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Stubbornness and Persistence

"Perseverance furthers" says the I Ching about a hundred times. And so do these dreams of stubbornness, persistence, perseverance... willpower.

Of course, sometimes it's not YOU in your dream being stubborn--excuse me, "persistent". Sometimes it's the monster you fear--or slay. You can't keep a good monster down. And maybe, if it's THAT persistent, you'd be better off trying couples counseling. Jung would say so.

This is a newish list, so let me know if you find dreams that should be here. And if you've HAD one, add your dream!

RELATED TOPICS: assertion - willpower - goals, purposes, values - haste versus patience - anger - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.


THE AIR BURUNDI PAINTINGS: by Wayan; 7 illus., 2007/1/20, a dream of art & courage
Weird paintings cover a hill town in Africa, demanding I paint them when I wake.
Paintings on courage, flight... and defying tradition.
ALL-GENIUS CLASS: by Wayan; dreamed 2007/5/2, a dream warning it took a decade to spot
Our gifted class is on a field trip. Our teacher happily explains we're going to wreck a freeway,
tying up traffic for months, to protest crappy gifted programs...
CAUTION: SLOWEST DREAM INTERPRETATION EVER
ALPENFLIGHT: by Wayan; 1986/4/1, a predictive flying dream
Fleeing hunters, blocked by a cafe crowd, I fly up a long slope--but the cafe climbs on & on! At last
I perch exhausted on a peak, looking down on a now-alpine cafe above a sea of clouds. Next day...
ASCENT: by Wayan; spring 1997; a comix-panorama on recurrent mountaineering dreams.
All that spring I dreamed of climbing, cold, fatigue, risk, and fear.
But shamanic training involves toughening; ascent isn't always easy flight...
ASTRID AND ME: by Wayan, 2019/12/18, a dream inspired by a film--seen after it.
DREAM: I'm a girl in love with an underage abused girl (using me to heal?) But gossips (& the Swedish navy) won't let us be...
FILM: A Swede gets his teenage assistant pregnant--and small-town gossips blame her. So she writes Pippi Longstocking...
CAUTION: TEEN SEX; ESP?
THE BARRINGTON BUNNY: by Wayan; 1988/8/30, a world-saving alien-abduction dream
Alien robots kidnap me... and make me the mascot for a college football team.
But my Channel Changer slowly infuses us all with nerdy trust...
BEATING UNCLE FESTER, or, ACHIEVING BILUMIA: by Wayan; 2013/3/31, a stupid telepathic dream
I screw the lightbulbs in my ears again, and this time, they stay. I sit down at the piano, and as I play...
BLACK SOLSTICE; 1978/12/23 by Wayan; a warning dream-poem
It had been a weirdly mild winter day, but in my dream black storms loomed as I tried to build shelter...
BLACKSLIME TOWER: by Wayan; 1986/11/13; a transformation dream with political tinges
Humanity's trapped in a Quad, overseen by the Guardians of Blackslime Tower.
Feather by feather, I grow wings, and plot to escape with the Flying Cat...
CAUTION: THE SLIME IS REAGANOMICS
BRAID OF SILENCE: by Wayan; 1989/1/24, a brief dream-poem
We're slaves on the moon. But we're slowly stretching our freedom in the shadows, undoing the Braid of...
BREAK FREE: by Emily Joy; 2006/5/11, an encouraging dream on the price of safety.
I search for family skeletons, but then a talking plant on TV inspires me to seek the sun and fly free.
But certain velociraptors and barbarian swordswomen object...
CAUTION: DUELS, FISH ABUSE, THE F-WORD
BRIGHT BEAST, PATIENT BEAST: by Edwin Muir; c.1920, a dream of our primal struggle
Two beasts eternally fight, the proud bright peacock-tailed beast and the sad-eyed, ever-defeated sheepdog of...
CAIRO GIRL: by Wayan; 2008/2/18, a feverdream shifting from nightmare to joy
I'm lost in the angry streets of Cairo. But I meet a goth-girl with moth-antennae:
a jinni who's working for longterm change. She takes me home...
CAUTION: MOTH NUDITY
CARTWRIGHT'S HARLEQUIN: by Rosalind Cartwright, 1927? to 2020/12/5? Lifelong recurring dream
All her life, Cartwright dreamed of a figure disguised in a harlequin costume; she never saw his face.
He always drove her to self-sabotage. But near her death, she dreamt she gave a lecture, and he...
CAT WITH A KNIFE: by Wayan, 2000/6/24, a nightmare of a Jungian Shadow changed by patience
A guy threatens me with a knife. I sit on him and wait patiently.
Slowly he turns into a huge black cat! I set him free in a garden...
CELEBRITY ATTACK!: by Pierre Dalcourt, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a complex dream on celebrity
As a mob of Hollywood stars beats me up, I ask for autographs--and get them.
I sell the autographs to fund a statue of the beating--but with me smiling...
CHANGE THE CORE PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1995/6/28, a dream of sudden progress.
I meet a tragic heroine--great heart, rotten luck. But I open her magic sword and find a bad chip...
COMICS & DREAMJOURNAL: by Rick Veitch, Jan 1974, a life-path dream
I'm trying to jam together my dream diary and my first comics. My grandmother's
skeptical. But at last, with an audible 'click', dreams and comics suddenly merge...
CREATURE BECOMES CREATOR: by Wayan; 2015/2/5, three linked advisory dreams on world trends
A weird little forest god bred me from an ordinary deer into a creature who can
almost pass for human. But World War 2 killed my god, and now I'm growing into...
CAUTION: NUDITY, CROSSBREEDING
CRESTED DEER: by Wayan; 2022/7/8, two shamanic little dreams
In endangered woods I meet deer with bold black-and white feather crests.
Higher up, it's barren--a hard winter. But I taste a medicinal blue-black fruit...
D, D, D: by Wayan; 1988/2/1, trance-poem during automatic writing (done to rewire my brain)
I always wrote some letters strangely--my 'd' was nearly illegible. So I set out to retrain my deep motor skills...
DAD'S DATES: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream poem, Dreamverse #8.
After my mom's death, my dad starts dating again, while I hide out and wince. Can't I do anything positive?
DESERT SLAVERS: by Wayan; 2015/5/29; a grim dream replayed a bit better
A gang of slavers catch my family. I flee on a bike but it breaks down. Stranded. Replay! This time I have a gun...
CAUTION: GANG, SHOOTING
MY DEWCLAW: by Wayan; 1997/6/30; dreams within dreams within dreams
Body after body is peeled away revealing truth inside truth...
CAUTION: GROTESQUE
DINOSAUR GRADE: by Wayan, 2006/1/25, a shamanic workout dream
I ride a recumbent bike up an exhausting slope past browsing bears.
Oh. Not bears. Dinosaurs. No wonder I'm so tired! Timetravel's hard...
THE DOG PILOT PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1981/4/23, a dream of doing the impossible.
I get a job in China teaching bus-driving dogs how to fly. I don't know how. Luckily, the dogs...
DON'T SETTLE FOR HALF: by Wayan; 2010/1/21; an advisory dream about dreaming
Struggling to recall a magical dream, I suddenly get a single, simple image. ...
THE DOOR THROUGH DEATH: by Wayan; 1981/10/25; a Greco-Egyptian nightmare poem
At death's door, my friend lets Cerberus devour her, so I can enter
Death's pyramid alive and expose the truth about the afterlife...
CAUTION: FATAL DOG ATTACK
THE DOUBT: by Wayan; 2007/2/15, an undream trance-painting
Painting an abstract watercolor, I drifted into trance, and found myself climbing a
thorny slope. Deer in the brush. Great peaks around. Had I gone wrong?
DRAGON-JEWEL: by Wayan; 2013/6/27, a 1001 Nights epic dream disturbingly predictive of ISIS
In Old Palmyra, I stumble on a dragon-hoard. Wizards and caliphs hunt me--how to get out
of town? Magic carpet? No. I put on a brown coat, borrow a delivery bike, and slowly pedal...
DRILL TO FLOW: by Wayan; 2011/4/8, an anti-frustration dream
A panel of argumentative gods grant me a spare lifetime of piano practice. It takes that long, but...
EFFORT VERSUS APTITUDE: by Wayan, 2017/8/23, a dream about... oh, read the title.
I urge a cafe to host a talented Tarot reader with an amazing aura, but the owner says
"Anyone can be psychic with practice." Oh? Can practice make you Einstein, too?
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...
ESCAPE BY INTUITION: by Wayan; 2010/1/11; four dreams of breaking through
I must see a community as a whole, and intuit my way out of a sealed room, and spot details, and join a trio in bed...
CAUTION: NUDITY IN LAST DREAM
FILL IN THE PIT: by Wayan; 2018/8/18, a political/practical advisory dream
The boarding school needs to fill in the old Punishment Pit. Not just archaic,
but a threat to every student. So let every student dump clay in & dance on it...
FILLY'S QUEST: by Wayan; 1981/1/31, a dream on dream-theory. Head versus... wings!
The tunnel has pictures of a winged unicorn filly on a quest. But the editor
of the deluxe book version is intellectual, patriarchal and heavy-handed...
CAUTION: UNDERAGE ALICORN FLIRTING
FINAL EXAM, WRITTEN IN BLOOD: by Wayan; 2019/6/16, a dream on systemic bigotry
My classmates stole my pen. My teacher condones it. I am, after all, a hated minority.
They won't even SELL me one. So I write my final in blood--three huge, crude letters...
FLAMES: by John, c. 1973, as told by Gayle Delaney; an induced transcendent dream
I asked my dreams if I should leave my alcoholic wife. I dreamt we were conjoined flames, green and blue.
I awoke hopeful, and knew I'd stay. For eight months my wife struggled. Now she's been sober five years...
FLIER MISJUDGES REEFWORLD: by Wayan; 2018/12/16, an otherworldly dream on... social media?
A girl from a low-gravity, dense-air world, where you strap on wings and fly, tours a
world of tropical atolls with me. I love sailing, but flight's spoiled her for it--too slow...
FLY-PARADISE: by Wayan; 1978/12/15, an automatic-writing poem that worked like an advisory dream
I'm a fly lured to a bright but sealed window. The only way out is to ignore the light
and brave the dark--and only when a door opens. Patience AND boldness...
FOUR WHO COULD ONLY GET HALF-WAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a frustration-dream with deep advice
I'm one of four mediocrities: all our efforts come to nought. Mum says "You're netted, but you can fray the ropes...
GALLEY SLAVE: by Wayan; 2008/11/27, a punning career-advice dream; Dreamverse #47
Shipwrecked and claimed as salvage on Crete, Ed the writer became
a dishwashing slave! In contrast, Marie the musician...
GANDHI RUNS: by Wayan; 1997/8/1, a fusion dream.
Gandhi and I must run barefoot across a burning racetrack miles wide... the Ascetic Desert?
GARDEN OF THE GODS: by Wayan; 1995/10/6, a dream of slowth.
In the Garden of the Gods, I sit through sun and rain. For gods aren't the gardeners, they're the crop...
GET YOUR BODY BACK: by Wayan; 1997/6/11, a dreamed parable.
A man dies--his body's chopped up. He ends in Hell. But he's a stubborn guy; he wants his body back. So...
THE GIFTED CHILD: by Brenda Ferrimani, 2013?, a painting of an incubated dream
Previous dreamwork had made it clear my mother had betrayed me; I asked
my dreams how to protect myself from those who do not love me...
GIRAFFE MISSION, or, THE 17TH FOOT: by Wayan, 2017/1/30, a Seussy dreampoem on breadth of view
I was in the Mission with friends. A giraffe saw me as narrowminded, and lifted me up
to show me HIS viewpoint. No insights--till we topped the roofline...
GIRL IN THE WATER: by Wayan, 2000/10/7, twin dreams on... dreamwork?
In a California with no Gold Rush, wild deer carry a girl over the San Fernando hills to a secret dream-pool...
Then in a Japantown hotel lobby, that girl floats meditating in a huge aquarium, as local gossips lie about her...
GURNEY TO WHEELCHAIR TO WALKER TO CANE: by Wayan; 2011/10/10; a dream on persistence
After seeing the cast of Glee interviewed, I dream I'm a paranoid cripple in music school who goes from...
A HAUNTED HOUSE INDEED!: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic ghost dream
I was warned about soul-devouring art in the haunted house, but I didn't expect to find an entire art salon...
CAUTION: ABSORBING ARTWORK
HEART CHAKRA: by Wayan; 2011/5/8, a dreamlet blending Indian mysticism and the movie Megamind
I'm a digital superhero, rubbing red-orange oil into my fake skin. I have six more
colors of oil to rub in, six more chakras to heal. But first things first!...
HEIST THE GOLDEN EGGS!: by Wayan; 2008/7/18, a dream of do-it-yourself tech--and ethics
Two teens crack a bank with a homemade rocket--but forgot a crowbar! Caught, but
the bank can't press charges; the kids have proof the bank uses slave labor...
CAUTION: DISSES CAPITALISM
HIDE IN THE REEDS: by Wayan, 2023/2/5, a punning health-advice dream
In the park, long lines of worshipers wait to meet a guru. But I'm naked, so I hide in the reeds...
CAUTION: NUDE SUNBATHING
HIGHER LEVEL: by Wayan; 2011/12/13, an absurd transcendent dream
I paddle through the grim streets of Karachi on my belly, on a skateboard,
with my flipper-hands, until at last I reach the border to a Higher Realm...
A HISA ON OLYMPUS: by Wayan; 2014/6/15, a dream on the need to slow down
I'm a hisa, a primitive alien who solves a high-tech crime for the humans. Then I hike home,
step by step, down a great shield volcano. Because shuttles leave your soul behind...
THE HONEST INMATE: by Wayan; 1997/5/8, a dreamfable on truthfulness.
I'm a psychopath in a prison for the insane. But I fall in love, and change. Blunt honesty fuels the change...
HUBRIS EGGS: by Wayan; 1981/6/11, a short defiant psychic dream.
I'm wrapping my heavy-metal eggs too slowly, so the Judges sink my car! I set out to get revenge...
HYPNOGOGIC ASSAULT: by Dr Simon Forman; 1559-63, recurring hypnogogic images.
From age six on, Simon nightly climbs mountains and faces roaring floods in a sort of naptime bootcamp...
I GUESS IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY PARTY: by Jack Kerouac, early Oct.1952, a transcendent nightmare?
My party's a slow disaster. Talk, booze, pot, sex--nothing works out.
What will Mom think? At last, trapped in an office, I get the Message...
IN THE STAR; 1988/9/12 by Wayan; an epic, out-of-body, intrastellar quest-dream
I tour the heart of a red supergiant, where dreaming souls explore
their fears and heart's desires, unconstrained by solid matter...
CAUTION: SWEDENBORGIAN VISION, UNICORN NUDITY
INCREMENTAL HEAVENS: by Wayan; 2016/9/5, a reincarnation-frustration dream, baffling then. Not now.
I keep getting reincarnated in dull heavens where all is blocked by know-nothings. After the 2016 election...
CAUTION: CAUSTIC
IS A SUN: by Wayan; 1992/2/20, nondream picture-poem.
Poem by Emily Dickinson on fighting depression, which I get when my neuroallergies are severe...
IS LONGING A RIGHT?: by Wayan; 2021/6/26, a dream on willpower & guilt
I'm in a dance class where we built not just muscle strength but strength of will, too: the idea's to
magically summon your soulmate through sheer longing! And my classmates succeed--intermittently...
CAUTION: QUEER THINKING
IT IS THE ONLY WAY!: by Rick Veitch; c.1960; a child's career-predicting dream
My bedroom window is choked with dirt. I dig up to the surface
and find a man reading comics. He says 'It is the only way!'...
JETPACK AND TIGER: by Wayan; 1988/3/17, a nonlucid yet lucidlike shamanic dream.
After watching both Star Trek & Doctor Who, I find I'm held prisoner by the Rani
and her laser-toting tiger guards. So I meditate--and manifest a jetpack and a laser gun!
I never deduced I'm dreaming; it's not lucidity. It's simpler. What have I got to lose?
JOKE PILOT: by Wayan; 1995/7/15, a dream of defiance.
Among aliens, humans are jokes. Fragile and blind, we can't fly starships. Unless we build our own...
KICK HER: by Wayan; 1994/8/9, a gameshow nightmare.
I'm a blonde gameshow bimbo. Each week, I'm beaten up. Ha ha ha! But my bruises are real. At last, I...
CAUTION: GAMESHOW FROM HELL
THE KING'S LANGUAGE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/24, a dream on the language of dreams
Swedenborg struggles to grasp the King's broken French. He wakes to realize he's trying to learn
a greater King's difficult language. Still relevant today, for he saw the problem's twofold: the
difficult language of images, but also issues the waking mind missed--or wants to deny!
LAMIA by Wayan, 1988/11/1 with a nightmare by John Ruskin, 1869/11/1
I ask my dreams about sex, and get... sex on a beach with a sea-serpent girl--a lamia. But she gets queasy--
landsick! Too hot for her up here. Help her back in the sea. What a contrast with Ruskin's lamia nightmare...
CAUTION: SCALY SEX
THE LONGEVITY INSTITUTE: by Wayan, 2019/5/7; a dream on a family mutation
On the show Finding Your Roots, it turns out my dad's a genetic experiment born in...
1880?! The experiment worked; my sisters and I are slow-maturing, long-lived mutants...
MAGICAL GRADUATION: by Wayan, 2018/4/22, twin dreamlets on letting go and being yourself
I befriend author Andre Norton--an ageless high-school kid writing enthused fan fiction, forever...
I find my Niche--the stone nook that decides if I'm a journeyman mage! Here comes my prophecy...
MARVIN, CRASH: by Rick Veitch; Feb 1974; a predictive/warning dream
My "friends" pull me away from the girl of my dreams, push booze & pot at me,
and won't even try to climb the rope to success. But Marvin saves Evel Knievel
from a motorcycle crash. Sounds good--until, ten years later, I hear how Marvin died...
CAUTION: GRIM AFTERMATH
MY MOTHER'S CLOSET: by Rachel Hadas, c. 2000;
a dream-poem provoking a 2008/9/16 dream by Chris Wayan
I was in my mother's closet, trying on her outfits, and trapped in Hamlet, too...
THE MOTORCYCLE-BOOK: by Alyse and Tim, 1979 or before, complementary dreams
ALYSE dreams Tim drives a motorcycle-book up a hill, but she doesn't LIKE riding so fast...
TIM dreams a wise woman tested him, but found him unqualified to play teacher to Alyse...
NIC'S THOUSAND PAINTINGS: by Wayan, 2017/7/9, a dream with creative advice
My friend Nic vows to paint two pictures a day, and, impossibly, does.
Meanwhile, I'm blocked. Can she show me how to get unstuck?
ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, a dream echoing Cocteau's film Orphee--before seeing it
I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
OTTER MEDICINE: by The-Fringe, a Crow healer, early 1850s; a shamanic dream with physical effects
I slept on an island in a scalding hot spring, praying for a dream. I got one--and woke up on the shore...
PALAIS IDÉAL: by Ferdinand Cheval; dreamed 1864, built 1879-1912, a life-defining dream
I dreamed I built a palace, but for fifteen years I kept silent, ashamed. Then
I tripped over a beautiful stone. I took it home. Next day I collected more...
PIG YOYO: by Wayan; 1987/11/21, a dream on how to end self-torture.
A hog is tied so it bounces in a fountain, and at the bottom
of each bounce, a fork jabs it! How to free this yoyo pig?
CAUTION: PAIN
PINKIE CLEANS THE WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION:
by Wayan; 2017/2/5, an advisory dream fusing Aldous Huxley & My Little Pony.
My new housemate Pinkie is a party animal, but she's really nice. She climbs a high ladder to help wash my
Windows of Perception. Then our unicorn friend Rarity walks in. She warns me to pace this renovation project...
CAUTION: PONIES
PLANET-SCULPTING APE: by "AE" (George Russell); mid-1870s, a childhood characterological dream.
On a cloud in space I met an ape molding a model of Earth, glancing at the original far below. We were much alike...
POLES NOW, TROPICS LATER: by Wayan; 1997/3/27, a dream on the pace of change.
I'm a Martian revolutionary, making the glaciers grow. The equator's still dry, but change is coming...
POOL ASSASSINS: by Wayan; 2017/3/1, a nightmare after hearing of a real assassination
Four women with guns attack me at a public pool. Trapped in the water, can I survive? Only by being ruthless...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE
PORTALS: by Wayan; 2020/7/30, a dream about family, uh, bonding...
I sneak into a mansion where a mom & daughter bond by interrogating willing victims who
get off on the bondage. Later, Inquisitor Girl and I are waiting to use a teleportation gate
and discover we have something in common: not just weird moms, but even weirder dads...
CAUTION: KINKY FAMILY VALUES
PSYCHIC CAT: by Scott Bartell, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a comic dreamlet
Our neighbors keep dropping by with gifts and favors for our cat.
Why? He'd gained magical powers by amassing 10,000 dead mice...
PUT TWICE AS MUCH IN: by Wayan; 2003/9/22, a dream warning how much it takes to change
All the claymation figures I made in my teens are gone but one. And the centauress has a broken hip
and spindly leg. I start to mend her, but I need TWICE the clay I thought...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
RADAR BEAR: by Wayan; 1983/6/17, a dream of MASH--and perseverance.
Radar O'Reilly's teddy bear is stolen. He builds spy-planes to find it. One morning the camp wakes to find...
RAINBOW SPLASH: by Wayan, 2023/4/23, a furry-porn dream hiding art advice!
I'm in an alt-world Berkeley where mythic creatures shop on College Avenue. Marigold
the unicorn flirts with me. Rainbow Dash the pegasus has turned male. Very very male...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY (AND CRUDITY)
RARE BIT FIENDS: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a recurring dream personifying dreamwork?
The wildcat Rare Bit Fiends slinks out of the hills to stalk and maul
dreamers--until one day she rears up to teach a dream workshop...
RUNNER WITH A PORPOISE: by Wayan; 1999/10/30, a dream of spirits.
A Japanese high school athlete has no friends, till she starts meeting animal spirits on her long solo runs...
SATISFACTION: by Keith Richards, 1965/5/7, a famous dream song (and a well-prepared dreamer)
I always kept a guitar and tape recorder by my bed. I wake up and see the tape's run to the very end.
I ran it back to the start and there, in a sort of ghostly version, was...
SAVED BY A CYMBAL: by Wayan; 2021/11/29, a dream punning about dreamwork!
Stranded on an island where a marching band drowned, I escape
by paddling across the Pacific using a rusty, er, cymbal...
SEA PARADE: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a dream on media versus dreams
We need to get down to the sea, but Disney Corporation blocks the way. Wait--we're
dreamworkers! We ooze through the walls, and cheer the parade marching in on the tide...
THE SELL-FISH WITCHES: by Wayan; 1983/6/29, an epic corrective dream
My sister and I are runaways, developing psychic powers.
A cult of fish-selling witches wants to use us...
CAUTION: SIBLING INCEST, SPELL ABUSE
SIGNORINETTA: by Alfred Douglas; late May 1908, a predictive (and profitable) dream.
I dreamt a grey filly won the Derby. My friend, a fan, said no fillies were racing this year; but he forgot one named...
SILKY CLEANS THE UNDERWORLD: by Wayan; 2023/5/26, a heartening surreal dream
I'm lost in the underworld again. Happens a lot lately. But I run into my anima Silky,
in yellow boots and a safety vest, blasting clean the walls of the land of the dead...
SING TO MY ALIEN FRIEND: by Wayan; 2017/3/7, a dream-poem on... alienation?
From a crowd in a gym, I sing to my wolflike alien friend. But she can't recognize my voice--
too convincing a falsetto! I slide deeper, but once she heard a girl, she can't imagine...
SPECTER OF THE BROCKEN: by Carl Jung, c.1893; early dream proposing the Shadow
Jung walked against stiff wind and fog, sheltering a tiny light, generating a huge eerie shadow--his other self!
He concluded this was his life-task--to nurture his spark of awareness & rationality in the dark. But...
In hindsight his dream models four key Jungian ideas: Self, Ego, Shadow and Unconscious--at age 18!
CAUTION: REJECTS JUNG'S OWN DREAM INTERPRETATION!
SPONTANEOUS DUCK: by Wayan; 2010/9/14, two dreams on feeling magically inadequate
I spy on a girl learning magic in a quilted ditch. She lets me join her telekinesis lesson! Can my mind move a balloon?
Then I tour a witch-world where normality's shameful. One kid's not witch or normal--he keeps turning into Donald Duck!
CAUTION: DISNEY = DISABILITY?
STAGE FAILURE: by Dana Hughes, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a dream of surrender
I'm on stage. I have to sing. They just stare. I try dancing. Stony silence. At last,
a second me leads me offstage, saying "You can only fail so many times"...
STICK IT BACK ON: by Wayan; 1980/7/15, a scattered dream still hiding a point.
The tollman on the new bridge to the Land of the Dead revives a beheaded woman by RANDOM action...
STOCKDEN'S MURDER: by Elizabeth Greenwood; Dec 1695-Jan 1696, six dreams solving a murder.
Greenwood dreamt her murdered neighbor's ghost gave her tips helping her catch his three killers...
THE STONE MOVES: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a mysterious breakthrough dream
Repeated attempts to move a gigantic, sacred, saucerlike stone all failed; but now,
with the world's biggest cranes, we get it on a truck. It crawls past adoring crowds...
TANYA'S DREAMS: by Tanya, as told by Gayle Delaney, Jan 1971-June '72; a set of 6 breakup dreams
My friend Tanya tries hard to save her marriage, but in her dreams Isidora Duncan,
Carl Jung, even the gods themselves warn her to face their deep incompatibility...
THAT WIND: by Wayan; 1986/8/29; an undream poem on a daymare
Nightmares can warn. But when awake, what warning can you get from nonstop ill-luck?
TORNADO AND STARSHOWER: by Dream Junkee; 2008/8/15, a nightmare that goes lucid
A killer tornado traps us in the cellar. I bite my finger. It's boneless--I'm dreaming! I summon...
TSUNAMI PERSEVERANCE: by Wayan, 2020/1/7, one of twin warning dreams
We flee a tsunami. Inland. Up a hill. Onto a roof. One by one, the flood plucks us away.
Long past hope, I climb a flagpole. As I cling to the very top and the mud rises to my lips...
CAUTION: GRIM PREDICTION
TWILIGHT ANIMA RISING: by Mardi Storm, 2005, a dream leading to artistic defiance
I dreamed of a unicorn rearing in the desert. I wanted to sculpt it and applied to Burning Man
but was rejected. So I sculpted the unicorn anyway, out of playa mud. It was a hit...
UNICORN FEEDBACK: by Wayan; 2009/1/3, a double dream of advice
A telepathic unicorn gives me some subtle advice. I wake, and tell a friend, who easily proves my account
is distorted by my own biases. Telepathy's confusing! Wake again. Her correction was part of the dream...
WARM MOTHER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2001/3/24, 3/29, 3/30 & 4/1; dreams
I dream my mother takes over caring for my sick daughter; I feel pushed aside.
When I wake, I try to paint a more positive image of mothering.
For a week, dream after dream has opportunities for patience and letting go of jealousy...
WATERMELON MINE: by Wayan; 2023/6/18, a surreal dream with long-term advice
I'm the new manager of the watermelon mine. And to free the trapped minors--
oops, miners!--I have to plan. So I cover the floor with My Little Pony post-its...
CAUTION: CARTOON NUDITY
THE WHO IN HELL AM I: by Wayan; 1984/1/28, a stubborn dream.
I'm Pete Townshend of the Who, climbing stubbornly out of Hell by noticing what I don't want...
WHOSE DREAM WAS IT?: by Wayan; 2008/10/18, a nested-dream poem, Dreamverse #35.
I'm a Chinese kid fleeing the Japanese Occupation in 1938. As we near San Francisco,
I wake to find it's all my dad's dream. Wait--he's alive again? But he was never a refugee.
Is it a pastlife memory? If so, whose--his or mine?
WILLPOWER (HAPPINESS): by Wayan; 1991/1/17, a didactic dream.
At age 90, the first female high-rise steelworker tells me
why she did it--and why she regrets it now...
WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, apocalyptic dream
When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us!
Fleeing from Saruman's army, I discover the backstage truth about our world...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!
WINGED BEAST: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/7/29, a dream of fighting one's own flaws
Swedenborg fights a monster but lacks strength. Yet later, on a higher plane, he learns the beast did die...
CAUTION: VIOLENT
WINGLESS: by Wayan; 1992/2/21; a dream-poem on flight versus guilt
Wingless, I try hard to fly, arm-flapping wild. And I rise! Flight's in the mind.
But I'm leaving my friend behind! Guilt ties me down--till I see...
WITCHMARE SEDUCES TWILIGHT: by Wayan; 2021/3/12 & 13, a dream with a confirming follow-up
DREAM: Witchmare the sorceress patiently wins over Twilight, a unicorn who thought she was straight.
NEXT NIGHT: at a queer picnic, I find I know my orientation--witches! But I'm less sure what sex I am...
CAUTION: LESBIANS, UNICORNS, FANART, COMPLEXITY
WITH WILD AND TURQUOISE EYES: by Joan-lee Woehler; c.1950, a dream of a Jungian Shadow
I slay the beautiful dragon attacking us, despite my regret.
And then, as I sleep, glowing eyes advance on our keep AGAIN...
WIZARD VERSUS WITCH-HUNTER: by Wayan; 2023/4/16, a dueling dream
Truce at last! We can party again. But witch-hunters burst in and try to arrest me for being a wizard. They
use a box of strong-arm force; I use my wand. But their weapon's rechargeable battery overheats, while I...
CAUTION: CRITIQUES SELF-STYLED RATIONALISTS
WOUND-BARGAIN: by a Marine from New York; 1918/9/12-14, a prediction and possible alteration of the future
I was sure I'd be wounded, but dreaded being crippled. So I tried on injuries! I settled on a flesh wound in my left shoulder...
ZILLIONAIRE'S TOWER: by Wayan; 2012/2/9, a financial climbing dream
My mild yuppie friend Lou climbs a bank tower to reach his rich mentor,
and wins an internship. But as he swears his oath to Get Rich Quick...
CAUTION: DISSES CUTTHROAT CAPITALISM


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