The Ancient Ones

 

The Ancient Ones

(A lone voice whispers) 

Our name is Eldritch. The true Gatekeepers of The Rich. 

Sent through time to invade your minds with dark dreams of the eerie kind.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

A whispered incantation rather than a full narrative.

“The Ancient Ones” frames the speakers as primordial, pre-human entities—beings that existed before ordinary history or consciousness. 

Calling themselves “Eldritch” immediately signals something unknowable and unsettling: knowledge that doesn’t belong to the human world.

 It echoes cosmic-horror traditions, where the most frightening thing isn’t violence, but contact with truths the mind can’t fully process.

When they claim to be “the true Gatekeepers of The Rich,” that “rich” isn’t about money—it’s richness of hidden knowledge, power, and forbidden inner worlds. 

Gatekeepers decide who gets access and who doesn’t. 

These beings stand between everyday awareness and deeper, darker layers of reality.

“Sent through time to invade your minds” suggests they don’t attack bodies or civilizations, but consciousness itself. 

Time becomes irrelevant; these forces recur across eras, entering through dreams, myths, inspiration, madness, or creativity. 

The phrase “invade” implies a lack of consent—humans don’t choose these visions.

Finally, “dark dreams of the eerie kind” positions dreams as the doorway. 

Dreams are where reason loosens, where ancient symbols and archetypes surface. 

The poem implies that what we experience as nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or uncanny inspiration may not be random—they are messages, visitations, or pressures from something older and watching.

Taken as a whole, the poem reads like a mythic explanation for disturbing dreams or ideas,

a personification of the subconscious, or

a cosmic voice claiming authorship over human fear and imagination.

Because it’s whispered and brief, it feels intentionally incomplete—like the reader has overheard something they weren’t meant to hear. 

That unease is the meaning as much as the words themselves.

Have you had dreams sent of the eerie kind?

Salute.

Image shared under fair usage policy.