The Inner Eye
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Dream: Land of the Silver Sky
Many years ago, I think when I was in high school, I had a dream that affected me more profoundly than any dream I'd ever had. It is one of maybe two or three that I remember with any clarity at all to this day.
The Dream:
As I stand there, I feel very peaceful, refreshed, and alive. After marveling at this strange and beautiful world, I approach one of the hooded figures and speak to him. He does not speak, he does not move, but I feel that he is kind, although mysterious. He transports me to another world.
I don't remember the first world, but after awhile I come back, and I discover that each Denz will send me to a different, distinct world. In one of the worlds, I arrive inside a sort of medieval castle. There are people I know there. Before long the castle guards spot us and chase us all through the castle. We run through tunnels of dark stone walls lit by torches. Just as the guards are closing in, I am transported back to the Land of the Silver Sky and I am safe again.
As I wander further down the road, I come to a certain point and realize that this world has an end. Although the road, the land, and the Denz with their strange marker stones, appear to go on forever, when I look closer, the dark part of the sky actually comes down and forms a barrier which meets the road here. I can put out my hand and touch it. (It's sort of like the ending of the movie The Truman Show.)
So I approach another Denz and am transported to a new world. This time, I realize I am standing on some sort of round platform, which is rising up slowly like an elevator. I know that I am inside a tall tower. The platform rises through a round hole in the floor at the top level of the tower, and I am surrounded by a circle of Denz. They have been waiting for me. I feel overwhelmed by an odd dichotomy of emotions; I feel complete love and safety being in the presence of the Denz, yet at the same I am terrified because I do not know whats going to happen, as if the Denz might harm me. Or maybe they have a mission for me; some great thing for me to do. I'm not sure. Just as I'm about to find out, I wake up. The dream is over.
I only know of one recurring dream I've ever had in my life. I had it maybe two or three times. But this is not that dream -- I have never had this dream again, only the one time. Yet it affected me so greatly that, even though some of the visual details are fuzzy now and I have to sort of re-imagine them when I think of the dream, I have never forgotten the strange mix of emotions that accompanied it.
I have thought often about that dream and what, if anything, it may have meant. After all these years, I've at least formed a guess.
I think that this place -- which I call the Land of the Silver Sky, or Skies, or sometimes The Land of the Silver Stars -- represents my life. When the dream began, I could not look back and see what was behind me. It never even seemed to matter. It was as if that entire existence consisted of whatever was ahead. So I think it represents specifically my future.
Obviously then, the road represents the path or the progression of my life. My timeline if you will. I think that the nature of the sky -- the fact that this place is floating in space, with these brilliant stars and the sunset effect -- and also some aspects of the Denz and the stones -- represent my need for creativity, or my imagination in general. The notion of unlimited, yet essentially unreachable possibilities -- those things which I create in my mind which are not real and never can be, but which add flavor to my life and my view of the world.
The Denz and their stones represent a number of things. They represent ideas, and they represent hopes. I suppose they also represent people -- people that bring new ideas into my life. People that inspire me. People that give me hope. But they also represent a beginning. In my dream the stones were essentially markers. They represent the solidarity or the reality of the idea, the hope, or fundamentally, the experience. They represent a historical event in my life in some ways. In other words, each Denz and the stone he guards represents a finite experience in my life, each of which begins with an idea, a hope, etc. A move, perhaps, or a new job, or going to school, or writing a book, or getting excited about a new creative idea with a friend, or... whatever. The infinite stones along the path represent all the many possible choices or paths I could take in life, but I only have time to choose a limited number of them. Of course, there's no telling exactly what each one will bring.
Obviously the world is the experience itself. Some will be negative, and some will be positive. The castle experience probably represents a negative experience in which other people are involved. More likely, it is a general representation of all the times I ever have or ever will feel locked down, trapped, out of control. But however frustrating or difficult it may be, I know that experience will come to some sort of end like every other, and I will again find myself on the path, with unlimited choices, possibilities, and opportunities.
Only, at some point, I will come to an unexpected wall. A dead end of sorts -- not that the possibilities end, but that I am no longer able to proceed. I believe that represents death, or rather, the notion that death will eventually come. Its interesting, though; in my dream, that limitation didn't feel limiting. It was tremendously surprising, but it was acceptable. It was part of exploring an unfamiliar world, and it was a fascinating discovery. Besides, there were still so many choices and opportunities to explore here.
So after I came to that end, I chose another path. (Interesting, that after encountering what I presume to be death, I still felt as if I had choices to make.) This one took me to the tower with the Denz.
My best guess here is this represents my appearance before the bar of God, at the final Judgement. I did feel as if I were there to be judged. I felt safe and hopeful, yet concerned or nervous at the same time. I suppose that makes sense if I presume that, being aware of the choices I've made in my life, and the mistakes, I am nervous or feel guilty about those mistakes. But I Hope and Pray that I will have gotten my life right, made good choices before that time, and fully repented, so that I can feel confident I have received forgiveness for my sins through the grace of Jesus Christ, and ensure my place with God, rather than feel guilty and concerned for the welfare of my soul in His presence.
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