Whirlwind--copyright by John Rostron
under Creative Commons license.

Tornadoes have come after me in Dreaming ever since my vision quest in 1991. In most of the ancient traditions the whirlwind represents something supernatural, or something from beyond the Earth. In one I take seriously the whirlwind is a portal to other realms and a way of direct contact with something from beyond the earth. Going through the whirlwind is one of the old tests. Even though I've been through portals associated with them, I've always used some other type of symbolism to buffer the experience. Whirlwinds are a legacy of my childhood, when summer storms were always rousting the entire family from their beds with rumbling thunder and strobing lightning and driving us to damp musty cellars for an hour or two while the world spun around us and we wondered aloud if we'd have a house when we crawled out of our hole. Even in dreams I have a very powerful instinct for self preservation when I see one of these coming. I'm not likely to jump into one.

But I keep getting the opportunity, and keep getting closer to the big leap—like last night, when the tornados very politely chased me across a field. Well, as politely as tornados can, there's always a lot of power involved.

I'd been in a long dream about being guided someplace by a carpenter who expected to be paid by help with a project of his. I wasn't really impressed by the quality of his work and didn't mention that I was a better carpenter than he was, which I did believe. I'm able to work as a team player on occasion. This was an interesting journey through buildings that weren't very familiar to me and I remember commenting to a person in one of the houses we passed through that it seemed a bit like Snoopy's dog house because it seemed to open up to ever larger rooms, bigger on the inside than the outside. He gave me a very strange look when I said that. These were confusing places and my guide was asking me for directions about as often as I was following him.

After a very long trip we came to an open field near a gymnasium with a football field in the far distance beyond it. A half dozen people in sporting uniforms came running in our direction warning us that tornadoes were coming. That seemed odd, because the weather was good and no storms were about, but dropping out of the sky behind these fellows were several distinct funnels, the multiple tornadoes that sometimes form in the center of a larger storm. Everybody was jinking and dodging like crazy to get away from them. They didn't look all that bad to me, just small ones, and I stood and watched them grind slowly in my direction, never quite touching the ground. The nearest one hit a powerline a hundred yards in front of me. There was something odd about it, because it cut through the powerline like a welding rod, cable jerking and snapping and electricity arcing into the vortex. So I joined the crowd and began evasive maneuvers. That tornado faded as I watched over my shoulder, but other people yelled at me to look out and looking forward I saw that I was running into another of the same quality.

I tried outrunning it, but didn't have much success. The spiral pattern of evasion I used eventually swirled to a point of no escape and I hit the ground flat. Strangely, I wasn't afraid while I did these things. It was exciting, with the feel of a game. The tornado swept over me and I could feel the wind churning around me. It didn't move on, stayed right on top of me. I expected at any moment to be swept up and carried off into the sky.

Instead I felt three lightning bolts hit me in the back, making three different distinct connections and pouring energy through me. I relaxed and let it run, familiar with the technique from some of the magical training I've done. If you encounter a surge like that and resist, you could be burned up by it. If you relax, the energy fills you up, and what should happen does happen. Whatever that is, you find out later.

The tornado spun out gradually as it poured into me and in a few minutes people ran up to where I was sitting with a big grin and asked me if I was ok or not.

Yep, I said, I feel great.

Maybe I'm not scared of them after all.