Research case · Cities & buildings
Evensong without light
England · before 1911
I once dreamed that I was in a vast gloomy English cathedral, and on the wall I observed a notice to the effect that on such a day evensong would take place without illumination of the cathedral in order to avoid attracting moths. I awoke with slight headache.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. Ch. V
- Rights
- Public domain (US)
- Record type
- Research case
- Place
- England · British
- Date
- before 1911
- Uncertainty
- Low
- Imagery
- Temple · Darkness · Insects · Writing
- Feelings
- Calm · Awe
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Houses, corridors and endless stairs are frequent dream settings. Some writers read buildings as figures for the self; others note simply that dreams rebuild the spaces we move through every day.
cf. Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams (1888)
Mythological
Labyrinths, towers and underground cities appear in myths from Crete to Babel — built places where people lose their way, reach too high, or find hidden kingdoms.
Greek myth; Genesis 11
Chinese traditions
Tang tales like “The Governor of Nanke” place a whole kingdom of palaces inside a dream, only to reveal it as an ants’ nest — a lasting image for the brevity of worldly glory.
Li Gongzuo, c. 802
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- Heaven, surrounded by dazzling light United States · before 1911
- Already at the hospital, so no need to go Vienna, Austria · c. 1895
- A samurai racing the temple clock to enlightenment Tokyo, Japan · 1908
- Buried a thousand years in stone Grasmere, England · c. 1817–1819
- A parody by the goose-pond Montserrat, Spain · before 1911
- The third day hence to fertile Phthia Athens, Greece · 399 BCE