Dream Fire – What Does It Mean?
Back in 2014, after I had already been interpreting dreams for several years, I interpreted a dream for a friend. The interpretation shocked him so much that he immediately booked a flight to another city in order to personally give a dire warning to one of his close friends. The meaning of the dream compelled him to act right away, and the most prevalent symbol in the dream was fire.
Dream fire represents destruction, consuming, danger, pain, or burning anger/rage when the fire is a negative force in the dream. If the dream fire is a positive force, then it can represent burning love, power, life, comfort, or light. Perhaps the most important aspect of dream fire is that it represents a critical signal to the dreamer. A signal that quite literally means: pay attention because this is serious.
The Characteristics of Dream Fire
Dream Fire is a great example of how one symbol in a dream can have several different meanings. We all know that fire itself has a wide variety of positive uses, but that when it is uncontrolled it can be extremely damaging. Let’s examine some of the central characteristics of fire so that we may correctly apply an interpretation for the dream fire symbol.
Fire as a Negative Force
Fire is Destructive
Just as fire burns down a house or a forest in the waking world, a fiery destruction in a dream contains a profound message for the dreamer. When fire destroys it does so rapidly, visibly, and creates a sense of awe in those who witness the burning. Does your dream contain fire that destroys something important to you? This could indicate that something in your waking life is also being quickly, visibly, and captivatingly being destroyed in front of your eyes.
Fire Consumes
We all know that fire consumes virtually everything in its path. Throw a log on the fire and it only takes a short time for the fire to consume the entire thing and leave behind only ash. Depending on the context of the dream, the fire could be symbolizing something being consumed from your life. An example would be seeing paper money going up in flames, with the interpretation being that the dreamer should reconsider or examine their spending habits, because their spending could be getting out of control.
Fire is Dangerous
Unmistakably, when one considers characteristics of fire we must recognize the sheer danger of it. The necessity of fleeing from uncontrolled fire occurs in my area every summer due to wildfires threatening communities. “You’re playing with fire” is a common expression to tell the recipient that they are acting in a risky or dangerous manner. Consider this possibility as you analyze the fire from your dream. Your dream could be warning you that there is a certain action, or place, or even a person/people that are dangerous and are a very serious threat to you.
Fire causes Pain
No one would deny the pain that comes from a burn. If the burn is mild then the victim learns a quick lesson, but if the burn is serious the victim could be experiencing an extremely painful and life-altering wound. A dream where physical pain is experienced from fire needs some context to fully understand. What was the source of the fire? What part of your body experienced the burn? A fire that suddenly explodes out of your computer screen and scorches your face likely means that there are things you are looking at on your computer that have the potential to bring a lot of pain into your identity. Dreams that have physical pain associated with them should never be ignored, and pain from dream fire requires urgent and careful consideration.
Fire as a Positive Force
Fire symbolizes Passion
One profound characteristic of fire is a more metaphorical application, but is still just as applicable during interpretation as the literal characteristics of fire. This is that fire can symbolize passion, or intense emotion. Burning passion could have the positive context of a burning heart filled with love, or the negative context of burning anger, rage, and/or hatred. Burning passion is typically wild and uncontrollable and causes strong/emotional language to come from the one with that fire in their heart. This metaphorical characteristic of fire is very important in dreams because the dream reveals deep feelings in the heart, and many people are unaware of what is happening in their hearts. If you experience dream fire and witness, for example, fiery eyes, a burning heart, or fire coming out of a mouth or even on a person’s tongue, then odds are good that the central focus of the dream is referring to intense emotional passion in the dreamer’s waking life.
Fire is Powerful
The power of fire cannot be understated, and we’ve all seen superhero movies or comic books where one of the heroes can manipulate fire. Fire can be an incredibly powerful force. Dreams may reveal power as the most relevant symbol of fire in numerous ways. The dream may be designed to encourage you if you are equipped with the power of fire. Where does the firepower come from and how is it used in the dream? This might indicate power that you have in the waking world. For example, fire coming off of your shoes while you are at work could indicate that you have power to get a lot done and quickly at your workplace. Keep your eyes open for power being associated with fire in your dreams.
Fire provides Life
Physical fire is a lifesaving and life-giving force that can easily translate to a dream symbol. Just as fire can save our lives from the cold when warmth is desperately needed or it can provide the heat needed for us to cook food, in a dream fire oftentimes represents a life source. This reminds me of the burning bush passage from the story of Moses where God (the source of life) speaks to Moses from the flames. Keep an open mind to the possibility of fire representing a “source of life” as you interpret dream fire in the future.
Fire Provides Comfort
In my opinion, one of the most enjoyable, leisure activities is sitting around a cozy campfire on a cool, summer evening in the mountains. This well-known characteristic of fire can be directly applied to your dream fire because there could be a profound sense of comfort experienced by the fire that also applies to your waking life. Be aware, that this feeling of comfort can be positive or negative, and just because something makes us feel comfortable does not mean it is good for us. On a side note, this was the exact characteristic of dream fire that happened to be the most predominate meaning in the dream I interpreted for my friend years ago – more on that later.
Fire Emits Light
One immensely important property of fire is that it provides light wherever it burns. Candlelight, a burning torch, or even a blazing bonfire all provide much needed light when we are in dark areas. This specific characteristic of fire always indicates a good thing in dreams, and the meaning of this light could be indicating good guidance for us, or it could be revealing the right path/direction to pursue, or even creating the sense of a place of safety where you can clearly see everything all around you. Firelight reveals hidden things in the darkness as well, and oftentimes these things that are revealed must be dealt with in our waking life. Through the helpful message contained in our dream fire we can become more aware of evil things that lurk in the shadows around our waking life, or perhaps it is exposing darkness that is hidden within our own hearts.
Dream Fire is a Signal
No matter which other characteristic(s) of dream fire mentioned above applies to your specific dream one thing is always certain in the interpretation of dream fire –dream fire is a critical signal to the dreamer. The ability of physical fire to create a signal via light or the smoke that it produces is evident to all of us. The smoke from a house fire is visible from miles away, and instantly draws our attention, our concern, and our curiosity. Even in the dark when the signal of smoke cannot be seen we instead find the light that flickers from a fire is visible from miles away as well. This is an immensely important characteristic of fire when it applies to dreams. Fire always draws our attention and in dreams it is designed to do the same thing.
So, what is a simple, yet critical meaning behind all dream fire? It is this: PAY ATTENTION. Your dream you had is very important and the symbol of fire within your dream is vital to consider for your waking life. It is not “just another dream” that should be ignored, but the fire exists in your dream because you need to pay attention to its characteristics and carefully attempt to consider its meaning. You may not be particularly skilled at dream interpretation, but sometimes the messages contained within dreams are extremely clear and can be deciphered by anyone who takes the time to think about it for a little while. When you have experienced dream fire I highly encourage you to do this.
An Example of Dream Fire
Here is the dream that my friend told me about back in 2014:
“I dreamed that I was laying down in a fireplace with a close friend of mine from college. We were both relaxing in the fireplace like it was a hot tub. I remember the logs burning all around us as we leaned back and enjoyed the comfort of the flames. However, pretty soon I started to feel uncomfortable. The fire was getting too hot for me and I decided that it was time to climb out of the fireplace. I asked my friend if he wished to leave with me, but he ignored me and just continued enjoying the flames. After climbing out of the fire I walked around for a while, and then I remembered my friend and decided to go back and check on him. When I got back to the fireplace he was still in the fire, but all that I found was his blackened, charred, corpse remains of his body. He was dead. And the same fire he was previously enjoying had burned him to a crisp.”
Here’s the dream’s interpretation:
“While you were in college with this friend you both enjoyed a relaxing and comfortable season of life, but your behavior back then was dangerous, even if you didn’t realize it at the time. It did not take long after college for you to recognize that this behavior could not continue, so you decided to leave behind that lifestyle once and for all. However, your close friend is still stuck in this same lifestyle and it is becoming more and more dangerous for him as time goes on. The fireplace is like the proverbial frog slowly boiling in hot water, but this isn’t water… this is fire. Your friend is in real danger because of his behavior and his choices, and the dream is warning you for his sake. His lifestyle is about to consume and destroy him.”
After carefully considering my interpretation and reflecting on his dream further, this friend of mine made a bold decision. He picked up the phone and called his college friend from the dream and requested a short visit. His goal with the visit was not to enjoy old times with this friend and temporarily revert to their previous, partying lifestyle for a long weekend, but instead his intention for the visit was to issue an urgent warning. He knew that the warning needed to be delivered in-person, not over the phone, and he did everything he could to help his friend hear him. He went there to save his friend’s life.
The Conclusion
I do not know any more details about what happened with this story, but I do hope that this college friend heeded the warning he was given by someone who loved him. All of us are given a choice when a warning is issued to us; we may ignore the warning or choose to heed it and alter our path. Dream fire is often a dire warning and always merits attention. Often people will brush aside their dreams and make a choice to ignore the clear warning that was given. But if a wildfire was spreading near your home would you ignore the warnings of the evacuation teams sent to help you, or would you heed them?
Here is my encouragement to the reader: do not ignore or brush off your dreams, and most importantly do not cast aside dreams with fire as a prevalent symbol. This symbol is serious and must be heeded. No matter what type of fire you experience in the waking world, we all know that fire is to be treated carefully and safely. It can be extremely valuable as a light on our path or it can provide lifesaving comfort and warmth to our bodies; on the other hand it can be devastating if it grows out of control. Dream fire is the signal telling us to pay close attention to the meaning. I hope that you use this article as often as you need while you carefully consider the meaning of your dream fire, because knowing the meaning may have a major impact on your life.
