I’ve been having super vivid dreams the last few days. Not only vivid, but exciting and fun, as well. Weird, but never scary. One night I dreamt that I was walking from one house, to another, at night. And I had to walk through a bit of forrest to get there. The moon was full, but it was otherwise dark. My friend, Spanky, was in my dream, and he did not want me to walk alone, so he took my hand and walked with me, which I remember thinking was terribly sweet. I told him about the dream and then we had a fascinating chat about the subconscious. [forests or woods are supposed to symbolize the subconscious, and if you are lost in the dream, if may indicate a lack of clear direction. I was not, however lost.]

In last night’s dream, I went to a big BBQ picnic at a friends house, a labor day party. They had a really big house, lots of land, a pool, even a lake bordering their property. I thought it was just a party for friends, but then, soon, I noticed there were all these bands there. Including the bad that has been in heavy rotation for me lately: The Eels.

At work, I am listening to The Eels: Beautiful Freak. Every third time, I cleanse the palette with either the soundtrack to Whale Rider or the soundtrack to Twin Peaks, and then I am back for two more rounds of Beautiful Freak. Currently, at home and in the car, I am listening to a playlist I call "Matilda." [which I will probably explain tomorrow, when I do the Then and Now] This playlist features the title track from Beautiful Freak, which is a song I can just not get out of my head. I think it is probably one of the sweetest love songs I know. And I am ever so hopeful that it shows up in tonight’s dream as well.

The Eels: Beautiful Freak

For sentimental reasons, my favorite star is Thuban. By no means the brightest star in the sky, Thuban is the third, and brightest, star of the constellation Draco, the dragon, third star from the end – on the tail. In fact, Thuban is one of the dimmest named stars in the sky. But looks, and positions of importance on the tail, can be deceiving! Because our planet, and this is my favorite part, actually wobbles on it’s axis. It suffers from a phenomenon called “gyroscopic precession, the slow movement of the axis of a spinning body around another axis due to torque. Because of this, from about 3000 to 1900 BC, Thuban was the closest to the North Pole. It was our polestar. Until it was replaced by Kochab, which held court until 1100 BC when our current polestar, Polaris, in the Little Dipper, took over. However, sassy little Thuban sat north during the times of the Ancient Egyptians. Astronomers discovered that apparent air shafts that bore out from burial chambers inside the Great Pyramid actually pointed to Thuban on one side, and the belt of Orion on the other.

Thuban’s time of importance is not over. The earth continues to wobble on it’s axis, true north will continue to shift and everything changes. By AD 12,000 our polestar will be Vega, of the constellation Lyra. And right behind it, Thuban will be waiting in the wings, ready to take over again, the dimmest named star in the sky, third star from the end of the dragon tail.