I'm given a tour of a deep mine out behind my parents' house, showing my sister around. The deepest levels have water, cold and hot, even some token trickles of lava, a lot of gold-bearing quartz, and blue clay where diamonds have been found. Little diamond-shaped tags mark the spots to encourage the miners. On the deepest level, at the end of the furthest tunnel, see a dark door. Look in till my eyes adjust...

Stars. See hills against the night sky. Recognize them at last: it's the rift zone near Caņada College and my parents' house. I can see the water tower, in a mirror set up just outside the door.

Movement! There's a guard! I fear he'll kill me for finding out there's an easier entrance to the mine--a simple route to the depths and their treasure! My father owns the mine, dug it himself. A monopoly. How far will he defend it? The guard just glowers.

I back out, return to the surface the hard way.

And I wake.

Write the dream. Believe it to be true. So I tell it to my mother as if it's a rumor I heard, without mentioning the source. She doesn't know, so she asks my dad! Damn!

But he says "No, I've never mined out behind our house, because if it caved in while I was alone, no one would know, I'd be doomed. It's just too dangerous."

I believe him. But the mine is there.

So WHOSE IS IT?

And I wake again.

NOTES IN THE MORNING

• My dad never mined. "Never mind"? He never delved deep into his psyche... that's true. The most extraverted person in my family.
• The easy back door to the mine reminds me of Freud's idea that "dreams are the royal road to the unconscious." I read a Freudian study of dreams today--seems like my dreams agree with Freud that they're a short cut!
• But it also seems like the owner wants that shortcut kept secret, hard, a monopoly. Who's that owner? Some part of me that's in control now and doesn't want to give it up...
• Gold = worldly riches, or psychological insight?
• But diamonds/stars mean spiritual transformation--and they only form under great pressure.
• The whole dream echoes a surreal science fiction novel I just read: "Spaceling," by Doris Piserchia. An orphan in a resource-poor future can see doors to parallel worlds. She discovers a scheme to mine one of them for energy. Reckless venture! Just as pumping oil can cause quakes, sagging, or salt intrusion, mining other realities can cause dimensional instability. This kid has to stop oil men from wrecking TWO universes! So... my dream may be warning that the sneaky side of me that dug this shortcut into my unconscious is harming me.

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