THE DREAM - In the spring and early summer of 1914 Carl Jung had a thrice repeated dream that in the middle of the summer an Arctic cold wave descended and froze the land to ice. He saw the whole of Lorraine and its canals frozen and the entire region totally deserted by human beings. All living creatures were killed by frost. The dream came in April and May and for the last time in June, 1914.

Jung also had visions in October 1913 of a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low lying lands between the North sea and the Alps. That winter someone asked him if he had opinions on the political situation and he replied that he had no thoughts but that he saw rivers of blood.

THE REALITY Carl Jung had these dreams just prior to the outbreak of World War One. Trenches stretched from the Alps down to the North Sea.

THE INTERPRETATION Dreams can seem to predict the future. Carl Jung believed that his dreams predicted the outbreak of World war One. The monstrous floods and frozen wastelands represent the horrors of trench warfare. Both are catastrophes - natural disasters symbolic of the human catastrophe of World War One.

Dream Dictionary Meanings
FROZEN: "symbol for the catastrophic outbreak of warfare in 1914"
FLOOD: "Another symbol for catastrophe"