# Sleep and Dreams > General Dream Discussion > Dream Interpretation >  >  Whirlwind dream

## sandlizard

A  couple months ago I had this dream. It was bizarre, so I wrote what I could remember. Have started keeping a dream journal ever since. 
Here is the dream content: 

'Was traveling across the northern border. As soon as I got to the border crossing the guards insisted on seeing an i.d. identification. I had trouble retrieving the documents. The guards told me to relax. 
Then they all pulled guns on me. I became really anxious. The guards then started laughing and told me it was all a joke. Everyone of them were laughing as one of them said, 'It gets him every time.' Then they let me go through.
As soon as I got to the north side of the border I noticed that the air was cooler. The soil was very rich.  Everything was real green. 
I went to stay at this house and visited with the hosts. 
While visiting I observed a 'mechanized' whirlwind that was clearing a circular field outside the house. It was clearing them of old plants and debris. Then it planted the field with new plants. The crops were planted with a 'mechanized crate device. ' 

What was really wierd was the next day or week I saw several images of tornados in real life. For instance at the school where worked the students chose the theme of the tornado as a symbolffor their victory over rivals. One of the other instances of the tornado image in real life was the fact that my students wanted to watch 'the wizard of Oz' so watched the show with them. There were so instances of seeing images of tornados in reality that it was difficult to perceive it as pure coincidence. Although the tornado is a common symbol, I almost started wondering whether there was some kind of sinchronicity with my dream.

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## Leo Volont

The Hohokam Tribe of Indian from in the American Southwest, who had a pretty good Neo-lithic Civilization, related to the Mayans, from the 8th to the 13th Centuries, thought that the 'Dust Devils', which can be quite large on a hot dry day, were Spirits... that the Devils were actual devils, of sorts.

When one does Prayers or Mantras in Dreams, it is almost common to be taken up into some kind of a Vortex.  I've been in very confined and rapidly turning Vortexes, much like your Tornadoes.  But other have described a more expansive and gently upgoing Spiral of Energy.

In your particular Dream -- the Mechanized Vortex refers to an Institutionalized Vortex.  Sowing Seeds is an old Religious Image with which we are all somewhat acquainted.

'going North' refers to the separation between the Ordinary and the Spiritual.  The Line is Guarded, but at the same time, it is not guarded.  As soon as one becomes 'Spiritual', then all sense that the Border was guarded becomes a joke.  The only Guard necessary to protect the Spiritual Domains from the unspiritual, is that very attitude of disdain of Spirituality which would not consider crossing that border anyway.

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## ElijahJones

Interesting,

Its hard for me to imagine that dream archetypes exist at all beyond a direct cultural or personal link, there simply is no proof of it and no way to prove it, quite frankly.  So since you are a person who has looked at various religions and traditions I would pick the dream apart.  List every aspect, the important sequences and peoples and sort of ponder it for a while.  If it is part of a sequence of dreams it is possible that the message is essentially the same as the other dreams in the sequence.  

The synchronicity part is interesting.  But when we talk of coincidence sometimes lightning does strike twice.  Recall there was man who was struck by lighting over 13 times in his life (guinness book of records).  You are questing for an answer to an important personal question and the hardest place to look may be directly into the face of the truth.  Someone is trying to tell you something.  My guess is that someone is you.

Youre travels have given you a perspective on America that is quite unique, in fact you have been somewhat marginalized by your experiences which is common but it is quite uncommon to ever go back.  Much of what we do in America is very trite and meaningless, our form of Evangelical Christianity is almost solely an American invention.  These things are troubling.  And the way in which we feel superior having only been around for 250 odd years to nations whose civilized history spans millenium says something about us.

Perhaps Europe is a place you would find more happiness?

All this is meant to serve as point and counterpoint, not a dictation from on high of what your dream means, you must decide that for yourself.

EJ

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## sandlizard

Somehow the end of this dream didn’t get posted. So am posting it again. 

‘Tuesday, March 15, 2005 5:00 AM - 6:00 AM - Was traveling across the northern border. As soon as I got to the border crossing the guards insisted on seeing an i.d. identification. I had trouble retrieving the documents. The guards told me to relax. 
Then they all pulled guns on me. I became really anxious. The guards then started laughing and told me it was all a joke. Everyone of them were laughing as one of them said, 'It gets him every time.' Then they let me go through.
As soon as I got to the north side of the border I noticed that the air was cooler. The soil was very rich.  Everything was real green. 
I went to stay at this house and visited with the hosts. 
While visiting I observed a 'mechanized' whirlwind that was clearing a circular field outside the house. It was clearing them of old plants and debris. Then it planted the field with new plants. The crops were planted with a 'mechanized crate device. 
I then observed new shoots growing out of the ground. 
I turned around and looked around inside. Inside the house there was this giant round machine. 
The pot looked like a machine of some kind, almost like a still. I observed this guy putting 'greens' inside the pot. 
He took a plant stem out and held it out to me to light my ciggarrette (?)’

Here is a recent dream in the sequence with a bizarre coincidince with reality 
Wednesday, June 29, 2005 3:00 AM - 4:00 AM - Dream of Undead
Frankenstein and another person who was undead (Dracula?) were at a celebration and were helping cook flour tortilla shells for salad bowls. It seemed like the flour tortilla shell bowls were burning up and turning to charcoal but when hostess brought them out of the oven they were still good and could be used. 
Somehow Frankenstein began discussing how he was different from other undead(?)  He started his discussion by elaborating on these points,  'there is difference within indifference,' and difference within similarity' ? 

I woke up not remembering whole dream, but radio was playing an old 1960’s song, 'I finally died and the whole world started living.'

Why did that song have to be playing at that particular moment?

I am being careful with assigning too much value to coincidences. Still sometimes they make you stop and wonder. 
I do think there are cross-cultural archetypes. For instance Elijah had a vision of a whirlwind in the bible. But the meaning of the archetypal images may vary a little between cultures. That’s why it gets difficult to analyze the dreams. 

Still, I think there must be spiritual content in these dreams. Am just not sure of what the whole message is.

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## Leo Volont

> _Originally posted by sandlizard_
> *But the meaning of the archetypal images may vary a little between cultures. Thats why it gets difficult to analyze the dreams. *
> 
> Still, I think there must be spiritual content in these dreams. Am just not sure of what the whole message is.*



Carl Jung ran hard into that Cultural Wall you are talking about.  He turned in Studies in which his Data represented that his Study Subjects were effectively Culturally Pure -- that they had no notion of any other culture and so any cross-cultural Archetypes to appear would have had to be Archetypes from some Collective Consciousness.  But with some subsequent digging, it was found that Jung's culturally pure subjects had actually been very well read and Cosmopolitan in their outlook and knowledge of the world and other cultures.  It started a firestorm in the Psychological Establishment as hundreds of Freudians and demanded a general book burning of all of Jung's works.

I suppose that Jung simply was growing old and didn't wish to bother with the impossible task of finding one Culturally Pure soul to study.  Where can such a being exist anymore.  We are fast becoming One World Culture in which any intelligent person can be relied upon to know a great deal about other cultures... enough to be able to draw upon other Archetypal References.

Your dream ... your Frankenstein...was pointing out the impossibility of ever making a True Generalization.  Generalizations depend upon establishing a preponderance of similarities within a logical set.  We could hardly conduct ourselves in the World without using generalizations.  Every choice we make is made using incomplete and general information.  We do not think in Absolutes but from deductions made using knowledge that is no where near being complete.   But your dream point out that we should not be fooled by the shortcuts we have been making into supposing that our Generalizations actually apply when considered at anywhere beyond the mere surface level.  In Real Terms, everything is Unique.  There is no perfect Horse, but millions of large unique animals that have much in common, but each has its own subtle differences.   

and Yes, I think the Living Dead theme came from the Radio Song.  But your Higher Mind perhaps took the opportunity to speak regarding the effective Immortality of the Life Force, if not for individual souls themselves.  Notice that Frankenstein was a conglomeration of those who had lived before, but were recycled into New Life.

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## ElijahJones

It seems you have decided that there is in fact a spiritual world and that these dreams do contain messages from that world.  This is your choice.  I have spent nearly twenty years on that quest during my lifetime and for now I do not intend to spend any more time on it.  So I commend you to the four winds and hope your search is satisfying.  

As one human being to another, I certainly understand the hope of a reason why, a great beyond.  But after 35 years containing many adventures and studies (accredited and personal) I find no proof that there exists anything beyond the physical universe.  All that is percieved as supernatural is (in my opinion which is subject to change form time to time) a matter of humans trying to understand themselves and the world in which they live.  The peace I enjoy is a practical peace, a happiness that I exist at all and an acceptance of those things that I cannot change about myself and about life.  Perhaps in some way this is not so different from the sentiments of many religious people and spiritualists.

Good luck,

EJ

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## sandlizard

Maybe this thread is a dead horse but I am interested in any references to tornado dream images that you've come across. For instance, what did you mean in this quote? 





> 'When one does Prayers or Mantras in Dreams, it is almost common to be taken up into some kind of a Vortex. I've been in very confined and rapidly turning Vortexes, much like your Tornadoes. But other have described a more expansive and gently upgoing Spiral of Energy.'



Are these dream votexes that you have been in? 

Is there information on the internet about this image? 

Why is it such a common archetype? 

These are just some of the questions that come to mind about the tornado image[/quote]

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## Leo Volont

> Maybe this thread is a dead horse but I am interested in any references to tornado dream images that you've come across. For instance, what did you mean in this quote? *
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 			
> 				'When one does Prayers or Mantras in Dreams, it is almost common to be taken up into some kind of a Vortex. I've been in very confined and rapidly turning Vortexes, much like your Tornadoes. But other have described a more expansive and gently upgoing Spiral of Energy.'
> ...



[/quote]

Come to think about it... though Vortexes of Spiritual Energy are common enough in dreams, from my perspective, I don't really remember having seen another reference to it in print or online.   You see, I am an initiate of Kundalini Energy.  In discussionate with other initiates of Kundalini Yoga, it was often reported that during dreams, the repetition of one Mantra or another would send one spinning off in either one direction or the other.

Then there was the one time that I had a 'relationship' with this one New Age Sensitive who never just felt Energy, but always felt 'vortexes' of energy.  She left me with the impression that vortexes of Energy were not such very rare things.  Or, now that I think about it, maybe that was why she was dating me, so that vortexes of energy would not be such rare occurrances.

Anyway, now that you had forced me to think about it, perhaps Vortexes of energy are not quite so common as I thought, except amoung those who are dabbling in the energy disciplines -- various forms of Yoga such as Kundalini, or perhaps the Chi disciplines of the Far East such as Tai Chi.

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## sandlizard

I think this is more common than you think.

I've been studying a little on my own on this stuff and the spiral motif is archaic.
For example, Idries Shah mentions the whirling dervishes in his book the Sufis. 
Jung, and Eliade also mention it. 
I've just started reading Frye's the Anatomy of Criticism, a book in which he develops a structural critique of literature, and he mentions the spiral motif. 
He mentions the tower, the spiral staircase, the spiral cornucopia as means of 'ascent' in literature, and the whirlpool as means of 'descent.' 
Many movies feature spiral staircases, and fans. 
I think that all of these images of 'vortexes,' 'whirling dervishes, spirals, whirlwinds, whirlpools, and staircases have something in common and are possibly some archaic image of a mystical rite of passage of some kind. 
That was why I was kind of curious when someone mentioned on this thread that they were studying the tornado archetype. Thought they might have some more info on this image than I. 
Have you come across the Perrenial Philosophy of Aldous Huxley?  Both him and Idries Shah mention the fact that throughout the mystical traditions of all religions there are things in common.......................

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