12:37 a.m. - 2004-08-02
Fire in the Head
I was awakened from my nap by the conversation being carried on by two of our cats. They were sitting and looking out of the balcony door chirping and humming in low worried tones. It had been dusk when I dozed off, but was now very dark. I thought I saw their Mom, that very Houdini of cats - Ms Kitty, sitting on the balcony waiting to return to her family. Jumped up, switched on the porch light and realized that the image wasn't a real cat. Hmmmm. I was still a bit sleepy but it was apparent when I lay back down that the intent of the cats' discussion was to get me out of bed. Two of their siblings joined the first two adding in gymnastic feats from the curtain rod and my etagere - very similar to the dive bombing their mom used to engage in when she wanted to play ribbons. Alright I'm up already! Turned out that the kittens were all hungry and the moms thought solid food in their tummies was much superior to nursing. Ms Kitty was napping happily on her favorite chair. Lucky girl.
I had fallen asleep thinking about how to write part of this post. Time obviously doesn't exist in sleep since the thoughts I fell asleep with were the ones I also awoke to. I wondered, as I opened cans and filled cat dishes with what my youngest cheerfully describes as fish guts, where my dreams have all gone. Not the fantasy stuff mind you - you know winning the lottery and doing all those things you never thought you'd be able to do - just in the deep of the night ones. When I was reviewing my posts from last year I was amazed at the quality and depth of the imagery. I can't remember the last really good dream I've had. Just nightmares lately and not even defined enough to recall upon waking. Bummer.
Y - think of this letter Y with its "arms" spread a little wider. Now add in a dot like the one you would see over a lower case letter "i", only big enough so it might resemble a head on the Y. Ok, now add in a couple of horizontal cross bars on the leg of the Y. Together they would form one of the astrological glyphs that represent the planet Pluto. This was what I fell asleep thinking about - how to describe it when I can't post a picture.
The reason was that when we went to see "The Prisoner of Azkaban" with my grandbabies the other evening, I was fascinated by a series of pictures that showed one of the characters - Sirius Black - very well played by Gary Oldman, with several symbols apparently painted or tattoed on his chest. It appeared that they had been put there during his stay in the prison Azkaban, when he was wrongfully imprisoned as a murderer, and where the guards - dementors - control their charges by feeding on their emotions, sucking out the souls of those who they cannot overpower. Psychic or spiritual vampires in a way, I think. The curious thing about Sirius, who is Harry Potter's godfather, is that he was never controlled by the dementors and he was the only one ever able to escape from their power.
The main symbol appeared to be the astrological glyph for Pluto. Now Pluto is the planet of transformation and change, and of death. Mythologically speaking Pluto is the god of the underworld and he gets rather bad press as a result. Two books from now Sirius is pulled "behind the veil" in a battle with evil Lord Voldemort's supporters - the Death Eaters. Does he become the ally from the underworld for the protagonists? The one who finds a way to allow all the victims of Voldemort to assist Harry and his friends to fight back against him? There is a bit of foreshadowing in the book "The Goblet of Fire" that impies that might be a possibility. Sirius, who can transform into a dog, takes his name from the "Dog Star" which can be seen at 14 degrees of Cancer in the evening sky. The picture for that degree is "a sage facing the northeast" - that's the direction that is considered the traditional gateway to the spiritual realm in many faith systems.
Truth is it was very difficult to be certain that is exactly what the symbol was. One can't make the projectionist stop and replay a few frames and since the video won't be out until the end of November I guess I'm going to have to wait to verify that. In the one frame where Sirius has his photo with his prison number across his chest there are also some runic - ogham - symbols, so it could be that the design on his chest is actually those instead. Still triggered a lot of thought while I was watching. Another curiosity was also bubbling in my mind at the same time. You see in the book "The Da Vinci Code" there is a reference list that sets out the names of the guardians of the secret of the Grail. One of the names is Nicholas Flamel. In the first of the Harry Potter books Nicholas Flamel is the name of the character who created the Philosopher's Stone. That's an interesting synchronicity too. In Celtic/Norse (runic) and Christian mythology there are parallels in the stories around the sacred cup or cauldron - all of which may represent the womb. One might want to read Matthew Fox's book "The Cosmic Christ" and "Original Blessing" or Tom Cowan's "Fire in the Head" and D Conway's "By Oak, Ash and Thorn" for some insight there. Hmmmm. Come to think of it maybe it's time I reread them. Maybe my dreams will return.
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