Dreams and Dragons.

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 17:30:13 GMT


Alex Ferguson:
> > At the risk of being annoying, I'm inclined to ask at this point,
> > "In what sense?" Are we talkingh about dream as a state of
> > consciousness, as a mytho-magical 'place', or...?
>
> This was "way back when", so it was dream world as a
> mytho-magical parallell place.

Right. I think that it might still be true, in some sense I shall make imprecise. ;-) While Greg has often told as that "Dragon[ewt]s don't HeroQuest", and other such sweeping statements, it's clear that they must interact with the Other World (or, _an_ Other World) in some manner or other, and given the lack of an overt HQ pr worship practice among them, the idea that they're in some sort of weirdly bilocated or liminar state appeals to me. It almost goes without saying, though, that expressing this state in human terms (like HQ, otherworld, dream, etc) is doomed to failure, in either the sense of having such a discussion with a 'newt, or with Greg...

> > So back in the original example, I'd say that the Kralori probably
> > don't regard Dream Dragons, or indeed the Emperor, as being 'dreams'
> > in a strongly literalistic sense -- or at least, not in any more
> > than is everything else. Perhaps less so, since a dream dragon, and
> > certainly the emperor, is a higher/more fully realized level of
> > (draconic) consciousness than Jobo Longs in the street.
>
> Could dream dragons be seen as the result of interpreting
> dragonhod (a spiritual state) in material terms?

That seems to me more like Immanent Mastery. Though some "dream" dragons could be Pathers At Large And Scaly, come to that. But I think they're generally regarded as authentic, albiet relatively lowly, manifestations of draconicness, given the abilities of the imperial bodyguard and such types to pull such stunts. Going around with a DD hovering over you on a regular basis would undoubtedly be seen as a grave spritual error and temptation, though...

Cheers,
Alex.


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