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VISIONARY REVUE
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TERTIO MILLENNIO I
Thomas Priemon
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FALL 2007
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Friday September 29, 2006
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Dear L. Caruana...
I've been looking for some answers about a dream - three recurring dreams in which, each night, three monks showed me certain events - a different part each night. All of the events, as far as I remember, had something to do with the other.
It began in a large city with towering buildings ...then there was terrible destruction with bodies falling from the sky. In one dream, a snaking figure or dragon was winding through the streets where bodies were falling and people were being torn from the sky - as if, by the winding figure.
In the sky was another figure, like God with a long flowing beard. His hand was pointing across the sky, where angels were flying. Below was a crucified man, and the serpentine form, which was winding through the streets, had struck the crucified man, penetrating his flesh.
This dream haunted me for a long time, since it seemed so real. This was before the new Millenium. I did a woodblock of the dream, titled Tertio Millennio, and printed an edition in a heated frenzy. Then, after a while, I forgot about it.
When the horror of 9/11 happened, I saw the images on tv of people falling from the towers and smoke snaking through the streets - it gave me such a sickening feeling |
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VISIONARY REVUE
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- especially when I found my print again and saw the God figure moving his hand across the sky, where the angels were flying and the sun was turning dark. Flames were all around and masses of people were running through the streets.
I often have nightmares from a traumatic injury years ago, but this was the first time I experienced anything like this. I am no visionary - just a person who has nightmares, and this one has stayed with me for ten years now.
I was searching for an explanation, of why a person experiences this type of thing - when I found your site. I read about some of your dreams and found them very fascinating. So I thought you might like to see my image.
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Thanks
Tom
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Wednesday, October 4, 2006
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Tom...
During a recent trip to Mexico and Guatemala, I was continuously haunted by a feeling that something terrible would happen to me. I survived that trip without a scratch.
But, now that I'm back safe at home, that feeling has expanded into something even worse - a terrible presentiment that we are all on the edge of a new catastrophe - which I see as religious wars between fundamentalist groups. Of course, if you open a newspaper, some of the signs are already there. But my feeling (and so far, it's a feeling without clear images) tells me - watch out! It's coming...
So what do we do? Can we prevent the end that's coming? Can we save others? We can try - not by screaming at the world, but by quietly changing things within our own reach. For me, I guess, that begins with myself. Am I ready for the end? Whether this is a world catastrophe or my own death - am I ready? All the important experiences in my life have prepared me, in some way, for this moment...
Your visionary dreams were not only filled with catastrophe. The three monks, the angels, the images of God, the crucified - even the serpent... all of these made it clear that the catastrophe - bodies falling from the sky - was somehow linked to a sacred revelation.
I won't try to interpret your dream for you - you have a whole life ahead of you to do that. You've fixed your vision into an image. Now, come back to the image, see the dream anew, and try to understand the strange intentions underylying all these arrangements of images.
Why was the crucified man piecred by the serpent (or dragon)? Who are the three monks? The answers to those questions will come to you from memories connected to those image - memories that are both personal (from your own life) and 'collective' (from your cultural background). They all fit together in strange, unexpected ways.
With your permission, I'd like to include your woodcut and your letter in the next issue of the Visionary Revue. I think we can let it stand, as it is, and let others respond to it in their own way...
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Keep dreaming,
Laurence
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FALL 2007
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Bottom Detail: TERTIO MILLENNIO I
Thomas Priemon
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Wednesay October 11, 2006
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Hi Laurence.....
I took your advice and came back to the dream through the woodcut image. I also looked up a group of the images people took from the 911 catastrophe in Manhatten. I was stunned at some of the clear and direct references to my dream.
I kept trying to think perhaps I am reading this wrong but when I saw the photos of the Sept 11 event and looked at the Tertio Millennio image, it actually made me feel sick to my stomach. There was just so much of the dream in these photographs... For example... the photos of the plane hitting the tower, and my image of the sky darkening from plumes of smoke... and photos of billowing smoke, like the trailing body of the serpent winding through the buildings in my image...
When I had my dream I could not figure out why a monster would be snaking through the streets after people... Like you told me, I came back to the dream and the haunting images of the events of 911... I keep telling myself this is my imagination... I am reading into it too much ....then I saw photographs of the people leaping to their deaths... and I look at the detail in Tertio Millennio with the people falling from the sky, and my stomach wrenches.
All of these pieces from the dream made no sense in 1996, but now they appear to have much in common with the tragic events that unfolded in 2001...
I still stop and think am I reading to much into this... I really did not want these dreams. It was an obsession to print the image.
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Again thank you for helping me handle this......
Tom
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VISIONARY REVUE
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Wednesday October 11, 2006
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Thomas...
I can see how a lot of the photos and testimonies of 9/11 relate in an uncanny way to your prophetic dream. I think it is entirely possible that an event such as that, which explodes traumatic feelings worldwide in a matter of hours, can imprint itself on certain sensitive psyches - independently of linear time. In other words, your dream may have registered the event 'before' it happened, by accessing the images and feelings that circulate in a dreamworld 'above time'.
Included in this e-mail are two images which were painted well before 9/ll. They also predict, in an uncanny way, those events.
The first, Psalm 69 by Ernst Fuchs, shows in the upper left hand corner a jet airplane next to two tall square towers (this was painted before the twin towers were even built!). The overall subject of the painting, taken from Psalm 69 in the Bible, is about suffering and its transfiguration.
The second, Gaia by Alex Grey, shows in the lower right hand two airplanes are flying over the twin towers (Alex Grey lives in New York). The second plane is a bit difficult to see in this jpg, because it is covered by the web matrix. This painting was also created before 9/11. It is about our planet (Gaia) being ravaged by destruction and ecological disaster.
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GAIA
Alex Grey
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FALL 2007
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PSALM 69
Ernst Fuchs
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So, you see, you are not alone in your prophetic visions.
But, many of the overpowering feelings you have (in your guts) regarding this event shows that you are still affected by the trauma. Making a work of art was one step towards releasing those feelings. Going back and reviewing the work is not only an exercise in 're-living the trauma' but also trying to come to terms with it, understand and integrate it into your life. That's no easy task. But maybe you'll see, in the end, that the Sacred (God the Father with the long beard) can be a source of both evil and good, of suffering and its healing transfiguration...
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Good Luck,
Laurence
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VISIONARY REVUE
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TERTIO MILLENNIO II
Thomas Priemon
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FALL 2007
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Monday November 20, 2006
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Hello Laurence...
I thought about some of the things you told me before. I had another recurring dream with the three monks ...somewhat like years ago.In the three dreams the monks again showed me various locations which were undergoing some type of devastation. The last time it was a city with twin towers ...This time it was in three locations.
One had a large expansion bridge, the other was a coastal city with large buildings, and the third was a city environment with a tall tower surrounded by buildings. There were great waves banging against the city and washing people from the buildings ...People were falling from the sky ...Great flames rose around the coastal city and the expansion bridge. People were screaming and falling in the water. The image appeared to have another dragon winding through it but, this time, the dragon was different. Recently I was watching television when I saw the freeways of California, and I realized this was the winding dragon thing I saw, with many vehicles moving on it.
I have some terrible dreams, but when I have these recurring dreams, they are quite different from my nightmares... It is as if I am witnessing something of importance. I know this sounds crazy, but that’s what it feels like.
Again, the image had the God the Father figure looming above and pointing to all the things unfolding...
I am including a woodcut I just finished, from the dreams. I titled it Tertio Millennio-ll..
I don’t know if these dreams mean anything, but I feel a great urgency to make a woodcut from them.
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Sincerely
Tom
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FALL 2007
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Tuesday December 5, 2006
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Dear Laurence,
I thought I would send you an image of the final state of the print. It is now titled it "dun-nga".
As I mentioned before, it was another recurring dream where three monks showed me things. As I was working on the woodblock, I remembered the numbers 7- 5, so I've included them in this, the third version. I am not sure what they mean except the dream image reveals a tragic event with people falling from the sky into water.
I came across some Tibetan Thangka paintings and woodblocks - they have much in common with the way the dreams were presented to me by the three monks in 1996 and again in 2006. The way they are laid out is much the same as the woodblocks from my dreams. This is the way the dreams were presented to me by the monks. I thought this was quite interesting...
Again, thank you for all the help understanding some of these things.
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...Tom
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Thursday December 7, 2006
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Hello Thomas...
Once again I thank you for sending me your work, which I find quite interesting. I'd like to include the woodcut you sent me, in its final state, alongside the others in the next issue of the Visionary Revue. Rather than commenting, we'll just let the images speak for themselves, and let the coming times deliver up their meaning.
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Pax,
Laurence
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