on dreams

“Your visions will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside dreams. Who looks inside, wakens.” ~Carl Jung

Last night I dreamt about some old friends from my early teenage years. We were in a far away land and just happened to run into each other. I was either investigating or running from a high-stakes art theft, where an expensive piece of fine art had been stolen, then illegally sold and stolen again. The misadventures led me to a dark, isolated, boarded-up basement full of the most expensive, famous art, jewelry, clothing, etc. I tried on this silver ring with an enormous green stone; it was heavy and gave me new power. Back at the house where the the painting had been lifted there was a very large swimming pool, I swam there for a long time, the water was deep and dark blue and quite cool, the water was also somewhat unruly-not following the law of gravity that we are so accustomed to. I don’t believe it frightened me, though. There was a carnival with old-school rides and dirty bathrooms, and the entire Japanese military standing around one enemy female soldier painting another woman wearing an ancient missing dress. 

Oh my dreams… this special private world I get to live in such great detail. I dream like this every night, and I usually remember my dreams with such precision it surprises even me. I remember my dreams for weeks, months, even years, and find myself recalling them at random moments throughout my day.

 What to make of it? Maybe I shouldn’t try to make anything at all from it- instead just enjoy it if I can, and keep on trying to remember. I think my dreams do more than just inform me of my subconscious; they also deal with day-to-day realities and otherworldly happenings. I often fly and swim and drive extremely top heavy vehicles up impossible hills. I go through wormholes through space and time to new universes and in new bodies. I have spiritual powers sometimes, and all rules of science and nature are optional. It is a fantasy world of my own making, real and frightening and glittering with excitement and truth. Sometimes there is horror, sometimes ecstasy, sometimes wonder, confusion, or just contentment. All in a nights sleep! 

It’s little realities such as this- dreaming- that make life so wonderful and make me feel so alive. Each moment, each experience and relationship between me and en object, a person, and idea, is unique and an opportunity to soak up more knowledge and meaning in this somewhat mysterious and strange existence. Sometimes it makes sense- why we are alive and aware of that- and other times it makes no sense at all and I think of my dreams, whacky and unpredictable, yet full of meaning in some way.

“Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.” ~Anais Nin

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” ~Edgar Allen Poe

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” ~Edgar Allan Poe