Description of Parts of the Dreaming World

Question:

Where in Dreaming can one find calm, beautiful places to rest? Where there are no unpleasant creatures, aggression, etc.

I know only three calm places – a preserve, paradise, and the "abandoned lands". Imagine a large something in the center of the map – the City, below it a dense layer of associated dreamings (like beads on strings extending from the city). One city district embodies "Industrialization". This part is slightly submerged deep within the Tonal (it is often confused with the first of the Lower Worlds).

From this part, go down to the north. When you pass the zone of cataclysms (whirlwinds, tornadoes), you will see some settlement (fishing, dacha, poor – it varies for everyone). There, a friendly companion will join you (the one you are looking for). Jung would say that you will meet your animus.

Go even lower, through the area of hermits (they teach schema, celibacy, and it's better not to waste your time on them). Ask one of them to lead you to their sanctuary. Immediately beyond it begins a small passage into the "abandoned lands". It is impossible to describe them... There, everything is familiar, close, yet somehow abandoned – beautiful castles, sports grounds, places where any person could have been happy, but there are no people. A place of profound serenity.

If from here you draw a diagonal through the center, you will reach a mountainous or hilly area on the other end. It's almost in the corner of the map, and there's also a hidden passage there. For me, it unfolds like this: I enter a balustrade that I once saw in childhood in a recreational park, and I find myself on a narrow road. It's overgrown with vineyards, and there's always bright sunshine there. All that remains is to climb a small mountain, and below, a path to paradise begins. My paradise itself is small, surrounded by a ring of strange, jagged mountains. It's astonishingly beautiful and peaceful there.

One usually enters the preserve at the stage of total recollection. In your dreamings, you often encounter a sea or a large lake. It seems boundless. In the middle there is an island, all shores are covered in reeds. You need to walk through them for a while. The ground is swampy, some creatures flash by on the sides (I always thought they were crocodiles), and the atmosphere is quite unpleasant. But then you arrive at a place where a part of you is stored, a part of your luminosity, your power. This part merges with you, bringing its knowledge, memories, etc., into your consciousness.

To accumulate power, do not go into, or learn to leave, labyrinths (any kind), the last three Lower Worlds, your institution; try to avoid (in Dreaming) encounters with close relatives and tricksters (a Sprite who seems like a friend but constantly sets you up).

The House of Teachers is a wandering structure. It is usually located in the northern half (down and slightly to the left). It is sometimes before the zone of cataclysms, sometimes after it – but nearby. As soon as a Lucid Dream begins, look for the wind, with the intention that it carries you to the desired part of the map. Try La Gorda's technique (with liquid and a finger snap).