Circling vulture
A vulture turning slowly overhead — the patient reader of what is dying below.
A circling vulture in a dream is the dream's image of patient attention paid to something that is dying. The vulture does not kill; it reads the ground for what is already going, and the circle is the visible sign of the reading. The dream brings the vulture when something in your life — a project, a relationship, a phase of work — is being watched by a figure (possibly internal) who is waiting for the end and not for the recovery. A vulture seen high and ignored is the dream noting the watcher's distance from the still-living scene. A vulture landed and walking on the ground beside you is the dream marking that the watcher has decided the thing is over, and the closing meal is already being set up.