Good for Dreams

[sdi]

I dreamed that my wife and I were in an unfamiliar town and saw that they had a farmer's market going on. She loves those, and so we went over to browse. One of the stalls had a tray piled with soap-like bricks of aromatics. My wife grabbed a turquoise-colored one, smelled it, and said, "Mmm, ephun! Yes, please!" and bought it on the spot. I had never heard of the plant before, so I looked at a nearby sign, which simply said, "Turquoise: ephun, good for dreams." I picked one up and smelled it, but just like in the waking world, my sense of smell didn't work and I could smell nothing.

I woke up and wrote the dream down, just like I always do, and did a web search for "ephun," but found nothing. While meditating today, I had the brainwave to try searching for it in Greek ("ἴφυον"), and it turns out it's simply spike lavender, which is, indeed, good for dreams.

It's a pretty specialized word and I've not encountered it in my studies, so it seems my dream has taught me something. (This wouldn't be the first time, though it is the first time I can say with certainty that it wasn't something that I could plausibly have known but forgotten.)

Comments

[tunesmyth]

Quite extraordinary. I trust you're looking into getting some!

Lavender's Greek name, Nardus, brings to mind Miles Davis's great tune "Nardis", which was a title that to this day nobody is quite sure where it came from. If you want to take a listen, I definitely recommend one of the Bill Evans versions: https://jmeshel.com/124-bill-evans-nardis/

[sdi]

Happy New Year, tunesmyth! I hope you and your family are doing better than previously.

Regarding the dream: yeah, you bet we're following up on it—I've read Synesius!

Regarding the song title: you sent me down quite a rabbit hole on "nardus" (in Greek, νάρδος)—Pliny wrote about it in his Natural History. It's an essential oil, and the good stuff, "Indian Nardus," is the same plant called "spikenard" today, Nardostachys Jatamansi. However, that was expensive since it had to be imported over vast distances, so it was commonly adulterated with fake nardus (ψευδόναρδος, "pseudo-nardos"), which was... you guessed it, ἴφυον, spike lavender!

That reminds me of a funny story concerning adulterants that I learned about as I winemaker. For many years, folklore in England claimed that port was very good for preventing illness. French scientists caught wind of this and put it to the test, finding that no, there was no benefit whatsoever. The English, shocked and offended, tested it themselves and found that no, it really was beneficial. After much digging it was discovered that English port was good for preventing illness, and that only because the unscrupulous English wine merchants adulterated the expensive port with cheap elderberry wine, which is, in fact, good for preventing illness. :) (It's also one of my favorite wines to make.)

Regarding the song itself: thank you for linking it! Alas, it is all Greek to me. ;)

[tunesmyth]

More connections spring to my mind with your reply! I imagine they will only entertain me-- if syncronicities, they are extremely idiosyncratic ones. But it is also amusing to me that:

..."Nardis", with its odd spelling, could be seen as "pseudo-Nardos"...

...that "spike lavender" seems to me to be an apt description of Miles Davis himself...

...by far the most famous album that Miles Davis and Bill Evans worked on together was "Kind of Blue" (which is exactly what lavender is)...

"Kind of Blue", while possibly the most famous jazz album of all time, also brought an end to their working relationship. One reason why, possibly, is that, just as with Nardis, there have ever since been persistent rumors that Bill Evans actually wrote one of the songs, and that just as with Nardis, Mercurial Miles stole authorship. The other song in question?

..."Blue In Green". Which is again, exactly what lavender is. Lest you think I am just reading anything and everything into lavender, I submit as evidence the nursery rhyme:

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly
Lavender's green
When I am king, dilly dilly
You shall be queen

Which, as it happens, my elder daughter (elder berry?) is fond of and sometimes sings, after catching it from a book of illustrated nursery rhyme sheet music that I acquired a few months back.

I doubt very much that any of this actually helps you toward whatever your dreams were pointing you toward. Though I guess you never know.

As for me, though, I almost feel like I'm actually on to something here!

[tunesmyth]

Oh, and Happy New Year to you as well! I hope your family is also all doing well.

My wife and I are overworked and underslept as usual, but we have generally optimistic outlooks, and I'm changing my work situation in a couple of weeks in a way such that I have high hopes that we'll both gain some time from it. The girls are growing nicely. Both recently had birthdays (3 and 7, the elderberry just turned yesterday).

I am conscious that I never updated anyone on my youngerberry, after the big trip to see the specialist in late October. I need to. Always put it off. It isn't great news. Could have been worse though. I'll keep on putting that off a little bit longer, I think. After my schedule changes I'll muster the emotional energy!

[sdi]

Whether you're on to something or not, all of these are both undoubtedly true and made me laugh. (And I needed the cheering up today! So thank you.)

I don't know much of anything about jazz, but having worked in the video game industry, I'm very familiar with video game music, at least. You might be amused to know that there is an album out there, called Kind of Bloop, which covers Kind of Blue in the style of 8-bit video game systems (e.g. Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Commodore 64, Game Boy, etc.).

I remember you mentioning that you were pursuing a change in your work situation last year. I hope that indeed works out as you hope. I'm glad the girls are well, though I'm sorry about the challenges. I'll keep praying!