M

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Letter M of The Occultist’s Dream Dictionary. This is a dream dictionary for people who live with spirits: the demons, gods and dead who visit in sleep, the dreams that can mean something is wrong, the big dreams of love, money and life read with a witch’s eye, and the magical symbols that turn up when you are doing the work. A dream is a conversation with the unseen, not a verdict, so take these as starting points and weigh each one against what is happening in your life right now.

Spirits that come in dreams: M

Mammon

People go to Mammon for money, material security, business growth, and the nerve to admit they want more without apologizing for it. He often shows up in a practitioner’s life as a sharper eye for opportunity and less patience with being underpaid. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A richly dressed man counting coins, piles of gold, heavy rings, the metallic smell of money. Modern dreamers report banks, trading floors, casinos, luxury stores, a stack of cash on a hotel bed, a banking app showing a balance, and a gaze that keeps drifting down to what is valuable. Milton pictured him walking through heaven with his eyes on its golden pavement, and that downward look still turns up.

What the dream may mean:

• He shows you a room full of gold: soon after petitioning him, acceptance.
• He counts coins into your hand one at a time: expect money in steady amounts rather than one windfall.
• He turns his back while holding the purse: he may be asking what you have actually done to earn what you asked for.
• He walks you through a store and lets you choose: he is asking what you really want. People who freeze here often have a money block around feeling they deserve it.
• He points at a person, a building or a business: the opportunity is there. Look for it in waking life within a few weeks.
• You find money in your own house: value you already have and are not using, such as a skill, an unpaid invoice, or something to sell.
• He takes money from you: after an offering, the offering accepted. Without one, a sign something is owed or leaking.
• “Did Mammon accept my offering?”: a common worry. Gold, a warm room and a calm count of coins are the usual signs. Silence for a few weeks is normal, and not a refusal.

Support, message or attack?

Likely support or a message:

• You wake motivated and alert to money, not anxious about it.
• Gold, coins, banks or luxury, in a calm and businesslike dream.
• It follows a money petition, and a lead appears soon after.

Likely a test:

• He offers you money that belongs to someone else, and watches what you do.
• He hands you a small amount and waits to see whether you use it well.

Possibly an attack or a mimic:

• Gold that rots, or being buried under coins, with dread on waking.
• Money dreams that start after a falling-out, followed by real losses.
• A figure that only demands, and never shows you anything. That is more likely money fear, a block, or a parasite using his name.

If you work with them: Record the dream, place a gold coin or a dollar on the altar, and do one practical thing for your finances that day.

Murmur

Murmur is called on today for contact with the dead: ancestors, a parent who died with things unsaid, a friend you need an answer from. People also work with him for philosophy and for clear thinking in grief. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: The traditional form is a crowned warrior riding a griffin, with trumpets sounding before him. Often the trumpets, a horn, a phone ringing or a doorbell come first, before anything is seen, and then a graveyard, a hospital ward, a family kitchen full of the dead, and a low, steady voice.

What the dream may mean:

• Trumpets, then a dead relative walks toward you: he was said to compel the dead to appear and answer. This is the contact you asked for.
• He teaches you something in the dream: the lesson often makes sense days later.
• A crowd of the dead turns away: the question may have been put wrongly. Ask again more simply.
• The dead person answers a question you never asked aloud: a strong sign the contact is genuine.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: the dead person looks and speaks like themselves, says something only they would know, and you wake grieving but lighter.
• Likely a test: he makes you ask the question aloud before anyone answers.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: a “dead relative” who asks for things, flatters you, or wants you to come with them is a classic mimic.

If you work with them: Write down every word the dead said. Leave water and a candle for them as well as an offering for Murmur.

Mastema

Mastema, whose name carries the meaning of hostility, is worked with today for strength under pressure, for seeing an adversary clearly, and for people who want to be tested so they know they are ready. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A stern figure who sets you tasks: an examiner, a drill sergeant, a judge, an interviewer who does not smile. The dreams are full of trials, closed gates, obstacle courses and the unmistakable feeling of being weighed.

What the dream may mean:

• He sets you a hard task: a lesson he is pushing in waking life. Look for where your life is running the same test.
• You pass the test: you are ready for what you have been asking for.
• You see him behind someone you trust: a warning about that person.
• The gate stays shut no matter what you do: not yet. Something needs to change in you first.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: harsh but fair, with a lesson you can name on waking.
• Likely a test: almost all of his dreams are, which is the point of him.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: endless pointless torment with no lesson is not his style. That suggests a parasite or your own guilt.

If you work with them: Record the test and look at where your life is running the same test. Thank him even if the dream felt harsh.

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles, the bargaining spirit of the Faust legend, is approached today for contracts, ambition, cunning, career breaks and forbidden knowledge. People drawn to him usually want something specific and are prepared to negotiate. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A sharp, witty gentleman, a black dog that follows you home (as he first came to Faust in Goethe’s play), a gray friar from the older Faust book, a study crammed with books, a slick agent or lawyer, and a bargain laid out on a table or a screen.

What the dream may mean:

• A black dog follows you home: his attention arriving, as it did for Faust.
• A bargain is offered: terms. Note exactly what is asked.
• He laughs at you: you are probably taking yourself too seriously to see the solution in front of you.
• He shows you a book or a door you are not allowed through: knowledge you want is available, at a price you should weigh first.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: wit, clarity, clear terms, and waking amused.
• Likely a test: he offers a deal that sounds wonderful and watches whether you read the small print.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: a vague deal pushed in fear, with no wit or clarity.

If you work with them: Record the terms precisely and never agree to anything in waking life until you understand it.

Malphas

Malphas is worked with today for building: a house, a business, a career structure. People also call on him to undo an enemy’s plans and to bring good familiars into their practice. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: First as a crow, then in human form with a hoarse voice. His dreams tend to be building sites: crows on scaffolding, cranes, towers going up, a contractor with plans, the sound of work.

What the dream may mean:

• A tower rises: after petitioning him for a business or home, the structure going up.
• A crow lands on a rival’s roof: his work against that enemy may have begun.
• A wall you built crumbles: a flaw in your plans.
• He accepts your offering and smiles: the Goetia warns he takes a sacrifice kindly but may deceive the one who makes it. Check every promise made in the dream against reality.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: building, crows that keep their distance, plans that make sense on waking.
• Likely a test: he hands you the plans and asks you to build it yourself.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: crows that peck you, and scratches on waking.

If you work with them: Record it, leave an offering, and check every promise made in the dream against reality.

Marchosias

Marchosias is worked with today for protection, courage, and fighting back, especially for people who have been pushed around and are ready to stop allowing it. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A she-wolf with griffin’s wings and a serpent’s tail, breathing fire. In dreams the wolf and the flames are what you notice, sometimes a large dog guarding your car or apartment door, and the sense of a fierce guardian planted at your door.

What the dream may mean:

• A winged wolf at your door: he has taken up your protection.
• You fight beside him: courage lent to you for a conflict that is coming.
• The wolf will not come near you: ask whether you have started standing up for yourself yet. He tends to wait until you do.
• He answers a question directly: he was said to answer truly. Take the answer at face value.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: fire that warms, a wolf that guards, waking braver.
• Likely a test: he puts you in front of the person you fear and waits.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: a wolf that stalks and bites you is more likely fear or attack.

If you work with them: Thank him, offer red meat or red wine, and act on the courage.

Morax

Morax (also Marax) is called on today by students and practitioners who want to learn: astrology, herbalism, crystals and the properties of stones, and the patient study behind good magic. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A great bull with a man’s face, or a patient teacher in a library, a greenhouse or a lab. The dreams around him are quiet: night skies, herbs laid out, gemstones, notes on a desk.

What the dream may mean:

• He shows you a plant or stone: he was said to know the virtues of herbs and stones. It belongs in your work.
• Stars move across the sky: timing for a working.
• A bull stands across your path: more study before you go further.
• He gives you an animal: he was said to give good familiars, so watch for that animal in waking life.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: calm, patient teaching you can look up and confirm.
• Likely a test: he asks you to name a plant or a star.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: a charging bull with no teaching is usually your own anxiety.

If you work with them: Research the herb or stone you saw and put it to use; that is the thanks he wants.

Marbas

Marbas is worked with today for healing, for answers about hidden problems (in the body, in a relationship, in a business), for fixing and building things, and for transformation. People often find him when doctors, mechanics or partners cannot tell them what is wrong. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A great lion, then a man. Modern dreamers report a doctor or surgeon with a lion’s mane, an X-ray or scan held up to the light, a garage or workshop with an engine pulled apart, a sickroom with a lion lying nearby, and the feeling of being very thoroughly examined.

What the dream may mean:

• A lion lies down beside your bed: healing work has been accepted.
• He shows you a broken machine: look closely. It is usually a picture of what is wrong in a situation.
• He points to part of your body: attention is needed there. Note it, and take it to a doctor as well as to your altar.
• You change shape: a transformation already underway.
• He opens a locked box: he answers about hidden things. A secret is about to come out.
• He hands you tools: you are meant to fix this one yourself, with his guidance.
• “Did I offend him by asking about my health?”: no. Health is one of the most traditional things to ask him.

Support, message or attack?

Likely support or a message:

• You wake rested, with a clear sense of what is wrong and what to do.
• A lion that is calm, close and watchful.
• Symptoms or problems ease in the weeks after.

Likely a test:

• He asks you to diagnose the problem yourself before he helps.
• He shows you a habit that is causing the illness and waits for you to change it.

Possibly an attack or a mimic:

• He was said to cause diseases as well as cure them. A dream that leaves you physically sick on waking, after angering someone, points to an attack, and should be checked.
• A lion that mauls, or new pain in the same spot after each dream.
• A healer figure who tells you to stop medical care. That is not him.

If you work with them: Write down whatever diagnosis he gave you and act on it alongside ordinary medical care, not instead of it.

Moloch

Moloch is worked with today around sacrifice and ambition: the hard arithmetic of what has to be given up to gain, and the discipline to burn away comfort for a goal. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: A bull-headed figure before a furnace, outstretched arms above flames. You feel heat on your face and hear drums. Modern reports include a factory furnace, a burning office, and always an altar of fire somewhere.

What the dream may mean:

• You place something in the fire: you are being asked what you will give up. Notice what it was.
• Warmth that does not burn: the offering is accepted.
• You are pushed toward the flames: a warning that you are overreaching.
• He opens his arms and waits: an invitation, with a cost to be named.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: heat, drums, and a clear sense of what you will trade for your goal.
• Likely a test: he asks for something you love and waits for your answer.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: dreams that demand the harm of a loved one are mimicry or fear, not a working relationship.

If you work with them: Record it and make a symbolic offering by burning a written petition.

Love, money and life dreams: M

Money

Finding money, being paid or counting cash usually reflects your sense of worth and security. A common version is finding notes in an old coat pocket, then more in every pocket.

The magical reading:

• After petitioning Clauneck, Bune or Mammon: money dreams usually mean the working is moving.
• If you work with a spirit: a spirit paying you can mean an offering was accepted. A spirit asking you for money can mean something is owed.
• When it may be interference: money that slips through your fingers can point to a block, either your own habits or something placed to drain your luck.

Marriage

Weddings in dreams often stand for commitment, union or a new phase, and not always to a person. People dream of marrying a job, a house, even a city they have just moved to.

The magical reading:

• During a love or commitment spell: a wedding with the target suggests the spell is taking hold. A faceless partner can mean the work is aimed at someone not yet in your life.
• If you work with a spirit: marrying a spirit can be an initiation or a pact offer. Think it through before agreeing in waking life.
• When it may be interference: a wedding that turns into a funeral may point to separation work on the relationship.

Mistress or affair

Dreaming your partner is having an affair usually mirrors insecurity or distance between you. Dreaming that you are the one cheating usually points to a need that is not being met, and the person you cheat with often has the very thing that is missing.

The magical reading:

• During your own reconciliation working: affair dreams may show the cord to a third person that still needs cutting.
• When it may be interference: a rival is involved in waking life, and affair dreams repeat alongside sudden coldness from your partner. That can point to separation or domination work.

Mother

Your mother in a dream often represents care, criticism or your roots, depending on your bond. Dreaming of her when she is far away can simply mean you miss her.

The magical reading:

• If she has passed: appearing with a message is ancestor contact, and often the strongest kind.
• During protection work: a mother figure standing in your doorway is a good sign.
• When it may be interference: a mother who scolds or drains you every night may be a mimic, or a family curse speaking.

Moving house

Boxes everywhere, a truck at the curb, a house you have never seen with your furniture already in it. Moving dreams usually come when you are outgrowing a situation or getting ready to leave something behind.

The magical reading:

• After road-opening or a working for a new home: a moving dream is the door opening.
• When it may be interference: the new house is dark and you feel watched. It may warn that a haunting is waiting there, or that something is following you from the old place.

Murder

Murder dreams are frightening but usually about ending something, anger you have not expressed, or a part of yourself you want gone.

The magical reading:

• During a working to end a relationship, habit or situation: killing someone can mark the working cutting through.
• When it may be interference: being murdered repeatedly by the same figure, and waking hurt, points to an attack or curse.

Signs of spiritual attack: M

Marks on waking

You dream of being scratched, gripped or bitten, then wake to find scratches (often in sets of three), finger-shaped bruises or bite-like marks you cannot explain.

What it can point to: An attached entity, a haunting in the home, or something sent. Place and timing tell them apart: if the marks stop when you sleep somewhere else, look at the house; if they follow you, look at an attachment; if they began right after a falling-out, consider that something was sent.

Ordinary dream or attack? Marks that keep appearing in places you cannot reach, a smell in the room, pets reacting to an empty corner, and waking at 3am all make an attack more likely.

What to do: Wash the marks with salt water and sleep with iron beside the bed. If the marks keep coming, our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check names what is there.

Man at the foot of the bed

A dark man, often in a hat or long coat, stands at the foot of the bed watching you. You feel you cannot move, and he never quite comes closer.

What it can point to: A haunting, an attached entity, or a watcher sent by someone to keep tabs on you. Sending a night spirit against someone is old, documented sorcery: the Norse Ynglinga saga tells how the witch Huld was paid to send a mara against King Vanlandi, and it trampled him to death in his sleep. A sent watcher usually appears after a conflict and seems to watch rather than act; a haunting tends to belong to the room; an attachment shows up wherever you sleep.

Ordinary dream or attack? The same figure each time, others in the home describing him without being told, and a presence or cold spot that stays after waking are the markers.

What to do: Lay salt across the threshold and say aloud that he has no permission to be in your home. If he keeps coming back, the Is Your House Under Spiritual Attack? assessment can tell you what he is.

Maggots

Maggots in your food, your bed or crawling out of your skin. The dream feels dirty, and the disgust lingers long after waking.

What it can point to: A curse working through rot and decay, or a parasite feeding on you. Curses tend to show up alongside real-life misfortune, things breaking and plans spoiling; parasites tend to show up alongside exhaustion and low mood with no other cause.

Ordinary dream or attack? One disgusting dream after a bad meal is just that. Take notice when it repeats, when you get ill with no explanation, when food in the house spoils unusually fast, or when everything seems to go wrong at once.

What to do: Take a cleansing bath with salt and hyssop and throw the water out at a crossroads. When it does not stop, our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check can tell you what is behind it.

Mute, unable to scream

Something is attacking you and you try to scream or call for help, but no sound comes out.

What it can point to: Binding work meant to silence you, or an entity feeding on your fear. Binding usually follows a conflict where someone wanted you quiet, such as a dispute, a secret or a court matter; a feeding entity comes more randomly and leaves you shaking.

Ordinary dream or attack? Look for repetition, a sore or tight throat on waking, losing your voice in waking life at key moments, and the dream beginning after a dispute.

What to do: Before sleep, say your own full name aloud three times and anoint your throat with a protective oil. If it keeps happening, take our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check to find out what is there.

Magical dream symbols: M

Moon. The moon is witchcraft’s clock, so read its phase. A full moon in a dream points to a working coming to a head. A dark moon points to banishing, cursing and hidden work. A blood-red moon is force without steadiness: a working with a lot behind it that will need careful handling.

Mirror. If you have been doing mirror work and a spirit looks back at you from the glass in your sleep, that is contact. Seeing a stranger where your reflection should be is the darker reading, and can point to an attachment wearing your face. It can also be the shadow in Jung’s sense, the self you do not recognize as yours yet.

Mask. Wearing a mask comfortably in a dream says your glamour work is serving you. Watching someone else’s mask slip, even for a second, usually shows a deception about to come out.

Mandrake. Pulling up a mandrake is a strong working beginning. The old lore says the root screams as it leaves the ground and kills whoever hears it, which is why it was tied to a dog to be pulled. If you hear the scream in your dream, the price of what you want may be higher than you have counted.

Moth. The Greek word psyche meant both the soul and a butterfly or moth, so the idea that the dead come back as moths drawn to light is very old. A moth landing gently on you may be an ancestor visiting. A swarm battering at the lamp is too many things pulling at you at once.

Midnight. A clock striking twelve marks a threshold in your work, a decision or an initiation, right on the hinge between one day and the next. If the hands are stuck at midnight and never move, you are stagnating somewhere and probably know where.

Mortar and pestle. Grinding herbs in your sleep means a working is being prepared, or should be. A cracked mortar says your ingredients or your method need correcting before you go further.

Milk. Milk is one of the oldest offerings there is, left out for house spirits long before anyone wrote down why. Pouring it out as an offering in a dream means a relationship with a spirit is being fed. Milk gone sour on the altar can mean the offering was refused.

When a dream will not leave you alone

If the same figure keeps returning, if the nightmares began after a working, a person or a visit somewhere heavy, or if you wake drained and uneasy, something may be attached to your energy. Our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check ($25) tells you plainly what is there. If it is your home that feels wrong (footsteps, doors, smells, pets reacting, or others in the house having the same dreams), take Is Your House Under Spiritual Attack? ($30) instead. To have a dream of your own read, try the Dream Oracle, our occult dream interpretation, delivered in minutes and built on this dictionary and our casebook, or see all our dream readings. Interpretation is guidance, not certainty, and like all our work it comes with no guarantees.

The Occultist’s Dream Dictionary: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z