The Dream Cartography Thread

[Queen Zukin]

Zukin, do you want to use my *first* post as the participants list? I can still edit it Hey sorry I just saw this. It will be useless "1440" minutes after you posted it, or something. It's better if it just gets deleted/updated by a mod.

[KestrelKat]

It seems like I can still edit posts to your DJ thread from way back in June... I think the original post is the only one that can't be edited after a certain amount of time. So I could keep an updated list of participants and their maps in my first post, if you'd like. Well, anyways: Here's my map so far. I haven't added the more recent places, mostly because I don't know where they might go... Here's Mah Map Excuse the messiness! I decided to do mine on an array of sticky notes so I could take out squares of the map and alter them whenever I needed to.

[DawnEye11]

The sticky notes are a great idea. Looks good so far. : )

[Queen Zukin]

It seems like I can still edit posts to your DJ thread from way back in June... I think the original post is the only one that can't be edited after a certain amount of time. So I could keep an updated list of participants and their maps in my first post, if you'd like. Well, anyways: Here's my map so far. I haven't added the more recent places, mostly because I don't know where they might go... Excuse the messiness! I decided to do mine on an array of sticky notes so I could take out squares of the map and alter them whenever I needed to. Your map looks great! I'd love to live in that city, though maybe not so close to the "plane of death."

[Sensei]

@Queen? Have you asked any mods to change the OP? I didn't mess with it since I figured that you PMed one of them. If you haven't PMed one yet, then PM me exactly what you want it changed to. (If you hit "reply with quote" all of the OP will be there, copy, paste, edit, PM to me with instructions)

[KestrelKat]

Your map looks great! I'd love to live in that city, though maybe not so close to the "plane of death." That's from that dream I told you about with the mental hospital and the girl who died and the dog... It's from a long time ago so I'm not sure if it should be on my map, but I distinctly remember it being pretty close to my house. Which is kinda creepy...

[Sensei]

That's from that dream I told you about with the mental hospital and the girl who died and the dog... It's from a long time ago so I'm not sure if it should be on my map, but I distinctly remember it being pretty close to my house. Which is kinda creepy... Makes sense to me. We live in the "valley of the shadow of death" as David says. I have a few places down, I am gonna update my map once a week (at most) I have summaries written for all my dreams and about where they are.

[KestrelKat]

Makes sense to me. We live in the "valley of the shadow of death" as David says. I have a few places down, I am gonna update my map once a week (at most) I have summaries written for all my dreams and about where they are. (I had to google that phrase, just so you know) Wow, I find that kinda... I don't even know the word I'm looking for. Not quite eerie, not quite comforting, not quite strange, but a mixture of the three, plus some other odd feelings. And that's mostly because I have never read the Bible, aside from a few passages. I would be interested to know if everyone has a sort of "Valley of the shadow of death" on their dream maps, and what it would represent in their subconscious.

[Sensei]

(I had to google that phrase, just so you know) Wow, I find that kinda... I don't even know the word I'm looking for. Not quite eerie, not quite comforting, not quite strange, but a mixture of the three, plus some other odd feelings. And that's mostly because I have never read the Bible, aside from a few passages. I would be interested to know if everyone has a sort of "Valley of the shadow of death" on their dream maps, and what it would represent in their subconscious. Yes, it is kind of eerie. The idea is that this earth is the valley of the shadow of death, which should be kind of scary, but it goes on to say that I will fear no evil because you are with me. Christians believe in a slightly darker world than other people, and that the only light is from God. Getting away from spiritual thoughts... Maybe. I think that most people have had some form of very evil place in their dreams if they have enough. If you look at any theories on dreams, it makes sense that you could find evil (inner self, experiences, memories, or whatever). In my experience just the feeling of evil will make an entire place seem evil in a dream.

[LolaTheLoner]

Finally got around to doodling my map in paint. I was going to hand draw it, but I won't have access to a scanner until Monday so I figured this would work just as well and allow for more ease in updating it when the time comes. http://oi58.tinypic.com/35be93k.jpg Speaking of inherently evil places in dreams, there is one on my map as well.

[KestrelKat]

Yes, it is kind of eerie. The idea is that this earth is the valley of the shadow of death, which should be kind of scary, but it goes on to say that I will fear no evil because you are with me. Christians believe in a slightly darker world than other people, and that the only light is from God. Getting away from spiritual thoughts... Maybe. I think that most people have had some form of very evil place in their dreams if they have enough. If you look at any theories on dreams, it makes sense that you could find evil (inner self, experiences, memories, or whatever). In my experience just the feeling of evil will make an entire place seem evil in a dream. Yes, I totally agree with that last part; almost all of my dreams have moments of nightmarish fear, and so most of the places on my map have associations with fear at some point or another. Even my home has felt evil in some of my dreams. But, not all Christians see the world that way Some of the Protestant religions like Quakerism have much more peace- and light-based views of the world. It's more that the light is within us all at all times; rather than Him being with us in dark places, he is us, and therefor the light comes from us all, making all places filled with light (that's me stretching it, I think) But then again, that's the only one I know anything about, really, so I don't know if that's unique within Christianity? Finally got around to doodling my map in paint. I was going to hand draw it, but I won't have access to a scanner until Monday so I figured this would work just as well and allow for more ease in updating it when the time comes. http://oi58.tinypic.com/35be93k.jpg Speaking of inherently evil places in dreams, there is one on my map as well. I also noticed it's quite close to your "Home" as well! This is interesting!

[Sensei]

Yes, I totally agree with that last part; almost all of my dreams have moments of nightmarish fear, and so most of the places on my map have associations with fear at some point or another. Even my home has felt evil in some of my dreams. But, not all Christians see the world that way Some of the Protestant religions like Quakerism have much more peace- and light-based views of the world. It's more that the light is within us all at all times; rather than Him being with us in dark places, he is us, and therefor the light comes from us all, making all places filled with light (that's me stretching it, I think) But then again, that's the only one I know anything about, really, so I don't know if that's unique within Christianity? I don't know if it is unique to Christians. I mostly know about Christians. Jesus says "you are the light of the world" when talking about people that are following him.

[KestrelKat]

I don't know if it is unique to Christians. I mostly know about Christians. Jesus says "you are the light of the world" when talking about people that are following him. Right, and Quakers only modify it to include all of humanity, even those who don't follow him (and, maybe this is me personally, but all living things, not only those that are human). That's why we're so against war and violence in general. I know most about Quakers, and second most probably about Catholicism because I have quite a few Catholic friends.

[LolaTheLoner]

I also noticed it's quite close to your "Home" as well! This is interesting! It is, just right down the street. I don't think I've had a single dream of that area, lucid or not, where I haven't sensed or directly encountered something really evil. So in a way it is a sort of "shadow of the valley of death" type thing. Whether or not it comes from my expectation that it will be evil or from some deep subconscious thing is hard to say. I only consciously expected evil to appear in my most recent lucid dream of the area. It's strange. I have so many jumbled up memories from dreams that went wrong there, including false memories that came to me during non-lucids. I agree, it would definitely be interesting to watch out for places like this on other people's maps!

[KestrelKat]

It is, just right down the street. I don't think I've had a single dream of that area, lucid or not, where I haven't sensed or directly encountered something really evil. So in a way it is a sort of "shadow of the valley of death" type thing. Whether or not it comes from my expectation that it will be evil or from some deep subconscious thing is hard to say. I only consciously expected evil to appear in my most recent lucid dream of the area. It's strange. I have so many jumbled up memories from dreams that went wrong there, including false memories that came to me during non-lucids. I agree, it would definitely be interesting to watch out for places like this on other people's maps! My evil place was also basically down the road from my home. I had been flying in that dream, and it was all sunshiny bright happy, until I got there. Then it started to snow heavily and a little girl got lost and died because I wasn't watching her well enough. I've only been there once in my dreams, as far as I'm aware, though. So I don't have anything to compare it with :/

[kadie]

This is quite interesting. Im a little iffy on the Russian Dream Hackers, but it's always interesting to see new stuff. I'll try it. Might take me a while but it's definitely worth exploring. Thanks OP

[raffifish]

Sorry if this has been asked, but what I wonder is this: Suppose one common location is my home, and another common location is a former workplace. In real life, I know how to get from my home to the former work place. But when I make the map, and I don't know if the work place in my dream is to the north of my home or south of my home, does it matter where I place it? Should I just assume it's the same distance and direction from my home in my dream like it is in real life as long as nothing else is specified? Or maybe it's not important? I hope I'm making sense. I will definitely try this, 'though. Next time I recall a dream, I will get a large sheet of paper and draw the location in the middle and see what happens.

[KestrelKat]

Sorry if this has been asked, but what I wonder is this: Suppose one common location is my home, and another common location is a former workplace. In real life, I know how to get from my home to the former work place. But when I make the map, and I don't know if the work place in my dream is to the north of my home or south of my home, does it matter where I place it? Should I just assume it's the same distance and direction from my home in my dream like it is in real life as long as nothing else is specified? Or maybe it's not important? I think I get what you're asking, and I would say it's best not to assume it's the same on your map as it is IRL (but Zukin would probably know more). It may very well be, but it also might not be, especially if the distance is large. I'm pretty sure my Oma's house isn't where it is IRL. The roads are a little stretched and warped from how they actually are, as far as I can tell. It's probably pretty similar if you know the route really well, but I wouldn't assume it's the same

[Queen Zukin]

Sorry about being so late on this one, real life got in the way. I've uploaded in black and white since it comes out clearer. I was able to piece together the bottom right hand corner of the map using a few dreams - that was pretty cool. The city space is still a mess, with roads and shops everywhere. As you can see by my eraser marks, I've been using new dreams to provide information about how landscapes link up to older dreams.

[KestrelKat]

Updated map as of today: Here It's starting to get messy... almost time for new postits! I might also need to either make it bigger and take a picture of it when I update it, or make it small enough to fit in my scanner... this is not working so well haha

[Queen Zukin]

Updated map as of today: Here It's starting to get messy... almost time for new postits! I might also need to either make it bigger and take a picture of it when I update it, or make it small enough to fit in my scanner... this is not working so well haha Wow Kestrel that looks really good. How are you doing that? Is that a series of post its stuck together? Why?

[KestrelKat]

Wow Kestrel that looks really good. How are you doing that? Is that a series of post its stuck together? Why? Thanks :3 I've always been pretty spacial so making this map has been a lot easier than I thought it would be, and I'm already remembering super old dreams and adding things to the Big City and whatnot (I still have a list of things that go in the big city, which I'll need to make a separate map for... I have a general idea of the area surrounding my house and the general layout of the city (center is tall buildings, concentric rings of smaller city buildings, residential One quarter of the residential and smaller city circles is my hometown, a different quarter, probably next to my hometown, is where we go to school. I think)) Yeah, it's a grid of postits on a poster (but they're not stuck together, they're just right next to each other). I did it that way so I could take out single postits and only have to redo parts of the map instead of erasing and starting over. But it's looking like things are getting too cramped so I might have to start over with fresh postits.

[FryingMan]

Interesting, I just started a thread where people can post their dream maps and illustrations, I've been wanting to do that for a long time since I have a fairly strong sense of path through my dreams. But I rarely think I'm in some sort of large single space or place I've been before. I think perhaps going into it with the mindset that it is could make it happen. But by default each of my dreams seems to take place in unique locations (other than the very few recurring WL locations that pop up).

[Nightfeather]

I reread my DJ for this. I never visit the same place twice, but there are recurring types (forest, town, ...). I can't even say if every area of settlement belongs to the same town. How do you tell how your places are connected?

[ThreeCat]

I reread my DJ for this. I never visit the same place twice, but there are recurring types (forest, town, ...). I can't even say if every area of settlement belongs to the same town. How do you tell how your places are connected? That is a tough one, night feather. I judge based on how long it takes me to get from one location to another in the same dream. Also, as I've been doing this, I've simply used intuition to create distance between locations, as QueenZukin mentioned previously. I think on the whole the dreamscape cannot be objectively mapped, so the project is an experiment in subjective creativity