Plague Journal, Monsters
The dreamworld, the visions of the subconscious in the early morning hours are said to come from the id, the primal dimension of the psyche which is concealed from the ego, the conscious self. No matter how blessed, how felicitous circumstances may be, there are always monsters just outside the gates.
I had such a dream last night, in the “wee hours” around 4 AM. I was able to take note of the time because I woke to escape the dream image. In my dream I was inside a walled enclosure, behind strong double steel doors, The doors were pressed inward by a great weight of bodies on the exterior surface. Upon occasion the latch would spring open on account of the pounding pressure on the bulging inward door. I and those with me would rush against the opening doors to force them shut, to place the latch secure once again. Mercifully I awakened.
It is tempting to imagine the reign of Marcus Aurelius (8 March 161 – 17 March 180) as unbroken good fortune for a man, superbly educated, wealthy by every standard, and popular with the masses.
At the death of Antoninus Pius, Marcus was effectively sole ruler of the Empire. The formalities of the position would follow: The senate would soon grant him the name Augustus and the title imperator, and he would soon be formally elected as Pontifex Maximus, chief priest of the official cults. … Marcus became, in official titulature, Imperator Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus; Lucius, forgoing his name Commodus and taking Marcus Aurelius’ family name, Verus, became Imperator Caesar Lucius Aurelius Verus Augustus. — Wikipedia
There are always monsters at the gates.
In the spring of 162, the Tiber flooded over its banks, destroying much of Rome. It drowned many animals, leaving the city in famine. Marcus and Lucius gave the crisis their personal attention. In other times of famine, they (Marcus and co-emperor Lucius Verus) are said to have provided for the Italian communities out of the Roman granaries. — Wikipedia
And then there was the Antonine plague…
The Antonine plague raged during the tenure of Marcus Aurelius. The plague lasted for fifteen years and is thought to have been measles or small pox brought by the return of the Roman army. The plague appeared first during the Roman siege of the Mesopotamian city Seleucia in the winter of 165–166. The disease had a 25 percent mortality rate among those infected. The total death count has been estimated at 5–10 million, and the disease killed as much as one third of the population in some areas and devastated the Roman army.
The Antonine Plague affected the entire Roman empire.
The circumstances are different and the same. Corona virus involves the entire world. The virus is still mutating.
Monsters always, just outside of the gates.
2 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Monsters”
Only on occasion can we, in our state of consciousness, interpret our dreams with any accuracy. Even those who give lip service to understanding the visions of the unconscious mind are only guessing at best. Carl Jung made a profession out of guesswork, writing volumes about the manifestation of the anxieties we all internalize as they permeate our sleep.
Even without a book to help us interpret the night, the metaphors we encounter in dreamland have a distinct purpose, allowing us to process life’s mysteries and uncertainties in a world only partially remembered each morning. Fear, such as your recent bout with a dystopian world, are as real in dreams as they are in our waking life, sometimes jolting us to consciousness in order to escape the nightmares that swallow our psyches. At times, when we are saved from terror by waking, when once asleep, a dream might continue the same narrative, as if we cannot move beyond the fear. These are long nights, leaving us soaking in our own sweat by morning’s light. We then drag through the daylight hours hoping we will find a different scenario once sleep finds us the next evening.
In these cases, clearly there is more going on in our lives than a bit of anxiety and we need to listen to that manifestation, doing our best to examine what we are experiencing in life. Most likely, as noted before, the dream is metaphorical in nature, so the visions we witnessed in sleep are only abstractions of the real world. It is never easy, but as that “real world” becomes more and more inhospitable, I’m certain that are sleep will be become less and less restful.
Naps are always good.
I too am a fan of naps though I seldom take one. Today was an exception!
Metaphor is what we have, all that we have for our knowledge. Knowledge is probabilistic and is communicated by the metaphor of storytelling. Forms of knowledge that are certain, non probabilistic are abstractions, such as 2+2=4. Certainly useful but not as interesting as a play by Shakespeare.
I suspect the nightmares will become more frequent and less distinguishable from “real” life. This quotation from Donna Harroway’s latest book, Staying with the Trouble, expresses our condition well: