Dreamtime: Sultan's Wedding

This dream occurred the morning of July 23, 2023. It's not a space dream, but it is so outright fantastical and fun I want to share it.

The dream starts out in a deserted place. I'm by the sea, and there are cliffs of black rock. Waves are crashing against the cliffs several hundred feet below me. There's a woman with me dressed in somber garb--something like you would see in the Middle East, but her head is bare. She's a servant of some kind. She's telling me I've been invited to a sultan's wedding and it would be bad form to refuse.

At first I'm not sure I want to go, but I know I have to as part of the reason I'm there in the land to begin with. There's something I have to say to the sultan, and it's a tricky situation. One of those diplomatic nightmares. So, I agree to go. I wonder how we'll get there, and then from the sky float down these tea cups that have a pronounced spout to them. They're ceramic, black, blue, with a bright green glaze around the lip.

The tea cups land in front of us, and I notice there's actually a seat inside the cup. I get in, and the woman gets into the other cup. Off we go! Right up into the sky, and it's so surprisingly fun I start laughing. I make the cup spin around, dive, maneuver, go fast, slow. And then settle into the journey.

We fly over the cliffs and edge of the sea and I see in the distance magnificent gardens stretching for miles and miles. White stone buildings dot the gardens, and even further in the distance is the palace. White and gold with towers and gates sprawling across the land. I think for a moment I see fields of white flowers, but then I realize it's thousands and thousands of people wearing white. They are wedding guests.

We fly the tea cups in a wide arc over the crowd and I think "Well this is a grander entrance than I intended." Eventually, we land in a courtyard near the palace and the servant woman gives me a detailed briefing about the sultan and behavior at the wedding. All the etiquette about what to do and what not to do. What to say and not to say. And I remember there's something about dancing--if the sultan or the crown prince ask you do dance, you must accept. You cannot refuse them. This is impressed upon me.

So, that completed, we head out to the wedding ceremony. It flashes by in a blur of colorful clothes, gold, white, and then afterward there's the festivities. The crown prince asks me to dance, and of course, I oblige. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, my husband appears and gracefully sweeps me away from the prince saying "Mind if I cut in?" He looks different in the dream than in waking life. But the smile is exactly the same. A devilish, cunning smile at sweeping me away.

I whisper to him frantically, "You can't just sweep me away from the crown prince!"

He says, "But I just did!" with that smile becoming a grin.

"This is a major faux pas. The sultan is going to be so pissed!"

"So what? The crown prince was going to try to marry you. We can't have that."

"Oh." And then we continue to dance together and whether or not the sultan was actually upset I never found out.