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Initiations, Ordeals, Rites of Passage

Dreams of shamanic ordeals, initiations, rites of passage, and vigils--all the hard stuff your dreams make you face, to be sure you can retain your values and purpose while dreaming--not just a bare awareness it's a dream, as in lucid dreaming. Can you control instinctive revulsion, terror, or moral outrage, and look at all sides? Being a healer, even healing oneself via dreams, requires what Castaneda called "ruthlessness": a relentless will toward a solution, not indulging your fears and biases.

In the classic Siberian initiation dream, an apprentice shaman gets dismembered by cannibal monsters, and must watch them gnaw his bones, counting as they go. A real shaman will have one bone left over the demon diners just can't account for. Starting with that bone, the student must rebuild his/her body--and, presumably, a new self, one who can handle fear and loathing more calmly! Essential for dealing with spooks and demons.

But bone soup is just tradition. An H-bomb, or being crushed by a streetcar, or organ-napped by the Devil, or just meeting your own shamefullest shadow, will work just as well. Whatever makes you nervous!

A few dreams here are initiatory in another sense--a dream sending you to a therapist, or the first dream in therapy. They may show what to work on, like Mom in the Driver's Seat, or warn of snags and problems, like The Occupation. I once met a therapist, liked her, was about to commit to her, but dreamed that night her hands were tied behind her! I found someone else.

RELATED TOPICS: shamanic dreams - nightmares - "I dreamed I had to take a test..." - initial therapy dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.


ALONE IN THE DARK IN THE WILD: by Wayan; 1980/7/24, a vision-quest nightmare.
A nightmare of a killer who I let torment me because it's better than being alone...
THE ASILOMAR OF DREAMS: by Wayan; 1986/3/5, a dream about dreams.
Jungian angels at a conference of dreams test my progress. But I'm all
backwards! Struggle with the easy stuff; zoom through the hard stuff...
AUSPICIOUS TRACTOR HATE: by Wayan; 1984/4/17, a triumphant frustration dream!
A party for me and my shadow, to celebrate that we haven't killed each other, just HATE each other...
BATMAN'S LOVE: by Wayan; 1996/3/26, a dream-epic of love and time.
A New Age graduation party spurs a wild dream of the spiritual odyssey of Catwoman,
starring Alexander the Great, Batman, God, and Rumi the poet (played by Frank Zappa)...
CAUTION: MORAL RELATIVITY
BEETLE: by Daniel Quinn; spring 1941; a life-defining shamanic dream
A black beetle insists I'm not needed or at home in the human world; my lifework is elsewhere...
BEFORE BED: by Mary Ruefle, ca. 1995, a dream-poem on stewardship
In the cathedral, before the nation, I solemnly crown someone with my own detached head...
BELLE OF THE BALL: by Bonnie; 2006/5/2, a sexy ghost dream
I’ll win a house if I can survive a night in the Haunted Pavilion! But it turns out I’ve been here before--before I was born...
CAUTION: GHOST ORGY
BLOOD DANCE: by Larry Vigon; Sept. 1997; an initiatory commitment dream
A Gypsy man invites me to dance. But he cuts my arm, deep; then even his touch multiplies
my wounds. Last is a needle through my wrist. But I'm committed to the full dance now...
CAUTION: BLOOD; CURIOUSLY, NOT PAIN
BOND: by Wayan; 1981/10/31, a nightmare where I'm the nightmare.
I'm James Bond. Captured and questioned, I lie to the enemy: the senators of the
Committee on Intelligence Activities. Till I see myself through their eyes...
CAUTION: SPY SEX, SPY MENTALITY
BONES DON'T LIE: by Emily Joy; 2006/12/13, a gruesome nightmare on guilt.
I know I'm a murderer; what isn't so clear is what I killed and why...
CAUTION: DISMEMBERMENT, GUILT, DREAD
BONK VERONICA: by Wayan; 1997/4/1, 9-page dream-comic on body image
The world's first all-bulemic band, Veronica and the Vomits, provokes a riot at our local punk club. So I go to
Anorexic Bootcamp where models learn self-defense under fire, as calories and fat jokes whiz by...
CAUTION: BARF, HORNY ANOREXIC, FOOD FIGHT
BREAK FREE: by Emily Joy; 2006/5/11, an encouraging dream on the price of safety.
I search for family skeletons, but then a talking plant on TV inspires me to seek the sun and fly free.
But certain velociraptors and barbarian swordswomen object...
CAUTION: DUELS, FISH ABUSE, THE F-WORD
BRICK AND SKIN: by Wayan; 1988/10/18, a dream of spiritual stretching.
I'm analog myself, but in Tibet, I meet a digital shaman whose body's a sort of ...
CARRIED UP: by Wayne Miller, 1972/3/3, epic nightmare turning transcendent
I'm in a huge colonnade. An army of blood-painted men sacrifice the dove of peace. Their masked leader drinks its blood.
But then I'm carried upstairs to meet... the prophet Daniel! I'm amid the angels, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...
CAUTION: BLOOD-DRINKING THUGS
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???
COEURL: by Wayan; 1980/2/26, a dream of surprise transcendence
I'm trapped in an alien hotel, my true love has gone radioactive,
and the only way out is to turn into a giant, scary...
CAUTION: CLOSET LESBIAN. LITERAL CLOSET.
COFFINS: by Beryl and Wayan; 1983/11/5, dark parallel/shared/telepathic dreams
Twin dreams of ghoulish games backstage at a theater.
And they anticipated real long-term ghoulishness...
CAUTION: SLOW DEATH
CRAZY HORSE'S DREAM: by Crazy Horse; summer 1854 (age 11-12) a life-predicting dream
I saw a man riding across the face of a lake. Bullets and arrows flew at him, but all missed.
He reached the shore. Men who looked like him rose from the ground, and pulled him down...
CAUTION: GENOCIDE DIRECT, GENOCIDE BY PROXY
CROC BOY: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #7.
I visit a witch-smeller, who judges apprentice shamans.
But when a boy dreams he's a crocodile, she freaks out...
THE CROWS OF OZ: by Wayan; 1984/8/23, a moral dream on darkness.
I learn from the crows of Oz why loneliness and even tragedy are vital for a living universe...
CRYPTOMNESIC TROLLEY: by Wayan; 1991/4/22, a lucid dream of a suicidal experiment.
To prove I really am lucid-dreaming, I let a streetcar run me over. Mm, crunchy! Then I find out...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT OM...
CYCLOPS, or, THE ANSWER TO MY PRAYER: by Wayan; 1993/8/24, a spiritual nightmare.
In the far future, I relive Odysseus' tale. To save my life I must give up realistic hope, and focus on...
CAUTION: CANNIBAL MONSTERS
DANCE OF THE SUN: by Wayan, 1972/10/23, an epic mystical dream
I cross a hostile continent to a magic commune, fall in love with a flying girl who slaps a
soul-spark into my head, and follow an alien goddess leading the Dance of the Sun...
A DART IN HER CHEST: by Wayan; 1984/8/21, a predictive dream
A woman loses patience with sexual harassment in an Air Force training program, and
stages a die-in. But why's she wrapped in an orange towel, why a dart in her chest?
CAUTION: TROUBLING REAL-WORLD AFTERMATH
DATIN' DEMON: by Mark Varitz and Wayan; 1989/12/3; Mark's dream triggers one by Wayan.
I meet my personal demon, and discover it has a personal demon: me! Am I worse than my Shadow?
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NUDE MONSTERS
DEAD RIGHTS! DEAD RIGHTS!: by Wayan; 1983/10/1, a dream of the other side.
I die young, to get it over with, like chickenpox. As I slowly revive, I face bias against the dead. So..
DEER-MAN DANCING: by "Cmmndrblu"; early 2006, a shamanic dream-within-a-dream at least six layers deep!
I met a deer-man in the woods. I go lucid, then wake up... to find I'm still dreaming. And wake again, and wake, and wake...
THE DEER PARTY: by Wayan; 1986/4/10. A magical dream
Chapter 1 of a nine-story series: UNICORN TAG.
A sentient factory shows me a gene-tweaked future where the Deer Party agitates for
liberty, equality and fertility. In that future I learn I too may not be human...
DINOSAUR GRADE: by Wayan, 2006/1/25, a shamanic workout dream
I ride a recumbent bike up an exhausting slope past browsing bears.
Oh. Not bears. Dinosaurs. No wonder I'm so tired! Timetravel's hard...
DREAMRIDER: by Wayan; 1986/4/15, a short, startled rant, chapter 5 of UNICORN TAG.
A novel on a modern woman called to become a shaman
echoes my real life way too closely for comfort...
DRIVER'S TEST: by Wayan; 1984/1/8, a comical Kafka dream.
It's not easy to get a California driver's license, ever since the Dept. of Motor Vehicles went Jungian...
THE EDUCATION OF A DREAM: by Wayan; 1998/7/7, a dream on dreams.
A young, naive, ethereal dream gets an Animus to guide her through the crazy material plane...
CAUTION: GRATUITOUS WILLIAM SHATNER
ELEPHANT WITH A LOTUS: by Queen Maya, 564 BCE? a prophetic Buddhist dream
After 20 years without a child, Maya dreams devas carry her to a holy lake, wash her...
and then an elephant carrying a lotus flower enters her right side. She knows it means...
CAUTION: DREAM OMITS TINY DETAIL--IMMINENT DEATH
EMISSARY: by Wayan; 2000/3/22, an astral dreamtale.
I signed a prenatal agreement for weird, uneven luck to turn my life toward art and spirit.
I want to broaden it, but I've lost the contract! So my spirit wife Silky sets out to find it...
THE EYE by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of resisting torture
A staring Eye tries to break me; his cats & robots flay me. Yet his birds rebel in sympathy, & I refuse to die...
FALL FROM A STAR: by Edwin Muir; 1920, a hypnogogic shamanic initiation
Escaping the tiny red plush room inside a star, I dive back to earth. Oops. A beast eats my broken body. My soul waits...
FALSE BOTTOM: by Edith Wharton; October 1913, a summing-up nightmare.
Demons open a trunk full of the horrors I've faced this year, and lay them out, mocking me... but is that all?
FAMILIAR WOOD: by Wayan; 1994/11/10, a dream of the borderzone.
Downtown San Francisco hides a magic wood full of crested
talking tigers. And I must enter it to live a while...
FISH REMAINS: by Katherine Metcalf Nelson; 1985/9/18; a ritual closing-dream
On my 45th birthday, at the end of my eight-year dream-art project, I dream of a women's rite
turning scraps of chewed flesh into a whole fish I offer to the fishbowl in the heart of the Vatican...
FISHERGIRLS: by Wayan; 2.6M, 42 illus.; 1996/7/15; a sexy dream epic.
I had an epic dream lasting subjective weeks--a true other life. It wasn't Earth and we weren't human.
I was a teenage lemur, sailing with two friends into unknown waters--a rite of passage. One night,
my friends curled round me, I saw I didn't WANT to pass the test, be declared a woman, marry, and have pups.
I loved my girl friends. In a world lacking the very word, I was groping toward queerdom.
Sailing into unknown waters! "Here be dragons," the old maps say. And they were right...
2600K loads slowly? Try it in parts: 1: HOME, 650K, 2: VOYAGE, 1200K, 3: BACK 750K.
CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, QUEER TEEN ANGST, ANTI-FUNDAMENTALISM
FOUR OF TEN: by Wayan; 2021/4/3, four examples from ten dreams in one night
Books are clothes, and always were. A potato makes me lie, and everyone gets it but me.
Sex in a crowd disarms the Mom Squad! And a Mystic Autistic's soul explores my room...
CAUTION: PUBLIC SEX? PROBABLY.
GARDEN OF THE GODS: by Wayan; 1995/10/6, a dream of slowth.
In the Garden of the Gods, I sit through sun and rain. For gods aren't the gardeners, they're the crop...
GET YOUR BODY BACK: by Wayan; 1997/6/11, a dreamed parable.
A man dies--his body's chopped up. He ends in Hell. But he's a stubborn guy; he wants his body back. So...
GHOST DOGS: by Wayan; a 1993/4/2 temptation dream done as a 1-page digital comic
I meet a wolf who invites me to join Dr Who's pack of sexy Ghost Wolves.
Just one catch nobody mentioned. To be a ghost, you have to...
CAUTION: FLIRTATIOUS WOLVES
THE GHOSTMASTER: by Wayan; 1992/6/16, a dreamtale of the Shadow.
I win a starship from the hostile Ghostmaster; in space I gain the confidence to confront him, and find...
THE GOLDEN PAW: by Wayan; 2009/4/12, a dream on speaking up
An Oxford teaching assistant sexually blackmails one of his law students, but to his shock she goes public...
GOSPEL GIRL: by Wayan; 1986/11/17, a stubborn dream.
I'm a girl in a desert who God tells to preach a new gospel. But the locals, unlike ancient Rome, have guns...
CAUTION: VIOLENT MARTYRDOM
GRAMPA HAS SPOKEN: by Wayan; 1989/11/26, an oracular dream.
In a worldwide junkyard full of warring spooks, I finally meet the one whose message I need to hear...
HALF SHAMAN, HALF STATESMAN: by Wayan; 1986/4/21, a parallel-world dream: Chapter 6 of UNICORN TAG
I get a scholarship to Shaman U. Some of my classmates are Terran, but I still don't fit in, because...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE
HELL HALL: by Anonymous #3; c.1920?, a dream of initiatory cannibalism
A revival meeting goes bad--suicides, 'long pig', a hell-pit. If you sup with the devil, carry a long fork!
HER CUTIE MARK: by Wayan, 2016/8/7, a dream fusing Shakespeare & My Little Pony
After seeing The Tempest with a tattooed Miranda, I dream she has a Cutie Mark on her flank--
a logo showing her life-purpose, her life-path. Except she's outgrowing it...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
HER OWN WEAPON: by Wayan; 1983/8/31, a poltergeist-therapy dream.
A woman says she's being stalked, but it's her own poltergeist! Her therapist makes her reach for it...
THE HOLY HARP: by Wayan; 1994/3/22, a dream of musical guilt.
The Goddess's harp, that calls in the seasons, just passed on. But the new harper has a shocking admission...
HYDROGEN INITIATION: by Wayan; 1981/1/6, a shamanic nightmare.
I'm an initiate in a Sung Dynasty monastery. But I have no idea how far the hazing can go...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
I THOUGHT HE LIKED ME: by Wayan; 1994/8/16, a dream of rejection... or worse.
I join the Seattle Tribal Council, which of course means marrying them all. The husband I'm to sleep with
on our Council Honeymoon seemed to like me, till he pulls that practical joke...
CAUTION: GROSS!
THE ILL-FORMED TALE: by Wayan; 160K, 1981/4/7, a wild dream anti-epic.
To reach the Peak of Happiness on the Isle of Dreams, I must pass four Perils--but they're all backwards...
CAUTION: RELIGIOUS NUTS, KNIVES, NUDE ALIENS, BACKWARD PLOT...
IN THE STAR; 1988/9/12 by Wayan; an epic, out-of-body, intrastellar quest-dream
I tour the heart of a red supergiant, where dreaming souls explore
their fears and heart's desires, unconstrained by solid matter...
CAUTION: SWEDENBORGIAN VISION, UNICORN NUDITY
IN THE VAULT: by Wayan; 1983/4/6, a dream of treasure.
I was a sheltered girl till I entered my family's secret ancestral vault. I didn't expect to meet...
JENNIFER MONTGOMERY: by Wayan; 1995/4/24, a film review
Montgomery's film about her teenage affair with a pedophile
is troubling enough before the FBI tries to blackmail her...
CAUTION: MOLESTATION/ABUSE ISSUES
KEVIN'S CRASH: by Wayan, 2018/10/1, a politically-tinged nightmare
After watching the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, with their rape accusations,
I dream of a reckless driver named Kevin who runs down a skateboarder and blames everyone else...
CAUTION: KAVANAUGH SUPPORTERS WON'T LIKE THIS
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
KICK HER: by Wayan; 1994/8/9, a gameshow nightmare.
I'm a blonde gameshow bimbo. Each week, I'm beaten up. Ha ha ha! But my bruises are real. At last, I...
CAUTION: GAMESHOW FROM HELL
THE LADY BATHES IN GRIEF: by Wayan; 1983/5/31, a long-haul psychic dream.
Why'd a spirit-woman come to our reservation to mourn a drowned guy? Her mirrors & candles tell us...
A LAKE DEMON: by Wayan; 1979/11/3, an anti-lucid dream.
I walk through worlds, fight a deadly lake demon, and work magic--but I mustn't go lucid...
LEARNING SCALES: by Wayan; 1985/6/26, an epic dream of Chinese dragons.
I find myself in astral China. The Empress is banished, the Jester rules. Wisdom is lost.
We need an Imperial Dragon...
THE LEMON SEA: by Wayan; 1982/2/22, a dream warning.
I wake up as someone else. I go through her working day, till Captain Kirk comes to take me to...
LIES!: by Wayan; 1992/7/10, a dream that thinks it's a two-page novel.
To investigate a criminal couple, I have to lie. And that's hard, since all my lies turn true...
CAUTION: NEW AGE AND FILM NOIR DON'T MIX
LILY OXYGEN: by Wayan; dreamed 1984/1/19, drawn 2000; a strong psychic dream.
I'm Emily Dickinson reborn in 2100 as a breeder of hydroponic lilies, till my dad drafts me as
an Arctic energy-prospector, where I meet a ghost, a fiery Beast, a new me, and the girl of my dreams...
CAUTION: QUEER-POSITIVE, NUDE PROSPECTORS, GNOMIC DICKINSON QUOTES
LION-MEN: by Wayan; 1995/7/9, an eye-opening dreamlet.
I'm a traveling Zen warrior talking to a circus girl in a barn. Four guys enter--and my life changes forever.
LOBSTER ECSTASY: by Wayan; 1970/11/1?, a teenage lobster love dream.
One of my first recorded dreams--how I foolishly turned away from Lobster Love...
CAUTION: CHITINOUS SEX
LOVE OR HATE?: by Wayan; 1994/5/4, an untwisted dream.
My sister and I are groping toward sex when our mom bursts in. Her scolding's not what I expect...
CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES, PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY
MAGICAL GRADUATION: by Wayan, 2018/4/22, twin dreamlets on letting go and being yourself
I befriend author Andre Norton--an ageless high-school kid writing enthused fan fiction, forever...
I find my Niche--the stone nook that decides if I'm a journeyman mage! Here comes my prophecy...
MAHAKALA, MOZART, AND THE CRIPPLED BIRD: by Wayan; 1985/4/17, a dream on facing shadows
The Christian God vs Mahakala, Buddhist god of right anger! War in Middle Earth, as Pink Floyd sings...
THE MAN AT THE END OF THE PASSAGE: by John Hubbard c.1915? a surprise-ending dream
War between a big conformist land and a small land devoted to quality. Big Land's rulers all die, but at last, sheer
numbers defeat the smaller land. Now their leader, beaten and starved, awaits the sword at the end of the hall...
CAUTION: POLITICAL? ACCORDING TO CARL JUNG!
THE MAN WITH THE GUITAR: by Wayan; 1992/7/4, a psychic dream-comic (or illus. text))
A volcano erupts in San Francisco! No human could survive the blast, but one researcher does--what IS he?
MARTHA'S FALL: by Barbara, Martha, and Wayan; 1977/5/18. 3 linked warning, sex, and flying dreams
Wayan makes love to Martha's double, then sees her soul watching from the shadows...
Barbara can't reach Wayan to say farewell...
Martha falls off a mountain and decides to let herself die, just to see what happens...
CAUTION: SEX, ABUSE ISSUES
MASTER OF THE HOUSE OF DUSK: by Wayan; 1994/10/10, an initiatory dream.
To enter the House of Dusk, I must say what haunts the Pass. Even if I guess right, do I really understand?
MIDWAY: by Wayan; 1994/2/4, twin shamanic dream-lessons.
I'm cold and dark and disoriented! What am I doing wrong? Nothing--I'm just halfway to Alpha Centauri...
MIGRATING BREASTS: by Wayan, 1988/11/9; a sacred-surreal-sexy-stupid dream
A priestess guarding a Thai temple in the forest has a strange problem:
her breasts rebel, escape and scurry round like hamsters
under her skin; they don't like that Buddhist restraint...
CAUTION: WARDROBE MALFUNCTION
MISFITS ON MARS: by Wayan; 1986/11/20, an epic dream; the climax of the dreamseries UNICORN TAG.
From the punk clubs of Frisco to the Safeways of Si Valley to the vermilion sands of Mars,
Silky the were-nightmare fights for the Misfits against every cliche in science fiction...
MOM IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a therapy-guiding initial dream.
My mom's driving me to work. A nearby car has young people in it--I'd rather be with them.
My mom seems to be dawdling; I'll be late meeting my colleague! I'm furious...
MY LIPS ARE SEALED: by Wayan, 1989/6/3, a moody, psychic, epic, two-part dream.
I'm a Romantic poet who defeats the curse of the fountain, to marry; but when our daughter's grown,
a new curse strikes me mute, paralyzed. And I mistake this for old age!
Then, in real life, my dad wakes up from a nap paralyzed...
MY PAST CHANGES SO: by Wayan; 1985, a poem on healing-stages.
It takes time to build yourself out of found objects and trash...
MY POETIC LICENSE: by Wayan; 2008/10/5, a self-referencing dream poem; Dreamverse #33
Renewing one's life has its costs. What if you can't pay the price? A dreamlet of warning and shame...
MY SINE-FRIEND: by Wayan; 1984/3/6, an emotional dream of time and rebirth.
An animal-girl I know lives like a sine-wave, first forward in time, then backwards, dying at every zero...
NAIAD AND GOD-DOG: by Wayan; 1980/11/7, a manipulative dream-tragedy.
I love a Naiad who's lost her God. Tragedy strikes us. I'm devastated till I meet the aliens who explain...
A NIGHT ON MOUNT DIABLO: by Wayan, 1984/6/8, an allegorical four-phase dream.
I'm attacked by a narcissist firebird, a rabid rattler-manticore, a masochist bear, and a sexless succubus...
CAUTION: INEPT DEMONS
THE NIGHT OF CHANGE: by Wayan; 1994/2/8, a dream on the order of deep changes.
Festival night in a strange town, where, one night a year, dancing in the street transforms you into...
CAUTION: SEX TALK
NIGHTMARE TRANSUBSTANTIATION: by Wayan; 2015/2/10; a gross-out but predictive nightmare
I'm in a basement, forced to enact a ritual where I must mate with, then FEED on, a flayed creature...
I wake shaken, open a random book--and it describes the ancient Celtic rites of Epona...
CAUTION: BESTIALITY, MATE-DEVOURING
NORASINGH: by Wayan; 1987/1/15, a Tantric Frankenstein dream.
I fall in love with my sculpture of a mythical Southeast Asian creature. Then a mad yogi breaks in...
CAUTION: SEX, TANTRA, AND GENERAL WEIRDNESS
OCARINA, or, MILLION-YEAR SENTENCE: by Wayan; 1972/5/27, a lucid / predictive dream.
I go lucid and drive my bed to the Nevada desert where I see my next million years. And so far, it’s been true...
THE OCCUPATION: by a patient of Peter O'Connor; 1985 or before, a therapy-guiding initial dream.
Touring an underground maze, I meet a woman I like. But her brother bristles.
Then, from a height, I see the ventilation pits of the labyrinth laid out like a map.
The Japanese invade! Hide in the jungle. Women in rags butcher centipedes & mice...
CAUTION: UNHAPPY MEALS; OVER-JUNGIANISM
ON BEING 29: by Gray Stanback; 2022/9/10, an uneasy milestone dream
The night after my 29th birthday, I dream my youth is literally leaving me. I'm at a party
full of kids and teens; I can't get anyone's name, and they slip away leaving me alone...
ON THE NIGHT RIDE HOME: by Wayan; 1971/11/8, a dream-poem on pushing past prejudice
As I bike home at night, strange doings--a rat is sacrificed; gemstones delivered;
an astronaut shows glowing alien objects; a second rat becomes a... firefighter?
ORDEAL BY INFRASTRUCTURE: by Wayan; 1987/11/22, a Clintonian dreamtale--before Clinton!
I want to join the inner circle of America's political elite.
But to do that I have to survive the Ordeal by Infrastructure...
ORIOLE GIRL: by Wayan; 1992/1/23, psychic dream told as illustrated poem.
While conducting a census of fairies in Golden Gate Park, I fall in love
with an abused oriole-girl, and we try to heal one another...
CAUTION: AWKWARD SEX
THE OWLS OF THE GATEKEEPER ON THE FOREST BRIDGE: by Brian Quinn; 2009/7/15, a shamanic invite
I'm pulling a cart in the woods. At a bridge over a canyon, owls urge me to climb down into the misty abyss, but...
PARVATI SAWS THE WALL: by Wayan; 2013/6/26, a dream-poem about a Himalayan kook
Martial-arts student Parvati just won't fight the teacher she loves (too much!)--
not even for her final exam. Instead she gets a rotary saw and...
PIER'S END: by Wayan, 1989/2/21, a Raymond Chandler dream.
My detective lover warned me, "Stay away!" Now I'm trapped. Dare I follow the lion over the edge?
THE PLACE OF SPROUTING CORN: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 1989/1/10 & 1989/6/28, twin initiatory dreams.
I'm shown corn plants growing from skulls, and it seems like I must plant some skull-corn myself...
POTLATCH SMOKE: by Wayan; 1988/5/10, a shamanic dream-inside-dream 4 levels deep!
Refugees flood the spirit worlds! War looms. Wolf, Silky, Dr Who, even the Bug-Goddess of Love are alarmed.
I'm just a blonde ditz, but I help inspect realities till we trace the source: a Tlingit potlatch! Why?
PULLED UNDER: by Wayan; 1976/4/15, a nightmare.
One by one, we're pulled under the water, the earth... eaten. That's the fate of all flesh. And we're flesh.
CAUTION: HORROR
PUMA ORGY: by Wayan; 1988/2/5, erasable crayon drawing of a dream.
I dreamed I had to go through the Animal Orgy to get to the City of the Shining Spirits on the horizon...
CAUTION: STRANGE SEX
ROSE AND THE THORN: by Wayan; 1986/7/1, a dream on those too meek to ask.
We're swallowed by Swamp Sofas and enslaved to The Man Who Prays on Us. Time to grow some thorns!
RUNNING BIRD: by Alder; 1953, a kinetic nightmare with double selves.
I'm a flightless bird hopping down a line of marble columns rising from the sea, as they topple behind me...
THE SEA WOLF'S BRAIN: by Wayan; 1999/11/21, a psychic dream.
For years the Sea-Wolf enslaved me. He said I had to fight him and win to be free. I'm ready at last...
SHAPESHIFTER FEVER: by Wayan; 1989/1/30, a dream poem.
A summer love affair with a shapeshifting alien turns awkward when she gets a high fever, and...
CAUTION: UGH!
SHOCKWAVE: by Wayan; 1996/7/27, a predictive nightmare.
My childhood home explodes into a vast pyroclastic cloud that comes boiling toward me, miles away...
CAUTION: DOOM
SHOOT ME, I'M LUCID!: by Wayan; 1997/10/17, a predictive didactic nightmare.
I distract a mad gunman in a crowd. I suspect I'm dreaming, but it still seems a bit too noble...
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS ON CRAZED KILLERS AT HOME
THE SKIN SECEDES: by Wayan; 1990/1/30, an unappetizing dream.
A baby's own skin secedes, forming a snake. It prepares to eat the skinned baby. Shall I intervene?
SLAVES DON'T DANCE: by Wayan; 1999/8/1, a 17-page Shakespearean dream-comic (or ill. text)
Stolen by the Fairy Queen, I'm forced to nurse her great project: creating life! But her synthetic baby is...
SMOKESTACKS: by "D", before 1990, told by Andrew Samuels; a dream on starting therapy
"D" wants to renovate her house. A powerplant with twin stacks is ugly, but will power
the tools to get the job done. But her new therapist interprets the dream very strangely...
CAUTION: NEO-FREUDIAN PSYCHOBABBLE
SOCK PUPPETS OF THE GODS: by Dee and Wayan; 1994/4/14. Parallel shamanic dreams!
I dream I'm suicidal; but I'm saved when I'm shown the flow of human development--the same pattern,
from souls to civilizations! Eddies and knots recur, but the challenges slowly get more spiritual.
NEXT DAY: I learn what my shaman-friend Dee just dreamed. And now I'm unsure whose dream this is...
CAUTION: IDEAS
SOUL-BOARD: by Wayan; 1989/1/12, a dream poem.
Africa. My horse trusted me as we faced lions and fire, but to face the Soul-Board, he must trust himself...
SOUL RESTORED: by Wayan; 2016/12/4, two dreams on deep change
MY SOUL RESTORED: To hide me as I grew up, someone transplanted a shard of redwood-soul
into me, and part of my soul into the tree! But now I'm grown...
RED ROBE OF INITIATION: I came to play music, but I'm dragged to the magic-school portal & draped in...
CAUTION: MYSTICISM
SPIRITUAL TESTS: by Wayan; 2000/8/28, a predictive dream
As my dad lies dying, I dream my sister and I face spiritual tests
given by slacker angels who'd rather be on TV. Learn to let go!
SPIROGRAPHY: by Wayan; 1997/9/29, a one-page cartooned spiral autobiography
Laying my timeline in a Fibonacci spiral, it's clear great changes come in a pattern--
as soon as I've digested the last couple, a new revelation/revolution appears...
CAUTION: CARTOON NUDITY, HEAVY ISSUES
SPORECOUNT: by Wayan; 1990/1/5, a dreamtale on patience through change.
I'm a hot archeology student till I open the wrong tomb. A plague
turns us into green moldy monsters--at first...
CAUTION: DISEASE, DEATH, GRIEF, SHAME
SPOTTED FAWN DODGES ARROWS: by Amanda Strong; 1998, a dream on the power of names
Soon after I was given the name Spotted Fawn, I dreamed I was one,
fleeing faceless hunters under the full moon. There's history in this...
A STAGE FRIGHT: by Wayan; 1993/11/17, a revealing automatic writing-trance
I froze in dance class when I followed anyone else's script. Was it fear? A dragon inside said no...
THE STAIRWELL TEST: by Wayan; 1980/9/7, a... pedophilic defenestration dream???
An underage girl comes on to me, and begs me to... throw her down a stairwell?!
CAUTION: DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!
STAY GROUNDED!: by Wayan; 1988/2/27, an unexpectedly grounded dream.
I'm playing poker with a dragon. But we barely dare move: we're both crackling with thousands of volts...
SUZETTE: by Wayan; 1981/2/20, a defiant sex/art dream with no one to defy
I dreamed I drew our dog and me mating, then found the drawing on a gallery wall for all to see...
CAUTION: CARTOON BESTIALITY
TAHOE DRAGON: by Wayan; 1980/8/16, a dream of flight and fire
A dragon killed a friend, and threatened worse. I had to fight.
We dueled mid-air, over Lake Tahoe...
TALISMAN: by Wayan; 2016/3/3, a dream hinting I need some long-term dreamwork!
I'm a boy from a Southwestern tribe whose rite of passage is a bike race.
I wear a jasper pendant with mysterious powers...
TAROT: THE SMORGASBORD OF LIFE: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
You get to fill one tray. Guns sex jewels pot hamburgers TV God power thrills love? Choose!
THEA'S HOUSE: by Wayan; 1987/3/23, a life-changing dream.
I dreamed the Earth Goddess invited me to live with her. She was lonely to be seen for who she was...
TIGER TALL: by Wayan; 1992/7/3, a marathon dream.
I'm a tiger from Planet Cat, visiting Earth to run in San Francisco's "Bay to Breakers" race.
I knew racial tensions were high, but why is William S. Burroughs out to kill me? Oh. Because...
THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale.
I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones...
CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
UNDO THE PARALYSIS: by Wayan; 1985/7/14, a dream on persistence.
In a future society, I'm deliberately, permanently paralyzed. Yet my home-grown cure slowly works...
VIEWFINDER: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/5/31, a dream-ritual declined
A friend explained she planned to be a human viewfinder, bendng into
an arch for a male spirit to dive through. I didn't want to risk it...

UNICORN TAG: by Wayan; 1986, a linked series of illustrated dreams.
Animal teachers, mostly equine, drag me (as I scream NO!) beyond plain dreamwork into shamanism...
Chapter 1: The Deer Party: by Wayan; 6 illus.
Chapter 2: Ariane's Honeymoon: by Wayan; 8K
Chapter 3: The Everest Marathon: by Wayan; 1 illus.
Chapter 4: Who'll Be My Love?: by Wayan; 100K, 4 illus.
Chapter 5: Dreamrider: by Wayan; 7K, a nondream interlude
Chapter 6: Half Shaman, Half Statesman: by Wayan; 170K, 4 illus.
Chapter 7: Eight To A Horn: by Wayan; 2 illus.
Chapter 8: Black Magic: by Wayan, 7 illus.
Chapter 9: Misfits On Mars: by Wayan; 300K, 7 illus.
THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic.
Half-mad with fear, I massacre a cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle.
Then I'm a cultist, resisting the Voice of God pushing all us mortals to murder in His name.
I woke up haunted, and wondered for weeks what this was about... until the Waco Massacre.
CAUTION: CREEPY VIOLENCE, CREEPY GOD, CREEPY PREDICTION
THE VORTEX: by Wayan; 1990/1/3, a nightmare countered.
I'm in suburbia for the End of the World. A Vortex eats the block, licks at me. So I click some icons:
CAUTION: CRUDE LANGUAGE. OH, AND THE APOCALYPSE, TOO. I FORGOT.
WABOSE'S VISION: by Catherine Wabose (Ogeewyahnoquot Okwa), Feb. 1814? shamanic initiation dreams
After fasting for six days, I dreamed of three spirit helpers who aided my village,
guiding hunters toward game and healing others. But I lost so many loved ones...
CAUTION: SPOUSE MURDERED; CAREER BURNOUT
WHEN BLOOD FLOWS, THE DANGER IS PAST
by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2000/3/23 & 2000/4/19, twin dreams of carved women
A woman is knifed by the sea. I cradle her, but she's probably dying...
For my intitiation-ordeal, I have to cut designs in my own back! I can't reach, so...
WHITE LOON: by White Loon, 1870s?, an initiation-negotiation dream
At ten, I fasted a long tedious time. I dreamed a bird offered me showy gifts, but I kept to my grandmother's advice: never take the
first offer. At last a big, strange bird from the north, a white loon, offered me long life and health; that I accepted! So now I'm called...
THE WHO IN HELL AM I: by Wayan; 1984/1/28, a stubborn dream.
I'm Pete Townshend of the Who, climbing stubbornly out of Hell by noticing what I don't want...
WIRES: by Wayan; 1957-1963, a recurrent childhood nightmare resolved by drawing, 1999/12/8
I was bodiless but trapped. All I could see were these moving wires. Whenever a knot drifted by...
CAUTION: MADNESS, TORMENT, TELEPATHY, SEXUAL REBELLION
WOLVES EVOLVE: by Wayan, 1983/11/11, a Darwinian dream.
After seeing 'Rear Window', Grace Kelly and I are wolf children in a pack that's quickly evolving into...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, CHILD SEXUALITY, WOLF-SLANDER
WYVERN: by Wayan; 1997/9/3 to 9/18, 22" ceramic sculpture; recurring dream figure.
I dreamed of a dragon-woman on a reef. She was my guardian, but she let me drown! She had her reasons...
CAUTION: SCALY NUDITY
ZOOOP'S MAZE: by Zooop and Wayan; 1999/1/21, apparent shared/telepathic dreams.
I wander a sunken maze, meet a playful woman, find a hidden treasure. Meanwhile, my friend Zooop...


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