My recurring shark dream started when I was doing some meditation early in my martial arts training. I was meditating when for some reason I got it in my head to try to confront and overcome my greatest fear (which was a bad idea, but I was about 12-13 at the time and a little rash). So as I was sitting there in the dark with my eyes closed, I visualized my greatest fear symbolized in the form of a giant Great White. I managed to achieve a degree of visualization I have rarely been able to equal since then, in which I completely lost awareness of my physical surroundings and was totally immersed in my imagination, like I was dreaming while awake. I felt myself suspended in the water, like I was in a shark cage, but there was no cage, just me. It came closer and closer, until its mouth opened. . .Just before its jaws snapped shut, I snapped out of it and opened my eyes. Ever since then I periodically have shark nightmares. They were worst in a few particularly stressful periods of my life. I don't get them much these days, but every so often I'll have one.
I have a lot of alligator dreams. Once I had this dream where I had a small zoo in my backyard. An alligator who acted like a dog, and a huge tank with one dolphin and one shark. The dolphin had a baby and I kept trying to kill the shark to keep it from eating the baby.
Weird.
But mostly alligators. In every scenario.
Lemme look it up....ok, found it!
This cold-blooded animal could hold several different meanings in your dream. It could symbolically represent something from your memory, emotions, or a current situation or individual in your life. Some think that the alligator represents verbal power used in a destructive way (angry and hurtful words). Others believe that it represents an enemy. Consider the details in your dream and your level of fear. This dream symbol should encourage you to look at some of your more "dangerous" emotions, memories, and experiences. The alligators in your dreams will begin to lose the power to frighten you as your understanding increases. They are also symbolic of dangers (hurtful and negative things) being "swallowed" by the unconscious.