Literary dream · Cities & buildings
The princess beyond the sunset
Imagined world beyond the sunset · Date unknown · literary dream-story
Once upon a time there was a Princess. Now, this Princess dwelt in a far-off and beautiful world beyond the sunset, and she had immortal youth and an ancestry of glorious name. Very rich, too, she was, and the palace in which she lived was made all of marble and alabaster and things precious and wonderful. But that which was most wonderful about her was her exceeding beauty,--a beauty not like that one sees in the world this side of the sunset.
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- Source
- Dreams and Dream-Stories, Part II: Dream-Stories — Anna Bonus Kingsford; edited by Edward Maitland, posthumous edition (1908 Project Gutenberg source edition). Part II, III. Beyond the Sunset
- Record type
- Literary dream
- Place
- Imagined world beyond the sunset · British
- Date
- Date unknown · literary dream-story
- Uncertainty
- Low — Literary fairy tale from Part II, not a historical dream testimony. Its composition date is unknown.
- Imagery
- Palace · Sun · Light · Ruler
- Feelings
- Wonder · Awe
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
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”
Light
Where did the light come from? What did it let you see — and was anything too bright to look at?
Jung · Lumen naturae
Writing on Paracelsus, Jung took up the old idea of a lumen naturae, a “light of nature” within us that illuminates from the inside rather than from outside authority.
C. G. Jung, “Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon”, Collected Works 13
Early dream research Dream research
Ellis noted the common claim that light on closed eyes sets off dreams, but said he had no decisive evidence and that eyelids guard sleep well. His own dream of a bright light and a huge shadow came after an evening walk into the setting sun.
Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. IV
Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture
The first thing spoken in Genesis is “Let there be light”: light marks the start of an ordered world.
Genesis 1:3
Ruler
Were you the ruler, a subject, or an onlooker? Who gave the crown its weight?
Chinese philosophy Philosophy
In the Liezi a hired labourer dreams every night that he is a prince, and a rich man dreams every night that he is a servant. The labourer’s reply: “By day a slave, by night a ruler: why should I complain?”
Liezi, “King Mu of Zhou”
Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture
Young Joseph dreams that his brothers’ sheaves bow to his. They answer: “Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” and hate him the more. A dream of rule is heard as a claim.
Genesis 37:7–8 (King James Version)
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
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- A procession coming down the hill Yamato Province, Japan · 1904 (retold folk tale)
- A great image with feet of clay Babylon · narrative set c. 6th c. BCE
- A balance exactly poised Rome, Italy · c. 70–79 CE
- The kingdom under the locust tree Guangling (Yangzhou), China · c. 802