The story of the Annunciation as told in the biblical book of Luke is another example of a visitation; someone experiencing a similar scenario of inspiration/impregnation today might be more likely to perceive it in terms of an alien abduction.

The author of the gospel describes Mary initially responding with the fear and dread typical of such an appearance: the angel Gabriel encourages her with the words “do not be afraid.” That Mary goes on to listen and then willingly submit is all to her credit, regardless of how you take the story. Forget for a moment the human Jesus and think instead of the archetypal image of the Christ that Jesus personified. This ‘chosen anointed one’ brought with him the type of new world view that the tarot card of the Ace of Swords represents, and it takes considerable courage to nurture and protect the radical vision symbolised by such a child.

There is a whole genre of nightmarish dreams which deals with the trials of looking after such creative—but potentially dangerous or threatening—offspring. That this is not a straightforward ‘moral’ issue can perhaps be illustrated by Dream 2.

Dream 2: There has been an alien invasion that may be a great threat to all of us. There is much panicking and trying to escape.

Something about June Ackland. One of us may have a bomb hidden inside a leg. This person may or may not be arrested, but it appears that no bomb has exploded.

On the day of this dream, I had spent the afternoon collating haiku to send to a poetry magazine. Afterwards I had gone for a walk, and at sunset I was near some allotments. Seeing two women digging in their plot, I had an inspiration for a poem about the burying of dead gods. I had also been thinking about an encounter I’d had with the owner of a nearby bookshop, who I had recently approached about giving a talk on dreams.

The bookshop owner had replied that although she was interested, there was a powerful contingent of Methodists in the area that were bound to object. This brought back my childhood experience of being discouraged to question anything regarding my family’s Presbyterian beliefs, as well as mirroring my own ambiguity.

I woke from this dream just flooded with dread. But then, remembering my walk and the idea for the poem, I decided that I needed to sit with these feelings at the computer—which I did, working first on the dream and then on the poem. In the dream, June Ackland—a police officer on the British television series "The Bill"—represents the side of me who is still concerned with “keeping the peace”. There is also fear of a bomb in a ‘leg’, which perhaps can be translated as a fear I have that the standpoint I want to present in the poem—and in the proposed talk on dreamwork—may be explosive. The dream has no tidy conclusion; its ending is ambiguous. But sitting at my computer I realised that, although there had been enormous fear, the alien invasion had not, in fact, been portrayed as harmful; not only that, as far as I could tell the bomb had not gone off.

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