He who looks outside dreams. He who looks inside awakes.

One of the strangest dreams I've ever had.. again after a long period of meditation.. was when I found myself sitting in a bus.. outside a old railway station... and behind the station I could see the early morning sun rising. . . putting the most beautiful dawn colours into the sky.... deep violets.. pinks.. reds.. and dark and light blues.

The next thing I remember was being back in Fowey ...An old 12th century town.. built on a natural harbor in Cornwall... ( I lived there for a few years when I was a kid) In my dream I was walking down towards where the ferryboat from Polruan (a village on the other side of the river) arrived in Fowey.



I was with some friends. We were standing together on a small beach.. just looking across the river. Then.. suddenly.. I realized my friends had gone ...so I went back towards the town to look for them....... I looked up and down the street but they had completely vanished.

The next thing I knew I was inside a small wooden cabin.. doing some carpentry.. I was making a door and fitting it.

Then.. again.. the scene changed...and I was outside once more..... standing in front of a low granite wall...... looking across the river.. to the other side.

At first I thought that everything looked normal.. since I had stood there and looked across the river often as a child. But then.. I noticed that the village.. called "Polruan" that should be on the other side of the river.. was not there at all. Instead there were open fields of pastureland and trees. This puzzled me because I knew there was a village there....



It was then that I realized that I must have been dreaming... I felt suddenly very conscious of where I REALLY was. I was walking around in an inner landscape.. that was being recreated.. in my imagination.

I reached down to touch the low stone wall.. that was just in front of me.. in order to feel whether it was real.. or not ...and as I squeezed my fingers against the hard stone.. I could feel the granite cutting into my fingers... so.. I reasoned... "Maybe there is something hard nearby my bed that I'm touching.. because.. since this is a dream.. the wall can't feel solid.... it's only imaginary after all." ,,, I had that much figured out.

Then it dawned on me the that it was such a beautiful sunny day....I looked up and saw the sun shining above me in the sky.. of course I couldn't look at it because it was too bright. Then I noticed how all the colors of everything were so vivid and bright... the greens of the fields and trees.. the blue of the water... with the sunlight glinting and sparkling on the river as it lazily flowed by.......... Everything was just so beautiful!! .......I was in awe!

I remember thinking something like...."This is great!..........I'm actually fully conscious in this incredible dream state where everything around me seems so perfectly real ."



Then... I thought I'd go for a walk to explore this fantastic place. I started walking along a dirt path towards a low wall with a break in it... where I could see I could pass through.

The only trouble was.. a giant owl about 4 feet tall was standing right in front of me in the gap in the wall.. blocking my way.. so I couldn't get past it easily. I thought: "Well, this is only a dream.. so I can just push past it.... because it's only imaginary after all." ... so I started trying to gently to ease myself past the giant owl... but.. suddenly it started flapping its wings against me....and that woke me up.


The following day I thought about what the dream might signify and came to these conclusions: The bus outside the railway station signified that I was about to make a journey somewhere. Going down to the water meant it was a spiritual journey. My friends leaving.. meant I would undertake it alone. The door I was making was the door that opens onto the inner-worlds of the mind and imagination... and the landscape I saw was a virgin landscape which signified it was some ancient knowledge existing from early times. The sun shining signified illumination...enlightenment. The dirt path was the simple, natural way I should tred......and the owl was my guide... waiting there for me to follow.

However, at the time I didn't understand what was going on and I kind of messed up... by ignoring the owl. The owl symbol is often seen in the alchemists beautifully illustrated books. My guess is.. the alchemists used the owl to symbolize the occult. . because the owl flies... and sees by night... and so it symbolizes lucid dreaming.... our visionary night trips.

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”He who looks outside dreams. He who looks inside awakes.”

Carl Jung