The False Prophet

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

Clear water from a sacred stream

Has sanctified your vow,

But you remind me of a dream

That none remembers now.

 

You took a year I’d made of loss

And healed it in a day.

But that, I knew, would bear a cost

I wouldn’t care to pay.

 

Now none remembers what you said,

The grief upon your brow.

You told us all to worship dread-

And who remembers now?

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by Mihaly Zichy

The Majesty

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

 

When the Majesty asked why the stars were put out, the Son of the First Man replied: “How could I know, with their begging and their radiance?”

 

Though he brought to the sun to the heavens,

Though he fished us out of a cold, cold star

Though he bound the worm to the waters

In a secret war.

 

Though he split the land from the water,

Though he put each star in its own true place

Though he spared us all from the slaughter

I fear his face.

 

He is a fiery dark god bursting free in destruction, a demiurge, a hunter of those who steal the fire of heaven. The least of his descendants are among the highest of the high.

 

I bent my knee once

And came down out of the majesty of death

Because I needed to learn to love the animal.

I desired to know myself in the anguish of multiplicity.

 

In my breathing out and my breathing in

In the birth and death of suns and planets

In my incarnation and my crucifixion.

 

In the city of ghosts where God walks, wreathed in fire.

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by William Blake

The Wonder, the Horror, and the Art

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

A trio of goddesses named the Playful One, the Flowing One and Bloody-Face. The Playful One plays a bone harp. The Flowing One sings. Bloody-Face moans eerily in the form of a gray standing stone. The Flowing One once slew a dragon by diving into its mouth and cutting her way back out through its belly with her sword. Bloody-Face sometimes takes the form of a giantess dancing wildly, holding a severed head. The Playful One sometimes manifests as a little girl with curly hair, wearing a red dress. She can destroy worlds with the smallest gesture.

 

The three goddesses, when they were girls,

Were always quarreling. Bloody-Face

Would make a mess when the Flowing One

Sought to impress her friends. She would turn

Into a giantess and dance like

A madwoman with a severed head.

Meanwhile the Playful One, who was dressed

In red, didn’t think it was funny

At all. And with a shake of her curls

She would destroy whole worlds. Now, these girls

Are all grown. Bloody-Face, made of stone,

Moans crazily in the winter wind.

The Playful One plays along on a

White harp made of bone. The Flowing One

Sings a song. They never got along.

And now, by the will of the great gods,

These three goddesses can never part.

The wonder, the horror and the art.

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by John Bauer

 

The Secret of Solomon

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

A mighty and terrifying dragon or traveler between worlds who can change shape and appear as male or female, dragon or human, or even as a pile of books. A powerful teacher of dream alchemy.

 

She looked at me- I call it she, although

No hint of human life was in its eyes-

And said, “I know you’re scared, but do not rise.

 

“You’ve used the secret fire, but there is more.

We wish you to evolve.” Her watchful face

Was wax-like, alien. I saw the place

 

She’d traveled from, and it was far- so far.

My chest was aching with a fear so cold

My blood felt sluggish. I had walked the old

 

And near-forgotten pathways. I had seen

My glimpse of burning wheels and turning gears,

And yet this creature woke my deepest fears

 

As easily as if she’d read the book

I keep sequestered in my hidden heart.

And yet, if she could teach the ancient art

 

Of changing roses into flying birds

And dreams to facts, and facts to other dreams-

I nodded slowly, and her cold eyes gleamed.

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by Valere Bernard

The Red Queen

The Book of Onei is an antinomian dream grimoire, providing deceptive yet true information about the art of Oneiromancy or dream magic in the form of poetry, fantasy, and intentionally ambiguous instructions.

 

A pale, dark-haired fairy queen dressed in red, presiding over the wild celebrations of the Kind.

 

The elven queen’s in red tonight,

The night is hard and wild.

Her eyes reflect a distant light,

It makes him glad to see the sight.

He giggles like a child.

 

“I warned you once, each seven years…”

She says. Her face is grim.

The kiss she gave him long ago

Means little now, but even so,

It matters most to him.

 

“I kissed you once. It seemed that we…

But then, you had such words.”

She cannot shake his foolish grin

Despite her people, closing in,

As close as hungry birds.

 

“I’m sorry that we ever met.”

She says it soft and low.

They say the Lady has no heart.

That’s true enough, but it was art

That snared her, even so.

 

“I always try to stop myself.

It always ends the same.

And you, so fair and full of flesh-

But it was I who wove the mesh.”

She looks away in shame.

 

“Enough of this. The land of dreams

Demands your mortal life.”

She lifts her hand and lets it fall-

And with a sudden, hungry call

She turns and draws the knife.

 

– from the Book of Onei, Part III: The Powers of Onei

 

Image by Giovanni Segantini