(Thursday, July 3, 2014) I believe this dream is prescient of my 2017 trip to Glastonbury England for Jill Purce’s Red Tara Mandala.
I’m in the sacred Black Hills, driving out of Rapid City. My children are in the back seat: a boy and a girl. The boy is Cullan at the age of 6 or so, and the girl is Jamie (my sister in waking life who is 6 years younger than I). We are searching for my mother-in-law Kay, who has dementia. She has left her room and gone wandering. Walkabout. [I visit Glastonbury in 2017. It is considered one of the most sacred sites in England. I travel west from London. When Chris and I were in the Black Hills in early October of 2013 we experienced a very rare polar vortex.]
The road begins a gradual rise. It’s coated with a light layer of slippery snow. The car slides off the right side of the road, at the start of a low ramp that curves to the west (left), but I am able to regain control and steer my vehicle back onto the pavement. I decide to stop and park alongside a purple-red granite curb, walking down a gentle slope on the left side of the road into a large, open plaza made of white marble. At the (top) north end of the plaza there is a building made of the same stone. The structure is built into the hillside beneath the curved ramp, like a druid barrow or dolmen. [Dolmens are ancient structures in Britain, I think connected to the Druids. The Glastonbury Tor was visible from the retreat center where I stayed. The Tor sits on a large green mound.]
I enter the building, a conference center. An event is underway. I look to my left and see the registration desk. Two men are seated at the desk, their backs facing me. As I approach them, the man on the left turns around to greet me with an enormous grin and sparkling blue/grey eyes. He is wearing a blue star-studded gown and matching tall, pointed hat on top of his brilliant white hair. Wizard’s garb. Merlin. My dream uses the word “sorcerer.” [I attend Jill Purce’s Red Tara Mandala ceremony in Glastonbury. She has two sons named Merlin and Cosmo who look nearly like twins. Merlin and the Arthur legend are a story deeply connected to this region, also called Avalon. On the opening day of the retreat, we entered the main lodge and filled out paperwork at a registration desk.]
I feel a tremendous shock of electricity run through my body as our eyes meet. He is overjoyed to see me. “Hi, my name is Harry!” he says, as the other man now turns toward me and smiles. Both faces are beaming at me. The men seem to be identical twins, but in fact are one entity, split into two figures. This understanding sends another shock deep into my bones. The sorcerer’s energy envelopes me in a sensation of hyper-reality. This part of the dream takes place in a very magical dimension. I feel more awake than in waking life. [This seems to be a Harry Potter joke. Obviously this is Merlin.]
I think I am looking for Kay, but the sorcerer knows I have come to begin my apprenticeship. He takes me by my left elbow and leads me into the conference hall to my right. The conference is about lucid dreaming and much, much more. Jean Campbell and other characters from IASD are in attendance. [Working with Jill did indeed feel like an apprenticeship. I had highly shamanic experiences.]
The sorcerer begins to recite a poem, a spell, from a small piece of paper. The spell is about the chakras of the earth. An animal is associated with each chakra and each line of the poem. There is a line about bulls and one about lions. I think the sorcerer is going to mention eagles next but he surprises me with polar bears. White bears. He shows me the poem so I can read it for myself. (I try to bring it with me into waking life but of course I cannot.) He then expounds with tremendous scientific detail on climate change and the implications of the loss of the polar ice caps, which is changing the ocean currents. [Jill’s ceremony was at Earth Spirit Centre, an eco retreat. We were surrounded by white sheep. I had my first black wolf dream a few days into the mandala. We also celebrated Beltane, an ancient honoring of the earth.]
I am deeply sad and this reminds me of Kay. I remember, too, that I have left my children waiting in the car. They must be hungry by now.
I tell the sorcerer that it’s time for me to leave. He helps me scrounge some food for Cullan and Jamie. In our every moment together he is joyful and completely supportive. As I turn to go he holds me lightly, lovingly by my shoulders, looks directly into my eyes and says, “Hey, happy birthday!” I don’t think it’s my birthday but I smile at him anyway. Wondering what he means. [I attend the mandala ceremony on my sixtieth birthday, in late April of 2017. It did not even connect with me that this dream was prescient of my big birthday till months later. ]
I walk the short distance across the plaza to the edge of the road where my car is parked, my arms full of treats for the kids. As I open the driver’s door and tuck my head to slide into the car, I brush the top of my wizard’s hat. Only at this moment do I realize that the sorcerer has placed a cap on my head made from the leathery, dried bell of a flower. Foxglove? [A “wish” I worked on at the mandala was for Cullan to find a new love. A few months later he met Hillary. They moved in together, got married in July of 2018 and had baby Wyn Franklin in June of 2019. Jamie means love. In Tarot, 6 is the Lovers card.]
We drive to the hotel or residence where Kay has been staying. It’s a pretty white stucco building with ornate carvings on the silver frames of the large picture windows. Very baroque. I am immensely relieved to discover that Kay has returned to the safety of her room on her own.
Next door to the hotel is a clothing boutique. Kay and the kids and I decide to do some shopping. The walls of the boutique are lined with wooden shelves full of beautiful scarves and accessories. In the middle of the shop is an oval-shaped display stacked with fine linen blouses and dresses. I find a white blouse that I like but I am distracted by the many other exquisite, colorful pieces on display. It feels like every garment is designed exactly for me. At one point I pick up a small hand-tooled purse of brown leather. I’m tempted to buy it but all of my shoes are black so I would have to find new shoes to match the bag. I return to the spot where I left the white blouse. It’s gone, and some of the other dresses are gone too. It’s a popular shop, apparently, and I will need to make quick, firm decisions about my purchases. [I think the leather purse is a clue about Jill Purce. She always wears a white blouse. Purse/Purce puts me on a new path (brown shoes). Linen scarves were a part of the ceremony, which rotated in oval and circular formations. It was also required to shop for clothing in certain colors to bring to the retreat.]
I had the strongest possible feeling when I awoke from this dream that the sorcerer was a real entity. Not a dream character.