In revisiting a dream encounter I had in 2018, I realized there were some key elements left undiscovered. The dream introduced me to a Greek Warrior with Golden Eyes, who I called my Dream Warrior.
Dream Warrior July 2018
I came upon him in a lucid dream, the Dream Warrior was sitting on a boulder resting, he held a long spear in his hand and wore only a scant white cloth around his hips. I was hovering above him in the dream, and wondered who he was, and why I was there in this time and place. As I seemed to be an invisible observer in the dream, I waited to see what would happen next. Just then, the dream warrior looked at me directly with his Golden Eyes and said, “I see you!” I was so surprised to be seen in the dream and called out, that it sent me right back to my body in bed, with my heart beating rapidly.
I encountered the Dream Warrior again when I was teaching a workshop on shamanic journeys through the chakras, where we explored conscious dream journeys guided by the drum, through each of the seven chakras. When we journeyed through the crown chakra, I encountered the Dream Warrior in a tomb city carved into the side of a mountain. I did not know it then but discovered later in my research it is an actual place located in Turkey, an ancient tomb city carved into the side of a mountain.
My Dream Warrior guide, took me to a dream temple, and taught me how to travel through eight portals of golden light. The Dream Warrior was now in the form of a Lion, and watched over my body in the dream temple, as I traveled deeper into dreaming, learning how to enter the many layers of dreams, or nested dreams, in different times and places. When I returned from my dream travels, he gave me a certificate for the skill I had completed in this ancient dreaming school. I opened the document, and it read only “Go Out!”
In reflecting on this dream encounter, I recently wondered about the dream school temple, if there was really such a place in this tomb city in Turkey. My research into this clue of consciousness, took me on a journey that was far beyond my imagination. The tomb city and dream school temple at Telmessos, which means “City of the Sun” in Ancient Greek, was famous throughout the Greco-Roman world as a center for divination and dreams.
City of the Sun Dream School
Telmessos was a legendary ancient tomb city in modern day Fethiye, Turkey, famous for its seers (manteis) who interpreted dreams, natural signs and portents. The most famous was Aristander, personal diviner to Alexander the Great, as well as his father, King Phillip. Before Alexander was born, his Father had a dream, where he placed a sacred seal upon the womb of his wife Olympias, and the womb seal bore a lion. Aristander interprets the dream to mean the child would be lion-like and brave. Indeed, Alexander the Great was revered as Godlike in his bravery and power that spread far and wide across the globe, and the Lion was a power he kept close.
Telmessos was the ancient Mediterranean’s most famous centre of divination outside Delphi. Its seers practised a distinctive form of prophecy based on interpreting natural signs — birds, dreams, and portents — rather than the ecstatic trance of the Delphic Pythia. Telmessos occupied a distinctive position at the western border of Lycia, sometimes claimed by both Lycia and Caria, giving it a cultural complexity that enriched its art and institutions. It is a city of cross roads, where a city of the living, sits on top of a tomb city of the dead. A world between the worlds.
The city was known as a place of diviners, and the Telemessian school of divination was the most respected school in the Greek World for Oneiromancy and deciphering Omens. The most famous graduate of the school was Aristander, who was the personal diviner for Alexander the Great, who relied on his counsel so often, he had him accompany him on his travels into battles. Aristander was truly a dream warrior, with the golden eyes of a lion, in becoming a seer for Alexander the Great, whose birth dream portended he was destined to carry the Sacred seal of a Lion. The Dream Diviners from Telmessos were prolific in recording dreams they interpreted, and refining the art of dream meanings, and became among the first scholars of dream studies. This research interwoven with my dreams, not only confirms my clues of consciousness, but gives new meaning to the message of my dream journey to “Go Out!” through the eight golden portals of Sun, in the dream temple guarded by a lion, in the ancient tomb city of Telmessos, where a renowned Dream school is located. It sounds like another visit is in order.
