hello all, I'm hoping someone can help me with interpreting my 7yr old's nightmare. He said that he was being chased by an emu in his dream, that he was running up stairs and the emu was after him. he also said he was trying to get to a castle and when he got there, a cage fell on him because only person could go in at a time and someone had beat him to it.

poor bub, can anyone tell me what these symbols may mean? I cannot find emu anywhere

I'ts very common for children to dream of being chased by big animals or monsters. Some scientists think these dreams are wired into our brains, from prehistoric times when we really could be chased by wild animals so we would learn how to handle the situation in our dreams. When we're adults, we have these dreams less and less because we have more real life problems involving the modern world, so dreams about those things start to take over. There is more about this at the Evolutionary Theory Dreams page.

The emu in the dream could represent anything that he is afraid of and is avoiding. Where would he have seen an emu before? You could ask him what there is specifically about an emu that he finds frightening. In dreams, birds often represent freedom because they can fly; it's interesting that his nightmare involves a flightless bird.

The part of the dream where someone beats him to the castle -does he feel like he is not good enough at something and isn't able to keep up with his peers?

You might also want to read
Chase Dreams
and
Children's Dreams.

thanks you for your reply Marcia. We visited a wildlife sanctuary a few months ago where we got to go into an emu enclosure. the bird was very curious so he got close to my son which frightened him.

everything else you said makes sense with what he is going through at school at the moment.

thank you