Dream With Open Eyes (Saturn in Pisces)

Last time we explored my Astro Diary notes on the previous Saturn transit in Pisces in the early 90s. Back then, I was slowly rebuilding my life after a breakdown and learning how to believe in myself. It was a time of spiritual and psychological re-education that took my life in a totally new direction and provided the inspiration for my first novel, Addled: Adventures of a Reluctant Mystic.

Addled tells the tale of Zoe Popper and her struggle to awaken to her true Self. She keeps having visions and thinks she’s going crazy. But then she discovers that reality is a strange place and dreams are even stranger. Set in post-industrial northeast England, the story explores the line between mysticism and madness in a world where everything is relative and nothing is sacred.

The novel blurs reality and imagination in a very Saturn in Pisces way. And this extends to the locations, which I based on where I live in Ouseburn – a little oasis of green and quiet in the middle of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Some of the locations in the book are described as they are, while others involve some artistic licence.

In the story, Zoe meets with her teacher at a circle of seats beside the river Ouse, a tributary of the Tyne. The seats can be found just around the corner from the farm, with sheep and goats and Willow the cow grazing in enclosures on either side of the paths that run through the valley.

Here’s a quote from the book where Zoe is wandering around Ouseburn during the winter with her new friend, Jonah, exploring the sights:

“We rounded the corner, following the cobbles, and stopped at the seats beside the river. Four curved concrete slabs were arranged in a circle, etched with one word each: DREAM WITH OPEN EYES. A pair of white willow trees leaned over the seats from the riverbank, their branches stripped clean and nodding in the wind.”

In reality, the seats are quite different – just two blocks of ugly concrete:

In this photo you can see two of the bridges that cross the valley; the metro bridge on the left, and the road bridge on the right. It’s surprisingly quiet beside the river, which is on the other side of the foliage on the right. Sadly, these seats often end up covered in graffiti – this photo is from 2019:

So where did the inspiration for the words “Dream with open eyes” come from? Well, these can be found on another set of seats at the top of some steps on the other side of the farm. These seats were in a dilapidated state when I first wrote the book and gradually deteriorated over the years since.

These seats comprise a wide circle of wooden benches with stone legs, plus small stone blocks carved with words in between the seats. There are two upright blocks at the entrance that say “Listen” and “Be Still”, while the words “Dream With Open Eyes” are carved onto two small blocks opposite them. Six more small blocks are carved with one word each, spelling out “Walk the path of ancient memories.”

Here it is in all its entropic glory in 2015:

Recently, I had a pleasant surprise while out for my daily constitutional and discovered that the seats had been refurbished – and they look great! No more rotting wood or graffiti, and the ‘Dream’ stones have been rescued from the bushes: