The Mirror of Your Dreams
Turn around
Look at what you see
In her face
The mirror of your dreams
Make believe I'm everywhere
Given in the light
Written on the pages
Is the answer to a neverending story
Ah
Reach the stars
Fly a fantasy
Dream a dream
And what you see will be
Rhymes that keep their secrets
Will unfold behind the clouds
And there upon a rainbow
Is the answer to a neverending story
Ah
Story
Ah
Show no fear
For she may fade away
In your hand
The birth of a new day
Rhymes that keep their secrets
Will unfold behind the clouds
And there upon a rainbow
Is the answer to a neverending story
Ah
Neverending story
Ah
Neverending story
Ah
Neverending story
Ah
Neverending story
The Never Ending story remains, to this day, one of my all time favorite films. Not just the movie itself, which is incredible, but the idea of this movie. This is a film about wish fulfillment. About the wonders of creativity and imagination. This is a movie about the child-like awe and innocence we experience the world with before we grow up and all of that goes away (unless we really fight for it). This is a movie about dreams and fantasies; about finding new life in your own imagination. About the power of reading and of books; about the heartbreak of the hero’s journey and the desire to create; to be, what you want to be.
I wrote three books myself (called The Twinning by Justin R. Cary) and they are heavily influenced by this movie. So what is the Neverending Story? For me, it is the endless imagination and creative potential of humanity; we are a species that creates. A species that dreams, that wonders, that sees the potential in things. Those dreams bring us to the Seven of Cups and the idea of what it means to live in real life and what it means to live in dreams.
As I consider most of my favorite creative fiction, a lot of it revolves around dreams, or the moving between worlds (such as the ‘real world’ and some kind of fantasy world). Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” (my all time favorite fiction series) has its characters world jumping through metaphysical ‘doors’; they literally enter into the conscious mind of other people in other realities. The Lord of the Rings moves between the worlds of its races; the idealized pastures of the Shire, the dreamlike, time-lost realm of the Elves, the dark and stoic caverns of the Dwarves and the corrupt and decaying world of Man. The MCU’s multiverse, the work of David Lynch (constantly exploring dreams, identity, moving between worlds), Stranger Things (the ‘real world’ and the upside down); so much of the stuff I love has to do with this movement between realities. Why do we enjoy this kind of thing? Is it just escapism; a desire to believe in something greater than ourselves, in some kind of magical realm just beyond our reach? Religion is kinda like that, in a sense. Most popular faith practices ask people to believe in a world they cannot see or comprehend; another plane of existence that we can only reach if we believe and transcend. Even our own physiology offers us this promise of escaping; because our brains are wired to imagine and create we can easily use them to build these other worlds that only exist in our minds. This was always the appeal of writing fantasy fiction for me; because I could literally build, create and imagine anything I wanted in the words I put on the page. The Seven of Cups reminds us that the world of the imagination can be very exciting and offer us so many interesting things; the cups depicted on the card overflowing with dream like symbols; towers and snakes and a bountiful harvest; all of these images floating in the clouds (clouds which are often symbols for imagination and dreams in the Tarot). The Cups themselves are held up by clouds, indicating that these images are perhaps a bit ethereal, wispy, and we should use caution when chasing these kinds of dreams.
So the question becomes, do we chase down our dreams, no matter how ‘imagined’ they may be or do we keep one foot firmly rooted in reality, knowing that it can be good to dream, but if we live with our ‘head in the
clouds’, we may never live at all. This is a challenging question and one that you should ponder. For me, I need my imagination; I need to feel the pull of other worlds, the shimmer of a curtain, impossible to see, but if only I could pull it back there would be something there on the other side; some other world waiting for me. A world where anything is possible. But if we spend our life chasing these imagined worlds, have we truly lived? I will let you answer that question, dear friend. And I would direct your attention back to the lyrics above; ‘turn around. look at what you see.’ The figure on the Seven of Cups has turned around, turned from us, and is now taking in the splendor of these seven cups and what they have to offer; these dreams, reflecting the paths ahead and the future, real or imagined, that might come to pass; the mirror of your dreams.
Reach the stars. Fly a fantasy. Dream a dream. And what you see will be.