Whale
The vast inner life — what is below you in scale.
A whale in a dream is the dictionary's image of the vast inner life — usually emotional, sometimes spiritual — that is much larger than your everyday awareness of yourself. A whale rising near you is the dream's image of that vastness coming briefly into view.
This is rarely a frightening image in the dream itself. On waking, the dreamer often reports a feeling of size in themselves that is hard to put into language.
Where you often see it. A whale breaching at a distance. A whale's shape visible below a boat. The dream uses the whale for the vast inner life — what is below you in scale.
What it is not. A whale is not always overwhelming. The dictionary reads it as the dreamer's vast-but-known inner content.
Related in the dictionary. Read whale with sea, ship, and any scene where what is below has been briefly seen at scale.