Coyote's Den

I had this Dream on the 21st of December, 1997. The images from this Dream have haunted and inspired me ever since.

In the dream, I'd climbed to the top of a mountain. I was dragging a huge net behind me... The net went all the way to the ocean far below. At the top of the mountain, the net still dragged far into the ocean.

I knew that the object of my endeavor was to get as much of the net up high, and down the other side of the mountain... I could see that the ocean water was being drawn with the strands of the net... The water was running in rivulets down the mountainside in places... Into lands it never would have reached. The air was getting damp from all the evaporation... I knew that so much water was being moved that the whole climate would change in those areas. I knew there would be storms and rain... and that things would grow in those lands as a result... some of them wonderful and desperately needed... and some of them horrible, and just as necessary. And It was so difficult... I realized that there was not so much water running off that net... not to speak of. Just what was dripping off the wet strands. And I worked harder so I could complete my work before the net dried out.

And there was another ocean on the other side of the mountain. Some of the water dripping from the net was running down that side of the mountain to the other ocean. And on the side from which I drew the net, the waters were following the water I'd dragged up. Water was running uphill after the water I'd already brought. It had almost reached me.. it was crashing and gurgling just a few paces below where I sat gathering the net. I was trying to edge that net around the mountainside, to get at places I'd missed and try to get more of it to the other side of the mountain. I knew if I could, that the water from the ocean on one side would be able to reach the ocean on the other side. It would work like a siphon, the water would run down the far side, and draw up far more water than I could drag with a wet bundle of net, no matter how large. And all the lands in between would be affected.

It was then that I noticed that the lands to either side of the mountain were vast... it was like I could see the whole continent from one place. Indeed, the top of the mountain, even though I could put one leg on one side and the other on the other side, held a vast land as well. But I was not any larger than normal. It was as though I sat at the edge of a huge expanse, but could still reach both sides. And the mountain of course was tall... but at the same time it was like there wasn't much distance between top and bottom.

Some of the ocean water that was running uphill was, as I mentioned crashing against some rocks nearby... I noticed some movement. There was a coyote in the spray thrown up on the "dry" side of the rocks. He would sit for a moment, then roll around for a bit... I realized after a moment that he was enjoying the spray from the ocean. This coyote, strangely enough, was black. Not completely black... not lightless or without markings, but mostly black, with some darker and lighter hairs... he appeared black to the eye, but not an unnatural black. Except that coyotes aren't that color. )

I kept on with my work, enjoying the company, kind of hoping he'd come over and visit with me. I'd mostly got the net and things arranged as I liked... I was nearly done. I have to note, that this work was very time consuming, and it wasn't easy... and I really had to pay attention to what I was doing to guide this huge unwieldy thing over all that terrain... but somehow, it was not tedious. It felt good to be doing it. It felt rewarding, and I enjoyed it.

Then I noticed, a little further down the mountain... on the side I'd drawn the net up from, that there was a dog. Not just any dog... this was one of those weird mastiffs that looks sort of like a hound... the dogs are white, but over the sides of their faces, over each eye there is a black or brown mask. I don't know if they have any of these dogs in the waking world anymore or not, but they were used to hunt foxes and wolves... I became worried that it would attack the coyote by me... sure enough, it was advancing up the mountainside towards us. The coyote just looked at me when I tried to run him off. I realized I'd have better luck running the dog off. So I went charging down the mountainside, yelling at the dog and it became frightened and ran away. It didn't run quite the direction I wanted it to, so I looked back to make sure the coyote was not in danger.

He wasn't... he was running in my direction. I called out to him, and tried to see if I could get him to come over to me... he changed direction more towards where I stood, but rushed past. I was able to reach out and touch him though - he ran right by my legs.

He was running towards another animal, which I thought at first was an injured wolf. The coyote ran around this animal a couple times, then took off. At first I thought he was going to attack the injured animal, but he just went around a couple times and ran into the distance.

I could then see that it was some kind of dog, but it was in such bad shape that it was hard to tell what kind of animal it was... it was missing a hind leg... the leg had been torn away by something, so that a stump of bone was sticking out. As it came closer to me, I saw that what I thought were markings at first were patches where it had been mauled so that pieces of skin and flesh were torn away. And all the skin on it's face was gone... it had no lips, no eyelids... but it could still sort of see. It was obviously in agony. And I remember trying to call on whatever power one has in dreams to put the poor thing out of it's misery... to just let it die. But it held on very tenaciously to life. It would not have an easy death. It staggered and swayed as it moved. I could not will it to die.

Another dog ran up... some kind of mutt... and it was clearly diseased. I could feel the sickness surrounding it. It moved jerkily, as if it was in the throes of some horrible illness. And it's eyes were glazed over and white... covered with cataracts, or perhaps the cells in the eyes were dead and rotten. I knew it could see, but barely.

Then the first mauled animal became some kind of deer. Or perhaps it had been all along.. it's outline was so distorted by mutilation that it had been hard to tell... it was still injured in the same way... and it came running at me, faster and faster.

This was all so horrible, and there was nothing I could do, so I went back up the mountain.

And the dream ended.

Update 5/3/98: The SE Alabama howl (which I attended) was held at Buck's Pocket State Park, between April 10 and 19, 1998. In the Ranger's office was a taxidermied coyote... a black coyote exactly like the one in this dream. so much for the idea that "coyotes aren't that color". The ranger there said that he'd never seen a coyote that color before, either. It was apparently shot by someone in Nearby Gadsden, AL, who missed a deer, and so instead shot this coyote, who he claimed was "chasing" the deer. I haven't figured out yet if this is just co-incidence, or what, if anything it could mean. Weird though.

There were weres from all over coming together... And the last day there was torrential rain that apparently caused flooding that necessitated the park's closing. This has made me wonder a little, as there was so much water in the dream. Then the bit with the deer.