Dream: The Rainbow Raven

Dream 20030128, 7:00 AM:

I am walking down Avenel street, in front of the house, and I think I am saying goodbye to someone, like a friend who has been visiting and is now walking away. I look down in the front yard and there is a large raven; it has a very distinctive look, and some little hairs on its face that I know distinguish it from an ordinary crow. It shakes itself, and I see a flash of yellow; I realize that it’s not all black, it has some yellow under feathers. Then, I lean down and try to pick it up; it steps up neatly onto my hand just like a tame parrot, and I look at it more closely. It is mostly gold and silver metallic colors now, with only traces of black. The feathers on its shoulders and back are tiny and tightly-packed, like the feathers on a peacock’s head. They are mostly silver, edged with little bits of gold, and they are irridescent and shiny.

I carry the bird inside, and I’m talking to him to see if he’ll answer back. He does, repeating exactly what I say each time. He has a small but very clear voice, like a parrot when it is trying to be quiet. I keep using different words, to see if he actually knows the words or if he is just repeating exactly what I say… and he appears to be just mimicking me, using the same inflections and tone of voice. I carry him around for a while, then back outside, where Chris has gotten into a car to carpool to his office. He’s in a back seat, and the car is full. I go to the car window, and he rolls it down, and I get the bird to demonstrate… I remember saying, “Beylorussian” and the bird repeated it back, then “Russian.” Chris just nods his head, and the carpool takes off. By this time, the bird has some rosy and green colors to it, and the black is almost all gone.

I take the bird back inside. The house has a different layout than the actual house. I find a bag of parrot food in a cabinet, and as I walk along trying to get to where the bird will stay, it is picking at the plastic bag. It looks somewhat more like a parrot now, with a hooked beak. It’s still about the same size as when it was more of a raven, though. I take it down the hall, to a room that has a bunked pair of twin beds, and the door is like a Dutch door where the top and bottom halves swing independently. We go through the bottom half of the door, and into the room. I’m thinking that there is a parrot stand in here, and that I might have something that will work for a cage at least temporarily. I put the bird down so that I can dig through the closet, and I find the stand and a cage that fits over the top of it. I am setting this up, and the bird is walking around on the bed. It’s a classic raven shape once again, all the parrot is gone. It is now partly black, with the rose, green, and gold showing through the black as if they are an undercoat of feathers. When he ruffles himself, they show very clearly. He is on the bottom bunk bed, and as he’s walking along the bed, another similar raven, all black, jumps down from the underside of the top bunk. I pick this one up, and it is very silky, and I notice that one of its eyes is closed. I look at it, and say, “You’re not a raven, you’re the cat in disguise.” I think he was trying to fool the raven into playing with him, although I don’t feel like there is a danger of the raven getting hurt or killed.