The Dreamlands

I've mentioned before how I don't remember most of my dreams and those that I do tend to be significant in some manner. There are also several places that I revisit. Each represents something, although I don't understand that at the time I'm in the dream, or even after I've dreamed of the same place several times.

Last night I had one of those dreams. It's the woods. Maybe I should capitalize that. The Woods. This is probably one of the weirdest dream places I visit. I've known for a while of its importance, but I never knew what it was.

The Woods starts in my Grandparents backyard. Typically there's the side of their house and the detached garage. I've had dreams that take place around this house, and in the front and side yards, and very rarely in the basement and kitchen, but hardly anywhere else. But mostly it's in The Woods. My Grandparent's house did not have woods in back. In fact it was a fairly small yard (I think the whole lot was barely a quarter acre), but in this dreamland the yard is expansive. Like in real life, the yard slopes downward. And at the back of the yard, where in real life was a line of box hedges, is an old oak tree that delineates the end of the yard (there was an old tree in their yard, but this isn't it). Mostly along the tree-line (the only tree that seems to remain constant and stays in my head is that old oak) is a built-up ridge, like a foot and a half high. Beyond that the landscape drops off precipitously. On the right-side of the tree is a dirt trailhead. This leads into a valley, at the bottom of which is sometimes a stream where I get caught on one side or the other.

I say sometimes because the yard and the woods have this strange property of overlaying several geographies and items. Like my Grandfathers rose-garden. It's there, to the side of the garage, but sometimes you can't see it (even though it's still there, dream logic can be like that). Sometimes I can't see the house or the garage, but I know where it's at. Sometimes the box-hedges along the aides are there, most often not. But in The Woods things get even stranger. I can go down pathways and end up in completely different landscapes. There are trails which in real life would overlap, but don't there. Fields appear and disappear. There is a whole campground with cabins (sometimes like Camp Ockanickon where I spent some summers, sometimes like cabin/townhouses available for rent). And these landscapes overlap each other, and not like at different times. The whole topography is different. There are other places in The Woods, but I don't think I should talk about them yet (the Muse is saying, "Don't" and we listen to what she says when she talks like this).

This dream starts out like many of them. I'm in front of the garage. This time I'm picking up Halloween decorations. In the dream it's long past time I should have cleaned them up, yet still has the feel of early Fall. But some of the decorations (blown-molded jack-o-lanterns) have been out in the rain for a long time and they're soggy and breaking apart as I try and pick them up. There's other kinds of decorations, but it's mostly these big jack-o-lanterns (like above knee high tall).

I start out alone (which isn't unusual in my dreams), but slowly more people appear doing things. There are decorations that aren't mine, so I have to be careful to only try to get mine. While I don't put them anywhere, I'm not getting burdened by them (dream logic again). As I make my way to the back of the yard and the edge of The Wood, the yard expands several hundred yards across and the people are there for a giant flea market/craft show.

There's a string of blue pumpkin/skull (each light is both, in some way) lights in one of the other trees along the tree line (not the Oak, I'm to the right of it). It's not plugged in, but the lights are on (in mid day to see them they must be very bright). The Wood looks normal from here, just a steep slope (walkable) down and it looks like a forest approaching maturity (some mid-aged, but a lot of younger trees). The lights are mine, so I start pulling them down, which they come out easily, like winding up a power-cable. They slide out of the branches, even though they were wrapped around them. But as the lights hit the ground, one light explodes in a blinding flash. When I check the string the entire light is gone, just an open socket (nothing to remove, nothing on the ground). This feels important, but I don't have an idea why.

In the same place, there's a stack of decorations that aren't mine. There is a very stout and tall walking stick. The top is carved or grown into something like Gandalf's staff from the movies, and it has an ornate dragon's head carving like the bow of a viking longboat. It's not mine, but I want it. It's not beautiful, but it is powerful. When I try to grab it, the wood collapses under my grasp the way soaked, rotten wood collapses. But when I bring my hand back, it's still fully intact. I try again with the same result. There is someone behind me, for some reason I think it's my brother although I don't see him. He also wants the staff and I warn him about the wood.

This staff is Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths. I realize this after I'm awake, but I don't know it in the dream. Or maybe it's Neil Gaiman himself. I'm not entirely sure.

Next thing I know I'm up behind the garage about to start back to The Woods. This time I'm going to go into them. That's the plan. There's a bunch of people with me and we're in a line parallel to the Woods. The yard is now empty, no leftover decorations or flea market. There are two long barns between us and The Woods. The once closest to us it falling into the second barn. We all storm the building like we're attacking it. I work my way into the second barn and there is a window looking out on the woods, right at the old oak and the trail head. There is a garage door opener hanging from a shelf on the wall. It's my task to press it, that's my part of this operation to get through the barns. I press the button and I can feel something has opened, but don't see anything opening or moving, but something big has changed. The people are still there in the barn with me, but they aren't there at the same time (again, dream logic).

Not any of this is really strange to what happens here, although I don't remember doing any of this before in dreams. What happens next is different.

Animals start coming up out of the ravine. I don't remember seeing any animals before. I think there was bird song (like you hear in any woods while hiking), but I don't have clear memories of it. But I've never seen animals. And these aren't normal animals.

There are large, yellow, tiger like cats. They are pokemon type creatures, but sleek and powerful. They have a hunting grace. There is lighting from a clear sky (it's not blue, but it's not overcast). The lightning plays in the trees and I think the cats are controlling it. They stop at the tree line and are waiting to see where I'm at. There are long-necked lionesses breathing fire. There's a single, brown furred, lizard like creature that's about the size of a small pony. Each step it takes sends earthquakes through the ground like a 20 ton press. There are large birds, I don't see them clearly though. All of them just waiting at the tree line to see where I'm at (the yellow cats are the only ones sitting). Each one of these are deadly by themselves, but here they all are together. And I feel that all the other people I was with are gone and I'm alone in the barns.

That's when I wake up. And now I know what The Woods represent. This is Story. This is writing. I'm not sure how previous dreams worked into this, but this is a strong feeling.

This is my subconscious telling me something. I've figured out part of the puzzle. I think the decorations that are falling apart are my existing stories. The one's I've finished. I'm not sure if the staff is telling me I don't grasp something yet, or I'm not supposed to have it, or something else. I'm not sure it was my brother behind me. I'm not sure who all the other people were. But I'm sure The Woods is Story, being in The Woods is writing. But now there are animals. Are they blocking me, are they a new obstacle, are they stories I need to write?

But I now know what The Woods are. So that's something, right?