2 ?b90

117
trauma with what appears to be part of the children's fairytale of Snow
White and the Seven Dwarves. It is most certainly the dream of a child
who needs "to restore Cthe3 psychological balance by producing dream
ma terial that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equili-
brium"; these are the words of C. G. Jung, on the subject of the general
function of dreams.
35
Cemi needs to resolve his confused relationships
with his parents. In the dream, the entry of the dwarves into the little
cabin C'una casa de madera, como de cazadores canadienses"; 1,185) re-
presents the "hut for initiations" which Eliade notes to be common to many
nations and which he says "symbolizes the maternal womb"; hence the entry
of the future seer into the hut implies his descent into death and his
return to the womb in the foetal condition: "the candidate's regression
to the pre-natal stage is meant to render him contemporary with the crea-
tion of the world; he no longer lives in the maternal womb as he did be-
fore his biological birth, but in the cosmic Night and in the expectation
of the 'dawn'
- that is, of the Creation. "
36
The healing powers of such
a return to the womb were believed to be very strong, and this healing
process seems to have its effect on Cemi, who awakes refreshed to a new
dawn: "pudo ver por primera vez a su barrio en la madrugada, cuando la
retirada de la brumosa y bostezada placenta nocturna deja a la arcilla ya
las piedras de las casas bondadosamente lavadas
...
" (1,187). He sur-
vives his night of illness in the first chapter in the same way, since
he awakes bathed in a golden halo of light, on a morning reminiscent of
the end of the biblical flood, symbolizing God's forgiveness, or the
return a new beginning. I feel, therefore, that while Cemi's dream may
possibly reflect the child's total identification with his mother by the
use of the imagery representing a physical union, there is a greater
probability that it represents a successful symbolic death and mystical
rebirth of the child destined to be a poet. It is successful in