In shamanic training, such dreams of ascent and endless climbs are lessons in persistence, and the ascent is real--the struggle of the soul to climb out of its body (materialists can substitute "personal concerns"), to roam free, as a shaman's spirit should, in the spirit realms, to return with news, advice, and miracle cures. Whatever you think of this tradition, there's no question that my own dreams of ascent have generally fit the pattern. Certainly the dreams of many city-dwellers (familiar with tall buildings) routinely use upper floors to mean things like higher concerns, mind, conscience, or spirituality. I think the ancient shamans may have been literally right--when I dream a lot of such ascents, especially if I make it to new heights, an out-of-body or psychic dream may soon follow. Even if you're skeptical, watch for it and see--it can't hurt.

RELATED TOPICS: frustration dreams - I'm falling! - I'm flying! - doors between worlds - astral planes - dream towers - spirals and the DNA helix - addiction and twelve-step programs (scraping the bottom of the barrel, huh?) - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.

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	AMERICAN TANKA: by Wayan; 290K, eight images, 1995; acrylic on 30" disk, telling a 1989/7/26 dream. I dreamed I circumnavigated the entire Buddhist wheel of existence in a single night...
	ARISTOTLE'S WIVES: by Wayan, 1984/5/20, a dueling-philosopher dream. Aristotle keeps marrying my friends and fucking them up. So I challenge Mr. Logic to a shamanic duel... CAUTION: THE F-WORD. OOPS, TOO LATE! LESBIAN FISH, TOO.
	BEAR READ DUNE: by Wayan; dreamed 1981/1/28, painted 10 years later . There are many astral planes--this world's just the cellar. A cat, a bird, a bear and I guard the astral stair...
	CHEAPSHIP!: by Wayan; 1996/8/6, a nightmare on my own stinginess. I'm a crewman on a ship that's falling apart, and I do mean that literally...
	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?
	CLIMB FROM THE PIT: by Wayan, 1996/11/9, a dream parable. I'm in the Mideast. No wonder it's a war zone--it's a vast pit BUILT for war! But a spiral stair leads slowly out, to...
	THE COMING DARK: by Jenny Badger Sultan, 2002/3/2; dream-paintings about one disaster averted, and another... not. I climb down from a desert cliff before night strands me; but reckless adolescent games in town lead to a crash...
	COYOTE PAJAMAS: by Wayan; 1983/12/17, a Dantesque dream-epic. I'm Coyote, keeping the Business Prophet from taking over Dante's Peak. But it turns too personal... CAUTION: IDIOTIC VIOLENCE
	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. Had I gone wrong?
	FAKE IT!: by Electra Johannes and Patagia; 2007/9/22 and 2007/9/23, linked dreams. Patagia dreams she fakes a Hindu rite, provoking Electra to dream she fakes leadership in a band of refugees. Or are they faking?
	LOON LADDER: by Wayan; 1993/5/13. A dream of rising above. I had this near-nightmare about climbing a DNA stair up to the sky, and stepping off... CAUTION: NUDITY, INCEST ISSUES
	MAHAKALA, MOZART, AND THE CRIPPLED BIRD: by Wayan; 135K, 1985/4/17, a dream on facing one's shadow. The Christian God vs Mahakala, Buddhist god of right anger! War in Middle Earth, as Pink Floyd sings...
	THE MOUSE BANNER: by Wayan; 1986/9/4, a dream fable. I'm a mouse with a protest banner saying "FREEDOM!", having a slight argument with a cat...
	ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, an early dream epic. I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
	MY RAPPEL-MAD SISTER: by Wayan; 1984/7/14-15, a dreamtale on being halfway. My sister hoists us up to the Goddess's country too early, or too late: the ice is thawing, treacherous...
	ROCKY LOVE: by Wayan; 1984/1/18, a dream farce. A friend's tragic accident confines him to disco roller skates for life! Worse yet, he's in a Rocky Relationship... CAUTION: "ROCKY HORROR" REFS, SEX
	THE STAIRWELL TEST: by Wayan; 1980/9/7, a pedophilic defenestration dream. An underage girl comes on to me, and then asks me to... throw her down a stairwell?! CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
	STANLEY, or, GOOD DOG!: by Wayan; 1994/6/1, a dream on obedience. My friend Stanley is a social icebreaker: thick-skinned, blundering, but useful. So why am I mad at him?
	STRUCK BY THOUGHT: by Wayan; 1983, a dream poem. Short dreams sharing a theme: the burden of a big brain on its animal bearer...
	TITANIA: by Wayan; 1983/1/7 and subsequent nights; an epic dream of love Clarence the sappy angel from IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and Milton's Lucifer, noblest Devil of them all, land on Earth, offering treaties. Who to sign with? Clarence thinks we're perfect, and the Devil's a tinkerer, learning from failures. Failures like me, and my girlfriend Titania, the first android with a full range of feelings. Too bad one is the feeling she's fake...
	THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale. I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones... CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
	THE TYRANT'S WIFE: by Wayan; 1980/6/9, a dreamtale. In our plot to kill the Tyrant, we used his wife. Or... did she use us? She goes mad, but--she's HAPPY...
	WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, disorienting, apocalyptic dream When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us! Fleeing from Saruman's army, I bonk my head, exposing the backstage truth about our world... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!

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