The Hound of Heaven
by Francis Thompson
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me'.
Save Me, save only Me?All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms,
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!
'Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.'
Thank you to Rob Smith who just sent me the above partial-extract of a much longer poem as some sort of synchronisitic, perhaps even telepathic response to my own thoughts on the other side of the globe. For this is a story about my own "Hound of Heaven" who is seeking liberation.
Those of you have read The Risen know about “liberation dramas” and have some understanding of them – at least theoretically – as it says in Chapter 19:
“Some are simple events, such as helping my cousin Jerry cross a field, but most are extremely complex in approach and design, requiring creativity as well as experience and a certain mental and spiritual stability in one’s life.”
The actual point of the above is to lead into what was recently revealed to me as I returned– with some difficulty – into my body one morning after spending “time” with this drama. As I lay there, having trained myself to stay still in order to retain and build an info-sphere of all that had happened, to the best of my abilities – two of my guide-companions spent some time counseling me and answering questions – “debriefing” is the word that comes to mind. I asked permission to be able to record some of it, and they said yes, as long as I did what they said. The first thing was to get up out of bed and turn on the computer to let it warm up so I could type while in trance. This I did, only to find I had to pee quite badly. Thankfully I was allowed to do this, but I was also dreadfully thirsty. But when I went to get a drink of water, they forbade me. This was agony – partially because I was very parched, and partially because I hate being told what to do, especially in the way of my creature comforts. I had to struggle with this but couldn’t for long, if I was to get back into bed for the rest of the process. It was explained that if I took in any terrestrial substance, such as food or water, it would trigger my to fully re-enter my body, and my vibration would no longer be sufficiently high enough to debrief further and access more info, or make memories. This somehow reminds me of the old stories where humans are cautioned to never drink or eat anything when they enter faerie.
After about 30 minutes lying down receiving information and energy, I was told to go to the computer, and typed the following. I give it here in all its original dictated form, and for now, will offer no further comments or analysis about it. However, I will note that the primary subject – that of dreams and dream interpretation – is an interesting one, as the last book the Tim wrote was about just such a subject. He remains silent about this for now.
I cannot speak for everyone, but I do know there are those of us who have lives during the time our terrestrial body sleeps that are so far beyond the pale existence of the terrestrial experience that it is truly impossible to speak or write of those lives in any terrestrial language, save, perhaps, art.
Those who think that they know their dreams, and understand them, and can speak and write of them—in any way—are in the unconscious clutches of the ego-mind, and are being used by its mentality. The ego-mind cannot travel beyond the terrestrial state of embodiment into the astral, where Authentic Self lives—and loves—in such intense, often frenzied and fierce, yet exquisitely fiery and tender ways, that the life of a still-embodied person on the earth can be said without doubt to be the actual dream.Thus all the millennia of written and oral tradition, sacred and secular texts, which claim to have understood the mysteries of what are labeled as “dream lives” and “dream symbols and interpretations” add up to mere delusions of the ego-mind—it is speaking of itself and the lives of its own simulate personalities while in captivity on the Earth, and not of the vast truth which it cannot claim, which is Authentic Self’s immortal existence outside time and space.
When an Authentic Self returns to the terrestrial body, when it awakens—which is really falling back asleep—very rarely can It bring any awareness of from where and when It came. Even those tiny wisps of vibrations that echo scant information of Its astral lives, adventures, and lovers, are unable to be retained for more than a few breaths. Instead, the Authentic Self falls back into a deep slumber, as the ego-mind regains control of the body-mind. The ego-mind is clever and skilled enough to sample and analyze the dissolving wisps before they vanish, and it is with these after-tastes that the ego-mind reconstructs what it thinks are the dramas of its sleep, which it calls “dreams.” Some ego-minds profess to study them, and label them as “not real” but as proof of the depths and complexities of what it imagines as its own real psychological intelligence and evolved and shining talents. Conversely, others also profess to study them and arrive at the same conclusions, while claiming beliefs that the dreams are “real” and evidence higher spiritual aspects, communications, and messages from divinities and demons, as well as interactions with other embodied and even disembodied personalities.
But the ego-mind cannot and never will be able to leave its actual confines, because neither it nor its confines are real, but rather a short-lived and fragile bubble of energy borrowed from the loosest elements of earth and air that comprise the terrestrial body. It is also this bubble of ego-mind’s dreams that Authentic Self re-enters and then proceeds forward in its terrestrial life, unaware in any way of the spectacular, astoundingly beautiful life of reality that awaits Its return to the higher astral realms. Instead, It allows ego-mind to daze and dazzle It by beliefs about dreams, lulled deeper into a day-slumber, where It usually will remain unconscious until the body and the ego-mind finally fall away, and transition toward the Risen Lands begins.