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Austerity, Simplicity

Dreams about self-denial, austerity, asceticism, monasticism, and voluntary simplicity. In short, common sense and respect for the planet. If not taken too far... and some dreams, like some lives, take it very far indeed...

RELATED TOPICS: anorexia - solitude - religion - fanaticism - abiku (hunger for heaven) - And now for something completely different! Money - power - sex - play - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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ALTHEA'S MONEY DREAMS: by Althea; 1999/1/22, financial dreams provoked by... financial dreams?
After reading a booklet of dreams about money by Wayan, Althea has four such dreams of her own
challenging family ideas of class, gender, inheritance... and then practical investment advice!...
AROO'S ENGINEERS: by Wayan; 1984/11/9-10, a Hawaiian dream epic.
The Engineers make Eden... logical. But the blimps go blind, and a demon
goes viral. How can I escape the their ultra-efficient hell?
BELT-SNAKE MYOPIA: by Wayan; 1983/12/25, a dream of innocent sabotage.
A shy woman's belt slowly comes alive, but like most snakes, it has weak eyes. Would glasses help?...
BITTER JADE: by Wayan, 1983/4/8, a dream on change.
Why's Jade the bitter artist throw me at her happier, calmer daughter? Wait, is Jamie the new ME?
CAUTION: SEX
THE BLAMMOR: by Wayan; 1984/4/20, 4 linked private-eye dreams.
I'm a Fast-Food Detective tracking down a kidnapper-sorceress.
I find castles, monsters, magic carpets... and unexpected love.
CAUTION: SEX
BUDDHA'S FIVE DREAMS: by Siddartha, soon to be called the Buddha, c.540 BCE?
I'm gigantic, stretching from Ceylon to Tibet. Grass grows from my navel to heaven.
Worms crawl on me. Birds flock to me and change color. I climb a mountain of dung...
CAUTION: PIOUS MISINTERPRETATIONS
BUFFALO PERSON: by Plenty Coups, summer 1857; a child's time-traveling, tribe-saving dream
I was led into the future, where all the buffalo disappeared, to meet a frail old man by a ranch house...
CAT REPELS DINOSAURS: by Wayan, 1984/8/12, a film-inspired surreal dream
DAY: I thorn-puncture my hands while gardening, and write stupid poetry about it...
EVE: I watch Little Darlings, a teen sex farce that turns weirdly serious...
DREAM: a Mysterious Pussy guards us librarians from stinky alien dinosaurs...
CAUTION: SEXUAL INNUENDO???
CHEAPSHIP!: by Wayan; 1996/8/6, a nightmare on trained stinginess.
Why did I sign on as a crewman on the Cheapship, a freighter
that's falling apart? And yes, I do mean that literally...
CUT-RATE TREATMENT: by Wayan; 1993/8/10, a tale half-dreamed, half-lived.
That day, I met a wildly neurotic therapist; that night, I met a woman forced to get discount
ob/gyn exams from her stingy husband's doctor buddy... can you say "boundary violation?"
CAUTION: SEXUAL HUMILIATION
DOG THIRST: by Cecy and Wayan; 1991/10/7, shared or telepathic dreamlets
CECY: In a desert, a thirsty dog jumps out of a tree--the first known dog suicide...
WAYAN: I'm a talking dog. Our owner denies us enough water, so we protest...
ENCHANTED GLASS; before 1983, by Charles Gullans, a recurring nightmare of shapeshifters done as a poem
Their bodies shift, and alter. Antlers sprout... much has been taken, and something terrible is grafted...
CAUTION: RAMPANT PHILOSOPHIZING, HUMAN SUPREMACISM
ETNA-SHASTA, or, GROOM YOUR OWN FEATHERS: by Wayan; 2008/9/18, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #28
On a volcano's rim, watching the lava fountains, I interview a huge blue alien bird who never planned to be a monk...
FAMINE: by Marilyn Stablein; 1968, a dream while visiting Nepal... for six years
Famine in the monastery. We add weather charts, leather laces
and walking sticks to the menu. Even the ghosts are hungry...
GANDHI RUNS: by Wayan; 1997/8/1, a fusion dream.
Gandhi and I must run barefoot across a burning racetrack miles wide... the Ascetic Desert?
GIGANTIC SAND MOUNTAINS: by Jack Kerouac, early Sept. 1953, a dream on fun versus work
Perched on a huge sandpile by the train track, I wrote. Then met a narcissistic
hipster chasing happiness and sex. But this globe's austere and full of hurt...
GLASS GAME: by Wayan; 1985/9/23, a nightmare.
A swimming pool game with color-sorted broken glass. It's social, it's fun! The whole family can play!
CAUTION: BLOODY IDIOTS
HARD DISK POND: by Wayan; 1989/8/27, a dream of art as a door.
We build a huge hard disk that's a virtual pond--a gate to other worlds! But not for reptile brains...
HER STINGY DAD: by Wayan; 1998/7/29, a dreamtale on parental ambition-stunting
A single dad loves his daughter, but is so pathologically cheap he's teaching her an unintended lesson...
CAUTION: CHILD NEGLECT
HERMIT IN THE PIPE: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a dream of the end.
I'm a holy man sneaking into a sewerpipe at the beach, to pop anxiety pills in shame. Do they even work?
CAUTION: CHEMICAL CRUTCHES
HILLBILLY ECO-REVOLT: by Wayan; 1985/6/12, a diagnostic eco-dream.
A poor planet with one city. Urban technocrats and hick ecologists have conflicting development models...
CAUTION: TOO REAL TO BE FUN
IS SOLITUDE HOLY?: by Wayan; 1998; a watercolor on dreamwork's isolation.
When I compare Julia Butterfly up her tree with those hermits who sat atop columns in the desert...
THE KEYRING OF ATTACHMENTS: by Wayan; 1974/5/31, a dream gone too far.
Swayed by sinister surgeons, I go all Buddhist and give up my attachments, including various organs...
CAUTION: DIVESTABLE GENITALIA
MAYAN DOOR: by Wayan; 2008/3/21, a character-evaluation dream.
The Mayan cave was a door between worlds. But also a model of the character you need to walk through that door...
MISTRESS TOOTHSMOOTH: by Yves Delage, 1915/1/20, an early anima dream
I'm in the cellar, petting a tiger-cat. She speaks inside my head: "I'm tired of living on bread. I need meat."
I make excuses--it's pricy--then see big hanging quarters of meat. I hide them! She says "Call me Mistress
Touttmouss"--well, something like that--I know it's English, but can't make it out til I wake, when I see...
THE MONEYBIRD: by Wayan, 2005/3/18, a dream-poem on renunciation. Stupid renunciation.
Inspired by a bird who weaves her nest of dollar bills, I become a sort of monk,
sweeping, renouncing wealth--but my monastery's a Silicon Valley BART station...
MONK: by Anonymous #2323; 1945-1991 (at least); a recurrent dream of a past life
All my life, from age three or four, I've dreamed of being a young monk named Stefan
somewhere in southern Europe. And aspects of his short life have shaped my own...
CAUTION: SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
THE MONK STRUCK BY VISION: by Wayan; late 1979 or early 1980, sketch of visionary stress.
I sympathize with visionaries whose gift is so urgent and extreme, most would call it illness...
MOTHER SUPERIOR: by Wayan; 1999/2/18, a nightmare with psychic tinges.
A creepy visit to the Leather Nuns: as fierce as Beorn in The Hobbit, but less hospitable...
NOCTURNE: by Wayan; 2023/9/20, a book of improv paintings on dreams
Inspired by Shaun Tan, I fill a black-paged photo album with 36 improv paintings.
They become a tour of my dreamworld, led by my anima Silky, a literal nightmare...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, WEIRD DREAM IDEAS
ON BEING NEEDY/NEEDED: by Roswila; February 2002, a dream-poem
In her kitchen she offers me shortcake. She's short herself, for she gives away all
to everyone--only her bodiless head is left...
OVERWHELMED YOSEMITE DAD: by Wayan; 1998/9/25, a warning dream.
Mom's vanished, and our writer/bohemian dad's caring for us
alone now. But he's barely coping. And he's me...
PLANETOCOPIA: by Wayan; 2002- (ongoing Sisyphean project)
19 nondream imaginary worlds rendered in text, art, & sculpture. Most teem with intelligent life--alien Edens!
CAUTION: ANARCHISM, NUDITY, MATH, SOCIALISM, EVOLUTION
POLTERGEIST: by Wayan; 1983/11/17, a comic surreal dream.
A living camera edits us all: the dappled hawk-man, the slutty candidate, the blue businessmen
who give such bad advice when you pull the thorns from their feet. And my sweet sad hell-hound...
THE POWER OF ART: by Wayan; 2016/8/29, a dream-poem about the longtern effect of dreamwork?
At a museum, a weird art project shows me how observing and documenting life
in art can improve that life--just from being taken seriously...
PROPHETIC DREAM OF BUDDHA'S FATHER: by King Suddhodana, c.563 BCE? an uneasy dream
Suddhodana dreams of great upheavals; no courtier can interpret the dream.
An ascetic claims the upheaval will be for the good, then... turns into an owl?!
CAUTION: PERHAPS NOT ENTIRELY ACCURATE
REGEANA’S DRAGON: by Regeana; 1996/3/9, a dream of generosity
The jewels in the hoard had strange powers, but the advice of the dragon guarding them was even stranger...
SAINT BRIDGET: by Jenny Badger Sultan; between 1963-68, a dream on adversity's uses.
In a Scythian church, a painting says:
"Little St Bridget was bound so hard that when they released her she flew"...
SHE LIVES TO 140: by Wayan; 2017/7/13, a dreamlet urging crankiness
I meet a 140-year-old hermit in her black chadoor,
skateboarding down a hill near her sacred dream-spring...
SHEEP IN THE SKY: by Myoe Shonin; c.1220/9/20, a dream of strange advice.
A strange transforming thing appeared in the sky--a light, a sheep, a man. It told me to stop burning my head...
SHOWERED WITH WISHES: by Zooop; 2007/3/12, a dream that enough is enough
I took my cellphone into the shower. I couldn’t find the shampoo, and idly typed SHAMPOO in, and...
CAUTION: NOW YOU KNOW WHO STOLE YOUR ODD SOCKS
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE? PLEASE, MISTRESS, NO!: by Wayan; 1981/7/18, a meditation on meditation.
A rant on over-disciplined Americans (NOT under; we just think we are) taking up spiritual disciplines...
SWORD AND BOAR: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/30, a dream warning of excess.
A boar attacks Swedenborg's late brother, alive again. He tries to help, but the pig
eats his brother's head. That's what you get for drinking, partying, and gluttony...
CAUTION: VIOLENT DEATH
TAROT: RENUNCIATION (8 of cups): by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Giving up a wall of material treasure for the moonlit path...
TAROT: THE ANOREXIC DANCER: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
The card of excessive self-denial, whether compulsive or artistic or spiritual...
THARN: by Wayan; 2006, 45 p, 200+ ill., a nondream virtual world: maps, photos, portraits, tours
Tour a rugged, scenic moon with air and water in deep canyons sheltering a dozen intelligent species
CAUTION: ANARCHISM, NUDITY, SCIENCE
THIRD EYE: by Wayan; 2009/3/25, three diverse dreamlets on the same theme: enlightenment
1: Three sisters flash me; one has a third eye in there! Clothed, it's blind. Was she just enlightening herself?
2: In the future, most cars self-drive. I'm the last driver using my own muscles and mind. Can I hold out?
3: A friend charts all of history's wars to prove: democracies don't fight each other. So to get peace...
CAUTION: NAKED EYE
THREE WAYS TO FLY: by Wayan; 2010/11/10, a dream urging the World Dream Bank to shift
I'm shown pictures of three different magical ways to fly. But the third
shows no actual flight--just someone giving away the magical means...
THE TRAIN ON TIME CAFE: by Wayan, 1981/12/20, an epic political dream.
Silicon Valley goes enthusiastically fascist. I hide in a berry patch. They build a shining world, and then...
VISIONS UPSTAIRS: by Wayan, 2007/1/15, an ero-spiritual dream-comic
Junk in the attic? Treasures! The cat musicians shift from cartoons to life as I ascend,
til in the ultimate attic--the astral beach--I meet a cattaur made of pure (de)light...
CAUTION: SEX-CRAZED CATS, NEW AGE FINALE
WERE-TROUT: by Wayan; 1997/8/2, a dating-advisory dream.
I'm a one-legged hopping hermit in the ruins of LA, and my only hope
for love is to conjure up a girl out of a trout and a puppy...
WHEN THE SPIRIT MOVES YOU: by Wayan; 1996/5/1, an alternate-world dream.
An empire of creatures asexual most of the year has affected its human neighbors--or bred a new type.
WISH-RATIONED EARTH: by Wayan; 2015/6/19; an advisory dream on...miracles?
I'm stranded on an alternate Earth under strict rationing--of wishes!
But you need to wish a few times a year to keep the system greased...
CAUTION: INSULTS BOTH CAPITALISM AND ASCETICISM
WITNESS IN THE FIELD: by Wayan; 1985/7/8, an apparent predictive nightmare
DREAM: I witness a murder on a farm. So I hide in the fields as assault-gun bullets fly...
NEXT DAY: I go see a love story set on a farm. But suddenly killers show up
to eliminate a witness to a murder. Assault rifles in the cornfields...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE & APPARENT E.S.P.
WONDERFUL SPECTACLES: by Anna Kingsford; 1877/1/31, a clairvoyant advisory dream
A mystic postman delivers a letter on the world's best glasses and a reply from me, telling how to find them...
THE WORK OF POWER: by Anna Kingsford; Dec. 1880, a wildly uncompromising dream-sermon
A dream telling how to acquire mystic power: raw food, no sex, meat, or booze; just meditate in rural solitude...
CAUTION: EXTREMISM
WORKIN' FOR PEANUTS: by Wayan; 1990/12/11, a crude but perceptive dream.
I'm an elephant working in a diner. In the bathroom, I inadvertently summon the Genie of the Urinal...
CAUTION: PISSED PACHYDERM


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