Waking Dream

The mythologies of many peoples describe the earliest, mythic stage of civilization’s development as the «Age of Dreaming». It is to this age that humanity’s principal achievements — when people stood in direct contact with the gods — are attributed. What, then, is distinctive about this state, and why did it permit such contact?

We have already, in a sense, spoken that the very idea of Dreaming as a magical state derives from the notion that desires emerging from the depths of the mind seek fulfillment. Furthermore, we discussed that, when in this state outside the Flow of Power, the mind lacks a directional vector.

Thus, in a broad sense the term dreaming can be applied to a state of mind in which it is without a fixed direction — that is, free to change direction. In other words, as soon as the mind moves beyond causal, goal-directed orientation, it may be said to enter a state of dreaming.

It is precisely the discontinuity of mental states that allows dreaming to reveal what it fails to achieve in the waking (directional) state: discoveries and illuminations received in sleep are the result of those leaps, the overcoming of chasms for which the directional state lacked the resources. Herein lies dreaming’s greatest value — it gives the mind freedom to leap.

It may seem that this “free soaring” of the mind is more productive than its “daytime” Way, step by step. In fact, this is not entirely true. The dreaming mind is not only unbound by chains of logic; it is also unstable in its conclusions and short-lived in its effects, the consolidation of which requires the painstaking labour of the “daytime” mind. After the great chemist Kekulé saw a ring of dancing monkeys in a dream, he had to work by day to turn that illumination into the formula for benzene. In other words, the dreaming mind is incapable of giving an idea form, incapable of analyzing and synthesizing it, although it is able to illuminate it as a whole.

Another important characteristic of the dreaming state is its symbolism. The images that a directionless mind seizes cannot rely on known elements; they are not tied to experience and therefore express themselves in symbols — universal elements of meaning present throughout the world. Dreaming is metaphoric by nature; it lacks direct answers and direct actions.

At the same time, the illogical character of the dreaming state can be extremely useful, since the “burden of logic” sometimes constrains manifestations of free creativity released in sleep. Dreaming frees the senses from the dominion of the intellect; it liberates the person’s Dionysian principle, and that liberation immediately threatens madness if unchecked by the Apollonian principle.

Another feature of the dreaming state is that the dreamer habitually adopts a credulous attitude toward hypotheses: he is satisfied with the first idea that presents itself as an explanation and immediately believes in its truth. Therefore the mind of the dreamer often errs, taking illusory causes for real ones, treating non-simultaneity of events or their reversed order as given. If the dreamer should suddenly harbour doubt about the truth of what occurs in the dream — i.e., if the truth of the “real” world attempts to intrude into the realities of the dream — then the logic of dreams asserts itself and, with an “obviousness” that tolerates and admits no doubt, authoritatively directs the dreamer’s thought toward the dream’s “absolute truth.”

Thus, the «Time of Dreaming», as a characteristic of a meta-historical process, corresponds to an era when people perceived objects in their wholeness, beyond causal relations and in symbolic form — as in dreaming.

However, not only in primeval times but throughout history — and today — the mind of each person from time to time enters a state that can be described by the term «waking dream». This term indicates that the mind does not fall out of the Flow of Power, is not outside reality but at the same time acquires the characteristics of Dreaming. The world in such a state is perceived as a symbol, and events within it do not have rigid interconnections.

Such a state can be both fruitful and dangerous. Aside from the fact that it can lead to a loss of touch with reality and to madness, it, like any dreaming state, opens the mind to various predators seeking to seize control of it. However, fighting these predators in a “waking dream” is much easier, since the Flow of Power provides resources and support in such a struggle.

This is why the state in question can be especially valuable for women inclined toward Magic; in fact, nearly all purely women’s magic takes place precisely in the state of a “waking dream.” The same can be said of all types of Magic that require greater mobility than the “daytime” mind can provide.

Moreover, in a “waking dream” the mind does not entirely lose its critical faculty, which allows for better orientation among emerging images; furthermore, the Dionysian principle remains balanced by the Apollonian, so the danger of madness is reduced. In addition, whereas a shared “night” dream is a great rarity and requires special skills and inclination, a “waking dream” can be experienced by several people, which also increases its value. Moreover, such a “dreamer” can interact effectively with “awake” people, and that interaction can be mutually beneficial.