Mdina – Dreamyoga

I first landed at Malta airport in mid-late August 1974. I was nine years old and flying from Lusaka to Heathrow. I was about to start my 11^th year incarcerated in an English preparatory school in Gloucestershire. As a child of the dawn I woke my mother to see dawn from 30,000 feet as we approached the island. It was a refuelling stop. My mother being a creature of the night was not overly impressed. By this time I already had ~50,000 air miles under my belt and I had a BOAC captain’s logbook to get filled in, another 5,000 miles to add to my tally.

Something very deep was touched as we approached the craggy light-brown rocks pinking in the sun. I knew this place, it seemed.

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The last time we went to Malta was at Easter in 2015. At the time I was keeping a poo blood diary to note symptoms. Not long after I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had a T3 tumour removed on 2^nd July 2015. On this visit we went to Mdina and remarked that inside its walls would be an interesting place to live. Properties within the walls are not for sale often. When they are the likes of Sotheby’s and Christie’s have them on their books.

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Clearly these are way out of our price range!!

I visited the airport a number of times on the way to school in the 70s and went to the island for another holiday around 1990. There was déjà vu of a profound kind, to the core.

My understanding of the link relates to my Christian priest-soldier life around 800 years ago. This is entwined with the first Sicily visits. {Insofar as I can tell} In this life I met my end in the oxymoronically named holy land. I was executed on a beach by “Arabs”. I had been under “protection” but there was political upheaval and that protection no longer held for the rebel faction. There were a number of us killed that night and early into the dawn. I can still smell burning oil used for torches. If I flare my nostrils now I can scent it. I can hear the drums and the noise.

I belonged to an order and wore the rosy cross over my chain mail. My function was largely scholastic and I was welcomed by Jew and Arab alike. For us knowledge was more important than creed. Here I was exposed to Kabbalah and to science. I had licence to travel where those of my creed were not usually welcome. I made several visits by sea. We found ways to speak amongst us and using Latin was one of those. The “sultan” wanted to be kept up dated as to progress as did the head of my order. I was accustomed to meet both separately.

Weird that Mdina should pop into my dreams, not so weird for Malta. I have been looking at houses to buy near where I went to school in Gloucestershire. It is a 1974 vibe in a way…

Having had a former abode at Mdina is consistent with my liking for the place, a kind of home. It was not my real home in that life, though I did spend time there with my studies. Home was in a green part of France. Where I was clergy to a village by a river. From time to time duty called me away.

Here is this morning’s dream.

The dream starts with me driving a soft top dark blue {indigo?} Golf GTi type vehicle. It is right hand drive and has had a roll bar driver protection cage welded in. The sound of the engine is throaty and I can feel power under the throttle. The drive is similar to “whitey” my erstwhile Peugeot 208 GTi with 200 bhp. Though the handling is better.

I drive it into an urban French style garage. The type they have in the town centre and in 1960s films. I park and get out. I greet a man in light blue overalls. We know each other very well. He asks what he can do for me. I say that I have recently bought the car and could he look specifically at the breaks and the steering. The car is equipped with new top of the range tyres. I say that the steering felt a little slack on the way there. He looks at the car with interest.

He pops it onto an inspection ramp and hoists it into the air. He goes underneath and notes down the chassis and VIN {vehicle identification number}. Excitedly he ushers me to follow him into his office. He sits at desk and enters the VIN into the computer. He exclaims, “I knew it”. “You have bought a very rare special edition Pantera version.” The emphasis is long on the E and I know it to be Panthēra cat family and Jaguar. I feel corporally the Jaguar at his utterance of the word Pantera. I feel myself a Jaguar in the jungle. He says that these were a limited edition ultra-souped-up version. There were only a very few made and they are very high performance. He says that I have gotten a good deal. He adjusts the brakes and steering. He lowers the car down. He does not want payment. He has not seen one of these before in the flesh.

The scene changes. With the soft top down I am being pursued though a “medieval” town centre with very tight streets and corners. The roads have small squares, piazzas. On occasion I do handbrake turns to make the very tight corners. There are steps and gradients. Although I am being pursued by several vehicles I do not have direct sight of them. The feel is southern Europe, Mediterranean even. The pursuers are not police or official rather bad people who wish me ill, who want to hurt and even kill me. No matter how much they try I can out pace them in my special edition Pantera.

The scene changes and I am in a snowy pine forest with muddy “roads”. It feels Finland-Russia-Estonia. Again I am being pursued. I am now ultra glad of the roll bar as I am rally driving at breakneck speed. I am being pursued by people in slower four wheel drive vehicles. I know that I won’t be able to shake them until I reach the highway. After that they will be dust. The pursuit is relentless.

I wake up and can feel my thighs, lower back and sacroiliac plate. I know that I have been writhing around tensing my muscles during the dream pursuit. I can feel adrenaline. I take a while for my muscles to relax and stop hurting. I go to the bathroom and it is 5:15 AM.

Back now in the dream I am in Mdina, L-Imdina, in Malta. I know it is the Maltese Mdina. I am wandering the modern streets and know beyond question that I lived here and spent time here hundreds of years ago. I find my old residence down the street from a church. There remains a puzzle for me to solve. I am very comfortable with the Arab influence; it is a feeling which I recollect from my time among them as invited guest.

Next I am shown a map of Southern France specifically the protuberance which has Cannes and Marseille. I see both an ancient map and a more modern one. I have the knowing that “ago” I sailed from Marseille. I am now in my blue GTi top down driving West along a coast road heading for Marseille. To my right is a rocky bluff and to my left the azure-blue sea. I have wind in what would have been my hair. I am wearing Ray Bans and heading at speed along the open coast road. It is very early morning a little after dawn in high summer. The road is empty.

Next I am in a well-equipped kitchen in a large mansion like house. In front of me “mise en place” are various ingredients for cooking. One the other side of the cooking island is a young expensive posh woman whom I do not know. The kitchen belongs to her family. I sweat down some finely chopped shallots and a little garlic and more butter. I grind some pepper. I add some flour to make a roux, then some milk. Next I add a large glass of white wine which I can tell from the smell is a dessert wine. I reduce the sauce down. I am making a white wine reduction. I add some chopped fresh Tarragon. I know that I have also lived here near Marseille and that for me Marseille and Mdina are linked.

What I don’t yet know is how the Pantera or Jaguar fits in.

The dream ends.

Tag: Mdina

Mdina – Malta -Dream Follow Up

Blue GTi – Pantera – Pursuit – Places – Mdina – Dream – 11-09-2025