Dream Dictionary
A dictionary from the Spellbook — symbols A–Z, and themes from Alphabet through Wedding.
The symbol list and themes follow the Dream Moods A–Z dictionary and theme pages. The readings here are written for the Spellbook. A symbol is a reading, not a prediction.
Sex in a dream is a joining of two qualities, and it is also desire. The act and the partner point to what you want to bring together, or are afraid to admit you want.
A
Abstinence
Refusing drink, sex, or another temptation warns you not to trust your restraint too far. Move more slowly.
Adultery
An affair points to desire you have not expressed, or to a tangle that does not serve you. A partner straying names fear of being left or taken for granted.
AIDS
This illness means you feel defenseless and your sense of self is under attack. A partner's case points to a hurting bond, while the letters can also mean someone needs your aid.
Anal Sex
Anal sex here is about yielding. You may be afraid to give way to what other people want.
B
Bisexual
If this is not how you live while awake, the dream is desire held back, or confusion about sexuality.
Bondage
Being tied means feeling or character is held too tightly, and you may feel trapped by circumstance. In a sexual sense it is a wish to yield that you have not yet admitted.
Breasts
The chest is nourishment, motherhood, and a need to be cared for, and it can also be sexual energy or a feeling of exposure. Uneven or missing, desire feels unbalanced or you feel undesirable.
Brothel
The house of paid sex is dissatisfaction in an emotional or sexual bond. Physical need wants attention.
C
Castration
Castration is the fear that your force, desire, or creative power has been cut away. The pressure you feel is about performance and strength, not a literal wound.
Celibacy
Celibacy is fear of closeness. You are trying to shut down sexual energy.
Chastity Belt
A chastity belt is your stance toward sex, guarded or closed. It can also mean protection that has become old-fashioned and too tight.
Condom
A wrapped condom is a one-sided view that leaves others no voice, and also sexual possibility. Unwrapped, it is frustration and worry about pregnancy or illness; wearing one is the feeling of being emotionally shielded.
Contraceptive
A contraceptive is creativity held under the surface, or protection against emotional hurt. It can also be anxiety about pregnancy or illness.
Cross-Dressing
Cross-dressing asks you to acknowledge the masculine side if you are a woman, or the feminine side if you are a man. A male relative dressed as a woman is the wish that he meet you with more feeling.
D
Dominatrix
A dominatrix shows a wish for power and control. The same figure can mark a sharpened sense of purpose.
E
Ejaculation
Ejaculation means a need for release, emotional or sexual. It can also mean control has slipped.
Erection
An erection means creative energy and a wish to act. For a man it can also mean worry about sexual function.
Erotica
Erotica means sexual appetite and a wish to loosen inhibition. It is common near a wedding or while you are recovering vitality after a hard time.
F
H
Hermaphrodite
See also Intersex.
Herpes
Herpes here is worry about sex and regret over a risk you wish you had not taken.
Homosexual
If this is not how you live, the dream joins you to parts of yourself and asks for self-acceptance. Discomfort in it points to unease about traits you have treated as foreign.
I
Impotence
Impotence is fear of losing power, or of failing to measure up to a person or a task. It can also echo a real sexual difficulty.
Incest
This dream is a distress signal. If it echoes something that really happened, tell someone you trust.
Infidelity
Infidelity, yours or someone else's, is fear of being left, or a bond that feels too tight and leaves you unsatisfied. Guilt about a sexual tie may be part of it.
See also Adultery.
K
Kiss
A kiss is affection, ease, and a wish for more warmth in a bond. Kissing someone of your own sex, or kissing yourself, is acceptance of the side of you that you have kept quiet; a kiss forced on you is someone pushing their will onto yours.
L
Love
Love here is strong feeling carried from a waking bond, and contentment with where you are. It can also be the lack of love, and the wish to belong; saying it and hearing nothing back means the bond feels uneven.
M
Masochism
Masochism is a need to feel things at an extreme. It can also be self-sacrifice, the belief that old mistakes must be paid for in suffering.
Masturbation
This act, kept as a symbol, is sexual wanting that has not been admitted, or a need to care for yourself in a sensual or emotional way. Seeing someone else do it is worry about your own restraint, or a part of life that does not satisfy.
N
O
Oral Sex
Giving or receiving oral sex is willingness to offer pleasure or to accept it, and a sign your creative energy is aimed well. It can also mean you need to talk with a partner about what you want.
Orgasm
An orgasm is an exciting finish to something you just completed. Missing one is frustration, and that lack may not be sexual at all.
Orgy
An orgy points to desire you have kept tightly held, or to energy scattered in too many directions at once.
P
Penis
A penis stands for sexual energy, power, and fertility; slack, it is frustration. Damage or loss of it is a fear of losing power or identity, not a literal forecast.
Pervert
A pervert points to trouble with closeness. You keep distance so you will not be hurt.
Pregnancy Test
A pregnancy test is a new phase, such as work or a relationship, checking whether you are ready. It can also be literal fear of conceiving.
Pregnant
Pregnancy is something in you still growing: an idea, a project, or a direction you are not yet willing to act on. If you are not seeking a child, it can be fear of new responsibility.
See also Birth or Belly.
Prostitute
Being a prostitute is a wish for freer sexual expression. It can also mean you are selling yourself, emotionally or morally, where the situation is not literally sexual.
Pubic Hair
Pubic hair suggests you are letting sexual feeling be known in a shy, indirect way.
R
Rape
You feel forced, cornered, or stripped of choice, and your sense of worth is under pressure. The image can also show a wish to be the one in control.
S
Sadism
Sadism is old anger that never found a voice. The cruelty may be turned inward, at a fault you have not forgiven.
Sex
Sex here is the joining of contrasting parts of yourself into one picture.
Sex Tape
Making a sex tape is openness to new sexual experience. If it leaks, you feel too exposed and the pace of the bond is too fast.
Sex Toy
A sex toy is dissatisfaction in some area of life, sexual or otherwise. It can also mean sex itself is being treated as a joke.
Sexuality
Your sexuality here touches the large turns of a life: birth, partnership, and endings. It can also be worry that your appeal is slipping.
Sperm
Sperm is masculinity, fertility, and the chance of something new growing.
T
Testicles
These stand for raw energy, fertility, and nerve. The picture can also be worry about sexual confidence, kept symbolic rather than graphic.
Threesome
Intimacy with two other people points to a missing piece in your love life: feeling, if the group is mostly women, or physical appetite, if mostly men. The picture is a symbol, not a plan you must follow.
Transsexual
This image is anxiety about masculine and feminine roles, or about passive and aggressive styles. Meeting such a person can mean those two sides of you feel damaged and you are avoiding a shadow side.
U
Undress
Taking clothes off means say what you feel, and it shows how at ease you are with sexuality. Undressing someone else is an attempt to understand them.
V
Vagina
For a woman, this is femininity and her attitude toward sex, or fertility and warmth. Another woman's, as a symbol, is sexual need or a project coming to life.
Vasectomy
For a man, this procedure points to dissatisfaction with sex life, or to doubt about self-image. Keep it symbolic.
Venereal Disease
This illness, as a symbol, is contamination, physical or emotional, and a bond in which you feel victimized. It can also be fear of sex or unbalanced sexual energy.
Virgin
Virginity here is purity and potential, emotional as much as physical. If it is not true awake, the picture is regret you should stop rehearsing.
Vulva
This stands for creative energy.
W
Wife Swapping
See also Partner Swapping.