June 8. 2022
The Imaginal is the realm of myth, poetry, dreams and nightmares. It’s no wonder that people easily lose their way because there is no map and nothing is ever the same. It’s constantly shifting according to the participant’s experiences. In some ways, it’s like the physical world in that our senses only approximate reality but the approximation is much more severe. If you try to use your rational mind to deduce what’s happening, you’ll get thoroughly confused. You should also not attempt to read too much into your experiences there.They point toward truths but, like the visions of oracles, the truth pointed toward is hazy at best.
I feel like human life is richer when the physical experience occurs in tandem with the spiritual experience. Together, the physical and spiritual make a whole. Together, guidance can function with more accuracy. Together, life has meaning beyond the flatness of three dimensions.
Today was another vision with religious overtones. At first, I found myself in a crystal cave. It was located between two mountains and the crystals were blue, green and purple. Inside, was an old man (Merlin?) who didn’t look at me and never really acknowledged me. Inside the cave was an ice dragon whose scales mirrored the blue, green, purple of the cave’s crystals. It was a Western dragon (as opposed to an Eastern one) and, though immense and powerful, it was also kind. The old man mounted the dragon and I noticed there was another saddle on the dragon’s back. Clearly, I was meant to accompany them.
I climbed on and the dragon flew out of the cave and over the mountain valley below. There was a vast, deep and dark forest beneath us, filled with innumerable creatures of myth. Across the valley was another mountain, this one with molten lava on its rim. The rim was quite literally on fire and, in the midst of this fire, was another dragon. This one flew up to meet up as we approached and I recognized the black knight upon his back.
I don’t know if I’ve written of this black night before but he’s appeared a couple of times to me. I never see his face in these vision and his armor is so perfectly black that it is the manifestation of the Absolute itself. Upon the back of the dragon, he reminded me of the Nazgul in the Lord of the Rings, although there was nothing evil about him. He simply was what he was, as was his dragon.
The dragons flew up, intertwining in midair, in an intricate dance in the air. Somehow, we remained mounted upon them. There was affection between them and they eventually landed in a clearing. We climbed off and the dragon intertwined once again, becoming a living tower of fire and ice. Beside me, the old man and the black night also merged into one being, an immense warrior clad in obsidian armor (obsidian being both black and translucent.) The knight placed his hand upon my shoulder and urged me inside the dragon tower.
Inside the tower, lying in the midst of a cradle made of thorn, was a golden baby. I knelt and bowed to this child. The knight’s hand squeezed my shoulder and I knew that I was being asked to make an offering to the child. I offered my heart, holding it out in my hands, a glowing gold organ of love. The unspoken question in the air was would I pledge myself to this child. Of course, I said yes.
And that was it.
I could read all sorts of stuff into this vision but am reluctant to do so. I don’t know what it means, other than the imagery involved is potent. The crown of thorns, the glowing Christ child, the old man in white, the knight in black, the dragons of ice and fire. It’s both pagan and Christian. And, of course, Christianity has always been adept at bringing in pagan elements. What does it mean, if anything? I don’t know. I guess all I can do it wait and see what happens. It could be nothing. It could be fantasy. It could just be imagination. It could be anything.
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