I was awake this morning at an even more obscene time than usual. I lay there in bed at 4am knowing full well that I wasn’t going back to sleep, but I thought I woud give it a bloody good go anyway. I failed.

The dream that had woken me was spinning around my head and it wasn’t going to let go even though conciousness had reclaimed my tentative grip on reality. Ive had a lot of odd dreams lately; Ive been informed that it is most likely to do with the current Mercury Retrograde and the article under the link might seem to indicate that this is true.

The dreams have all been very “Froud”, if you are not familiar with this name, that may not be surprising, yet I am convinced you will have seen his work, especially if you grew up in the ’80s, for Brian and Wendy Froud were the puppet designers and conceptual artists behind the fantastical and wonderful Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. I have always from the moment I saw these films, loved them deeply with a passion, a passion I was very quick to pass on to my daughter as soon as she was old enough to share. And yet even until 5 years ago I did not know the name Froud; it was only when I was deeply embedded in Mythology and Folklore and was, at that point, particularly interested in the human interaction between the Fae and Humanity, that the name arose. I can’t remember who it was, but somebody said to me, if you want to know what the fairies look like, go no further than Froud, because if anybody can see them, then its him.

My dream tonight was all about the Labyrinth, I suppose you could say it was a semi lucid dream for I was stood outside the walls of the Labyrinth and thought, Oh I’m dreaming, and this is the Labyrinth, I know exactly what I have to do. And with that I stepped straight through into the Labyrinth, by-passing the worm in the wall and headed straight for the Castle of the Goblin king. But when I reached the Castle it has turned into a huge shopping mall selling everykind of Labyrinth memorabilia you could imagine, cups, keyrings, mousmats, plushie toys, you name it, they had it. And the arcade was full of people frantically buying up everything in sight. Like the gift shop in a theme park, people buying tat, any tat, material things to create memories they never had. And it occurred to me, if I spent my dream here, I would be no better, grasping for things and never truly experiencing anything. I had to go back to the beginning, I had to do it “right”.

If you view Magick as not so much spells and witchery but more inline with Crowley’s definition in Book 4:

Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one’s conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action

Then like Sarah, you must from time to time wander the wrong road that the singularly unhelpful Worm sends you on, meet the selfish yet essentially good hearted Hoggle, experience the simple nature of friendship with Ludo, understand the frenetic nature of the Fire Gang, the fierce honor of Sir Didymus, listen to the foolish Wiseman and his internal (or in the case of the film – external) ramblings, and be tempted by the glamour of the essentially powerless Jareth. Sarah’s journey is not about finding her little brother, it is about finding herself. And if we wish to do the same it is a journey we all must take.

Or to put it another way, don’t head for the souvenir shop, head for the rollercoaster instead.