When rats are troublesome dream omens that warn the dreamer of something hidden and very dangerous in your life.
Anytime we use the word ‘rat’ its never viewed in a good light, but more of an unclean, diseased and contaminated rodent that triggers a gross feeling.
Rats contain a hidden message often as a warning for the dreamer to pay attention to something negative that needs to be eliminated immediately.
hey dwell in areas you wouldn’t even dare to explore; lingering behind dumpsters, breeding in sewers and wondering on subway tracks.
Rat Dreams
Rats are far more complex and intelligent then we make them out to be. Metaphorically speaking this problem is not going to go away very easily as they know how to hide and dwell in the dark corners of your mind.
When they appear the problem in your life seem to be already manifested, sometimes the size determines how long it has been hidden for. Who could the rat be in your dreams?
- enemies
- hidden issues not fixed
- negative emotions, thoughts and behaviors
- unconscious pestering thoughts (negativity)
- psychic attack
Rats in dreams can appear to be scrupulous people, personal suffering or something that has been nagging you for a long time. A warning that it comes with sickness attached to it – they contaminate anything in its path.
The direction of where the rat is going leads you a clue. If the rat is found and is leaving or escaping your vicinity its a positive dream symbol. If you notice a rat running and hiding somewhere its a hint on where to look. This is a problem that needs to be addressed in order to be fixed
The location of the rat tells you if this is an internal or external problem. When you noticed rats in you house brings your attention on your mind/psyche as its related to an internal issue. This could be negative thinking or possibly a spiritual attack. Rats at your work place are hints to issues related to your work environment.
Dream Of Rats Running
Majority of dreams that involve rats you always see them either running or hiding. This lets you know that you might be somewhat conscious of the “rat” but will take time to find it.
Dreaming of rats crawling on you shows you that you are unaware of the dangers around you. These issue have manifested to a point where they are out of control and need to be fixed.
Rat Bite Dreams
Rats that bite in dreams are considered a bad omen signifying threats and warnings of the people you surround yourself around. Perhaps its is something that might be gnawing away at your consciousness. Thread carefully as your dream is giving you a heads up you might be to close to something that poses a threat.
Killing Rat Dreams
Killing a rat in your dream is a very positive omen that you have identified a threat that has been plaguing you for a long time. The question is if this is a threat that relates to someone or something in your life – or – relating to unconscious urges, behaviors and troubles that have been gnawing away at you.
Dead rats are very positive dream symbols that let you know that the troubles will eventually stop. These can be dangerous people who have left you or things in your life that where causing major disturbances.
The location helps determine where the issue might be residing. Often times if it is in your house it connects to your mind as each floor contains a different meaning. Furthermore how it is killed and by who is another clue that helps put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Rat Dropping Dreams Meaning
Noticing rat droppings suggests you are now becoming aware of a threat around you. You are unable to see it but this is a lead to take action of something dangerous is lurking around. This is a dream that encourages the dreamer that a threat is present in your life and needs to be exterminated The good news is you have identified that their is an issue presently lurking.
Cat and Rat Dreams
Noticing a cat and rat can be considered a very positive dream symbol as a threat in your life might be exterminated by unconscious feminine instincts.
Spiritual Meaning Of Rats
The enemy of the rat is a snake. Snakes in dreams can either be both good and bad connotations attached to it. However, when it comes to spirituality snakes are symbols of healing and transcendence. People who are more spiritually inclined might view the rat in dreams as a threat to the spiritual.
A need to awaken your energies or become in tuned with your intuition as you are up against an enemy. This could be a warning of a psychic attack on your aura that is feeding off of your energy. A warning to ground and pay close attention to your thoughts as the negative is taking over.
The color of the rat can also be translated differently. A black rat might be related to the shadow archetype; basically the unknown dangerous aspects of the dreamer. A white rat can might pose a less of a threat but still a warning.
Rats Biblical Dream Meaning
Leviticus 11:29 “And these are unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the ground: the mole rat, the mouse, the great lizard of any kind“.
Rats are commonly depicted in the bible as unclean and unkempt rodents that should never be eaten. Warnings to stay away and avoid at all costs. Rats are symbols in the Bible relating to a warning or unseen issues in your life that will cause a problem.
The movie Dracula uses rats as part of the vampire threat that scares everyone. The scene was well done, showing the vampire the light as it disappears in the darkness. The rats are a symbol of being unclean and dangerous.
Rat Dreams: Personal Encounters
Recording decades of dreams I noticed whenever the rat appeared it was a serious warning. Unlike the mouse its tiny predecessor, rats are a larger scale problem you will be encountering.
They are not considered a good omen, however they are teachers hoping we will overcome this obstacle. Rat can be people, situations or a metaphor for something that is plaguing your mind. A rat can be whatever it wants when it is presented to you.
The rat comes to be when I am suffering from pain. Before I through out my back, the rat entered my house. I knew the very morning that I had a problem on my hands but what? I forgot about this dream until months down the road I saw the rat leave my house.
This was foreshadowing the pain and negative thoughts pertaining to my back will be gone. One month after the dream I started to heal.
I noticed during times of suffering the rat has always appeared in my life. There might be a connection between negative thought patterns and the rat. This is why they are found so often in our house in dreams.
Interesting Rat Characteristics
- Rats take care of injured and sick rats in their group and are known to be very social.
- An adult rat has the ability to squeeze into your home through a hole as small as the size of a quarter.
- Rats teeth are so powerful that allow them to chew through glass, cinder block, wire, aluminum and lead.
- Known to spread nasty disease that have killed human (plague).
- Rats are omnivores, but many prefer meat when they can get it.
- They are found all over the world.
- Henry Hill and 6ix9ine are Americas biggest rats.
Rat Idioms:
- Being a rat – a person that tells on someone else.
- Ratting on someone – someone tells on you for what you did.
- To Smell a rat – someone who is poisonous to an enthronement.
- Rat race – living in a toxic environment trying to get ahead.
- Rats!
On my dream there was a long dark red corridor i had to cross, on a house that had all windows shut and with several dark rooms on each side and furniture everywhere. And on this hallway there were swarms of rats moving as one (like fish really). They wouldn’t attack but they were hiding. I was being guided together with a group of people by an old man and a woman. At the end of the corridor there was a room where we had to take our shoes off. The woman said something to then and he turned away… Read more »
I dreamed last night of mice running along the edge of a rug in my living room whilst I was on the phone to my mum. One ran under the edge of the rug and then another came and ran on top of it. Both in the same direction. Later in the dream, a huge rat appeared. It was dark brown and the size of a toddler, it was walking on it’s hind legs and talking. I was terrified of it and it was snarling and snapping at me and very aggressive.
I was in the basement bedroom in a home I do not recognize. I moved a blanket on the cement floor and uncovered two ‘rows’ of mice/rats. All lined up next to each other neatly. They looked to be healthy but maybe sleeping or newly dead. All were a light brown color, rats with bigger bodies n longer tails. Two smaller mice on the left and 3 or 4 bigger rat looking ones in a row beside them. Underneath that row was another row of all mice. Two rows, neatly lined up. I uncovered them and freaked out. I felt… Read more »
In my dream I was driving with my daughter. I heard what sounded like a rat in the trunk of the car. It kept getting closer and closer until it was climbing on to my shoulder, down my arm, and then bit my finger before escaping through the car window. Someone in my dream told me it was a known rat in the area that was always biting little kids.
In my dream, Iwas in my childhood home. Under my bed, were rats of various sizes, ages and colors- some huge and gray, some piebald. They were under my bed. I was desperately trying to corral then out of the house with a system of blockades to the open front door I’d created with chairs and blankets. At one point, my mother had vaccumed and removed the blockades, which frustrated me to tears in the dream. when I got outside, somehow my bed was there on the sidewalk outside the house. I did get one rat, graphically obese and the… Read more »
Not a good dream. Beds are symbolic in the sense that it connects you towards intimacy, relationships and the unconscious part of you (see bed dreams in the search bar). Whenever we go back to our childhood homes essentially we are going back to the past to find something that might be hidden from you. Often times these are repressed memories, unconscious emotions or trauma that needs to be fix; see childhood in search bar. The house is basically your mind and it seems your mom may have helped with this issue you are covering. Its a good symbol that… Read more »
Thank you very much for this. Very helpful and detailed with resources.
Welcome!
I went to my childhood home and the new tenants were there. But my room was the same. When I went into my childhood room there was a gray rat digging through some stuff in my closet. I tried to catch it, as soon as I did it was scratching and trying to get out of my hands it was not a nice rat. It then bit my hand and I bent its front teeth backwards, then I think I eventually tossed it outside. There was more to the dream. But that scene stood out
The rat seems to belong to you are hiding. I highly recommend you figure out what this means. Whenever we go back to our childhood homes essentially we are going back to the past to find something that might be hidden from you. Often times these are repressed memories, unconscious emotions or trauma that needs to be fix; see childhood in search bar. The closet tells you that this rat is not only hidden but you need to figure out how to get into this part of your mind/memory that has trapped it. See closet in the search bar.
I dreamt of being in my bedroom vacuuming old dust/cobwebs above my window and I sucked up a live spider. I ended up quickly putting the vacuum down as I was afraid of the spider in it (this has happened several times in real life lol) the spider ended up crawling out and it turned into a huge black rat. It wasn’t fast, but was roaming around and I was so scared, screaming and trying to run away. I tried asking for help from my dad or mom and tried to not lose sight of it. I showed my sister… Read more »
You see to be cleaning up aspects of your past relationships or current. What you try to clean comes out worse. The black color tells you that this is unconscious (see bed in search bar); asking your parents to pay attention to its movements. Now you are hiding which suggests you are avoiding this. The hole in your wall is sort of like an unwanted opening that gnawed away at you; walls protect the dreamer. I think the dream is really good but you need to figure out what the rat was. Read article: spider.
I dreamt about myself being with my mother at our home but it did not look like our home, I went to sleep and woke up by the terrified by three rats trying to bite at the end of my leg. I screamed mom for help and I woke up for real …
I would need more information about the dream in order to help.
It was more like a nightmare, The place was suposed to be our family home but did not look like it is actually, it was a much more open space. I was speaking to my mom in general and also something about my father that is no longer alive. Then, I was not sleeping in a proper bed, it was very close to the floor, and I was not comfortable but I was tired and just laid to sleep there. I woke up in my dream when I felt something bothering me and I saw three black rats were biting… Read more »
If they are gnawing away at your leg it should be hinting at your support in your life. So the underlying issue seems to be with your mom or dad; repressed or unconscious emotions that could be connected with his death as well. Beds are also symbolic for our relationships, love, intimacy..
In my dream me and my husband were at my childhood’s house orginizing things. We were at the doorbetween the small and middle room. Either side there were packs of things to load. I saw a line of rats (same size, but different color-like in a story book) coming from the middle of a sack (in order, not running, walking) I haven’t had any bad feeling, they were not coming into my direction but were disgusting. Right after this there was a sack in my hand I saw there moving somthing in it, it was a mouse running away. Still… Read more »
Whenever we go back to our childhood homes essentially we are going back to the past to find something that might be hidden from you. Often times these are repressed memories, unconscious emotions or trauma that needs to be fix; see childhood in search bar. You need to go back into your childhood to find this major issue. There is a clue it might be located between the small and middle room. What was there? Once you find out it might be time to do inner child work. See inner child in search bar.
Thank you for your answer!
I had a dream two rats were under my tee shirt slapping their tails on my back.
Behind your back either suggests that this is hidden from you or might imply two people behind your back. Usually clothing is a part of the dreamer idenitty or image so it would be hard to say. See clothes in the search bar.
Dreamed I was at my kids school checking in on his work. I decided to wander the halls and I opened a door and saw a huge rat the size of a cat sitting on a ledge by the sealing. It was eating something then turned to look at me. It looked like it was going to chase me so I got scared and ran away
It seems to be relating to an issue within the school or your child in the school.
I had a dream I saw a rat & then it bit my finger. Then in my boyfriend killed one with a shovel and then another one. Then I woke up.
A positive symbol is when we kill the rat. Fingers are known to be symbols that “point” so it might relate to something unconscious in your relationship. I don’t understand what you mean by another one. Can you please clarify.
I just had a brief dream about a big rat. The dream went like this, someone was trying to fill in a vehicle (am not sure) with passengers, I was standing close to that vehicle (like I was waiting for my turn to get inside and this is just the view of the dream: the opening of the vehicle) and was wondering at something (maybe where will I sit inside?) and notice a space/seat just right at the door of that vehicle and told myself “ah so this is where we will sit once everyone’s in.” Then that very scene… Read more »
You will first need to think of who or what snuck in from the outside to your inner world. The telephone handle might be related to communication of some sort, the coiled cord connects you with the SPIRAL (see spiral dreams in search bar). Since you are trying to kill the rat it is a very good symbol. Doors act as protective barriers in our psyche. The car could in fact be related to your movements or drive. Based off of the last part of the dream it seems as if someone else will help block this threat from coming… Read more »
I see, thanks for this
I had a disturbing dream that a vicious pet rat had esaped in a house. I found it in the corner of a bedroom. Let it bite a blue pillow instead of my hand. Whilst it was attached to the pillow, I stuffed it in a white cage. It tried to claw at me, it gave up & ate it’s babies. Not a nice vivid dream to have.
Interesting. I don’t think its necessary a bad dream since you caged it. We know that rats are bad omens and in your case this is something that escaped (metaphor); belonging to someone or something that is now your issue. But where? If the bedroom emerged you could explore your relationships, intimacy – corner being unconscious, trapped, hidden, restricted, and boundaries. The pillow tells you about comfort and rest. The cage ties in with the trapped feelings that are unconscious to you, usually points to your feelings of frustration and perhaps anger. The fact it ate its babies is very… Read more »
Thank you. I’ll keep my whits about me. Alot of changes going on at the mo.
Welcome and good luck!
Last night I dreamed my husband was laying down on MY side of the bed (right). (He is a paraplegic in real life and in the dream.) I walked into the bedroom and saw to my left two big snakes, intertwined, near HIS side of bed (left). One was black and red and the other pure black. I was surprised and nervous because they were venomous and I didn’t want to be bitten and didn’t know how they got inside. I got pretty close to them when one started hissing so I backed off and moved away. Then as I… Read more »
Hi, I had a horrible dream last night that I’d left my jacket outside in the garage. Then I was inside and felt cold so I went to get the jacket and put it on. I was sitting in the house and I noticed a motionless white rat poking out from the bottom of my jacket. It was like a pet rat with ginger markings. I pulled it out and felt like I just wanted to get it off me. Then many hours later I became warm and my back was itching so I took off my jacket and the… Read more »
Hi Dani. We can see the house relating to your psyche/mind as the jacket can be related to identity/protection, or something you carry with you. Your back shows it might be something behind you metaphorically speaking that remains motionless (asleep). You mentioned “I can sometimes be irrationally concerned about my health, due to having previous health issues”. I think the dream might be hinting it. The rats remain unconscious, a bad omen for troublesome or pestering thoughts that you wear with you (jacket). Now if you had this happen in the past it means its behind you (back) that is… Read more »
Thank you so much for this. It is very helpful. I have been thinking by throwing the jacket away that I may have resolved these fears. I hope so!
I had a dream where I had hunted and killed a moose and was gutting the carcass for the meat. When I was pulling the innards out a rat chewed it’s way out of the stomach and scurried off. I followed it and threw my knife at it impaling it. Thick black rat blood sprayed over my pants. Not sure what this means?
Seems symbolic. Once you figure out what the moose is in your life it would better help identity what is the rat. Now if a rat was in the inside of the moose that is a bad omen. But what is the moose mirroring in your life? If I had to guess I would see it belonging to your unconscious instincts or instinctive urge. Why? Because the vast, wild,and unknown area it dwells in might reflect the unconscious. Mooses like a horse but wilder, strong, less tame; so the force of drives your emotions. Knives are symbolic to remove or… Read more »
I had a dream that a large rat dropped out of a hidden drawer under my work desk, attached but unknown to me previously, I was really scared and when I looked at it I still felt very afraid that it would attack me but it didn’t touch me, later I showed it to my son who found it hiding in the same hidden spot or drawer attached to the underside of my work desk but it was sleeping and much smaller. Later still I found it again and it was small enough to crush underfoot.
A hidden drawer under your work desk is hinting at something unconscious relating to your work. Clue (attached but unknown to you), now your son found it hiding, now this time its smaller and sleeping. I suggest you find out what the rat is relating too (son/work) connection. Now the good news is this problem is now manageable, however it needs to be killed and you are not doing it.
I had a dream that I was in a warehouse. I was going up stairs and down slides to accomplish whatever goal I had in a certain time period. I was clearing the warehouse out of different kinds of nuisances. As I was about to leave, I saw two rats on the top floor. One of the rats was eating the other, and had blood all over it’s mouth. It just sat there and stared at me, eating away. I knew in my dream the rat had rabies and I had to kill it. I started to go after it… Read more »
I am thinking the warehouse is part of your mind/psyche that you are “clearing out all different kinds of nuisances”. I believe this dream is very symbolic that you are getting rid of something in your life that is causing you distress. The fact you went to the “basement” or “bottom level” suggests you entered the unknown part of you (see basement dreams). I think its a good dream that you will eventually find what it is and rid the enteral threat.
In my dream I woke to rodent sounds coming from my 4×5′ closet, when I looked inside rats were everywhere running in and out of the walls dropping from the ceiling and clustering all over the floor. At the center of my closet I seen a cat huddled with her kitten but they were anemic and frail looking neither one could move. In that dream I sought a way to save the two cats by killing the rats but woke from the dream before I had the chance. The night before I dreamt I was swarmed by flies so naturally… Read more »