Drowning means being overwhelmed by emotions or by a situation: you can no longer breathe. Water is feeling; drowning is too much feeling.
When the dream feels light
Being saved or learning to breathe under water speaks of emotional resilience and inner transformation.
When the dream feels dark
Drowning points to emotional overload, stress or feeling helpless.
Ask yourself
Which feeling is overwhelming me?
Correspondences
- Archetype
- The Shadow — What you have refused to see in yourself, dark but full of force.
- Element
- Water — feeling, dream and the unconscious
- Planet
- Moon
- Tarot card
- Five of Cups
- Alchemical stage
- Nigredo, the Blackening
Overwhelmed by feeling. Find the shore; you can breathe.
Words that call this sign
sank, underwater
Related signs
The Wolf · The Rat · The Bat · The Goat · The Storm · The Forest · Night · The Shadow
The card of this dream
Five of Cups. Grief over spilled cups, while two still stand behind you. A figure in a black cloak mourns three spilled cups, not seeing the two cups still standing behind him or the bridge that leads home. It is loss, grief and regret: but not everything is lost.