Fire in the Palm of his Hand

This dream incorporates people from Star Trek, Next Generation and some esoteric knowledge. I think I will need to follow up this post with some more research. The dream begins with Captain Jon Luc Picard and Doctor Beverly Crusher on the bridge of the Enterprise. The uniforms of the captain and the doctor are a mix between Star Fleet and medieval royal attire with Picard as king and Crusher as a queen. The captain/king is escorting his doctor/queen by the hand to their chairs/thrones upon the bridge. Commander Ryker is there to the left of the bridge/throne room. His outfit/uniform can be characterized as fool/jester/prince and executive officer. The scene is like Straight out of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ryker is Hamlet and Picard the uncle king, with the doctor as mother queen. The star ship Enterprise (the kingdom) has been invaded by the Borg  There is a crisis in the kingdom. Ryker is deriding and mocking the king's inability to respond to this invasion. Picard just glares at him.

Meanwhile, below decks Jordie and Data are making their way through darkened Jeffrey tubes seeking to bypass the borg drones. Data, rather oddly, has an open blue white flame burning in the palm of his right hand to light their way. Suddenly, they are attacked, data is knocked down. He is pushing a drone away with his left arm while trying to keep the flame from going out in his right hand. Then Jordie steps in with a laser rifle to dispatch the drone. The next thing I see is a bunch of new drones being teleported onto this deck. At least six or eight drones are arrayed before them and they start performing some crazy choreographed disco music and singing/dance routine, and then the end credits begin scroll down within our field of view, and I wake up.

Myself, I'm just an ordinary crew member wanting to get out of this bizarre sci-fi farce. I want to find my girlfriend, Haki, and escape from of this weird intergalactic conflict. This whole situation is nuts! Ha, ha!

So let's briefly touch on the meanings of the symbols here. First, we have a king and queen. I see Picard and Crusher as the royal or divine godly archetypes like Osiris and Isis. Ryker is, of course, the trickster archetype like the Norse god Loki or the Native American version, coyote. Data is the Hermes or Mercury archetype. Jordie is our hero archetype like Hercules. The Borg is our antagonist. They play the collectivist/communist adversary out to destroy individuality and are utilitarian in their use of knowledge and learning.  The dream fits well within the mythic motif as espoused by the late great Joseph Campbell and used in countless books, movies and prehistoric campfire stories.

For myself that blue flame located in Data's right palm must be the most useful and fascinating symbol within this dream. Data's archetype is that of Mercury, a messenger, of the gods. In Greek and Roman myth Hermes/Mercury is actually a hermaphrodite. Data's android persona nicely incorporates both feminine and male aspects. Hermes'/Mercury's role according to Wikipedia:

Hermes was a god of transitions and boundaries. He was quick and cunning, and moved freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, as emissary and messenger of the gods,^[1] intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He was protector and patron of travelers, herdsmen, thieves,^[2] orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, invention and trade.^[3] In some myths he is a trickster, and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster and the tortoise, purse or pouch, winged sandals, winged cap, and his main symbol was the herald's staff, the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus which consisted of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.^[4]

The Data of the Star Trek movies and film fulfills a similar function to the Greek and Roman one, and it is interesting that his name "Data" represents the smallest bit of quantitative and qualitative variables, and can be viewed, as an abstract concept, as the lowest level in which information and thus knowledge can be derived. Mercury, the planet, is the closest to the Sun, the divine orb, and Data is very much Captain Pickard's right hand man and messenger. The corollaries are all so obvious!

I digress here. Let's get back to analyzing that flame in Data's right palm. Fire's symbolism is one of both war and destruction, and creativity and passion. The flame can also characterize learning and knowledge. Data certainly embodies all these qualities literally and metaphorically in the palm of his hand.

The fact that this flame is in Data's right hand has symbolic significance as the right hand is regarded as male using compassion and skillful means in the operation of white magic. The left being "not right" and feminine, and used for black magic.

The blue white character of the flames suggests multiple things. Blue white is what is seen in clear sky of mid day. A clarity of vision. The way is lighted before us. Blue symbolizes the emotion of sadness. The white component adds a divine sense of purpose to it. To quote Wikipedia again:

 Blue in Hinduism: Many of the gods are depicted as having blue-coloured skin, particularly those associated with Vishnu, who is said to be the Preserver of the world and thus intimately connected to water. Krishna and Ram, Vishnu's avatars, are usually blue.Shiva, the Destroyer, is also depicted in light blue tones and is called neela kantha, or blue-throated, for having swallowed poison in an attempt to turn the tide of a battle between the gods and demons in the gods' favour. Blue is used to symbolically represent the fifth, throat chakra (Vishuddha).^[90]

As you can see the color blue is chock full of symbolic meanings. It would be too much to try analyze it all here. I can recommend Wikipedia entry for further study.

This confrontation on the Enterprise between Data and the Borg drones can be seen as a sort of cosmic battle between the gods, and between good, and evil respectively.  My character within this dream is merely as one of a mere mortal bystander. Mortals were often the pawns and casualties in these godly war games.

My goal in this dream was to get out and get to my girl, Haki.  My girlfriend Haki currently lives in Madrid, Spain. This dream seems like an apt metaphor, as I live in the United States, and she is a world away in Europe, and I am trying to find my way to be with her. The dream reflects my emotional state for sure. It is uncertain if it gives me any insight in how to navigate my real life dilemma. I will ponder this.