Surreal Night

DW and I were tucked away last night in our hotel in Alexandria, Louisiana. Around 2:00 a.m., we were awakened by party sounds from the parking lot. I looked out the window and saw a dozen or so African-American men in tuxedos standing in the parking lot, with a caravan of cars driving in a circular parade. When I called the front desk, I was assured that the police were on the way. I think it was homecoming weekend for at least one of the local high schools, so maybe the parade had something do with that. Hell if I know.

So I went back to sleep and had a dream that was even stranger than the parking-lot party. I was observing a tiny religious cult that was heavily into arson. I got the impression that they had burned some buildings and were being chased by the authorities. The leader of the cult looked very much like some movie depictions of Lucifer himself, with a helmet atop his head with what looked like curled ram/goat horns on the side. This evil prophet, however, really didn't know what he was doing. He had relied for guidance on a fanatical disciple with what I thought was a Germanic first name, but I can't remember that name. The so-called leader was careful not to give away that he was lost without this disciple telling him what to do. However, that disciple recently had died. I don't know that the cause of death ever came out in my dream. I was not actually in the dream, but I had a kind of birds-eye view of its activities. When I caught up with the evil prophet, he was at the base of a mountain of rock, trying to figure out how to preserve his group from government persecution. He pointed his finger at the rocks, and flames shot out from his finger and set the rocks on fire. "That's it!" he thought, "I'll use fire as a distraction!" He made a wall of fire around the group's compound, and had the group gather inside a small room. Now he was dressed as a Zen master. One of the members of the group came in and praised the deceased disciple, who had preached that the group and its leader must purify themselves and prepare for "instruction," I presume from a supernatural source, whatever instruction that might be, and even if only one instruction was ever given. The evil prophet laughed and said that this member could always be counted on to revive the teachings of the deceased disciple. The group bowed, zen-style, with the leader, as bullets shot through the large window of the room. A government aircraft was strafing the compound. However, no members of the group were killed, though some were injured. Suddenly, it was dead silent. It remained silent for several hours, and one of the members of the group looked outside. All she saw was a woman and her child in a shopping cart, evidently looking to loot the cult's shopping area. At that point, my wake-up call from the front desk came in, and I had to wake up.

I can't imagine what this dream means, if anything at all.