Literary dream · Water
A Vetāla threw him into the sea
India (story setting) · c. 1070 (compiled)
But in the night he saw in a dream his necklace suddenly taken from his neck, and his crest-jewel snatched from his head, by a deformed woman. Then he saw a Vetála, with a body made up of the limbs of many animals, and when the Vetála wrestled with him, he hurled him to earth. And when the king sat on the Vetála’s back, the demon flew up with him through the air, like a bird, and threw him into the sea.
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- Source
- The Kathá Sarit Ságara, or Ocean of the Streams of Story (Tawney trans.) — Somadeva; trans. C. H. Tawney, c. 1070 / 1880–84 (trans.). Ch. LV
- Record type
- Literary dream
- Place
- India (story setting) · Indian
- Date
- c. 1070 (compiled)
- Uncertainty
- High — From the Kathāsaritsāgara, Somadeva’s 11th-century Sanskrit story collection (C. H. Tawney trans., 1880–84); a story-dream, not a personal report.
- Imagery
- Sea · Flight · Animals · A stranger · Ruler
- Feelings
- Fear · Confusion · Relief
Another way to look at this dream
Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.
Water
Was the water clear or muddy, still or rising? Which water in your own life — a place, a swim, a flood — does it bring back first?
Jung · The unconscious
Jung called water the most common image for the unconscious: something deep, below the surface, that we can look into but not see through.
C. G. Jung, “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious”, Collected Works 9i
Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine
The Lingshu pairs dream images with the balance of yin and yang: when yin is excessive, one “dreams of wading through great water, and is afraid”. 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”
Hebrew Bible; Babylonian myth Myth & scripture
Several creation stories begin with primordial water — “darkness was upon the face of the deep” in Genesis, the fresh-water Apsu in the Babylonian Enuma Elish. Here water is what exists before order.
Genesis 1:2; Enuma Elish I
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”
Animals
What was the animal like — wild or tame, chasing you or keeping you company? Have you known an animal like it?
Jung · Instinct
In the Jungian book Man and His Symbols, animals in dreams are often read as instinct given a body — a part of us that is older than words.
Aniela Jaffé, “Symbolism in the Visual Arts”, in Man and His Symbols (1964)
Book of Songs Classical text
A Zhou-dynasty song records a dream reading: bears foretell sons, snakes foretell daughters. It shows how early animal dreams were read as signs about family.
Book of Songs, “Si Gan”
Hebrew Bible Myth & scripture
Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones; Joseph reads them as years of plenty and famine — and says interpretation “belongs to God”, not to him.
Genesis 41; 40:8
Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.
Dreams that share its images
- My dream-soul returned to the Lord of Heaven Southern Song China · c. 1130
- A young man with wings over Asia and Europe Land of the Massagetae (Central Asia) · 530 BCE (as told)
- Come over into Macedonia, and help us Troas, Asia Minor · c. 49 (narrative)
- A snake became an eagle and carried me off Asia Minor · c. 470 BCE
- Step in my tracks, up through the clouds Shores of Lake Huron · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)
- An island that would come to us Great Lakes region · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)