Breast in Dreams
breasts · bosom · chest · heart's seat · what one holds close · gogus
The breast is read as the seat of feeling and the place of nurture. It is where a person is said to hold things close, where warmth and grief are located in ordinary speech, and where the first care between people is given. Dreams touching on it are commonly taken to signify what is offered and what is withheld, what one shelters, and the openness or guardedness of the heart toward others.
Readings of this image generally centre on giving and keeping. To hold something to the breast is to protect it; to open the breast is to make oneself reachable, and the dream often registers which of the two the dreamer is doing. Interpreters also attend to the theme of sustenance passed on, understood broadly as the care one received, the care one gives, and the difference between them.
By detail
Action
holding a child or an object close to the breast
Drawing something in is read as protection given freely. The gesture is generally taken to signify what the dreamer has decided is theirs to keep safe, and interpreters note that it is done with the arms rather than with any barrier, so the shelter offered is also a form of exposure. What is held tends to matter in the reading, since a person, a possession and a secret are sheltered for different reasons.
nursing or feeding an infant
The feeding image is read as sustenance passed directly from one life to another. It is commonly taken to signify care given at cost, since what is provided comes from the giver's own resources rather than from a store. Readings often extend it beyond parenthood to any relationship in which the dreamer is the source others draw on, and attend to whether the supply feels ample or depleted.
the breast covered, shielded or turned away
Shielding divides readings. One line takes covering as guardedness, the dreamer closing the approach to their feeling after it was handled badly. A different line reads it as appropriate reserve, noting that what is tender is not owed to every room. Both treat the covering as deliberate, and the dream's atmosphere generally indicates whether it reads as retreat or as good judgement.
Feeling
a weight, pressure or heaviness in the breast
Heaviness there is read metaphorically as grief or a held emotion rather than as any bodily matter. The chest is where ordinary language places sorrow, and the dream is generally taken to signify feeling that has been carried inward and given no outlet. Interpreters usually read the pressure as accumulation, something added to over time rather than arriving in a single event.
Outcome
an open or bared breast in a scene of appeal
Baring the breast in appeal is an old gesture of unarmed sincerity, read as showing that nothing is concealed and no weapon is held. The dream is generally taken to signify a plea made without defences, whether for mercy, belief or return. Interpreters usually read it as the most costly form of asking, since the position offers no protection if the appeal is refused.