Handshake Dream Interpretation: Insights from 7 Unique Sources

Shaking hands with someone in a dream means signing an agreement, receiving benefits, a pledge of allegiance, honoring one’s promise, making a commitment, good intention, signing a contract, or cherishing a friendship. Shaking hands with someone then embracing him in a dream means glad tidings, good news, good words to which one’s reply will be the same, or it could represent a knowledge he teaches to others.

(See Greetings)

Gives gender-specific: If the sleeves of the two hands are masculine and feminine in the dream, or the hands are bound by cords, the handshake may symbolize matrimony, the latter by pagan rites. You might like to consult the entries for bonds, cord, gloves and wedding / wedding dress / wedding ring for further information.

Material aspects: Agreements are often sealed by a handshake, the idea being that we are not going to attack our opposite number if we have shaken hands. In dreams, shaking hands will represent at least a partial bond with the other person since, from the times of chivalry, we remove our gloves in order to do so.

Traditionally a handshake symbolizes a welcome into heaven and a farewell to earthly existence. Our spiritual journey contains many welcomes and goodbyes, and today the handshake symbolizes the transitions we make. Equally the handshake can suggest the touch of healers and is also a sign of good faith.

Psychological / emotional perspective: A handshake is a mark of appreciation and of acknowledgement. In dreams it suggests that an emotional bond has been forged, which cannot easily be broken.

1. Completion and renewal, beginnings and endings— often in relationships, sometimes in situations.

2. Having a good reputation, a high social position.

Shaking hands in a dream is a sign of reconciliation or renewed friendship.