A Clairvoyant Angelic Dream of Japanese Anime

Occasionally people have clairvoyant dreams, which is caused by a spiritual influx into our minds from the spiritual world. Although most just have dreams reflecting one's daily life or problems that one needs to address, occasionally some are spiritually significant. Swedenborg describes the different origin of dreams in his work Heavenly Arcana, and how to distinguish between ordinary dreams and dreams that are spiritual in origin. He describes one dream that is symbolic in nature, and upon waking he mentioned it to some angels in a waking vision, who then stated that the dream described in a symbolic fashion the subject of their conversation. Symbolic dreams often will take a subject familiar with a dreamer in order to convey a more spiritual message.

Recently I had been watching a Japanese anime, and someone I know had a couple of clairvoyant dreams that happened to describe in detail a few episodes of a Japanese anime I had been watching the day before. On this occasion I had been watching an anime series called Fairy Tail, and she had not been aware of this nor had ever seen this particular anime series. As I listened to the dreams I realized the dreams began to describe in detail the plot of the anime. When I looked at it in more detail, I could see the subject matter of the dream was selecting portions of the anime that were spiritual in nature.

The anime series of Fairy Tail is geared towards teenagers, it starts off bad with elements of goofiness but it does gradually get better. The first season has about 177 episodes and after a while it does gets repetitive. It does have good elements of humor as well as character development as the story progresses, and a fair amount of plot twists.

The target audience of Japanese anime ranges from children all the way to adults, covering all genres with some covering themes that are quite mature in nature. However the good ones are hard to find, and as Japanese anime does not follow the American rating system the storyline can veer off into a subject matter or plot twist one did not expect. As Fairy Tail isn't exactly the best example of good anime, if you leave a comment I will provide a list of Japanese anime that are my favorites that I can personally recommend. One has to get through a lot of fluff in Fairy Tail to arrive at the episdodes described by these clairvoyant dreams.

In this blog post I will first describe the two dreams as they were initially described to me. This will be followed by a description of the some of the episodes of the anime I had been watching the day before. At first I didn't see the point and thought this person had somehow just telepathically connected with my mind, but in the end I saw that there was a certain amount of spiritual significance in the subject matter. It should be kept in mind that the person who had the dream was completely unaware of the anime I had been watching, and had never seen it. When she started to describe it to me, myself and another person who had seen it both started to laugh, we were amazed at how the dream described this anime we had both seen the day before.

THE FIRST CLAIRVOYANT DREAM

In the first dream, the dreamer is travelling by camel through a desert to go on vacation to another place. Travelling with her is a girl who at first looks like her sister but then changes in appearance to her guardian angel (this female guardian angel tends to appear in dreams that are significant). They are travelling to an island. The island has trees, with very little buildings or people. The dreamer has an unusual ability: she had the capability to fly into the trees, and wanted to teach her brother how to fly. However to do this they had to get some height, and needed to find a tree that was taller than the others. Her brother then pointed out a tree that was taller than the others. At this point the dreamer finds a curtain, pulls it down, and behind it sees a circular marketplace of food and dancing. It is surrounded by a couple of steps. The dreamer then flies off of the steps towards the tree, but then she sees that at the base of the tree there is a door. The brother passes through the door. She goes through the door into the tree, and inside the door there is a maze. The maze is full of puzzles that need to be solved. The maze is square with four passages and at the four corners there were switches that needed to be activated, and once the switch was activated it would reveal another portion of the puzzle in the maze.

At this point, she realizes that this is a "video game" and then jumps ahead in the game to someone else's game progress where the dreamer was able to skip ahead. In this progress all the puzzles of the maze have been solved, and her brother is thankful to her for the her help in clearing out the maze. At this point she realizes the tree is for "crazy people." Out of the door of the tree comes out this old couple, where the old man is leaning on the old lady. The old man is wielding a knife, and comes close to the dreamer.

THE ANIME EPISODES OF TENROU ISLAND

This dream, for any of those who have actually watched Fairy Tail, corresponds to the arc of stories known as Tenrou Island, covering episodes 97-122. In this story a guild of wizards travel to Tenrou island to compete in several trials to become a higher class wizard. And Tenrou island, believe it or not, is this island with one huge singular tree growing out of the middle:

The dream begins with the dreamer travelling there by camel through a desert. However in the anime they travel by ship. However in the spiritual dream world, camels and ships have a similar meaning, as they were both means of conveying and transporting goods. In the spiritual world, as well as scripture, riches are knowledges that serve to lead to spiritual things; camels signify these knowledges in the lower natural person. For the gospels to state that it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for rich man to enter into heaven means that it is impossible to explore the mysteries of faith through outward knowledges derived from the self; one must be guided and led by the Lord. Ships are similar, they signify doctrines drawn from the Word:

"ships [signify] doctrines from the Word. That ships have such a signification is because they pass through seas and rivers, and carry things useful for life; for by seas and rivers are signified knowledges outward and inward; the useful things of life which they carry, are the doctrines and also truths themselves from the Word, which are signified by ships — as is plain from the following passages: The isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them (Isa. lx. 9). Here ships of Tarshish are doctrines and truths from the Word, wherefore it is said that they should bring their sons, their silver and gold; for by sons are signified those who are in truths, by silver the truth itself, and by gold good. Every one may see that ships of Tarshish are not here meant, nor sons, silver, and gold" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6385)

In the dream, the dreamer pairs up with her brother to fly into the tree. In the trials at Tenrou island, two wizards pair up with each other - one is to become a higher class wizard, the other is there to help them achieve their goal. Here the brother and sister correspond to the characters of Natzu, a fire dragon wizard, and Lucy Heartfilia, a celestial wizard who can summon celestial spirits of the sky to her aid.

As for flying into the tree, in episode 98 the trials begin as the ship begins to approach the island.  Instead of swimming, Natzu attempts to fly there using his flying cat:

Yes, that's a flying cat with wings (Japanese anime as I said is a bit odd and creative). Two other wizards also fly from the ship to Tenrou island:

In the dream, the dreamer did not fly into the dream. Instead she had to go through a door at the base of the tree. And indeed, in the trial at Tenrou island, each wizard must choose a door at the base of the island:

As in the dream, each door leads to an underground maze.  In the maze each wizard must face a trial, and once the trial is completed they are allowed to leave the maze.  In the dream there were four paths, in the anime episode I believe there were eight doors or paths. In the above screenshot when the doors are first shown, it shows four doors have been chosen (marked with a red X) and four remain open. This perfectly matches the clairvoyant dream.

A trial and maze here signify one's spiritual journey, and in one's journey we all must face trials and temptations. One cannot achieve true spirituality without first going through a period of temptation, as one faces one's own sins. This is part of the cleansing process, a state of temptation is what we experience when good angels fight against evil spirits to influence which direction we shall take. And that is represented in this anime by the fights these wizards must go through. Natzu, as it turns out, faces a very powerful wizard for his trial: Gildarts:

Natzu is very self-confident and head-strong, who tends to think he has no limits on his power. But here with Gildarts he faces one of his first failures. And here he has a hard time acknowledging his limits and weakness. The dialogue between Gildarts and Natzu is of particular interest, when Natzu realizes fails to know his limit and to know that he has failed:

Gildarts: I don't know if you'll want to keep this up once I have unleashed my full power. In order to walk the path of magic, it eventually reaches its peak. There is one thing you still lack. Let me show you.

And then Gildarts transforms:

In the face of overwhelming power, Natzu experiences fear for the first time in his life, and bows down on his hands and knees. He accepts defeat, and begins to cry, for now he knows he has limits.

Gildarts: A wise choice. I applaud anyone who has the courage to stand up and face their enemies. However, the wizards who are the most courageous are those exceptional few, who know when to stand down. Remember Natzu, there is nothing wrong with feeling fear. After all, how else are we to come to know our own weaknesses? You need to know them, in order to become stronger, and a gentler person.

This is the central message of the trial. And in our spiritual journey, we become spiritually stronger when we acknowledge and face our own weaknesses, and humble ourselves before God. The lowering of one's ego and pride is signified by bowing down. In fact, in scripture, the "worship" is a translation of a word that simply means "bow down."  And when faced and confronted with power from the Divine, one experiences true fear, a fear that eventually becomes transformed into a fear of obedience, and then a serving fear done out of pure love and joy. But without humbling one self, and rejecting one's pride, one cannot pass the test.

The end of the dream had an old man and woman come out of the door of the tree, with him wielding a knife threatening to attack the dreamer. This converges two parts: one there is a major battle in the tree involving Erza, another wizard who tends to wield a powerful sword. The other is that the island is approached by a group of evil wizards, who use a flying ship to approach the tree. They are headed by an old bearded wizard known as Hades, which is the Greek word for hell:

Which again has a remarkable correspondence with the clairvoyant dream. This conveys the spiritual meaning that these trials are a spiritual journey involving a war between heaven and hell in our trials. The tree on Tenrou island gives the wizards of Fairy Tail their special power, and here it corresponds to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, representative of heaven.

THE SECOND CLAIRVOYANT DREAM

A second dream followed the first, which is not as extensive but is related. In this the dreamer participates in a game trial, where she must hit other students on the head with a ball. Either she must solve a puzzle, in which case the other players have to freeze in their place, or she could just immediately start throwing the ball. She pretends to be indecisive about her choice, everyone thinks she will choose to solve the puzzle, but instead she reacts quickly and immediately throws the ball. She hits the most people and wins the game. As a reward, she gets an hour glass. She soon realizes that this hour glass has a special property: it gives the ability of the holder to go back in time. She accidentally realizes this when she goes back in time 5 minutes. Other students begin to realize its power, and then start to ask her to go back in time to different points in time, especially to retake a test, or to experience a happy moment in their life. The timelines start to get confusing, but then later the teacher decides to reward the hour glass to another student who tied with her but had opted to solve the puzzle. She returns the hour glass. The teacher puts the hour glass on a gold table, the sand changes into a blue color and magical colors emanate from the hour glass. She begins to cry that she had to give up her hour glass, and the teacher told her to accept it as it is the Lord's will. She leaves and goes to another class where the teacher does not like her. In the class the desks are all piled together, and the teacher decides to show her a folder of the "worst student ever" meaning herself. She looks at the folder, she does not see her name, but instead sees the game of Farmville. The dream ends.

FAIRY TAIL: TENROU ISLAND CONTINUED

The second dream actually describes a series of subsequent episodes of Tenrou Island in Fairy Tail, where a flying ship of evil wizards headed by Hades approaches the island. Makarov, the leader of Fairy Tail, grows into a giant to protect the island:

Makarov then attacks the ship, and it begins to fall apart tilting to one side. However Hades has a mysterious woman at his side, named Ultear:

Hades: Now, Ultear!

Ultear: Sir. ARC OF TIME. Restore.

Time then goes backward a few seconds, and the ship is completely restored. Just as in the dream, where the hour glass gave the wielder the ability to go back in time to correct one's mistakes.

So there is time travel, what about the game involving a ball in which the goal is to hit other people in the quickest amount of time?

Ultear goes to the island of Tenrou to retrieve an evil black wizard known as "lord Zariph" that had wandered onto the island, who is even more powerful than Hades. She must subdue and capture him, not kill him. This particular wizard has this strange ability... to create these deadly black balls that he throws at her which swallow everything in their path:

Lord Zariph launches several black balls at Ultear. Ultear counters by reversing or fast forwarding time using her power. She fast fowards time, trapping Zariph in a tree that grows around him. Zariph has a spell of depression that comes upon him, which causes everything around him to immediately die in this black cloud that emanates from him, including the tree that traps him. Ultear, faced with death, uses her crystal ball of time to absorb the cloud of death:

The crystal ball turns black, and then cracks and crumbles.  Just as in the dream, where the dreamer lost her hour glass.  However Ultear then uses her arc of time spell to restore the crystal ball.

Later, Natzu encounters Ultear on the island. Ultear attacks him by using her arc of time spell to cause a seed of a tree to rapidly sprout underneath his feet, throwing him off.

Ultear uses her crystal ball to attack Natzu, constantly pummelling him by throwing the crystal ball at him. The crystal ball then multiplies into several balls, each reflecting a different aspect of Natzu:

Ultear: Each one of these crystal balls contains a different possible future for you. Parallel worlds. I have the ability to create an infinite number of futures. And then, compress them into a single future.

Ultear then start pummeling Natzu again with multiple crystal balls as the different possibilities compress into a single ball:

And this explains the ball game of the clairvoyant dream, in which the objective was to hit the opposing player in the quickest amount of time. So what is the meaning?  One, this particular dreamer has at times the ability to see into the future with her dreams. The other, is that in the spiritual world time has no meaning:

"That angels know nothing about time, though all things move onward with them as in the world, without any difference at all, is because in heaven there are not years and days, but changes of state; and where there are years and days there are times, but where there are changes of state there are states... Since angels have no idea from time, like men in the world, neither have they any idea about time and matters of time. They know nothing of the terms of time, such as year, month, week, day, hour, today, tomorrow, yesterday. When they hear them from man — for angels are always associated with man by the Lord — in place of them they perceive states and what belong to states. Thus man's natural idea is turned into a spiritual idea with angels. For this reason times in the Word signify states, and the terms of time, as named above, signify spiritual things corresponding to them" (Heaven and Hell, n. 163, 165)

So what about the final part of the dream, where the dreamer enters a classroom where the teacher hates her? This has to do with the history of Ultear, where her mother abandoned her as a child to a special school that could control and develop her magical power. However they used her for nefarious ends, corrupting her towards evil. Ultear developed a hatred for her mother, but it was based on false lie. This falsehood led her down the path of evil, but ultimately Ultear comes to realize the truth about her mother, that she had been lied to.  This leads to her changing her life, when she acknowledges the truth. She must fall into water to retrieve the truth of her mother, similar to the ritual of baptism. Again, a spiritual message about transformation.

Finally, in the first dream the dreamer thinks she sees her sister, but she looks like her guardian angel. This angel has appeared in multiple dreams, and I was at first uncertain but given the correspondence between the dream and this anime it look like this angel is real. In the past she has shown her intelligence and sometimes humor, and this dream was rather clever. The dream only selected the portion of this anime that had spiritual significance. Angels have the ability to read thoughts and implant them in our minds. This particular guardian angel has golden hair and blue eyes, and towards the end when the wizards lose all hope, a guardian angel with blonde hair and blue eyes appears on the island:

This particular angel has revealed her name to this dreamer, but until now I did not have enough confirmation to show indeed that this guardian angel is real, and in this case used a Japanese anime I had been watching to convey a spiritual dream to another person.  Swedenborg does indeed describe how angels often have delight in creating spiritual dreams:

"The angelic spirits, who are at the entrance to the paradisal scenes, are they who insinuate such dreams; and to them is also entrusted the duty of watching over certain men when they sleep, lest they should then be infested by evil spirits. They enter upon this duty with the greatest delight, so that there is rivalry among them as to who shall attend, and they love to affect the man with the enjoyable and delightful things which they see in his affection and genius. They who have become angelic spirits are from those who, in the life of the body, delighted and loved to make the life of others enjoyable by every means and effort. When the hearing is opened so far, there is heard from them, as from a distance, a sweetly modulating sound, as it were of singing. They said that they do not know whence such things, and representatives so beautiful and pleasant, come to them in a moment; but it was said that it was from heaven. They belong to the province of the cerebellum; for the cerebellum, as I have been informed, is awake in the time of sleep, when the cerebrum sleeps. From this source the men of the Most Ancient Church had their dreams, with a perception of what they signified; from whom, in great part, were the representatives and significatives of the ancients, under which were set forth things deeply hidden" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1977.2)