The notion of Mist revolves around mystery, enigma and the exotic lure of the unknown. Naturally, many dream landscapes seem to find themselves shrouded in these В-Horror Movie clouds. In any case, the reality of mist is rising moisture, and as such, both representations of water and floating are rather dramatically presented. Accordingly, we need to examine the more comforting, yet fragile emotions, emotions which may lead us into danger.
The big screen werewolf always seemed plagued by a surrounding mist, because we, (the viewer,) needed to feel his eternal anguish and pain.
Here was an individual who loved, and who loved life, yet due to his misfortune, was now forced by the full moon (i.e. lust, madness etc.) and the bite (i.e. primal awareness) of a wolf (i.e. the loner), to devour and kill the very life he cherished. In this sense, large night clubs spray clouds of mist into large crowds to disguise the complex emotions of our exotic, ‘wild’ and largely hypnotized, behavior.
We are delving into the cerebral world of the isolated unknown. Are we prepared to learn these (perhaps disturbing,) aspects about our deepest selves.
Mist is also a symbol of the mixture of Air, Water and Fire which existed prior to the creation of solid matter, like the original as it was before the six days’ Creation and before all things were given their shape.
Japanese painters often depict horizontal or vertical mists (kasumi). They denote a break in the thread of a story, a transition in time-scale or a passing into a world of fantasy or wonder.
Some Irish literary sources associate fog or mist with the music of the Otherworld (sid) or with the Otherworld itself. The Voyage of Bran speaks of a ‘lovely mist’ which conjures up or symbolizes indistinction, the period of transition between two states of being. Similarly, when Senchan Torpeist sends his son Muirgen to raise the soul of King Fergus to teach him the tale of the cattle-raid of Cooley, which no poet then knew in its entirety,
Muirgen stood on the rock and sang as if addressing Fergus himself... A thick mist encompassed him... Then Fergus came to him, finely clad, in a green cloak, hooded tunic embroidered in red, with a golden-hilted sword and bronze shoes and his hair was brown. And he taught him the whole of the cattle raid of Cooley, as it had happened, from beginning to end.
Thus mists are regarded as preludes to important revelations, prologues to manifestations.
