On Sunday my wife and I attended a private birthday party.
The theme of the party was ‘Characters from Alice in Wonderland’ and lots of people turned up in costume. I had been asked if I would be available to give people Palm readings (yes) but I wasn’t aware of any Palm reader in the Wonderland books. Hmmm, what is a seer to do?
I settled on something smart and formal with the addition of a star-covered fabric waistcoat. But which character should my beloved wife portray?
We decided that formal attire would also be good for her, too. And while the addition of red roses in her hair, the hearts on her bracelet and the toy white rabbit she would carry (carefully embroidered with the suits of playing cards on his vest and cufflinks) would be in keeping with the theme, she would also need some distinctiveness – and naturally the more magical the better!
As anyone knows who knows her, she is a great hand-crafter and all-round creative person. Given the amount of spinning, weaving, wool-dying, knitting and crocheting she does I sometimes refer to her as a ‘Wool Witch’. (I obviously do not refer to the Warmley Weavers group as her ‘coven’, so please put that idea out of your mind!)
Anyway, given that I would be reading Palms she decided that she would be ‘The DreamSpinner’ – a character Lewis Carroll shamefully cut from the final draft of the Wonderland books!
Spinning your Dreams
For anyone not a student of the canon I should tell you that The DreamSpinner would get you to tell her your troubles while she spun her yarn. This would take away your problems by spinning them into the fibres of the yarn so that you started to feel better. She would then give you the spun yarn to keep under your pillow while you slept. When the time was right the ball of yarn would disappear as your troubles started to work themselves out.
This has shades of the Guatemalan ‘Worry Dolls’ but as the yarn is spun as you watch and think of your problem there is real magic at work here. The transformation which takes place is also related to the tale of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ where the heroine of the story has to spin straw into gold.
When my beloved ‘reminded’ me of this character it seemed just perfect for the event. And as it turned out several people wanted Palm readings, some had very important personal problems. . . and they all wanted help from The DreamSpinner.
Taking the magic in faerie-tales and making it come to life like this makes something truly magical.
Ready to Spin again with the finished Yarn
Anyone can create this kind of magic.
And everyone who has ever heard the phrase “Once upon a time. . .” will share the magic with you.
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There is magic in our connection to our dreams @ Astrogemer
Sweet dreams from both of us. . .