Oneiromancy 1
Oneiromancy in the Bible
So what did the medieval or early Renaissance reader make of oneiromancy--the process of divination through dreams? Even through the King James Bible would not appear in English until the 1600s, most educated readers would be familiar with various biblical accounts of divinely inspired dreams. These pages list biblical passages that Christians in the medieval period considered important. In some cases, there is some confusion in the Latin text as to whether or not the events described took place as a dream (somnium) during sleep (somnus), or as a waking vision (visio). To differentiate, I include the Latin below. Note that the phrases "in somno" and in somnis" can mean "in dreams" or "while asleep." Genesis 20:3-7 (somnium): In the story of Abraham and Sarah, a male dreamer (Abimelech) is warned against taking Sarah from Abraham. 28:12-15 (in somnis) Jacob's dream of a ladder, with angels moving up and down it. 31:10-13 (in somnis) Angel appears to Jacob in a dream, shows him Laban's sheep producing speckled and striped ewes, which will be his according to agreement. 31:24 (in somnis) Laban warned by God in dream not to speak harshly to Jacob. 37:5-9 (ut visum somnium) Joseph hated by his brothers, he tells them a dream he already dreamed; the frame is a narrator telling a past dream in which Jacob's brothers' sheaves stand in a field with sheaves bowing down to his. Then the sun and moon and stars worship it as well. 37:19 (Ecce somniatur venit!) Behold the dreamer, let us cast him into a pit! The wicked refusal of Joseph's brother to believe in the prophetic dream. 40:5-23 (somnium) The Baker and Butler with Joseph. Here, 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 cows, and seven good ears of grain and seven thin ears of grain, and Joseph's interpretation. 42:9 (somnium)...