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Thursday, August 24, 2006

The Wild Ones

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. --The Talmud

Because I am into dream work and have been trying to paint some of mine for my own artistic and healing reasons, I thought I'd share one which I have yet to interpret-- maybe never will. It came only once and maybe as long as seven years ago. I have no clue what it meant, if anything; but it was full of imagery.


The setting was a sea coast somewhere before civilization was deep or wide. The woman was of mixed ancestry. She was wild, beautiful, with long black hair and traveled with a band of rapscallions who were all misfits in various ways.

The little band loved and looked out for one another, were dirty most of the time, and had barely enough to eat. They lived free and happy for all their lack of security. Some of them might have raised her, but whatever their relationships, they stayed together to survive in world harsh to those who don't fit the mold of others. I didn't see her as their leader but rather one of the bunch where all were equals. She was their beauty.


Sometimes she would travel up the coast with a red-haired sea captain who let her ride on his boat when it took cargo between small ports.The captain asked her to marry him. She knew she didn't love him, but she liked him and he seemed to be a good man. She would be giving up her freedom to roam but security mattered, and so she said yes.

Here is where the dream turned brutal as he virtually raped her on their wedding night. She had been a virgin, and her shock was as great as her pain as it seemed he might have also beaten her. He forced her into a big box. Her friends, the misfits, found her and were trying to figure how to get her out when the dream ended.

There were no answers for me about why I had that dream. I don't know if she escaped or died there in that box. Did the captain come back to hurt the others? Was I the woman? When I have dreams like this, I am often not sure who I am. Was it a past life? That seems unlikely to me as it wouldn't fit in my regressions; so who knows. I really felt it was more allegorical given the box he put her into.


I decided to paint the time with the captain before the dream turned into a nightmare. If someday I get ideas for what that wild ones with her looked like, I will definitely do another painting as the secondary characters fascinated me more than her tragic relationship with the sea captain, who looked like a hero until he became a villain.

If anyone has an idea of the message from the dream, I'd be pleased to hear it. The images aren't ones I could find in any dream dictionary and maybe it only was a story, but when the images are so strong, I always think they are trying to tell me something. As this dream illustrates, I don't always see what. It would be nice to open this letter even if it's years late in its delivery.

9 comments:

Tanya Ruka said...

I liked reading your thoughts and viewing your dreams.. My grandmother used to say that when we dream we walk in the spirit world.. maybe you were visiting an ancestor. The dream was very powerful.. It seems like an almost positive ending as her friends found her.. It could have ended with the girl in the box in the darkness.
I am going to go and read the rest of your entries.. Its lovely :)

Dick said...

I have no idea what the meaning of the dream might be. Could it relate to something totally unrelated to you that you had recently been exposed to or read about?

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

No dreams are silly but are messages often satisfying what we were looking for before going to sleep. I have a hunch about this dream. When you had the dream were you writing novels or at least wanting to write? Sometimes when I am deeply involved in my painting I dream paintings. I think a creative writer could dream a plot with a surprise ending as this dream has. One reason I have for this theory is that you were observing the woman in the dream and were not sure if she could have been you but you doubt that she was even a past life. I do remember that you use to work out plots with dolls when you were a child so in sleep you can draw upon your past experience in creative play that you developed years before.
Thanks for being open to any kind of theory that I might dream up on the spur of the moment.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

If you wonder what the other friends of the woman looked like, I think you don't have to wait to dream it. If indeed this was a dream rising from a desire to create a plot, you can continue to create these characters by making sketchy paintings. Just put your painting on a flat table and randomly put wet and juicy paint on the picture surface. Leave it to dry and later see if you can see sugestions of faces in the dried paint. Add detail to the faces. If you like this suggestion and try it, I would like to see the results. I think you have something in this dream that can be built into something exciting.

Rain Trueax said...

Everyone's thoughts were very interesting this time. I like your grandmother's statement, Tanya, and I have heard others say that also.

I don't think it came from a movie or tv, Dick as I try to monitor that and avoid violent films as much as possible. If I had dreamed it today, I'd blame it on Deadwood which I have liked and not liked at the same time. I enjoy the characters but hate seeing violence like that but I've looked at it anyway. It's an exception for me in terms of my choice of entertainment.

And Parapluie, all of your ideas are possible. I have thought a lot about creating those other characters and maybe like you said, just start doing it as I did this one. This one was easier as the image had stayed strong with me. I do think it has potential for writing as a story although I don't remember working on anything that would have brought it up when I got it. I do dream stories though and it certainly might have been intended for that. I was thinking of the woman gathering the shells in this more recent dream and maybe this story could be episodic with a woman going through several lifetimes in one. Time will tell. It wouldn't be my usual type of fiction if I write it though

ACey said...

I felt an instinctive kinship for the rapscallions and was also blown away by the Talmud quote at the beginning of the post. Synchronicity. I, also, made a dreamtime post on this particular day and then had wondered if this was "enough" or if I should push myself to examine the deeper meanings and overall interpretation for what I described on my blog.

I started visiting other blogs by way of the most recent comments on my own and so I came to yours directly after asking myself that question regarding dreams - I'm taking the synchronicity as confirmation I ought to inquire further.

Vivid dreams that stay with you over long stretches of time are so fascinating, even when we remain unclear of their finer points in terms of messages for the here & now.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

"Acey's" dream post certainly was synchronic. After reading Acey's I started thinking about the Captain in Rain's dream painting and how he is holding the Wheel steering the course of the boat. In days of old the male of the marriage had some bearing on a woman's creative direction.

Mary Lou said...

Well Where did my comment go? SOmething weird is going on, I commented on a lot of blogs yesterday , and some of them disappeared!

Now I cant remember what I said, but I am so sure it was very thoughtful and to the point. Probably even the real meaning of that dream ;)

Rain Trueax said...

I also believe in synchronicity, acey.. .and parapluie, that is definitely possibly a way to look at the captain's role there.

And finally Mary Lou, you come back when you remember what it meant exactly, okay? lol Much as I believe in synchronicity, I want to know what that original comment of your said :)