Dreams Influence Our Waking Life – The Sandman Season 1 Review
The Sandman was not the show I expected.
I thought I would be watching a tv show about Lord Morpheus, God of Dreams rule his realm and instead – I got a story about inspiration, the human struggle, and hope.
Change is Okay
It’s okay to change, or at least that is what The Sandman tells us. The story takes place initially beginning in a different time, during which Lord Morpheus, or Oneiros “Dream” is captured by a one Roderick Burgess while in pursuit of Oneiros’ sister Thanatos, or “Death”. Although it is chalked up to Burgess being an “amateur” at his craft, later on in the series Death and Dream meet up, and it is implied that Death was fully aware she was being targeted, and let them capture Dream instead.
It didn’t really make sense why Dream was held captive for over a century by two generations of the Burgess family – at least not on the surface. Later on, the show more than hints at Dream’s captivity being necessary to inspire change – and the only way to do that unfortunately is through suffering and pain.
Dream’s ex wife Calliope is later captured by humans and made into a slave for nearly 60 years. Morpheus comes to her aid when requested, and she notes that it is something he would not have done years ago.
Strangely enough, it always seems like things worked themselves out in the end. Dream was freed from his spherical cage when Roderick Burgess’ son Alex’s lover smudged the protection circle with Alex’s wheel chair. After punishing Alex (who arguably deserved it since he could have freed Dream at anytime after his father’s passing but instead kept him locked up on top of killing his raven Jessamy out of spite because Dream would not “speak” to him) with the gift of endless sleep (eternal dreaming), he then dealt with his half brother – John.
John Burgess and the Ruby Gemstone
John is the bastard son of Roderick and his young mistress, Ethel Cripps (which sounds like “crypts”). Interesting name aside, Ethel came into power by stealing Roderick’s “gifts” taken from Dream. Which in turn stripped Roderick of their protection (causing his immediate death once he had knowledge of the theft) and extending Ethel’s own life.
Only until…Ethel heard of Dream’s release from The Corinthian.
The Corinthian’s existence is something of interest, in general. An escaped nightmare, that character archetype has always been associated with harlots, and I must wonder what type of people were sent dreams with this purpose in mind.
John, locked in captivity most of his life and continually lied to by his mother Ethel, is understandably quite the nutter. Well-read, but still a nutter nonetheless with a warped moral consciousness that has developed into something perverse he tries to force upon the world.
After breaking out of his prison one night, he (unknowingly) abuses the good will of a lady who drives him toward Dream’s stolen gemstone. He retrieves the gemstone and gives the woman Rosemary his mother’s gifted Amulet of Protection, which I wonder if that won’t serve as some curse to her late on in life when she realizes her daughters are growing older while her own vitality remains unchanged.
Before a confrontation with the Dream Lord, John is visited by the Fates. The Norn tell John that he will “take all of Morpheus’ power” but madness and captivity still awaits. True to the prediction, Dream does recieve his power back – due to John’s arrogance in believing he could “kill” the Dream Lord – a being “endless” to time and a subject to the human condition – and take his power and install himself as the new Lord of Dreams.
After this failure, Dream quietly drops John back into his isolated captivity, the viewer left wondering if John would believe it all to be “a dream” in the absence of the ruby, his mother, and her Amulet of Protection.
An event that would indeed, drive a person mad.
Dreams Exist, Even in Hell
Moving forward seemingly and endlessly into the interwoven tapestry of fate, Dream must venture into Hell.
While traversing realms without his signatures of office, Dream is led astray by his demon escort Squatterbloat in hell. Which takes him to visit a woman from “the first tribe” of men named Nada, whom Oneiros (as Kai’ckul) once loved and still harbors feelings for, despite the passage of 10,000 years.
It seems Dream never consummated this love or an abnormality may have happened (like the case of Unity Kincaid and Desire of the Endless) but I do wonder if Dream’s memories with Nada are tied to the being he portrayed in that realm. Because Johanna Constantine mentions love and girlfriends to Dream, and he acts like he has no clue what she is talking about. Only to find out Dream loved Nada of the First Tribe and married Calliope, the youngest muse, to whom bore him a son that parished in Hades – more on that later.
This may also be a rogue thought, but I wonder if “the first tribe” has anything to do with the Garden of Eden or those immediately afterward during the first fall of humanity. After all, we see Dream later create new dreams and nightmares using sand over the still chaos of the water’s surface, and this is how Angels and the Divine themselves are told to create new life in old scriptures and biblical texts.
Anyway, Dream and Matthew the Raven enter hell and recievd an audience with Lucifer Morningstar. The two decide to battle for Dream’s helm held by the demon Choronzon via a visualization exercise – which I thought was odd until I realized it was a manifestation of their spoken words and intentions. That is why they could both be harmed by the seemingly meaningless words or thoughts of a direwolf being struck down by a Hunter, or an asp being felled by an eagle.
Thoughts, dreams, and the intentions of one’s heart and mind can become your reality – that is the intentional message here. And as The Corinthian, and even Gaunt verbalize later on, “Even a nightmare can Dream, my lord”. Again the embodiment of the need for progression, purpose, and a life changed despite starting out as something else. Embodied by Dream, Lucienne, Gault, The Corinthian, Calliope, and countless others throughout The Sandman series.
After all, as Dream reminds Lucifer…
“But to say Dreams have no power in hell, tell me Lucifer Morningstar, what power would hell have if those here imprisoned were not able to Dream, of heaven?”
Lord Morpheus to Lucifer Morningstar in Hell
The Description of Lucifer Morningstar and their Banner-Herald, Eblis of Despair
Before leaving hell, I just wanted to mention some historical text relating to the description of Lucifer Morningstar and the backstory or history of Eblis, their banner man.
In Dante’s 1301 “Hell”, he describes Lucifer as a huge giant, bearing 3 faces of different colors – one red for anger, one yellow for envy, and one pure black to denote melancholy. Between the shoulders, Lucifer has 2 enormous wings with no plumage that resemble that of a bat.
It seems The Sandman chose Gwendoline Christie to portray Lucifer Morningstar due to her androgynous appearance, tall stature, and decided to mainly adapt the erect bat wings protruding from Lucifer’s shoulders into the show.
Azarel, Lucifer Morningstar’s Banner-Herald for whom Mazikeen said could not be trusted is actually a jinn (or ginn, “genie”) originally named Eblis (“Iblis”) that was cursed for refusing to bow down to Adam.
Aza’zil was cast out of heaven due to remarking on the fact that Adam was cast out of (red) clay and himself set of fire, so why should he bow to what he viewed as a lesser being?
Iblis was eventually made to serve as Lucifer’s banner man to his horde of demons come judgement day, and has taken the new name of “Azarel”.
The Corinthian – Hatman Nightmare Connection
Speaking of alternative names and new personas, I just wanted to bring up The Corinthian one more time as an interlude before I speak of Unity and Rose.
Do you all remember a few years ago the amount of videos that popped up on YouTube and elsewhere speaking of a man in a hat who brought nightmares?
People viewed it as “mass hysteria” at the time, and attributed the appearance of the Hatman in their dreams to a conjured existence due to merely speaking of the “entity” but…do you think there was some truth to that?
After all, it’s been years since anyone has spoken of nightmares related to that figure…did the “Dream” of our world eventually ‘devour’ this nightmare, as well?
Unity Kincaid – the Dream Vortex of 1916
I really like that The Sandman circled back to every little little thread and detail that was shown on screen.
Unity’s doll house was always shown in focus each time she was on screen to denote that she had been “playing house” her entire life in the dream world, with Oneiros’ own brother, Desire.
It’s funny, Unity speaks of getting everything she “desired” in the dream world in the form of taking over her father’s sugar cane business, becoming successful, and living with her wonderful “golden eyed man” whom she adores up until the moment of her death in the dream world.
Unity, like John, has a name that describes her fate – a uniter of realms, merging the dreaming and the physical reality plane into a unity bond of flesh that will survive for generations to come. “Children of the Endless”, Rose and Jeb who will live on and pass the magic of their blood throughout humanity borne from their line.
Gilbert of Fiddler’s Green had a theory on why the Dream Vortex shows up in humanity every so often – citing that it gives a chance for the Endless, the gods, those in the intangible dreaming and spiritual realms a chance to experience humanity as an ordinary one. Someone without the fanatical powers they possess to serve humanity, despite having little “unity” with that realm emotionally.
The only “god” who walks amongst mortals quite frequently is Death, although that seems to be a given despite the nature of our mortal realm.
In reality, or one reality at least – it is heavily hinted that Unity is the Dream Vortex of their generation because she was destined to meet Desire, and sire a child from their “union”.
When Unity visits Lucienne in “the library” of the dream realm, she learns in the Akashic Records that she was supposed to be the Dream Vortex but because of endless sleep, the responsibility skipped a generation or so (as it often does) onto her great-granddaughter Rose. Nearing the end of her (admittedly short) earthly life, Unity asks Rose to “give her” what makes her the Vortex inside, which happened to be Desire’s token – a crystalline or glass heart deep within her.
The Vortex shatters, killing Unity in the “real” world where her spirit and dream body is presumably taken to Fiddler’s Green to relax and enjoy life – or seek her once – husband out. After all, as Unity was quoted saying when she had awoken ” life is a dream”.
But, tell me your thoughts.
What do you think about the interwoven thoughts and stories shared in The Sandman series?
How much real world mythology vs creative liberties do you think are at play in the writing?
Do you think our shared intentions can manifest a better reality in our collective world today?
Let me know your thoughts, leave them in the comment section below! And follow us for more tv shows based on mythology, and folklore reviews and discussions.
Until next time : ~
“This world is a shadow of the real one”.
❂ Stories From the New World