Dream Meaning of Beating

In the classical dream tradition, a beating is seldom a sign of simple violence. It is read as a message about admonition, hidden news, discipline, and sometimes unexpected gain. The details decide the meaning: who strikes, what weapon is used, where the blows land, and whether blood flows.

Being Beaten in a Dream

If you dream that someone beats you without you knowing who they are or why, this is counted as good fortune. You may come into beneficial money and wear new clothes. If you only felt fear of being beaten, your fear is reversed and you will be safe from the very thing you dreaded. As long as your attacker is not an angel, a dead person, or your own subordinate, being beaten is read favourably. Some interpreters add that a beating without blood means you can trust the person who strikes you.

Beating Another Person

When you see yourself beating someone, the dream often points to words rather than deeds. You may make a bitter prayer against that person, scold them, or give them harsh advice. If the person you beat has their hands tied, you will say hurtful things and later regret them. Beating someone who is not under your authority suggests humiliation and harm coming to that person; beating a servant or junior colleague, however, brings benefit from you to them. A wife being beaten in the dream is an ill sign for that woman's conduct, while beating a half-naked man means you will utter an insult the other cannot refuse.

Beating a Dead Person, or Being Beaten by One

Dreams involving the dead carry their own set of meanings. If a dead person beats you, you may profit from a journey or recover something you had lost; another reading is that you will pay off a debt. If you beat a dead person, your religious strength increases, and if you owe anything, you will settle it. When the dead person appears angry in your dream, it means you have committed a sin or are about to. A living person beating a dead person is taken as a sign that the dreamer is firm in religious duties such as prayer, pilgrimage, and almsgiving.

The Tool That Strikes

Traditional commentators look closely at the weapon. A whip used on you while your hands and feet are free, whether or not blood appears, points to unlawful earnings. A leather strap or a reed is read as a sign of baseness. Hitting with a piece of wood is not good: it suggests that a false promise will be made to you and kept. If you beat someone with an ordinary stick, however, the number of blows is said to match the amount of money that will come to that person, and the beating also stands for advice you give. A drumstick used to wound another's head means you long for the end of that person's leadership.

Where the Blows Land

Place matters too. A blow to your own head with a stick means you are displeased with a ruler or superior and wish he would leave. Striking someone on the eyelid shows a desire to disgrace that person over religion, while a blow to the head means you will reproach them. Blood drawn from the soft part of the ear is taken very gravely: it is read as a violation of the daughter's virginity. A beating that leaves a visible mark, especially from a hand, is good and brings benefit; if no mark remains, you will only hear a painful word.

Hitting the Ground and the Number of Strokes

Dreaming of striking the ground is linked to travel and setting out on a journey. If you beat someone without scratching or causing pain, the season changes the meaning: in winter it means clothing for the person beaten, while in other seasons it means the beater will speak against that person. Numbers also speak. Forty strokes are read as a sign that you have drunk wine, and eighty strokes as a sign that you have slandered a chaste woman.

Being Beaten as Discipline and News

A number of commentators treat a dream beating as a form of correction: the beater is training or guiding the one beaten. It is also said that the beating is a way for news to reach the beaten through the beater. Several sources note that dreaming of being beaten is more favourable than dreaming of beating someone else, and that the dream is stronger when the person doing the beating is known to you.

As with all dream symbols, the final meaning rests on your own role in the dream and the feelings it leaves behind. In the old tradition, though, a beating usually carries hope: it promises protection from fear, honest livelihood, or a lesson you are ready to receive.