What does it mean to dream about dove?
A dove often signals peace, gentleness, or a longing for reconciliation and calm after conflict.
Four ways to read it
Each reading below comes from a named tradition and a cited source, so you can see where it came from and decide what fits your dream.
Freud
Freud would look beneath the dove's softness to the wish it carries, perhaps for tenderness, forgiveness, or love. A caged or freed dove might picture how that wish is held or released. He would return to your own associations.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
For Jung the dove can image the gentle, uniting spirit within, sometimes a messenger between higher and lower parts of the self. It often appears when the psyche seeks harmony.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
A continuity reading sees the dove reflecting a recent wish for peace or a relationship mending. The dream's calm often points to a waking hope for settled feeling.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
Across cultures the dove carries peace and reconciliation, from the bird that returned with an olive branch to symbols of love and the soul. It was sacred to several goddesses of love.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch).