What does it mean to dream about hedgehog?
A hedgehog often points to self-protection through prickliness, a soft creature that defends itself by becoming hard to approach.
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 might read the raised spines as defences thrown up around a tender wish, keeping closeness at bay. Curling into a ball could picture withdrawal from a threat to feeling. He would ask your own associations.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
For Jung the hedgehog can image a self that protects its softness with sharp boundaries. Its spines speak of a guarded vulnerability that needs careful approach.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
In continuity terms a hedgehog may echo recent prickliness or a wish to keep others at a safe distance. The dream often mirrors the tension between needing closeness and fearing it.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
Old bestiaries credited the hedgehog with cleverness, rolling on fallen fruit to carry it away on its spines. Folklore made it a wary, prudent creature of the hedgerow.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Brewer).