The Prophetic Dream and The Divine Comedy

The Knight's Dream

Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy would have remained unfinished, but for his son's prophetic dream.

Following his death in 1321, parts of Dante's masterpiece were missing, sending his sons into a frantic, months-long search.

The brothers rifled through all of the papers Dante left behind, and thoroughly investigated his estate, but they turned up nothing.

Then, Jacopo Alighieri dreamt his father came to him, surrounded by a white light and dressed in white from head to toe, and silently lead him to a secret place in his chamber.  The following day, Jacopo lead his brother Pietro and a lawyer to the hiding place his father had shown him in the dream: A small window in his chamber, covered by a blind.

Lifting the blind, they found moldy papers covered in dust, bearing the title, The Divine Comedy.

© The Weirding, 2019

Stranger's Dream Solves the Disappearance of Shaun Cott

Dream Land

During the Gold Rush of the 19^th-Century, a Shaun Cott disappeared from his home in New South Wales.  Many assumed he had simply caught "Gold Fever," until a newcomer approached police about a nightmare he had.

The man lead police to Cott's employer's farm, where they dug up the body of none other than Shaun Cott!  His skull had been bashed in.  Cott's employer was hanged for the crime.

© The Weirding, 2019

Ever Dream of This Man?

According to a website called This Man dot Org, hundreds of people around the world, who have no connection to one another aside from this single fact, dream about the man pictured on the site - yet his existence has yet to be confirmed.

According to the site, one psychiatrist's patient who had been plagued with recurring dreams featuring This Man drew the picture. It set on the psychiatrist's desk for a few days unregarded until another of his patients recognized it as a feature in his recurring dreams. The doctor sent the picture to several of his colleagues and they were astounded to learn that thousands of patients recognized This Man, as they all referred to him, as a common feature in their recurring dreams.

Just as the dreamers have no common ties to one another neither do their dreams. In some, he is a romantic figure, while in others, he is not. Again, the only commonality is This Man.

© C Harris Lynn, 2013

Shapeshifting Others

Last night, I discussed an American twist on the witch's legendary power of shapeshifting (the "slip-skin" belief). As I said then, shapeshifting and witchcraft are intimately entwined, no matter the variations by culture and region. But while the legend of witches' shapeshifting comes with many permutations, their ability to shapeshift others is pretty cut-and-dried and remains steady to this day; the concept of witches turning others into animals is so steadfast that it still appears in pop-culture - children's cartoons and books are filled with it and it serves as the plot device for many.

One interesting take on this theme is that of being "ridden by a witch." While pop-culture often depicts witches riding broomsticks, the folklore source most often mentions them shapeshifting objects, including humans, to ride.

In one folktale, an American describes how a witch entered his home one night while he was in bed. As he got up to fend her off, she drew a bit and in the ensuing melee, managed to bridle him! As he was circling with the witch astride, he saw his legs becoming hindquarters and soon realized he had been transformed into a mule, which the witch rode to carry out her nefarious deeds (which, in this story, was meeting bank robbers). This activity continued for several nights.

The man approached a Witch-Master, who told him to mark the cave where the witch was taking him so he could kill the witch with a silver bullet and the two of them could take the loot. So the following night, when the witch had bridled and ridden him to the same cave they'd been visiting, he "jest drapped as many drappin's as [he] could, an' started in for t'chaw me a good big blaze on th' white-oak saplin', like [the Witch-Master] told me..."

He ends the story by saying he awoke in the morning to find he'd shat the bed and "dang near bit th' ol' woman's laig off!"

While a humorous take on the matter, the recorder of this tale notes that her aunt took her aside afterward and assured her the man telling it believed in witches and witchcraft "deep down in his heart," but would never admit it to any but his closest friends.

In all of these tales, the witch strikes when the victim is nearly asleep - drifting into that gray state where one starts dreaming but is still technically awake. The dreams one experiences are generally tied to stimuli in the immediate area. This period is notable in all folklore, as well as Occult practices, lucid dreaming, and psychology. This is the state in which "sleep paralysis" occurs - a phenomenon which was tied to witchcraft and called "riding." It was so prevalent a belief that Henri Fuseli even painted a famous piece based on the concept. This gray state is the "in-between" area amidst full consciousness and sleep; all "in-between" areas - passages, doorways, etc. - are said to hold great power, as they are literally portals between our world and that of the Unseen.

With this tale, you can see how this legend was built upon as it traveled across cultures.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

It's Proven: Women are More Emotional

While many would have you believe that it is just a stereotype, the truth is that women tend to be more emotional than men; that exceptions exist only proves this rule. Recent findings suggest that this extends to dreams, where women were found to be more likely to suffer nightmares and sleep disturbances than men.

In a study involving 170 people, researchers found that 30% of the women reported nightmares, compared to only 19% of the men. While some of this was associated with menstruation, that was not the only determining factor.

One doctor noted that the results could be misconstrued. Perhaps it is not so much that women are having more nightmares, but that they simply remember them?

The OddBlog says that's just stupid - STUPID!!! - and wants that doctor to get his shit and get the HELL out! RIGHT NOW! NOW! NO, NOW!

The OddBlog is sorry. It's just, we're just... doctors do great things, and...

He was going to take that? That's not his!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008