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What is the connection between dreams and magic?

Peregrine

Troubadour
The Dream of a Dragon:

Some dreams have helped me in worldbuilding, I had a dream where I dreamt a two-headed dragon, the dragon looked like a lindworm, it had two legs in the upper body like a seal and the body of a huge sea serpent. The dragon spitted venom like a cobra.

The Undead Mob:

I had another dreams where many undead runned to kill me, it felt like a RPG where you kill zombies like Left 4 Dead, though some people may be freaked out by undead, I was not scared at all, on the contrary, it was fun and exciting.

Dreamwalking:

In my world "dreamwalking" is a type of magic where a awoken person enters the dream of a dreaming person, the person who is dreaming could see the intruder of his dreams.
Some vampires haunt the living when they are dreaming in their home, the vampire "dreamwalks" into the dream of a dreaming person and the dreaming person seeing such morbid creature will likely feel dread and anxiety and could wake up from this nightmare. The vampire "dreamwalks" to send a message for the living person that he is coming for that person and to tempt that person to look through the window of his home. When the awoken person goes to see through window the vampire stares at the person with a soulless gaze to instill fear into that person and to drive the other person insane with his magic.

Do you see any connection between dreams and magic?:

In dreams there are often supernatural things happening, if we imagine something in a dream, it could happen. When I was dreaming of going in a elevator in a abandoned building, I heard a psychopathic laugh from somewhere, the laugh was a product of my mind, because I feared that there was an evil person inside that building I produced a laugh in my dream against my will.
Some people often dream to be flying. Why did I dream of flying? Because I had the wish to fly and my mind subconsciously decided to make me fly in a dream.

In dreams we hear sounds, people, things and do stuff we couldn't do in real life, can dreams be the guide to a magician that wants to develop his magic? Can dreams be his source of "mana"?
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Peregrine!

I am sorry for having taken quite a long time to reply to your post. It's just that I spend a lot of time working on my stories, and also my health has not been so good these days. Thanks for that interesting post, I enjoyed it.

Yes, I see a potential connection between dreams and magic for Fantasy stories.

One of my favorite concepts is that of Dreamworlds. A Dreamworld is a setting that is not necessarily a dream that you have while you sleep, but it's composed of the same material or energy anyway. This means that all types of supernatural and magical things can happen in a Dreamworld, and its owner has some degree of control over it.

I view the Dreamworld as a stable structure, and sometimes out of the control of its owner.

For example, if the owner starts to feel sad and anxious then those feelings could have some impact on the Dreamworld. If you are feeling great, the same happens! There would be advantages in a Dreamworld (like the fact that you are Magical in there) but also disadvantages, like somehow getting trapped in it.

As far as I know, Dreamwalking is a power that has been featured in many Fantasy stories.

I have not used it in any of my stories, but I have included prophetic dreams and distant viewing. The concept of invading dreams is pretty much a classic, and I like it. There is a cool Charmed episode about that. In a Supernatural story of mine, a ghost woman discovers the power to cause awkward dreams and even nightmares to her victims.

A nice concept would be a Mage that gets inspiration for architecture, music, complicated combat strategies and whatnot inside of a Dreamworld, and later all those things are replicated in the Waking life.
 
The Dream of a Dragon:

Do you see any connection between dreams and magic?:

Yes, absolutely. For me magic comes from the dreamworld. It's a place where the logical rules of this world break down and where magic can happen. It's where our best ideas and inspiration come from.

Your dragon dream sounds really fascinating. I've had dragon dreams too. Dragons seem to speak so loudly to fantasy authors. I'm sure that means they're speaking us to from the dreamworld and want their stories telling...
 
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