World Dream Bank topic: ELVES AND FAIRIES

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Elves and Fairies

Dreams of elves, fairies, the Fair Folk, whatever name you may put to them; and of their realm, Faerie.

You could just treat such dreams as literal--a handy, time-honored way for nature spirits to manifest to humans. Or see the fairies as archetypes of the beauty and danger of magic itself. Like the archetype of the soul, without the ideological anchor of religion.

But I've increasingly wondered if fairytales were also partly a way to talk about, and think about, class and gender in medieval times. Mortal men--usually men, notice--heavy, shortlived, strong and ugly. And elves--longlived, delicate, feminine-looking, magical. Just as men saw women! But also like the aristocracy, with their magical skills of math and reading, their private codes, their treacherous whimsicality toward lesser beings... Just a theory.

My dreams themselves seem to gravitate toward the notion of elves as our dream-selves or astral bodies--as our own spirits! And in the following dreams of half-elves, changelings and misfits, I see our spirits fighting to survive in a world that sees only meat. The mortal world.

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	AIR PIRATES IN FAERIE: by Wayan; 1984/8/25, a complex predictive dream DREAM: The future. A party. A woman spills her drink on my white pants. Off to Faerie, where fruit trees are mean... NEXT DAY: I do not wear white pants to Sally's party. So? A woman spills her drink on Sally's white pants... DAY AFTER: I open a book on musicals & see a shot from The Wizard of Oz: Dorothy baiting an angry fruit tree... CAUTION: PREDICTIVE
	ANN-THENNATH: by Wayan; 1986/2/1, a fairytale freeway dream. I dream of Beren and Luthien happy and mortal in their forest, and wake to find...
	ARCTIC CHANGELING: by Wayan; 1981/6/30, a dream on roots. I'm a shy woman in a truckstop town who learns why I don't fit in. But will I, among my real kin?...
	LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: by John Keats, April 1819, a sexy nightmare poem A knight falls in love with a fey woman, until her previous victims warn him in a nightmare that she is... CAUTION: GOTH TO THE MAX
	BLEEDING HEART, the SELF-HEALING CORPSE, and IN THE FUTURE DESERT: by Wayan; 2002/5/29 - 2004/5/11, a diagnostic, predictive dream-series; Bleeding Heart as comix A tree-girl moves to Hollywood to make film deals, but jealousy stabs her... CAUTION: BLOODY ASSAULT, GAY DRYADS, MUTANT NUDITY
	BOIL THE CORD, or, A Dinner Date with the Faerie Queene: by Wayan; 2000/4/27, an anorexic dream I seek a stolen magic necklace, but end up dating the thief, an elf-queen with STRANGE taste in cookery... CAUTION: BAD SOUP
	BURN THE EGGS: by Wayan; 2008/1/20; a magical advisory nightmare with 15 sketches. Fighting an absolutist theocracy, my dragon-soul burns the church's dragon-nursery. The cost is terrible: a black vortex... CAUTION: ROMANTIC THREESOME GETS BURNED
	THE CIRCUS HUMANS' DESERTION: by Wayan; 1988/2/19; an epic holy dream. I join a circus, but soon all the best carnies sail off to the Blessed Isles. The circus animals pitch in and carry on--clumsy and lonely. Then a divine herald arrives from the Isles: Donald Duck! He says...
	A COLONY IN THE HOLLOW HILLS: by Wayan; 1997/8/14, a dream of responsibility. Hong Kong's not devolving to China, but to Faerie. As governor, I have to defend human rights, so...
	CORVI AND FEY: by Wayan; 2016/6/14, a shamanic dream of reuniting estranged symbiotes I visit a world of ravenish people, the Corvi, who banished their longtime partners, the wish-granting Fey, calling them parasites. I decide to meddle...
	COUNT COUP!: by Plenty Coups, 1857; a child's defining dream I sought a dream of Helpers. But rather than give me gifts, they gave me a daunting challenge...
	DANCING ROBBANE: by Emily Joy; 2007/8/1, sculpture of a dream sculpture. The clay came alive, shaped itself, started dancing...and mutating.
	DONNA'S FALLOUT: by Wayan, 1972/2/6, 2/26, 2/29 & 3/4: sonnets & watercolors of 4 sex dreams. When I was 17, an older girl pushed booze at me and came on to me... in front of my parents and teachers! For months, I had ambivalent sex dreams trying to process what Donna taught me--not all of it negative... CAUTION: WEIRD SEX; ADULTS BEHAVE BADLY
	DREAM SHORTAGE: by Wayan; 1985/12/1, an appropriately short dream. I meet two women in dream-prison. One's a giant, one a miniature. A fairy? She says, 'No, I'm..."
	DREAMKU, SEPTEMBER 2006: by Roswila; thirty dream-haiku with various dates from 1960-2006 One dream-poem in haiku style each day for a month! Ghosts, snow, penguins, yoga babies, elves who leave their tree...
	EIGHT ELFLOCKS: by Wayan; 2007/8/11, an absurd psychic sex dream. I learn weird sex positions from an abused elf, have calligraphic orgasms, and then I, uh, turn on my stereo... CAUTION: SEX, ESP, ANORGASMIA, PAST LIVES, ABUSE ISSUES
	ELBERETH PAUSES: by Wayan; 1989/6/26, a dream on postwar ethics. After the Lord of the Rings falls, Elbereth herself is sent to heal the land. But she has a troubling neighbor...
	ELF CIRCLE; 2011/3/19 by Wayan; a complex advisory dream. After trespassing in a staff-only part of Faerie, I'm cast out. Only I'm cast like a seed, meant to grow a new elf circle...
	ELF ETYMOLOGY: by Wayan; 1997/7/14, a linguistic postmodern dream. We escape three trolls, but then our author Tolkien breaks in to explain an Elvish word. Now we're really doomed...
	ELF EYE: by Wayan; 2002/5/20, dream figure in acrylic on wood A painting's a window into another world--a window opening two ways. People in paintings may be watching us...
	ELF RANGERS? NO WAY!: by Wayan; 1995/3/25, a dream on repression. A logging war in the northern forests is confused by subjective realities. Am I sure what I see is real?
	ELVEN DANCER: by Wayan; late 1998, 14" mixed-media sculpture of waking fantasy. I'd been reading Francesca Lia Block's I WAS A TEENAGE FAIRY... CAUTION: NUDITY
	EMBARKATION, or, THIS PORTAL COIL: by Wayan; 2013/8/28, a dream on dreams A spiral pillow-path leads to an astral portal. But creatures arriving and departing jam the same path. Squeeze by, hop over, apologize... flirt! Is this a dream-image of death & letting go? Then why's it look so fun?
	ERODE THE MUTING CURSE: by Wayan, 2014/8/23, a dream of... health advice? The Fairy Queen curses me, taking away my language. Recovery often takes years, but I practice hard, and speak full sentences--the next day. The Queen is slipping...
	FADING AWAY IN THE LIGHT: by Lilian Verkins; 2013, painting of nature-spirit dream? I was a child again, sitting on a bench, watching young maidens dance. But as I grew older, they faded away in the light of adulthood...
	FAERIE: by Wayan; 1995/7/18 & 95/8/6: two linked dreams of postmodern Faerie, with sketches I'm the daughter of a mortal doctor working in Faerie as it faces social upheaval (and I look for a decent date...)
	FAIRY URGES A WORKTABLE: by Wayan; 2009/7/15, an advice-dream wiser than it seemed I find a long, narrow table. I have a table, but a fairy friend perches on this one and urges "Take it home! You'll do better art!"
	FAIRY WIFE: by Wayan; 1985/1/17, an epic dream of love and choice. A fairy woman and a mortal man? Can't work! They're flighty, we're crude. Doomed, right? Well, some people are so sure of it they decide to help things along a bit. Or a lot...
	FIVE ELVISH DREAMS: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2005/6/10-2005/6/19, an incubated lucid-dream sequence 1: I visit Elrond and Bilbo in Elvenhome, but overthinking traps me in a timeloop; 2: Elrond says he renounces seriousness for joy, and plans a great, inclusive party; 3: I feel unworthy, but set out on a desert quest with Elrond's young apprentice; 4: I meet joyful, drunken, singing elves but hide in a tree, too shy to join in; 5: I meet a nervous elven singer and a dolphin trapped in a tiny pool in my bedroom...
	FLUID REALITY: by Wayan; 1983/8/8; a magical dream-sea voyage that turned out to be predictive On my quest I find magic portals, snarky flower-fairies, undersea redcoats, reassembling bodyparts, living chess, and Nosferatu the Cheating Vampyre...
	FOUR-EYED BABY: by Xanthe; 1989?, a Jungian dream I met some little hunchbacks in the woods who showed me a newborn baby growing from the moss...
	GOLD VERSUS DIAMONDS: by Wayan; 1972/1/20, a shameful dream fable. We're children seeking gold in a fairy wood. We meet some elf-kids, chase them off, and dig where they played. Then their parents show up... CAUTION: INTERSPECIES BULLYING
	GRIMOIRE AND PACT: by Wayan, 2013/8/4, twin dreams of infestations of... health? illness? sex? magic? Two sisters want to lick me all over, but they lick everything; weird gut-fauna make them immune to toxins... Fairy eggs infest my home--become worms, then tiny horses, then mothwinged hobbits, then adult fairies.... CAUTION: NUDE EQUINES & FAE; PARASITES (OR SYMBIOTES?)
	GROTTO OF BREASTS: by Gary Snyder, 1965/7/3, a bizarre High Sierra dream In Europe, I enter a cave-shrine. Rock walls with... breasts! I suck one. It gives milk. A plaque says... CAUTION: WEIRD
	HALF-ELF: by Wayan; 1996/2/14, a predictive dream fable. A biracial girl doubts her own heritage; a human friend has to confirm the obvious. So what am I blind to?
	HELPLESSLY LUCID: by Alder; 2007/6/23, a lucid dream in which I�m powerless! I�m a homeless elf. We�re a persecuted minority group. I know I�m dreaming and try to change it but...
	HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS: by Hélène Cixous; before 2003; a comic dream My little brother catches and rides a fairy goose down steep mountain slopes, demanding it grant his wishes...
	HOMEBOUND: by Sunshine; 2015/3/21, a dream posing an ethical dilemma Elves are making humans grow tree-doors back to Faerie. But are they invasion-scouts, or just going home? CAUTION: GUNFIGHT, MIND CONTROL
	HOP: by Emily Joy, Maddie, and Kathe, 2004/3/31; three linked dreams of a single character Three friends in one bed dream three dreams in one night about a talking rabbit with a persistent request...
	I HAD THE STRANGEST DREAM, AND YOU WERE THERE: by Wen Spencer; c.2016; a writer's dream comically summing up her own fantasy series. My characters are all dancing together. Roach is flanked by friends--but they turn into elves. As dragons, elves, tengu & robot mice join in, Roach slowly freaks...
	JOVE'S LIMBO: by Wayan; 1994/11/27, a dream of astral muckraking. Half elvish, rejected, I wander the worlds, and find a limbo built by Zeus--but do the inmates deserve it?
	KICK THE FAERIE BELL: by Wayan; 2015/8/20, a bizarre dream-poem with a practical message I'm a courier with a message for the Faerie Queen. Can I avoid all these colorful, sexy, crazy distractions, and focus on the Studio and the Gong?
	KING OF THE KILN: by Wayan; 1996/11/25, a psychic dream. I dream of a scary king who offers to bake my dreams to strengthen them. Then my friend Mark calls...
	THE LADY BATHES IN GRIEF: by Wayan; 1983/5/31, a long-haul psychic dream. Why'd a spirit-woman come to our reservation to mourn a drowned guy? Her mirrors & candles tell us...
	LONELY NO MORE!: by Wayan; 2000/3/27, a sculpture of American singlehood. The Dating Fairy, built on lonely evenings waiting for her to call me back--whoever "her" was that week... CAUTION: NUDITY, SEXUAL THEMES
	LURK: by Wayan; digital collage of a year's dreaming, 1995/3/5. There's power in dark memories--creatures of the deep strata. But the flowers of now are just as real...
	MAHAKALA, MOZART, AND THE CRIPPLED BIRD: by Wayan; 1985/4/17, a dream on facing shadows The Christian God vs Mahakala, Buddhist god of right anger! War in Middle Earth, as Pink Floyd sings...
	MELTDOWN VALLEY: by Wayan; 1993/2/13, a dream of scrupulous balance. A park in San Francisco has melted into a bizarre mutation-zone. Its guardian is a lonely elf-woman... CAUTION: ELF NUDITY
	THE MERMAID'S DRESSING ROOM: by Wayan; 1993/12/18; a dream on how to evolve. At Sea-Dragon State Park, I climbed down to the sea serpent's dressing room after the show, and found... CAUTION: MERMAID BREASTS
	MS. TRUST: by Wayan; 1993/11/4, a dream of a guarded angel. I meet my own mistrust: an angel who can't trust ME! So she turns me into a football-playing ant...
	NO �I": by Wayan; 2003/10/22, a dream of identity loss. I�m in San Francisco trying to throw Sauron�s Ring into the Cracks of San Andreas. But a sexy sorcerer steals my sense of I! How can you act without a self?
	ONCE A HERO: by Wayan; 1998/10/22-25, 17 images, a raw dream-series. Sexy dreams of Chinese archeology, authorized by the fairies, make me face that my family abused me...
	THE ONI PLAGUE: by Wayan; 2018/2/2, a dream implying our leaders are sociopathic Humans and elves like me can get along, but not oni (Japanese demons)--they'll hurt anyone for gain... CAUTION: POLITICAL BITTERNESS
	OVERLAY: by Wayan; 1984/2/11, 1995/8/26, and 2004/9/11, 3 dreams shape a 9-page comic on living with ESP Dreams of translucent fairies, centaurs, robots & gnomes prompt me to cartoon on transparent overlays to show how dreamworlds overlay ours...
	PETER PAN SYNDROME: by Wayan; 1995/1/10, a dream on those books... I meet Peter Pan grown up: a stark, fey prince in exile. Why do only I see him and the Lost Children? Oh.
	PIXY CONCUSSION: by Wayan; 2006/3/11, a diagnostic sex-dream comic, 9 p. (or illus. text) Janet's obsessed with a creepy guy till her pixy friend Kay decides to "knock some sense into her cunt"--literally... CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NASTY LOVE SPELL, PIXIE NUDITY
	POINTED EARS, POINTED DREAM: by Wayan, 2019/1/4, a surreal dream I walk home in cold rain; my hooded robe soaked. It has holes for my long pointed ears. Hit a thriftshop to buy a dry one, and run into two girls I crushed on but ran away from: Danielle is comforting Cary who's crying. Their ears are pointed too. Wait--who are we?... CAUTION: GUILT FOR SINS OF OMISSION?
	READABLE DREAMS: by Wayan; 1989/10/12, 1992/9/1-9/18; a 3-year meditation on treating dreams as art How do we make dream narratives readable, when so many readers are brainwashed to think they're nonsense?
	SING A HAPPY TUNE: by Wayan, daydream, crayon, 2003/7/27. A sketch of a whistling punk girl somehow mutated into a fairy holding a songbird of sorts... CAUTION: "THE BIRD"
	SKUNKERPILLAR: by Wayan; 2018/4/7, an advisory dream on metamorphosis After I (sort of) foil some elf-burglars, a friendly elfwoman shows me a black caterpillar, then the rare white-striped skunkerpillar...
	SLAVES DON'T DANCE: by Wayan; 1999/8/1, a 17-page Shakespearean dream-comic (or ill. text) Stolen by the Fairy Queen, I'm forced to nurse her great project: creating life! But her synthetic baby is...
	SUCH STUFF AS DREAMS ARE MADE OF: by John Anster Fitzgerald, 1857?, dream painting In bed asleep, the dreamer discovers this seemingly empty room hosts a fairy ball, full of luminous half-seen beings serenaded by a monstrous band...
	SWISS-CHEESE FAIRY: by Wayan; dreamed 1983/7/15, sculpted 2000: ceramic/wire/silk, 17" I met an elfin girl who's tattooed realistic vaginas all over her body, as... decoys? For she has... CAUTION: NUDITY, TATTOOS, TABOOS...
	THE TIGER AND THE WOLF: by Jo; 2011/1/15; a dream of temptation A black dog leads me into the fairy wood. I'm curious what happens to those who walk under the tree where the Lightning Tiger lurks....
	TIME-CAT: by Wayan; 2013/11/23; a self-flagging predictive dream I'm a cat person, grooming. But not MY fur--it's a woolly mass of timelines! We cats travel time, smoothing out snarls... Then I wake, go to a party, and...
	TRAILER PARK ELF: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2001/11/18; a troubling dream of incompatible realms I dreamed I was a blond guy tracking down an elf who lived in a trailer park. She'd gone mad; elves trapped in the human world mostly do. Awake, I sketched her, then saw she's a lot like my younger self! Disturbing...
	TWO DRUNKS: by Wayan, 1995/10/26, nondream fantasy; color pencil. A tribute to Hokusai's sketches. A crane and a fairy were out drinking, and now can't fly home...
	UNDER THEIR MASKS: by Wayan; 2000/3/17, an ecdysiastic dream Masked champions of Good and Evil fight, peeling off layers till they're elven-thin--what's left to hide? They can't keep stripping forever...
	UNFINISHED DREAM: by Walter de la Mare, before 1922, a dream of Faerie cast as a poem The dream land was beautiful, but seemed empty 'til I heard piping voices. An elven band! I gazed in wonder. But they could not (would not?) see me...
	VOLCANIC OATH: by Wayan; 1972/5/20; poem of a teenage Tolkien nightmare. DAY: our ex-cat comes back, needing surgery. Dad doesn't want to pay. Big quarrel. DREAM: Cats, birds, elf-girls; in their asteroid library, a tale of oath-breaking... Now I'm the one who stole a tooth of jade from the volcano hall. Greed... erupts! CAUTION: NUDE BIRD-ELF, DEATH BY LAVA
	'WE'RE ALL HUMAN': by Wayan; 1987/3/13, a dream trial. For flirting in the astral cafeteria, we all get sentenced to group therapy-- till I catch the lie in my life. What lie? Read the title...