Nineteen years inside the sphere

I did another reading with my eyes shut experiment, sleeping for 45 minutes with an unknown Tarot card under my pillow and trying to identify the card using clues from my dreams.

I didn't get much dream content this time. The first hypnagogic imagery to appear was a vague glimpse of two figures, viewed from behind, with their hands raised as if in worship of something in front of them. I was still semi-conscious at this point, and my first thought was that this indicated the card was likely the Devil -- or, this second thought rapidly following the first, the Hierophant.

The imagery here doesn't really match what I saw in any direct way. The two figures in the foreground of the Devil card have their backs to the devil and are not raising their hands. The two monks on the Hierophant card have their backs to us and appear to be kneeling before the pope, but the pope is the one who has his arms raised. Anyway, these two cards came immediately to mind while I was still in the hypnagogic state, so I note them.

Later, in a deeper sleep state, I was looking at a floor plan.

"Where's the cage where they lie down?" I asked. "I can't see any place for it."

"It's inside the sphere," I was told.

The central room on the floor plan was circular, and in the center of it was a large sphere on a pedestal. Although the floor plan was just a simple line drawing without color, I understood that this sphere was made of some kind of black stone.

"Inside the sphere?" I said. "Isn't that bit excessive?"

"It's for sensory deprivation," the voice said. "They stay there for 19 years, getting used to it."

"Nineteen years? Who would volunteer to spend 19 years of their life in a state of sensory deprivation? Maybe you meant to say 19 days, or 19 hours?"

Before I could get an answer to that question, I woke up.

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Based on that rather meager dream content, here are my ranked guesses as to the card under the pillow:

1. Judgement: People raising their hands as if in worship after emerging from tombs in which they have slept for years.

2. The Devil: My first hunch. It has a black background, and the chained captives are conceptually similar to the idea of people lying down in a "cage."

3. The Hierophant: Again, a hypnagogic hunch seems worth trusting.

4. Nine of Swords: A person who has just been lying down, with a black background that could be the inside of the black sphere. Even now, awake, she is covering her eyes, suggesting "sensory deprivation."

5. Four of Swords: A person lying down. A "worship" image in the background.

6. Ten of Cups: Two figures viewed from behind, with their arms raised.

7. The Sun: The number 19 was emphasized.

The card is still under the pillow. As soon as I've published this, I'm going back dans les bras de Morphée for another 45 minutes to see if I can get any more data, after which I'll update my predictions if necessary and then check the card.

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Update: Here is the content from my second sleep session with the same (still unknown) card under the pillow.

First, there was a scene of a pope -- I think it was the pope played by John Malkovich in the video clip with Marilyn Manson on "A mistake about Pius XIII, a circle-lemniscate logo, and a lost city found in 2012" -- attempting to use a very small pair of scissors. The rings were too small for him to fit his fingers into. Finally he dropped the scissors on the floor, the handles popped off, and lots of tiny nails or screws that had been inside spilled out onto the floor. A young man knelt on the floor to look and said, "What are these? Death scissors?" I thought the idea was that the scissors must have been some sort of miniature pipe bomb, with the tiny nails and screws intended as shrapnel.

This brief scene was followed by a couple of non-visual dream segments, each consisting only of a spoken sentence. The first was, "A wife but no house. Period." The second was, "Let's get naked, and let's get together." I understood that this second was meant to sound sexual but that this was deliberate misdirection; the nakedness was intended to disguise the nature of some non-sexual action that was being planned.

In a final scene, the news was announcing the election of a new pope, who was taking the name Pius XIII. At the same time this was on the news, someone claiming to be the new pope (and I believed him) was posting on 4chan. I anticipated that he was going to say that he didn't want to take the name Pius XIII, that the name had been suggested by someone else and given to the press prematurely. Instead, he posted a photo of his hand holding a plastic bag containing some kind of plant material. Many posters thought this was marijuana and that it meant the new pope intended to campaign for the legalization of that drug worldwide. Later, though, it was clarified, on 4chan and the news simultaneously, that the new pope had announced a global campaign for people to plant more trees.

I then woke up.

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All this papal material obviously makes the Hierophant a stronger candidate. In particular, the scissors scene seems to suggest this part of the card:

At the pope's feet, as if on the floor, are a pair of crossed keys, suggesting the general shape of a pair of scissors, with rings into which it would be difficult or impossible to insert one's fingers. Just above these "scissors" are the pope's feet in papal slippers, the cross markings of which suggest stigmata and thus, indirectly, nails. And on either side of the crossed keys is a man who is probably kneeling.

Scissors also suggest the Two of Swords, which shows a blindfolded woman and thus ties in with the earlier "sensory deprivation" theme. Out of curiosity, I googled which tarot card shows scissors and found this. Interestingly, the first two results both, in different ways, referenced death:

The first is, no surprise, the Two of Swords -- but from the Santa Muerte Tarot. That's Spanish for "Saint Death." The second is the Death card itself in "Madame Dulora de la Haye's Tarot" (Tarot hiéroglyphique égyptien). The name is interesting in connection with my recent "Ether genius Michael Hayes" dream. So both of these link to the "death scissors" reference. Here are the two cards in question:

The Rider-Waite Death card is also relevant, since it features a bishop, the Roman numeral XIII, and of course the word Death -- all of which also featured in this last round of dreams.

In the John Malkovich scene with Marilyn Manson, we learn that Pope Pius XIII is still alive but is in an extended coma, which fits with the dream about someone staying in a sensory deprivation chamber for years.

Here are my updated ranked predictions:

1. The Hierophant
2. Death
3. Judgement
4. The Devil
5. Two of Swords
6. Nine of Swords
7. Four of Swords
8. Ten of Cups
9. The Sun

And now I'm going to go check the card.

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Final update: It's the Three of Wands. Another complete failure. Interesting that card should turn up again, though.