Hi all!

I'll preface this by saying I tend to have a lot of vivid dreams. I have a fairly active imagination, and actively write creatively for multiple hours per day. I also take valerian root from time to time as I have difficulty getting asleep and staying asleep.

That aside, this dream was just bonkers. Most of the time I can sort of piece together some sort of meaning from it, but this one really threw me for a loop. I'm pulling all of this from my dream journal entry from this morning, so it might be a bit disjointed in places.

There are bits and pieces of this dream that I don't really remember very well, just feelings of being in a great, empty space, a long valley between mountains, black volcanic stone and thick green moss. What I remember clearly is the labyrinth. I dreamt of a cavern, a deep and winding system well beneath the surface of the Earth, but it was more like an underground maze. The walls were smooth and made of something like sandstone. I kept touching the walls, running my hands over them as we walked, and the rooms changed regularly. Some were massive, and some were so small that I had to crouch to crawl through them. It was full dark, but we used flashlights to light our way. I was with two men, but one of them wasn't a man, I think he was an android, but I couldn't tell if that was important or not. The other man I was very distrustful of. He didn't do anything to make me feel that way, I just had a deeply intense, innate dislike of him.

We were searching for something in the cave/labyrinth. It was full of puzzles and traps that we slowly worked our way through, and I'm was very aware of the fact that something was following us. It wasn't an overbearing presence, it wasn't not menacing, and it didn't necessarily feel malicious, but there were definitely eyes upon us as we moved through each different chamber in this labyrinth. Every once and awhile I would switch to the pursuing presence, and it's just a group of young women. I'm with them, and present among them, they speak to me, but I don't do anything or say anything when I'm with them. They talk a lot about the maze, about how they know the labyrinth. It feels like they built it, and that they're trying to protect it from us, but they never directly interfere with our path, they only pursue us.

Eventually, the two men and myself reach a long tunnel, and one of the men is talking about alignments and how the planets are all wrong. The wall at the end of the tunnel slides back, and there's a room full of light. It's definitely a room because I can see the ceiling, but it's also an ocean, and at the center is a vortex. The waves are high and churning toward a spiralling interior, like it's spinning down a drain, but the water level never lowers. The man that I don't like very much, says we need to go in, so he ties a length of rope around himself, attaches it to the other man (the android) and jumps in, leaving me alone with the other man.

We're standing on a little platform above the water, watching the churning waves. The other man says something like "I guess you should go". I admit that I don't want to, but he ties a second rope around my middle, takes me to the water, kisses me on the cheek and helps me in.

And then I woke up.

I would greatly appreciate any help you'd be able to offer in decoding this dream! It's been driving me up the wall all day, and I really just can't get my finger on why it resonated with me so much.