3. THE PRINCESS OF POWER HATS

The following is a dream of a 44-year old woman:

Me and my dream friends are driving somewhere and there is this middle-eastern looking, exotic yet very subdued hat woman selling hats on the side of the road. She has the most unusual hats and each time I go by she has fewer and fewer - seems to be a limited supply of very cool hats.

Anyway, Big Bob swings the Urban Dream Assault Vehicle very quickly around in front of oncoming traffic upsetting all involved, except the hat woman who does not even look up from what she is doing, unpacking hats to set them up on her stand to sell. I am trying them on and I have this one that is the Miami Vice teal and adobe pink (colors of my bedroom in San Francisco) and I am trying it on and it completely covers my hair and I look like an elf! All her hats make you look different and they are very unusual.

So I get to talking to her to find out where she got them. And she tells me she started out as a politician in Bethany, Delaware and she became very powerful as a politician and she went to Saudi Arabia. While there in an ancient market place she learned of these different dresses she could put on, one on top of each other, and each gave her a different power and a different "look". She was so amazed and humbled by this profound experience that she bought a bunch of the hats that shared similar magical powers and brought them back to share with us. When it was time, the right people found their way to her to get a "Princess of Power" hat. She had been waiting for me for awhile....the selection was not as good.

Commentary on the Dream (HRM)

This dreamer has a very active dream life and regularly meets her "dream friends" in bars, gathering places, etc. In this particular dream she encounters a numinous figure selling "Princess of Power Hats," a figure who represents a source of energy and transformation within the dreamer herself.

At the outset the dreamer sees this figure "at the side of the road:" that is, alongside the path of the journey of life. The hat woman is at first very subdued and the dreamer passes her by many times and each time "she has fewer and fewer" of the unusual hats on display. By the end of the dream we learn that this numinous figure "had been waiting for me for awhile:" that is, waiting in the timeless world of dreams. But who is she?

In the next part of the dream we meet one of the dreamer's regular dream friends, "Big Bob," who commands a bizarre Urban Dream Assault Vehicle, and his turning the vehicle around is naturally upsetting to traffic on the road of life. But the turmoil does not in the least affect the hat woman. The dreamer tries on one of these unusual hats. Not only does it cover her hair but it transforms her in another kind of being, an elf. In fact, the dreamer discovers that all the hats for sale have this mysterious capacity for transformation.

The Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphosis is the magical tale of human beings transformed into other creatures yet somehow remaining themselves: an allegory influenced by the mystery religions of ancient Rome. This dream, like the Roman allegory, is a meditation on the self in transformation.

As the dreamer gets better acquainted with the figure selling hats, she learns that she had once been a powerful politician from an obscure town in America who went off to a distant and exotic place (Saudi Arabia) where she learned about different costumes to put on, "one on top of each other," that would give her "a different power and a different 'look.'" The hat woman, who has gone on the Hero's Journey, has exchanged one kind of power for another.

At the time of this dream the dreamer was 38 years old, at a point when she has passed down the road of life, with opportunities diminishing over time: "each time I go by she has fewer and fewer" of the magical hats for sale. There is a "limited supply" after all. But this dream holds out the possibility for disrupting the familiar flow of traffic down the road of life and instead opening up a prospect of magical transformation.

After midlife, time is running out: there is a limited supply of hats and the hat woman has been waiting for the dreamer for a while. The final words of the dream warn the dreamer that, now that time has passed, the selection of hats is not as good. The dreamer herself wants what the hat woman has encountered: to leave the world of external power (the politician) for another kind of spiritual power. She longs for an experience that will amaze and humble her-- an experience that will transform the dreamer herself into the Princess of Power.