Miller wrote: “In your dreaming if you see a cageful of birds, you will be the happy possessor of immense wealth and many…” Compare 6 historical dream books.
Compare the historical accounts
These are the authors’ historical interpretations. Their forecasts and period judgments are preserved as source material, not as predictions or established meanings for your dream.
Gustavus Hindman Miller
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted; Or, What’s in a Dream · Gutenberg #926; bibliography identifies the 1901 original and subsequent reprints
Cage · Heading 317; source lines 4500–4511 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
In your dreaming if you see a cageful of birds, you will be the happy possessor of immense wealth and many beautiful and charming children. To see only one bird, you will contract a desirable and wealthy marriage. No bird indicates a member of the family lost, either by elopement or death.
To see wild animals caged, denotes that you will triumph over your enemies and misfortunes. If you are in the cage with them, it denotes harrowing scenes from accidents while traveling.
Felix Fontaine
The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller · 1862
Cage · Heading 107; source line 1426 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To dream of letting birds out of a cage, is a sign that you will lose something. If a young girl dreams this, it predicts a loss of her chastity.
A. H. Noe
The Witches' Dream Book; and Fortune Teller · New York, Henry J. Wehman, 1885
Cage · Dream section, heading 93; source lines 471–473 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To dream of letting birds out of a cage denotes a speedy marriage. To a person in business it denotes success, and to a farmer it denotes good crops.
Astra Cielo
Fortunes and Dreams · New York, George Sully, 1917
Cage · Dream section, heading 82; source lines 4059–4062 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To dream of a cage with bird means liberty; empty it means servitude.
Anonymous
Everybody’s Book of Luck · Whitman Publishing Company edition; date not stated in transcription
Cage · Dream section, heading 31; source lines 3589–3592 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
(Birds in) Early fortunate marriage; (empty) friends or lovers will go away.
Katherine Taylor Craig
The Fabric of Dreams: Dream Lore and Dream Interpretation, Ancient and Modern · New York, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1918; original US edition
Cage · Printed p. 205; NLM OCR lines 9402–9407 · OCR transcription
Original source (English)
Without birds a dream of a cage denotes trouble; with birds, contentment, happiness; with the door open and the bird flown, the dream signifies desertion by the lover or husband; to see a bird escape augurs an elopement (Artemidorus); the symbolism patent.
Take a question into your day.
These journal questions are DreamFolia’s invitation to reflect on your experience.
Save it before it slips away. No account needed.
Attributed historical writing. Historical claims are not established predictions or universal psychological meanings. Updated 2026-10-12. Read our approach and sources.