The Romani know much of visions and dreams, but I am far from the wisest among us. Still, though Melina Viatsa is passed from this world, I learned some at her knee.I think there are three riddles, or questions to be better understood.
Consider: There are many portions which in each dream shift in viewpoint: places and experiences which are familiar or unfamiliar in keeping with who is dreaming. Also,however, there are portions of the dreams that reveal an alien, unknown, common dreamer: A puzzle lock that seems almost like something from the dreamer's past; but who's past, then? Surely each of the dreamers does not recall the same game despite widely different pasts. The same puzzle is solved by what seems simple arithmetic. Simple for whom? It seems to me that the “natural”dreams (or nightmares) of the dreamers have been interrupted and pushed aside by an outside dream, dreamt by some other being. Bernard dreams of a cave-in, while Sara dreams of conflicts she cannot manage, and Harriet dreams of her creations run amok, and so on. But then, the outsider imposes his (its)? will: There are small variations, but it seems to involve finding yourself in the Wyldes, seeing a large iron cage holding a bird of prey, solving a flashing, colored numerical lock using simple arithmetic, opening the cage, and jumping back as the bird strikes outward, and then watching, astonished, as the bird, now armored, transforms into a flying lion, and flies upward until the light, perhaps the sun, blinds you.
So, the three puzzles I mentioned:
First, the “natural” dreams reveal much that is puzzling, as dreams often do. What do the “natural” dreams tell us, with their various commonalities and symbols, and which of them, if any, reveal what is to come?
Secondly, most obviously, what is the meaning of the “foreign” dream? Why the Wyldes? What is the fierce armored bird which transforms? What is the cage?
Finally, most crucially, what is the SOURCE of the “foreign” dream? Friend or foe? Does it send us warning, trap, or message? Given that the dream was not only placed within the dreams of many, but revealed (along with the “natural” dreams) to so many others, this is a force to be reckoned with, bent on placing its dream within the minds of many. I say this is most crucial, because only by answering it can we judge, for example, whether to use what we've seen to set the chimera free (actually or symbolically) or perhaps, instead, to refuse to be tempted, and avoid doing what the dreams seem constructed to suggest to us.
Dreams and visions are things of peril; They may hold many truths, and many more lies. We must not be misled, neither to somewhere we wish to go, nor to somewhere dreadful.
Teovel Armonia (de la Sanje Luna)
OOG: Scott Auden