Dream: The bridge of enchantment

You must accept this gift, the dream woman said.

In the dream, I realize I’m on the wrong train.

I look out the window and on the next track, I see another train moving in the opposite direction. Inside of that train, I notice a woman. She walking from the front of the train to the back. This creates the illusion that she is moving in the same direction as my train but I know (in the dream) that her train is moving the ‘right way’.

At the next station, I hear an announcement for her train. I run from the wrong train to the right one, jumping on just as the doors close.

The moment I enter, the conductor is there. “You have to sit down!” he says. “Sit now. Exactly where you are.”

Chastened, I sit down exactly where I am. This puts me on the lap of a big tough-looking fellow who seems to be traveling with a small group of others. They all seem a little in awe of him - and maybe afraid. I realize: he’s the boss.

“Go find your own seat,” he says. His group members shuffle in their seats, uneasy. They caution me with their eyes. In the dream, I notice I’m not afraid of ‘the boss’.

“I’ll get up at the next stop,” I promise, and he shrugs. Everyone relaxes. Crisis averted.

At the next stop, I get up to find my own seat. The train has stairs. I climb to the upper level. Just then, one of the boss’s group, a young woman, comes to find me. “The boss wants to give you a gift,” she says.

“That’s okay. He doesn’t have to do that',” I say.

“Yes, he does,” she says. “You must accept this gift.”

I agree to receive the boss’s gift and she tells me he will send it. I look for something to write with, to give her my address. It’s then that I realize I’ve left my luggage and my briefcase containing all of my old work on the other train.

I’ve lost everything I own I think but this doesn’t seem to bother me. Checking my pockets, I find that I still have my cell phone, my Kindle Reader and my wallet. I’ve got what matters, I think. I let all the rest go.

“I will bring you my address,” I tell the young woman and she returns to her seat beside the boss.

That’s when the train stops, paused between stations.

I look out at the landscape, lush and green. A brook burbles and flows beneath the wooden bridge just ahead. I feel a rush of joy as a man’s voice says, “We’re about to cross the bridge of enchantment.”

Delighted, I laugh, as the train starts to move across the bridge. We are halfway across when a golden star flies through the open window beside me and lands on my lap. Amazed, I examine it. The star is made of foil paper (like the stars a schoolteacher might stick on a child’s paper). When I turn it over I find, on the back, a red almond-shaped leaf.

Though this gift landed on me, I give it to the little girl who is sitting with her father, a few steps below me. She smiles and I sit back, watching her and her father delightedly play with the treasure.

Just then, a woman in the seat across from mine scoffs. “They do things so simply there.” Her tone is critical and I realize, I don’t care what she thinks. I turn away.

A moment later, the train lurches and I am thrown from my seat. I land atop a young man with bright red hair. (He looks like Eddie Redmayne). He is flustered and awkwardly asks me for a gift.

“If you will sleep with me (I sense it’s his first time), I will let you also sleep with my twin brother,” (whom he seems to believe is more beautiful, more worthy - a gift to me).

In an instant, I remember my lifetime as a sacred prostitute and I smile. I speak to him telepathically, beaming the message: I can do this for you. I don’t need the gift of your brother. You are enough.

He is overjoyed. I give him my card so we can connect, and before exiting the train, I leave another card for the young woman to give to ‘the boss’.

I wake up.

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What do we make of a dream like this, so full of symbols and guidance?

I’d love to know what you see and what do you feel when you read this. Leave your impressions in the comments below.

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Here’s what matters to me:

I must accept this gift from ‘the boss’.
We cross the bridge of enchantment.
A gold paper star flies through the window and lands on my lap.
I give it to a little girl and her father.

The dream contains a deep wisdom I did not yet have - a gift freely given must be freely shared. A few months after this dream, a came across a book called The Gift by Lewis Hyde. It glowed. Though it was written in the 1980s, it was new to me - and right on time.

The gift foretold its arrival.
When you cross the bridge of enchantment into the world of the imaginal, you begin to receive its gifts!

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