The fiercest dragons

Journal excavation turned up this report in which a dream gave me a quest to be pursued through conscious dream reentry as I drummed for a group at a magical site in a green forest.

I am striding through a verdant green landscape. The scene is a spectrum of greens, of fresh grass and soft ferns, of mint and sweet basil, of spruce and fir.

I am joyful because I am on a quest that is about to be fulfilled. Soon I will enter a cave that is the home of something that will challenge my courage. It takes on the shape of a traveler's deepest fears. If you can step through those fears, you can claim immense power for good. 

I woke from this dream excursion with feelings of elation.

The scene resembled a magical retreat center in the greenwoods, in the foothills of the Cascades, where I often lead group adventures and where Dragons are sometimes seen. The sense here was of a knightly quest, to a place of the Dragon.

I went back inside the dream, of course. The green world and the cave mouth gave me the portal for a shamanic journey, fueled by drumming. The original dream had traction, pulling me back in. Beyond the drumming, further juice was supplied by the circle of active dreamers around me, all embarked on similar adventures.

I encountered opposition, in my hyper-awake dream journey, before I reached the cave. While I drummed for the group, my traveling self had to face and overcome an ambush by villains in medieval garb. Exciting stuff. When I got through the attackers, I found the cave mouth filled with Dragon fire.

I willed myself to step through the fire. Beyond it, I entered a wonderful light, bright as the sun. Through the light, I came to a world-inside-the-world as fabulous and exciting as that of Lord of the Rings. A causeway plunged down and down, through underground cities to mines deep in the earth.    

Rilke was right when he said the fiercest dragons guard the richest treasures. Your dreams may show you their location, if you are willing to follow the maps.

- Journal entry for November 17, 2013

Photo: Drachenhöhle ("Dragon's Cave") near Mixnitz in Styria (Austria)

The Hero with the Document of Decision and the Dissertation of Doubt

The Hero is setting out on the Quest. He is given his weapons. They are not the usual hero's weapons, like a sword or a wand or a magic cloak.

    The first is a tightly rolled scroll, inside a cylinder of the kind provided with degree certificates. This is the Document of Decision. It is a clean, clear, tight statement, and when the Hero unfurls it and reclaims it, he can move forward with sword-point resolution and clarity, and those around him respond accordingly. 

    The second gift is the Dissertation of Doubt. This is an untidy mass of hundreds of pages, loosely held together with what appear to be shoestrings. The contents may have their uses, but consulting this interminable discussion of pros and cons and whys and wherefores does not seem likely to get the Hero where he needs to go very fast. However, those who support the Quest must have their reasons for weighing him down with all this material.

Feelings: I woke from this dream cheerful and curious.

Reality: In the midst of research into Tolkien's use of dreams (and their use of him), I was re-reading The Return of the King late at night just before this dream. I jotted down these lines, spoken by the King of Rohan, roused from his enchanted torpor, to the man who will become the greater King, the heir to Atlantis (here called Numenor):

"You will do as you will, my lord Aragorn," said Theoden. "It is your doom, maybe, to tread strange paths that others dare not."

I capitalized Hero and Quest in my dream report because it seemed I was viewing a model for the archetypal Quest, not a specific version of it.

Question: Why do those who support the Hero burden him not just with doubt, but with this huge and ponderous Dissertation of Doubt?