Last night's dream quite likely arose out of an obsession and recollection of a dream of a past life. I wish that I had taken the time to write the specific details of last night's dream down. The only detail I remember is it was a historical movie starring Tom Sellak portraying Johannes Gutenberg. Yes, I know, Tom Sellak as Johannes Gutenberg the inventor of the movable type printing press? Yes. Pretty nutty stuff, right?
The recollection of this past life came to me in a dream after a night's meditation a few years ago. I saw myself as Gutenberg. I was walking home down a sandy foot path on a sunny summer day in central Germany after having secured a substantial loan of gold coins from a money lender. I had a purse the size of a softball tied to my belt. I was wearing medieval clothing. Gutenberg bears a surprising resemblance to myself. Only he has blond hair and a beard. I am convinced he is an actual ancestor of mine. I have a dream about printing books and know I have it in my power to become extremely wealthy in this endeavor. I am a little bit full of myself and I'm over confident. Life is about make me more humble.
I believe this is one instance where one of my previous incarnations is an actual genetic ancestor. An interesting claim that I will never be able to back up with any credible proof I'm afraid. It comes to me as an intuition rather than a verifiable fact.
Gutenberg came from an upper class family in Mainz, Germany. It was around 1450 when Gutenberg opened his first print shop with borrowed funds. Much of Gutenberg's early life is a mystery. It is known he grew up learning the trade of goldsmith and was an expert in metal working. His father worked in the ecclesiastic mint. Political tensions of the day forced him to leave Mainz for some years. He spent some time in Strasbourg, studied at university, and it was known he taught gem polishing, and continued to goldsmith.
Around 1439 Gutenberg was in the city of Aachen. He became embroiled in a financial misadventure with the production of highly polished metal mirrors. The intended mirrors were for pilgrims to use when the relics of a planned Emperor Charlemagne exhibition was to take place. The mirrors were believed to be useful for capturing the "holy light" radiating off the relics. The exhibit was delayed due to flooding and investors lost money. This was the moment Gutenberg was said to have offered up a "secret" as compensation. Legend has it that this was his idea for the invention of the movable type printing press, and the idea came to him "like a ray of light".
The next few years seem to have been spent perfecting the printing press technology. Gutenberg meets up with a mysterious person called the Master of Playing Cards, an artist and engraver, who was creating some of Europe's earliest playing cards.
By 1450 Gutenberg's press is in full operation. Johann Fust was his financial backer and partner. Fust eventually sues Gutenberg. The case was a dispute over how Gutenberg spent some of the funds. Fust gets control and Gutenberg was effectively made bankrupt and leaves. It seems the project to print the first bibles was a very costly one and ate up most of the profits.
Gutenberg apparently was able to recover and carried on with another printing shop in the town of Bamberg around 1459. A later conflict between two archbishops would drive Gutenberg from his hometown of Mainz into exile. He would eventually, in 1465, receive some recognition for his accomplishments. He was awarded the title Hofman (gentleman of the court) with an annual stipend. Gutenberg died in 1468. The Franciscan church and cemetery where he was buried was later destroyed and his grave is lost to history.
In my past life dream recollections of Gutenberg. I see him as a very frail old man. He is being lovingly cared for by a widow woman who has two young children. She is like a daughter to him. His last days are comfortable and he is well cared for.
Gutenberg fascinates me. The one invention that so transformed the world and had the greatest impact on mankind is the printing press. It democratized knowledge and changed the world forever. Second to perhaps the change from hunter gathering to agriculture nothing else has had such a huge impact on the human race for good and bad.
The mysteries around his early life excite my imagination. The times in which Gutenberg lived made little or no distinction between science and magic. The town of Mainz had a significant Jewish population. I have this vision of Gutenberg dabbling in all sorts of esoteric teachings like kaballah. His work as a goldsmith, I am certain, exposed him to all sorts of wild and fantastic secret teachings, and ideas. Who knows for certain who or what his early influences were exactly. Any number of possibilities come to mind.
Gutenberg's printing technology would have a direct impact on the later Renaissance. The wealthy Italians of Northern Italy would print the books that would spread the ancient knowledge of the Classic Greek thinkers, which in turn, would usher in the age of reason and science. The effects of which are still seen today.
This mysterious person called the Master of Playing Cards reminds me that the tarot cards that are in use today are said to have emerged from Northern Italy during the early Renaissance. The exact origin of tarot is said to have come from Egypt but the cards used today most closely resemble those created during the Renaissance.
A closer look at all the correspondences really gets me to thinking! Think about the implications of committing the bible to print. What a fundamental change just that has on the spirituality of mankind. Martin Luther grasped the implications and he ran with it.
Myself, I am pondering the alchemical and gnostic implications of what Gutenberg had done by transforming the Word into mass produced printed books. Gutenberg was a brilliant man. I am certain he must have thought very deeply about the far reaching effects his invention was going to have on the world and civilization. It was a revolution for human evolution and not a trivial thing. Everyone is familiar with what angst Oppenheimer went through after the creation of the atomic bomb. I sometimes wonder if Gutenberg had a similar moment of reflection.
This legend of Gutenberg as having the idea of the movable printing press come to him "like a ray of light" is really evocative. This is just the sort of story you might hope to be true as it contributes beautifully to the narrative of what happened. I like to imagine it came to him in a dream or vision. The descriptive phrase lends itself to that possibility. It is a fact that many of the greatest discoveries and inventions in history came into being in just that manner. Francis Crick, one of the co-discoverers of DNA was revealed to have used LSD which gave him a vision of the mechanism of DNA. You could say his mind was "illuminated". I'm not suggesting Gutenberg was on drugs, but who knows precisely what his "ray of light" was. Was it divine or alchemical? I entertain all possibilities.
Well, this about covers all of the topic of Gutenberg I was feeling compelled to explore today. Perhaps more will be uncovered in later dreams or meditations. Until then there is plenty of material to mull over while we wait on additional information or insights. Auf Weidersehen! Aber nicht ewig! (Goodbye for now, but not forever).
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