A dream about hands or fingers
Hands are one of the most important parts of our body – thanks to it we make a lot of everyday activities, create relations with the others… This motif also appears in our dreams, in various versions and contexts.
Dreams about our own hands and fingers usually present those parts of body untypically or very exposed. Hands may be disproportionally big in relation to the rest of the body, they may be easily noticeable because of exaggerated gestures (ours or somebody’s else), they may also appear in a more dramatic version – they may be tied, cuffed, hurt, we may even lose a hand or one of the fingers…
How to interpret a dream about fingers or hands?
Dreams in which one of the parts of our body is the dominating motif, tell us a lot about our internal life.
Hands are one of the most important to our emotional sphere symbols, which symbolizes the presence of God in our life, his fatherly goodness and authority. Ancient Greeks and the Christians believed that a hand has healing powers, creating and destroying. Giving somebody a hand symbolizes friendship, amity and help. It is believed that the right hand is the symbol of strength, seriousness, authority, happiness and the masculine energy, while the left hand is the symbol of heart, the world and its all temptations, magic, power and the feminine energy. It is worth remembering that hands are also the touchable metaphor for our creativity, activity and independence.
Interpreting a dream about hands, we should pay attention to their position – hands on the heart symbolize love and trust, hands up – appreciation, clapping means support and approbation, fists symbolize suppressed emotions, anger, aggression, which can not be released. If we are holding hands on our hips, it symbolizes our pride and independence, a hand on the lips means a secret, and stroking hand – goodness and tenderness.
It is also important whether our hands are clean or dirty. The first ones symbolize honesty and good intentions, while the dirty ones – injustice and lie. Unkempt hands may be a message from our subconsciousness, that we have been neglecting our emotional needs – we should change it.
Dreams about hurt or immobilized hands deserve more attention. Usually such dreams appear at the time of writer’s block or the sense of helplessness in life. Handcuffs symbolize that we have lost control over our life, maybe we are also too pliable in intimate spheres, or we need this pliability. Losing a hand may mean that we miss creativity in our life – maybe we need some rest and thinking?
Some people believe that each finger has its own meaning, e.g, the ring finger symbolizes commitment, while the index finger – authority, so it is also worth analyzing. A cut finger means problems in managing own matters, making bad decisions or the sense of loss, while losing a finger is probably the sign of feeling alienated, rejected and not being able to change it.
How would Freud interpret a dream about fingers or hands?
For Freud hands, especially those huge ones, were the phallic symbols. He also referred to the doubtful theory of Wilhelm Stekel, who claimed that, in our dreams, everything which is on the right side symbolizes the right life path, correctness and…heterosexuality, while everything which is on the left side symbolizes crimes, perversions and homosexuality.
How would Jung interpret a dream about fingers or hands?
The researchers of Jung’s school associate everything which in our dreams is connected with the right hand with the masculine element and active qualities, and everything connected with the left hand – with the feminine element and passive qualities.
