Dreams continue to be more than passing pictures that evaporate with the sunrise; they are frequent messages of the innermost depth of our souls, scurryings of what we could be, should we care to pay close attention. In The Dreamer, The Seeker, Judith Husker reveals this fact in a poetically dramatic way, creating a narrative where dreams are not illusions but guides which create fate and identity. Husker is reminding us, through Keori, the young dwarfson whose dreams have erased the distinction between fantasy and prophecy, that whatever we dream can make us who we are, and who we can become.
Since childhood, the life of Keori has been controlled by tormented dreams. The calm beat of the Irenic Isles will not calm him down anymore; his dreams are leading him to the cause he does not comprehend. Such dreams do not come out of the blue sky; they are the seeds of change. The universe in the world of Husker is symbolic in nature, where dreams serve as the language of awakening. It is not only the vision of danger as Keori looks upon the dark cloud driving along the sea, but it is the first indication that the slumbering powers in himself are awakening. Not with a sword or a spell his journey starts, but with a dream which will not be quieted.
The dreams, according to the philosophy of Husker, are not passive experiences. They demand participation. The visions do not define what happens to Keori; they just beckon him into action, to doubt, to go beyond fear. This is an echo of our relationship with our dreams, be it actual dreams that come to us in our nighttime or the dream when we are awake and we refer to it as ambitions. They start as whispers, pushing our listening ability. Just as in the case of Keori, we do not always welcome them initially. We question their intent, we neglect their insistence, and we are afraid of the unknown. Yet destiny waits for no one. In The Dreamer, The Seeker, the instant Keori accepts his dreams, his journey manifests itself – stormy, enlightened, and changed.
The fact that Judith Husker relates dreams to self-discovery is one of her most significant accomplishments. To Keori, every vision represents an outer prophecy and inner reflection. He is afraid of the darkness, but it is not only the shadow of the Marauder, but it is also his own doubt and uncertainty. His visions compel him to deal with the aspects of himself that he does not know, and this makes him realize that destiny can be acquired given rather than created by being conscious. This is true of all people in this world who seek something: our dreams make us open our eyes and see what we can do. They bring out the slumbering within.
Husker does not limit this thought to the personal experience of Keori. The very world of Izar is designed by the dreaming of people together with the hopes, the fears, the beliefs in something. This collective consciousness, the feeling of greater awareness, which contains the fibers of the fate of each soul, is represented by the Dream Keeper, Iahja. When Keori comes to believe his dreams, it is not that he is pursuing his own way; he is in agreement with a universal rhythm, the rhythm of creation itself.
Ultimately, the trip of Keori shows that fate cannot be predestined by conditions but can be chosen the choice to listen to the inner voice, to follow the way the dreams show. He finds out, as he encounters darkness, that dreams are never promises of comfort, but of purpose. They do not teach us how to shun the storm, but how to navigate in the storm. The further he goes in accordance with the attraction of his visions, the more he becomes not a trembling dreamer but a seeker of truth, and, last of all, a carrier of light.
In The Dreamer, The Seeker by Judith Husker, it is remembered that all dreams are potent, as they have the power to awaken, to heal, to guide and to transform. We do not have dreams which are accidents of the sleeping mind, but they are soul invitations. In the same way that it is the visions of Keori that helped him cross the border of the known world, the same spirit of dreams is encouraging us to cross over the border of the fear and enter the wide horizon of possibilities. To those who will hear, destiny does not commence at all with certainty, with a dream.