Miller wrote: “To see bright coals of fire, denotes pleasure and many pleasant changes.” Compare 5 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
Coals · Heading 444; source lines 5825–5831 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To see bright coals of fire, denotes pleasure and many pleasant changes. To dream you handle them yourself, denotes unmitigated joy. To see dead coals implies trouble and disappointments.
Felix Fontaine
The Golden Wheel Dream-book and Fortune-teller · 1862
Coal · Heading 150; source line 1595 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To dream you see dead coal, signifies expedition in business; but to dream you see burning coal, threatens you with shame and reproach.
A. H. Noe
The Witches' Dream Book; and Fortune Teller · New York, Henry J. Wehman, 1885
Coals · Dream section, heading 85; source lines 435–441 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
To dream of coals is a very unlucky omen. It denotes much affliction and trouble. To dream you see coals burning, if they are very clear and bright, is a good sign. To dream you see the coals extinguished and reduced to cinders, denotes death, either to yourself or some near relation or friend; it also indicates great losses, and forewarns you of beggary and prison.
Astra Cielo
Fortunes and Dreams · New York, George Sully, 1917
Coal · Dream section, heading 110; source lines 4123–4125 · Text transcription
Original source (English)
Seeing or burning coal signifies persecution.
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
Coals · Printed p. 209; NLM OCR lines 9593–9597 · OCR transcription
Original source (English)
A dream of trouble, loss, hunger (Raphael); secret love is the interpretation attached to this dream by Freud. "With coal no fire so hotly glows as secret love, which no one knows." — Freud, Interpretation of Dreams, p. 316.
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Also indexed as: coal
Attributed historical writing. Historical claims are not established predictions or universal psychological meanings. Updated 2026-10-12. Read our approach and sources.