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Dreams, Dreaming and Meanings: A Codex
A look at dreams and their fascinating, fractured, meaningful imagery.
The first dream I recall was a “nightmare” when I six-years-old. I know it was that age because of where my family lived at the time. In the dream, I stood looking down a set of stairs into the open cellar doors into the basement my house did not have. There was a light at the bottom illuminating a cement floor. Bits of loose straw were scattered around the base of the stairs. Although it was well-lit at the base of the stairs, I knew a dark hallway extended both to the left and right and the light did not reach that far. I was scared. Then I walked down the steps. About halfway down, the steps flipped flat and became a ramp. I slid the rest of the way then sat in loose straw on the cement floor and looked around. It was dark, foreboding, because I could see the hallways but not into them. It was dark behind the stairs, too, I looked up and the cellar doors were still open, but the stairway was still a ramp, and I did not know if I could climb back up it.
And I woke up, a terrified kid afraid to go back to sleep. Recalling that dream does not affect me now, of course, but it may be the first nightmare of many I had as a child, a malady that no longer afflicts me.
One nightmare I had was recurring, focused on the same main detail, but in different locations…
