Dream Navigation

[smokingboot]

Dreams over the last three nights have been vivid.

I saw some kind of ram/goat with a big fluffy fleece and several sets of horns on its head. We were among rocks on a dry mountain. I followed as it led down past a stream between rocks and little patches of grass. I drank some of the water, which didn't taste of anything. The sheep waited for me and as soon as it saw me paying attention, carried on, jumping from rock to rock or ambling between stones. There were the rooftops of a village/town visible below, but the ram turned away from these, instead going round the curve of the hill, and right in front of me were three crosses. There were men on them, dead as far as I could tell. The reality of the mountainside and stream and village had gone, and the scene in front of me was like a Gustav Dore illustration, though very dark. The faces of the victims were in complete shadow but it was clear who the central one was meant to depict. The sheep stood there and so did I, not knowing what to do.

Then there was the night before last's dream, in which I met up with an old friend, a transwoman. I knew her before her transition, and she seemed to have...detransitioned? No, because this person was untouched by the decades we've known each other. Were we in the before? They/he was a tall and rather lovely man, only with hands uncharacteristically covered in gold rings. My friend seemed embarrassed about something, and I was confused too. Was this a catch up or a date? In real life we were just friends with no hankering on either side, but in the dream we were very close to each other. Whatever it was we were meant to talk about got lost in waffling.

Then I was elsewhere, practising how to write with an ink pen, at one point I blundered and wrote a sentence on a cheque. I concealed the mistake with a flood of ink. But after that I continued to practise.

This morning, I saw the sea. It was very real in its still haze, stretching far away. But I was outside, and either wearing shorts or a skirt cos my legs and feet were bare. I stood on an outcrop on a grassy hill and just watched, as a bagpipe tune began from somewhere. It was a fine piece, I got lost in it and the view. On my right when I turned to it there was a great cove of yellow sand. When I turned to the left, I think there must have been headland, but couldn't quite see it. I looked out in front again and saw a ship coming in, a galleon/large frigate maybe, passing so close I was watching it from above rather than from afar, and in comes the story; run, get out of here, you don't know who's coming.

There is a point where dream navigation needs to be hands off. I've been dreaming, lucid dreaming, having nightmares, experiencing visions when awake etc since I was young. It's easy for the conscious mind to get involved and deliberately make a story happen, pure head entertainment. Do you see the sea, really see it? OK, what's on that sea, a monster, a ship, a...? Great fun. But there's more to be found in not disturbing the process. Stay properly asleep. Neither bring in images wilfully nor stifle them. Touch nothing and see what percolates upwards. The ship was not the point of that dream, watching the sea and listening to the music in its complexity, that was the point. Especially since I can neither read nor write music, so in my head the remnants must stay.

Comments

[smokingboot]

If only I could apply it to real life!