World Dream Bank: THIEF OF DREAMS

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THIEF OF DREAMS

Dreamed 1996/11/29, painted 1999, playscript 2001, drawn as comix 2003, by Chris Wayan.
Small screen, slow loading? Illus. text version

INTRODUCTION

This dream needs an introduction! Are you always yourself in dreams? Not me--I'm often others. But whoever I am, normally I stay whoever I am! Stability.

Not here! First I'm a butler in mad Count Coyote's castle, reminding him to eat between painting his dream-visions; then I trade souls with the French maid, who's really an undercover detective trying recover the Count's stolen paintings; and then I swap souls with her girlfriend, a lesbian freshwater mermaid!

In each incarnation, I get closer to the truth about the Count's missing dream-art. Looks like the Pervert Pope stole it. Censorship? We mermaids don't stand for THAT! So I set out with my underwater camera to catch the Thief of Dreams, so I can marry my true love...

I drew the dream as comics without conventional panels, the action just flowing round the page--the only way I could capture the underwater feel of the dream. If it's hard to read, try the illustrated text--a playscript, basically.

Is THIEF OF DREAMS true? Yes. I can't swear to every detail--my dream recall's good, but not word for word! But I lived in this castle, I knew these people, I saw these events. This tale is not fantasy, but biography.

Dream biography.

P.1 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.2 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.3 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.4 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.5 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.6 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.7 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.8 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.9 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.10 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.11 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.12 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.13 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.14 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.15 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.16 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.17 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.18 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.19 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.20 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.21 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

P.22 of 'Thief of Dreams', a dream-comic by Wayan; click to enlarge.

A FOOTNOTE ON TAROT: This dream brims with Tarot imagery and archetypes:

The Patriarch is the Hierophant or High Priest.
The castle is the Lightning-Struck Tower -- with the Count's wild dreams as the lightning! This card symbolizes revolution--intriguing, for the Count is both an aristocrat AND a social radical.
The dog is from the Fool's card: animal commonsense. "Instinct picking up the key..." I guess that makes me, Yvette, the Fool; but then, I've always suspected that...
Claire? All bets are off! The Priestess? The Queen of Cups? Or is she... a Knight in shining (scaly) armor?

All four Tarot suits are richly represented too:

Earth, pentacles, body, senses: the dragon's cave where the count meets a living treasure. And, of course, digging for the Sword in the Mud!
Air, swords, the mind: Wind Tower, built on dream-income... And that hyperactive scimitar!
Water, cups, heart, feeling: dowsing, the lake, the mermaid, the soul-boat...
Fire, wands, spirit, intuition: the Count's creative fire, the dragon-wannabe he meets in her lair, the Patriarch's hell-fire! Hazel wands, the modified fleur-de-lis on the castle door, and of course the Egyptian ankh: the sign of life.

A 2017 NOTE

Twenty years later, my dream of feminists fighting to expose a lying, thievish, blustery groper who abuses his powerful office seems less mystical--or even personal. It's just the daily news!

And what does that imply about your dreams now? Are they really about your psyche, as Freud and Jung thought? Or are they warning signs from still further down the road?

LISTS AND LINKS: art & artists - dreams about dreams - towers, especially the recurring image of Wind Tower - Patricia McKillip - Yeats - Count Coyote's dream - tricksters & thieves - politics - souls - gender-bent dreams - swords - buried memories - fanatics - popes & patriarchs - boats - clitoral symbols - rape, exploitation, & harassment - topdogs & underdogs - mermaids - lesbians - a 2nd dream of being a gay mermaid: The Mermaid Tow - sex dreams in general - lesbian sex - underwater dreams - religion - free speech versus censorship - out of the closet! - dream weddings - round art - paintings - dream comics - long-term predictive dreams

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