Dream Galaxy

Research case · Flight & sky

A sky like cracked ice

England · before 1911

I dreamed I was quietly at home with friends, when suddenly the sky became illuminated. We found that this was due to steady and continuous lightning, a state of things which remained throughout the dream, the sky presenting the appearance of a cracked and crushed sheet of melting ice. By and by, fragments of buildings and similar debris were whirled past in the air… We now realised the imminent approach of a terrific cyclone which, at any moment, might carry the house and ourselves away.

Original text — The World of Dreams, Havelock Ellis

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Source
The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. Ch. IV
Rights
Public domain (US)
Record type
Research case
Place
England · British
Date
before 1911
Uncertainty
Moderate
Imagery
Sky · Storm · Light · House · Friend
Feelings
Fear · Awe

How traditions have read this kind of dream

Psychological

Flying and floating dreams are among the most widely reported dream types. Ellis tied them to breathing and balance during sleep; others have associated them with freedom or lucid awareness.

Ellis (1911), ch. VI

Mythological

Ascent recurs across traditions: Icarus and his wax wings, Jacob’s ladder between earth and heaven, shamanic journeys to the upper world. Many of these stories hold both aspiration and a warning.

Greek myth; Genesis 28

Chinese traditions

Chinese literature is full of dream journeys skyward — Li Bai flying across Mirror Lake, Li He gazing down at China as “nine specks of smoke” — where flight becomes a way to see the world at a different scale.

Li Bai; Li He

These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.

Dreams that share its images