Ever since I heard of memory palaces, I’ve been fascinated by them! I don’t have one, or rather I don’t have much of one—I picked out a place (a childhood home that I remember clearly) and put things in it, but then didn’t “refresh” it or organize it. The information I put there has faded, leaving ghostly images on the countertops, in the laundry room, and in the sinks.
Something I’ve noticed about place: in dreams, complex, group relationships tend to become locations. I was aghast when I found out that it wasn’t just me! A weird family dymanic becomes a nightmare about a house with secret doorways, basements that lead to lower basements, or rooms that appear and disappear. A friend group gets reflected in an attempt to move into, or out of, a spare bedroom in a house that isn’t yours. I’ve spent a lot of time in dreams trying to pack or unpack things, feeling exhausted and waking more tired than I went to sleep.
I feel like those of us who have such dreams, our brains are trying to process something too complex to truly understand by building a “location” to containerize and sort out who is involved and their relationships to each other.
You are trapped here. You are not welcome in this space. Leave the stuff behind. You’re not trying to get out, you’re just digging yourself in deeper. There is a hidden connection here.
There is always another way out.