Dream
visitations are usually benign. I used to get them in the corners of my
nightmares but they were always apart from the nightmare. You may be a Scrooge
who has karmically earned a visit from Marley, in which case have fun. But
there is no reason you should be scared of a dream visitation from spirit.
When you do
a lot of work with spirits in dreams sometimes you are called to Work. There
are ways to help the dead in their realm.
A friend
came to me recently, in a dream. He’s been dead for a decade and his death was
disarming and unexpected. As was the dream:
I’m in a hotel, wandering around. There’s
some kind of wedding. We were right about coming there. Something cried out for
help. We set a trap that involved pushing carts around unnoticed and drawing
symbols on specific walls.
That night, another body shows up in bed
with us. I hitch my breath.
He came to me as he saw himself, like
Voldemort in the train station. He is wasted away to skeleton three-quarters
his actual size. It breaks my heart and he cannot bear to look at me. He covers
his face with his hands, crying.
He’s crying and apologizing for not working
harder. He’s humiliated at how I saw him at the end, at how things ended.
I could ask him what happened.
I could ask him who did it.
I could…
But he is broken, swimming in regret and
guilt and shame. And I remembered the light in the hospital that came to me
when I felt most broken-- I remembered that and all of the things that he did
that were good and made him someone we cared about. I pulled it up and shared that
with him.
I took his face in my hands and repeated
over and over again that he should be proud of the Work that he did, not what
he didn’t do. I tell him to let the rest fall away.
I make him look me in the eye to see how I
see him.
He removes his hands and his eyes are so
piercingly blue.
It takes hours of unflinching gazing. And
then he smiles.
In the end there was peace. For both of us.
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