Dreaming in the Quiet of the Storm As God Burned Holy
In the eye of a fierce storm I came face to face with God on fire. Well, almost face to face. God burned holy, and I didn’t even realize it at the time. Michael Meade and his work have weighed on my mind since I first encountered him over two weeks ago here in Washington State. I signed up for his intensive workshop on Saturday, December 5 on Vashon Island, “The Holy Thread of Dreams: Mythic Imagination and the Dreaming Mind.” My friend Scott Brooks turned me on to him earlier this month, and it’s been a ride ever since as I’ve discovered this extraordinary mythopoetic teacher and storyteller literally right next door. Soul and Spirit danced and battled with each other beneath the sweeping glare of Science and Reason.
I awoke from a dream this morning, this dream:
“It felt long ago into the future, and it was past midnight on a cold autumn night. The Salish Sea was dark and stormy with chop. Our boat carried us through the waves across the waters. I sat in the boat with other people, others who felt familiar but whose faces I could not see in the darkness. Our boat was an old-fashioned row boat, a dory, with an oil lantern fixed high upon the bow.
“We swung around the peninsula out of the wind and all was quiet. The waters were suddenly still and smooth as obsidian. Massive shoulders of blackness loomed off to my right – rocky bluffs thick with trees standing in the gloom.
“There, floating in the bay was a massive temple. It was an enormous Native American lodge constructed from logs. This temple resembled a mountainous log cabin, rectangular, open on one side, and in some odd way reminded me of a Pagan Greek temple and in other ways a log version of a Native American tipi. Then I realized “tipi” wasn’t the right word, but “box.” The lodge was a gigantic medicine box. The entire structure floated upon the water and was anchored by ropes tied to huge boulders rolled overboard. We were about to go inside a huge medicine box.
“Fires blazed deep inside from a huge fireplace, so bright I could not peer directly into it. As if it was the Fire of the Divine itself. God on fire. The smoke of smudging filled the air with sage and cedar and yet the place didn’t feel smoky. People moved around and stood about in different indigenous garb. There were benches and levels and platforms, with everything designed to steer one’s attention toward a King upon a throne in the middle with steps leading up to it – except there was no King or Chief or Empress even and certainly no throne. Where one would expect to see a throne was the blinding fire blazing full-out from the massive fireplace. The fire was so huge yet so contained as if all proportions were perfect in their design. Outside the lodge-temple all was black and cold. Inside a warm, reddish-yellow light played upon the log structure with the light of God blinding white. All these thoughts, feelings, observations, and opinions raced thru my mind in seconds, far less time than it takes me to recompose these dream images into written words.
“We rowed up to the lodge and drifted inside to dock – the front of the lodge was open to the water and cut out so our boat could moor under the high timber roof. We got out, all of us. I stood there upon the wooden platform in awe. There was complete silence other than the sound of the storm beyond the bay and the loud roar of fire. It all felt otherworldly and yet as real as holding a hot mug of coffee in my hands.
“There was deep, masculine energy emanating from many of the men I felt standing in a line before us. They lined the steps up to the fireplace. This masculine energy felt solid, silent, purposeful, clear, conscious, and they were in service to all the rest of us. Against the distant walls I saw female forms, women, and they appeared busy and full of hustle and bustle. No faces were clear to me. All faces were in shadow. I felt a deep sense of wonderment, awe, and a sense of mystery. I prepared myself to face the Divine. Deep inside the unity of fire I felt or rather sensed there was more than one, a collective. Within this dream I remembered an earlier dream that was more of an out-of-body experience into the Afterlife.
“What happened next? WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!
“Damn! I woke up and turned off my alarm. It was 6:00 AM. Being hard-of-hearing I use an alarm clock with a pillow thumper, a vibrator placed inside my pillow case against the mattress. Beats having a 100-watt light bulb plugged into a timer going nova above me and my beloved.”
A wave of disappointment welled up, and I cursed softly. Aw, Man, what a dream! This dream was going somewhere, too! Now I am contemplating this dream. A very rich dream. What does this dream mean? Was I awakening into being my own medicine? And God appeared liberated from all the shackles of human religion. And then I was awake, back in my body and back in my bed. What would have resulted, I wondered, if I had climbed the steps to face God burning?
I shared my dream in an email with the men in the current group facillitated by Michael Scott Brooks. Scott wrote back and challenged me to reconsider certain aspects.
“Thank you for sharing your dream with us William,
If you like, you can bring it with you to the group tomorrow. But first, two things before you do: 1) The dream was for you. You are the dreamer, so be sure to consult yourself before you ask anyone else what the dream means. And 2) Rather than saying that the dream "was going somewhere," I would suggest that you consider the possibility that it already went exactly where it intended to go. Don't miss the point by focusing on what you think may have been missing.
Remember, dreams deal in the imaginal language of symbols ... and this one has gifted you with several rich archetypes to contemplate. In that sense, the dream did its job well. The question is: what is your unconscious self trying to communicate to you through the use of these images? After all, they are the images that you chose to give to yourself in your dream. That in itself is an interesting thing to ponder.
See you all here tomorrow evening. We still have a ritual to discuss ... and who knows what other mysteries await?
Love and blessings,
Scott” (From his email sent “Tue 11/17/2009 11:29 PM”, quoted with his permission.)
And the drum beats on. Tomorrow arrives and we follow our souls into the darkness where light shines.
William Dudley Bass
November 17, 2009
© by William Dudley Bass
I awoke from a dream this morning, this dream:
“It felt long ago into the future, and it was past midnight on a cold autumn night. The Salish Sea was dark and stormy with chop. Our boat carried us through the waves across the waters. I sat in the boat with other people, others who felt familiar but whose faces I could not see in the darkness. Our boat was an old-fashioned row boat, a dory, with an oil lantern fixed high upon the bow.
“We swung around the peninsula out of the wind and all was quiet. The waters were suddenly still and smooth as obsidian. Massive shoulders of blackness loomed off to my right – rocky bluffs thick with trees standing in the gloom.
“There, floating in the bay was a massive temple. It was an enormous Native American lodge constructed from logs. This temple resembled a mountainous log cabin, rectangular, open on one side, and in some odd way reminded me of a Pagan Greek temple and in other ways a log version of a Native American tipi. Then I realized “tipi” wasn’t the right word, but “box.” The lodge was a gigantic medicine box. The entire structure floated upon the water and was anchored by ropes tied to huge boulders rolled overboard. We were about to go inside a huge medicine box.
“Fires blazed deep inside from a huge fireplace, so bright I could not peer directly into it. As if it was the Fire of the Divine itself. God on fire. The smoke of smudging filled the air with sage and cedar and yet the place didn’t feel smoky. People moved around and stood about in different indigenous garb. There were benches and levels and platforms, with everything designed to steer one’s attention toward a King upon a throne in the middle with steps leading up to it – except there was no King or Chief or Empress even and certainly no throne. Where one would expect to see a throne was the blinding fire blazing full-out from the massive fireplace. The fire was so huge yet so contained as if all proportions were perfect in their design. Outside the lodge-temple all was black and cold. Inside a warm, reddish-yellow light played upon the log structure with the light of God blinding white. All these thoughts, feelings, observations, and opinions raced thru my mind in seconds, far less time than it takes me to recompose these dream images into written words.
“We rowed up to the lodge and drifted inside to dock – the front of the lodge was open to the water and cut out so our boat could moor under the high timber roof. We got out, all of us. I stood there upon the wooden platform in awe. There was complete silence other than the sound of the storm beyond the bay and the loud roar of fire. It all felt otherworldly and yet as real as holding a hot mug of coffee in my hands.
“There was deep, masculine energy emanating from many of the men I felt standing in a line before us. They lined the steps up to the fireplace. This masculine energy felt solid, silent, purposeful, clear, conscious, and they were in service to all the rest of us. Against the distant walls I saw female forms, women, and they appeared busy and full of hustle and bustle. No faces were clear to me. All faces were in shadow. I felt a deep sense of wonderment, awe, and a sense of mystery. I prepared myself to face the Divine. Deep inside the unity of fire I felt or rather sensed there was more than one, a collective. Within this dream I remembered an earlier dream that was more of an out-of-body experience into the Afterlife.
“What happened next? WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!
“Damn! I woke up and turned off my alarm. It was 6:00 AM. Being hard-of-hearing I use an alarm clock with a pillow thumper, a vibrator placed inside my pillow case against the mattress. Beats having a 100-watt light bulb plugged into a timer going nova above me and my beloved.”
A wave of disappointment welled up, and I cursed softly. Aw, Man, what a dream! This dream was going somewhere, too! Now I am contemplating this dream. A very rich dream. What does this dream mean? Was I awakening into being my own medicine? And God appeared liberated from all the shackles of human religion. And then I was awake, back in my body and back in my bed. What would have resulted, I wondered, if I had climbed the steps to face God burning?
I shared my dream in an email with the men in the current group facillitated by Michael Scott Brooks. Scott wrote back and challenged me to reconsider certain aspects.
“Thank you for sharing your dream with us William,
If you like, you can bring it with you to the group tomorrow. But first, two things before you do: 1) The dream was for you. You are the dreamer, so be sure to consult yourself before you ask anyone else what the dream means. And 2) Rather than saying that the dream "was going somewhere," I would suggest that you consider the possibility that it already went exactly where it intended to go. Don't miss the point by focusing on what you think may have been missing.
Remember, dreams deal in the imaginal language of symbols ... and this one has gifted you with several rich archetypes to contemplate. In that sense, the dream did its job well. The question is: what is your unconscious self trying to communicate to you through the use of these images? After all, they are the images that you chose to give to yourself in your dream. That in itself is an interesting thing to ponder.
See you all here tomorrow evening. We still have a ritual to discuss ... and who knows what other mysteries await?
Love and blessings,
Scott” (From his email sent “Tue 11/17/2009 11:29 PM”, quoted with his permission.)
And the drum beats on. Tomorrow arrives and we follow our souls into the darkness where light shines.
William Dudley Bass
November 17, 2009
© by William Dudley Bass
posted by William Dudley Bass at 4:31 PM
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