Oneiromancy Bible
description
Transcript of Oneiromancy Bible
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ON
EIRO
MA
NC
Y A
ND
DR
EAM
S
Medieval sleepers had to be very cautious. D
reams m
ight be a message
from G
od, or they could be the result of eating too many turnips. The clever
interpreter had to know the difference from
biblical precedents.
DR
EAM
TYPES D
ISCU
SSED IN
MA
CR
OBIU
S'S COM
MEN
TARYO
N TH
E DREAM
OF SCIPIO
.
1. SOM
NIU
M--a sym
bolic orallegorical dream
experiencerequiring interpretation.
2. VISIO
--an exact, realisticallyportrayed vision of the future
3. OR
AC
ULU
M--a description
of the future or a revelationprovided by a spirit, a relative,or an authority figure w
hoappears in a dream
4. INSO
MN
IUM
--a distortedvision resulting from
emotional
distress or digestive disorder
VA
LID D
REA
MS
(of heavenly origin)
INV
ALID
DR
EAM
S(of m
undane or demonic origin)
5. PHA
NTA
SMA
--a delusionor hallucination resulting fromm
ental disorder or demonic
intervention
DR
EAM
S IN TH
E BIBLE
For the medieval reader, dream
s were filled w
ith peril. For them, the Bible contained
many accounts of dream
s that were visions of the future or allegorical m
essagesrequiring interpretations. I contain below
a list of such dreams, including the term
uses (somnium
, visio, oraculum) in each case. note that the Latin som
nus simply
means sleep, w
hile somnium
means dream
. The phrases in somno and in som
nis canm
ean in dreams or w
hile asleep.
Genesis 20:3-7 (Som
nium): A
braham and Sarah--M
ale dreamer (A
bimelech) w
arned againsttaking Sarah from
Abraham
.28:12-15 (in som
nis) Jacob's Ladder, with angels m
oving up and down it.
31:10-13 (in somnis) A
ngel appears to Jacob in a dream, sees Laban's sheep producing
speckled and striped ewes, w
hich will be his according to agreem
ent.31:24 (in som
nis) Laban warned by G
od in dream not to speak harshly to Jacob.
37:5-9 (ut visum som
nium) Joseph hated by his brothers, he tells them
a dream he already
dreamed; the fram
e is a narrator telling a past dream in w
hich Jacob's brothers' sheavesstand in a field w
ith sheaves bowing dow
n to his. Then the sun and moon and stars
worshipping it as w
ell.37:19 (Ecce som
niatur venit!) Behold the dreamer, let us cast him
into a pit! The wicked
refusal to believe in a dream.
40:5-23 (Somnium
) The Baker and Butler with Joseph. H
ere, the narrator narrates his dream to
another, who interprets it, though the chief butler ungratefully forgets his interpreter.
41:1-24, 41:25-32 (Somnium
) Pharoah's dream of seven sleek and gaunt cow
s, and seven goodears of grain and seven thin ears of grain, and Joseph's interpretation.
42:9 (somnium
) Joseph remem
bers the dream about his brothers.
Exodus: Note that M
oses in Exodus is a special category. He doesn't need interpretation or the
intermediary of dream
ing to talk with G
od.
Num
bers 12:6 Mary and A
aron, God explains to them
the difference between dream
s and visionsand w
hat occurs with M
oses: "Si quis fuerit inter vos propheta Dom
ini, in visione apparebo eivel per som
nium loquar ad illum
. At non talis servus meus M
oyses, qui in omni dom
o mea
fidelissimus est; ore enim
ad os loquor ei, et palam, et non per aenigm
ata et figuras Dom
inumvidet." [If there is a prophet am
ong you, I the Lord, shall make M
yself known to him
in avision. I shall speak to him
in a dream. N
ot so, with M
y servant Moses. H
e is faithful in all My
household; With him
I speak mouth to m
outh, even openly, and not in dark sayings.]
Deuteronom
y 13:1-5 (somnium
) Lists the criteria for telling if a dream is true or false, slaying false
dreamers. If a prophet or a dream
er of dreams [qui som
nium vidisse] arises am
ong you andgives you a sign or a w
onder, and the sign or the wonder com
es true, concerning which he
spoke to you saying, Let us go after other gods (whom
you have not known) and let us serve
them. Y
ou shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dream
er of dreams; for the Lord
your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your G
od with all your heart and w
ithall your soul. . . . But that prophet or that dream
er of dreams shall be put to death, because he
has counseled rebellion against the Lord your God w
ho brought you ought of Egypt. . . . Soyou shall purge the evil from
among you. Strong connections to heresy in m
edieval times.
Judges 7:13-15 (somnium
) Unusual fram
ing narrative. Gideon sneaks into enem
y camp, and
overhears one sentry telling another of a dream he had, in w
hich a roll of barley rolls into the
-
camp and flattens it. The other sentry interprets it as the com
ing of Gideon to destroy them
.G
ideon hears this interpretation, takes heart, and goes back to collect his men to do just that.
1 King 3:2-15 (som
nium) Interesting lim
inality. Samuel m
isinterprets Gods voice calling in the
night as his master, the priest H
eli, calling for him. H
eli convinces him to call to G
od the nexttim
e Samuel hears the voice. Then the voice tells Sam
uel an unpleasant prediction about Heli.
Samuel becom
es afraid to tell the vision to Heli.
1 Samuel 28:6-15 W
hen Saul cannot find an answer from
dreams [per som
ne] or prophets, he goesto the w
itch of Endor for necromantic divination, a dram
atic no-no.
Job 7:14 Dream
s seen as inescapable punishment from
God, and the bed does not serve for com
fortand relaxation. If I say, M
y bed will com
fort me, M
y couch will ease m
y complaint, then
Thou dost frighten me w
ith dreams and terrify m
e by visions.[Terrebis me per som
nia, et pervisiones horrore concuties.]
20:8 Not a dream
per se, but a simile in w
hich the wicked are com
pared to the transience of adream
, something passing, unrem
embered, forgotten. D
reams appear to have no lasting
substance. Note that both the w
ord somnium
and the word visio appear in this passage; the
somnium
passes as if or just like [sicut] it were a visio: [Velut som
nium avolans non
invenietur, transiet sicut visio nocturna.] It is intriguing that the true dream or som
nium is seen
as transient, fading, rather than the insomnium
, which is w
hat I would expect to be the term
ifM
acrobius were w
riting the passage.
33:13-18 Job blamed for asserting his innocence, reference to Sam
uel, dreams as a w
ay of God
to instruct men to w
hat they ought to know) W
hy do you [Job] complain against H
im, that H
edoes not give an account of all H
is doings? Indeed, God speaks once, or tw
ice, yet no onenotices it. In a dream
, a vision of the ngiht, when sound sleep falls on m
en, while they slum
berin their beds, then H
e opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, that H
e may turn m
anaside from
his conduct, and keep man from
pride; he keeps back his soul from the pit, and his
life from passing over into Sheol.
Psalms 73:20 (72:20 in V
ulgate) Emphasizes that the transience of a dream
upon awakening
(somnium
surgentium), and m
akes a simile betw
een the transient dream that has suddenly
ceased to be, and the wicked. N
o dream actually takes place.
126:1 Again, a sim
ile to somniantes, dream
ers, but no actual dream takes place.
Ecc 5:3-7 (moderation in speech, the dream
(somnium
) connected to vanities and useless words.
Isaiah 29:7-8 And it shall be as w
hen a hungry man dream
sA
nd behold, he is drinking, butw
hen he awakens, behold he is faint, and his thirst is not quenched. [Et errit sicut som
niumvisionis nocturnae. . . ]. A
gain, it deals with the transience of w
icked nations, a prophecyconcerning those w
ho wage w
ar against Zion. It indicates that dreams do not necessarily reflect
physical realities, but seems to connect loosely w
ith the medical nature of false dream
s. (One
can dream about drink because he falls asleep thirsty.)
Jeremiah 23: 25-32 I have heard w
hat the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in m
y name,
saying I had a dream, I had a dream
[Somniavi! Som
niavi!] The passage continues in which
God declares that he is against the prophets w
ho steal his words from
each other, and falselyassert dream
s as originating in God. Strong im
plications for heresy and the dream vision.
27:9 Harken not to your prophets, your diviners, your dream
ers, your soothsayers, or yoursorcerers. . . [Nolite audiire prophetas vestros, et divinos, et som
niatores, et augures, etm
aleficos. . . .] who prophesy that Israel w
ill not serve the King of Babylon.
29:8 Another w
arning to captives in Babylon not to heed any false dreams they m
ight have. [. .. Et ne attendatis ad som
nia vestra quae vos somniatis.]
31:26 After the w
ord of God com
es to Jeremiah (30;1), Jerem
iah accounts many prophetic
words w
ithout any mention of going to sleep. In 31:26, Jerem
iah awakens from
his dream,
saying his sleep was sw
eet to him [et som
nus meaus dulcis m
ihi]. Here it is interesting because
there is a tail-end of a dream, but no dream
-frame at the beginning of the chapter.
Daniel 4:2-25 A
n interesting account presented in the first person, in which N
ebuchadnezzarrecounts the events of his dream
s in the past tense in a writing addressed to all the peoples,
nations, and men of every language on earth. A
fter an inexplicably frightening dream,
[somnium
vidi] Nebuchadnezzar calls w
ise men and soothsayers advisors w
ho could notinterpret dream
until Daniel com
es. In the dream, a huge tree grow
s, and an angel comes and
orders it chopped down. The stum
p is ordered to be banded in iron, and he [the stump becom
espersonified as m
ale] is turned into a beast to wander for seven periods. D
aniel interprets thedream
as the fall of the Nebuchadnezzar, and predicts his transform
ation into a beast. In verse25, all D
aniel predicted comes to pass. It is interesting that the reason N
ebuchadnezzar givesfor D
aniels ability is not wisdom
, but rather the fact that the spirit of the holy gods is in you.This im
plies inspiration is more vital than education for interpreting the true dream
.5:12 D
aniel praised as the true interpreter of dreams and enigm
as again, rather than the falsesoothsayer. H
owever, D
aniel in the following m
aterial does not interpret a dream, but rather
the physical manifestation of w
riting left on a wall by a disem
bodied hand.7:1 D
aniels vision of the four beasts. writing the dream
, he comprehended it in few
words. It
is referred to as both a somnium
and a visio in 7:1. The narrative frame is that of text, since
Daniel is w
riting the dream dow
n and relating it in summ
ary rather than in complete form
[scribens brevi sermone com
prehendit.] The dream is distressing, and he keeps approaching
those standing nearby in the dream and asking for interpretation. O
ne of those standing nearbyexplains it to him
, in a manner akin to a spirit-guide.
8:1-19 (a Visio of the Ram and the G
oat): No dream
frame or any hint that the visio occurs
while asleep. Indeed, it seem
s to occur while D
aniel is awake in the province of Susa (Persian
satrap), because the spiritual interpreter of his vision (Gabriel) is still talking to him
when
Daniel drifts off to sleep (8:18), only to be reaw
akened by the Gabriel. It is an apocalyptic
vision concerning the end of Media and Persia. N
ote that Daniel is sick and exhausted days
afterwards (after w
ords?), but goes on about the kings business. He m
ysteriously seems to still
want an interpreter of the dream
, in spite of the fact that Gabriel interpreted it for him
previously [et non erat qui interpretaretur].10:1-21 (Visio) A
gain, a waking vision that appears to occur w
hile Daniel is aw
ake, this time
by the banks of the Tigris River. He has been fasting for three entire w
eeks, without fine food,
meat, w
ine, or using any cleansing ointment on his body. N
ote the spirit-guide who appears to
Daniel is quite sim
ilar to the spirit-guide who appears before John on isle of Patm
os in the New
-
Testament. There is som
e blurred liminality betw
een awake and unconscious, how
ever, sincein the m
idst of the vision, Daniel faints aw
ay at the dream-guides thundering w
ords. Itbecom
es hard to ascertain then, if the following part of the vision occurs after the dream
-guideaw
akens Daniel, or if he m
erely dreams that the dream
-guide wakes him
up.
Joel 2:28 A prediction of dream
s and prophesying and vision in the last days, linking apocalypticevents w
ith dreams. A
nd it will com
e about after this that I will pour out M
y spirit on allm
ankind [super omnem
carnem]; and your sons and daughters w
ill prophesy, Your old m
enw
ill dream dream
s, Your young m
en will see visions. [som
nia somniabunt . . . . visiones
videbunt].
Zech 10:2 (warnings about dream
ers who speak vanity)
New Testam
ent
Note: The N
ew Testam
ent has far fewer dream
s than the Old Testam
ent. Most of them
appear inM
atthew, the N
ew Testam
ent book with the m
ost Judaisms of all the four gospels.
Matt. 1:20 Joseph told by angel w
hile asleep [in somnis] to go ahead and m
arry Mary. [A
ninteresting gender note is that G
od speaks to Joseph in dreams, but M
ary gets to talk to Gabriel
face-to-face in the annunciation.]2:12-22 The dream
s [in somnis] of M
agi warns them
not to return to Herod, but to take an
escape route. Likewise, in verse 13, an angel tells Joseph in dream
s [somnis] to flee to Egypt.
27:19 The Wife of Pilate suffers in a dream
as a warning not to crucify Christ.
Acts 2:17 Paul quotes Joel 2:28, see above.
A Few
Final Notes of Interest: In the book of Ezekiel, there is no m
ention of fallingasleep. A
ll the visions [visiones] appear to occur physically. (1:1 while I w
as by the riverChebar am
ong the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw
visions [visiones] of God. In the
same w
ay, the narrator in Book of Revelation describes him
self as not being asleep, but beingin the spirit [in spiritu] on the isle of Patm
os. There, he hears a trumphet-like voice speaking
to him, and he turns around, instantly in a visionary state, to see seven lam
p stands and ahum
anoid being akin to that which led Ezekiel in his visions. This spirit-guide leads him
through a lengthy vision of apocalypse, and ends with a dire w
arning not to add or deletew
ords to the account. Dream
s are important to keep straight!