What are you suffering from?
- I. 1923.
My soul, help me and tell me, did you see him?
S. Yes, I saw him in a new and unexpected form. Did I not say he hastened away to the mountains?
From there he comes in the form of a boy at puberty, whose first growth of beard had yet to appear.
A sickness torments him, his back hurts and he seeks help. Shyness won’t let him speak, so you should speak to him first.
[I]. listen, my son, you have taken the form of my son, truly I saw it in a dream. Your eye is full of unconsciousness.
A sickness disturbs you, your sleep is light. What are you suffering from?
He: I suffer from my back. A rash has seized my skin; it burns me and the pain takes sleep from me.
Give me a salve, an ointment, to stop the burning.
[I]. Your sickness is peculiar, my son. How can I give you an ointment if I don’t know when and how your sickness arose?
Tell me, how did your sickness begin?
He. It seems to me that it began a few days ago. A dream must have brought it on. A bad dream, a dream of the night, dreamt around midnight.
[I]. What did the evil dream say, and how did it make you sick?
He: I dreamt of hunting with great hounds,
A wolf fur from mangy wolves hung on my shoulder.
I held a spear in my hand,
A sword with a wide blade hung on my belt.
I hastened into the mountains, to the cloud forest,
Where bears live, bears with cubs,
I wanted to bring a young one to me to play with,
They are beautiful, woolly, funny, I wanted to lead it on the leash.
Then came the sickness from the mangy wolf fur.
I didn’t know that the wolf was mangy, no one told me.
How will you heal my illness?
[I]. Your sickness has come from the dream.
An evil dream has brought sickness to you.
You wore a mangy wolf fur in a dream,
When you wanted to hunt bears with hounds,
When you wanted to pick up a young one for sport.
Now listen, I will interpret to you what happened: [r17/rr8]
It was a spirit wolf that your father slew.
A spirit wolf, with poisonous sickness living in its skin.
It wasn’t a yellow, ordinary wolf,
Who howls in the snow forests and roams hungrily in the winter night.
It was a spirit wolf, and these bring sickness to men.
It happens from revenge for their death, since they always want to live.
They hunger until they find men and only human flesh feeds them.
Their mange comes from this.
He: My thanks! You took away the burning by chanting the sickness.
Yet tell me, how can a** dream bring me sickness?
I didn’t wear the wolf fur on my physical body,
It came only at night, it was a dream image.
How can a dream image make me sick?
[I]. My son,
No ordinary dream has seized you.
You weren’t sleeping in your arms while you saw a nocturnal image.
You yourself went to the mountain with lance and sword.
Covered yourself with the mangy wolf fur.
Scared wanderers and animals with whistling and yelling.
Slung a real hide on your shoulder,
You were your own father, the red-beard, the hunter of wolves and men.
Sickness came to you from this, my boy.
You wore the skin of your father.
He: Yes, I saw you, doctor, you spoke to me.
Clever words came from your mouth and reached my ear.
What did you utter: wisdom? How could I forget!
Appearance itself has carried me. It was no dream.
Never, wise man, will I again wear the hide of the wolf.
I have come to know how one is tied to the other.
Because I put on the skin of my father,
Because I hung the hide of the wolf on my shoulder,
Because I scared wanderers and animals with whistling and yelling,
Illness came stealthily from behind.
Thank you, you have chanted my illness,
The skin is smooth, all burning gone.
You spoke of wisdom? I have become wiser. ~The Black Books, Vol. VII, Page 230-231
