Dreaming of flying
Flying in a dream is often experienced as freeing, but how you fly usually says more than the flying itself.
Interpret your own dreamWhy you dream about this
Flying is one of the few dream images most people experience as pleasant. You lift off the ground, see everything from above and feel light. It is also an image that often appears in lucid dreams, in which you know you are dreaming and can steer the dream a little.
Yet flying is not always free. Many people dream that they struggle to rise, cannot go any higher, or become afraid of falling. The way you fly therefore usually says more than the flying itself. Flying effortlessly over familiar ground is something different from fleeing through the air from something chasing you.
Traditions build on this. In Winti flying is read as your own kra in motion, and flying above your house or neighbourhood as gaining an overview of your life. Flying over water links that with the ancestral presence of water. Classical Islamic interpretation looks at direction and purpose: flying with a purpose is more favourable than drifting aimlessly. Santería reads effortless flying as flowing aché, and flying in a storm as connected with Oyá and change.
So pay attention to how high you flew, how easily it went, and where you wanted to go.
What it means in each tradition
The same dream. 6 traditions. 6 different ways of seeing it.
Winti
In the Winti tradition, flying is rarely seen as simply a pleasant feeling. It is often read as a sign that your kra is loosening from the body and travelling.
Read the full Winti interpretation →Islamic
Flying in classical Islamic interpretation is often read as travel, as rising in standing, or as loosening from what bound you.
Read the full Islamic interpretation →Santería
Flying in Santería is read as movement of your orí, or as the presence of an energy to do with air and height.
Read the full Santería interpretation →Buddhist
Flying appears in the Buddhist texts as one of the supernormal powers of advanced practitioners, but the Buddha warned against valuing it. In Tibetan dream yoga, flying is above all a sign that you know you are dreaming.
Read the full Buddhist interpretation →Hindu
In Hindu stories flying belongs to gods and heroes: Hanuman leaps across the ocean to Lanka, Vishnu rides Garuda, and Rama returns home in the Pushpaka vimana. Flying in a dream is often read as freedom, strength or rising above a situation, and Ayurveda links it with vata.
Read the full Hindu interpretation →Christian
The Bible speaks of flying in images of trust and longing: those who hope in the Lord will mount up with wings like eagles, and the psalmist wishes for the wings of a dove. A flying dream is read in the Christian tradition as freedom, trust, or a longing to escape.
Read the full Christian interpretation →These differences are not opinions about one another. Each tradition reads a dream from within its own worldview, and that worldview decides what an image carries.
Common dreams about flying
Flying effortlessly
Favourable in almost every tradition: direction that is free, something that flows.
Not being able to get high enough
Points to something holding you back. The question is what, and whether you tied it on yourself.
Flying above your own house or town
Read as gaining an overview of your life, often in a period of decisions.
Flying and then falling
A sudden loss of support or self-confidence. See also: dreaming of falling.
Flying to escape
Less free than it looks: you are getting away from something rather than going somewhere. See also: being chased.
What does your dream mean?
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Write your dream in the appFrequently asked questions
Is flying in a dream a good sign?
Often, but not always. Traditions look at how you flew and where to. Effort, fear or escape change the reading.
Why do I dream that I am flying?
Flying dreams often come in periods when you are looking for freedom or experiencing it. They are also common in lucid dreams.
What does flying mean in Islam?
Classical interpretation looks at direction, height and the dreamer's circumstances. Flying with a clear purpose is read more favourably.