Gorilla Dream Interpretation: Insights from 11 Unique Sources

Universal Landscape: The struggle for leadership or domination.

Dreaming Lens: Were you facing the gorilla directly? Were you safely barricaded from harm? Were you in the gorilla’s habitat, or was it in yours? Was there more than one? Were you the gorilla? Was your dream gorilla exhibiting human behaviors? Were you or other humans exhibiting gorilla behaviors?

Personal Focus: Animals represent the instinctual part of our human nature. Gorillas are pack animals that live in communities led by a dominant, alpha-male figure, which is usually the biggest and strongest of the clan. The media has perpetuated an image of the chest-beating ape that reinforces this collective view of masculine and aggressive behavior. Initially, any interpretation of a gorilla in a dream is likely to be viewed from this perspective, representing instincts of competition, aggression, and the need for domination.

However, there are other elements to be considered. In the wild, gorillas display a rather shy disposition unless they are unduly disturbed. They also exhibit stable family structure and uncomplicated social interactions that contradict the stereotype often coupled with them. The fearsome outburst associated with an angry gorilla is, in reality, a posturing meant to establish leadership or a reaction to being disturbed. Consider that the appearance of a gorilla in a dream may point to rage that is more a facade than genuine anger. This can reflect a moment where your reaction is greater than the situation merits.

A gorilla in a cage might indicate feelings connected to being imprisoned, such as underlying aggression that is keeping you stuck in issues of anger management. A gorilla on the loose might point to the unsettling consequences of expressing previously locked up emotions. Facing a gorilla in a dream might indicate some readiness to confront your aggressive impulses or receive the expressions of anger from someone in your life.

Since a gorilla’s aggression connects to territorial disputes, watching peaceful gorillas in their own habitat might indicate a level of acceptance that your security no longer needs to be aggressively defended. As always, power is something that is most effective when it is silently present and not proven boisterously. Ask yourself about your relationship to your inner gorilla. Are you feeling aligned with your personal power or are you beating your chest to make your point in life?

Dreaming of this gentle, kindhearted animal almost always signifies a new friendship, or the reaffirming of an old friendship. Even if the gorilla appears to be on the rampage, this is still a positive symbol.

A gorilla that is angry or upset merely indicates minor misunderstandings with a friend.

To dream that you see a gorilla indicates that you could be a bit rambunctious. You may be making up for your firm and unyielding demeanor in your waking life. This dream may also indicate your primitive instincts, your outgoing adventurousness, or some sexual energy that needs an outlet.

This animal represents our instincts, especially our sexual impulses.

If you are able to master them in dreams it is a sign of good psychological health. Now, if you fight against it you will be expressing the mental block caused by you repressions.

In being so similar to the human being, gorillas have represented the more frightening aspects of mankind. As time passes, we recognize familiar aspects of a somewhat undeveloped personality coupled with a strong sense of family.

To dream of this frightening big ape portends a painful misunderstanding, unless the animal was very docile or definitely friendly, in which case the dream forecasts a very unusual new friend.

To see a gorilla in your dream suggests that a close friend wil be humiliated in some social situation. Or, you could suffer a painful misunderstanding or fight with a good friend.

A warning; unlike “monkey”, a gorilla is figurative of a heathen, savage-like person

1. Symbol of one’s primitive nature.

2. Fear of someone very powerful and daunting.

A looming problem