“As we get older the past and present seem more intertwined and dreamlike. Some cultures, as in traditional Japan, believed one could meet a lover in a dream; in traditional Balinese culture night dreams were another plane of reality shared with the family in the morning; in aborigine Australian culture ‘dreamtime’ exists alongside everyday reality. Most cultures hold dreams as something mysterious: a portent of things to come, an interpretation of things past. Throughout history, dreams remain an enigma, though we have the psychology of Jungian archetypes and Freudian innuendos of modern culture; and though modern science finds a physical and emotional necessity for dreams, it doesn’t fully understand them. Buddhism suggests that ‘life be regarded as a dream’–that this state of so-called 'awake reality’ is no different from the 'dream reality.’ To this point, Chuang Tzu, the ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher, questioned whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man. This is not to deny our awake state, but to see the fleeting, ephemeral quality of it and thus be less attached to our personal desires and more open and appreciative of our life."— Patricia Donegan, from Haiku Mind
Gifs from Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970), Czechoslovakian surrealist horror/ fantasy film directed by Jaromil Jireš. The sometimes ethereal and dreamlike, at other times uncanny and nightmarish whimsical fairy tale of death, religion, and lurid sexuality, subversively depicts the adventures of Valerie, a young girl passing through mesmerising, disorienting episodes featuring vampires, a particular frightening, demonic figure somewhat reminiscent of Nosferatu, priests, nuns, and perversions. The moments unfold like symbolic manifestations of the unconscious, the Freudian subtext being Valerie’s sexual awakening. - Diana Marin
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