H

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Letter H 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: H

Humbaba

People work with Humbaba, the giant guardian of the Cedar Forest, to protect land and home, to guard secrets, and for strength against people who come to take what is theirs, from a hostile neighbor to an ex who wants the house. (History and lore: his page.)

How they tend to appear: The forest itself, more often than the giant: endless cedar or pine, the smell of resin, a roar that shakes the trees, a face in the bark, or a huge figure at the edge of a wood or at the end of your street. Some dreamers see a face made of coiled lines, as in ancient images of him.

What the dream may mean:

• A guardian stands between you and an intruder: After a home protection working, he has taken the job.
• You walk into a cedar forest and are allowed through: You may come back.
• Mountains fall and storms break, and you feel no fear: On the road to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh dreams of this again and again, and Enkidu reads every one as a good omen. The interpreter’s nerve shapes the meaning; read it as strength.
• He is wounded or felled: Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed him. A warning that your own defenses are being cut down by someone.
• Light blazes off him in layers: The epic gives him seven radiances worn like armor. Your protection is being doubled.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: He faces outward, toward whatever threatens you, and you wake feeling guarded.
• Likely a test: He blocks your way into the forest until you state why you have come.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: A monster who chases you out of your own home, or attacks rather than guards. That is more often fear, or a hostile spirit using a frightening shape.

If you work with them: Record where the forest was and who tried to enter. Burn cedar, leave water and bread, and ask him to watch a specific boundary, such as your front door or your land.

Haagenti

People call on Haagenti for transformation in both senses: turning a bad situation into something worth having, and the inner alchemy of becoming wiser. He is also worked with to break bad habits, especially around drink.

How they tend to appear: A great bull, sometimes winged, molten metal, a cup whose contents change color as you hold it, a workshop or lab, and the heavy shine of gold.

What the dream may mean:

• Lead or iron turns to gold: He was said to transmute metals. A hard time is about to become valuable.
• Wine turns to water as you drink: He was said to turn wine into water and back. A sobering lesson about something you are fooling yourself about, sometimes about drinking itself.
• Water turns to wine: Something plain in your life is about to become a pleasure.
• A winged bull stands quietly beside you: His traditional form. He has accepted your request.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: Things change for the better in your hands, and you wake wiser.
• Likely a test: You are handed the cup and must decide whether to drink.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: Gold that turns to rot in your hand, or a bull that charges and gores. That does not fit his work as a teacher of transformation.

If you work with them: Record every substance you saw change. Offer wine or a small piece of gold or brass. Ask him to show you the next step of the change you are going through.

Halphas

People call on Halphas, also written Malthus, when they need to defend something and hold their ground: a home, a business, a family, a legal position. He builds defenses and sends help when you are outnumbered.

How they tend to appear: A dove or pigeon that speaks in a hoarse voice, which is an odd image for a war spirit and worth sitting with. He also brings towers, scaffolding, walls going up around you, the clatter of weapons, and soldiers or security guards arriving.

What the dream may mean:

• A tower is built around your house: He was said to build towers and stock them with weapons. Protection is being put in place.
• Soldiers arrive: He sends men of war where they are needed. Help is on its way in a fight.
• A dove speaks roughly to you: He is correcting a weak spot in your defenses. Listen to where it points.
• You climb a tower after petitioning for a business: The structure is going up.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: Walls rise around you, not over you, and you wake feeling secure.
• Likely a test: You are asked to stand on the wall yourself.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: Being trapped inside a tower, unable to leave. That can point to a binding rather than his protection.

If you work with them: Note where the walls or soldiers were. Thank him with incense and a candle, and strengthen any physical protections he pointed to.

Haures

People work with Haures, also called Flauros, to defend themselves and strike back at enemies, and for the truth about past, present and future. He is also said to keep other spirits from tempting the people who work with him, so practitioners call him in when their spiritual house feels crowded.

How they tend to appear: A leopard or big cat pacing through a house, eyes glowing in the dark, a man with burning eyes, the smell of smoke, or an enemy’s property on fire.

What the dream may mean:

• A leopard sits between you and someone who harmed you: He is defending you.
• Fire consumes an enemy’s house: He was said to burn his summoner’s enemies. Justice working, at least in the dream.
• You hear a story about the fall of the angels: He speaks of how he and other spirits fell. He is ready to teach.
• The leopard chases off another spirit: He is guarding you from interference by other spirits.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: The leopard faces away from you, fire stays on the enemy’s side, and you wake defended.
• Likely a test: He tells you something you must check. The Goetia warns he lies outside the triangle.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: A leopard that turns on you, or fire that burns your own house. That can be a sent working.

If you work with them: Record the dream and thank him with fire, a red candle or incense. Check what he tells you by divination.

Hecate

Hecate is one of the most widely honored goddesses among witches today. People come to her for protection, for crossroads magic, for work with the dead, for guidance at turning points when they cannot see the way, and for knowledge of herbs and poisons. Many people say she called them before they ever called her.

How they tend to appear: Often you never see her at all. You are standing where three roads meet at night, or at a highway junction, dogs are howling somewhere off in the dark, a key is pressed into your hand, torchlight or headlights move in the fog, and there is a smell of garlic or smoke. When she does appear, it is as a woman with two torches or a key, sometimes with three faces looking down three roads, black dogs at her side.

What the dream may mean:

• She gives you a key: A key opens a door you have been asking about, sometimes into a new level of the craft.
• You stand at a crossroads with her: A decision is due, and she will light one road if you ask.
• Dogs bark at you, not at something behind you: She is warning you away from a choice or a person.
• Dogs walk with you through a dark place: Her protection during a hard passage, such as a divorce, grief or a move.
• She leads you to the dead: She was the goddess of restless ghosts. An invitation to necromantic or ancestor work, or someone in your line who needs attention.
• She shows you a garden of poison plants: You are being taught. Note every plant, but research before you handle any of them.
• Three women appear, or one woman with three faces: Her triple form. Read what each face says about past, present and future.
• “Is Hecate calling me?”: A very common worry. Repeated keys, crossroads, dogs and torches over weeks, especially with no prompting from you, are what people usually take as her call. A single dream is an invitation, not a summons.

Support, message or attack?

Likely support or a message:

• Keys, torches, crossroads or black dogs, matching her traditional imagery.
• You wake calm and clearer about a choice.
• One road is lit, and it turns out to make sense.

Likely a test:

• You are left at the crossroads in the dark and must choose without help.
• She asks you to walk past the dead without speaking to them.
• She hands you a poison and waits to see if you are careless with it.

Possibly an attack or a mimic:

• A figure who traps you at a crossroads, sets dogs on you, or keeps you circling with no lesson.
• Waking frightened and drained, with the fear lasting into the day.
• The dreams began after a ritual someone else did on you, or an object brought into the house, rather than after your own devotion.

If you work with them: Record which road was lit and where the dogs were. Leave her a supper at a crossroads at the dark moon, as was done in ancient Athens, with eggs, bread, honey or garlic, and walk away without looking back. Ask her to light the way more clearly.

Hel

People work with Hel, the Norse goddess who rules the realm of the dead that bears her name, for death work, ancestor contact, accepting loss, and the courage to face endings.

How they tend to appear: A woman whose face is half in shadow, a cold hall with long tables, a bridge over a roaring river, mist, and the dead sitting quietly waiting. Hospitals and nursing homes also turn up in her dreams.

What the dream may mean:

• A dead relative sits at her table, fed and calm: She receives those who die of sickness and old age. They are at rest; you can stop worrying about them.
• You are turned away at her gate: It is not your time, or the dead you are looking for are not ready to be reached.
• Her half-shadowed face looks straight at you: The Prose Edda describes her as half dark and half flesh-colored. A push to face an ending you have been avoiding, such as a dying relationship.
• You cross the bridge and come back: Initiation or a brush with grief that you will come through.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: Stern but calm, and you wake at peace about someone who has died.
• Likely a test: She asks you to name what in your life is already dead.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: A half-faced woman who drains you, hunts you or tells you to come with her now. That fits a spirit using the image of death to frighten.

If you work with them: Honor her with dark bread, mead, or a candle lit for the dead. Speak the names of your dead aloud after such a dream.

Hermes

People call on Hermes for clear dreams, for messages from the dead, for quick money, sales and trade, for safe travel, and for cunning in a tricky deal. The Homeric Hymn calls him a leader of dreams, and the Greeks poured a last libation to him before bed for exactly this reason.

How they tend to appear: A messenger at the door with a letter, a courier or delivery driver, a phone buzzing with a text you can almost read, coins changing hands, a quick young man in a hat, and everything moving a little too fast. Winged sandals and the snake-wound staff do appear, usually in passing.

What the dream may mean:

• You are handed a letter: A message is on its way, from a spirit or a living person.
• You are guided across a river or down a stair: He guides souls to the underworld. He is leading you in underworld or necromantic work.
• A smiling young man picks your pocket: A lesson in cunning, or a hint to look at a deal more carefully.
• A deal closes fast: Trade and money moving after a sales or business working.

Support, message or attack?

• Likely support or a message: Messages you can read, and a sense of speed and luck on waking.
• Likely a test: A trick you have to spot before the message is given.
• Possibly an attack or a mimic: A trickster who only leaves you confused, losing money in waking life, and more tired each morning. That is more likely something parasitic using his charm.

If you work with them: Write down every word of any letter or message. Offer coins, wine, honey or incense, and ask him to make the next dream clearer.

Love, money and life dreams: H

House

A house in a dream is very often you. Finding a hidden staircase or a whole wing you never knew about is the classic dream of discovering new parts of yourself. Cellars and basements tend to hold what is old and buried, attics what is stored and half-forgotten. A crumbling or flooding house can show strain on your life or health.

The magical reading:

• During a property working: A house dream while buying or selling can be literal, so note the details.
• If you work with a spirit: New rooms appearing after initiatory work can mean your power is growing.
• When it may be interference: A locked room where something waits, especially in your own real house, can point to an entity living there.

Having sex

You wake slightly mortified because it was your coworker, or your friend’s husband, or a celebrity you do not even like. Sex dreams are rarely about the person in them. More often you are uniting with a quality they carry: the coworker’s confidence, the celebrity’s nerve. Ask what you would gain by having what they have.

The magical reading:

• During a love or lust working: Sex with your target is one of the hoped-for signs.
• If you work with a spirit: Sex with a spirit can be part of a pact or a closer bond, when wanted. Wet dreams that come with a spirit’s name on your mind afterward are a common report.
• When it may be interference: Repeated, unwanted sexual dreams, especially with a faceless partner, a partner who turns into someone else, or exhaustion and marks afterward, point to incubus or succubus activity.

Husband or wife cheating

Few dreams send more people searching at 4am than this one. It usually reflects insecurity, fear of being abandoned, or feeling neglected, not a real affair.

The magical reading:

• During a love working: Cheating dreams can be your worry talking.
• When it may be interference: The same rival appears again and again, and your spouse turns cold for no reason. Look for a separation working sent by someone who wants one of you.

Hospital and illness

You are in a hospital bed and nobody will tell you what is wrong. These dreams usually reflect worry about health, or a part of you that badly needs rest. The ancient Greeks would have taken them more literally: at the healing temples of Asclepius, the sick slept in the sanctuary hoping the god would appear in a dream with a diagnosis.

The magical reading:

• During healing work: You leave the hospital well; the work is reaching you.
• If you work with a spirit: Dying in a hospital and being corrected or taught by a nurse or doctor is a reported initiation dream, read as rebirth.
• When it may be interference: Illness in dreams coincides with sudden health problems in waking life with no clear cause. That can point to a curse aimed at your body.

Hair falling out

You run a brush through your hair and it comes away in clumps. This is a common anxiety dream about losing strength, beauty or standing. Think of Samson, whose whole strength lived in his hair until someone he trusted cut it.

The magical reading:

• During any working: Hair carries personal power. Losing it can mean your power is being drained by the effort.
• When it may be interference: Someone may have your hair for a working, especially if you see who picks it up.

Hired for a new job

You are shaking hands on a new job, or walking into an office where everyone already knows your name. These dreams usually carry hope for change, recognition and more money, and sometimes a nudge that you have outgrown where you are.

The magical reading:

• During a career working: An encouraging sign the work was taken up.
• If you work with a spirit: Being hired by a stranger who sets out terms can be a spirit offering an arrangement, so note the terms.

Hiding money

You are stuffing bills under a mattress, behind a loose brick or into a hole in the garden, and checking over your shoulder as you do it. This usually shows worry about security, or a fear that someone will take what you have. Notice who you are hiding it from.

The magical reading:

• During a money working: You may need to protect your finances from someone close while the work comes in.
• When it may be interference: The money vanishes from its hiding place in repeated dreams. Consider someone draining your luck.

Signs of spiritual attack: H

Held down

You wake, or seem to wake, unable to move, with a weight on your chest and a figure on or near you. Old folk called this being ridden by the old hag, and Henry Fuseli painted it in 1781 as The Nightmare: a sleeping woman with a squat demon crouched on her chest. It is also a known physical sleep state, sleep paralysis, in which the body stays paralyzed for a moment as the mind wakes.

What it can point to: When it is spiritual, the question is who is there. A shadow sitting on the chest points to a parasite or attachment feeding on fear. A figure you recognize can mean a cord to that person or ill will they are sending. Sexual contact points to incubus or succubus activity. A figure that only appears in one house points to a haunting.

Ordinary dream or attack? It weighs toward attack if it repeats, if it began after a specific person, place or object came into your life, if it leaves bruises, or if a smell or presence stays in the room after waking, or if other people in the house are affected.

What to do: Sleep with iron and salt by the bed, and say the name of whatever you suspect, aloud, as soon as you can move. If it keeps happening, our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check will name what is sitting on you.

Hair cut in the night

Someone is cutting, pulling or braiding your hair while you sleep, or you dream your hair has been taken and someone is carrying it away.

What it can point to: Hair is one of the oldest personal links used in workings. This dream can mean someone is working with a personal link of yours, especially if you can see who carries it. A spirit pulling hair can be trying to bind you, while a dead relative braiding it is usually affectionate rather than an attack.

Ordinary dream or attack? Look for repeat dreams, missing hair or a missing hairbrush, or the dream starting after a visit from a particular person.

What to do: Burn loose hair rather than throwing it away, and rinse your hair with salt water. If it continues, the Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check shows who has hold of you.

Hunted

You are being hunted through woods, streets or the halls of a building by something you cannot see clearly. You hear it behind you, and you never get away.

What it can point to: A hunter you never see points to an attached entity or a sent spirit. A hunter you recognize points to a living person working against you. Being hunted with dogs or horns can point to an old spirit of the land that you have disturbed.

Ordinary dream or attack? Look for repetition, waking at the same hour, often 3am, a presence after waking, or the dreams beginning after a specific working or new place.

What to do: Light a protective candle before bed and, if you can, turn and face the hunter in the dream and ask its name. If the hunt goes on, our Are You Under Spiritual Attack? check names what is chasing you.

Magical dream symbols: H

Hag stone. A stone with a natural hole was hung over beds and in stables against witches and nightmares, and looked through to see spirits. Looking through one in a dream usually means you are being shown the truth of something. A cracked one says your protection has done its job and spent itself.

Hare. The hare is the witch’s own animal. In 1662 the Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie gave her trial the very charm she said she used to turn into one: “I sall goe intill ane haire, with sorrow and sych and meikle care.” A hare watching you from a field may be another witch, friendly or not. A hare running ahead of you means change is coming fast.

Herbs. If a spirit hands you a sprig of something, find out what it is; you are being taught which plant to use. Herbs rotting on the drying rack mean a working has gone stale.

Honey. Honey dripping from a jar during sweetening work is a lovely sign. Honey crawling with ants is the opposite: someone is trying to sour what you sweetened.

Horns. Feeling horns push through your own forehead can be startling, but it usually means your power is growing and the Horned One has noticed. Horns snapped off, yours or an animal’s, mean that power is under attack.

Hourglass. Sand running fast says a working is about to act. Sand that is stuck, or will not fall however you shake it, means delay, and pushing will not help.

Hooded figure. A figure in a hood is a teacher or guardian who has not yet shown its face. If it is calm, give it time; it will reveal itself. If it is cold, be wary. In Jungian terms a hooded stranger is often the shadow, the part of you that you have not yet agreed to look at, and that is worth asking about before you assume it is outside you.

Hearth. The hearth is where the household spirits live. A warm fire in it means your home is protected. A cold, dead hearth says the offerings are overdue.

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