Why We Dream

 

 

"Why do we dream?" asked the blue butterfly girl, looking around the circle of animals she had invited to her tea party by the garden gate. 

"You dream so we can always be together," said Bear, without hesitation. "You dream so you will always have a friend. " 

"You dream so you can see," said Hawk. His golden eyes flashed. 

"You dream so you can learn to be brave like me," said Lion. 

"Nonsense," said Mr. Fox. "You dream so you can tell stories about me." 

"Grandfather," the girl looked into the tea water. "Why do we dream?" 

Grandfather Teller's voice bubbled like a pot about to boil. "You dream because humans are the animals that tell stories about all the others."

RM journal drawing: Garden Gate

Why do we dream?

"Why do we dream?" asked the blue butterfly girl, looking around the circle of animals she had invited to her tea party by the garden gate.

    "You dream so we can always be together," said Bear, without hesitation. "You dream so you will always have a friend. "

    "You dream so you can see," said Hawk. His golden eyes flashed.

    "You dream so you can learn to be brave like me," said Lion.

    "Nonsense," said Mr. Fox. "You dream so you can tell stories about me."

    "Grandfather," the girl looked into the tea water. "Why do we dream?"
    Grandfather Teller's voice bubbled like a pot about to boil. "You dream because humans are the animals that tell stories about all the others."

Drawing by Robert Moss

Storytelling in Hathor red

In last night's dreams: I am at a table where we are swapping stories. When it is a person's turn to tell or read a story, a colored disk floats in the air behind and just above his or her head, flashing a complementary color. It is my turn. There is a red disk behind me, flashing light turquoise. I take the seat at the head of the table. I am very happy that I have a 5-page finished typescript I had long forgotten I had written, about past life issues that surface in the lives of a contemporary couple.
     Waking, I recall magical exercises for training vision that involve using a Westernized version of the tattvas and their complementary or flashing colors. The red of the disk and its placement remind me of the symbol of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, who wears a red disk between horns, when depicted as a woman or a cow.
    We often play story-swapping games in my workshops, especially "Writing as a State of Conscious Dreaming", which I led last month as a 5-day retreat at Mosswood Hollow and will lead again next year. I am engaged in gathering and editing stories I have written over many years for a new collection, and am intrigued by my dream discovery that I have one "ready to go" on a theme Dion Fortune took up (as discussed here yesterday) 90 years ago.