A bear

The three large animals in this dictionary divide cleanly. A lion is authority that decides. A wolf is coordination that plans. A bear is neither: it is size without intent, and it becomes dangerous through proximity rather than through decision.

Not hunting

The correspondence is a large presence in the dreamer’s situation that is not directed at them. Reports name a difficult relative who is not currently difficult, an unstable business partner, an addiction in a family, an illness in remission, and a temper — often someone else’s, sometimes their own.

What these share is that nothing is happening and everyone is arranging their behaviour around the possibility. That is the reading, and it explains why the image is reported from calm periods rather than from crises.

At a distance

The commonest form, and reported without much fear. The animal is visible, large, and occupied with something else.

Correspondence is a known force that is currently not a problem. Reports describe watching rather than fleeing, and dreamers frequently mention deciding which way to go — which is exactly what people do around such situations awake.

Being noticed

The shift that makes this entry distinct. Nothing about the animal changes; it simply turns.

Read as something that becomes dangerous the moment attention is drawn to it. Reports name raising a subject with a volatile person, a legal matter that would be fine if nobody looked, a family history that everyone manages by not mentioning, and workplace problems that only become problems when reported.

Dreamers in this form describe stillness and calculation, and the reports carry a specific regret about having moved.

Cubs

A distinct image, and dreamers almost never misread it. The bear is not hostile; it is protective, and the dreamer has come too close to something.

Reports name mothers overwhelmingly — as the animal, as the dreamer, or as the person whose reaction the dreamer has provoked. It also appears where any dependant is involved: reports name people defending children, patients, employees and elderly parents.

The lioness form in the lion entry covers similar ground; the difference is that a bear’s protection is not about status at all.

Asleep

An image with no equivalent elsewhere in the dictionary, because hibernation is not restraint. Nothing is holding the animal back; the season is.

Read as a power dormant by circumstance. Reports name conflicts that are quiet because people are apart, addictions inactive during a stable period, and illnesses in remission. Dreamers describe knowing it will wake, and describe the knowing calmly.

This is why it should not be read as the caged lion. Nobody has contained anything.

Being chased

Less common than dreamers expect, and when it appears the reports are specific: the dreamer did something first.

Correspondence is a consequence pursued after a provocation — a complaint made, a person confronted, a boundary set with someone who does not accept boundaries. The being-chased readings apply, with the addition that the pursuit here is understood by the dreamer to be their own doing.

A bear in the house

An uncommon and striking form: the animal is inside, and the house carries its own readings.

Reports name a volatile person living in the household, an addiction inside a family, or an anger the dreamer has stopped being able to keep outside their own life. The mismatch of scale is the reading, and dreamers describe rooms as too small.

What to ask

Whether it had seen you. Almost everything in this entry turns on that, and dreamers answer it immediately.