A Dream of Robert Cochrane

A Dream of Robert Cochrane

Hunting from the Other Side

* * *

What follows is a description of a dream that I had in August of 2000. It is a dream that I believe was more than just a common dream- It was a meaningful visionary experience. I personally believe that I spoke with Roy Bowers in this dream/vision. I do not ask anyone else to believe as I do; no one but myself had this dream, and so whether or not you choose to believe me, you do so based on your own faith or lack thereof in my words.

I spent a long, long time wondering what to do with the parts of the dream that I remembered and recorded. I finally decided to tell Evan Jones about it, but as it turns out, he had no computer, and finally, one of his friends gave me his physical address. I tried several times to compose a letter in which I could tell him about the dream, but I never was satisfied. Now, it is too late to tell Evan. I next offered Joe Wilson a chance to see this first, but he “politely” declined. So, I decided today to just write what I saw, and make it public.

I wish to express goodwill to Roy’s soul and to all who still hold his memory dear, especially his wife. This dream may interest or comfort any and all who have an interest in all matters Cochrane. I also thank the One responsible for this vision/dream, the One who accorded me the privilege of having it.

I will write out the dream just as I had it, and include notes at the bottom, regarding some of the more vague things that were said or done.

* * *

I recall very little about the day I had the dream. When I slept, it seems as though I slept a long time before I became aware of myself experiencing these sights and sounds.

I found myself approaching an outdoors shed of types; a smallish building that had a toolshed-like interior, with what seemed to be many wooden sawhorses and other shelves inside. It seemed as though perhaps a boat maker or someone else had used the building before. It was certainly a craftsman’s place.

There was green grass outside it, and no sky. I never saw a sky, just a space blank in my memory. It seemed grayish in lighting outside, though.

When I saw Roy, I recognized him- but this is simply dream-logic, because Roy died before I was born, so I never had a chance to meet him in the flesh. I have seen the same pictures of him that everyone has seen, however. All the same, I knew who it was in the shed. He was inside the shed, near the door, working on something inside.

His appearance was odd- he didn’t actually look much like the pictures I have seen. He had long, black, curly hair- much longer than in any picture I had seen of him. He was wearing a worker’s jumpsuit of types, and he had on black rubber boots. It’s the hair and the boots that I remember the most.

The other thing that I remember was the tools and other implements lining the wall inside the shed- and there was something even more strange- sitting up on the wall, on one of the low wooden shelves, was a little man- but far too small to be a human. It was perhaps two and a half or three feet tall, and it had a goblin-like face. It had dark eyes and dark hair, and it leered a lot, and smiled, and never said a word; it just watched from the wall the whole time. As disturbing as the thing looked, it never seemed to bother me, and in the dream, Roy paid it no notice.

At this point in the dream, I half realized that this was, in fact, a dream. I knew that I only had a very short amount of time to speak to Roy, and I didn’t want to waste the questions that I would ask. Ironically, my hesitation in trying to decide what the best questions to ask would be caused me to lose time! But Roy had seemed friendly enough when I walked up to the shed, and then had gone back to his work, paying me a polite amount of attention, but still being absorbed in his work.

I finally decided to ask him what most of us want to know- “Did you really meet traditional witches and learn the things you wrote and taught about, or was your family really involved with true witches?” I knew beforehand that asking such a thing could be construed as rude, that is, to doubt him, but I asked anyway.

He actually seemed angry all of a sudden. It wasn’t a rage, but a good mixture of annoyance, tired resignation, and anger. His answer was “Time and status is proof, right?” (See note 1 below)

Roy was still working on something, and even though he stopped to answer my question, he went back to it- I never knew what he was working on. But it was important to him. On a small table near him in the shed, was a collection of books. I looked at them, and saw that there was one large book, and a few smaller ones. I knew that they were his. I opened the big book and found that it was a blank book that had been filled with hundreds of articles and cut out pictures, all glued in. All of the articles and pictures related to occult topics. I got the feeling that Roy had made this book, but I didn’t know.

One of them had a picture of a historical-looking figure, and the title of the cut-out article was “Vlad: The Slumbering Corn God”. It was clearly about folklore in Eastern Europe regarding the legends of the undead and pagan dying/resurrecting Gods. That was the only article that I remembered the title of, though I saw others.

Also inside the book I found many other, smaller books. They sort of fell out as I opened the larger one. One of the smaller books was a Cornish dictionary/grammar. I opened it, and saw lists upon lists of Cornish words and their English counterparts. I scanned the words, and I only remembered seeing one after I woke up- it was the word “Gobizet”. (See note 2)

One of the books- perhaps the large one, or maybe one of the next largest in size, seemed to be very important to Roy. He was quite enamored with it. He told me he thought it was “incredible”. I opened it, as he watched, and the book ended with a poetic expression, written in large black letters on the back inside cover, and it said “The Turning of the Night into Day.”

I looked at him and guessed that the “Turning of the Night into Day” referred to the spiritual day, like a dawning of spiritual awareness. He looked away from me and said “You aren’t supposed to guess things like that.” (See note 3)

Roy then handed me one of the books that was there, as a gift. I didn’t thank him, though, because I was too much in a hurry to ask more questions.

I asked him “Did you ever arrive at the Mystery?”

He looked at me and said, quite genuinely: “It’s too simple, really. I don’t think I could explain it to you.” (See note 4)

At this point, I noticed that Roy had a pouch of some kind on his belt, a small bag perhaps. He dropped it. It seems also that something he was working on at the table fell and broke, as well. I never knew why, because I quickly went to the ground to help gather up the pieces and the things that were now all over the ground. One of the items was a small golden goat’s head on a chain. I don’t know why, but in the dream, I immediately tried to steal it- I placed it in my pocket, as he was busy picking things up. I began to feel bad right away, and so I took it back out and handed it to him, and apologized. He looked at it and said, with a thankful tone in his voice, “I would never part with this.”

At this point in the dream, I apologized if I had offended him with my first question. I felt myself going back to wakefulness at this point, and I awoke.

And that’s it. That was my dream. I realized immediately that it was a special dream, mostly because It felt and seemed so real, and because when you know these things, you just know them. I make no guesses about the ultimate purpose of the dream. The ancient Greeks believed that the dead could speak in dreams; that only in the dream state were living humans really ‘reachable’. Sleep is a dark, space-like medium that the light from long dead stars can still pass through, and even reach us from time to time. Roy didn’t know me; he would have had no reason to want to talk to me, so I am inclined to believe that I went to him. I think that this is the case mostly because at that time, I was heavily engaged in a lot of transpersonal “journey” work, and reading his letters, and experimenting heavily with “Cochrane elements” in my own Craft.

Notes

1. Roy’s words don’t always convey what I took them to mean. When he said “Time and status is a proof, right?” What I felt he was saying was that people were still talking about him, emulating his work and reading his words- even after all the time that had passed since he wrote them. To him, that was proof that his words had something more behind them than just “made up” material. He didn’t say that he had met Traditional Witches to learn his craft, but he indicated that, basically, the “proof of the pudding is in the eating”.

2. I have tried to find out if “Gobizet” is actually a Cornish word, and to this day, I have not been able to verify that.

3. What I understood Roy to mean with this statement was that a person who knows things doesn’t have to guess about them. “The Turning of the Night into Day” most certainly refers to the awakening of the spirit, out of the night of mortality and Fate- but Roy was saying that these matters are either too obvious to be “guessed” at, or too sacred for the same.

4. This is the most profound thing that was transmitted to me in this dream/vision. Roy seemed to understand the Mystery in a very real way- and I knew his words meant that the Mystery was so close, so intimate, and so “simple”, that words could not convey it. He seemed very sure of this, and quite peaceful with it. It was very powerful the way he told me these words, with such a quiet assurance.

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