Old Pelican in dreams
Self-sacrifice — feeding what you have built from what you are.
How old changes the reading
The base reading of Pelican
A pelican in a dream is the dictionary's image of self-sacrifice. In medieval tradition the pelican was thought to feed its young with its own blood; in dreams it stands for the act of giving from your own substance — your time, your energy, sometimes your health — to keep something else alive.
The dream is rarely accusatory. More often it is the dream noting honestly what you have been doing, and asking you to decide whether to keep doing it.
Where you often see it. A pelican at the water's edge. A pelican feeding chicks. The dream uses the pelican for self-sacrifice — feeding what you have built from what you are.
What it is not. A pelican is not always martyrdom. The dictionary reads it as the dreamer's quiet giving to what depends on them.
Related in the dictionary. Read pelican with mother, sea, and any scene of feeding what was made.