Brick by Brick by Christa Lancaster

by Christa Lancaster

I had a dream about an underground cavern that was immense. Under a huge dome, deep in the earth, men were building an amphitheater, brick by brick, quietly, steadily, by hand.

In the dream I followed the dogs into a cave and descended. They knew where to go. I went after them. The light grew dim. I was not scared.

The cave opened up into a space as big as a sports stadium. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw the men working, by hand, without machines. What struck me was how quiet it was in the cavern and how deliberately they were working, at a slow but steady pace. They were not in a hurry. They were not rushed. There was a calm and a peace deep under the ground that I liked. I felt peace too. It was a sacred space and they were doing holy work. I knew that. I knew I was being shown how things happen in the underground world.

In this world, under the seen world, is another kind of order which is timeless, which is exempt from worry and rushing and ideas about how and when things should happen. This is not our world of deadlines and timetables and data and pushing. This world, the underground world of the unconscious, is measured and gracious, full and alive in a silent, wise way.

In the dream the men were laying bricks, one by one, with care, to form an oval form in the earth, like a shallow bowl. In the dream the thought came to me: this is an amphitheater or stage. It reminded me of the piazza in Siena where they hold a horse race called the Palio every year. It felt like both a vessel and a stage.

Even as I write this I feel the peace of this underground realm. What if this bigger world is the real world of the unconscious that knows more than we do?

The dream is a peek into the realm of the larger vision. It helped me shift my perspective on time and space. In the cavern it is dark and mysterious and time is endless. And quietly the amphitheater is being built, brick by brick.