Dream meaning Dreaming of a cave

A cave in a dream draws you into sheltered darkness inside the earth, where people go to hide, to withdraw and to begin again. The reading depends on whether you enter by choice or take refuge from danger, whether you feel safe or trapped, and whether light shows at the mouth. Caves hold some of the great moments of sacred history.

The Qur'an tells of young believers who fled persecution into a cave and slept there for three hundred and nine years while their dog lay stretched at the entrance; Christians remember them as the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. Revelation first came to the Prophet in the cave of Hira, where he went to be alone, and in the cave of Thawr, with pursuers at the entrance, he told his companion: grieve not, God is with us.

Elijah heard God as a gentle whisper at the mouth of a cave, and Christian tradition places the birth of Jesus in a cave at Bethlehem. Plato pictured humanity as prisoners in a cave who take shadows for the world. The interpreters read a cave as safety for someone who is afraid, or as a loyal friend who shelters you, and the details decide which.

Taking refuge in a cave from danger is protection that comes, as the young believers were kept and as the Prophet was kept in Thawr. Entering by choice is a withdrawal that does you good, a season of worship or quiet. Being trapped inside, with the mouth closed, is a matter that holds you for a time, and walking toward light at the mouth is the way out that is already open.

Finding something precious inside is a benefit found in a dark season, and coming out of a cave is release and a new beginning. If the cave held you fast, ask God for the way out as the three travellers sealed in a cave once did, each by a sincere deed of their own.