“Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” -John: 4:47
All artwork for this project created by Cabe Lindsay, Betting On Love!’s Media Manager, founder of Arise Video in Austin, TX.
It was dusk. My Teacher and I were in a vast, strange landscape of honey-colored dirt that spanned miles. Far off in the distance ahead of us were a few elaborately architected buildings that felt like those I’d seen in India, like the Taj Mahal, but smaller. Some had colors – blues, pinks, golds. Ornate spiraling and conical shapes swirled at their tops. But the most significant object of this small, adorned city was an enormous god-like man directly in the center of the town. He was humungous. He dominated the landscape and towered over the buildings and forest off in the distance. He was the most powerful being I had ever seen.
His body was cut off at the earth’s surface below his belly button, so it appeared as though he only had an upper body — torso, chest, arms, and head. Only his huge upper half of his form was fixed on the honey dirt. Calmly, intently, he was looking past our small figures into the woods behind us. He was in a deep focused meditation, yet aware of everything around us. His stare felt intense and impenetrable. And his calmness was mixed with a sense of seriousness for the task he was about to perform.
My Teacher was watching him, but felt no fear, so I took this as an indication to pay attention to this giant. Taking all of him in visually, I noticed that his arms and chest were muscular and bare. It was as if the ratios of his pecs, biceps, shoulders, and abs were mathematically perfect, reminiscent of Michelangelo’s David. He was adorned with jewelry made from very ornate beads and precious metals – gold and silver. He also wore a crown that was embellished with the same precious metals and beadwork, that was so elaborately beautiful, I found myself not wanting to take my eyes off of them. But what I noticed next commanded my attention even more…it was his skin. His whole body was painted in a dark, thick, crimson-red, acrylic paint. I could see it in detail, and the flaking segments that appeared to almost be cracking off, fascinated me. I stared at that paint for several long seconds, ever curious about why a giant would be painted in crimson.
I then noticed my Teacher was focusing all of his attention on the giant, and so I took this as another cue to focus, as well. I expanded my visual field to take in all of this powerful God-like being. As I did, I realized that his toned arms had been stretched out to his sides, again in perfect symmetry, palms facing up, and perfectly horizontal to the ground. His left hand was closed in a fist, and I was surprised to see that in his right hand, he held a ball of fire, hot and burning,. Orange and red flames were jumping out of this ball of fire and returning to it, like sun flares.
With his eyes fixed straight ahead, and leaving his left arm where it was, the giant began to slowly and methodologically raise his right arm. His movement embodied purposefulness and intention. And I could feel in the air around me that something powerful was happening: it was as if time had begun.
It was then that I realized that it was twilight. But as the giant’s arm began to raise upwards towards his head, I was astonished to realize that the sun over our landscape had also begun to rise! My mind rushed to try to process what was happening: “Obviously, there is a cause and effect reaction happening here”, I thought. “But…” The light around my Teacher and I, turning into a beautiful dawn, began to brighten, as I watched this giant’s left arm now begin to move as well.
His right hand still moving with the ball of fire, I could see that now his left hand was going to meet his right hand above his head, in order to receive the fire and exchange it. And it was so: his right and left arms met directly above his head, his eyes ever fixed in trance as he transferred the ball of fire from his right hand into his left. In that moment, I noticed that the sun over our landscape was also directly above us! I was in disbelief! As I felt the dazzling, bright white and canary yellow noon-time sun, I felt the significance of the correlation between this giant’s actions, and the movement of the Earth around the sun. With mathematical exactness, our sun lined up to the ball of fire above his head, as if both were in perfect alignment with each other. I felt a strange sense of completion in that exact moment.
Never stopping or missing a beat, after his seamless transition, the giant’s left hand now owned the sun. His strong left arm slowly and steadily guided the ball to his left arm’s original position – outstretched and parallel to the dirt – along with his right arm doing the same. During this transition “from above to below”, our landscape sun also began setting, and continued to grow gradually darker around my Teacher and I, until finally, it was dusk.
Feeling in awe of the power of this giant and his ability to perform miracles, I couldn’t contain my excitement! But before I could verbalize my wonder, my Teacher said calmly, “Keep paying attention”. I quickly silenced my enthusiasm, trusting my Teacher’s guidance. Staring straight ahead again, I watched the entire process repeat, yet this time in reverse. While staring straight ahead, the giant’s arms met in the middle directly above his head, performing his seamless transition of the fire ball from left to right hand, and then both arms lowering to being perfectly parallel with the earth. Our sun had also risen and set again.
Feeling amazed and overwhelmed, I felt like I was going to burst with astonishment and admiration! But before I could formulate my question, my Teacher said, “Just remember one thing…how much suffering there is in the world.”
And with this, I awoke.
*Thank you for taking the time to read this article. 🙂 This was my first mystical teaching dream, which I had in the summer of 2022. The dream taught the importance for spiritual awakenings to always being grounded in compassion for others’ suffering. I discovered months after, that the image of this god in my dream is “Surya, the Sun God”, a Hindu deity.