DREAM GALAXY

Diary & poem of record · Flight & sky

Lions in the bright hills

Open hill country, location unstated · February 1877

The first consciousness which broke my sleep last night was one of floating, of being carried swiftly by some invisible force through a vast space; then, of being gently lowered; then of light, until, gradually, I found myself on … my feet in a broad noon-day brightness, and before me an open country. Hills, hills, as far as the eye could reach,--hills with snow on their tops, and mists around their gorges. This was the first thing I saw distinctly. Then, casting my eyes towards the ground, I perceived that all about me lay huge masses of grey material which, at first, I took for blocks of stone, having the form of lions; but as I looked at them more intently, my sight grew clearer, and I saw, to my horror, that they were really alive.

Original text — Dreams and Dream-Stories, Part I: Dreams, Anna Bonus Kingsford; edited by Edward Maitland

Open this dream in the galaxy →

Source
Dreams and Dream-Stories, Part I: Dreams — Anna Bonus Kingsford; edited by Edward Maitland, posthumous edition; dreams recorded c. 1876–1887. Part I, VIII. The Enchanted Woman
Rights
Public domain (author died 100+ years ago)
Record type
Diary & poem of record
Place
Open hill country, location unstated · British
Date
February 1877
Uncertainty
Low — Dated first-person diary vision; the excerpt stops before the chapter's later allegorical scenes.
Imagery
Flight · Mountain · Snow & ice · Animals
Feelings
Awe · Horror

Another way to look at this dream

Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.

Flight

How did flying feel — effortless, effortful, frightening? Is there something in your waking life you would like to rise above, or see from higher up?

Jung · Compensation

Jung thought dreams often compensate for a one-sided waking attitude: they show the side we leave out. A flying dream can be read either way — lightness someone lacks, or a height they have climbed too fast.

C. G. Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology”, Collected Works 8

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis gave flying and falling dreams a whole chapter, “Aviation in Dreams”, and explained flying mainly through breathing sensations during sleep.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. VI

Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine

The Lingshu says that when the upper body is in excess, “one dreams of flying”. This is a historical theory about the body, not medical advice and not a way to diagnose anything.

Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu ch. 43 “Yinxie Fameng”

All perspectives on flight →

Mountain

Were you climbing it, looking at it, or already on top? What would reaching the summit mean to you?

Japanese custom Folk saying

An Edo-period saying ranks the luckiest images for the first dream of the New Year (hatsuyume): “first Fuji, second a hawk, third an aubergine”.

Edo-period saying on hatsuyume

Chinese poetry Literature

Li Bai climbs Mount Tianmu in a dream, sees a whole immortal world open up, then wakes on his pillow — and decides not to bow to the powerful.

Li Bai, “Dreaming of Tianmu” (c. 745)

All perspectives on mountain →

Snow & ice

Was the snow fresh or old? Did it make a sound underfoot? Did the cold hurt, or wake you up?

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis gives cold from disturbed bed covers as a common bodily source of dreams, with the case of a sleeper who dreamed of being surrounded by snow on a mountain and woke tangled in the sheets, partly uncovered, on a cold night.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. IV, on tactile sensations

Chinese poetry Literature

Liu Zongyuan’s “River Snow” empties a whole landscape — no birds, no footprints — and leaves one old man fishing in the cold: snow as solitude.

Liu Zongyuan, “River Snow”

All perspectives on snow & ice →

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Dreams that share its images