and  short stories, some of  which  have come  from  his
dreams. (On page 228 of  this  issue of Sundance, you'll
find a  series of  five dreams  from his  journal,  together
with a story that he composed from them.)
     I was surprised, I  must say, when I received Howard's
journal   in   the   mail.  It's  bound   with  a   brown  paper
wrapping,  and  on  it  is  the  picture  of  "The  Dream  of
Jacob" (by John Swanson)  that you see reproduced  here.
Inside, on the dedication page, is a wonderful woodblock
print of a turtle.  Now a turtle is a special dream creature
for  me,  so  to  receive  someone  else's  rendition  of "a
dream journal" while I  am  in  the  process  of  preparing
Sundance, and to find  a turtle on the first page,  seemed
like  an  important   coincidence.  Scanning   through  the
pages  of   the  journal,  I   found  several   dreams   about
turtles.  Some  of  these turtle dreams were just  like  my
own!  It  seemed  like  some  kind of  dream itself just to
receive and look through his journal.
     After my  excitement  had  subsided,  I  found  myself
asking, "Why  would  anyone  want  to  publish  a  journal
of their dreams? What's  the  purpose  in  that, what's  the
value?"  I  suppose it's a strange question for  a person  to
ask who is himself editing a journal filled  with  people's
dreams. But trying to answer  the  question has given  me
a clearer  idea  of  the  possible  value  to dreamers  of  a
project like Sundance. And now I think I  understand  the
value of Howard's  publication of  his own dream  journal
and why you might want to read it.
     Often  we  find ourselves in the position of  trying  to
interpret  our  dreams  and,  in  frustration, we  raise  our
eyes  to  the  sky  and  ask, "Why  can't  you  speak  more
directly?" But then  we  hear  from others  who  seem  to
know  that our dreams  do speak  directly, quite directly,
but  that  it is  we who don't know how to listen  directly.
Dreams are like parables and it is the story of the dream,
its  allegorical  nature,  that   speaks  directly. Carl  Jung
and Edgar Cayce, among others, agree on this point. But
even Jung himself admitted  that he was not much better
at  understanding  his  own  dreams  when  first  recalled
than    his    patients    were     at    understanding    theirs.
Sometimes  we  are  too  close   to  our  own  stories  to

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