Visions in the Dark

I am travelling with a male companion who has short black hair and is a sorceror of sorts. His name starts with an "M" but I can't remember his actual name from the dream. I am a sword fighter and the two of us are travelling the world to learn new skills to compensate the things we already know. In other words, M is trying to find someone to teach him close combat skills and I am seeking to learn magic. M and I have learned all we can from each other and need to find external sources to teach us more.

We are Japan during the feudal era and are both dressed in Japanese inspired treveller's clothing. We are walking along a cobblestone path through a forest towards some early Edo period buildings that we can see ahead of us. It seems as if everything is in technicolor. It is night but the stars shine so brightly that it is not dark at all. The tree leaves are in magesnta and purples and everything with color is very vivid. As we get closer to the buildings we come to a fork in the road and we meet two young women, a young man dressed as a monk and his pet, a small flying orange fox, who are coming down the other path and heading towards the same buildings that we are.

M and I tell the other people that we are looking for someone to teach us. One of the young woman tells us that they are going to see their sensei and we cantag along if we want. We follow them to the largest of the buildings, a shrine on the edge of what seems to be a small village. The inside of the shrine is like a large cave. There are three large stone platforms (two on each side and one in the middle) that rise above what looks like a lake of glowing red lava below, but it does it smell like sulfur, so I wasn't sure what it was at first.

On the center platform is a large Spirit or God. He is wearing royal looking kimonos underneath samurai armor. He has long white hair and beard and pale purple coloured skin. He introduced himself as "Akashi" and before M and I can tell him why we've come, he tells us that we have different paths to follow for our training that that we will have to seperate. This upsets both M and I because up until this point we have always done our training together.

Akashi tells M to follow the group of people we met on the cobblestone path, for they are all trained in close combat and can teach him much, but I am to stay with Akashi because my training is going to be harder and longer. The Spirit God produces a fist size blue stone that is reminiscent of a outline of a pair of lips and with a wave of his hand it grows to in size until it is as large as me. I am bound with magic rope to it and M gets upset to see me tied up. Akashi says that while bound to the blue stone I will not become uncomfortable, hungry or tired, and that he is going to send me into another dimension where time passes much more quickly. There I will be able to observe and learn from other spirits for what will be an equivalent of many months, though only three days will pass in the physical world.

Akashi opens a portal to the other dimension and the blue stone to which I am tied floats through. When the portal closes, Akashi instructs M to follow the group back into the forest where he can observe them fighting monsters and demons and says by the end of the three days M will have the same level of combat skills as they.

Three days pass and M and the group return to the shrine and find Akashi fighting some demons who have forced their way into the physical realm from another dimension. The group helps the Spirit God fight off the demons but when it is all over Akashi tells them that he expended a lot of power fighting the demons and he now does not have the energy to retrieve me from the dimension he sent me to. M says that he has lots of magic power to spare, since he didn't use it while combat training, and offers it for Akashi's use. The Spirit God absorbs M's power and sends the small flying fox into the small portal opening. The flying fox chews off the ropes binding my hands and feet then magically grows to the size of a lion so that I can ride on his back.

Some of the spirits that I had been observing and learning from all those months try to follow us through the portal but Akashi tries to stop them. They become angry and attack the fox and I before we are all the way through and try to drag us back into their dimension. M and the group help them fight them back while Akashi sits back and watches approvingly. Akashi then closes the portal and gathers us all on the center platform where praises us all for our skills.


The dream ends there.

This is the second dream I had on September 25th, 2008.


I am floating above a large inland sea surrounded by high cliffs and thick forests. There is a long winding railroad track that runs along the circumferance of the sea by I do not know if it is used because some parts of it dip down and are sumberged. There are two islands near the center of the sea where tiny humans live. Or at least they seem tiny compared to me and everything appears in minature. I am invisible and no one can see me. There are two groups of people that identify themselves by colour; the red people on the eastern island and the blue people on the westen island. The people have different cultures and beliefs and though they have everything to survive independantly of each other, they constantly war with each other because of their differing spiritual beliefs or something.

I suddenly find myself at the same scale as everything else and walking along the train tracks along the northern edge of the sea. After a while the track dips down into the water and heads towards the center of the sea. I keep walking and find that I can continue walking along the track without drowning or becoming bouyant. I follow the track down to the center where a submerged but seemingly abandoned city exists. Some of the buildings look modern, even futuristic, while others are made of a slightly glowing coral. There are many colourful lights around the city and they illuminate a giant bearded merman sleeping in the very center. He looks a lot like the classical sea god image but he makes me think of the father from Disney's The Little Mermaid, King Triton. There is a mighty golden trident at his side which is almost as large as he.

The is suddenly a great deal of tension coming from up above and I can sense this telepathically. The energy of the tension is so strong that it wakes the giant Sea King, who sighs wearily. He sits up and grabs me with his massive right hand (though very gently, and I know somehow that he isn't going to hurt me) and grabs his trident with his left hand before surfacing quite rapidly. On the surface nighttime has come and the Sea King and I can see that the two islands of people have amassed great armies on their respective islands, seemingly to destroy the other once and for all. The giant merman quietly tells me that he is the god of these people and protects them, and that they fight each other because each believes that they are more favoured by the god over the other, which they believe makes them superior and that the 'lesser' island should submit. Thus the fighting never stops.

The Sea King tells me he is tired of the fighting because he cares for the red and blue people equally and though he wishes neither any harm he is considering letting them destroy each other so that the constant warring will finally stop. He places me on a giant clam shell and sends me towards the islands, to warn the warring sides of the god's growing apathy. I am visible again and I talk first to the red people but most ignore me while others threaten me. I then go over the the western island where the blue people live. They are suspicious because they saw me come from their enemy's island, but are more willing to listen to my warning. In the end though, the blue people say they will still fight, partly because they know the red army is going to attack anyway.

I return to the Sea King and tell him what happened at which point he becomes very angry. He swims between the two islands and raises himself up out of the water as far as he can and towers over the tiny islands, whose people cover is fear. The Sea King declares loudly that neither island is favoured over the other, that they are both equal and that the fighting has to stop. He also says that their unique and seperate cultures should be celebrated as complements to each other, not as opposites.

The red army suddenly lunges forward and makes its way over to the blue island. They continue from their little boats and charge forward as if to attack. They reach the blue army and it looks as if the two sides are going to violently clash with each other, but instead the armies merge and walk through each other as if they were transparent. As this happens the blue and red peoples become different shades of purple. The armies and people mingle together and laugh and hug and dance. There is a drunken reverie to celebrate their coming together as the Sea King returns to his place at the bottom of the sea and goes back to sleep. I watch the partying from afar, feeling like an outsider and do not participate in the celebration because I seem to have become invisible again. My last feelings in this dream were of isolation and loneliness, then I woke up.