This morning, I woke up at my normal time, but then dozed back off to sleep. Dreamt I was traveling, via some unexplainable sci-fi mechanism, into a large, desert canyon. Very dusty, dry, desolate place, no green, only yellows and shades of yellows. Several other people were already there, milling about in a little clearing, talking etc. I knew some of them. The walls of the canyon (sandstone, or other dry rock) were covered with these beasts which somewhat resembled king crabs, but also like gryphons. Beaks, arms/claws, and a hideous screech. The creatures seemed to be embedded in the wall of the rock. I walked up the canyon, turned around and came back to the spot where I started. I noticed some previous visitors had drawn cryptic sayings on some of the stones, and I had an impulse to add my own, but didn't have a pen.
By the time I got back to the clearing where I began, most everyone had left. I knew to get home (the other side) I was supposed to insert myself into a big maw, up ahead on the ground, filled with sand, gravel and small stones.
The creatures on the canyon wall were still screeching, I threw a rock at one, and cracked it's beak. The screeching redoubled in fury. Thus I felt I really had to leave, so taking a big breath, I steeled my nerves, and put my face into the sand pit. I had to push my whole body through this entrance in order to get back to the known world, but it was extremely difficult. The sand scraped my skin, and I could not breathe. Seemed to go on forever, me straining, swimming motions with my hands, trying with all my might to get to the other side so I could breathe again. I woke up right as I got through. So happy to be able to breathe, I took many deep breaths.
In retrospect, this resembles very much how I would imagine being born, except for the part wandering around the canyon. I don't very much believe in reincarnation, or similar things, but perhaps some part of me does.
{Personal}
