Lucid Dream Tea from Algonquin Tea Company is a
wild-crafted sweet gale / bog myrtle. Drink 1 cup, well-steeped before bed.
The tea has the effect
of extraordinary stimulation, wherein the mind is active with constancy, which
is why the normal state of consciousness carries over beyond the threshold of
sleep. Beware, sleep on the tea is not as restful as without.
In Monterrey, Mexico, I am living in my old place with
parents. I was the same age as now, though living with them. It’s funny because
my Dad is dead. My brother was around but did not talk, he was just a presence.
We had to pick up someone from my old elementary school. As we drove by, with
my grandparents in the truck, we saw a big new door on the school. There is a
park across from us. As we drove by in the park, we saw lots of birds. They
were having a feast of food from the street vendors. There was an owl, crow,
peacocks, turkeys and other strange birds. As we passed by the door, a girl
shared a corn on the cob with a huge black turkey taller than her. The turkey
would bite a few grains and the girl would bite from the outside. She was
waiting to be picked up. We went around the corner and parked behind a
tricycle. I got out of the car. I walked in the park and chased the birds.
There were people there waiting for the kids. The birds got angry and the
people ran away. Now the school is empty, all the kids have been picked up. I
crossed the street and went in the school. A big patio is caked with
mud. A few kids were playing soccer there. Since I was there to walk through
the school, I searched for my old classroom without success, the school changed
a lot. They had new buildings with big glass windows.
With my cousin, we received some coupons from the newspaper.
Mine said “Monterrey” in big, red letters, handwritten as by a child. My cousin
had a different piece of paper. I looked at his.
On another night under influence of the tea, I am with a
group of people in an isolated cabin in the mountain wilderness. We are
besieged by a ravenous pack of wolves. The cabin is invaded completely. All we
have to fight back are pillows and straw brooms.
_________
There is slight chance
that the Dream Tea may affect daily waking consciousness, i.e. in the form of
recurrent deja-vu as “dream characters” and “dream figments” however in life.
In these cases the recurrent manifestations which trigger a dream-life liminal
state are in the form of plants and certain characteristic features of people. The following stories are two examples.
In Michoacán, hiking
through mountain range. I traveled much these days, walked a lot. On the corner
of a road, tall up to the torso of a medium sized person standing with small,
orange flowers in the shape of trumpets. Seeing the plant became a catalyst for
dream recollection, it was as if the plant had existed purely in dream, though
was interestingly present in my waking consciousness.
If you’re in Mexico,
this kind of person sticks out. He was 14, but looked 8. He looked like the
main character from the film “The Blue Lagoon”. He was very blonde with curly
hair, a strawberry or crystal blond. He liked to dress with a loin cloth and
perform fire juggling. I arrived in Palenque and was hanging out with street
drummers. Among them there was this kid, playing drums with a girl. I thought
she was his mother. Later on, we stayed in the same place close to the ruins in
Palenque. He asked me if I could buy gas for him for his fire show. He looked
to young. That girl I saw with him wasn’t his mom. I helped him. He started his
show on a street crossing. I collected the money. We got money at least to pay
the hostel camp site and to get burgers. It was already dark and we were
heading back to our place, some cabins near to the pyramids. He told me a bit
of his story. He said he was 14, and fled home to look for his brother. His
brother was a drum player and hitchhiker. He started telling me incredible
stories like traveling to India and practicing mantras. We were hanging around
a hippie commune with Hare Krishnas so I wouldn’t believe him. He sung mantras
like, “Hare Hare Hare Hare Sham Bo”. I wondered how such a young kid traveled
alone. He had his own tent, all by himself. I think he would have liked to
travel with me, but I didn’t offer and he didn’t ask. This is a recurring
situation with many of my blonde male friends and even my Dad (who was also
blonde).
_______
“A struggle to exist.
In any form, taken
whether through ideology or bread
the resonance of the painful universal cry
into an imperfect echo that was never us.”
“In the process we have transformed
and become unrecognizable to ourselves
as the mirror casting our own reflection dirties with our pathetic work
for the sick sighs that last only in the mind after the inescapable is approached
finally
with complete resolve
in the last gasp
before the drop into…”
- excerpt from "Haunted by the lack of breath."
"the resonance of the painful universal cry
ReplyDeleteinto an imperfect echo that was never us." Once again poetry that is far more interesting than the stuff they tell us is cutting-edge experimental - Mallarme would laugh at all that, but he'd like what you do. No wonder you do not recognize yourself. Turkey in the Native totemology signifies the gift of service, complete service to others. I'd look into that as a mirror instead of that tea: I have enough problems waking up from vivid dreams in the middle of the night right now!