My grandmother had introduced a possibility that was much more difficult for me to examine.
The “we” behind a human life, in her understanding, did not necessarily end with family, community, colleagues, institutions or even the living.
She appeared to extend it further.
To ancestors.
To blessings.
And perhaps to forms of divine or spiritual intervention that I could neither prove nor confidently dismiss.
I was not as certain as she was.
I could understand how the boundary of the “we” might expand from the “I”, to family, village, community, South Africa, Africa and eventually humanity.
Those relationships could at least be understood through shared identity, place, experience, responsibility, common interests or common purpose.
My grandmother seemed to be proposing something different.
Could the “we” extend beyond the living?
Could those who came before us somehow remain part of what happens to those who come after them?
I did not know.
The earlier dream involving her father had already made such questions difficult for me to dismiss casually. But neither that dream nor my grandmother’s interpretation gave me enough evidence to claim certainty.
So I was left in an uncomfortable position.
I could not prove it.
But I was also not convinced that my inability to prove it entitled me to declare it impossible.
Then, some time later, another dream came.
This one was different.
It did not simply involve someone who might or might not have been connected to my family.
It seemed to place me inside an entire world whose order I did not understand.
The Frozen Landscape
As far as I can presently remember, the dream happened around August 2022. I was already working permanently in Polokwane.
The dream began with us travelling through the air.
Below us was a land covered with ice and snow.
Everything appeared frozen.
Except for a river.
The river had not frozen.
Beyond it was another landscape.
There was a mountain or elevated area covered with short grass that appeared slightly dry.
Then there were enormous houses.
They were large, double-storey structures, but their roofs were made of grass.
The person who was showing me around referred to these houses by one particular word:
“Colonies.”
At that point, I wondered whether the person showing me the place might be God.
Then I was told that there was somewhere else I was going to be shown.
The Narrow Path
We were now on our feet.
We entered a narrow path.
As we walked, three people emerged from another narrow path on our left.
There were two men and a woman.
My impression within the dream was that they were siblings, two brothers and their sister.
I could not see the place from which they had emerged.
There was also a sense that people from the colonies were not permitted to go there. Only people of this kind appeared to stay wherever that path was leading.
When the three reached us, they confronted the person guiding me.
They questioned why I was being taken somewhere I apparently was not supposed to enter.
Nevertheless, we continued.
There were now five of us.
Eventually, the narrow path ended at another structure that appeared to be a house or a hall.
Inside were four chairs around a square table.
Then I noticed another narrow path on the left.
Once again, I could not see where it ended.
But it appeared to lead towards a small floating planet or moon.
From that direction, I could hear loud and happy voices.
It sounded like an endless, joyful and very loud celebration.
This time, I had the impression that even the four people who were with me were not permitted to go wherever that path led.
Then someone emerged from that direction.
The Gigantic Being
A gigantic Black male figure appeared.
He seemed to be the father of the four people.
My impression was that the place from which he had come was only for beings of his kind and that he had come down to the meeting room specifically to meet these four people.
It seemed that this meeting room was where they could meet and communicate.
When I saw him, something changed in my understanding.
Until that point, I had wondered whether the person showing me around might be God.
Now I started wondering whether perhaps this gigantic being was God.
When he entered, things began arranging themselves.
Objects moved to the places where they belonged.
They appeared to be moved by wind.
The wind also moved the four people.
Each person was placed correctly into a seat.
I was moved too and placed in my position towards the lower side.
The gigantic being entered smiling and appeared to be in a hurry to return to the joyful life on the other side with his kind.
The others continued complaining about the person who had brought me there.
Why had I been shown a place where I apparently was not supposed to enter?
Then the wind moved my guide away.
The person was sent back towards the direction from which we had come.
The others did not say goodbye.
The gigantic being also began returning towards the place from which he had emerged.
Then something happened.
The Open Doors
The doors and windows had been left open.
Animals began coming inside.
There were colourful baboons, monkeys and colourful birds, the kind I had never seen before.
Within the dream, I seemed to understand something.
The person who had originally been guiding me appeared to be the person who normally closed the windows and doors.
But because the guide had been sent away first, the others had forgotten to close them.
Then the gigantic being’s hand appeared to return.
With it came the wind.
The windows and doors were pulled closed.
Then my own direction changed.
I was told to leave.
But I was not merely being expelled from the place.
I was given an instruction:
“Go and get your people.”
I was supposed to bring my people back to the other side of the colonies I had been shown.
I was to make a colony for them there.
“Your People”
Perhaps this was the strangest possible instruction to receive after I had already been struggling with the boundary of the “we.”
Who were “my people”?
The dream did not provide me with a definition.
Family?
Village?
Community?
Something larger?
I do not want to answer that retrospectively because I did not receive such an explanation within the dream itself.
All I remember is the instruction.
Go and get your people.
Then the scene changed again.
The Three Reddish Objects
I was standing with these people on the other side.
Behind us, both the sun and the moon appeared to be visible.
It was like three reddish stars in a row, close to one another and close to the area where we were.
They were present at the same time.
My impression was that it was around late afternoon.
On one side, people had gathered outside.
A golden flash appeared.
The people were transformed into a golden glow of light and dust.
Then that bright golden glow moved from them and entered the three stars.
My feeling within the dream was that those people who were converted into the golden glow or dust were without a colony of their own.
There appeared to be no place for them in such an orderly realm.
On the left, something entirely different was happening.
The Endless Battle
There were men who looked like soldiers from an old historical period.
They reminded me of soldiers from around the First World War period, or perhaps even earlier.
They carried swords.
They had rifles.
Some of the rifles had knives or blades fixed to the front, like bayonets.
They were not simply running towards somewhere.
They were fighting.
And the fight appeared endless.
There did not seem to be a conclusion.
They appeared trapped in a battle that simply continued.
But I was not sent into that battle.
I was not given a rifle.
I was not given a sword.
Instead, the people with me and I continued walking back towards the colonies.
Then they asked me:
What would we use to build our colony?
I answered according to what I believed I had just witnessed:
“Where I have just come from, they speak, and things happen. When we arrive, we will speak, and it will happen.”
That is how I remember the dream.
There are parts I can describe.
There are impressions I had within the dream.
And there are meanings I could now attempt to impose on those details.
But those are not necessarily the same thing.
Was the person guiding me God?
Was the gigantic being God?
Was neither of them God?
What were the colonies?
Who were the four people?
What was on the other side of the narrow path?
What were the three reddish objects?
What happened to the people who became golden light?
Why were the soldiers fighting endlessly?
And perhaps most importantly, after everything my grandmother had made me question about the boundaries of the “we”:
Who were “my people”?
I do not know.
For now, I would rather preserve the dream as accurately as I can than simplify it merely to make it easier to explain.
Join the conversation
If you had experienced this dream, which detail would you find hardest to explain: the colonies, the beings, the endless battle, the transformation into golden light, or the instruction to “go and get your people”?
Leave a Reply