Fire in the Sky

© Rui Vale De Sousa | Dreamstime.com

Time has gotten away from me this week, so I'll pick up the dream posts again next week. In the meantime, I thought I'd consider an awe-inspiring natural display that can also sometimes disturb sleep.

Last night strong thunderstorms moved through the area. Summer is a great time to see some spectacular lightning. I have to say, though, I could have done without the very loud thunder.

© Andra? Cerar | Dreamstime.com

I have been known to sleep through heavy storms, but not last night. Having a skylight in the bedroom lets the lightning's illumination reach me directly. Then I have to consider whether the storm is severe, which would require me to take shelter. Usually I consider the possibility, then just stay in bed.

© Rui Vale De Sousa | Dreamstime.com

Because my home is at the top of the hill, I have a long view to the south. If there is bad weather in that direction, I sometimes wait until nightfall and watch the lightning dance across the sky. Very impressive.

© Jerry Horn | Dreamstime.com

I hope you like these images of night lightning. I think the secret to these shots is to have a high vantage point. It's still not an easy shot. Here's
one final lightning image from a photographer who tried for years to get a good lightning picture. It wasn't taken at night, but I love the three bolts and the mall in the foreground - humans can make as many changes to the landscape as they want, but nature will continue on as it always has, and will always have the last word.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Elliott Smith

The extraordinary music of the late Elliott Smith has the ability to move listeners on a profound level. Dark themes are somehow transmuted into comfort and acceptance. The song is Independence Day, and the images are of Smith. His tragic death at the age of 34 is still felt by his many fans.

Dreamscapes - Water

If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water.
~ Loren Eisley

Most people who remember their dreams, even if only occasionally, will have a memory of a water dream. The symbolic power of water, that essential element, is immense. It flows into our dreams to reveal the symbiosis between our conscious minds and our emotions, or even the contents of the unconscious mind, the unexplored terrain that houses either repressed traumas, the wisdom of humanity, or both (depending on who you read).

As it related to emotions, water in a dream can evoke calm and relaxation (a babbling brook, a fountain, a beautiful waterfall) or, perhaps more commonly, anxiety and fear (flooding, drowning, a tidal wave, a raging river). Turbulent waters can mean that the dreamer feels out of control in waking life. A tidal wave (a dream I used to have with some regularity) can signal a time of emotional upheaval or unusual stress. I'm happy to report having made it through that time, and that the tidal waves have since subsided.

But within my own dreams, water has also played a role in places that I visit again and again. There is a tree-lined brook I frequent. There isn't any strong emotion associated with it - it's just a lovely place to go. There is also a waterway lined with carved stone that looks like something from a medieval city. No one goes swimming in it because of strong currents. There is an implication that people have drowned there.

These dreams about specific places are harder to interpret, in that they don't seem to directly relate to anything going on in my life at the time of the dreams. So they remain mysterious destinations of my dreaming self, scenes for me to puzzle over, then accept as part of the dream landscape that offers clarity one night and enigma the next.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Kings of Convenience

It's been quite a while since this blog was graced by a performance from the Kings of Convenience. So here's a wonderful rendition of their song, Winning a Battle, Losing the War. I love their quiet, thoughtful music. Don't be surprised if they turn up again at some point in the future.

Diversions for Insomniacs #8

Maybe you've seen the YouTube video of the game, Crayon Physics. And maybe you wished you could play it, but they only have the prototype game available right now, which doesn't have the same level of functionality as the game in the video.

Fortunately, there's Magic Pen, a fun, interesting and frustrating game based on Crayon Physics. The object is to move the red ball so that it rolls over the red flag. It won't move on its own - it needs to be put in motion using shapes you draw. It also might need a path to reach the flag. You get the idea.

I got through level 4, but only by using a cheat. Even then, it took several tries to get it to work. If you like basic physics and a challenge, give it a try.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Martin Fabricius

This week's lullaby is a vibraphone solo from Danish musician Martin Fabricius. The song is So You Say. He takes a complex arrangement and makes it look easy. I really like this for its sparkling, energetic sound.

Dreamscapes - The Midnight Sun

David Scott, Puck Fleeing from the Dawn, 1837
(National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh)

This week marks the summer solstice, the shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. Given that I live in a northern latitude and blog about the night, it's probably pretty obvious that I've never been a big fan of these long days, when the light lingers as late as 10 o'clock in clear weather. I don't have a good explanation for it - just a vague sense that the day should somehow not last so long, that no good can come of it.

Which perhaps explains why the midnight sun has, from time to time, made an appearance in my dreams. I've never seen the midnight sun - I don't live that far north, and never have. But in this recurring dream, I am standing in a familiar place, a room, and I look out the window. The sun is in the western sky, but nowhere close to setting. I observe it calmly, but then remember that it's three in the morning, and the sun should not be shining. The dream ends; the overall effect is unsettling.

What is the interpretation of the dream? That something related to that room (my associations with it) requires illumination of an uncommon sort; otherwise, I might not accept what is revealed. Has that actually happened in real life - has some insight has been given? Yes, but there may be more to come. It's hard to tell for certain. Such is the elusive nature of dreams, especially ones that call into question established patterns of thinking.

Dreams serve as bellweathers, challenging us to change course or give up beliefs that no longer serve us. Clarity can be hard-earned, and we might not like what we come to see, but our dreams can point the way through and forward, the path to new frontiers.

Finally, a note about the image: Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, flees the coming dawn. In the final scene of the play, he says:

And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Diatonis

In keeping with the topic of dreams, here is a beautifully ethereal video by Diatonis of their song, Aurora. It combines electronica of surprising depth with hypnotic imagery of primal elements - air and water, sky and sea. I hope you enjoy its fluid beauty.

Dreamscapes - An Introduction

© Mel Gama | Dreamstime.com

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
~ Carl Jung

The Epic of Gilgamesh, possibly the oldest written story in existence, tells the tale of the warrior-king Gilgamesh and his exploits. Believed to be as much as 4,000 years old, the epic includes several of Gilgamesh's dreams, which are interpreted first by his mother and then by his friend, Enkidu, who tell him that the dreams, while disturbing, are favorable omens.

Our dreams may portend the future, serve as messages from God or reveal the workings of our unconscious mind. They might fuel creative endeavors or evaporate with the first light of day. They may mystify, terrorize or amuse us. They are a fundamental part of who we are, as individuals and as part of humanity. To learn the language of dreams is to enter an alien land, a far country, where, in some strange way, there is information that we have hidden from ourselves waiting to be discovered and deciphered and integrated into our conscious lives.

Dreams speak to us in symbols that have specific meaning to the individual and broader meaning related to universal themes. As we delve into these symbols, I'll be drawing on the work of Carl Jung and others to provide some insight into their meaning. Jung's view of the unconscious mind, as revealed by dreams, was complex and fascinating. The idea of the collective unconscious was his, what he called "a reservoir of the experiences of our species." Consequently, we all draw on dream symbols that are common to humanity, while at the same time assigning personal meaning to aspects of our dreams.

To get things started, consider some dreams of famous people and the impact they had. Well, I guess the new golf swing Jack Nicklaus dreamed mostly just affected him. Our unconscious mind can help us solve problems, but let's not limit ourselves. There's a lot more going on in those depths. I'll meet you there.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Carly Simon

Let's go down to the gazebo for a visit with the wonderfully talented Carly Simon. Here, she celebrates a lovely summer night with Quiet Evening. I like the bossa nova feel of this song, smooth and mellow. It's a nice reminder to take a little time for ourselves now and then.

Deep Space Inhabitants - Dark Matter

Credit: NASA/ESA/M.J. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)

Much like black holes, dark matter suffers from a lack of visibility. It may make up almost all of the mass in the universe, but it doesn't emit or reflect light or other forms of radiation.

So what is the evidence of its existence? Astronomers infer its presence from gravitational effects on visible matter. In the Hubble Space Telescope composite image above, you can see an ethereal ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster. How is that possible? Light from more distant galaxies is bent by the galaxy cluster. By observing those distortions, astronomers can map them and determine how the dark matter is distributed.

Credit: NASA/ESA/C. Heymans (Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver)/M. Gray (Univ. of Nottingham, U.K.)/M. Barden (Innsbruck), the STAGES collaboration, C. Wolf (Oxford Univ., U.K.)/K. Meisenheimer (Max-Planck Inst. for Astronomy, Heidelberg)/COMBO-17 collaboration

Another composite image shows clumps of dark matter around a galaxy supercluster.

There's got to be some frustration for astronomers in not being able to see most of the universe, of only being able to infer it. Then again, the vast majority of knowledge we receive is indirect. Any new item I read or view is inferred, in that I'm not there to witness the event. Even knowledge of other people is second-hand. We have to trust they're being honest when we ask what they're thinking or feeling.

The hardest thing to accept, though, is that even with ourselves, direct knowledge of the psyche is hard to come by. We have our habits and compulsions, our little ways, but self-knowledge is largely intimated, and true insight is rare.

But the night has not left us without resources. So I'll be turning my attention from the night sky and toward the inner landscape as revealed by our dreams. Stay tuned.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Durufle

It's the time of year for spring concerts offered by choral groups. This is a lovely video of a mixed chamber choir performing Durufle's arrangement of the medieval hymn, Ubi Caritas. No identifying information of the choir was provided by the video poster, so we will have to enjoy their work even as they remain anonymous.

Deep Space Inhabitants - Black Holes Revisited

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A couple of weeks ago when I wrote about black holes, I neglected to mention what happens when things get sucked into a black hole. So here's author Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining that process to Jon Stewart in an interview from 2007. Tip of the night: Avoid black holes.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Staffan Svahn

YouTube comes through again with another gifted acoustic guitarist. Staffan Svahn has posted more than two dozen videos of his original compositions. This song is Mockingbird and Traffic, a reference to the two biggest contributors to background noise when he's trying to record his videos. That's pretty cool, turning frustration into such a great song. I've got to learn that trick.

Diversions for Insomniacs #7

Rodin's The Thinker

Sometimes insomnia is driven by a steady stream of thoughts that can be hard to shut off. These thoughts can be mundane, a reflection of everyday anxieties, but from time to time they take on a more existential flavor - "Why am I here?" "What is the purpose of existence?"

Wouldn't it be nice if you could get an answer to these tough questions from a trained philosopher? Well, you can, at the
Ask a Philosopher! website. This service, offered by the International Society of Philosophers, has answered thousands of questions since it began in 1999. Check the archives to see if your burning questions have already been answered. If not, submit them and gain some insight into what's been keeping you awake at night.