Dream 18 -
The hotel
For
some years I began having a recurring dream about a large hotel. I recognised it
as based on the Regent Palace Hotel in London, where I was taken as a boy
several times a year. Bits of the dream were always missing, but gradually it
began to unfold more coherently as I slowly was able to remember parts of it and
put them together.
It
was the 23rd of May, 1988 that the dream appeared to finally become complete. I
became aware that I was in the dream and observing it. As I watched the dream
unfold, I saw myself in the big old hotel. I could not remember my room number
or even perhaps that I was not yet in the correct hotel. I needed to reassure
myself that I was in the right place. It was all very dark and old and then I
realised that there were many other people there. We were there for a major
trade conference. I decided as before that I needed to get to Reception and ask
for my key. In other words to return to the beginning and use the correct
procedure, the key, in order to undertake the learning and transformation
process.
I
got to reception and told them that I could never remember my room number, but
that it was on the second floor, before the real dormitory floors started. So
this represents the first two stages of the transformation, the stalling of the
outer mind and moving to the inner mind, the personal unconscious, represented
by the second floor.
I
found my way to reception by a circular route so as to avoid the other guests
and the hotel Staff. I was able to retrace the route I had found in previous
dreams. The key to it was to start at the back, in the kitchen and service area,
where the special food was prepared, and eventually get to the main dining room.
This meant I was then near the front of the hotel which was the newest part.
From
the dining room which was all in darkness, I went to reception. The fair girl
behind the counter remembered me. Here is your key, she said. No need to worry,
you are now well known here and always stay in your special room. The key she
handed me had a large plaque attached to it. It was divided into squares each
with a number. There were five in the top row, four in the next, and one in the
bottom row. It was in fact a key to a suite of rooms used by our group. The
receptionist confirmed this and told me that my suite of rooms was on the fourth
floor, not the second.
The
suite of rooms could represent the mentation equipment, Instinctive, Moving,
Feeling, Intellect, and possibly Higher Emotional and Higher Intellectual. The
fact that it is on the fourth floor could symbolise the Fourth which results
when the lower three, Moving, Feeling and Intellect, are put in proper order and
contact is made with Higher Mind. So the fourth is the Man on the bridge,
symbolised by the God Janus, Guardian of the Door, who has two faces so as to be
able to look both ways at once.
I
found my way back to the main dining room. This was down a flight of stairs in
the basement of the hotel. It was again all dark, but as I entered the lights
came on. At the far end of the dining room, which in fact was what used to be
called the Louis Room in the Regent Palace Hotel of the 1930's, in a corner,
there was a door that no one knew of, or at least only a very few of the very
senior staff. I had found it after much searching in a previous dream. I arrived
in the dining room as the waiters were laying up, and so I was able to get
across to the hidden door without their noticing. They were all too busy with
their worldly duties. Here we have emphasised the need for preparation before
consuming the special food.
I
got through the door which led to an area of the hotel that was the old original
part. It was in the form of a large circular courtyard and was very dusty
through long ages of disuse. It was in fact never used now and apart from the
small access door I had found, was blocked off from the refurbished main hotel.
As I looked up, I saw that the structure was in the form of three circular
balconies extending round the whole of this inner circular part. There were
stairs from the ground to the first balcony and also from the first-balcony to
the second and from the second to the third. I climbed these stairs, but found
that one had to be very careful since some of the steps were missing. I
eventually reached the third balcony but then found that there were no more
flights of stairs to the other higher balconies above. How did one reach the
next level? Another way has to be found.
So
here we have the same structure again. The inner circular courtyard represents
the Instinctive Mind, while the first, second and third balconies symbolise the
Moving, Feeling and Intellectual Minds, all of which can be accessed by our own
efforts, step by step, by using the stairs. To go further, however, to contact
Higher Mind, requires a different approach. In fact it needs help from a higher
level.
I
noticed a small group of people standing together on the third balcony. I
approached them and found that they were waiting at the door to a lift. I waited
with them until the lift came. I stepped into the lift and it was pulled up from
above by the winding mechanism. I found that there was a young woman sitting in
the lift with me and reassuring me as the lift was pulled up from above. I
reached my room and then changed into special clothes for the evening.
So
here we have it, the need to search for a way; to go from the darkness of the
first confused stages into the light were there appears to be more order.
Eventually by ones own efforts reaching the third stage of the journey, but then
needing help from above in order to make the final stages. The help from the
woman in the lift, surely a symbol of the Anima, which is the means of providing
the help from above that is needed to complete the journey. At the end of the
journey one dons special clothes, reminiscent of the Wedding Garment that is
needed for the final completion of the transformation process leading to a
unity.
