(Monday, June 27, 2016)
This dream is from Sunday morning, but I was too busy all day cleaning my studio to have time to record it.
Part 1:
The dream begins at my house, which is very large and feels more like a hotel. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people are inside. Probably I am dreaming of the Rolduc conference. There is a young woman in one of the back rooms that I am connected to. She looks like my old coworker Maggie (from the English, meaning pearl) Reinhardt (from the German, rein meaning counsel, hardt meaning brave, strong).
Part 2:
I am flying far and wide, in search of Maggie Reinhardt. We are to meet at the edge of a whitewater sea. I cover many miles, many countries, with my arms outstretched like an airplane.
Part 3:
I spy Maggie below me, so I land on a grey wooden dock. Our goal is to dive into the water, retrieve a form of magical sustenance from deep below the surface and bring it back to the conference. Oysters? Pearls? The bed where the seafood rests is far from the dock. We will need to swim a long distance.
Maggie jumps in with no hesitation. The water is foamy white and roiling. I am afraid. It is winter, I expect the water to be bitter cold. But I leap into the 6-foot waves and am surprised to discover that the temperature of the fluid is the same as that of my body. Even though ice is visible along the edges of the channel where we swim.
When I become immersed, I realize that the liquid is not water. It is bubbly and thicker than water.
Maggie and I reach the bay where we will dive for the treasure. Again I am fearful. We must dive all the way to the bottom of the sea, and I don’t know if my lungs will be able to carry that much oxygen. Maggie dives first, and I follow.
Day notes:
I just completed a chapter in Barbara Tedlock’s book about hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms. She describes a side-effect of peyote: white, soapy foam sometimes oozes from the mouth.
Muskrat was the dream I shared at Rolduc in 2011. Muskrat is the hero of Dakota and Ojibwe creation stories. After the great flood, muskrat dives to the bottom of the sea and retrieves a paw full of clay earth, which becomes Turtle Island.
Bonnie sent an email yesterday from Rolduc. This morning I recalled the restaurant in Kerkrade that we ate at together. The waitress asked if we wanted “still” water or “fizzy” water.