Themes
Dreams of nature & weather — recorded across centuries
23 recorded dreams about nature & weather from diaries, poems, scripture, psychology and literature, each with its source.
- A white elephant with a lotus Kapilavastu (Nepal–India) · traditional (c. 6th c. BCE)
- Three branches and Pharaoh’s cup Egypt (narrative setting) · undated narrative
- Seven thin ears devoured the full Egypt (narrative setting) · undated narrative
- An olive wreath that covered the earth Susa, Persia · 481 BCE (as told)
- Throwing thunderbolts upon Sparta Sparta, Greece · 272 BCE
- A melon sweeter than any Luoyang, China · c. 60 CE (as told)
- A melon in winter, still in his hand Northern Wei China · c. 500 (Northern Wei)
- Cooking rice in a stone mortar Jianghuai region, China · c. 800 (Tang)
- A child climbed out of a hollow tree Tang China · c. 840
- Cherry stones beside the pillow Tang China · c. 850
- The window with cypress and mallows Mount Tiantai, Zhejiang, China · c. 900
- Armoured horses on frozen rivers Shanyin (Shaoxing, Zhejiang), China · 4th day of the 11th lunar month, 1192
- Bottom’s dream, which hath no bottom Athens (setting) · c. 1595 (play)
- Waking in the Peony Pavilion Nan’an, Jiangxi (setting) · 1598 (drama)
- Into the Land of Illusion Beijing, China · c. 1760 (novel)
- Easter morning, cattle on the graves Grasmere, England · c. 1819
- An ice-cold little hand at the window Yorkshire moors, England · 1847 (novel)
- Heaven did not seem to be my home Yorkshire moors, England · 1847 (novel)
- Strawberries, huckleberries, omelette Vienna, Austria · c. 1897
- Rome half veiled in mist Vienna, Austria · c. 1897
- Bread mingled with cinders England · before 1911
- Glass after glass of champagne England · before 1911
- A damson with a snail inside England · before 1911
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Storms, mountains and gardens in dreams are often traced to the day’s impressions or the sleeper’s physical state — Ellis connected a dreamed cyclone to a windy night.
Mythological
Sacred mountains and world-trees connect earth and sky in many traditions, from Olympus to Yggdrasil to Mount Kunlun.
Chinese traditions
Landscape — mountains, rivers, mist — is the setting of countless Chinese dream journeys, where the dreamer’s wandering mirrors the shan-shui painting tradition.
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.