Last night I had several false awakenings repeatedly one after the other. I had a dream where I was in communication with a being from another dimension. As we are talking it occurs to me that I am dreaming or in an altered state of consciousness. Knowing these being are able to step through and cross over into other dimensions I grab him by the arm and proceed to wake myself up, to get up out of bed to bring him over to my roommate to prove that aliens exist. I struggle to wake myself up while holding him tightly by the arm; each attempt triggers a false awakening.
In the first false awakening, I get up out of bed with him at my side. We walk down the hallway hand in hand to my roommate’s bedroom and realize my roommate did not come home this night and is not in his bed. That realization places me back in the dream where I realize I am in a false awakening and my body is still lying in bed. Again I explain to him what I am trying to do. I feel the physical presence of his arm to make sure I have a good grip on him. I can feel the fingers of his hand as being different than those of a human being. He graciously agrees to try again and come with me.
On the second false awakening, I get up out of bed clearly checking to make sure I am really out of bed. Taurus is at my side. We are holding hands. We walk down the hallway and before we can get to the end of the hallway to my roommate’s bedroom it occurs to me that he is right. My roommate did not come home last night otherwise I would have heard the house alarm go off in the middle of the night.
This awareness places me back in the dream realizing that I am having another false awakening. Taurus, my alien friend is still at my side. I tell him we should try one more time but this time I will gently pull him forward with my other hand on his back bringing him toward me as we roll out of bed. Once again he agrees. I then place my other hand on his back side feeling the details of his scaly body and his well defined spin. I am amazed that I am able to feel his physical presence in this altered state of awareness. Struggling through sleep paralysis, we proceed to get up out of bed.
I wake up sitting up in bed. In my hand I have the physical presence of an invisible being. I cannot see him with my physical eyes yet I can feel his physical presence in my hand. There is something firm, solid and invisible in my hand. As I sit up in bed I am wondering if I am really awake. I then remember that there is no point in walking down the hallway because my roommate did not come home last night. There is no one in the house to witness for me the presence of aliens. Slowly the sensation of his arm in my hand slips and fades as he returns to his dimension and I remain in mine.
Mithraism was an initiatory order, passed from initiate to initiate, like the Eleusinian Mysteries. It was not based on a body of scripture, and hence very little written documentary evidence survives. Soldiers and the lower nobility appeared to be the most plentiful followers of Mithraism.
In every Mithraic temple, the place of honor was occupied by a tauroctony, a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull which was associated with spring. Mithras is depicted as an energetic young man, wearing a Phrygian cap, a short tunic that flares at the hem, pants and a cloak which furls out behind him. Mithras grasps the bull so as to force it into submission, with his knee on its back and one hand forcing back its head while he stabs it in the neck with a short sword. The figure of Mithras is usually shown at a diagonal angle and with the face turned forward. The representations occur as both reliefs, and as three-dimensional sculpture; however the three dimensional images have a strongly frontal aspect.
A serpent and a dog seem to drink from the bull’s open wound which is sometimes depicted as spilling grain rather than blood, and a scorpion (usually interpreted as a sign for autumn) attacks the bull’s testicles, sapping the bull’s strength. Sometimes, a raven or crow is also present, and sometimes also a goblet and small lion. Cautes and Cautopates, the celestial twins of light and darkness, are torch-bearers, standing on either side with their legs crossed, Cautes with his brand pointing up and Cautopates with his turned down. Above Mithras, the symbols for Sol and Luna are present in the starry night sky.