Dream #16: Dragons

Classification: Type II
Age: Twenty-six

I was a child in an animated world, full of other children. An old woman came to me, and gave me a small and elaborately decorated clay pot, about the size of a tea cup. I opened the lid and found a number of tiny red pills within, about the size of a peppercorn each. I ate one of these, and it tasted like wonderful fruit, dissolving in my mouth into tiny grains.
Immediately upon eating this pill, I gazed up into the sky, and saw there, above the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, red Chinese dragons, calmly soaring overhead with majestic grace. One of these came down to me, its face directly before me, aged beyond my comprehension. It spoke to me of mysteries and wonders, and I became as wise as the ancient elders and as knowledgeable as time itself.

Still a child, I gazed upon the other children around me, who continued in their frolicking and play, oblivious to what had just occurred. Suddenly, I understood their motions. I comprehended things that they would never perceive. I pitied them. I desired to share with them this gift that I had been given. I approached them with my pot, about to open the lid and share with them all these wonders. But, my hand halted, my step faltered; I paused and became still.

I looked up again into the sky. There flew my companions. I desired their presence. I desired that majesty, that grandeur, that awe-inspiring wonder. I desired more.

I placed the lid back upon my pot, and I retreated into solitude. The children would continue to play; and I--I would continue to learn, to grow, to expand my mind, my thoughts, my visions. I would fly.

Interpretation

My unconscious psyche reminds me symbolically of the constant dilemma, the dichotomy, between the possession of knowledge and the revelation of knowledge. Those who possess knowledge are all too often isolated and segregated from those around them, even those closest to them, incapable of sharing in the mysterious wonders that their knowledge brings.

I am all too aware of this fact. Even some people that may consider themselves my closest friends are, to my eyes, strangers to me. I keep up a charade of belonging, all the while contemplating in silence the sheer magnitude of the gulf, the chasm, separating us from each other.