Dream of Anna Kingsford

Dream Accounts: Anna Kingsford (1888): It is important to include this account within the superstitions section of the website, mainly due to provide a picture of how important dreaming was in the 1800's, how ones dream could possibly ruin reputations. Anna Kingsford was a famous occult follower. She was a asset to society and her dreams are detailed in her diary. Her co-worker called Maitland wrote many lies about her. Over the years he turned against her and sort to ruin her reputation. His greatest outrage was to write that she killed two French vivisectors by using mind techniques.

This is what she recalls in her dream

The following extract was taken from the diary of Anna Kingsford, her dreams back in 1888. It also provides an entertaining overview of what it was like in those days... here we go: Having fallen asleep last night while in a state of great perplexity about the care and education of my daughter, I dreamt as follows. I was walking with the child along the border of a high cliff, at the foot of which was the sea. The path was exceedingly narrow, and on the inner side was flanked by a line of rocks and stones. The outer side was so close to the edge of the cliff that she was compelled to walk either before or being me, or else on the stones. And, as it was unsafe to let her hand, it was on the stones that she had to walk, much to her distress. I was in male attire, and carried a staff in my hand. She wore skirts and had no staff; and every moment she stumbled or her dress caught and was roan by some jutting crag or bramble. In this way our progress was being continually interrupted and rendered almost impossible, when suddenly we came upon a sharp declivity leading to a steep path which wounds done the side of the precipice to the beach below.

Looking down, I saw on the shore beneath the cliff a collection of fishermen’s huts, and groups of women on the shingle, mending nets, hauling up boats, and sorting fish of various kinds. In the midst of the little village stood a great crucifix of lead, so cast in a mold as to allow me from the elevated position I occupied behind it, to see that though in front it looked solid, it was in reality hollow. As I was noting this, a voice of someone close at hand suddenly addressed me, and on turning my head I found standing before me a man in the garb of a fisherman, who evidently had just scaled the steep path I was following there was room only for one. “Let her come to us” he added, “she will do very well as a fisherman’s daughter” being reluctant to part with her, and not perceiving then the significance of his garb and vocation, I objected that the calling was a dirty and unsavoury one, and would soil her hands and dress. Whereupon the man became serve, and seemed to insist with a kind of authority upon my acceptance of his proposition. The child, too was taken with him, and was moreover anxious to leave the rough and dangerous path, and she accordingly went to him of her own will and, placing her hand in his, left me without any sign of regret, and I went on my way alone.

Anna Kingsford 1888:So what does this dream mean?

This dream is clearly about her betrayal in terms of the relationship she had with her co-worker. The narrow road shows that she has been following a spiritual path of development. The child shows that she is scared to take the path further but must do to progress in her spiritual life.