Dreamkeepers

In our earlier conversations we discussed how the Magical myth tends to describe the forces at work in the cosmos in terms of their personal sources.

At the same time, one should not get the impression that the Magi artificially “populate” the world with gods and spirits. From the standpoint of Magic, any action can be considered in two ways — as a change in the intensity of Power (that is, entirely impersonal), and as a manifestation of an act of personal will. The first mode of description is more characteristic of energy-focused schools; the second is characteristic of specifically Magical approaches.

Consider a simple example: a person entered a room, moved a chair from one place to another, and left. Two accounts of the event are possible. From one point of view there was a change in the chair’s location, and therefore a change in the energetic situation in the room. From that perspective it is important to examine the chair’s path, its original location and function, its new position and characteristics, and so on. This is exactly how the energy worker describes the world: redistributions of energy fields and their characteristics are examined. A Magus’s attention, however, is not fixed on the chair’s movement itself; for a Magus it is important to notice and understand who performed the action and what their aims were. It is perfectly clear that neither of these viewpoints is “better” or “more correct” — they are different, though they describe the same phenomenon.

Among the forces that are not, strictly speaking, spirits, the Magical myth distinguishes numerous categories and chooses how to interact with each. We have already discussed one such category — Initiatory Forces — which ensure the proper flow of vast currents of awareness.

But in real life both ordinary people and Magi often encounter another group of related forces — Dreamkeepers, or, as they are often called by the name of the Greek god of dreams, Morphees (also the Oneiroi).

We have already spoken that from the standpoint of Western myth the Dream, as a distinct space, arises from the need to realize the mind’s desires generated by the mind that cannot be embodied within the Great Flow of Power.

Accordingly, the integrity of the Dream must be maintained and guarded by the forces of the Threshold, which prevent, first, the mixing of the “virtual” and the “real” worlds (despite the relativity of that distinction), and, second, reduce the risk of the mind becoming lost in the labyrinths of virtual space.

In any case, people long ago noticed the presence of such agents in dreams and gave them many names, depending on which foundational myth served as the basis for the description.

Surely everyone has noticed that in most dreams, as soon as the plot approaches its dénouement — whether the dreamer faces grave danger or, conversely, an epic triumph awaits — there is a kind of “ejection” of the mind from the dream and awakening. In “lucid” dreams this is even more noticeable: as the state becomes less virtual, the progress becomes increasingly difficult and requires considerable energy.

It is precisely these effects that the Magical myth regards as the activity of the Morphees — the dream must not become waking reality, virtual desires must not merge with reality, otherwise the Interworld in which the dreamer’s activity unfolds may overwhelm the manifested world.

Like other “non-hierarchical” beings, the Dreamkeepers are indifferent to the dreamer personally; their task is simply to maintain the Dream itself within its assigned boundaries. Nevertheless, subjectively they may be perceived as either friendly or hostile forces. On the one hand, they often rescue dreamers under attack from predators dwelling in the Dream-space. Moreover, in the early stages of exploring this realm, they can be of considerable help in mapping it. On the other hand, they categorically obstruct any leaps of Power in the dreamer’s mind, which seriously complicates the practical use of the malleability of dream-space. It was this latter point that caused the unpopularity of “lucid dreaming” practices in the Western tradition.

The Western Magus, oriented toward action and combat, found no opportunity in the dream to act, which was suppressed by the Dreamkeepers. Therefore Western magic is direct magic: it overcomes boundaries and limitations by force of will and by the warrior’s trained wakeful mind.