Chinese Dreams
I had this odd dream last night that I was a women in ancient China and in love with a poor ninja (or an outcast of some type, I’ll just call him a ninja to simplify things.) However in the dream I was promised to a powerful Samurai, who seemed to obsess over me quite a lot.
The dream was strange because I wasn’t just the woman in the dream, I jumped from character mind to character mind, so I got to see how everyone though, thought I could only control the woman’s actions.
I don’t know what might have provoked the dream, I haven’t watched anything oriental in several months, I avoid anime and I do not know much about oriental culture. (Ie: I doubt this dream is historically accurate in any way of course.) The dream went something like this:
I (as the woman) was sneaking to a rooftop to be with my ninja. I had been up there many times with him before and he was kind and respectful. I knew him somehow from the markets. He was teaching me some fighting styles that were forbidden for women to learn. Mostly with a 6 foot wooden staff and a wooden sword. In this dream we used real swords. I remember the sword in particular because it was not very long and straight. It was only sharp on one side and came to a slanted point.
At this point my consciousness jumped to the ninja’s mind. He was thinking about how gracefully I moved and how beautiful I was. He was wondering how long our forbidden relationship would last before I was married off to this samurai (whom he had quite dark thoughts about.)
I jumped back to the woman’s mind and my ninja and I sat down near the edge of the roof. My ninja told me he loved me and we kissed for the first time. Then rather suddenly there was a whole bunch of armed people on the roof and my ninja was trying to get me to run with him. I was conflicted and froze.
Time moved forward a bit and it was my wedding day, my family had found out I was sneaking out to see another man and I was basically a prisoner. I saw my father briefly, I think he was a samurai too. I had not seen or heard from my ninja in a many days. The samurai I was to marry came to see me and told me I would come to love him as he loved me and that I was to be a respectful and obedient wife. I did not say anything, but that may have been because I was in the samurai’s mind at that point and saw the lust with which he looked at me with and the jealousy he directed at my ninja. Distantly the female me in the dream felt ashamed for loving the ninja because it would bring shame to my family.
The samurai and the servants left and I was alone. I was wearing this rather spectacular red silk dress thing, it had some kind of white birds embroidered on it, (herons maybe?) Time passed as I drifted in and out of many thoughts. I also go annoyed at my hair at one point and pulled it out of its bun (wow my hair was long, hehe.)
I heard a chuckle and spun around. My ninja was standing in the corner of the room smiling at me. He mocked me a little, I could tell he was hurt because I had not gone with him on the roof. At that moment my feelings of love for him overshadowed any feelings of shame for my family and I crossed the room quickly and we embraced.
– At this point I woke up for awhile and thought about the dreams. Then I dozed off again and the dream continued.
My ninja and I were crossing roofs away from my family’s home. I was still in the red kimono but I had a white mask on now (maybe it was just lots of make up… it felt like a mask though.) We arrived at the ninja’s home. He lived with other ninjas, both male and female. They welcomed me with open arms; except one older one who thought my ninja was being rash. Still he accepted it and they all sat down and started making plans to leave the city.
There was banging at the door and my name and that of the samurai’s was shouted thought the door. All the ninjas seemed to melt into the walls except mine. He opened the door and my husband-to-be was standing at the door, quite angry. He tried to run my ninja through with a sword (his sword was slightly curved and long then the one I had practiced with.) I cried out “No!” and told him if he didn’t hurt my ninja I would go with him. And I did went with him.
The samurai took me somewhere and raped me. For that portion of a dream it was all just kind of an out of body experience. He then threw me in a room or cave or dungeon for being disrespectful to him and my family and locked me up.
My mind wandered again and it jumped to my ninja’s mind, he was with two other ninjas (a woman and the old male ninja.) They were all outside of where I was being kept. The ninjas heard some guards talking about my rape. My ninja killed them both in rage but deep in his mind he did not think disgust towards me, just hate towards the samurai for hurting me. Against the old ninja’s advice he went to find the samurai and they begin to duel on a roof (what is it with my subconscious and rooftops?)
– Again I woke up and reflected on the dream. I fell asleep again and it continued.
I was running out of the dungeon with the female ninja and we got separated. I found my ninja fighting the samurai, my ninja was not using a sword though, he had a pole with a knife on the end, something like that. I picked pulled up the bamboo staff my ninja had dropped and ran the samurai through the heart (ouch!)
As the samurai died I was in his mind, my ninja’s mind and my own mind. It is a bit too complex to explain all the emotions that were going on but the female me slipped into shock and maybe passed out? Because everything went black.
When I opened my eyes again my ninja was laying me beside a glassy lake in a forest. We were in a forested mountain valley near a monastery. I finally got to change out of that red kimono which I had come to hate. Some monks gave me some brown peasant clothes. I felt really happy and without stress for the first time in the dream. My ninja and I went swimming.
– Then the alarm clock went off. I felt Michael beside me and realized he was my ninja (ya for mushy waking thoughts.) Not to sure who the samurai personifies though.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
it sounds like a pregnancy inspired dream to me.
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November 6th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Fantastic dream! I’m amazed you can remember so much, with so many details so vividly. Quite exciting/romantic. I haven’t any idea what the samurai might mean, but you may know. Consider the archetypal energies present in both the ninja and the samurai and see which way both characters might be speaking to you and what each embodies. Perhaps in some way there is a rift between loyalty to known convention that seems present in the samurai, and the romantic–”freer” nature of the ninja? Just a thought–I’m sure you could find an interpretation that would make a good deal of sense to you if you place your intuitive thinking to it.
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