Dream Journal
July 19, 1997
There was this rocky cliff of tan stone by the ocean. It was a hard climb to the top but I managed it. At the top was an old house where the meanest redneck people lived. Memories of 8-tracks, tapes, and a mean basset hound came to me. The man there had tried to make me go away. I was returning to collect what was owed me. Somehow I wasn’t afraid. Their meanness couldn’t touch me. They owed me $100 worth of specific things and I was here at last to take it.
The first thing was this ragged old basset hound with a missing front leg. It was light tan and very wrinkly. When I first saw the dog, it didn’t take to me. It pulled back towards the house. The man came out and asked for $500 and I said we agreed on $20 before. $150 flashed in my head but I stayed at $20. He accepted, then went back inside. The dog began to huddle up to me. I wondered how many years it had left. I had asked if the dog’s leg had been gone last time I saw it and they said yes. The dog was trembling and seemed at times to be a Raggedy Ann doll of great value to me but worn out and old. We went up onto the ridge. The dog was pushing up against me and I was filled with love for it. I could feel it say “Thank you, thank you,” as it began to remember unconditional love. I held it so close and stroked it gently and it was effortless to give. I understood that its earlier meanness and resistance was because it didn’t feel loved or valuable. Now it did.
I wondered how I could take care of it. Would it have enough space to run with me and Rebecca in our trailer home? I saw in its eyes that love was what it needed, and that was enough. I went back down to the stones near the old house and met the man, his wife, and their older, immature son. The dad said “just sold the dog.” The son said “ya mean old bitch?” and looked over to the ridge. I knew then how much they had mistreated her. He had a box of things I had liked when I was there last and handed it to me. There was a bunch of old tapes in a black game box. The rag-doll I think may have been Rebecca. Then I woke up.
The Hound: The dog seemed very much to be an independent being.
A Rote With Backstory: This rote comes with backstory about the basset hound, the redneck house, and what was owed me. In this story, the debt-collector that rescued the dog would be the role that most interested me. Later, my own love of animals came out when I was finally with the dog.
Raggety Ann Doll: What’s interesting about this rote is that it’s not using the library of my waking mind — everything is unfamiliar, but I know things and feel things, enough to make sense of it. I receive direct telepathic communications. This is perception of the original rote on a higher, truer level.
My mom made me a Raggety Ann doll when I was a kid. However, it wasn’t that old or that special to me. The hound appearing as it only conveyed a mild value to me personally, but I could feel that this old doll was of great value to the character I was inhabiting. That was part of the “recording” of the rote.
If it had been translated to my terms, something of value to me would have been substituted for the Raggety Ann doll, and a dog I know and love would have been substituted for the unfamiliar basset hound. This also would have likely gotten my physical self more emotionally involved, potentially causing it to change the plot. A certain detachment is required to see the original clearly.
Direct Telepathy: For some reason, I pick up his counteroffer of $150 directly as a visual telepathic message instead of hearing him speak it. It seems we switched momentarily to a more direct communication.