Sunday, May 29, 2011

Blessed by the Goddess, as Ava Gardner

I am at last on the top floor, the level I have been seeking. Through the picture windows, I can see out across a great city, to the sea and the mountains.

I stretch out on a comfortable sofa. It has taken me hard effort and some cunning to get to this level. I remember riding a bicycle, like a schoolboy, down steps to the edge of a river, where I risked toppling over or banging into tables set for lunch or high tea when the trail narrowed between the water and the elegant picnic setup. Eventually, I had to get off my bike and carry it.

When I entered this building, what was in my hand was no longer a bike, but a rifle, hardly bigger or heavier than a BB gun. I climbed successive flights of concrete steps. There was a lot of action on the lower floor. On one landing, my way was partly blocked by a huge, well-muscled man fondling or mauling a woman. He had one meaty arm raised and extended to mark off half the landing as his territory. I got round him, but then had to face the challenge of getting over a barrier atop a high step, as high as my heart. I would need both hands to pull myself up and swing myself over. This requires me to lay down my rifle - a risky thing to do, since I could see people spreadeagled on the floor on this next level. They might be handcuffed prisoners, or hostages, or casualties. I placed my gun at the edge of the high step, where I calculated no one could reach it. With effort, I got myself over the barrier and continued my ascent, to the calm and spaciousness of this penthouse.

Now she comes to me, leaning over me, smelling of gardenias. She is wearing a sheath dress of rose-colored silk, and she is breathtakingly beautiful. She kisses and caresses me, lovingly. Slow and tender, she begins to engage me in erotic foreplay. I know her name. I have known it since I saw her on the big screen as a young boy in Australia. She is Ava Gardner, and she is the most beautiful woman in the world.

She is the Goddess, she is the universal power of the Divine Feminine, she is all women, and I feel the joy and grace of her blessing. I rise in the morning light, grateful that the blessing of the Goddess is with me.

- Dream from May 28, 2011

A friend who read this report found a photo of a dress that may well be the one that Ava wore in my dream. It was worn by Avan Gardner in 1965 and is currently on display at the "Balenciaga and Spain" exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Another friend points out that "Ava" and "Eve" have the same root, and are related to the Hebrew "chava", which speaks of the vital serpent energy of life.

15 comments:

cobweb said...

She was indeed the most beautiful woman in the world!

Robert Moss said...

And if so, then perhaps the inner beauty of ALL women?

Savannah said...

This dream narrative flows so beautifully, Robert. I am chuckling now over a dream fragment I posted to your online forum on May 22. The fragment is of a dream report opening with "the most beautiful woman in the world," which my dream journal assigns to you but I didn't initially bother reporting because I wasn't sure and it didn't seem relevant then to mention... My dream self knows the woman is a river, but "not the Mississippi." I am now learning Ava Gardner once starred in Show Boat in which the Mississippi features as "Ole Man River". Maybe
my mystery woman was "not the Mississippi" but his co-star :-).

Robert Moss said...

Savannah - Rivers (in mythology and folklore) are often personified as goddesses. I was just reading how the first particle in the name of the river Danube refers to the Great Goddess. Of course, there are river gods too. ("I think that the river is a strong brown god," wrote T.S.Eliot).

I shall re-read your dream report at the forum. Lovely to think that "the most beautiful woman in the world" has the depth and flow of a mighty river.

Anonymous said...

What a great dream! Thank you for sharing, Robert.

Naomi said...

Too bad Ava could not have heard about this dream. She had such a bad go of it with men in this life, so fraught with the egos of men and the need to control.

Maybe it really was Ava, Robert!

Naomi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert Moss said...

Naomi - Though I'm flattered to think that Ava might drop in on me from the Other Side - or rendezvous with me in a liminal space between the worlds - I really do see the Goddess beyond the movie star here. I commented on her first name (=Eve) but did not discuss the significance of her surname. Gardner sounds like Gardener, and the Great Goddess is most certainly a Garden Goddess. In another dream of getting to "room at the top" a week before this one, I came out unexpectedly on the top level of a hotel that opened out into a magnificent roof garden with sweeping views of the mountains.

nina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert Moss said...

Nina - Thanks for growing our literary garden. I have that curious novel by Gustav Meyrink, but did not get very far into it on a first reading. I'll look to see what his gardener grows.

Valerie said...

Ava Gardner was in one of my favorite movies from childhood called"One touch of Venus". My best friend and I would watch it together every time it was on and she bought it for me for my bday. It was an obscure film of hers. In it, she is the statue of Venus, the Goddess of Love and due to a young man(Robert Walker), she is given permission to be human and they fall in love. It reminded me of your dream.

Robert Moss said...

Valerie - Ah, that's one that I missed in boyhood, unless in my dreams. I have always loved the idea that our love can bring things alive whether this involves the Velveteen Rabbit or a goddess statue, or a previously listless and soul-gone person....Thanks for the confirmation that Ava the Gardener IS a goddess!

Valerie said...

Loved what you said about love being able to bring things alive.So true!! I will bring the movie to the next dream circle in case you would like to see it. It is a VHS though...

samcandide said...

Yes, because my own dreams are given to puns and especially name puns, my first thought was of Eve in the Garden (of Eden)--primal woman.

Robert Moss said...

Eve in the Garden. Yes, indeed! And another of my recent articles involve an apple orchard (though not in Eden). You can see that here:http://blog.beliefnet.com/dreamgates/2011/05/follow-your-own-merlin.html