This page is dedicated to the pleasure and pain of dreams. Dreams are the whispers of our imagination, the brides of our unconscious, the garden of ancient wisdoms.  They inspire, frighten, puzzle, taunt, tease, haunt and make love to us every time we close our eyes and drift off to slumber.

     I love the word Insomnium (Latin for "nightmare" or "sleeplessness") because although it was born of anxious roots, it also expresses the bittersweet experiences that dreams pour into our lives.

     Why do I love dreams? Because they are the only evidence of pure truth that I am aware of. Dreams do not discriminate.  They do not empathize. They do not sympathize. They only lift the veil and reveal. Dreams bring us secrets and wisdom and in return we should repay them with our attention and be eternally grateful.

     Of course as we all know, what is revealed can be quite bizarre and perplexing, but that is how they enchant and bewitch us. We go on a quest every time we close our eyes. There are labyrinths to find our way out of, gardens to explore, games to play, and killers to flee, lovers to meet, and an infinity of possibilities awaits. But there are ways to understand your own dreams and become more enlightened about who you are.

     Below you will find links to some interesting dream sites that will guide you into learning more about dream worlds.  Also you will find links to some incredible dream inspired art and finally a few examples of my own dreams.

     If you would like to share a dream with me, please do. Contact me at rachel@kundavega.com and we can discuss it if you would like. But right now, I have a date with Morpheus...

Enjoy ~

Dream Links

The Dream Tree
The Dreaming Room
Dream Gate
Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD)
The Dreams Foundation
A Dream Dictionary
DreamAnalysis
Electric Dreams Webzine
The Dream Chimney
The Lucidity Institute
DreamJournal
The CG Jung Page
Freud and The Interpretation of Dreams

 

Dream Inspired Art

Jerry N. Uelsmann
Maggie Taylor
Michael Parkes
Dave McKean
Kevin Wilson
A. Andrew Gonzalez
Dreams by Akira Kurosawa
Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire by David Lynch
Paperhouse by Bernard Rose
based on the book -
Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr
The Science of Sleep - Michel Gondry
The Dreaming by Kate Bush
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
ASD Dream Art Archive

A few dreams of my own

Baba Yaga
I was playing with a group of friends outside. We were trying to scare each other. It was my turn to frighten them so I told everyone to go to sleep and I would do something while they were sleeping. I transformed myself into an old crone similar to the Russian/Slavic mythological witch Baba Yaga. The dream became black and white and grainy like an old silent film and I started to sneak up on my dream friends while they were sleeping in the wild grass. As I was creeping up on them I started to chant a poem that had the words harp, sharp and blood in it. When I reached the first person sleeping I grabbed his throat and put a knife (or it could have been my long sharp fingernail) to his jugular and pressed hard. He woke up terrified. Then I woke up terrified.

Temperatures
This dream was just like being in a Chagal painting. That is what the colors and textures of the dream reminded me of. But it was an apocalyptic dream. At first the moon caught on fire and melted and the temperature on earth dropped a couple hundred degrees. Some monuments, mountains, people and the earth cracked open or apart. Things became stable until the sun came up. We were hoping that it would bring the temperature up, but the sun froze and instead of everything staying cold or becoming colder, the temperature on earth skyrocketed a couple hundred degrees and everything and everyone started to melt. Everything died, but I was left to witness it.

Celtic Coins
This is a recurring dream and changes a little every time I have it. I was walking along a beach that was either off the coast of Ireland or Scotland. The sand was black, the cliffs were tanned and the sky was grey. The water was incredibly clear and cold and when I waded in and looked down, I noticed several ancient gold coins with Celtic markings on them. I picked up as many as I could and put them in my skirt which I held to create a basket in front of me. My feet were bare and were becoming red and raw from walking on the cold rocky bed. When I gathered as many coins as I could, I started to run fast to the nearest town. It was a tiny hamlet. I bought some musical instruments and started to play them. There was lightning in the sky and it started to turn red. A beautiful, tall man followed my music and came to me. We embraced and fell in love and walked out into the water together.

Another version of the recurring dream -

Something came up from under the ocean. I was in ancient Ireland on a very remote island. The colors of my dream were black and gold and grey with a little tint of red. I was on this shore and it was mostly sand and rock. I was wading in the water. It was a mythical time and it was quite ancient, but I was still in the present. I traveled back to a time that never existed. The water was like The Dead Sea, there was nothing living it, but I felt life come from it perhaps the ghosts of ancient creatures mythological from the imagination and not real.   I was afraid something would wrap around my leg in the water. I was scared, but I was just so immersed in how beautiful and calm everything was in its own existence.  Something catches my eye. I notice that the water is full of ancient gold Celtic coins and I picked one up for you whoever "you" are.

There were millions of coins I saw lying on the ground under the clear water. And I went to pick one up for me so that I could have one too, but there was a black sort of barbed wire under the water and it cut my wrist and I had to pull away. I started to walk along the shore and there was a civilization and what looked like a shop at the end inside of the water.  I asked the two men in the shop (they were counting money and inventory of wooden and metal objects of all kinds...art and scientific tools and machines like telescopes and microscopes and measuring devices) if it was ok if I took another coin from the ocean and they said I would have to pay for it.  I asked why would I have to pay for it? That would mean someone owns this place that is in my dream. They said I would have to speak with the store owner.  So I did.  She was a beautiful older woman with long black and gray hair and a velvet maroon gown. She said that yes somebody owns the island, but she was unsure of who it was. She said if I snuck my hand in very quickly out of everyone's sight maybe I could grab a coin for myself.

So I walked down the shore again and I saw more than just coins. I saw gold Druid masks and artifacts and beautiful things scattered on rocks and throughout the ocean, but all I wanted was a coin that looked just like yours so I stuck my hand in through the barbed wire and snagged one quickly.  I put both coins in my pocket and walked out of that land....out of my dream....and into consciousness....

Braided Images
A bright flourescent blue being was teasing/seducing me. It was very ghost and alien-like. It whispered and moved and slithered around me and would sometimes just stare at me.

A little girl in a hallway slamming the door to a room. I asked her what was in there and she handed me a phone in which some demons started to screech in my ear. I slam the phone down. I awoke from this dream incredibly terrified and could not go back to sleep.

I am naked and holding a very soft and sweet baby.

A list of people who were going to die. I did not know anyone on the list and all the names were very twisted and I cannot recall them. There was no image or paper - just names.

Ravaged by a goth Merman and falling down a rainbowed tube to the men on the pier.

art by Harry Clarke

All site contents Copyright © Rachel Lisi 2008