you can be assured that big change is afoot. [1]
To business men it means debts whose accumulation they are powerless to avoid.
To the young it denotes unhappy unions and death of loved ones.
To see your own coffin in a dream, business defeat and domestic sorrow may be expected.
To dream of a coffin moving of itself, denotes sickness and marriage in close conjunction. Sorrow and pleasure intermingled. Death may follow this dream, but there will also be good.
To see your corpse in a coffin, signifies brave efforts will be crushed in defeat and ignominy, To dream that you find yourself sitting on a coffin in a moving hearse, denotes desperate if not fatal illness for you or some person closely allied to you. Quarrels with the opposite sex is also indicated. You will remorsefully consider your conduct toward a friend. [2]
The coffin could symbolize a lack of energy or vitality in the dreamer. It could represent the death of one stage of life and movement into another.
(Not necessarily physical death! In fact, some cultures believe that if you see a person dead and in a coffin, he will most likely live a long and healthy life!) When dreaming about coffins, we may be contemplating the nature of the death experience and may access the state of consciousness that is attuned to the spiritual world. Most simply, and most likely, the coffin in your dreams may represent feelings of confinement and lack of freedom.
A coffin is made to hold a person after death. As a dream symbol, it should be interpreted by examining the individual inside the coffin as a character aspect of the dreamer. This applies whether you know who is inside the coffin or not. Any death is symbolic of change. When examined as a character aspect, the death represents sacrificing a portion of the personality that is no longer a useful part of the whole. An effective shift requires clearing out old ways of being in order to make way for new, more evolved functioning. Death is always followed by rebirth, but when a coffin is present, it signifies being at the beginning of the transformation process. [4]
If you know the person, this episode may be revealing your concern for their health.
The interpretation of this dream varies depending on the character that is occupying it. So, if it is your partner it predicts eternal fidelity; an infant announces pain without hope; your own mother, enemies willing to forgive offenses. [5]
A dead person is in the coffin: financial losses or setbacks at the job are a possibility. You see yourself in a coffin: you will live a long, wonderful life in good health.
See also: Urn.
Depth Psychology: A coffin means that you need to say goodbye to something that has died. Something new is waiting for you, and you can only get it going if you have “buried” the past.
A coffin in a dream may also predict a death in the family or in your circle of fnends and colleagues, but it suggests this very rarely. Death in a dream is usually symbolic rather than literal. Thus, a coffin may symbolize the end of a relationship or another important transition In life. It may also indicate that you have lost your enthusiasm for life. [7]
2- We arc perhaps shutting our own feelings away and therefore causing a part of ourselves to die.
3- Redemption, resurrection and salvation arc all personified by the coffin. [8]
As with the cocoon, a dream of being in a coffin may have a restorative meaning of rebirth. (See also: Burial, Crypt, Dead/ Death, Grave, Hearse). [9]
The Gypsies say that to see someone lying in a coffin means that you will live to see your children grown and married.
To see yourself in a coffin means you will enjoy excellent health throughout your life. But, to see someone famous in a coffin means the possibility of war. [10]
It is a signification of bad debts.
If you are in the coffin, failure in business or loss of occupation may threaten you.
If the coffin is moved, sickness and death are the warning.
For the very young, death of a loved one. [12]
Death, dying, or the afterlife (or fear of such).
A scary or spooky feeling.
Feeling limited, trapped, or at a “dead end” somehow in your life.
See also: Death of You, Killed, Being, Dead Body, Dead Acquaintance, Hearse [13]
• A corpse break out of its coffin: You can expect a sudden boost of money luck • A coffin is pulled to the surface: a great fortune is coming your way; [16]
A coffin can symbolize someone coming out of spiritual death into life in Christ, Eph. 2:5 [18]
If the person in the coffin seems to be alive, it is a portent that you will be slandered. [20]
2. Property purchase imminent.
3. Elaborate coffin indicates end of a partnership, either business or romantic.
4. Fear of death. [21]
being in a: a deadened dul state lacking spirit.
friend: serious il ness of a dear friend that wil end an era for you.
lowered in a grave: restriction of expressing one’s self physical y.
dead person in a: financial drain from a decaying situation.
elaborate, an: death of one partner, birth of another.
empty: wil live to a ripe old age.
head of the family, of the: must contend with squabbles over the wil .
lowered, being: changes you are powerless to avoid, are almost upon you.
lying in a: breaking a bond wil bring a triumphant end to hopes.
friend: advancement in own position through mistakes of another.
relatives: a legacy is received through another’s sorrow.
many: wil incur large debts to failed lovers you have failed.
of a: wil soon marry and own your own house with water in the basement.
own: someone is attempting to cheat you.
someone else’s: inheritance may be unavoidably lost.
stealing a: are ashamed of receiving a fortune. [30]
If one sees himself riding on top of a coffin in a dream, it means that either his name is mentioned in a will, or that he will face a dispute regarding an inheritance that will turn to his advantage.
If one is given a coffin in a dream, it means that he is given knowledge, peacefulness and dignity. Acoffin in a dream also represents stress and worries or a travelling vehicle.
A miller’s flour mixing container which traditionally used to look like a coffin in a dream represents ajust man or a man of knowledge and a true guide.
(See also: Sarcophagus) [31]