This is the first dream in a life-transforming dream-storm that hit Rick in 1973-74, cartooned decades later in his book Crypto Zoo.

RICK'S NOTES

The all-important initial dream of the series makes little linear sense but, like a well constructed screenplay, much of what will come is already encoded in the opening scene.

• The floats are the dreams that will soon be parading by.
• The first float celebrates a 'graduating class', pointing to a growth transition.
• The paper mache cowboy is an accurate description of my own ego persona at that point.
• His steed is a gigantic nightmare horse, "a special stallion" that "the old Indians bred" a long time ago. Classical psychology says the stallion represents libido and possible unconscious psychosis. Shamanic teachings believe the horse is a chthonic animal, who takes over when human strength fails at the gates of death.
• Taken together the dream is a clear tableau of my fragile mental and emotional state at the time.
• Interestingly, the cat in the dream was based on a real feline who's name was "Momma Kitty". Mother is a feminine/world symbol and is here shown calming the rampaging forces of the masculine/underworld. This is a description of how the psychic healing will take place.
• The apparent throw-away mention of the 'old Indians' is especially worth noting.

--Rick Veitch

EDITOR'S NOTES

Readers of Rick's dream-comics will recognize that cat calming the giant stallion--she became an anima / mascot in his dream-comics for decades to come.

Speaking of giant stallions... what negative associations Rick's ref books have! Unconscious psychosis, chthonic (underworld) animal, gates of death...

Me, I trust the cat. If she likes him, he's healthy--even if he knocks down a few structures. Great vigor counts more for me than control! You can't stay a hollow cowboy forever.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: Rick Veitch's Crypto Zoo, 2004, King Hell Press (a collection of his comics series Rare Bit Fiends, issues 15-20, showing his initial, intense burst of shamanic dreams, 1973-4), p.7 + notes p.128. Untitled; I added "Cowboy, Horse, Cat" to aid searches.

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