The Paths Through Dreams

Each night I go to bed and sleep, and often I dream. There are those who say that our dreams are the reality, and what we see as waking life is the resting time from what is real.

Sometimes my dreams are clear, and sometimes I get lost, and sometimes I look for things that will help me find my way.

Many use cards or objects to help them find their way through life and dreams, and for this journey, I will try and use my Psychobilly Tarot. The first three cards that came out show the Lovers between The Sun and The Moon, although often The Sun and The Moon are seen as lovers or adversaries.

Sometimes I meet someone on my dream journey, and often they are someone I am friends with, or they are family, and we travel together.

I am often in unfamiliar houses, and I can draw maps of rooms, but almost always it involves a journey to an attic and the stairs or ladders do not reach their destination, requiring me to jump or fall, and I do the same when I return. I have never fallen.

I draw three more cards from my Tarot Deck to help me build my map that can never be drawn. I am alone at this time, so the Hermit is appropriate and gives me strength to follow a star to my destination, which I know is the waking world, but for the moment, this dream is my true reality.

The Hermit's meaning is this, which mentions the Star as guidance:

He walks through the dark night of his unconscious, guided only by the low light of the northern star, with his destination being his home, his self.

The paths of our dreams are defined by many things. Sometimes it is things that have happened in our waking lives or things that we wish to happen.

When dreams are what we want, we do not wish to return to the waking world. We want to stay in the beautiful dream, maybe we are with someone we love or in a beautiful place.

I often write down things that I have dreamed, and that is the nearest I come to drawing maps of these dream journeys, although sometimes I wake and the dream disappears like fog clearing on a summer's day.

Do we create our dreams, or are they created for us? Am I the Creator or Arteest, and who is my Empress?

The Empress is associated with fertility, expression, creativity and nurturing among many other aspects.

So the Empress, in conjunction with The Creator and Arteest (sic), seems to tell me that I am in control of mapping the way through my dreams, but I am still not sure if or how I can permanently record this stream of unconsciousness.

Maybe one day it will become clear what I have to do to be able to map my way from falling asleep to waking in the morning and determining which is the real state and which is the ephemeral one.

Maybe one more draw on the Psychobilly Tarot will give me a clue. Who knows? The time is 11:11

Angel number 1111 is often interpreted as a sign of new beginnings, spiritual awakening, and alignment with your true purpose.

The Ace of Wrenches and The Knight of Wheels, flanking The Hierophant, are telling me to fix what is wrong and get on my way.

The Hierophant card suggests that it’s better for you to follow social structures which are established and have their own traditions

While I don't like regimentation and I do keep to the rules and expect others to do the same.

I always wonder what a Hierophant is. This is the Google definition:

A hierophant is a priest who interprets sacred mysteries, with the term originating from ancient Greece.

So I have drawn no may but I have enjoyed trying to, and I hope that you do too.

The song I have included is The Byrds' take on Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages", which includes some of my favourite lyrics ever:

Crimson flames tied through my years

Flowing high and mighty trapped

Countless fire and flaming road

Using ideas as my maps

"We'll meet on edges soon," said I

Proud 'neath heated brow

[Refrain]

Ah, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now

This is a piece showing how I sometimes use Tarot and Oblique Strategies to create stories: