…during the night you are held within the dream, one figure—not always the chief one—among others walking around in its inscape. Then, with the first ray of morning consciousness, you believe the dream is in you—in your mind, your head.
You say, “I had a dream,” a statement of having and owning. Yet during the night the dream had you in its possession. Just because something comes to you doesn’t make it yours. If you see a horse in a field, a plane in the sky, they are not yours because you saw them.
The Greeks said, I saw a dream; we say I had a dream. The verb “have” is a favorite of Captain Ego; I think we would do well to dispossess ourselves of it except for possessions picked up at GAP or Walmart*.
— Apollo, Dream, Reality, Mythic Figures, UE 6
*In the original lecture, Hillman uses the examples of GAP and Walmart, while in the final published text uses the example of UPIM, Italy’s version of the GAP. I’ve reverted to the original example of Walmart to avoid confusion for readers outside Italy.