#poem, #prose, «Yes Sir!»

(Original artwork by Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved)

Time, for most people, is something that is measured by a clock; the days by a calendar; the weeks by the comings and goings to work; and the years by the greying of their hair. Time has become our boss, observed, respected, and completely indispensable…even if it is implacable…for everything depends on it. We assert that we live only because we have, or rather, because time has passed by and through and we have had a life. Furthermore, we are convinced that time moves in a straight line, always forward, towards what we call the future, and that what is left behind, the past, no longer exists.

But what if I told you that all of that is malarkey? What would you think if I told you that time does not exist? Did you know that the concept of time that we have is wrong, corrupted, and misunderstood? Oh, you didn’t know? Well, I’m going to tell you. Pay close attention to the following example.

A few years ago, I had a repeating dream. Every night I would dream the same thing, but each time the dream became longer and with more and more details. This was the dream that started it all.

The first night I saw myself as a boy of about seven years old, and my mother entrusted me to the captain of a ship with huge sails. We crossed the ocean and arrived at a port where people, who looked very different from those I was accustomed to seeing, were waiting for us. They took me gently by the hand and led me to a great city. And so ended the first dream, but as I have said, every night I dreamed the same thing again, with more details, until finally I dreamed the whole story.

Finally I realised that the story that was being shown to me in these dreams was a revelation. This is the complete dream with its interpretation: I was a child from an Egyptian family born in Israel during the reign of its fifth king, Zimri, (885 B.C.). My mother was the High Priestess of a temple dedicated to Isis located at the top of Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights in the northern part of the Kingdom of Israel. One day a ship arrived and my mother, after a long conversation with the captain… I don’t know what they talked about… took me to the pier and told me that I would find my destiny in far away shores. She said the ship would take me there and that I would grow strong and wise and there my wisdom would be useful, and where my power would flourish.

The ship transported me to the shores of the Mayan empire, in what is now Yucatán (Mexico). I was taken to the city of Uxmal, to an altar inside a small temple located at the top of a pyramid of polished stones that shimmered in the light of the intense tropical sun of those lands. There, I was shown about the extent of the great empire, which I was to rule one day.

That was the story revealed to me in dreams as interpreted by a Peruvian shaman I knew. He said that I was the reincarnation of the wise foreign white man who had lived among the Maya. That I would first rule with strength as a great general who won great battles, conquered the enemies of the Maya, and subjugated the northern tribes, most likely the Toltecs or Aztecs. Later, I would rule with wisdom and achieved peace, along with friendship treaties and coexistence with former enemies. This led to the establishment of trade routes, which allowed both empires to prosper and grow. Peace allowed for the growth of artistic projects, scientific discoveries, and the development of mathematics, astrology, and architecture. In short, everything recognized today as the great achievements of the Maya, the Toltec and the Aztec.

Years later I decided, not because of the dream but for other reasons, to go to the city of Mérida, Yucatán. I had the opportunity to visit the historic Mayan archaeological complex called Chichén Itzá, and also Uxmal. Upon entering Chichén Itzá, the first thing one sees is the great step pyramid that dominates the entire complex with its enormity. I immediately felt something strange. Although we arrived early in the morning, my eyes saw everything in darkness and in the light of a faintly waning moon. The monuments were gray or black and covered by ivy and by the vegetation of a jungle that threatened to engulf and hide them so that they would never see the sun.

But there was neither ivy nor jungle. The complex was very well-maintained and very clean. Thank God that in a few short seconds that image dissipated and I could clearly see how things were. But that wasn’t the only strange thing that happened to me there. After touring the complex, my friends and I arrived at an area that had been cordoned off so that visitors could not enter. I asked the guide why we couldn’t enter, as I wanted to see the cave where they had excavated and discovered an altar and many wonderful gold and silver artefacts.

The guide, very surprised by what I had just said, asked me if I had already been there when they excavated the hidden temple. At that moment, I realized what I had told him and I was left speechless.

«Is that what’s behind the wall?»

«Yes Sir!»

With those two words the guide confirmed that yes, archaeologists had discovered a hidden temple beneath that same stone wall. He demanded to be told how I knew. But I don’t know how I knew that. The words came out of me as if someone else were saying them.

Upon returning to Spain, I went and told the shaman who had interpreted my dream what had happened to me. He explained that time does not pass for souls, that we reincarnate, and that sometimes, when certain conditions come together, the universe reveals the truth to us and we remember portions of other lives. He made me see that time passes, but not like trains that pass us by moving forward and forward until they reach the city of their destination. For us, time passes in circles that spin into the void of space but sometimes these circles, or bubbles of time, collide with each other, and the spiritual energy they release allows us to see images of other lives, as if they were scenes from a movie, and other things we have never imagined.