Symbolism of Food in Dreams: Lawful Earnings, Success, and Challenges
Lawful and Unlawful Food
Food served on a ceramic or clay plate in a dream represents lawful earnings, while food placed on a forbidden golden or silver platter symbolizes unlawful money and debts.
Eating Habits
Eating with the right hand signifies success, while eating with the left hand indicates falling into traps set by enemies or displeasing friends. Eating from someone else’s hand can mean trusting in God, but it may also suggest sickness or an inability to eat independently.
Sweets and Sour Food
Eating sweets in a dream symbolizes problem-solving through kindness, while sour food represents steadfastness. Sour food in the mouth may also indicate pain and suffering.
Yellow Food and Greasy Food
Yellow food, except for fowl’s meat, often suggests sickness, while greasy food in a dream represents a lasting problem or issue.
Symbolism of Specific Meals
Eating at a wedding foretells glad tidings, while eating at a funeral reception indicates distress and sorrow. Eating food that has a long shelf life symbolizes continuous profits and benefits.
Food of Different Groups
- Eating from the table of royalty or wealthy people symbolizes rising in rank.
- Eating from the table of knowledgeable people represents acquiring wisdom and blessings.
- Eating the food of the poor or pious ones signifies repentance from sin or receiving guidance.
- Eating the food of nomads or bedouins suggests travel and rising in status.
Cooked Meals
A meal cooked with meat indicates richness for the poor, while a meal without meat may suggest poverty or devotion. Cooking a tasty meal signifies attaining a high-ranking job or prosperity after hardship. If someone else cooks the meal, it may represent dealing with a treacherous person.
Adversities and Confusion
Eating unbearably hot food represents adversities. If one's mouth is filled with food but still has room, it indicates confusion or represents the balance of life. Successfully grinding and swallowing food symbolizes overcoming difficulties.
Bitter and Sour Food
Receiving or offering sour or bitter food suggests hearing harsh words. Eating such food may lead to sorrow, but if one eats it with patience and thanks God, it signifies escaping from danger.
See Also: Chewing Food, Guest, Hospitality, Swallowing, Table
[1]General Meaning: Spiritual and Physical Sustenance
Positive Interpretation
To dream or have a vision of being fed symbolizes the Lord providing for your spiritual or physical needs. It reminds us of Elijah, who was fed by an angel when he felt weak in the desert:
1 Kings 19:6 – "And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he ate and drank, and laid himself down again."
1 Kings 19:7 – "And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you."
This image beautifully portrays the grace and provision of the Lord. During times of weariness and loneliness, He sustains us.
Revival and Restoration
To dream of being fed signifies that the Lord is going to revive and restore you, returning the strength the enemy has taken away. Like Elijah, after being fed, who continued his journey for 40 days and nights without further sustenance, a little time in God's presence can provide the strength you need to keep going.
It doesn't take much for the Lord to provide for your needs—one move from Him, and everything can be taken care of.
Negative Interpretation
Rotten food in a dream indicates not taking advantage of the blessings God has given you. It may also symbolize a curse of theft in your life. This is reminiscent of the children of Israel gathering manna—when they gathered too much or didn’t eat what they collected, it became rotten.
Similarly, if you do not seize the opportunities and blessings God provides, they may spoil. Lack of food in a dream represents either neglecting to feed your spirit or not walking in the blessings of the Lord.
The Word promises that God will provide for all our needs. If these needs aren’t being met, it may mean that the enemy is stealing from you.
See Also: Bake, Bread, Cake, Fruit, Meat, Milk
[2]Universal Landscape: Sustenance; self-care, nurturance.
Dreaming Lens: Were you eating? Were you not eating? Were you hungry? Was someone else eating? What food was in the dream?
Personal Focus: The relationship that human beings have with food is very complicated. As everyone must eat to survive, there is no exemption from the various issues that can surround food and eating. Food in a dream connects to self-care and nurturing, and the Dreaming Lens will illuminate how this is currently being played out in your unconscious.
For simplicity’s sake, approach this symbol from one of two broad perspectives. If you exert rigid control over your eating in life, then you must consider food through the lens of control. If you abandon all discipline in the face of eating, you must consider food through the lens of indulgence. As this is a continuum, place yourself anywhere on the scale between these two extreme opposites.
If you are eating in the dream, combine the quality of that experience with your waking perspective. For control, eating might suggest more nurturance in some area of your life is needed. If indulgent, you may be getting a warning of a need for discipline or a hidden impulse to stuff feelings that need expression. If you experience dream-hunger, then the control perspective could point to the impact some exertion of limitation or lack is having in your life. Ask yourself if you are starving in some way.
[3]1- Food signifies a satisfaction of our needs whether those are physical, mental or spiritual.
It is something we might take or arc taking into ourselves. Frequent dreams about eating suggest a great hunger for something.
2- Our need or enjoyment of food fulfils certain psychological needs.
The meanings of various foods are as follows; Bread We are looking at our experiences and our basic needs. Cake This signifies sensual enjoyment. Fruits Represent in dream form the fruits of our experience or effort, and the potential for prosperity. “I”he colour can also be significant (See Also: Colour). Ham/Cured Meat Our need for preservation is represented by cured meats. Meals Depending on whether we are eating alone or in a group, meals can indicate acceptance and sociability. Meat Physical or worldly satisfaction or needs are shown often in dreams as meat. Raw meat can supposedly signify impending misfortune. Milk As a basic food, milk will always signify baby needs and giving to oneself. Onion The different lavers of oneself arc often shown as an onion (See Also: individual entry). Sweets These tend to represent sensual pleasure. Vegetables Vegetables represent our basic needs and material satisfaction. They also suggest the goodness we can take from the Earth and situations around us.
The colour may also be important (See Also: Colour).
3- Spiritual Sustenance.
See Also: Eating, Nourishment
[4]Food represents the traits you want to internalize or model. The different types of food, therefore, have different meanings. Fruit, for example, is sensuality, the received reward, or abundance. In case that it is a bitter fruit, it could represent an unfavorable influence on your lives. Milk, on the other hand, is kindness; sugar, sweet words; and frozen food, emotions you need to awaken. Depending on the feeling that every kind of food produces in you, it will be possible to find out the correct meaning of the dream.
Since the Greeks, dreaming of food has had sexual connotations. Throughout history, juicy peaches and other fruits have been linked to lewd and lascivious behavior; pomegranates, with fertility; apple, with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise; and bread, with restrained and reproduction-oriented sexuality. On the other hand, many cultures still believe that dreaming of eating meat involves acquiring the spiritual features of that animal.
[5]Pleasurable dreams about food/eating mean you are happy in a real life relationship.
If you dream about stuffing yourself or feeling sick when eating, you are feeling nervous or guilty about a friendship situation.
If you dream of being chased or eaten by food items, you are trying to avoid a situation in real life that involves strong emotions.
To dream about rotten or spoiled food suggests that you are feeling sluggish and emotionally drained. You may also be regretting missed opportunities for growth and pleasure.
To dream that you are serving food represents catering to the demands of others. You may feel that you are doing a lot for somebody, and not getting much in return.
To dream that somebody is serving you food symbolizes that you will be involved in many social gatherings involving friends and loved ones. Also see “Eating”, “Food Fight”, “Frozen Food” and “Junk Food”.
[6]There is food for the mind, food for thought, food for the body, and spiritual nourishment. We can digest information or experience, the latter being food for our growth as an individual. Food can represent any of these. Also something we might take or are taking into ourself—such as experience of a relationship, qualities of another person, sexual pleasure, social pleasure; warning about health in regard to what is eaten. Food in connection with particular person: being nourished by or hungry for relationship with them, enjoyment of sexuality with them. Giving food: giving of oneself, time, love, work, sex. Stealing food: dishonest about needs in a relationship; feelings of being parasite.
See Also: eating; restaurant.
See Also: wife under family(second example).
[7]To dream about food suggests physical and spiritual sustenance and vitality. Different foods can represents a variety of things. Fruit usually represents sensuality. Frozen foods could indicate your indifference or cold demeanor.
To dream that you are hoarding food suggests anxiety from not having enough. You don’t have faith in what you already have.
To dream about eating stale food indicates that you are out of energy emotionally. You need to be recharged and energized.
To dream about eating bad-tasting food suggests that there is something within your psyche that is bitter or resentful.
[8]People often dream about food. All types of food are a consistent part of a dream life. Anything from meat to elbow macaroni comes up through our unconscious and leaves vivid memories upon awakening. Food is symbolic of a large variety of things. It could symbolize pleasure and indulgence.
To the perpetual dieter, the dream could have a “compensatory” function where the food that is denied to the individual during the day shows up in the dream state. Dreams could additionally symbolize physical, mental, spiritual and emotional nourishment.
[9]As a general guide, seeing or preparing food is an auspicious omen, providing the food was fresh and sufficient for the occasion; but if it was spoiled in any way or you were short of it, you can expect some reverses which will require careful planning to overcome.
Selling food is a dream of contrary and signifies a stroke of money luck; buying food predicts a happy family celebration, but tasting food indicates a minor loss of money or persona] property.
See Also: under separate items of food.
[10]Food is a universal symbol for prosperity and for plenty, even in rough times.
If the food was fresh and crisp, then good things will be coming in profusion, but if some or all of it was spoiled, there will be setbacks, although in the end all will be well. Buying food represents domestic happiness; selling food indicates business advancement. Tasting food, however, while it’s still a positive omen, represents minor steps towards prosperity.
[11]Dreams of food represent nourishment and influence.
If you are cooking, you’re you the one giving the nourishment.
If you are eating the food, you are receiving the nourishment, energy, stimulation, praise, acknowledgment, and influence. Every type of food represents a specific type of support for your body, mind and soul.
See Also: Cook, Chef, Vegetables, Meat, Potato, Starches, Dessert Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Bread.
[12]As that which sustains life, food can represent the areas of concern that maintain your life and make you feel secure with the world. Food may be synonymous with knowledge, as in “food for thought “ Carrying a bag of groceries in your dream may reflect your concerns about taking care of your family’s needs and your ability to nurture them properly. Eating food may represent nourishing yourself.
[13]Physically, food nourishes the body. Mentally, knowledge nourishes the mind, thus the old adage of ‘food for thought’. In the universal language of mind, food represents an experience of a type of energy to be taken in. The preparation of food represents the formulation and creation of something important, and the consumption of food represents the taking in of knowledge.
[14]Material aspects: Food signifies a satisfaction of our needs whether those are physical, mental or spiritual.
It is something we might take or are taking into ourselves. Frequent dreams about eating suggest a great hunger for something, not necessarily food. Food that is mouldy suggests that we are seeking sustenance in the wrong fashion or from the wrong direction.
[15]Physical and emotional strength and energies. You are feeding the animal side in you.
Nourishment for body and soul.
The kind of food you see is urgently needed for your soul.
For instance, dreaming about Meat refers to drives and animalistic needs. Chocolate, on the other hand, or other sweets suggest being more open to love.
[16]Food can symbolize the taking in of physical or nonphysical nourishment. Food can also represent enjoyment or indulgence. Finally, the dreaming mind often literalizes common verbal expressions—such as “food for thought” and “let me digest that”—in an effort to convey something to the conscious mind. (See Also: Groceries).
[17]1. Nourishment—often emotional, more frequently spiritual.
2. Fortune in love affairs (feeding others).
3. Repressed sexual desire (eating).
[18]Plenty of food in a dream foretells business success.
Too little food is a forerunner of distress.
Too much food is an omen of sensual pleasures.
[19]Nourishment of physical, mental, emotional or spiritual self.
See Also: what kind of food you are eating.
See Also: Eat. Also, food for thought, ideas.
[20]It is generally a fortunate sign to eat Food in your dream, provided you are soon satisfied. But it is not a good omen to eat like a glutton.
[21]Psychological / emotional perspective: Our need – or enjoyment – of food fulfils certain psychological needs.
[22]Consult the entries for bread, cakes, colour, eat / eating, fruit, nourishment and onion for further clarification.
[23]Food in dreams always symbolizes spiritual sustenance – what we need to continue on our journey through life.
[24]Words or deeds received or served; research type of food and preparation
[25]See Also: Food Fruit Tress Metaphors.
[26][27]See Also: Eating/ Drinking.
[28]Lucky Numbers and Food Symbolism in Dreams
Lucky Numbers: 02, 03, 16, 19, 33, 39
Appetite and Feasting
Appetite, having a big: Indicates loss of relatives.
Big feast: Loss of money.
Losing one’s appetite: Feeling dissatisfaction in some aspect of life is making you sick.
Small appetite: Ill health ahead.
Receiving and Preparing Food
Being supplied with food: Beware of ambiguous intentions.
Boiling food: Happiness is on its way.
Buying food: Average success will come.
Casserole: Utilize your pool of ideas.
Cutting up food: Indicates a successful completion of your project.
Food and Personal Feelings
Eating food: Represents the process of absorbing, understanding, and incorporating things into your way of life.
Cereal: Represents a new beginning.
Custard: Making a new and valuable friendship.
Eating like a glutton: Hunger for affection, self-confidence, and recognition.
Emotional Connections and Food
Not being satisfied with food: Feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
Others eating: Success in achieving your hopes.
Food that has gone bad: Loss of money that will be hard to bear.
Leftovers: Accepting less than you deserve.
Not having enough food: Painful arguments with your partner.
Specific Food Items
Porridge, eating: Warning not to maintain friendships with those addicted to liquor.
Rancid food: Enduring persecution but avoiding slander.
Eating rancid food unknowingly: An unknown enemy will cause much damage.
Stew: Life is quietly progressing and cooking up something good.
Food and Social Aspects
Serving food to others: Represents social pleasure and contentment.
Supplying food to hotels and restaurants: Symbolizes riches and wealth.
Tamales, eating: You will be invited on a hunting or fishing trip.
Food and Misfortune
Food gone bad: Petty annoyances in life or work that are never finished.
Throwing away food: Misfortune for a short time.
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