In the crypt at Chartres Cathedral

Date: 5/4/2019

Me and two friends had a plan to make some money. It involved purchasing what was some sort of unique book/research project (and perhaps the intellectual rights) that was about something related to alternative history. We would then resell this to the highest bidder and make a lot of cash. But there was something dishonest about our plan, either we knew that the contents of the book were made up, or simply that it wasn't as special as the potential buyer would think. I was responsible for meeting the person who was selling it to us and easily completed the transaction. At this point I looked through the book briefly - all I know is that it was a large coffee table book with lots of colored pictures. In the next stage, I and my two friends were actually going to do some research to add material to the book. This is when it became apparent in the dream that the project had something to do with medieval secrets and imagery. We ended up in a large church or cathedral-like building after-hours (there was no one else there). We were in there semi-illegally but had access to a small side room where there were lots of carvings and ornamentations on the wall. Everything was quite dark. At one point my friends told me it was my turn to go down into the "crypt". I stepped into a small hole in the floor and felt quite uneasy since I couldn't see below me - I think I anticipated spiders or other insects. I didn't need to go very far and quickly found myself inside a small room, I could still hear my friends who were giving me instructions clearly. I was lighting the walls with a lamp and could see individual sections or ornamented bas-relief all around the walls. I had a large sheet of vellum paper (the word "vellum" was used explicitly in the dream - I think this is significant because it's not like I encounter the word or the material every day) and the objective was to place the sheet on the wall and use a chunk of pastel crayon to color over the entire sheet surface and allow the sculptures behind it to be copied in negative form. I had three colors of pastel with me: light grey, brown, and green(not certain about the last one), I picked the brown. Unfortunately, in the process, I created a large tear in my vellum sheet so my copy was useless. Despite this, I went back up to the main floor relieved that I was done spending time in that slightly creepy place. Although we had expected that each vellum copy would be sold for 10 000$, mine would probably be useless. Regardless, I had till done my share by going down into the crypt - it was sort of like a test of courage. I think it was when we were wrapping up our stuff and getting ready to go that the name of "Chartres" was used, so I guess that's where we were. I've never been to the real cathedral but I have seen plenty of photos. Aside from the presence of ornamental sculptures though, I don't think the place in my dream resembled reality. Anyways, there was this sense that we were trespassing legally but also sort of spiritually, by trying to profit financially off a spiritual place. Well next thing you know, we had completed our mission and were negotiating with a buyer. This is getting long by now so I'll cut it short. Basically, I completed the sale with some individuals who were very interested in the topic (an older man and a woman). We sold it for around 5 million. It felt like we were ripping them off, but that was the whole point. The friend who had put the money up for the original purchase took the bigger share but I received 1 million, which I thought fair. Next in the dream involved how I was going to spend this and share with family/friends.