I work for the Astral-Physical Rehabilitation Agency, as a guide on the physical plane. I take care of exiles, refugees, and other displaced beings in transition. This time, my charge is a recently-incarnated spirit known only as 1335. He was lonely for others like him, so I took him to a crossroads I know of where a lot of transitionals hang out.

This place looks like a museum of sorts, although 'zoo' might be closer to the truth. The museum is home to a collection of astral beings, imprisoned for one reason or another (often for their own protection), preserved in space/time bubbles the way lab specimens are preserved in formaldehyde--except that at some point in the future, most of these spirits will be freed.

For now, the ancient, whispering vaults of the museum hold a morbid fascination for people like 1335.

As we wander amid the exhibits in a large courtyard built of warm-toned sandstone, I find myself mildly lucid; I know I'm dreaming. Yet I don't feel an urge to leave or change a thing. I just check out the other visitors--and realize I know a couple of them! Like that sweet, spacy stegosaurus kid studying a ghost in a green bubble. That's Xalgriin, Embodiment of Purity. Last dream I saw him in, he was locked up in a research facility. I wonder what he thinks of this dream? Some of the beings locked up here are fellow Embodiments. Has to be unsettling.

Across the courtyard, two strange women are having an animated discussion. I'm struck first by the winged sphinxlike one, because her entire body is colored one odd, flat shade of gray.

The other one is so bizarre, I start making mental sketches so I'll be sure to remember her when I wake up. She is absolutely black and white. I remember a leggy, zebra-like woman from another dream and wonder if there's a connection; they do have similar energy.

This one seems to have tiny black hearts on her face and trailing down her neck. Could she be another form of my quasi-Shadow, Kuri Metalheart? I don't get close enough to talk to her or ask her name.

NOTE

The entity I'm calling Kuri Metalheart is a recurring dream figure. Our relationship goes way back, but I've never known what to make of her. She shows up in several guises; some of them are Shadowlike, others not. As Dark Snow, she fights me. As Kuri, she protects me. Annabel is a victim who either lashes out at me, or begs for help--or both. Other forms, like the zebra lady and this one with hearts on her face, don't really interact with me at all. They're just there, in the background.

Emily, like many dreamers, uses Shadow (capitalized) in the Jungian sense: not a shadowy or dark figure, but one who seems to be just what you aren't, as if your ego casts a shadow. Traditionally, Shadows are figures the ego/conscious fears or loathes--they embody feelings you fear in yourself or dismiss as unworthy. But this isn't always true; any feeling that distances oneself from the Shadow figure will do! Envy, false humility, sadness... "I could never be that sleazy!" and "I could never be that brave!" aren't so far apart.

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