I am sitting in a grassy open area on a hilltop with two friends. The sky is blue with only a few white puffy clouds. We are watching three flying unicorns. One of my friends points out "They prance around in straight lines like they're on the ground." Sometimes they have small white parachutes on, and they float up and down. They come nearer to us and then go far away. I focus inward, intensely hoping that they come close. Much to my surprise and delight, the unicorns come back and land on the Earth! They settle in a circle with us and we talk.

"Part of the reason we have come down to Earth," they tell us, "is that one of us has cancer." They nod at the unicorn lying to my left. I cover her up with a pink blanket, even though she says "I'm okay." Still, when the blanket is on her, she looks more comfortable.

We talk for a while very pleasantly. Then I fall asleep and dream that the unicorns come and visit. They tell me "You're having trouble cleansing at night because you're eating snacks too late."

I wake up on the hill by my friends. The unicorns are still nearby. When my friends wake, they say "We dreamt of the unicorns." I wonder if we all had the same dream or different ones, and ask "What were your dreams exactly?" One of my friends explains "In mine, there were chickens." Ah! So the unicorns had a special message for each of us.

One of the unicorns hands me a gift! (Well, not "hands", but "mouths" doesn't sound right.) I unwrap it in a car, in the passenger seat. It looks like a toy gun made of red-orange plastic. The tip of the gun looks sawed-off. The instructions are to put a dog nail or claw into that slot at the tip. On the car floor by my feet are five complete claws. Each one almost looks like there is a little bit of toe attached. I think the biggest one will fit best, so I try that first. But it ends up that the second-to-smallest is the one that fits.

I sit on my blue asan (meditation cushion), point the gun forward, and squeeze the trigger. It supports me, protects me and lets me zoom wherever I want to go! I fly past many things--it's like a magic carpet ride. What a gift!

At last, it slows down, and won't resume full speed. Puzzled, I look around, and see a team of police officers coming my way. If I'd still been zooming, they'd have fined me for speeding. Once they're out of sight, I can go fast again. Clever speed-gun!

Only I lose the gun. But not the unicorn's gift! I find I can fly now without the gun, by directing things with my hands. Merely pointing ahead allows me to skim along fast and easily. I don't know quite where I am going, but my hands seem to know.

I finally stop inside a building, at the door to a darkroom and printmaking studio. It looks very run down, and I don't have my supplies with me, but I go in anyway, hoping I can work-–I miss art so much!

The man who manages the studio is in his thirties with long curly brown hair. He doesn't really look at me, but he not only lets me work, he offers me one of three iPods hanging on the wall, to use while I work. Just what I needed!

It's a different day now, but still at the studio. I am dressed nicer, in a pink sweater. I'm telling someone "I used to do printmaking and photography for the beauty of it, but now it is different."

WAKING NOTES

1. Unicorns: I don't recall ever dreaming of unicorns before, nor have I spent much time thinking about them in my waking life. In the dream they seemed very pure yet approachable--they even fall prey to sickness like we do. That makes me a little sad, but at the same time it means that there are things that we can do to help them, even though they are unworldly creatures.
2. Unicorns' advice: The last couple days I have been snacking late at night, right before I get off work. It has been making me feel a little yucky. Also, I'v been working so much--my first full-time job! It is killing me: way fewer dreams, very little time for art.
3. Unicorns' gift: in my dream I'm given tools to get me back to the art-space that makes me feel so good. Maybe if I focus more I can do that in waking time too.
4. Art studio run down: 1) my lack of time to spend on art 2) our garage and backyard are currently very run down, though I'm getting ready to turn them into a better art space.
5. "Now it is different": When I started making photos and prints, I wanted each image to stand alone: beauty in isolation. Now they look incomplete without their companion images, stories, and sound. I'm thinking bigger!

This dream made me very happy. I am always happy when I can interact with animals in the dreamspace, let alone being given a gift that will help me get back to my art--and practical advice too! Thank you, unicorn visitors!

--Lily Michaud--

EDITOR'S AFTERWORD

So many weird, striking images!

• Unicorn: Lily? Pulled out of her art-making heaven and forced down to earth by a job that sounds about as fun as cancer treatments. Grounded!
• On Earth to heal, but casual about serious illness: is there a warning here? The sick unicorn says "Oh, I'm fine" but seems more relaxed with the blanket on. Is the dream hinting Lily's stoic, doesn't care for herself properly because she doesn't want to be a bother?
• The dog-nail needed to make the unicorns' gift work. The biggest one doesn't fit; the best is the nail from the next-to-smallest. The equivalent of our ring finger? Mysterious because it's so specific. Just "size isn't everything", or something more? Lily doesn't mention if she has a dog, or a wedding ring, or anything else that'd make that particular finger/toe symbolic. But I wonder.
• The gift seems to fail, but really protects Lily from a speeding ticket! I've often put myself down for not moving faster, and then learned later there was very good reason for the slowdown. Maybe the dream is reassuring Lily "you may feel stuck now with this black hole of a job, but the magic isn't dead, just waiting for safe conditions again."
• When the magic returns, it's internal--Lily doesn't need a gun or a claw any more, she just points. "Maybe if I just focus..." as she writes after she wakes. The dream sure suggests that!
• Early versus recent art--is the contrast a message too? Instead of the beauty of the individual image, focus on the sequence--the long haul. The whole dream hints at that--indeed that's what I notice the most. For a dream with magic creatures and shamanic gifts and a dream-within-a-dream, it's so down to earth, practical, and robust. The magic always bounces back.

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