Bleeding: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What bleeding is

Bleeding is the loss of blood from a damaged blood vessel. It can be external, as with cuts and wounds or nosebleeds, or internal, inside the gut, the lungs, a joint or under the skin as a bruise. A haemorrhage is a large or uncontrolled bleed. The body stops most small bleeds by itself, through platelets and clotting proteins that seal the vessel within minutes.

Bleeding that comes easily or often has many possible causes. Some are local, such as gum disease, haemorrhoids or a stomach ulcer. Others affect the whole body: blood-thinning medicines, a low platelet count, liver disease, or an inherited clotting disorder such as haemophilia or von Willebrand disease. Repeated blood loss can lead to anaemia. A blood test is often the first step, and treatment depends on the cause. Severe bleeding is an emergency: press firmly on the wound and call for help.

The emotional meaning of bleeding

The blood carries life through the body. Spiritually, it stands for joy of living, so when blood leaves the body, the question is where your joy is going.

Tears of blood

Bleeding can be compared to tears. When you suffer, tears flow. When the pain is so intense that ordinary tears are not enough, it can feel as though you were crying blood. Spiritually, bleeding is read as that kind of sorrow, and as a loss of joy. The gentle question is: where has my joy of living gone, and since when?

Seeing red

There may be aggressiveness too: anger strong enough to make you "see red". Pain and anger often travel together. A hurt that has not been heard can turn into irritation with everyone around you.

Blood ties

Blood is also family. In French as in English, people speak of "blood ties". Bleeding can come with questions about your origins, about belonging to your clan, about whether you truly have a place among your own. If family questions are stirring, it may help to name them.

Emotions held too long

A haemorrhage, a sudden heavy loss of blood, is associated in this approach with an upheaval or an emotional shock. Emotions held back for a long time, such as bitterness or anguish, become impossible to contain and burst out. Events have not gone the way you hoped. Worn out, at the end of your resistance, you let go, and a large part of your joy of living seems to leave with it.

There can be an old wound that is still open: a time you felt humiliated or attacked in your deepest self and could not defend yourself. You may feel crushed and powerless, and carry a lot of aggression. Sometimes there is a quiet sense that your own life does not count for much, or sorrow at a family that has come apart. If anyone is hurting you now, the first step is to get to safety and get help.

Where the bleeding is

Spiritually, the part of the body that bleeds adds detail:

• Bleeding gums sit with doubt about a decision and a lost joy in self-expression. They have their own page: gum disease and bleeding gums.
• Bleeding from the bottom, or blood in the stools, is linked to holding on to the past. You may stay stuck in one place, feel backed against the wall, and blame other people or the past for how unhappy you are today. You may withdraw into solitude so as not to be hurt again. See also haemorrhoids.
• Bleeding from the womb outside the usual period is read as a loss of joy around your family and your home. See heavy periods.
• Bleeding in the stomach is linked to an emotional shock you cannot digest. You gnaw at yourself from the inside. It points to a situation, often a grief, that needs care soon.
• Nosebleeds have their own page: nosebleeds.

If you came here from Louise Hay's list, our guide to the Louise Hay list explains how her short entries compare with the fuller interpretations on this site.

A gentler way to hold it

• Welcome the chance to be alive. Notice one moment each day that reminds you that life is worth living.
• Let the sadness out. Tears that are allowed to flow do not have to find another way out. Cry with someone you trust, or on your own.
• Stop carrying the blame. Ask what you are still holding against the past, or against other people, and what it costs you to keep holding it.
• Say what has built up. Express your feelings a little at a time, before they reach the point of bursting.
• Look at your belonging. If questions about your family or your origins are alive in you, give them words, on paper or with someone close.
• Receive. Joy also comes from what others give. Practise saying yes and thank you when life offers you something.