Dream Reflection of Butterfly by Connie Livingston-Dunn

‘Do you remember?

When you are in the cave

The dark oriental man (Carved from cypress

Who sits on your buffet)

Is standing there

With his piercing eyes,

Holding his hands out,

And you wake up terrified?’

‘Yes, I remember.’

Butterfly reflects, ‘Dreams Are Translucent, Transcending, Transforming, Entrancing’.

‘Yes, They Come From The Depths Of Consciousness’, answers Soul Fish.

Many years ago, in the mid seventies, I became a single mom supporting three children on my own. It was terrifying, I was the one responsible for all of it. I began having a recurring dream of being in a cave with a dark man with piercing eyes, who reaches out to me and I wake terrified.

I was having it 2 or 3 times a month and I read a book about Senoi dreaming techniques, where we program ourselves to wake up and become lucid within the dream and then we can ask the dream figure what it wants, ask for a gift, or give a gift. Every night before I went to sleep I would say to myself, ‘ask the man, ‘What do you want?’ It took a few times before I was able to stay in the dream and not jump out and wake in fear. Finally, one night, with quaking and trembling voice, I stay in the dream and ask him, ‘What do you want?’ He holds his hands out to me and there is a light in them. I reach out and he puts it in my hands. I transform into a butterfly woman with wings and fly out of the top of the cave and into the starlight. I wake up feeling peaceful and I know that I am strong and I will be OK.

The first picture is the completed painting (I think it’s done, but who knows), the second one is the Chinese carving from cypress, and the third one is the original painting where it started as a scribble that I finger painted over. Then I added stencils of flowers and letters and glued down a fish and butterfly which you see in the first painting.

Originally published at cowbird.com.