Killing a Spider

Dear Peregrin,

I have recurring dreams about spiders roughly two times a week for as far back as I can remember. A common theme in all of the dreams is the change of the spider within each dream - from small to large and from hairy to not hairy. I'm almost always trying to kill the spider and it changes in appearance before I eventually am able to kill it. There's never a web involved in the dream, but there is usually a spider rapidly moving towards me while attached to a line.

I recently had a dream that stood out from the others. I was sitting in a bath tub, relaxing in warm water (no bubbles.) I open my eyes and see a spider (about the size of a quarter, with no hair, on the faucet.) I try to kill it with the wash cloth, but it moves. It then comes back as a large spider, the size of my hand, and is very hairy, yet spiny. It rapidly moves towards me on the line and I hit it away with my shampoo bottle. It keeps trying to attack me until I finally trap it between the shampoo bottle and the drain of the tub. I then slam the bottle down and it breaks into pieces which I can clearly see starting to move apart in the tub. This was by far the oddest spider dream I've had - any thoughts on what it could mean?

Thanks!

Krista

Good morning, Krista.

The meaning of the spiders is best judged by your reaction to them. They cause fear, they are a threat, and you want to kill them. The fact that they change indicates that your anxieties come from multiple sources.

I'd like to examine the fact that they're usually attached to a line. This could be a reference to a telephone line, indicating a long-distance problem or news coming over the phone (or computer).
Your warm bath dream in particular has some clues all on its own. Water is emotional or spiritual issues, nearly every time. Your warm bath calls up feelings of comfort. And the spider is sitting on the faucet - your source of warm water, so it's threatening your emotional security.

This dream has a single spider changing form, so it's not two threats - it's only one which becomes more threatening when you fail to kill it early (I think there's no doubt that a big hairy spider is scarier - or at least uglier - than a small smooth one).

It's always positive when you can face your dream fear and defeat it, but the fact that you keep having these dreams indicates that you're not dealing directly with the source of your problems. These spiders are a symptom; whatever is on the other end of that line is the source. If someone has a particularly poisonous attitude toward you, perhaps it's time for a direct confrontation, rather than trying to swat down all the invective.

Pleasant dreams,

Peregrin