A man is with me in my writing cave. He wants me to help him fit a book he has written into my computer. I am reluctant - I have so much to do, and he wants me to do this on my computer? I know I could do what he asks, though the operation is anything but a routine data transfer. It involves taking a whole life-size, embodied energy and transferring it into the computer. This life-size energy may be the whole form of my visitor, who appears as a shadowy figure in a long flapping coat, his features indistinct in the grainy dark.
While considering his request, I tune into the reminiscences of a group of middle-aged women. they are talking on a terrace overlooking a lake. On this side, it's a very orderly lake with manicured borders. It may be one of those man-made lakes created for expensive developments and gated communities. But on the far side of the lake, things are wild. There are islands over there, and wild men, and the ladies are giggling a little as they recall adventures that had with the wild men when they were quite young.
I need to understand what was going on with my male visitor, who wants me to put his story into my computer. I'm lucid now, and want to converse with him, but it seems he has moved on, at least for now. I have the impression of two images he has left with me. They remind me of Tarot cards, except that they are three times as long, in proportion to their width, as any card from a deck. One shows a series of fire triangles, making a high column. The colors are mostly reds and oranges, with sparks coming of the edges. The other card depicts what looks like a crescent beach in the moonlight. This "beach" card is a window; as I look at it I see that the whole scene is alive and watch the waves rolling in.
Feelings: Intrigued, slightly disappointed I was slow to grasp what might be going on with my visitor.Reality: I am ready to consider new book projects, having completed another non-fiction book this week. I am open to new ideas and new characters (for fiction). I recently had the experience - leading a group journey - of realizing that books, too, have souls. Was my caller the soul of a possible book? Or a parallel self who has actually written the book, in a parallel world? Now that would be an interesting writing partner!
Question: What is going on with the male visitor who wants me to transfer his story to my computer? What can I learn from the women? What is the significance of the "calling cards"?
Action: Draw the calling cards. Done (see above). Further action: have a go at writing narrative in a new first-person voice (of someone other than my present self).
22 comments:
If it were my dream I would wonder why I've received two separate and distinct cards, one of a masculine nature and the other feminine. I would ask myself "do they need to be separate" and I would want to play with the drawings to combine them and see if a third card, of balance, is possible for me. If it were my dream I might consider going back into it for I would like to know if this singular man (perhaps the soul of a future book) knows the women by the lake and if not would he like to go meet them with me. Or I might want to go talk to the middle aged women and ask them if they've seen this mysterious singular man with an indistinct face.
I remember a period when I dreamed repeatedly about the sun and moon. These dreams preceeded a real life experience where walking along the beach along the seaside I actually saw the sun & moon in the same sky and both appeared with equal intensity at exactly the same level to and distance from my eyes. I was stunned for I did not know at the time that this was possible; that from a human point of view, the sun & moon could quite literally be seen in the same sky. What's interesting is that when I reread my dream reports of the previous month, in every episode I dreamed about either the sun or the moon and never about both at the same time. Certainly says a lot about me at that time!
... And now that I'm thinking about it, if a book could have a single soul (the man) could it not also have a collective one (the women)?
I find this dream very fun-interesting Robert, and want to play along!(bad spelling or not). If it rings a bell for you?. . .
If "not", "so what"?.
I'm busy, therefore reluctant to go along with the shadowy man's desire to fit his book into my computer. . . To fit his "whole life size, embodied energy" into an electronic device? when we know that words can only convey "this much, and no more".
The two, larger than life Tarot "calling cards" (he left) invite me to look deeper into their 'significance'.
The one with upwards pointing triangles of fire (energy) is about about 'ascention' (always- the downward pointing triangle signifies 'descention').
The column of fire looks (to me) like spine-climbing kundalini energy.
The other card with the view of "alive" beach scene reminds me of my wild and carefree ways - but I don't miss them at all because the inner life is far wilder and blissful than any earthly experience.
I don't want to jump to any conlusions because I want to consider my Soul's wishes. I want to ask what she 'thinks'.
My experience tells me she yearns to meet her Lover Divine (Eros/Agape -or, Shiva/Shakti, thing.)
Is she preparing me for that?
Preparing for bliss-union with my Cosmic Lover?
I could stand still long enough so she could do her thing, or I could stay busy, busy, busy.
Since I trust in "meaningful coincidence", or "synchronicity", for the first time in 4 years I decided to crack open my Tarot Classic deck (Stuart Kaplan) and draw three cards from the Major Arcana, to see if they match my 'intuition'.
Those three cards stand for body/mind/soul.
1. The Chariot (fast, busy)
2. The Hanged Man (ready for deeper surrender?)
3. The Lovers (Cosmic Shiva/Shakti bliss)
hmmm
Hi Robert,
In my dream of your dream, I am reminded of the similarity between the scenes in my dream and some scenes I have read in books by Charles de Lint. There are wild men in it, displaced faeries, who emigrated to the US from Ireland with emigrants during the famine. The man with the flapping coat reminds me of a raven or crow who has taken on the form of a man to better communicate.
The women by the lake live in a very organised area, but they have had a lot of fun romping around with the wild men on the other side of the water. To let go of an organised life and embrace chaos must have been very hard to do, but they seem to have had a good time, and it didn't mean they lost touch with being organised or living an efficient, well-thought out life. Perhaps dabbling a bit with the chaotic helped them appreciate the merits of being orderly? Could this be something that might help me in my own life? Letting go of goals and plans and just having a wild time?
The two calling cards also appear to be about opposites: fire and water. The fire is tall and the water is deep. Perhaps the crow-man left them for me to remember about embracing the shadows within me? What I live in my outer life has an opposite in my inner world. e.g. if I am outgoing and gregarious, the opposite energy is within my shadow, the quietness and introspection. Perhaps crow-man is asking me to look at my shadow and bring something from it into my outer reality?
Hmm ... Intriguing indeed. I note some impressions and offer them in the spirit of inquiry. Thus - the long flapping coat sounds like the coats I think some ranchers in Australia's outback are reputed to have worn, which may point to your country of origin; the 'tarot' cards evoked the I Ching for me, specifically hexagrams 63 and 64, which deal with the placement of fire and water in the cycle of change; there is an allusion to transferring a story from an 'old' technology to the new; the larger than life man and the group of women, to further the I Ching reference, could symbolize enhanced fields of masculine and feminine; the combination of tarot and I Ching I sense here is especially intriguing.
What a lovely puzzle.
Books definitely have souls. A good book is a product of genius, of an individuals daemon. A writer does her or his best work when the transfer between higher self and the page is clean, without much static interference.
Books are alive and speak to each other telepathically. Of course they often need a human go-between to help them "cross reference" the ideas, and that is when beings like the Library Angel get involved.
And there are books already alive in the astral libraries of the world, waiting for the "write" scribes to pen them down. Then a physical copy can be deposited in an Earth bound library.
Yous' guys are such fun-interesting bunch:) I like all the comments!
Justin, you are quite right in saying that "Books are alive and speak to each other telepathically".
Yes! Thanks for the reminder.
I have a blog full of inspirational, Soul-affirming (autobiographical) 'mystical' stories material, but because I can't afford to hire Editor Angel, they will never see the light of day. That makes me sad. . .
I'm casting yet another vote for "The Dreamer's Book of Tarot" to come fully into being. Also, I like the male/female aspect of the card images -- the first could certainly be a phallic-like snake, and the triangles remind me of a stack of female rest room symbols. My first thought of the man with a flaping coat was that it was you, Robert. Thanks for the mind candy!
Nancy
Here's another quote-take on what the triangle represents, from email writ. by a man who is undergoing "kundalini awakening" (which I just finished responding to).
"The triangle in Tantra represents the female organ which is worshipped by the devotees".
I saw this (downwards pointing) 'sacred divine' symbol in its silver-bright vibration manifest directly before the brow chakra.
Helen (Theofilia)
If it were my dream I would be put in mind of body's subtle energies. The 2 images reminded me of a lateral and posterior view of the spine and it's related energies and the 2 sides of the lake brought to mind the autonomic nervous system and its two sides the sympathetic and parasympathetic. The man who wants to record his book on my computer makes me think that I may have to look into a "past" life for information I could use now. Maybe something from the other side of the lake?
Michael
Hi Robert,
If it were my dream I might have been visited by a soul of a previous book that needs to be computerized to reach "the world" again. It has some gift but I'm too busy to pay attention, or an old book is not catching my interest. The soul retreats. Moon, the new moon in December, and a Christmas tree. Something important to take place around that time, a new commitment that seems tedious.
The women are the "transformed" hippies that had some wild fun across the lake of dreams, where everything happens Now...
Maria
At a recent workshop with Robert, I encountered (in the Dreamtime Library) a being who told me, "I am the spirit of your book." It was a pleasant surprise yet this being had been trying to reach me many times before. I had been writing in the story, of such a being (the antlered deer) and at a point where the story seemed to be diverging onto a different path to the one I had in mind. It was taking the story in another direction to the one I had planned, the story stalled, I stopped writing. I'm following the guidance of the spirit of the book now, and the story is flowing again.
I write this as response to Robert's dream, as "if it were my dream" I might wonder if the man is bringing me a book ("his" story, or history) and maybe the flapping coat feels like an urgent sort of energy. "Do this now" sort of directive. The words "manicured, orderly, and man-made" (meaning not natural, manufactured rather than created) would catch my attention. I might wonder, is my writing being too influenced by the cautious ladies whose wildness is past, is that a part of me that is disconnected from the wild man self. Do I need more wild (nature) and less man-made (civilized) in my writing. I might ask how can I cross the divide and regain the youthful wildness that brings such joy in its remembering?
I might view the lake as a mirror for seeing, and look into its depths for images that can help me find the visitor or discern the meaning of his calling cards.
I might see the crescent as New Moon, rather than beach, a time of new beginnings. Red and orange would remind me of the colours of the root (ancestral) and sacral (creativity) chakras. I might see all the elemental energies present in the cards, earth (beach), water, fire, air (which enables fire to spark), so everything necessary to bring forth new life.
Suzanne
Irène - I love your description of that magical moment when sun and moon were together in the sky, in perfect balance. I have had similar visions, and have used one of them as part of the portal image for group shamanic journeys to some very interesting places.
Provocative question, whether a book can have a collective soul. I do know that books can engage and harbor - and sometimes fail to contain - multiple energies. When I am writing fiction, I have the experience of characters coming alive and running away with the plot. Actually, until that happens there is no guarantee that a novel will be worth reading.
Theofilia - Thanks for these most stimulating associations, and for your own card reading. The "cards" in my dream were not quite as stylized as the drawings suggest, but certainly your remarks about the crescent card - in tandem with the scene of the woman chatting by the lake - touch on an important element here.
Lisa - Thanks so much for these wonderful comments. I greatly enjoy Charles de Lint, so that is a welcome association. I didn't see my visitor in the flapping coat as a crow man (though I know a Raven Man quite well); his coat was more like a trench coat of the kind I wore in my 20s and have recently taken to wearing again. You are surely right to point to the need to deal with the Shadow and work in that perspective.
Barbara - Thanks for suggesting further leads and clues in this dream puzzler. You got an instant "aha" from me in referring to the Aussie "duster" coat; I wear them in my dreams though in waking life the closest I generally come is a trench coat. Thanks for pointing me to the I Ching. I work with it, off and on, and have even written a personal manual for myself and my students, so I'll look again at hexagrams 63&64 in relation to this dream.
Justin - Yes, indeed. I've seen (and have helped others to see) some of those books that are waiting to be downloaded from the Dream Library into this reality.
Nancy - You get kudos for being the only person so far to see the rather lunar and watery crescent card as phallic/masculine and the fiery card of upward-thrusting triangles as feminine. But why not? "Tarot for Dreamers" is still on my list, but jostling for precedence among many other books in the works.
Maria - I love the idea that I may have been visited by the soul of a book I've already published, asking to be transferred to the digital universe. This happened not long ago with two of my books (DREAMGATES and FIRE ALONG THE SKY) that have come out in beautiful new editions. I did not have them in electronic format, and they did not scan well, so they had to be "re-keyed", a wearisome process that was "out-sourced".
Nina - I like the image of keeping a little dough from the old "cake" to add to the new. Funny, your association with the 8 of Wands, because my fiery card, not the lunar one, has that connection for me (now you mention it). I agree about not rushing to make any decisions here. Since this dream, my visionary life has opened into some tremendous fresh vistas. Plenty to write about!
Suzanne - Thanks so much for reminding me of your beautiful encounter with the antlered spirit of your own book. I don't feel in any hurry to bring through what my visitor in the flapping coat was offering, but won't shoo him away either if he returns, with clearer copy or perhaps as a character in a novel (past or future).
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