Visions in the Dark

Dream starts off with Gandalf the White and Legolas from the Lord of the Rings trilogy making their way along a wooded boardwalk through a swampy forest. They are looking for a mystical talking animal which will help them on their quest but thy do not know what the animal looks like. Gandalf and Legolas occassionally come to clearings where they find very short people working the open bogland like they were tilling soil on a farm. One woman they meet asks them if they ever come across a girl child with orange hair. Gandalf and Legolas reply in the negative and the woman laments that she will never find her lost daughter.

Gandalf and Legolas continue deeper into the boglands and after passing through a particularily thick forest they come to a clearing were a large house sits upon a hill that overlooks the whole area. The door is locked and no one seems to be home so the two continue on their way. The boardwalks beyound the hill split into many directions and some loop back and rejoin the original path, leading absolutely nowhere and making finding one's way very confusing. Gandalf uses his magic to help find the right path and they eventually come to a barrow with a large stone entranceway.

Out of cave comes a mighty African elephant who greets them and says that he has been expecting them. Gandalf and Legolas are happy to have found the mystical creature which they travelled so far to find, and the elephant agrees to return with them to Gondor, but only on the condition that they do something for them when they get there. Despite it's large size the wooden boardwalk magically supports the elephant's weight and they travel out of the boglands with no problem.

Once in Gondor the elephant insists on travelling to an isolated village in the wild Northlands before he will lend his magic and wisdom to King Aragorn. Gandalf and Legolas take him to where he wants to go and the elephant leads them to a small home outside of a village called Wallakeya (or something like that) where they find a young woman with orange hair living by herself. The elephant says that this is the girl child that the bog farmer woman is looking for and that she should be returned home to her mother.

Gandalf explains to the young woman (who looks like my dream incarnate Kalima) the situation and then entrusts Legolas with the task of returning to girl home before reutning to Gondor with the elephant. Legolas and the young woman leave immediately and head towards the boglands, with Kalima riding on Legolas's white horse and him walking beside. They travel to where Gandalf and Legolas first met the bog farmer, but she is nowhere in sight. As they continue to travel they come across a man walking along the boardwalk who tells them that the farming season is over and that most of the residence of the bog have gone home and they can probably be found at the big house on the hill.

Legolas and Kalima continue on their way and somewhere along the way get another travelling companion, an unnamed woman dressed like a peasant, but somehow knows Kalima. The three travellers come to the big house on the hill and they are directed to the Chief's house deep in the forest, for it is his wife who was lamanting losing a child. Before they even get there Kalima starts questioning the claim that she is they child because everyone living in the boglands is short and stocky like dwarves while she herself is normal size. Legolas says that the magical elephant could not be wrong so they continue on their way.

They arrive at the Chief's house in the dead of night and Legolas is asked by Kalima to sleep outside because somehow she knows that the Chief is an extremely jealous man and will not permit another man to sleep in his home while women are there. In the morning the Chief greets Legolas but he is a gruff unfriendly man and offers no reward to the Elf Prince and demands that he leave right away. Legolas is uneasy but heads home anyway after say his goodbyes to Kalima and the other woman.

While the Chief's wife is happy to have her daughter back she is not allowed to show it because the Chief forbids displays of affection in his presence. There is a meeting happening at the big house on the hill and Kalima follows the Chief there and sees that he is a meanspirited cruel man as he threatens and bullies the bogland people into obediance, who visibly resent the Chief's treatment of them but cower in fear and say nothing.

The dream ends with Kalima storming out of the meeting house and contemplating running away.


(I just realized that the title probably sounds hilarious if you're British)

The dream starts off in a well organized, modern looking house that has an open concept kitchen/dinig room/living room combo. There are two old ladies having tea and an a man who looks like Tommy Chong who has the front of his shirt rolled inwardly half way up his abdomen. They are sitting in the living room part and I watch them with amusement because their behaviour is silly and spacey as if they were high on drugs or something. The old man gets up and leaves and the two old ladies go into the kitchen area which is elevated from the living room and dining areas.

I follow them and notice that the kitchen counters are covered with weather worn peices of driftwood, many of which are flat like serving trays. Upon the driftwood trays are an assortment of natual objects: bleached animal skulls and bones, pine cones, sea shells, dried flowers and feathers, and other such things. At the far end of the counter is a picture frame that has been decorated with leis an flower petals. The image in the picture is a smiling man who looks like a East Indian guru.

One of the old ladies take a white, ashy substance and smears three verticle lines on her forehead and then starts chanting in what sounds like Hindu and begins dancing wildly around the kitchen. I retreat down into the dining area to give her space but continue watching. The chanting old lady goes over to the other old lady (who is keeping pace with the chanting my clapping her hands) and blesses or shares energy with her with a sweeping motion from the front of her face to the top of her head and then down over the shoulders.

I turn my attention away from the old ladies for a moment and notice a coffee table upon which are many hand-blown glass ornaments. I turn my attention to back to the dancing and chanting old lady and try to make sense of what she is saying. She is repeating "Nahm Devali, Om Devali" over and over again. As she is chanting she takes the white ashy substance and smears a vertical line on the other old lady's forehead.

Suddenly the living room and dining room area is full of people, dancing and socalizing casually. Since the wild dancing has stopped I go back up into the kitchen to the first old lady who has been chanting, but I have to squeeze by many of the people who have appeared. The old lady is waiting for me with a big smile on her face. Before I can say anything she introduced herself as a Jody with a "y." I tell her that my name is also Jodie, but it is spelled with an "ie." She laughs and says "Isn't that cool!?"

More people come into the house and I turn around to leave the kitchen, because it is becoming quite crowded, and see my mother at the bottom of the stairs, smiling at me. She looks very peaceful and content, but doesn't say anything. I wander around the crowded living area observing all the people and eventually notice an elderly North American indian man dressed as a Plains Indian Chief. I ask him if he can teach me how to bleach animal bones and he kindly and amusingly replies "Why don't you teach yourself?"

I understand that he means that I should not be afraid to try things out for myself and I thank him to which he responds with a big smile.


The dream ends there.