Saturday, January 17, 2009

In the Tiger's Mouth

I often have the weirdest, most peculiar, most vivid, creepiest dreams - in other words, the kind of horror movie I would never watch... They often leave a strong fingerprint on the days following but last night's adventure wasn't 100% unpleasant. I mean, as long as you don't consider your head being clenched by a tiger's jaws unpleasant.

The beginning of the dream eludes me but let's fast-forward to the moment where a good friend and I were walking in the spring woods in thick undergrowth of ferns. Suddenly a tiger cub popped up, with a face resembling a human child's features (??) and started to play with us. My friend warned me that cub = mother around, and sure enough, in a second a huge female tiger was leaping towards us.

We started running. I'm sure you know how running feels in dreams. Let's just say I'm glad it took relatively little effort to make a huge distance this time, unlike in other dreams. After we've decided that we were out of the ear and "nose shot" of the tiger, we started playing with the cub again, forgetting about the menacing mother -- who appeared right next to my friend out of the blue.

"There's nothing to do but wait it out, she will only lick your face," he said as I watched his head disappear in the mouth of the tigress. That didn't exactly set my mind at ease but the tiger was already upon me. I saw its snout twist into a funny grimace before I felt the fangs on my temple and the coarse tongue on the top of my head. It was a pressing feeling and I was careful not to move. Then the tigress sensed that I submitted to her completely, so she sat back and turned her attention toward the cub. We were no longer considered threatening intruders.

"Now it's safe to run," advised my friend, and not even waiting for him I just took off in a crazy frenzy of speed, passing by pleasant landscapes and finally coming to a pier on a beautiful lakeshore. Forests surrounded the green waters and the surface was barely rippled by the tiniest waves.

I took off. With a bolt I shot off into the sky and light as a feather but with enough substance to handle my movements, I flew fast above beautiful lands. I felt relief and happiness. I came to a wooden village that was clearly not one of our time and something directed me towards a sort of bridge between two houses, with the light blue sky ever in the background. I slowed down and hovered towards the ground. It was a steady mountain slope that the wooden houses were erected on, one glued onto the other, but not in a chaotic fashion. They had blue and red shapes painted on some of the beams. The one that I was approaching looked like an abstract lily, and as I came close a mouth with huge fangs appeared. It was purple inside and I ascended into it. Even in my dream I thought the scene was something Hayao Miyazaki would come up with, and I was also reminded of the tiger's jaws. I thought, well, it seems I am not meant to escape this, without fear now.

After my descent I came to what seemed like another pier, an elongation of the wooden structures atop the mountain. A father and two children were playing here. A cute little boy was just going into the water, but the girl threw a book away and started drawing X's on her father's bare back as he took her into the lake. I knew she was a witch and saw from the red gleam in her eye that she was cursing the father. There was no way to warn him. I was only seen by the girl.

The evil book fell into the lake and the little boy swam after it. "That's it, grab it with your little hands and bring it to the shore," the girl directed as she was being carried by her father onto the wooden structure again. The boy was very innocent and obedient. She opened the book again but luckily, I never found out what happened afterward because I woke up.

I wish I could draw everything as I saw it. Draw the emotions, too. You'd be amazed.


The pier image is © Marcin Gabryelczyk, and a print of it is available here.

1 comment:

  1. Dreams can be so ultra-saturated in both imagery and emotion - it would amazing to be able to really capture them visually.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. I've added the 'Follow this blog' function on the side bar - will that do what you are looking for?

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