Urine as a dream symbol

One very common dream is of needing to find a place to pee. Jeremy Taylor’s experience of working with this symbol in any number of clients’ dreams is that it very often carries the meaning of needing to authentically express oneself. Of course, the dreams often correspond to a real physical need, but other dream symbols can also wake us up if the physical situation is urgent. So rather than dismiss the dream as “only” the body’s attempt to wake the dreamer, it’s worth considering whether there’s a place in the dreamer’s life where authentic self-expression is being denied. After I took an opportunity to present my potentially unpopular opinion to a large audience, I had an intense dream of having urine coming out my mouth, which I took as an affirmation of how important that expression had been.

But I’ve also dreamed several times of animals urinating on me, and after having a waking dream of seeing squirrel pee falling from a tree outside my window the other morning, I decided it was time to write about them. I’ve been peed on by a wolf, a squirrel, and a butterfly in my dreams. I understood the dreams to suggest a kind of territorial marking, especially when it was the wolf and the squirrel. As a metaphor, then, these energies within me that look most like a wolf or a squirrel are claiming me as their own. I suppose the butterfly dream could be read the same way, but butterflies aren’t known for marking territory the way wolves and squirrels do.

At the same time, I read these dreams as those energies needing to express themselves. They get my attention in no uncertain terms, and yet the dreams aren’t nightmares, so the need for expression isn’t as intense or urgent as if there were a lot of fear associated with them.

So what to do with a dream that encourages authentic self-expression? Sometimes writing a letter that I’ll never send, and may even burn after writing, is enough. Sometimes I’m being encouraged to try a new art form, or to communicate something difficult to someone. Maybe all I need to do is dance. Whatever I choose to do, when I have a dream where I really need to pee, there’s always an invitation to get my innermost thoughts out in some way.