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

introduction

Hello everyone (I say to exactly no one)!

When I was younger I remember being able to control my dreams at will. As I grew up, I lost the ability, but now, with the reality of Adulthood™ beginning to set in, sleeping seems more and more like eight hours' worth of untapped potential.

Also, I remember it was really fun.

I've been poking around on the internet for ways to teach myself to lucid dream again, and the uniting strategy is to keep a dream journal. I do have a physical notebook, but it's messy and I'm a pretty slow writer, so I've been jotting down the gist of what I've dreamt and then typing up full summaries once I'm a little more awake.

Most of my dreams are bizarre, hilarious, or both, though, so I thought I would share--plus maybe I'll have the opportunity to interact with other like-minded dreamers if I put myself out there.

Ta for now,

~Darcy