Barry, soon to be seen

Last night we shined the table down. This morning I dreamt of a Jinja. But I am getting ahead of myself.

___

Last night starts off with being in some kind of pagan shop. Or at least, that’s what it registers as. A shop where pagan-types would go, a place where you sell rocks and other spirit worker types of things. I lean over the glass case by the register and tell the shop owner that I could get them in contact with a bunch of Kemetic spirit workers. “I have a long list, and I know a lot of them”, I tell her.

Am I trying to sell out people for a favor? It reminds me of lead generation in sales. I give you a list of my clients that you can use to expand your business, in exchange you give me something.

Skeezy, a bit.

I can’t tell if the owner is interested or not. There is a bit of a cut, and it’s gotten darker outside. A bunch of us are watching.. something? It’s weird because it’s like watching a tv… but not. The premise is that there is a pagan shop that has tvs in their store, and the idea is that patrons can watch the static playing on these tvs, and when spirit activity is going on, the static on the tvs is manipulated. And so we’re watching these ppl in this store, while we (as spirits, I assume) manipulate the static on the tv in this store. And people are freaking out over whatever we’re making appear in the static. And we’re just laughing our asses off over these people freaking out.

There is another cut after that.

___

I’m torn as to whether this happened first or the following restaurant piece happened first. I know for this section, I had the cat wake me up right as I was reaching the end, but I honestly can’t place whether the following piece was before or after the alarm. The fact that I’m dreaming so much despite being woken up is… odd.

Anyways, I’m walking through some sort of town, I guess. It feels largely underground. I’m pretty sure I’m with E. When we first start walking around, the place feels under construction or similar. We walk up onto this walkway, which goes over some lower transit (road? side walk?). I remember telling him that this seems like it’s even more progressive or built up than where we are (???)

It’s blurry where we go, but the whole location is pretty dark and dank. This is why I expect that it’s underground. Much like with the restaurant, there seems to be a red cast over a lot of things. He and I are sitting somewhere, I’m not sure why. It feels like there is a sort of path of water that meanders through this place, and we’re sitting by that. There are multiple people sitting in this area, and for all I know we’re tailing someone, or waiting for someone.

Ultimately, some dude ends up taking a playing card (I think it was mine?) and folding it up. He writes something on it and places it into a bracelet that’s on my right arm, though the bracelet is thin like a hair tie would be. He then walks off. I pull it out, and it’s the 3 of hearts, and it says “Barry Martinez (or Martez, not sure) soon to be seen”. It’s written out in a thin, nice cursive. This is where I wake up.

___

We’re in some kind of restaurant, I guess. It’s dark and red, and strikes me of a place I’ve been to before. The decor tells me that the meals here are expensive, and you probably have to have a fair amount of money to even go here. I’m with two people. One of which looks like a DD shard, and I can’t tell who the other person is. THere seems to be some miscommunication going on when we first get there, and I remember milling around in the back (by what my brain registers as dressing rooms or a bathroom. maybe a jump station?) with these two before being sat down.

The table structure is very odd when we’re sat. It’s like a booth had two extra tables coming off of it at the end, creating one super long table that probably could have sat 8 people. I’m way down at the short end, so two tables btwn me and the two people I came here with, as they’re sitting in the booth.

I seriously can’t figure out why I’m way down at the end of this table.

There is some shaven muscle-strapped man sitting in the booth to my left, where the DD piece is. He’s not treating him very well, and seems to be trying to edge in on him. For whatever reason, the other person I came with (on the right) isn’t doing anything about it. I start to get annoyed with what the man is doing, and eventually it’s like DD gets pushed into the chair, where part of him has been sucked in by the back crease of the chair.

I stand up and push my way into this booth chair and move the back cushion to pull him out. I get mad at the muscle person, yelling at him and knocking the side of his head. I tell him to get lost. I am guessing he does.

The next part I remember I’m sitting in that same booth seat, but DD has moved to my right, and the person who was opposite him has moved to my left. Someone has brought us whatever we ordered. It reminds me of some weird burger/beef sort of dish, sans bun. We cut into it and the dream cuts.

___

I’m in a small truck with two people. I’m pretty sure that the person driving is the same person I was with in the restaurant, and I still can’t ID who it is. I feel like I’m sitting in the same chair with the other person who has now shifted into being Brian. I’m leaning on the middle console of the truck. The interior is dark grey.

“Brian” is telling me that his teeth don’t stay straight very easily. That he constantly is fiddling with stuff in his mouth, and it keeps making things shift. The implication is that this is why he still wears a retainer, or some device in his mouth. Random.

We’re driving, and I spot some hidden small JP grocery store that’s nestled into a bunch of trees. I’m super excited about it because I had heard there was a “new store” in the area, and that must be it. It’s like a small piece of ultra mod in a very old school setting. It’s a bit weird.

The town we’re in feels really small and slightly rural. It feels like something that exists on a port or bay of some kind, as though there should be water nearby. The buildings are small and of the tall and narrow type. Everything feels… trapped in time, in a way.

We pull up to some parking lot. It feels small and gravely. The area seems to be covered in a fair amount of trees. I remember getting out and placing my hand on some sort of mesh-type wall. I’m swinging my hand around a bit, an idle habit of mine, and I notice that on the other side of this mesh appears to be some kind of gong. I get excited because I somehow know what this means. We’re at a shrine of some kind.

I walk down this mesh wall and there is a covered porch sort of thing going, as we make our way to the second building. I can’t remember if I open the door inside, or if the man I can’t place does. It’s weird because part of me is like “I shouldn’t go inside, they’re busy doing things and I’d be interrupting”, but I also know that public can visit jinja.

Either way, I end up inside. The floor drops a little bit, and there are several low tables and various weird pews in this room. There are pillars lining the drop in the floor, and right in front of me, I see two women working at a low table. They’ve got the Heian era hairstyle, where it’s parted in the middle, and gathers at the nape of the neck. There seems to be some kind of golden design on the center of their foreheads. They wear white tops, and I assume it’s red hakama, but I can’t tell. The kimono has a sheen to it, as though it’s woven of silk.

There are several others working in this room. I remember one person felt like a young girl, maybe 10, and she was wearing some kind of olive or light green kimono made of a rougher texture, with white hakama. It feels like it should be a honden, but I don’t recall any shrine on the far wall. As I walk into the space, someone in a dark kimono with white crests asks me if I’ve come to pay respects, or give offerings… or something similar. I think I tell them yes. They seem to be explaining instructions to me, but I’ve forgotten what they said. All I know is that on the far wall is a table with a bunch of stuff on it. It seems like their honden style is different, possibly, and instead of going to an outdoor shrine where you ring the bell and give money, you go up to this table and shake some stuff, or move some things, and pray there….

but the alarm wakes me up before I get that far.