Dream Galaxy

Religious narrative · Falling & stuck

My father sinking into a lake of mire

Ayodhya (setting) · c. 5th–4th c. BCE (epic)

I dreamt I saw the king my sire Sink headlong in a lake of mire Down from a mountain high in air, His body soiled, and loose his hair.

Original text — The Rámáyan of Válmíki (trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith), Valmiki; trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith

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Source
The Rámáyan of Válmíki (trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith) — Valmiki; trans. Ralph T. H. Griffith, 1870–1874 (translation). Book II, Canto LXIX
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Religious narrative
Place
Ayodhya (setting) · Indian
Date
c. 5th–4th c. BCE (epic)
Uncertainty
High — Valmiki’s Ramayana in Ralph Griffith’s verse translation (1870–74).
Imagery
Father · Ruler · Mountain · Lake · Falling
Feelings
Unease · Grief

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Sensations of falling or being unable to move are often reported near the edges of sleep. Ellis described them in terms of the body’s signals reaching the dreaming mind; sleep researchers today discuss related experiences such as hypnic jerks and sleep paralysis.

Ellis (1911), ch. V

Mythological

Falls mark thresholds in many myths — the fall from paradise, Phaethon tumbling from the sun chariot, descents into the underworld — moments when one order of things gives way to another.

Comparative mythology

Chinese traditions

Classical dream books such as the tradition attributed to the Duke of Zhou catalogued falling and climbing among common dream images; their readings were folk conventions rather than fixed meanings.

Folk dream-book traditions

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images