Capturing the Lightnings Shadow: Dreams 1986-2000

I am travelling in Tibet with friends and are aware that I am wearing the robes of a Buddhist Lama. We come to a canyon and a rope is thrown across so we can get to the other side, I’m frightened to cross on a pulley but there is no going back. Now at the bottom of the same rocky terrain I lie under stones hidden in a cemetery, my brother is searching for me amongst the tombstones that all have Chinese characters on them. He is tired and frustrated from his search. Hearing him approach I decide to let him see me, pushing away the stones I jump up to surprise him but he is more surprised by my attire. (Commentary here, resurrection?).

Looking out over farmland south? of Armadale I look up to see a Russian warplane crossing the sky. One, two, three parachutes and the jet arcs silently into the ground. No explosion just a cloud of dust rising in the distance, one of the parachutes becomes entangled and he grab’s the legs of another to halt his fall. The third parachutist comes to the assistance of the other two and they all become entwined. Two parachutes open but in disarray, they plummet to earth.

I look up into the sky and see a grey saucer flying through the air. Spewing from it a large number of small objects that fall to earth, a friend with me also sees this. Most of the objects that rain down are like palm sized stingrays or horseshoe crabs. They begin to sample and analyse the soil and environment around them. Other type of one is a small robotic that I grab but I drop it when it changes form and it scuttles away.

A furniture van arrives at our large and spacious (but not in reality) house in Warwick, this location is also not familiar. Inlaws and friends are here to help me move. The feeling I have within is that I knew that I would see a saucer again one day and now I have a witness so people will believe me. I tell everyone but they just laugh or brush it off, I am passionate about wanting them to believe me.

As we load up the truck I am told by my wife the we will not be moving to a new house but be putting the furniture in storage and staying with other people. I am furious and we argue. To convince people as to what I have seen I take them to show them the small ‘ray things’ but they have transformed into silicon like short fat worms and gathered in groups on branches, rocks etc, covering everything and still they are not convinced.

l am travelling on a suburban train getting on and off at different stations and not happy with anywhere I stop. It is raining at one point as I once again board the train. Now I am on my way home on the Perth Northern Rail Line and the train is heading into the city. It races along not stopping at Glendalough Station like it is supposed to so I will get off at the next stop but it keeps racing along through the stations.

The scene changes to that of an old seaside line in Melbourne and as the train races through the stations I realise that the end of the line is near, I can see the buffer fast approaching just past the last station and I tense up for the collision. Hitting the bumper the front of the carriage rises steeply into the air and I’m thrown out of my seat but only hurt my neck, others I see also are being thrown around. I climb out of the train and the nose of the carriage is sticking in the air, climbing onto the platform the Stationmaster is there and I ask how the driver is, he is dead. I think the name of this station is Elwood and now I am given a ticket to go home.

I am at the southern tip of Africa, the ‘Cape of Good Hope’ watching the waves roll in and there I find my recently deceased grandparents. I can see my Grandpa who is further into the distance and more difficult to ‘see’. My Grandma is a lot closer and seems so much younger if not rejuvenated. It suddenly occurs to me that it is only my Grandpa who died recently and then Grandma tells me that she is leaving also. I embrace her and begin to cry[1]. My aged Grandpa looks back but I don't care to be near him or follow him into the ‘distance’. (Commentary here).

I am kept in a large white house by a woman to do work or whatever she pleases and it is her father that helps me escape in his car. Getting out somewhere in a dark city I must make my way home with my friend Russell P. Crossing lanes and fields we come to a long staircase, down the stairs come a number of ghosts in classical Chinese costume, gliding past me. Mounting the top of the stairs I look back down and see a ritual being performed by them in a park below.

As we move on the luminous ghost of a young Chinese girl stops before me. Reaching out to touch her she becomes quite mad that I would dare and disappears quickly to the bottom. Moving on down the street we approach a 7-11 Store and inside a number of youth’s appear to be running amok, inside. I tell Russell that I will go home and get my tank and meet him at James H house. I am quite surprised, as I had forgotten that I even owned an Army Tank!

There are three sisters who are very close to each other, the youngest being Emma then Bridget and the oldest Sally or Hilda? I dearly love all three and was nearly married to or was married to Bridget at one time. The three of them own an Antique Shop in what I feel is late 19th century Hay Street in Perth[2]. There are tram tracks in the street outside. Many joyous hours of my life have been spent in their company over the years, except at one time when I became somewhat jealous when another man entered their lives, who was to marry Emma.

It is many years latter now and all has changed, I am on my way home but the old shop is still there. I run into the fore mentioned man and together we visit the shop. Though still full of antiques it deeply saddens me that the sisters are gone as I miss them. There is a brass bed in the shop and as I look a form appears, it is a ghost. I have never seen a ghost. The form solidifies and becomes Sally but looking somewhat younger. I am so happy I could cry, she takes my hand and tells me not to worry because everything is alright.

I ask if the is alone and she replies, “No, I am not by myself”. I have so many questions but she says she must be going and now I am almost crying, her form begins to break up, shrinking in on itself till it fades away, I want to touch her but it is too late. My friend now invites me for something to eat and I realise that it is 11.30pm. I have not told my wife that I would be late.

[1] This for me is a very powerful dream symbolically, however I never felt myself to have had a close relationship with my grandparents. My grandmother died on the 7th of January 1995.

[2] I place the location of this shop to be east of the Barrack Street intersection. On the same side as the Perth Town Hall, this central area is one of the oldest in the city. It is located close by or where now stands an office block used by Local Government. The strong emotional content of this dream led me to researching the location at the archives in the Alexandra State Library in Perth. Between 1900 and 1905 two women, Miss’ Myling and Jones ran tearooms at the location I was standing in my dream. Selling the business to a third woman in 1906. The location was sublet from a large furniture and drapery merchandiser who owned the building.