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Locks and Keys

Naïve dreamers often assume every key's a penis, every lock's a vagina. Thank you, Dr. Freud! But there's little reason for such disguises in a post-Victorian world; why panic over genitalia? So sexual symbols are rare in the list below. These keys are to other things--enlightenment, inheritances, freedom, treasures, family secrets, memories, goals.

Not that I'm denying some locks and keys are sexual--see Eight Elflocks, for example. RELATED TOPICS: prisoners and freedom - genital symbolism - privacy and secrets - inheritances and buried treasure - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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AIDA'S TOILET BOAT: by Wayan; 1993/4/7, a short- AND long-term predictive dream.
A sexy comedian and her troubles down the drain.
A dream that turned out to be true six days later,
and again in a different way six YEARS later...
AUTISTIC THUNDER: by Wayan; 2018/2/12, a predictive shamanic dream
DREAM: a concert by autistics admits my bandmate Mike but locks me out! I summon thunder & quakes till they open up...
AWAKE: I called it metaphor--till it happened. I was sitting silent in our band's recording session and Mike asked me to leave...
CAUTION: AUTISM & APPARENT E.S.P.
BLONDIE AND CRAZY: by Wayan; 1984/12/25, a bloody warning dream
Quiet Blondie seemed sane enough, especially compared to
her driven, talkative friend Crazy, until...
CAUTION: NUDITY, A LITTLE BLOOD
BOILING MY FRIENDS: by Wayan; 1983/6/7, a nondream poem of letting go.
Giving up a circle of friends is like the collapse of a sun--do you dry up like a raisin... or explode?
BREAK-IN: by Andrea McFarland; 2011/4/21; a psychic warning dream
A thief was breaking in. I tried to flee, but my dad got in the way. Woke up, went out to my car, and found...
CLOSE THE GATE: by Emily Joy; 2004/11/19, a dream of decision.
My foxy lover teases and tempts, but I can't let him into the patio for fear he'll hurt the rabbits…
CAUTION: UNFUNNY BUNNY PUNS
CLOTHO AND THE POOL OF DREAMS: by Jenny Badger Sultan;
a 2015 painting weaving seven dreams (2014/5/4, 6/9, 7/1 & 9/4; 2015/5/23, 6/26 & 8/25)
A portrait of Clotho, the Greek Fate who spins our life-threads, by a pool woven of my dreams from this time...
CREATURE BECOMES CREATOR: by Wayan; 2015/2/5, three linked advisory dreams on world trends
A weird little forest god bred me from an ordinary deer into a creature who can
almost pass for human. But World War 2 killed my god, and now I'm growing into...
CAUTION: NUDITY, CROSSBREEDING
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...
EIGHT ELFLOCKS: by Wayan; 2007/8/11, an absurd psychic sex dream.
I learn weird sex positions from an abused elf, have calligraphic orgasms, and then I, uh, turn on my stereo...
CAUTION: SEX, ESP, ANORGASMIA, PAST LIVES, ABUSE ISSUES
ELLIS CRITIQUE: by Wayan; 2008/12/10, four dreams comically explore Havelock Ellis's dream-theories!
Pa warns me to protect my paws. Then gilt wounds my sole. Then
a lioness eats a tasty drumstick. Then a bus crashes on our corner--for real!
A FAMILY VISIT: by Wayan; 1996/8/4, a dream of family values.
A yard sale in a small town turns out to be my family, selling porn. But they have more to push on me...
CAUTION: DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY, ELEPHANT ABUSE
FREE THE HICK? A Dream Left Hanging: by Wayan; 1999/9/15, a shard still bearing a message
With our ignorability spell, our team plans to free the angry Hick from the
Submerged Court. But the Coyote Girls can see us! Will this really work?
A GOLDEN KEY IN A CHEAP LIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/7/9, a subtle dream lesson
I was so lonely the potheads on Haight looked good. I dreamed I had the Golden Key, but under a cheap
sodium streetlamp, ALL my keys looked gold! Then I met true gold: a woman meditating until she shone...
CAUTION: NUDITY, HAIGHT STREET STONERS
HOT-AIR FEMINISM: by Wayan; 2019/1/3; a harsh political dream
The latest MeToo meme is to leave a door open at night with a heater on, so a hot-air plume marks
a refuge for women in danger--or, of course, burglars! So I stalk our neighborhood locking doors...
CAUTION: DECRIES HOT-AIR NAÏVETÉ
I'M A VESTA, NOT A MAN!: by Wayan; 1980/1/6, a dream of when it's over.
I'm the animal guardian of a deep crater, but when a human girl rejects me, I set out to leave...
CAUTION: ORAL SEX, UNREQUITED LOVE, SPECISM
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...
THE KEY IS HERE, BUT BEWARE; 2012/3/8 by Eleanor; nested nightmares of enlightenment
The moment I find the Key, I'm possessed! I wake to find it's just a nightmare. Only who's broken into my house?...
CAUTION: DEMONIC POSSESSION & EVERYDAY PSYCHOPATHS
THE KEY TO HIS LIFE: by an English rebel's wife; 1745; a lifesaving oracular/psychic dream.
Twice a condemned man's wife dreamt of a key lost in rubble below a wall. The second time she went out to find it...
THE KEY TO OUR INHERITANCE: by Wayan; 2010/9/12; a nightmare whose victims organize
The dead treasure-hunter's will ordered us, his heirs, to convene in the wood.
Attacked there by a knight in armor, we near-strangers must unite to win our...
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
KIOSK: by Wayan; 1994/5/1, a 4-page dreamcomic on the power of song (or illustrated text version)
I'm a sexy singing beast, the Krelkin, trying to lure the Reading Man out of his Moral Kiosk...
CAUTION: NUDITY, INTERSPECIES FLIRTATION
LILY THE LION: by Wayan; 1991/4/7, a small psychic dream.
My housemate Lily is a lion. She bursts into my room. Stare-down. And then she pounces. So I...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE! MUTUAL GLARING! THE VULCAN NERVE PINCH!
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
LOCKED ROOM: by Catshall; c. 2014/10/6, a dream haiku on a classic Jungian dilemma
Dreamt of locked room, door-knob fell off in my hand when I...
LOCKOUT! by Wayan, 1984/12/20; a predictive frustration dream
Dream: my family carelessly locks me out of my own home. Try every window & door...
A few days later: my new housemate carelessly locks me out. Try every window & door...
CAUTION: PREDICTIVE
LOSE YOUR TEMPER!: by Emily Joy; 2007/8/30, a tough-love dream.
My mom hires a therapist who really goes for my throat! Why is she so desperate to make me lose my...
CAUTION: OVER-THE-TOP CONFRONTATION
MANSON'S CAGE: by Wayan; 1992/9/10, a nightmare.
At the end of my long, tiresome tour of Hell, it's feeding time in the cage of the Manson cult...
CAUTION: SO MEAT REALLY IS MURDER!
MARCOUX'S DREAMS: by Shirley Marcoux, 75/11/4, 76/4/2, 4/28 & 6/24; & one by Cheryl, 76/4/3
Four apparently psychic dreamlets of a gun in a desk, a guy needing to hide,
a canyon with woodpiles & a locked gate, and a blonde girl named Cathy...
CAUTION: SMALL DREAMS, LARGE IMPLICATIONS FOR E.S.P.
MARTIAN AIRLOCK and JAGUAR MASK: by Wayan, 2015/6/22, twin shamanic near-nightmares
Jaguar Mask: a were-jaguar stuck in human form asks me to sew a new jaguar face on."But won't it hurt?...
Martian Airlock: I'm suitless on Mars. Freezing, choking, I dive into an airlock & slam the switch--but it's sabotaged...
MY GATE: by Wayan; 1996/5/29; a bizarre, joyful dream; 4-page comic (or ill. text version)
The full moon rises: I become Weregirl, do the Moondance, and gnaw open the lock on my heart...
CAUTION: MOONING
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES: by Erica DeMane, Michael, Joanne and Scott; c.1984, four creepy dreams
Erica dreams that during a protest she's caught in a radioactive flood...
Michael dreams a nuclear forcefield makes his fingertips explode and congeal into weird knobs...
Joanne dreams she meets nuclear mutants with curling black nails great for peeling potatoes...
Scott dreams the world goes silent and white, bleaching out. His hands dissolve...
ORPHEUS AND POOH: by Wayan; 1972/4/9, a dream echoing Cocteau's film Orphee--before seeing it
I meet my true love during a coup. We go through Hell together, like Orpheus and Eurydice--only we...
PETER PAN SYNDROME: by Wayan; 1995/1/10, a dream on those books...
I meet Peter Pan grown up: a stark, fey prince in exile. Why do only I see him and the Lost Children? Oh.
PRINCESS OF PASSION: by Wayan; 1993/7/10, a chthonic dream.
Led by a rebel demon into the heart of a Chinese mountain, should I wake the Sleepers in the Cave?
PRISONS AND STRIPES: by Emily Joy; 2007/10/4, a lucid dream.
In a museum full of spacetime-bubbles holding lost souls, the museum-goers are as weird as the exhibits...
RAZI AND THE HOLY WINO OF SHASTA: by Wayan; 1994/9/1, a redemptive epic dream
20,000 years from now, a deer-harpist named Razi finds the Holy Wino's not quite the ruin he seems...
CAUTION: BAD PENGUINS, DEER NUDITY, RUDE DRUNK
RIDDLE ON HER BREAST: by Wayan; dreamed 2021/3/1; a dream using sex to hide a pun
I'm told a girl in an armored nutrient-bath wheechair has my shoes. I need them back. But
to get them I have to answer the riddle written on her breasts. We both get a bit distracted...
CAUTION: CARTOON BREASTS
SATYR AND TWILIGHT: by Wayan; 2018/9/1, an epic dream perhaps foreseeing the pandemic
A spell kills off nearly all humanity and mutates the rest of us. Now I'm a satyr living in a co-op home with
unicorns, dryads, cattaurs, and shy vampires. Thing is, I prefer the Apocalypse to what came before...
CAUTION: NUDE CREATURES
SECRETS OF THE TEETERING STUPA: by Carl Linkhart, 1998 or before; dream poem/painting
The past. Burma. I'm shown a stupa covered in gold leaf, and given a key
to a tunnel where they say a tooth of Buddha is encased in glass...
SKY AND PRESTER JOHN: by Wayan; 2009/9/30, two short dream poems with sketches; Dreamverse #57
My neurotic sister and I both lust for a girl named Sky; then I flee a gang of popes and lamas and mullahs...
SKYLIGHT: by an Honorable Lady; before 1894, a crimesolving dream (psychic? subliminal? ghost-visit?)
My dead father said a trusted servant was stealing our goods through an unlocked skylight. This proved true...
STANLEY, or, GOOD DOG!: by Wayan; 1994/6/1, a dream on... obedience.
My friend Stanley is a social icebreaker: blundering in where I'm too shy, and
too thick-skinned to worry much. He is what he is. So why am I mad at him?
STRANGE SERVICE: by Gordon B., early 2006, a transcendental dream
The old man sang in the empty church, then looked at me and snapped his fingers. I was filled with voices...
THE TOOTH: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal), 2003?, an epic, oracular, baffling dream
Psychics give me an incomprehensible reading. A book from the tree-library gives only Victorian dating advice.
At last a madman gives me a treasure-box holding a tooth that unfolds into slices carved in unreadable symbols...
TRAIL OF POGS: by Wayan; 2004/9/6, my dreams' response to the first Burning Man dream-workshop
A trail toward Freedom has extra markers, for it's three trails, superimposed! Not all the cues are for us...
TRICERATOPS, or, THE GUY WHO SCRIPTS MY DREAMS: by Wayan, 1982/8/24; a dream on dreams
Stuck in a horror movie, I get to meet the triceratops-headed monster
who scriptwrites all my nightmares. But he's open to suggestions...
TURNABOUT: by Henry James; 1870s or 80s; a nightmare reversed by sheer courage.
A night-fiend strove to open the door I held shut between us--
until I realized I too was terrible, and opened it to find a great...
CAUTION: THE DREADED PROSE OF HENRY JAMES
VOTERS GONE CRAZY: by Thomas Madden, c. 2009/2/5; a political nightmare
It's election time in Europe, but voters have gone crazy. Nazis invade England. In my library, Sarah Palin rots...
CAUTION: POLITICS GONE WACKY
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...
WINDOW IN THE SKY: by Emily Joy; 2006/10/15, an epic, flying, apocalyptic dream
When my friends and I learn to fly, all of Middle Earth turns against us!
Fleeing from Saruman's army, I discover the backstage truth about our world...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DOOM, PHYSICS! YODA IN THE TUB!


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