Gently Down the Stream

[poliphilo]

I had a dream the other night where I found myself in a country house with a moat around it. Someone was talking to me. "Do you know what this place is called?" they asked. I knew I knew, but I couldn't quite get hold of it. "The Interpreter's House," I ventured, "something beginning with an 's'".

And then it dawned on me that I'd been coming to the house at intervals for a long, long time, and that this was my real life. The people in the house were teaching me, training me. I felt so happy.

The rest of the dream involved an initiation ceremony. First I had to pretend to cut the throat of a tiger. Then I had to run an obstacle course with my eyes bandaged with red gauze.

I passed all these tests triumphantly.

I woke and there were lights flashing in the bedroom. Only there weren't. I guess it was just something my brain was doing. I was so sure the dream was a break-through that I committed it to memory before I went back to sleep.

But, look at it, there's nothing there.

Comments

Re: Gently Down the Stream

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I like those dreams where you realize you have been going there all along.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wish I knew a technique for getting back to that place so I could look around some more.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I have no advice. When I've realized that I've been having these dreams for years (two in the last year), I stop going there. I don't know what that's all about.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

How curious.

It's as if whoever arranges your dreams is playing games with you.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

I have a similar dream with woods, a waterfall and a river surrounding the place. Sometimes I discover its secret but it goews away with the dawn.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've actually been to this place before. The feeling that I had was part of the illusion. Or was it?

Woods and a waterfall- your special dream place sounds wonderful.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

But it is not an ideal place, there is a lot of tangled overgrowth and sometimes it is autumn and is dying. I know it is supposed to be a scrubby little piece of land near home but being Suffolk there is no waterfall and my dreamscape it is so much bigger, I wonder what state of mind it reflects?

Another recurring theme is a white city. Sometimes it has the name of real places but it is the same place, painted white buildings and always a blue sky.

Dreams are fun!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the place with the waterfall changes with your mood.

I sometimes think I'd like to keep a daily record of my dreams, but I just don't have the discipline.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

It was such an interesting dream.

Even your thought that it was a breakthrough is interesting.

Maybe it's the start of a new novel...

In any case, you made the initiation very vivid.

BTW, do you have any sense of a personal totem? Tigers show up in my dreams from time to time, once a tiger's head poking up out of the ground, with lightning around it, once two baby tigers that were weak and mewing--

Tigers are potent symbols, I think. Your scene sounds like a sacrifice as much as an initiation--killing great energy as a sacrifice...

An obstacle course--I think of Homer's Odyssey--blind (red gauze)--

You passed the test--

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I did a exercise once to find my totem animal - and it turned out to be an otter. I was most surprised.

I don't think otters have ever showed up in my dreams.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

How did you work that out?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I went on a vision quest or guided meditation, courtesy of John Matthews.
It goes something like this.

Relax and close your eyes.
Imagine a big old tree.
Imagine it has a door in it.
Open the door and go in.
There is a spiral staircase. Follow it down into the depths of the earth until you come to a vaulted room.
The Lord of the Animals is sitting in the room.
He bids you welcome. You greet him in return.
He draws your attention to a door in the far wall.
Your totem animal comes through the door.
Spend some time with it. Ask it a question if you like.
Then, when you're ready, leave the room, climb the staircase and exit out through the door.
Open your eyes and return to the "real" world.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Life is but a dream.
And can be reduced to symbols.

That's what psychics do--make our lives like dreams: "I see two children around you, very strong; you have gold light around you; you are surrounded by books; you have lived much of your life in a cave, but now you will come out..."

If you reduced your life to such a distillation, what would it sound like? --Just thinking out loud.

I've done this sometimes for myself when I get stuck on figuring out.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"I see you in a room in a high tower. It is just before sunrise. The window at your back is full of stars but the one in front of you shows a band of brightness lying above the hills...."

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I like your tower, stars behind, light in front. Beautiful.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I would love to own a house with a tower- or at least a turret.

Talking about towers do you know the story- "The Room in the Tower" by E.F. Benson? Shuddersome!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

No! I'll look for it. Benson--sounds very familiar.

Ummm: I love towers.

Jung built one for himself, you know.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think it was a breakthrough. I think the breakthrough was that you realized you'd been going there all along, and that you passed the tests.

What a lovely dream.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And now I want to go back there and learn some more...

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you passed through one of those "thin" places in your dream state.

Avalon's the first thing that comes to mind, but that's probably from having read Marion Zimmer Bradley too much.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A "thin" place. I love that idea. It did feel as though I was close to touching some other reality.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

Very interesting dream. I like the concept of the interpreters, as if you're going through life learning a little more at a time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was very frustrating to be thrown out so unceremoniously. But if I hadn't woken up the way I did I would almost certainly have forgotten the whole thing.