Anecdote collection · People & kin
Her body stretched to the stars
Rome, Italy · 63 BCE
same Atia, before her delivery, dreamed that her bowels stretched to the stars, and expanded through the whole circuit of heaven and earth. His father Octavius, likewise, dreamt that a sun-beam issued from his wife’s womb.
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- Source
- The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Thomson trans., rev. Forester) — Suetonius; trans. Alexander Thomson, rev. T. Forester, c. 121 / 1796 (trans.). Augustus, ch. XCIV
- Record type
- Anecdote collection
- Place
- Rome, Italy · Roman
- Date
- 63 BCE
- Uncertainty
- High — From Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars (A. Thomson trans., rev. T. Forester); an omen-dream reported by a Roman biographer.
- Imagery
- Stars · Sun · Mother · Child
- Feelings
- Awe · Wonder
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Stars
One star or a whole sky of them? Were they close, and did they make any shape you recognised?
Chinese historiography Classical text
The “Treatise on the Celestial Offices” in the Records of the Grand Historian maps the night sky onto the human world: groups of stars are named as officials of a heavenly court.
Sima Qian, Shiji, “Treatise on the Celestial Offices”
Roman philosophy Philosophy
Scipio, dreaming among the stars, finds them far larger than they look from Earth — the dream is a lesson in how small human glory is from far enough away.
Cicero, De re publica VI (“Dream of Scipio”)
Sun
Was the sun rising, setting, or overhead? Was its light comforting or too strong?
Jung · Consciousness
In the alchemical pairing Jung used, the sun stands for consciousness — the clear daylight view, with its own blind spots.
C. G. Jung, “Mysterium Coniunctionis”, Collected Works 14
Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture
Joseph dreams that the sun, the moon and eleven stars bow down to him; his family hears it as a claim to rank, and resents it.
Genesis 37:9–10
Chinese historiography Classical text
The Records of the Grand Historian say that Emperor Wu’s mother dreamed of the sun entering her bosom — one of many “birth dreams” that later histories attached to rulers.
Sima Qian, Shiji, “Hereditary Houses of the Consorts”
Mother
Was this your own mother as you know her, or someone in her place? What did she do or say?
Jung · The mother archetype
Jung first reads a dreamed mother on the “objective level” — your real mother and your relationship. Only then on the “subjective level”: the mother archetype, which he described as both nourishing and devouring.
C. G. Jung, “Psychological Aspects of the Mother Archetype”, Collected Works 9i
Early dream research & psychology Dream research
Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.
Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)
Myth & scripture (several traditions) Myth & scripture
Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.
Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- A flame descending into her womb Takshaśilā (Taxila) · c. 1070 (compiled)
- The sun, the moon and eleven stars Canaan · undated (text c. 6th c. BCE)
- Heaven, surrounded by dazzling light United States · before 1911
- A ladder set up on the earth Bethel, Canaan · undated (text c. 6th c. BCE)
- The moon, then the sun, entered my bosom Wu (Zhejiang), China · c. 175–182
- A youth let down on a golden chain Rome, Italy · c. 50 BCE