One night I awoke from a dream about a dragon. It wasn't a nightmare, but it wasn't that wonderful either. The being surely wasn't Puff, the Magic Dragon. What could be the significance of it?

Always a powerful creature, the dragon could be friend of rival depending on the culture of beliefs it came from. Dragons from Eastern cultures have traditionally been the embodiment of truth and virtue, prosperity, and spiritual or personal quest. On the other hand, Western culture has typically revered dragons as evil, harmful, guardians of treasure and symbols of greed. So does this mean if you are from Eastern culture, you dream of good dragons and if you are from Western tradition, ruthless ones?

What about Biblical imagery? In Revelations 12, we are told of a dream in which the devil takes on the appearance of a red dragon. Does this then mean that dragons are diabolical?

While this is one extreme explanation, another, which is widely accepted across belief systems, is that to dream of a fire-breather is to dream about a personal problem that must be handled. This sort of dream is an anxiety dream, kind of like those you used to have where you dreamt of walking into the cafeteria and the whole school stopping to laugh at you. Perhaps you will even find yourself fighting a dragon while a couple of of your other personal anxieties (like for me, being too late to take a test that is going to control what I do for the rest of my life) take place around you.

It is believed that if the dragon in your dreams has wings, it is representing transcendence and insight. For example, if you are dreaming of riding a dragon, you may be in for some kind of spiritual transformation.

Possibly your dream dragon is standing in front of a cave, overseeing its entrance. Many sources decipher that the cave is your subconscious and inside that cave is treasure, which in turn is your true self. And consequently if you fight your dream dragon, what you are really fighting is your own fear of coming to grips with your inner self.Dragons in dreams are also associated with power, fire, and passion. Some people believe that these creatures are symbols of your sexual and emotional domains. However, it is also cautioned that these dreams are there to remind you to apply self control, which when not utilized, can lead to all types of destruction.

Still an added explanation comes from Freud and Jung, who, as you may have surmised, attribute dragon dreams to a person's "devouring" traits of his or her mother or if you are male, your inability out of fear or misunderstanding to incorporate your feminine side into your personality.

So the next time you awaken frightened from a dream about a dragon, don't turn on all the lights and take cover under the blankets. Write down what you dreamt and then when you are more conscious, really ponder about a few of the issues and worries underlying your everyday life. The majority of the times these are harder to face than fire-breathing creatures. That said, just take into account that your dream is giving you a message and that is that you can do it-you can overcome and destroy your dragon.