A little background: The following assumes you know something about Jewish mysticism. To make things clearer here, please also see the Wiki on Shekinah - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekinah

In a nutshell, Shekinah has a dual meaning - the 'feminine' energy of the Universe, and the word itself means 'dwelling' and is symbolic of physically being in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Temple of Solomon - meaning being in the presence of the Convenant God had with the Jews, or God's presence on Earth. In my dream, my grandmother appears to me as 'The Shekinah' embodied. I had this dream in 1992, a year after Grandma died, and is one of very, very few dreams like it.

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It's a clear night and I'm walking, no, gliding on a white sand beach, beside an ocean that is amazingly blue, like the Mediterranean Sea. I'm drawn to a small white stucco house on the beach. I glide up the wooden steps through the rough wooden door. Inside this one room house, I feel a 'vibration' in the air, as if the air is alive - odd, like a wind with no movement, a sense of force all around me.

Standing before a roaring fireplace that gives off a golden glow, is an elegantly tall woman in a simple, long-sleeved, long white cotton dress. To her left is a rough-hewn wooden table. The woman greatly resembles my late maternal grandmother when she was younger. Her hair is long and a light golden brown, parted down the middle and pulled behind her head in a long, low pony tail. Her dress has a belt made from golden cord, tied in an ornate knot that hangs in front, just below her waist. She speaks to me - I see her mouth move but the sound isn't speech. It's different - it's a vibration I can feel in the air all around me and within me. I feel her voice as much as hear her.

She tells me She is The Shekinah and She is also my grandmother, and I must do as She instructs me. As I try to understand what She means, I look to the table and see She is holding a set of glowing white disks the size of large dinner plates, so that they stand on their edges. Although I can't explain how I Know this, I realize the disks are Sephira from a kabbalistic symbolic Tree of Life.

Shekinah/Grandma shows me one disk at a time, and explains something about each one as She names them. As She speaks, golden writing appears on the plate, in both Hebrew and English. I can read the names of each Sephira, but not the details. She shows me 10 disks, and then points into the air with her right index finger. Above her finger, a ball of light materializes. She tells me, "This is Daath", and says I must Know it, too. I have only a hint at it what it is, though, it's so hard to be certain.

She again reminds me it is imperative that I study the sephira for my personal spiritual development. She says it is a privilege, an opportunity and my responsibility to do so. All this time, I Know She is my grandmother (who was half Jewish, half Roman Catholic, but didn't practice either religion) and the Shekinah. I don't understand how this could be, but then again, maybe I do.

Then She looks down and directs my attention to her knotted belt, which starts to glow very brightly. The glow almost hurts my eyes. As I squint, I involuntarily start to glide backwards - to the door, out the door, off the small porch, and back to the beach. I retreat backwards, the house slips into the darkness, and I'm back on the white sand beach, alone.