![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badstarI was flipping through this book in the history section...a book of temples of ancient Greece, photographed as they are today, with transparent overlays of artists' depictions of how they might have looked back in the day.
Lately, I keep having this recurring dream. Maybe twice a week or so for a month and a half. I'm walking along a wide gravel path, the sky is clear and blue as any summer day, but there is no sun in the sky that I can see (and it is not at my back). The grass on either side of the path is short and stiff, the soil is dry and somewhat sandy. Off in the distance to one side, I can see cliffs and a sea coast. The path leads up a slight hill and above me at the hill's crest is a temple. I stop a little short and look up, I am intimidated, but I also feel like I'm being pulled in, like I'm expected. I walk on and up to the doors. They're locked when I try to open them, but then I put the palms of my hands flat on their surface. The doors open and I feel compelled to enter. All I can see inside is a bit of stone floor immediately in front of me, and otherwise, darkness. The air is still, and cool. The only sound is a slight scrape of the doors as the opened. Once my footsteps fall over the threshold, the dream ends.
In that book today, I flipped to the artists depiction of the temple of Apollo at Delos and realized that that was the same temple as in my dream. Not a big deal, I've seen several speculative depictions in the past, they've all been pretty similar. No doubt that's where my mind drew them from in the dream.
It also reminds me of the tattoo sessions that I've had. Both times, I felt a presence in the doorway when no one was there. It was stronger the first time...though, I was also laying down and a lot less conscious that time than I was the second time, stradling a chair with my arms resting on the back, occasionally having to stretch because they were falling asleep. At one point in the first session, I felt a pair of hands on my back. Running over my skin as if inspecting the work. The artist was working, duh. No...he had gotten up and left the room for a minute to take a phone call. Perhaps it was a product of my semi-conscious imagination. Perhaps not. But it is a cypress tree. And the 21st Homeric hymn.
A couple of years ago, feeling lost and abandoned and not really sure what to do with myself, I said a prayer to Apollo one night. I don't remember what I said anymore, or how it all came about, but the next morning a complete stranger echoed those same words back to me that I had prayed the night before. I don't really feel like going into detail on that, but after that, it suddenly became very clear to me just what was wrong and what I needed to do to fix it.
The phrase "patron god" has never seemed entirely right to me. I used to use it, for lack for a better phrase...but some time ago, I stopped. Many people use this phrase. Some have much wider or narrower definitions than others. None of them carry the meaning that I feel and just can't accurately put into words. I am a follower of Apollo. Divine healer. Far-shooter. Beautiful, terrible god of truth and light.
But this dream. It keeps coming back. What is it trying to tell me? Why do the doors open when I place my hands flat on them? Why does it end when I step into the temple?
The only time the dream has been different was once maybe three weeks ago. That one time, the temple was a mosaic of iridescent golden glass on the inside, and when I entered, the dream didn't end immediately. I looked around me and was nearly blinded by the brilliance of the light. The temple was the same stone outside as every other time I had the dream, but inside there was no darkness. Despite seeing no sun in the sky outside, the glass inside was illuminated by a directional light, as if the sun were shining down on it. Nevermind the solid stone outside. It reminded me of another dream that I had once a few years ago, where I was walking through an underground tunnel with a vaulted ceiling of a stained glass sky full of stars. Earlier in the dream, some mixed-up situation had occurred where I ended up somewhere I didn't belong and was walking through this tunnel as part of my venturing away from there.
I seriously doubt that the two are connected, but one made me think of the other.
Maybe I think too much, and maybe some night the dream won't end when I enter the temple.
Lately, I keep having this recurring dream. Maybe twice a week or so for a month and a half. I'm walking along a wide gravel path, the sky is clear and blue as any summer day, but there is no sun in the sky that I can see (and it is not at my back). The grass on either side of the path is short and stiff, the soil is dry and somewhat sandy. Off in the distance to one side, I can see cliffs and a sea coast. The path leads up a slight hill and above me at the hill's crest is a temple. I stop a little short and look up, I am intimidated, but I also feel like I'm being pulled in, like I'm expected. I walk on and up to the doors. They're locked when I try to open them, but then I put the palms of my hands flat on their surface. The doors open and I feel compelled to enter. All I can see inside is a bit of stone floor immediately in front of me, and otherwise, darkness. The air is still, and cool. The only sound is a slight scrape of the doors as the opened. Once my footsteps fall over the threshold, the dream ends.
In that book today, I flipped to the artists depiction of the temple of Apollo at Delos and realized that that was the same temple as in my dream. Not a big deal, I've seen several speculative depictions in the past, they've all been pretty similar. No doubt that's where my mind drew them from in the dream.
It also reminds me of the tattoo sessions that I've had. Both times, I felt a presence in the doorway when no one was there. It was stronger the first time...though, I was also laying down and a lot less conscious that time than I was the second time, stradling a chair with my arms resting on the back, occasionally having to stretch because they were falling asleep. At one point in the first session, I felt a pair of hands on my back. Running over my skin as if inspecting the work. The artist was working, duh. No...he had gotten up and left the room for a minute to take a phone call. Perhaps it was a product of my semi-conscious imagination. Perhaps not. But it is a cypress tree. And the 21st Homeric hymn.
A couple of years ago, feeling lost and abandoned and not really sure what to do with myself, I said a prayer to Apollo one night. I don't remember what I said anymore, or how it all came about, but the next morning a complete stranger echoed those same words back to me that I had prayed the night before. I don't really feel like going into detail on that, but after that, it suddenly became very clear to me just what was wrong and what I needed to do to fix it.
The phrase "patron god" has never seemed entirely right to me. I used to use it, for lack for a better phrase...but some time ago, I stopped. Many people use this phrase. Some have much wider or narrower definitions than others. None of them carry the meaning that I feel and just can't accurately put into words. I am a follower of Apollo. Divine healer. Far-shooter. Beautiful, terrible god of truth and light.
But this dream. It keeps coming back. What is it trying to tell me? Why do the doors open when I place my hands flat on them? Why does it end when I step into the temple?
The only time the dream has been different was once maybe three weeks ago. That one time, the temple was a mosaic of iridescent golden glass on the inside, and when I entered, the dream didn't end immediately. I looked around me and was nearly blinded by the brilliance of the light. The temple was the same stone outside as every other time I had the dream, but inside there was no darkness. Despite seeing no sun in the sky outside, the glass inside was illuminated by a directional light, as if the sun were shining down on it. Nevermind the solid stone outside. It reminded me of another dream that I had once a few years ago, where I was walking through an underground tunnel with a vaulted ceiling of a stained glass sky full of stars. Earlier in the dream, some mixed-up situation had occurred where I ended up somewhere I didn't belong and was walking through this tunnel as part of my venturing away from there.
I seriously doubt that the two are connected, but one made me think of the other.
Maybe I think too much, and maybe some night the dream won't end when I enter the temple.
