Images · Cities & buildings

Dreams about house: Jung, traditions and semiotics

This is not a dream dictionary. Each perspective below names where it comes from; traditions are shown side by side, not merged into one meaning.

Start with yourself

Whose house was it — one you know, or one you only know in the dream? Which room did you spend the most time in?

Jung · The house as psyche

In 1909 Jung dreamed of a house whose cellar led down into older and older layers — Roman, then prehistoric. He later took it as an image of the psyche, with the oldest layers at the bottom.

How many floors did your dream house have? Was there a door, stair or cellar you did not open?

C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)

Traditions, side by side

Semiotics: how an image comes to mean

Following C. S. Peirce, an image can work as a sign in three ways:

• Icon — by resemblance
  Does the house look like one you have actually seen? Could it simply be a copy of a memory?
• Index — by connection
  Could the house point to an actual cause — a bodily sensation, a sound in the room, something that happened that day?
• Symbol — by convention
  Does the house mean what it means by convention — an idiom, a saying, a family phrase? Would it still mean that in another language or culture?

C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers 2.247–249 (icon, index, symbol)
C. G. Jung, Psychological Types (1921), “Definitions: Symbol” — a sign stands for something known, a symbol for something not yet fully known
Ellis (1911), ch. II, on verbal links between dream images

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

Recorded dreams with house

• A barley loaf tumbled into the camp Valley of Jezreel · undated narrative
• My sister came through the keyhole Ithaca (setting) · c. 8th century BCE
• A friend at the bedside, like a breath of wind Scheria (setting) · c. 8th century BCE
• The great ghost broke down the gate Jin (Shanxi), China · 581 BCE
• A thunderbolt fell on my father’s house Mesopotamia · 401 BCE
• Fortune waiting weary at the door Rome, Italy · c. 15 BCE
• Pulled from her bed on her wedding night Greece (story setting) · c. 170 CE (novel)
• A green lizard fell into my belly Huainan, China · undated (Jin collection)
• Into the ants’ nest: the Hall of Watching Rain Xiayang, Shaanxi, China · undated (Jin collection)
• Riding a green dragon up to heaven Jiuquan, Gansu, China · late 4th century (as told)
• My late husband came back to mend the house Pengcheng (Xuzhou), China · 5th century
• Two boys said: move your bed Jiankang (Nanjing), China · c. 480 (Southern Qi)
• The millet was not yet cooked Handan, China (story setting) · c. 780
• Cooking rice in a stone mortar Jianghuai region, China · c. 800 (Tang)
• The general’s buried sword Shouchun, Anhui, China · Tang (undated)
• Cherry stones beside the pillow Tang China · c. 850
• The window with cypress and mallows Mount Tiantai, Zhejiang, China · c. 900
• Dreaming of my late wife at her window Mizhou (Zhucheng, Shandong), China · 20th day of the 1st lunar month, 1075
• Woken from a dream a thousand li long Southern Song China · c. 1138
• My mother lacked a pair of gloves London, England · 29 June 1667
• A man clothed with rags Bedford, England · written c. 1676, pub. 1678
• Easter morning, cattle on the graves Grasmere, England · c. 1819
• Tiny sleep-spirits with war-clubs Great Lakes region · traditional (recorded c. 1820s–1850s)
• An ice-cold little hand at the window Yorkshire moors, England · 1847 (novel)
• Thornfield Hall a dreary ruin England · 1847 (novel)
• Who is dead in the White House? Washington, D.C., USA · early April 1865 (as reported)
• No proper dog at all Scottish moorland (dreamed) · before 1888
• Why is the babe weeping? Russia · 1880 (novel)
• Chased round the stove by the devil Mission school, Wabash, Indiana · c. 1884–87
• Angina, angina! England · late 19th century
• Irma’s injection Bellevue, near Vienna · 23–24 July 1895
• Already at the hospital, so no need to go Vienna, Austria · c. 1895
• Last night I dreamt we were at Simony Hut Aussee, Austria · summer 1896
• Snow at the top of the hotel England · before 1911
• A sky like cracked ice England · before 1911
• The scene I had to write England · before 1911
• The shop assistant who had moved England · before 1911
• A hotel I could see into England · before 1911
• My friend, alive, no longer editing England · before 1911
• Six mirrors in the barber’s shop Tokyo, Japan · 1908
• I could make the summer Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1910
• The earthquake is coming Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1910
• A fire in a hotel in a strange city Zurich, Switzerland · c. 1913
• A cedar chest of dream-stuff from her grandfather Washington, D.C. · c. 1910s