Dreaming Lens: Where were the rats in your dream? Was there just one or was there an infestation? Were you frightened of them? Were they being destructive? Were they harmless? Were they pets?
Personal Focus: Rats are considered pests as they can overpopulate and bring with them destruction and disease. They are inexorably bound up in our history to the bubonic plague, because rats carried the fleas that transmitted the disease. The consequences for not attending to them properly are recorded in our mythology as a loss of innocence, as in the story of The Pied Piper of Hamlin who, when not paid for his services of ridding the town of their rats, took away the children of the town and led them to their deaths. This adds the element of a loss of innocence as a possible interpretation if your dream reflects this theme.
Rats can be found in sewers, basements, and dark corners. This expands their association with Shadow material, which is all the things about ourselves we wish were not true or that we would rather not look at. If rats appear in your dreams in any fashion, there is something to investigate under the surface. The consequences of not exploring these dark places are that it can lead to some sort of destruction.
An interesting juxtaposition to all this darkness is that laboratory rats, which live in sanitary conditions and are usually white in color, are responsible for enormous benefits to mankind by giving up their lives for scientific experimentation. More has been done with rats to advance science and medicine than with any other animal. The meaning here is that if you diligently and systematically investigate your Shadow, enormous benefits can come to you and your path of transformation.
What the rats are doing in your dream will inform you of where you are in your process of lifting your shadow. If they are very frightening to you, then you are just beginning your search of the underlying troubles in your path. The more open you are to their presence, the more open you are about your own psychic shadow. Needing to exterminate them may parallel a need to uncover, discover, and discard some element of your thinking or behavior. It is important to investigate your personal pestilence. And don’t forget to pay the piper! [1]
The consequences for not attending to them properly are recorded in our mythology as a loss of innocence, as in the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who, when not paid for his services of ridding the town of its rats, took away the children of the town and led them to their deaths. Rats can be found in sewers, basements, and dark corners. This expands their association with shadow material, which is all the things about ourselves we wish were not true or that we would rather not look at.
If rats appear in your dreams in any fashion, there is something to investigate under the surface. [2]
A white rate is an omen that you will receive help from am unexpected source in your time of trouble and distress.
To dream that a rat is biting your feet portrays your daily life as a ‘rat race.’ You have a preoccupation with your ever busy waking life. [3]
The dream’s purpose is to make you aware of negative feelings that may encourage you to directly deal with the negativity in your life. Dreaming about rats leaves the dreamer feeling apprehensive and disgusted. Attempt to connect these feelings with those things that produce this type of anxiety during the day. [4]
2. Difficulties are on the way (many rats).
3. Difficulties are on the way out (white rats).
4. Feelings of upset or disturbed state of being.
5. Smart and pervasive emotions or reactions are underfoot and just out of reach. [5]
2. Unbeliever (unclean animal);
3. Evil spirit;
4. Plague; 1 Sam. 6:4 & 1 Cor. 10:30 (demons); Ps. 22:13. [7]
To kill rats, however, is a good dream (Raphael). [8]
bait for, putting out: your intel igence determines your future.
being bitten by a: envy wil create an archenemy out of a best friend.
catching, in a trap: are disliked by others for your cowardice.
cat, in the house: unfinished business wil become successful.
gnawing: an acquaintance is envious of your life.
killing a: deviousness wil attend al undertakings.
many: serious trouble from another’s dishonesty, leading to poverty.
of: injury caused through deceit and decay of trust.
placing hands on a: wil succeed by dealing with the worst, first.
rat catcher, of a: you wil soon attract a new lover.
catching rats in a field: are committing treason by betraying another’s confidence.
many: wil receive vindication from people who did you wrong.
white: wish ruin of very bad enemies; get over it.
sweethearts dreaming of: fear a rival does not believe you deserve to be so fortunate.
swimming from a sinking ship: row your boat in the other direction.
trap, setting a: that which you have feared wil be tempted to expose itself.
white: don’t fol ow the leader; take the tunnel with the light at the end. [9]