(Wednesday, November 12, 2014) Waning gibbous moon in Cancer / Moon (tarot)
I’m in what used to be called the Warehouse District in Minneapolis, now known as the North Loop. Where Cullan and Alea have their loft in the old Gurley Candy Company. But the roads are still macadam (red brick) so I don’t think it can be the present time. (Seems like the last of the brick was torn up in the 80s and 90s.)
It’s a part of town where I feel very comfortable. Happy. I like the history and the simplicity of the stone and brick warehouse buildings. (In the 80s and 90s I attended many art crawls and spent hundreds of hours at the W.A.R.M. gallery when it was housed in the Wyman building. I worked at design and ad agencies in the Textile building and others.)
In the dream, I walk around the left corner of a square brick building that is four stories tall. At the back and left side of the building is an L shaped pool of water. The short leg of the L hugs the side wall of the warehouse. Perhaps the pool fills the foundation of an old building that no longer exists. There seems to be a ramp under the area of the pool closest to me (the short leg of the L) because the water gradually deepens.
I jump out into the water on a rubber wake board, coasting to about the middle of the pool, when the board sinks and I have to swim underwater to retrieve it. I slide across the water several times, until someone warns me about the giant fish that hovers far below the water’s surface. I see the fish but am skeptical of the warning. The fish has rounded jaws and a gentle, sensuous shape. It doesn’t appear predatory or dangerous. I’m uncertain if I should continue playing in the water.
Suddenly I see a very old white-haired gentleman on a motorbike, heading for the deepest part of the pool. He is moving at a perfect right angle to where I have been sliding. I know that he is on a suicide mission. He is driving at top speed, eyes and mouth wide open. He plunges into the pool and sinks with the bike, breathing water into his lungs.
I am filled with sorrow. He has been ill for many years and has made this decision to end his physical pain. I dive into the water and swim down to his body. His eyes are still open. In the pupil of his right eye I see a tiny, white snake-like form. It twists and turns, swimming out of his body toward the light at the top of the pool.
Day notes:
I shared this dream at our group on November 17. Peter made the connection to Nigel Hamilton’s section on the alchemical stage of Rubedo (descent from Albedo and Citrinitas). Some Rubedo themes:
- Return to worldly life/work/city (the warehouse district in Minneapolis)
- Personal issues return, but seen from a transpersonal perspective (Chris’ physical degeneration)
- The number four, mandalas, symmetrical shapes (the cube-shaped four-story building, L-shaped pool)
- Red, red-brown, red blood (dark red earthenware bricks on the street and in buildings)
- Black, black light (the deep water of the pool)
From Hamilton: “Rubedo is the red stage in alchemy, symbolizing the descending spirit … The ultimate goal of Rubedo is described as the spiritualization of matter and, simultaneously, the materialization of spirit …”