I was laying in bed with someone who used to be my best friend. In the dream there was a tarantula crawling up the side of the bed who was my former friend's pet. The spider kept crawling closer and closer to the top of the bed, and I could feel my anxiety increasing. My former friend forced me to stay in the bed while the spider started crawling over my legs. At that point I woke up from the dream.
Dreams often serve as reflections of our unconscious thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Your dream involving your former best friend and the tarantula reveals several layers of meaning that can help you unpack your feelings and concerns.
1. Relationship with Your Former Friend: The presence of a former best friend suggests that this relationship has a lingering impact on your life. The dream could signify unresolved emotions tied to this friendship—perhaps feelings of loss, betrayal, or confusion surrounding how things ended. Laying in bed together implies a level of closeness or intimacy, which hints at a desire to reconnect or a longing for the comfort that friendship once provided.
2. The Tarantula: The tarantula symbolizes fear, anxiety, or feelings of being trapped. The fact that it's a pet belonging to your former friend indicates that these fears might be connected to your past relationship. Spiders often represent things that we find disturbing or unsettling, which could signify unresolved issues that you associate with your friend. The tarantula crawling closer could be a manifestation of feeling overwhelmed by these unresolved emotions or problems, possibly suggesting that they’re becoming more pronounced in your psyche.
3. Growing Anxiety: Your increasing anxiety in the dream reflects how these emotions may be affecting your waking life. The sensation of the tarantula crawling over your legs symbolizes a feeling of being overwhelmed or invaded by these unresolved feelings or perhaps even by memories of your friend. This anxiety can stem from fear of confronting the past, feeling lost in the absence of that friendship, or fearing the impact of these unresolved emotions on your future relationships.
4. Being Forced to Stay: The feeling of being forced to stay in bed suggests a lack of control in the situation. This could symbolize feelings of helplessness regarding the friendship’s ending or aspects of your life that you feel you cannot change. It represents being stuck in a situation where you are required to face something uncomfortable, pushing you to confront what you may wish to avoid.
5. Awakening: Waking up from this dream may represent a desire to escape from these pressures or anxieties. It also suggests a part of you that wants to confront these feelings instead of running away. The sudden awakening can symbolize a moment of clarity where you recognize the need to deal with these emotions, whether that means processing the impact of your former friendship, confronting fears, or finding a way to move on.
Conclusion: In summary, this dream points to unresolved feelings related to your former friendship, manifested through symbols of intimacy, fear, and anxiety. It encourages you to reflect on what this relationship meant to you, how it affects your current emotional state, and the ways in which you might find closure or healing. Consider addressing these feelings calmly and perhaps allowing yourself to explore your relationship with this friend and what closure—if any—you desire from it. Recognizing and confronting these emotions can be a vital step towards emotional healing and moving forward in your life.