Shepherd
A keeper of sheep in open country — a figure responsible for many lives that cannot be individually watched all the time.
A shepherd in a dream is the dream's image of a figure responsible for many lives that cannot be individually watched at every moment. The shepherd works by counting, by knowing the flock's habits, and by being there at the moments that matter. The dream brings the shepherd when something in your life — a teaching role, a leadership position, a household with many people in it — is asking you to hold many lives in patient general attention rather than in intensive individual supervision. A shepherd counting the flock at sundown and finding them all is the dream affirming the general care. A shepherd who has lost one and is not yet going out to find it is the dream noting that the count was wrong and the work of recovering the missing one is what the moment now requires.