Dreams About Crabs – Meaning and Interpretation

Dreaming of a crab must make the dreamer reflect on the characteristics that differentiate it from other animals and make it unique: the armor, the claws, the oblique gait, the habitat halfway between land and water, on beaches and rocks.

Features that have a precise symbolism that helps to bring out both the character aspects of the dreamer and situations of the reality he is facing.

In fact, the shell of the crab can allude to introversion and sullenness, but it can also indicate the need to protect oneself in the midst of others, to defend one against invasions or threats from others.

The claws are a defense tool linked to strength and ability to look after them, but they can also be connected to a tendency to “pinch”, that is to be irritable, reactive ready to strike. And so on.

It will therefore be necessary to analyze each element to find out what are the connections that lead to the dreamer and his reality.

Crab symbolism in cultures

The symbolism of the crab is tied to that of the moon, to its rhythms and movements, to the cycles of birth and rebirth and to the myths and legends in which, like other animals provided with scales or cuirass (turtle, crocodile), the crab take charge of support the world.

The crab is an aquatic creature, but able to walk on land, to dig holes in the sand, to climb and shelter among the cracks of the rocks. In ancient times these characteristics have made it a symbol of fertility linked to water, of vitality “resistant” to the obstacles and shocks of life, of the chthonic world and of the most underground, hidden, secret emotions.

The zodiac sign of cancer is represented with the image of the crab whose characteristics are reflected in the character aspects of those born under the cancer: the tender heart of the crab that becomes extreme sensitivity, the shell and the claws that become the defense of family and people care and all this that sometimes translates into lunacy and irritability.

Dreams About Crabs – Meaning

The shell of the crab is what protects the nucleus of defenseless and tender inside the crab, it is the symbol of a protection of the vulnerability of the dreamer, of his most fragile parts linked to his sensitivity, to his “tender heart” and to his inner child.

Dreaming of the crab then will highlight this work of protection by the primary Se ‘of the personality that allow the individual to “work” among others, making it resistant and “impervious” to insensitivity and offense, but which often transform in a real armor that makes the vulnerability inaccessible even to oneself or does not allow it to emerge even in intimate relationships.

But the crab is also equipped with formidable claws that can become defensive or offensive weapons if necessary. A powerful symbolic element that transforms the primitive and angular aspect of the crab into something more threatening and disturbing that makes it unwelcome to most.

Dreaming of the crab will have to make the dreamer think about his way of proposing himself, about the aggressive attitudes adopted for fear or excessive fragility that become a sort of “mask” or about real character hardness and need to defend his own territory that lead to strike with reactions exaggerated.

The crab is also recognized for its typical oblique walk which has no other evidence in the animal world. An interesting peculiarity, a revealing symbol of how the dreamer is moving in a context or his or others’ indirect attitudes.

Dreaming of a crab that advances with its side steps following an oblique line can be connected to a similar way of proceeding. A “different” way that can imply an alternative vision of reality.

A path that is NOT direct and aimed at a goal, but characterized by small steps, perhaps too prudent actions, Machiavellian strategies, cunning and lack of predictability.

All this suggests caution, reflection and attention to what is happening around.

Dreams about Crabs – Symbolism

Dreaming of a giant crab – means confronting a big mistake (think of the expression “take a crab” which in our culture is equivalent to making mistakes) or with an aspect of oneself that has a “big breastplate”, which defends itself from others and hides. The fact that the crab in dreams is giant amplifies its characteristics and the need for the dreamer to identify them in him or in a neighbor.

Dream of catching a crab – as above, it may indicate a mistake made or even the ability to recognize it. It also reflects the relationship with a reserved, shy, introverted “crab” person who hides his emotional world.

Dreaming of an aggressive crab – Dreaming of a crab that pinches you – indicates more reactive and aggressive aspects within and outside the self. Often the aggressive crab in dreams is the symbol of a close person, not very malleable, not sociable and unpredictable.

Dreaming of a crab in the bed – it represents the closure and irritability that emerge towards the external world and also in the couple relationship (when the bed is double). Bring attention to your intimacy and the need to preserve it.

Dreaming of a crab on the body – if the sensations are of fear and disgust this image can be connected to a disowned self and to some needs that come to the surface: greater privacy if the dreamer in daytime life is very extrovert, need to defend himself if the dreamer does not know how to put borders to the invasions of others.

Sometimes dreaming of having an animal on your body can reflect a nuisance that occurs when we sleep like tingling, muscle pain. Alternatively, the presence of an animal on the body unconsciously we tend to move to become aware of something we do not want. In the case of the crab it can be anything given its messenger nature. Something you don’t want to face is haunting you.

Dreaming of eating a live crab – it can indicate something “hard” that is forced or that is forced to “swallow”, can be problems to face, difficulties and harshness of life. While dreaming of eating a cooked crab can represent the need to know and bring to light the most tender aspects of one, to go and look for sweet and emotional aspects beyond the rigidity of the primary selves.

Dreaming of killing a crab – it means trying to eliminate the symbolic characteristics of the crab when they are an obstacle to a situation that the dreamer is facing. It indicates the desire to intimately involve oneself in a relationship, to change one’s attitude, to be more sociable. It can be considered the sign of a transformation taking place, of a strong determination and an opening towards the outside.

Dreaming of a dead crab that stinks – highlights aspects of oneself (which have the symbolic qualities of the crab) that have become unpleasant, exaggerated, that no longer have a meaning and usefulness in the reality that the dreamer has to face.

Dreaming of crabs entering and leaving holes – they are the symbol of all forms of protection, masking and control of fears and emotions that emerge between the conscious and the unconscious.

They represent prudence and the need to be safe, to move in the most known and safe environment. In some dreams they may allude to strategies to be adopted, to alternative paths to be followed and to the search for a balance between what is shown to others and what is hidden.

The mouth in dreams has different nuances, in the case of the crab it could relate to something that you wanted to say but that you did not have the courage to express for fear of being judged, this is a form of protection towards yourself.

Alternatively there is something that you have already expressed and that you know is tormenting you, words that from the past come back to make them heard.

Dreaming of a red crab – indicates anger and aggression that hide behind a reserved and impersonal attitude.

Dreaming of a black crab – represents the most hidden and repressed emotions. It may allude to moody attitudes, mood swings and outbursts or to a danger: something or someone to avoid.

Dreaming of a white crab – as always the white color lightens the meanings of the symbol and even the crab turns into something lunar and harmless, whose privacy becomes shyness, hardness, impermeability, aggression, mediation, the oblique path originality and sympathy.

Dreaming of a green crab – more than other symbols, it recalls natural rhythms and the need, perhaps, for withdrawal and solitude in contact with nature.

Conclusion

This crab has some special characteristics that make it an ambivalent symbol, it can graze the characteristics related to water and therefore concern very deep and visceral emotions, on the other the idea of strong armor embodies the perfect combination of masks to protect yourself from the world, so that we can hide our fragility.

Another important detail concerns the claws, which the crab uses to defend itself; this creates a strong symbolism linked precisely to the need to protect oneself from adversity.

What does it mean to dream crab? It might reflect a time when you feel catapulted into the past, something or someone you would have preferred not to resurface. Or it could symbolize a set of appearances that you have created and that you can no longer bear. Or feel the need to protect yourself, something does not make you feel serene.

The crab as we have said in itself is a messenger of the unconscious, being tied to the sea, it already expresses a connection with very deep emotions, if we think that black accentuates this aspect we can interpret it as a very difficult period, in which you are reliving emotions and past disappointments that you would not have wanted to face.