007. Black Rook, Brothers

It worked! I had a dream about Black Rook last night (not lucid, but it's progress). He and I were building a forge on the roof of this crumbling building. I think it was abandoned—this is definitely becoming a theme with me—because there were tree roots growing up through the roof through a thick layer of sand. We dug a circle for the fire and walled bricks around it, but the roots kept getting in the way and I don't think we ever finished.

...

After that I dreamed I was swimming through a canal, staying submerged because there were guards looking for me (it was all very Assassin's Creed). I swam under a portcullis and wound up in a sewer with this old blind man and his pet white rat. He gave me two stiletto daggers, ebony black with hilts wrapped in paper. I climbed up through a grate and into an old city with a Middle Eastern look. There were two brothers there: early thirties maybe, both handsome, one bearded and one clean-shaven. They'd been feuding and I was acting as messenger between them, and I got them to make peace with each other.

Something weird happened while I was running through the city, though. It was very crowded and I was weaving and dodging around people, and I came face to face with this... man. I usually can remember dream characters' faces if they're important, like the brothers, but even though I stared straight at him I can't remember what he looked like. He was at least two or three heads taller than everyone in the crowd, and he radiated malevolence in a way I've almost never felt before. He didn't do anything, though, just stared at me and then turned away and vanished into the crowd.

It was very vivid, more than the rest of the dream, and I have absolutely no idea what to make of it, especially because nothing really bad happened, but I feel like it was probably important.

I guess I'll find out.

black rook ♜

One of the most fascinating aspects of dreaming, particularly lucid dreaming, is the notion of dream characters -- aspects of yourself that often behave in surprising or enlightening ways. Most of them are just hollow, indistinct, but some stick out. Among the lucid dreaming community there's a focus on dream guides: particularly individualized dream characters that act almost as mentors to the dreamer. They can help the dreamer become lucid, as well as serve as a teacher after that.

I have no idea if I have a dream guide, but there are a few recurring characters that stand out -- most notably, a woman called the Gatekeeper and a man I've been referring to as the "black rook". The woman's only showed up once or twice; she's fair-haired and gentle, with a wry sense of humor, and she almost always dresses in black. One time she was the mistress of Louis XIV; once she gave me a key (hence the title) and disappeared.

I have no evidence that the Black Rook is even the same figure, although my gut says he is. He's always male, always dressed in a black sailor's coat, always in a role of benevolence, but he doesn't always behave the same way -- sometimes distant, sometimes approachable; sometimes young, sometimes old; sometimes tall, sometimes short. He's helped me escape from various nightmare beings, and was there both times I successfully became lucid of my own will. If anyone is my dream guide, it's him, but I haven't seen him for a while.

(Why "Black Rook"? I've always liked chess. I picked black for two reasons -- first because that's what I always pick, because going second gives me a chance to assess my opponent's playstyle [do they open with a knight? with a pawn? one space or two? which piece do they clear the way for first?]; and second, it seemed to represent the dream world the best. I picked "rook" because I feel that's the role the character fills: not the flashiest or the most powerful, but always there to protect me when I need him.)

I figured writing about him in the evening might prompt him to show up again, plus it's interesting. Can't hurt, right?

~Darcy