A is for Anima and Animus, the male within women and the female within men. A theory of Jung's that I find easier on the mind than thinking that the appearances of Julianna Margulies and Joan Chen in my head in the last week was saying something about my inner self and not really a shapeshifting old Greek guy.
B is for Brainwave. Beta, Alpha, Delta, Theta. Seems they were on to something back in the long ago. The brothers Hypnos & Thanatos. Deep Sleep & Death live in their cave next to each other, as well as riding on the last two waves in our skull. And then there is Morpheus for the wave that brings dreams. Who then is the brother or sister of Full Alertness?
C is for Chaos, the father of Nyx the night and in time the Great Grand Dad of Morpheus. Now you know which side of the family some of your dreams get their looks from.
D is for Dreams. Letters from ourselves, what good are they if we don't open them and take a look?
E is for Eris Goddess of Discord, sister of Hypnos, aunt of Morpheus. Are we starting to see a strong family resemblance here?
F is for the Fates, more of Morpheus' dear aunties. And you thought it was bad when yours pinched your cheeks when you were young.
G is for Gaia the sister of Nyx and the Goddess of the Earth. You know Morpheus hoped to be sent to her place for Summer vacation. The cooking was better.
H is for Hypnos the father of Morpheus, not much of a dad I fear, spent a lot of time sleeping on a couch. Perhaps that's why so many of us are able to relate to him.
I is for Icelus & Phantasus the brothers of Morpheus. One did animals and the other did objects. If a robot dog shows up in a dream do they flip for it?
J is for Juno the Queen of the Gods, who like her counterpart Hera used the services of the God of Sleep. Ironically sending as her spokes diety the multi-hued glowing Goddess Iris to his dark abode. Just because your in charge does not mean you can't have a sense of humor.
K is for the Keres, another of Nyx's children and the Greek `Angel of Death.' Sharp toothed, red robed, eyes gleaming she hovered above battlefields delivering the final blow. Always brings brings the deserts (just) to the family get togethers.
L is for Lethe, the river of Oblivion that flows through the Land of the Dead. Winding in time beside the Cave of Hypnos and Thanatos. It's sound the only one to be found.
M is for Morpheus, the God of Dreams. Appearing in few myths he's still a very versatile fellow. Later moved in with a new group so that now his fame appears to be one of the Endless.
N is for Nyx, or Nox if you have a hard time pronouncing that! Along with Gaia the first of the intelligent deities, as well as the one feared by all even Zeus, Ares & Apollo. I understand she was nice to her kids though.
O is for Oneiroi the 1000 little black-winged daimones who were lesser dreams. Now you know why dream interpretation was once referred to as oneiroiolgy.
P is for Pasithea the mother of Morpheus, sometimes also called Aglia. She was one of the graces. Brightness.... think of it as Martha Stewart marrying Christopher Lee and giving birth to Johnny Depp.
Q is for Quest, as in those that take place in dreams. Ever awakened more tired then when you went to sleep? Try running around in your head less.
R is for Rapid Eye Movement. The sure sign that a sleeper is dreaming, it has been found that the true refreshing part of sleep does not take place until this action and dreaming has taken place. Perhaps it's just your sleeping self trying to keep track of the three brothers.
S is for Somnus, the Roman version of Hypnos. Like so many Roman renderings of these beings a bit more tough, like his Greek counterpart he cast sleep on others great and meek, however he followed up once by killing poor Palinurus by pushing him into the drink.
T is for Thanatos, the "older" twin of Hypnos and uncle to Morpheus. He lived with his brother in a dark cave in Hades. The original odd couple? I assume he was the neat one.
U is for unconscious, better known as sleep. The term seeming to say that sleep is a state of non-thought, which our dreams put to the lie.
Perhaps paraconacious would be a better word.
V is for vision, or a waking dream. Often sought for insight, as long as you don't end up with one that has you showing up at school in your underwear for real.
W is for wakefulness, the opposite of dreaming. Somewhat like it, only with better color and worse diversity.
X is for Xuxa and Xerxes playing a Xylophone under a Xiphoid shaped X-mass tree. Truly what could be a better study of Xenology (strangeness) than dreams?
Y is for yearning or that is to say to want. There are those who say that dreams are just our secret yearnings taking a test run through in our heads. If that's the case, then someone please explain why I was trying to eat a 50-pound boiled turnip using chop sticks the night before last?
Z is for Zeus, King of the Gods. Once, we are told, put soundly asleep by Morpheus' dad Hypnos, on waking and finding what had been done he readied a lightning bolt to blow him to bits. Until dissuaded by a hard look from Nyx. Here we learn something about the real power among the Olympians I think.
A is for Anima and Animus, the male within women and the female within men. A theory of Jung's that I find easier on the mind than thinking that the appearances of Julianna Margulies and Joan Chen in my head in the last week was saying something about my inner self and not really a shapeshifting old Greek guy.
J is for Juno the Queen of the Gods, who like her counterpart Hera used the services of the God of Sleep. Ironically sending as her spokes diety the multi-hued glowing Goddess Iris to his dark abode. Just because your in charge does not mean you can't have a sense of humor.
R is for Rapid Eye Movement. The sure sign that a sleeper is dreaming, it has been found that the true refreshing part of sleep does not take place until this action and dreaming has taken place. Perhaps it's just your sleeping self trying to keep track of the three brothers.