Dream meaning Dreaming of a river

A river in a dream carries you on moving water, the flow of life itself: time passing, feelings moving, a direction that runs on whether you follow it or not. The water decides much, whether clear or muddy, calm or in flood, and so does what you do with it: drink, bathe, cross, drift or struggle. Rivers run through sacred texts.

The Qur'an describes gardens beneath which rivers flow, and in Paradise rivers of water, milk and honey. Moses' mother, inspired by God, set her infant in a basket on the river and he was carried safely to Pharaoh's house. Talut's army was tested at a river: only those who drank no more than a handful stayed with him.

The Prophet likened the five daily prayers to a river at one's door in which a person bathes five times a day. The Greek thinker Heraclitus taught that no one steps into the same river twice. The interpreters take a river for a powerful man or a ruler, and leaping across one for escape from worry; the rest of the dream is read from there.

A clear river flowing calmly is a matter moving well, under an authority that is fair to you; a river in flood that breaks its banks is a matter, or a person of power, sweeping through; a muddy river is an affair not yet settled. Crossing to the far bank is passing through a difficulty to safety.

Bathing in the river is cleansing and a fresh start, and drinking from it is provision or, as with Talut's army, the test of taking only what you need. Being swept away is being carried by something stronger than you, and a river that dries up is a benefit that stops flowing. Setting something afloat, like Moses' mother, is entrusting what you love to God.