Do you believe in dreams?
That they are real and hold meaning? Or do you think they’re just the brain defragging itself, the housekeeping procedure of a complex, organic information storage and retrieval system? Do they contain symbolism relevant universally or to the individual dreamer?
I was dreaming just now, having slept the day away. It was very vivid, but I don’t remember it—if that makes any sense. As in most of my dreams, there were many words and phrases. In the past, I have dreamt entire poems and paragraphs, whole story arcs even, but usually the words are pretty fragmented, little more than snippets.
The dream I had just now was of the former variety: phrases, words, names, bits and pieces. I dreamt of the word “grimoire”, of three specific grimoires, in fact, The Grimoire of…, The Grimoire of …, and The Grimoire of Herodias. I can’t recall the first two names, nor the context of the dream.
Now, I know what a grimoire is, a book of incantations or spells, but that’s about all I know. I have never seen one or desired to or even thought much at all about grimoires. Strange, then, to dream so vividly about them, about actual named ones.
The Grimoire of Herodias (they were in italics in the dream), the only one I recall in full, does not appear to be a real thing, according to my cursory googling. Herodias was a real person, however, and a name I do not recall hearing ever in my life. This fact alone kind of surprised me. She was a Jewish princess of the Herodian dynasty (“Herod”). According to Wikipedia, she was born around 15 B.C. Scientists even named an asteroid after her. Here is a painting of her by the artist Paul Delaroche:
Like I said, I have never heard of or thought about this woman before. I like the name “Herodias”, however, and think I would remember it.
She appears in three of the gospels, which, of course, I have read in the past, but I don’t recall her. She was instrumental in getting John the Baptist condemned. She was married to Phillip, Herod’s brother, but, according, to John the Baptist, she was banging Herod on the side. John exposed this and condemned her publicly and this is why she machinated to get him executed. In the painting above, that’s his head on a platter.
Very odd to dream so vividly about this woman and her apparently non-existent “grimoire”. Very odd indeed.
