Animals

Puffin

A small sea bird that nests on cliffs and dives for fish — a comic-looking creature living a serious life.

A puffin in a dream is the dream's image of a comic-looking creature living an entirely serious life. The puffin's painted face and short body suggest a toy; the bird dives a hundred feet for fish and raises chicks on a wind-blasted cliff. The dream brings the puffin when something in your life — a person, a project, a self — is being underrated for its appearance and is doing harder work than the casual look would suggest. A puffin returning to the burrow with fish is the dream affirming the work. A puffin laughed at on the shore by people who do not know what its winter looks like is the dream noting that the misreading is now public, and the creature is being filed under decoration rather than under labour.

Related symbols

A flock of birds

Community moving together — a direction shared, sometimes overtaken.

Albatross

A long-distance ocean bird — a burden you carry, and the long journey it implies.

Alpaca

A smaller cousin of the llama kept for its fine fleece — a gentle animal whose worth is in the coat it grows.

Anaconda

A constrictor of immense weight — a force that ends things by closing in rather than striking.

Anglerfish

A deep-sea fish with a glowing lure — bait dangled in the dark to bring prey within reach of the jaw.

Ant

Patient collective work — small effort adding up over time.

Disclaimer: For entertainment and self-reflection only. Not a substitute for professional advice.