The Twelvetide Fortune-Telling Method, Part 2

As promised, here are the dreams I had on each night of the twelve days of Christmas. According to legend, each dream allegedly predicts events in each of the coming months of the year.

This time, I've kept them (relatively) short and (hopefully) sweet, and omitted my attempts at discerning what they might mean, as I'm clearly not good at that, if last year was any indication.

...

Dream, December 26 -
"Last night, I dreamed that an enormous electrical pylon crashed to the ground and started a fire. I could see sparks and flames emerging from the wires."

A few days after this dream (Dec. 28) I happened to drive a few miles out into the country and came upon this:

There were no sparks or flames, but the broken electrical pylon bore a startling resemblance to the scene in the dream. Much like last year, the first dream prediction came (partly) true before the month was even over.

Dream, December 27th - prediction for February
"Last night I dreamed first of envelopes that were addressed with garbled letters and numbers. A sorceress demonstrated a magic spell to sort them out. I was awakened by the sound of a book falling off the shelf - it was The Dream of Heroes by Adolpho Bioy Casares.

After falling asleep again, I dreamed that the word Socialism had been outlawed in the UK.  The country was full of uniformed officers carrying sensitive recording equipment to catch anyone uttering the word."

Dream, December 28th  - prediction for March
"Last night I dreamed of a campfire in the dark woods. In the shadows at the edge, half-seen faces flickered in and out of sight."

Dream, December 29th - prediction for April
"Last night I dreamed I was boarding a plane. The destination was unclear."

Dream, December 30th - prediction for May
"I was wandering around lost in a conference of some type. My husband was off doing his own thing. I tried to befriend a gingery-haired man, but he kept alternating between friendly and cold, so I finally gave up and moved on.

I was wondering what to do next when a white-haired man with blue eyes approached me. He said "I've been looking everywhere for you" and handed me a paper with instructions. I wasn't sure hat the instructions were, but I was glad to have them. I asked the man his name. He smiled kindly and said "Dublin."

I woke briefly, and after having committed this rather strange dream to memory, fell asleep again. This time, I dreamed of a dark and snowy forest - it seemed to be in Russia. I was being told the story of a man who lived there. He had once been a humble goose-herder (though a very excellent one) but had since risen to great fame.

He told me the secret of his success: 'It's not what you are, but what people imagine you to be.'"

A couple of points about these dreams - first, I've come to think that the name Dublin was a reference to "double" rather than the city, and he perhaps represented my animus - a male version of myself.

Second, when looking for information about goose herders, this previously unknown-to-me fairytale called "Death and The Goose Hearder" turned up, which is quite intriguing on its own.

Dream, December 31 - prediction for June
"Last night I dreamed that I was standing on the road at the edge of town, watching a solar eclipse with drnelk."

Specifically, this was the road leading toward Austin, if that has any particular relevance. Dr. Nelk is a twitter pal of mine, and after telling him about this, he did show me photos he'd taken of the solar eclipse last year.

Dream, January 1st - prediction for July
Last night I dreamed of my cousin Nancy. We met at an unknown house on a lonely road. The dream was convoluted though, with no real storyline."

Dream, January 2nd - prediction for August
"Last night I dreamed that I invented a tofu and barley grass powder concoction. It tasted so wonderful that I took to the streets, trying to convince passersby to try it."

Again, if it means anyhing, the streets I took to were again on the side of town leading toward Austin, at the big shopping center there.

Dream, January 3rd - prediction for September
"Last night I dreamed...nothing."

Well, there's always got to be one, eh?

Dream, January 4th - prediction for October
"Last night I dreamed that my spouse and I had split up (amicably) and were moving out of the house. As I was preparing to leave for the last time, I went back in to get my good camera. Suddenly the house was full of rooms I'd forgotten were there."

Note - this is the first time I've ever dreamed of an amicable split with my spouse, though I do sometimes dream of a more acrimonious one.The house we were leaving was not one I'd ever seen before, except in other dream permutations.

Dream, January 5th , prediction for November
"Last night I dreamed the lyrics to She's So Cold by the Rolling Stones. Clearly my inner Mick Jagger is a judgmental prick."

I felt this was taking a poke at my age, or my looks, or both, which I suppose is better than the third option, death.

Dream, January 6th  - prediction for December
"All night I dreamed of wandering through endless shops and supermarkets, passing between automatic doors."

Once mre, this seemed to take place on the northeast side of town, so if there has been any common motif running through these dreams, that would be it.

...


There you have it, Now we wait another year (provided the world lasts that long) and see how everything has worked out.

In the meantime, happy dreaming!

The Year Of Dreaming Dangerously

Okay, that's a wee bit of an exaggeration. It hasn't been dangerous at all. But it has been interesting, 

When I decided to give the twelvetide fortune-telling method a shot last year, it was mainly as a lark, to try a different form of divination and bring old folklore into modern practice. I hadn't the foggiest notion what the results might be. Now that a year has come and gone, it's time to review. What came to pass? What was a bust? Let's have a look, shall we?

The original post is here

Prediction for January:

Aside from China's landing of a probe on the dark side of the moon and running various tests (as mentioned in the original post) at the same time, I also became acquainted with Before The Moon Falls, by The Fall, a band that had only vaguely entered my awareness before. 

These two items I consider to be predictive hits. As for ballerinas and plunging to my death, nada. 

Prediction for February:

Aside from Trump's plan that didn't work (does anyone even remember which one it was? ) this one was a bust. No hair accident, no driving the old men crazy, not even anything particularly amber colored. The closest anything came to this at all was discovering an odd shade of lips gloss (Pac-Man Pinky pink ) that seems extremely appealing to men of a certain age. But this is pretty wide of the mark, and what's more, it happened in December. So yeah, I'm calling it a bust.

Prediction for March:

 Yeah, no.

Prediction for April:

Big hit with this one re: Bobo being our mail carrier, which I wrote about here. The catch is that it happened in March, not April. Aside from that, it's interesting to see how such dream imagery translated to real life (provided you believe in such things.)

Alas, still no word from Robert Reich about his feelings for me.

Prediction for May:

This was my favorite dream out of the bunch, and the one I was most hoping would come true. And it did come true, though it wasn't immediately obvious, as it turned out to be quite metaphorical, even for a dream. The key here is in remembering what a monstrance is made to hold.

It happened in two parts, the first in April (so again, a month ahead of time). I was unexpectedly sent something which was very meaningful to me, and I wondered how I'd got so lucky. The second part came in August, and fits in with the rare recording aspect of the dream (though neither Berber nor Moroccan). They were two parts of the same thing.

If it seems I'm being cagey about this, it's because it's one of those things that instinctively feels private and not for public display, so you'll have to take my word for it. This dream also gives me a hint of what the recurring motif of silver might indicate.

The carnival represents social media, of course.

Prediction for June:

A hit in my estimation, described here. Again, slightly early, but a little closer to being on time.
The bit about the tea, though, is still a mystery.

Prediction for July:

Not a darned thing. Sorry.

There were no real workable dreams for August or September, as one was an OBE and the other was more or less a blank. There was some imagery of farm houses in the OBE which I think I found when out in that direction recently, though. For whatever that's worth.

Prediction for October:

This one came to pass while running our little shop at the street market during the summer. Again it came early, in July, or maybe August. We went to eat at a pastry shop, and when going to wash up, I discovered a room much like the one in the dream, with velvet curtains on rings. However, it was not a dressing room behind the curtains, but a storage room. The restroom, quite unusually, had no mirror.

Despite things not fitting exactly, it did give me a dizzying moment of deja vu.

Prediction for November:

It's so hard to know what to say about this one. I did not meet a man or a girl of this description, I did not come upon a box of fire. Did I participate in casting a spell on myself? This is much harder to say. But, having thought it over at length, I realize how much this dream is interwoven with the next one...

Prediction for December:

Again, this one took shape in a way that diverged significantly from the dream imagery. While the aforementioned forum member has been mercifully absent from my waking life, the theme of following clues and searching for hidden things has been very present. Also, frustration with/ losing interest in a game and finding a key (though not a literal one) were strong elements this month as well.

This being the case, I would call it a predictive hit, but in such an allegorical way that it would make no sense to anyone not aware of all the details. In short, I couldn't have seen it coming, but in retrospect the story is there. Not sure this is much help as far knowing the future, though.

And because the twelve days of Christmas has only eleven nights, I threw in one more for good measure:

Prediction for January 2020:

There has been no sign of Christopher Eccleston or anyone else to save the world as yet. So, nope. Unfortunately.
 
All in all, the twelvetide fortune telling method was fairly good, as these things go, and certainly a fun and mystical activity for the holidays.

Next post, I'll lay out my dream predictions for 2020, and if they're anything like right this time, it's going to be a weird year.

20/20

May your vision be clear.