Dream meanings · 5 old dream books
Dream about fish: what 5 old dream books say
The dream books disagree — China read it as good · Sweden · Greek · Russia read it as bad
Counted from 40 entries about this symbol · books that give no direction (such as Miller) don't count as a vote
🇨🇳 China · Zhougong Jiemeng
a carpgood — the wife conceives — greatly auspicious (鯉魚妻有孕大吉) · direction from 吉/凶 in the original
small fish giving birthgood — great good fortune (小魚生子大吉利) · direction from 吉/凶 in the original
fish flying above the water — A hundred affairs fall apart. (魚飛水上百事散)
a big fish leaping and stirring — fame and renown (大魚揚動主聲名)
a dried fish entering the water — one's fate flows open again (乾魚下水命復通)
Source: 周公解夢 · Public domain (Wikisource · {{Pd-old}})
🇺🇸 Western · Miller (1901)
Dolphin — To dream of a dolphin, indicates your liability to come under a new government. It is not a very good dream.
Eel — To dream of an eel is good if you can maintain your grip on him. Otherwise fortune will be fleeting. To see an eel in clear water, denotes, for a woman, new but evanescent pleasures. To see a dead eel, signifies that you will overcome your most maliciously inclined enemies. To lovers, the dream denotes an end to long and hazardous courtship by marriage.
Fish — To dream that you see fish in clear-water streams, denotes that you will be favored by the rich and powerful. Dead fish, signifies the loss of wealth and power through some dire calamity. For a young woman to dream of seeing fish, portends that she will have a handsome and talented lover. To dream of catching a catfish, denotes that you will be embarrassed by evil designs of enemies, but your luck and presence of mind will tide you safely over the trouble. To wade in water, catching fish, denotes that you will possess wealth acquired by your own ability and enterprise. To dream of fishing, denotes energy and economy; but if you do not succeed in catching any, your efforts to obtain honors and wealth will be futile. Eating fish, denotes warm and lasting attachments.
Goldfish — To dream of goldfish, is a prognostic of many successful and pleasant adventures. For a young woman, this dream is indicative of a wealthy union with a pleasing man. If the fish are sick or dead, heavy disappointments will fall upon her.
Herring — To dream of seeing herring, indicates a tight squeeze to escape financial embarrassment, but you will have success later.
Salmon — Dreaming of salmon, denotes that much good luck and pleasant duties will employ your time. For a young woman to eat it, foretells that she will marry a cheerful man, with means to keep her comfortable.
Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted — Gustavus Hindman Miller (1901) · Public domain (Gutenberg) · 3 more in this book
🇸🇪 Sweden · folk dream book
Anchovymixed — Good fortune that has dangerous consequences. · direction as read by the translator
Fishmixed — Abundance if they are large, poverty if they are small, for those who see or catch fish; to be eaten up by a fish: a cold, melancholy; to see or find a dead fish: empty hopes; a pregnant woman who thinks she gives birth to a fish will bear a mute child, or else it will not live long. · direction as read by the translator
Spratbad — Domestic quarrels · direction as read by the translator
Smelt (fish)mixed — Profit if you see them in the water; loss if you eat them. · direction as read by the translator
Bullhead fishmixed — Gain if you see it in the water; loss if you eat it. · direction as read by the translator
Eelbad — False friends · direction as read by the translator
Source: Den tillförlitligaste Drömboken (svensk drömbok) · Public domain (Gutenberg)
🏛️ Greek · Artemidorus (1881 German ed.)
Multicoloured fish (grey mullet, sand smelt, wrasse, rock fish, etc.)bad — For the sick they mean poisoning; for the healthy, frauds and plots. · direction as read by the translator
Reddish fish (red gurnard, red mullet, etc.)bad — For slaves and criminals they mean torture; for the sick, violent fever and inflammations; for receivers of stolen goods, conviction. · direction as read by the translator
Red mulletgood — A favourable omen for childless women, because it spawns three times. · direction as read by the translator
Cuttlefishgood — Useful to runaways, because of its ink, with which it often escapes dangers. · direction as read by the translator
Large cartilaginous/slippery fish (moray eel, river eel, conger eel)bad — They signify vain toil and disappointed hopes, because they slip out of the hands and lack scales, which surround the body of fish as property surrounds people. · direction as read by the translator
Rays and sharks (stingray, electric ray, eagle ray, shark, etc.)bad — Because of their fierceness, they signify dangers. · direction as read by the translator
Source: Artemidoros aus Daldis — Symbolik der Träume (German ed., 1881) · Public domain (printed 1881) · 4 more in this book
🇷🇺 Russia · Sonnik (1787 · 1811)
Motley (spotted) fishbad — A sign of poisoning: death to the sick, and deception and intrigue to the healthy. · direction as read by the translator
Reddish fishbad — Threatens criminals with torture, the sick with fever or inflammation in some part, and those who conceal and hide something with its discovery. · direction as read by the translator
Fish that shed their skin (eel, crayfish and the like)good — Signify health to the sick, and speedy release to one sitting in prison. · direction as read by the translator
Rough, prickly fishmixed — A good dream only for those undertaking some bad deed; to other people it signifies obstacles and the stoppage of their affairs, and foretells a bad ending to work we have undertaken. · direction as read by the translator
Smooth, slimy, boneless fishbad — Threaten us with prolonged but useless labour and the overturning of all our hopes. · direction as read by the translator
Fish with only the appearance of scalesbad — Signify that the hope of the one who dreams of them is empty. · direction as read by the translator
Source: Сонник, или Истолкование снов (1787) · Public domain (printed 1787) · 4 more in this book