Hippopotamus
To dream of a hippopotamus represents feelings about behavior that's experienced as unfriendliness or being standoffishness. Feeling that someone doesn't like you. You may be experiencing people or situations that are cold, distant, temperamental, or difficult to approach. A hippo may also reflect trouble co-operating or an inability to get help. Crankiness. Feeling that people are being rude to you. A difficult person who doesn't like being close and personal with you.
A hippopotamus may also represent your own unfriendliness or disinterest in cooperating with others. A hippo could reflect behavior that is noticeably uninterested in the success or well-being of others.
Positively, a dream about a hippopotamus may represent feelings about believing that being protective, assertive, or uncooperative is in your best interest in a serious or dangerous situation.
Example: A young man dreamed of hippos in a river. In waking life, he was experiencing hostile people in the workplace and feared losing his job. In this case, the hippos may have reflected his feelings about his colleagues being unapproachable, standoffish, and potentially jeopardizing his job security. The river with the hippos might have symbolized the unpredictable work environment where he felt that any wrong move could provoke these unfriendly colleagues further, making his situation at work even more unstable.
Example 2: A woman dreamed of a hippo being her friend. In waking life, she was being very standoffish with doctors as she tried to find a solution to her cancer. In this case, the friendly hippo reflected her own standoffish behavior towards the doctors, viewing it in a more positive or necessary light since she knew she was right and refused to take no for an answer. The hippo being friendly might symbolize her own understanding or justification of her behavior, believing that being protective, assertive, or uncooperative was in her best interest given the gravity of her health situation. She might have felt that such behavior was the only way she could ensure she was getting the best care and attention for her condition.
Example 3: A man dreamed of fearing a hippo coming out of the water to eat him. In waking life, he was a webmaster experiencing traffic losses from Google to his website and was afraid that if he made any changes to his website that google would penalize his site with even more traffic losses. In this case, the hippo may have reflected his feelings about Google being an overpowering, unapproachable entity that he couldn't easily communicate with or understand. The fear of the hippo coming out of the water to eat him might represent his fear of taking any action that might provoke an even worse reaction from Google, making his online business situation even more precarious.
