(no subject)

[felicula]

I don't know why, but I get very vivid dreams sometimes. My dreams are always in color, always have some sort of continuity or plot, and are sometimes as experiential as real life is.

This morning I was dozing when I should have been up and I had a dream of living or staying in an old victorian or earlier house with lots of dark wood panneling, a sweeping curved staircase, stately stone fireplaces upstairs and down, and a front-facing bedroom with sturdy, solid, queensize bed. My husband and I were not the only people living there. In fact, I never saw the other rooms or the kitchen. Most of us were regular people, but along with the dark wood was a dark feeling to the place. It had the mystery of sandalwood, musk, and myrrh. There were others, too, proportionately larger overall, who had lavendar skin, blue-green hair, and a connection to magic. Two of these acted like protectors or guardians to my husband and I.

One night, they came into the bedroom and they were more purposeful, different. There was the feeling that I had a deeper connection to them that was about to be formalized in some way. My husband asked whether it was going to be some sort of vampiric ritual, and they said it was. The male guardian left, presumably to find an appropriate sacrifice for the event. I looked deeply into the eyes of the woman who stayed behind and asked if it were permissable for mine to be something other than human, something supernatural. She nodded gravely and a little sad. Moments later, the man staggered back into the room, wrestling with a demon. The demon looked me in the eye and said that this sacrifice was for me. Too late to change it, I realized that it would be my guardian and not the demon that was to be sacrificed. The demon took a miniature knife and slit my guardian's carotid artery, then my guardian embraced me so that I could drink deep and be anointed by the warm pulsing flow of his lifeblood.

It was an initiation of sorts. I was not quite human, and by the sacrifice of the guardian I was kin to them as well.

Though I grieved, thinking my wish had killed a trusted friend, it later came to light that he either perilously survived or came back to life at some cost to himself.

The dream seemed like a mix of initiation themes and ebo, or vodun animal sacrifice. The guardians reminded me partly of World of Warcraft night elves and partly of vampiric magi. I think it is all the more startling because of how vividly lifelike it was, despite its unreal aspects. It was as if I was living the scene, not just watching it.

It makes me want to flesh out the world that would have these guardians in it and to write something about people living in that world. But I should be writing Intro to Ethics essays instead...