Symbols and Icons
RELATED TOPICS: visual and verbal dream puns - spells - language - dream math and logic - genital symbolism (Freudian phallic symbols, but also clitoral and vaginal symbolism) - Freud and slips - Jungian & archetypal dreams - anima/animus dreams - Jungian shadows - cups and vessels - blades - crystals - mirrors and reflections - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
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AMERICAN FLAG: by Jasper Johns, 1954; a career-changing dream Johns dreamt he was painting an American flag. He woke, and did-- mixing pigment and beeswax, coating newspaper strips... |
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AVENUE OF TREES: by Anonymous #34; July 1911?, early 1924?, 1934/3/30, & Jan. 1947; four death-omen dreamlets, one predictive Every decade or so, I dream a loved one says farewell and walks down an avenue of trees. I wake to find that person's dying... |
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THE BATTLE FOR THE RAI DRAGON: by Rikutsu; 2015/12/6, a dream declaring change is ready at last In a corrupt world, a talisman called the Rai Dragon offers hope of real change-- IF it can be found, AND used by someone decent-hearted... |
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BELL CURVE IN THE DARK: by Wayan; 1982/8/17, a dream on... the gifted? A human pinball game played in the dark, with bells for stoppers, sorting people into a Gaussian bell-curve... |
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BESS: by Forrest Bess, 1946, '47, '57, '67 & '70; five hypnogogic dreams Bess painted images that look like abstract symbols but actually flashed in front of him when half asleep... |
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BLUE RABBIT: by Stan Brakhage; 1975/5/17, a colorful dream image bogged down by theory A startling deep-blue rabbit with scarlet eyes and red veined ears, floating in colorless air... I'd been reading Watership Down, the chapter on the Black Rabbit of Inlé... CAUTION: ART THEORY CRUSHES BUNNY |
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BONE CARVINGS: by Larry Vigon; c.1999; a numinous dream with silly illustrations At the beach, a deaf boy with a strong aura asks "Are you here for the coin?" He buries horse skeletons in the sand; the bones are carved with symbols... |
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THE BOOK: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal); October 1989, a mandala-like dream-icon The crystalline figure on the cover of the book in my dream seemed to hold as many answers as its title... |
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BORN IN A CAVE: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/4/20 to 2007/8/9, a painted series of rite-of-passage dreams. I keep dreaming of awkward but successful transitions into new life, and paint them all in one landscape... |
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BUCKLEY'S BLOATED BOMB: by Wayan; 1983/11/20, a political nightmare. I meet William F. Buckley and his beloved pet pig. Only the hog's a live H-Bomb, and the leash is a trigger... CAUTION: REVOLTING GUY, PET, AND ISSUE |
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CELEBRATE BOTH: by Henry Sultan, 2005/6/26, a painting that blends two dreams At a snake-weaving party I flirt with my anima, who tells me how the cake fell off the roof. I think “At last we’re really connecting!”... |
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CHRISTA'S FUR: by Wayan; 2018/6/9, a smutty spiritual dream-poem riffing on Leonardo's 'Last Supper'? In an alternate Judea, I long for a female Christ and her lesbian apostles. My lust is unrequited, till a small Sex Kitten gives me some wise advice... CAUTION: CAT NUDITY, BLASPHEMY |
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CLIMB DOWN THE PINNACLES: by Jenny Badger Sultan, l995/12/24, a surreal dream and painting Decision by decision, we made our way down immense rock crags. Below, I had to put out a deadly fire, a fire as solid as wood or stone, with a white staff. What am I really trying to calm? |
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COCKEREL: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, 1846, a comic transformation dream I meet King Louis-Philippe, but as I recall his symbol, the cockerel, he transforms to suit. Now he cannot read the letter presented to him, so it becomes a basket of bird-seed... |
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COSMIC EGG AND ENERGY BIRD: by Wayan; 1971/12/4, a childhood mystical dream. A mystical vision of the Cosmic Egg gets messy when it hatches and the Bird escapes... |
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CRUCIFERS: by Greg Hildebrandt; recurring nightmares 1969-71, painted 1971 After breaking with the Catholic Church, Greg had recurrent nightmares about its history of atrocities and cover-ups. Out of this came a series of paintings unlike his famous book covers. This was the first... CAUTION: MURDEROUS MOB |
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CYMBALS: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal); August 1997, a lucid dream on, um, cymbalism Hundreds of dusty drawers, clearly not not touched in years. I open one to find cymbals. Some part of me knows it's a dream and sees the pun... |
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A DIFFICULT PATH: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/11/3, an advisory dream. I lead my daughter up a thorny path; she’s getting scratched. She'd rather stay in that fishing village below... |
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DRAGON BANNERS: by Wayan; 1987/3/19, a dream on the value of inner emptiness. A dragon's daughter seeking her inheritance defies a sneaky dragon-realtor out to own the world... |
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DREAM FLOWERS: by Kathleen Raine, between 1953 & '65; a dream florifying dreams I dreamt I was given verbena sprigs--from my mother, I'm told. But am I me, Persephone, or all the daughters given love by all the mothers? |
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DREAM PATH: by Joseph Kemeny, 2012, painting of a lucid dream Often while lucid dreaming I find myself exploring a pathway with amazing detail. Sometimes a doorway seems to be asking me to continue on to a higher level... |
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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... |
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DREAMSIGNS: by Joseph Kemeny, 2011?, painting of lucidity prompts This dreamer is starting to notice certain subtle signs that all is not normal and this may be a dream. Well, not that subtle... |
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EASY RIDER: by Ann, a psychology professor, c.1972, an incubated, revealing dream. I ask my dreams if my dad's influencing my divorce. I dream my dad warns me "You can't ride a motorcycle." I mount the bike and zoom down the road. I love it. When I park at last, my dad says... |
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EXPLORATION OF TAROT IMAGES IN A DREAM: by Roswila, 1998; an analytical numerate dream Tarot cards fuse and meanings layer, to warn me I've similarly (con)fused> real and trance-induced memories during therapy... CAUTION: ABUSE ISSUES |
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FALL INTO FEAR: by Brenda Ferrimani; 2001/9/12, a 9/11 nightmare transformed by lucidity I’m falling into endless darkness. I feel like screaming, but then I remind myself I’m dreaming. “What is for me here?” I demand. “SHOW ME!” I begin rising toward the stars. Huge metal discs with alien writing rise with me... |
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FOUR OF TEN: by Wayan; 2021/4/3, four examples from ten dreams in one night Books are clothes, and always were. A potato makes me lie, and everyone gets it but me. Sex in a crowd disarms the Mom Squad! And a Mystic Autistic's soul explores my room... CAUTION: PUBLIC SEX? PROBABLY. |
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FREEDOM THROUGH BOXES: by Wayan; an experiment in art & pain, Jan 2005 I've always loved curves, color, dreams, sex, texture... and planning, too. So one day I drew 100 black boxes in ink--no color, no curves, no erasure! And then I began to seek... |
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GOD OF THE GULF: by Wayan; 2021/3/3, a dream warning piety has hazards I'm in the Gulf of Mexico watching the Creator of North America place mountains, rivers and ancestors just where they belong. I wake knowing this pious, static view is immoral... CAUTION: CRITIQUES TRADITIONALISM |
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GOD'S THREE DIALS: by Wayan; 1992/11/20, a heavenly dream. God built 3 dials to check: body, soul, and time. But the Holy Spirit's lazy, only checks one! It's up to us... |
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A GOLDEN KEY IN A CHEAP LIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/7/9, a subtle dream lesson I was so lonely the potheads on Haight looked good. I dreamed I had the Golden Key, but under a cheap sodium streetlamp, ALL my keys looked gold! Then I met true gold: a woman meditating until she shone... CAUTION: NUDITY, HAIGHT STREET STONERS |
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GREEN SHOES: by Debbie Ifasi and "C."; late 1988? shared or parallel dreams DEBBIE: I dream of my friend G's new girlfriend C (who I've never met) and tell her "you'll never fill my shoes." C: I dreamed I met Debbie. She wore green shoes, and said "See these shoes, you could never fit into them"... CAUTION: WILL ANNOY E.S.P. DENIERS |
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HER CUTIE MARK: by Wayan, 2016/8/7, a dream fusing Shakespeare & My Little Pony After seeing The Tempest with a tattooed Miranda, I dream she has a Cutie Mark on her flank-- a logo showing her life-purpose, her life-path. Except she's outgrowing it... CAUTION: MILD NUDITY |
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THE HIGHEST: by Stephen LaBerge, summer 1982?, a lucid transcendent dream Driving down a country road, I go lucid. A gorgeous hitchhiker appears. I'm tempted, but I decide to try for something higher than a sex dream. The car takes off, climbs past religious symbols into a clear sky where I find myself singing a transcendent hymn... |
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I WANTED TO STEAL: by Jack Kerouac, early Nov. 1952, a class-envy dream. I wanted to steal this pink woolen sweater. I didn't need it; what I really wanted to steal was middle-class security... |
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IN THE FORM OF WOMEN: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/7/3, the earliest recurrent dream-symbol? Swedenborg tenderly says goodbye to a lover. A few nights later he realizes his dream lovers repeatedly represent scholarly fields! An avid scientist, he find research as sexy as, well, sex... |
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INTERPRET THOSE SIGNS: by Wayan, 2024/4/16, a dream on prophetic dreams? An archeological dig inscribed in the Roman alphabet, Chinese characters, Ethiopian syllabics and unknown scripts. A carved egg bears news from the future, not the past... CAUTION: CALLS PROPHECY A LEARNABLE SKILL |
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JUNG'S CELLARS: by Carl Jung, Aug or Sept 1909; his dream of the mind's structure--and a weird follow-up My home seemed antiquated but pleasant. I found a stair down to a darker, medieval floor. A dark stair led down to a Roman cellar. A trapdoor led down to a cave with ancient skulls... |
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JUNG'S DRAGONS: by Carl Jung, 1917/1/17 to mid-1922; recurring dream/trance figures Jung's visions of dragons evolve from fiery destroyers to thieves who can be forced to give up treasure to peacful, luminous guardians of the sacred... |
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KING KONG CRAB: by Wayan; 2008/9/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #29 One wizardry-classmate summons strange beings; another's learned how not to. Because some things need to be dealt with alone, where they can't harm...... |
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LEONINE TRINITY: by Wayan; 1989/11/6 digital print of recurring dream (first: 1987/11/28?) A goddess in a dream once told me to seek 3 and only 3 qualities in a mate... CAUTION: NUDITY |
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LIFECYCLE: by Wayan; 1980s. Pencil sketch of daydream The life-loop. A woman bears a child who grows up to become herself, who bears a child who... CAUTION: SKETCHY NUDITY |
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THE LIVERPOOL TREE: by Carl Jung, 1927/1/2; a World Tree dream painted as a mandala In dark, grimy, rainy Liverpool, a friend shows me a park with an islet in a pond, where a great magnolia tree shines--an oasis of light... |
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LUNCH-SNIFFER, or, THE PRIVATE NOSE by Wayan, 2022/11/7; a silly predictive dream DREAM: a weird-looking guy says he's a Private Nose, who can read my life history by sniffing my lunch. He gets a lot right--but just as much wrong. NEXT DAY: My sister takes me to lunch & orders tea-leaf salad. Our waiter is... |
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MAGIC FINGER: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1982 (May?); a nightmare veering into mystery Morocco. Horseback mercenaries attack a town. A boy says "Take their lifestyle, and you must remove their brains." A protective Hand of Fatima dissolves, leaving a finger, a feather, a... vagina. "What a slit!" We burst into laughter... |
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THE MAGIC WORDS: by Wayan; 1974/5/29, an early dream on word-magic. Humanity in the future desperately needs the magic words from the past to free them. But... "pickle?" |
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MANDALA DURING A TIME OF WAR AND DISINTEGRATION: by Jenny Badger Sultan; Jan-Feb 2003, painting of a dream-series My dreams were troubled by war. So I painted them in concentric rings--lotus, fire, children, animals, and nightmares... |
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MANDALA OF THE EIGHT DREAMERS: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2007/9/16, painting of a group's dreams Our dream-group's dreams had a lot of imagery in common: circles, groups, meditation. I fused them into this piece... |
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THE MERMAID TOW: by Wayan; 1994/2/17, a rescue-fantasy dream. I rescue some drowning kids by turning into a mermaid, but towing one girl has an unexpected effect... |
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MY CUBIST CONSCIENCE: by Wayan; 1982/8/5; a dream warning of overharsh ethics. I dreamed I was trapped in the maze of my pacifist vegetarian feminist anarchist eco-conscience... |
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MY PEGASUS: by Regina van der Poel; 2000/6/1, a dream of my Life Painting I free a friend unjustly imprisoned. On the run, we encounter our Life Paintings. Mine is a beautiful pegasus flying. But on its back is a monkey in a red suit... |
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MYSTERY BETWEEN: by Wayan; 1985/9/27, crayon and acrylic drawing on dreamnesia. Okay, you got your heaven, and your earth, and between, you got... CAUTION: MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE |
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NOCTURNAL HAIRCUTS: by two of Pliny the Younger's servants; 96 CE. Subliminal? Oracular? Prank? Two boys dream robed figures climb in the window to cut their hair--and find, awake, someone has. While Pliny... |
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NUCLEUS: by Wayan, 1979/3/18, a surreal dream of character-insight, set inside an atom I dream my theatre friends are particles dancing inside an atomic nucleus-- particles that reveal their character, motivations and power. And I'm one too... |
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OCTOPIA: by Wayan; 1996/3/21, a spiritual dream-comic on play; ill. text version I'm a stratospheric bat who finds a flying swastika. Is it creeping fascism? Or a Hindu blessing? Neither! It's an Octopian frisbee. I return it... |
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OJIBWAY DREAM NET: by Regina de Cormier-Shekerjian, c.1984, a dream-poem of a visiting animus I hung the dream-net over my bed. It worked. A blue-winged man with a leg of silver came to me, drummed, danced, offered to teach me secrets. Awake, I found a blue feather caught in that net... |
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ORB: by Walter de la Mare; before 1939; a feverdream image I held the strangest and most entrancing object I have ever seen: the very citadel of life itself!... |
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OUR LADY OF THE YOYO: by Wayan; 400 x 670, 1983, digital over acrylic over crayon. Our Lady of the Yoyo plays with our yin-yang world, trying to keep the spin going on each bounce... |
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PAW AT THE BALL: by Wayan; 1981/12/6, two waking Goddess images. A grassy hill in a previous drawing of mine suddenly looked like Big Hair, so I tried to grow a body that fit that 'do... |
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PENTALEMMA: by Wayan; 2002/3/10 to 2006/5/1?, a 13-page nondream improv-comic on deep goals Hypnotized in therapy, I saw AT LEAST five competing goals tugging at me like gravity fields. Naturally I drew them. Come tour the Inner Solar System of our desires... CAUTION: NUDITY (BODY, HEART, BRAIN, SOUL) |
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THE PHOENIX: by A.C. Benson; 1894. A dream-poem. I don't understand this poem's symbolism or even its style. It came to me whole, in a dream... |
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POLYGON DREAMS: by Wayan; 2007/4/23, a 32-page comic on the effects of shapes What if comics panels and layouts weren't so square? I try triangles, pentagons, hexagons, circles, spirals--and some serious stuff pops out... CAUTION: IDEAS, OCCASIONAL NUDITY, MENTIONS ABUSE |
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PRAYER: by Marie-Claude Girondé, early 2009, a dream painting. "Our resurrection is not entirely in the future; it's also in us, it begins, it's already begun..." |
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RAINBOW TUNNEL: by Wayan; 1995/4/9 (MP3+lyrics), a global-warming nightmare song In our steamy future, after the cities drown, I'm hiking through Rainbow Tunnel, when I meet a holy man... |
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RAMANUJAN: by Srinavasa Ramanujan, 1905-09, dreams of math insights from a goddess I saw a red screen, as if formed by flowing blood. On it, a hand wrote elliptical integrals. I knew they were from Lakshmi. As soon as I woke, I committed them to writing... |
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SAGAN: by Wayan; 1996/5/3, a psychic dream in response to Carl's challenge. DAY: on the radio Carl Sagan calls those who've experienced ESP or UFOs "proto-fascists"... DREAM: a flying pewter teapot orbits a round blue vase--like a starship round the Earth... NEXT WEEK: My mom calls. She's selling that pewter pot after a century in the family... CAUTION: DISSES SAGAN |
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SAINT BRIDGET: by Jenny Badger Sultan; between 1963-68, a dream on adversity's uses. In a Scythian church, a painting says: "Little St Bridget was bound so hard that when they released her she flew"... |
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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... |
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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... |
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THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: by Wayan; 1989/7/8, a comic nightmare, possibly telepathic. My sisters get bored with the game of power, so I watch TV-- until it melts, and a terrifying giant rises to chases me... |
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SHARONNE: by Paul Friedrich, pre-1983, a political dream (despite Freud and Jung) I was in a gang, but I quit. They stoned me--and the green heron, the green color I called "Sharonne". The setting (Israel), the green (Islam), and the name (Ariel Sharon?) all hint the dream's political... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, POLITICS |
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SHIELDS FROM THE GODDESS: by Wayan; 1996/8/3, a dream that's a slap in the face. A Goddess-worshiping general gets a visit from her twin daughters who bring a puzzling message... |
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SILKY'S WEDDING: by Wayan; 1988/1/6, a dreamtale. Silky, my often-animal anima, leads me into a strange pagan church where we get married at last... |
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SOUL-BOARD: by Wayan; 1989/1/12, a dream poem. Africa. My horse trusted me as we faced lions and fire, but to face the Soul-Board, he must trust himself... |
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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! |
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SWAN: by Wayan; 1995/4/8, a transformation dream; 3-page dreamcomic (or as ill. text) I wake amnesic in a cabin in Alaska, in a dress printed with self-putdowns. I track down the wizard who cursed me. He turns me into a swan! Worse? No! His first curse was on a human being, and now I'm a bird. My mind is free!... |
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SWORD IN MY BACK: by Franz Kafka; 1915/1/19, a surreal but un-Kafkaesque dream. I slept late and felt a bit stiff, but until my friends pulled it out of my neck I had no idea... |
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TAROT: THE YIN-YANG EARTH (the Wheel of Fortune): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1979. Earth is never shown from its axis. Polarly, it's a vast wheel, the real Wheel of Fortune... |
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THE TIGER CUBE: by Wayan; 1996/1/19, a mysterious not-quite-nightmare. An alien tiger and his human girlfriend herd me to their house and show me a cube of raw flesh... but why? |
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TITANIA: by Wayan; 1981/12/7, 83/1/7 & 2/13 and 84/10/2, a dream-epic in installments Clarence the sappy angel from It's A Wonderful Life and Milton's Lucifer land on Earth, offering treaties. Who to sign with? Clarence thinks we're fine as is, but the Devil's a tinkerer, learning from failures. Failures like me and my girlfriend Titania, the first android with a full palette of feelings. Like the feeling she's fake... |
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THE TOOTH: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal), 2003?, an epic, oracular, baffling dream Psychics give me an incomprehensible reading. A book from the tree-library gives only Victorian dating advice. At last a madman gives me a treasure-box holding a tooth that unfolds into slices carved in unreadable symbols... |
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TRISKELION; 2011/6/21 by Wayan; a repeated false-waking dream of dating advice I wake up in a weird sexual situation. But I'm still dreaming--I wake again to find I'm in an even weirder sexual situation. But I'm still... CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, (ANTI?)ROMANTICISM |
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TWO PLANES: by Ed Emshwiller, c. 1977, a lucid dream modeling the mind I saw a vast transparent plane inscribed with pictograms and symbols. Through it, at an unknown distance, lay a second plane of less clear shapes and colors, but with great mass, depth, and unknown currents... |
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VAGUE HOUSE: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a dream labeling its own symbols! I grope through fog to the Vague House. Fog inside, too. Find a stone carved with an Eye of Horus, and know it's my anger. Find a bigger stone scarab, and know it's my REAL anger... |
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THE WEED: by Elizabeth Bishop; before 1946, a dream-poem on death/rebirth I was dead. A weed grew from my heart; then two streams poured out--not water or blood but experiences. I asked the weed what it was doing, and it said... |
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THE WELL OF WOMEN'S WISDOM: by Wayan; 1991/3/25, a dream on gradualism. I find the Well of Women's Wisdom. Lucky I'm female tonight! A girl sneers "Narrow!" Is it, or her? |
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WHITE HORSES, FIVE TALENTS: by Regina van der Poel; 1999/10/29, a dream equinifying talents I meet a man in a box. A mob wants to attack him. But five white horses defend him! Well, one's really a unicorn. I know each horse is a talent, but only recall one when I wake: clairvoyance... |
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