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Dreams: Albino Birds?
Two dreams with many parallels:
I'm in a shopping center of some kind, and end up in a sort of new age/East-meets-West chapel. I think I was either killing time waiting to meet up with my Mom and Sister, or got a bit lost looking for them - possibly some of each. The dream re-set several times before getting to the point, so I'm not clear why I wandered in there. In any case, I wasn't generally alone in the mall, but the people I was with weren't in the chapel with me.
There was a ritual taking place of some kind. It seemed like it might be a membership initiation, or a confirmation of some kind, but I could tell it wasn't a wedding, blessing, or consecration of clergy, nor was it spell work for a goal. For some reason, when the priestess running the ritual saw me, she basically ordered me to step up and join the initiates at the front on the platform.
She handed each of us a white dove - in my case an albino mourning dove. I held the bird in both hands, facing away from me, but twisted my arms around so I was looking eye to eye with the bird. At that point the dream became very vivid and lucid, and everything else was background to the moment of making a strong connection with the albino dove - we just stared at eachother for a moment there.
After a while I realized that the priestess had continued on speaking, and had just asked a question - did we know what the Dove represented? I spoke up that yes, I knew the Dove represented the Holy Spirit in Christian tradition, especially the Catholic and Episcopal traditions. The priestess looked irritated with me - I had spoken out of turn. The question was rhetorical, and I was just supposed to nod like the others while the priestess explained what the Dove represented. Irritated to be drawn into the ritual and then expected to know things I didn't, I went back to tuning out the room and focusing on the bird.
Not long after, the room was clearing and the other initiates were being guided into another room to our right, but I was left behind, still staring at the bird. And then I knew what the Dove needed, what I needed, regardless of what the ritual was supposed to entail: I raised my hands and launched the Dove upwards, and watched it fly to a bright window high in the wall above me.
Then I woke up.
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I'm at my Grandmother's old house in the foothills, along with a bit of a crowd of people - family and friends-of-family, but not my own friends, per se. It seems like some kind of event honoring one or more of the family members, like a wedding or such, but there was no ceremony or center of focus I could find.
My Sister comes in, carrying an albino raven under her arm like a purse clutch or a small dog. She explains that the raven was a gift from a prominent friend of hers in the entertainment industry. He had specifically taken the time to seek out the special bird just for her, and her having it was a mark of elite status. She explained that the bird couldn't yet talk, but I knew ravens can indeed be taught to mimic human speech. She sounded almost as annoyed as she was pleased, because she was obliged to care for the bird and hadn't really volunteered for the job - in that sense it was a bit of a White Elephant, really.
I had a very strong sense that the bird was terribly bored. My Sister asked me specifically to hold the bird for a while. I knew she trusted me more than others in the room, but I also knew that even she didn't really understand the specialness of what she had. I ended up holding the raven in both hands, facing me, and we looked intently at eachother. In this dream, too, that's the point at which things became very vivid and lucid. We just stared at eachother for a while, very intently, and I could feel that the bird was thinking, calculating - I'm not quite so boring, at least - but I didn't really hear what it was thinking, specifically, beyond that I had its attention and it had mine.
Then I woke up.
----------------------------
The dreams obviously echo eachother - both birds are albinos of local native birds, both are highly symbolic. I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I can tell from the feel of the lucid moments that both dreams were most likely visitations, and the raven dream definitely was.
But I'm a bit stumped for interpretation beyond "I've been visited by Dove and Raven...."
-E-
I'm in a shopping center of some kind, and end up in a sort of new age/East-meets-West chapel. I think I was either killing time waiting to meet up with my Mom and Sister, or got a bit lost looking for them - possibly some of each. The dream re-set several times before getting to the point, so I'm not clear why I wandered in there. In any case, I wasn't generally alone in the mall, but the people I was with weren't in the chapel with me.
There was a ritual taking place of some kind. It seemed like it might be a membership initiation, or a confirmation of some kind, but I could tell it wasn't a wedding, blessing, or consecration of clergy, nor was it spell work for a goal. For some reason, when the priestess running the ritual saw me, she basically ordered me to step up and join the initiates at the front on the platform.
She handed each of us a white dove - in my case an albino mourning dove. I held the bird in both hands, facing away from me, but twisted my arms around so I was looking eye to eye with the bird. At that point the dream became very vivid and lucid, and everything else was background to the moment of making a strong connection with the albino dove - we just stared at eachother for a moment there.
After a while I realized that the priestess had continued on speaking, and had just asked a question - did we know what the Dove represented? I spoke up that yes, I knew the Dove represented the Holy Spirit in Christian tradition, especially the Catholic and Episcopal traditions. The priestess looked irritated with me - I had spoken out of turn. The question was rhetorical, and I was just supposed to nod like the others while the priestess explained what the Dove represented. Irritated to be drawn into the ritual and then expected to know things I didn't, I went back to tuning out the room and focusing on the bird.
Not long after, the room was clearing and the other initiates were being guided into another room to our right, but I was left behind, still staring at the bird. And then I knew what the Dove needed, what I needed, regardless of what the ritual was supposed to entail: I raised my hands and launched the Dove upwards, and watched it fly to a bright window high in the wall above me.
Then I woke up.
----------------------------
I'm at my Grandmother's old house in the foothills, along with a bit of a crowd of people - family and friends-of-family, but not my own friends, per se. It seems like some kind of event honoring one or more of the family members, like a wedding or such, but there was no ceremony or center of focus I could find.
My Sister comes in, carrying an albino raven under her arm like a purse clutch or a small dog. She explains that the raven was a gift from a prominent friend of hers in the entertainment industry. He had specifically taken the time to seek out the special bird just for her, and her having it was a mark of elite status. She explained that the bird couldn't yet talk, but I knew ravens can indeed be taught to mimic human speech. She sounded almost as annoyed as she was pleased, because she was obliged to care for the bird and hadn't really volunteered for the job - in that sense it was a bit of a White Elephant, really.
I had a very strong sense that the bird was terribly bored. My Sister asked me specifically to hold the bird for a while. I knew she trusted me more than others in the room, but I also knew that even she didn't really understand the specialness of what she had. I ended up holding the raven in both hands, facing me, and we looked intently at eachother. In this dream, too, that's the point at which things became very vivid and lucid. We just stared at eachother for a while, very intently, and I could feel that the bird was thinking, calculating - I'm not quite so boring, at least - but I didn't really hear what it was thinking, specifically, beyond that I had its attention and it had mine.
Then I woke up.
----------------------------
The dreams obviously echo eachother - both birds are albinos of local native birds, both are highly symbolic. I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but I can tell from the feel of the lucid moments that both dreams were most likely visitations, and the raven dream definitely was.
But I'm a bit stumped for interpretation beyond "I've been visited by Dove and Raven...."
-E-
no subject
1: Both birds were in my hands, looking eye to eye with me when the lucid, vivid, visitation sensation came down. The birds themselves were the only parts of both dreams that felt Real - the rest was symbolic, metaphorical, and otherwise dream noise. The birds themselves were the signal.
2: Both birds were Albino, both local birds, both highly symbolic birds. A Dove and Raven - I know only one story that includes both. They were both sent out by Noah to see if there was any land after the floods. But the significance given for the Dove in the dream, though Abrahamic, wasn't of Peace/Safety as in Noah's story, but a different reference - New Testament.
3: Albino animals are often thought of as spirit animals. But animals in dreams are already spirit animals. Spirit spirit animals? Buh? Sometimes psychopomp animals. Doves and Ravens both have some psychopomp aspects. Ravens are also tricksters, though and Doves aren't.
4: In both dreams I was in a bit of a crowd for some kind of event. In neither case was I comfortable. In both dreams the bird was handed to me specifically. In both dreams it was a woman handing me the bird. In both cases there was at least some difference between what I thought was right for me and the bird and what the woman handing me the bird expected of us.
5: I released the Dove. I held onto the Raven.
6: I have had other dreams that Corbies consider me Theirs, or are otherwise one of my allies - but I'm not clear whether it was Crows or Ravens or both. I have been finding Mourning Dove feathers lately.
Overall this feels like there's more to it than just "You have new spirit buddies, Raven and Dove!"
-E-
no subject