My dreams have been teaching me about the indigenous mind over the years. I have gone dreaming with Indigenous Peoples from Kyrgyzstan, Africa, Mexico, Aboriginal people of Australia, and also U.S. Southwestern and Hawaiian Native Peoples among others. The indigenous mind might say, “I went dreaming”. Many westerners like to describe dreams they share by saying, “I had a dream” it seems almost in passing, and indeed much of the dream, may pass from our memory on waking. The indigenous mind shares dreams as an experience and a real place one can visit or where ancient ancestors may come calling on you for a visit.
Naming Ceremony
When my daughter was 4 years old, I had an extraordinary experience of a visit from the powers of dreaming. I was not yet asleep, but sitting up in bed in my darkened room, about to lay down and rest. I saw what appeared as blue lightening, streak across my bedroom. I knew it was from someone of power paying me a visit. I was astonished by what I saw, but not afraid at all. I was calm in fact, and somehow seemed to know what was about to happen. I looked out my bedroom window and saw a man standing there, somehow familiar to me. He sent me a telepathic message asking permission to come inside. I knew he wanted to take me on a journey and so I gave permission inwardly and settled into to bed. The second I closed my eyes, I was transported to a foreign land where a ceremony was going on. We were outside and there were a number of large boulders in a somewhat barren landscape at night. We were among a small group of people who had gathered for this ceremony. He let me know it was a naming ceremony for my 4 year old daughter. She would receive her spiritual name during the ceremony and I was invited to participate as her mother and hold witness to the ceremony. I was not allowed to know her secret spiritual name, but there to give my permission and blessings on the ceremony.
There have been other stories I have shared here in my blog, that recount extraordinary dreams. One thing I am beginning to learn is how this plays into my life and how I can understand the dreamtime, where time and space exist simultaneously, without separation. Indigenous peoples pass on the stories of their culture, which are interwoven and inseparable with the land where they live. In the dreamtime, one can travel to a possible future, or the storied past, all existing in the present. The Indigenous Mind does not think of time as linear, but circular where always, there is a return.
Return of the Ancient
When my son was 3 years old, I had a dream that I was sitting on a Mesa overlooking the Grand Canyon. An ancient elder sat across from me drawing a circle in the dirt with a stick. He began to trace the circle and tell me about my son, who he is and why he is here. He let me know, that my son had not reincarnated on this plane in a very long time. I asked him how long, and he pointed at the canyon and I saw it was no longer there, but now stood as one solid land mass. That is a very long time, I thought to myself.
Lizard Woman
I hear music playing in my dream and suddenly, I am looking at a map of Arizona. A journey is laid out for me on the map in rainbow colors that show a route of travel to places I must visit and tracks the path I must follow. I am then in the landscape of a dessert terrain, with some large trees that are near a spring of water. There is one Tree in particular I am drawn toward, and as I draw nearer, I can hear a woman speaking to me. She is calling to me in a haunting lilting cadence, “Come to this place, it is time for you to claim your power. It is time for you to come to this land for healing and claim your own power.” I see her working with me, and she buries me partially in the earth, as she does a healing ceremony for me. Now I am in an underground hogan, where herbs hang from the ceiling and I lay covered with a native designed blanket and I am dreaming. In my dream within a dream, I see a huge Gila Lizard that lives beneath the earth. It stretches giant across Arizona and lives beneath the ground. I am aware of this ancient place where the land is interwoven with the stories of the peoples who have lived here for centuries. The powers of the land, guard these sacred places. Years later, I learned that the Gila Lizard is sacred to the Navajo people as a great healing ally. The name Gila even evokes the sound of Heal. In this dream, my power was hunting me and singing me into being. I once again feel this place of power calling to me inside myself. I am ready to follow the rainbow tracks and songlines of the dreamtime, ready to discover my place of power on the path of an ancient people who have called to me.
I recently read Dreaming the Soul Back Home by Robert Moss and was inspired by his writing, to embark on a conscious journey given in the book, to connect with the soul of my soul. The sound of my frame drum was my passport, as I sat ready to release to the journey, and off I went.
The Soul of my Soul Journey 5-20-12 Solar Eclipse, New Moon
I see a smoldering coal in the place of my heart, the flame grows like a ring of fire. I place my hands as a cup over my heart and begin to receive light into my body through the top of my head. I go deeper in connecting the light to my heart and the burning flame. I feel lighter, and begin to see a mist gather around my body. I enter into it and stick my head into a sunset beach scene, where a man is walking toward me from the distance. I see the sunset display a beautiful brilliant light which reflects upon his body and face, but I cannot see what he looks like clearly. A cloud shadow passes over and he steps out of the light and into the shadow. Now I can see his brilliance. He is beautiful with blond hair and blue eyes. Tall and muscular and tan. His face has a pleasant, beautiful, relaxed look and his smile is full of love. He approaches me and we begin to talk as friends. We sit back on the beach to relax, we are comfortable together, he has his arms around me and we are just listening to the ocean. He then places a mirror on the sand before me, it is large and he wants to show me something. He shows me how to enter the mirror and inside we go. It is like moving through a permeable membrane, and suddenly we are in a beautiful mysterious mountainous landscape in China. It is raining gently and we can hear the wind blowing through the forest like musical chimes. He becomes a white tiger and we move higher into the mountainous forest. We look together over a peaceful river perched high over this beautiful place. We do a shape shift dance into two beautiful White Cranes. We take flight soaring over the river where an ancient boat sails. We find ourselves inside the boat and find a cozy bed for us to rest. We lay together in tender embrace and love-making on our journey together.
We sail to another shore, in another country, and arrive where the shore meets a desert landscape. He takes me to some horses awaiting us nearby. They are White and Black Arabian Horses. I ride upon a white one and he on the black. We ride through the desert until nightfall, when reaching a Bedouin tent campsite. We lay down with our horses gazing up at the crescent moon and the beautiful starlit sky. My appearance is now different and I have long curly dark hair and he is also dark featured and handsome and strong. He takes me to a waterfall spring coming out of an ancient mountain. We are naked and he makes love to me pressed against the mountain under the sacred spring. I feel I am becoming the mountain as he makes love to me and the mountain shakes beneath my body. It is passionate and healing. He takes me to a cave where I am told I must go in order to heal. The cave is an underground temple and I enter for sacred initiation of the ancient goddess. When I come out, I am met by a snake, which begins to talk with me. It is giving me wisdom, and it is also part of my soul. I am now given another horse to ride that is black and has a white heart on his forehead. This is my soul’s soul also, and I have a deep love for this horse. I ride with him and together we ride through the desert. I stop to gaze upon a pool of water in order to glimpse my future, I am continuing along the roads of my soul’s journey and writing along the way.
This journey was deep and beautiful for me, visiting other lives and landscapes, magical shape shifting, and connecting with ancient rights of passage in the cave of the goddess, as well as a ceremonial mating with the land to reclaim the energy of the goddess and connecting with her wisdom.
I discovered one of the places I visited in my vision, was the Yellow Mountains of China. A mystical place where immortals are said to live. A place where white animals are said to roam, and immortals travel flying on the backs of white cranes. It is a unique landscape with interesting shaped mountains and curled up pine trees which grow upon the mountaintops, clouds rise to give the impression of a heavenly mountain island. It is not a place I have ever known about, seen or wanted to go previously. I am so glad that now I know the way. Just look into the magic mirror of the soul of my soul.
“Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body”-De Saint-Real
Dreams can provide a key to unlock the wisdom of the body. The body has deep wisdom toward balance and wholeness known as homeostasis in scientific terms. It has ways of identifying and expelling unwanted intruders through the immune system. Our sensory proprioceptive awareness allows us to know where we are in relation to the space around us and to navigate our world without effort. These processes happen without our conscious control and dreams certainly have an affinity with the realm of the unconscious and can help us navigate through illness and disease.
In dreams we may receive health warnings about impending problems, long before doctors could detect a problem. I had a precognitive dream about a health condition which did not surface until a year later when I developed Uterine Fibroids. The dream showed a tremendous black spider covering my lower body when it landed on my abdomen. A large pointed needle like protrusion came from it’s mouth and stuck into my lower abdomen. In the dream, I was really scared of that spider, it was really huge! I attempted gathering further information through dream re-entry, but my fear was blocking me from getting anywhere.
When I eventually developed symptoms of fibroids a year later, I recalled my dream. I sensed the needle was an important clue to approach treatment of the problem. The information I read from the western medicine approach was not encouraging, and surgery was the consensus at the time. I opted instead to go with acupuncture, inspired by the image of the large needle offered by my dream ally of the huge scary spider. After several months of intensive acupuncture treatments I found that the problem was not only alleviated, but has not since returned.
Dreams and the body are important in other ways, the body with it’s incredible wisdom can be a source of helpful insight in helping to navigate the realm of dreams. My lifelong background in dance, enabled me to learn how the body has a power and wisdom all it’s own. I found for instance, when I consciously asked my body to perform a movement that was difficult, my body would respond with ease and grace. If I tried to force doing a movement with my will, I was left with struggle and pain instead. I have also found the mind/body connection to be a valuable way to work with dreams and I often incorporate movement into dream workshops I teach. Expressive movement is a beautiful way to get in touch with your dreams, and gain helpful insight through the information the body imparts.
Science has discovered the power of the mind and body to heal through imagery and dreams. Recent studies have shown that the inward experiences of the imagination and dreaming translates as a real experience to the body. The body knows that the dream world is the real world. When we activate our imagination to inspire and affirm the body’s healing capacity, we are supporting our body’s innate wisdom and ability to heal. Dreams also provide a stage to rehearse for every day life, so whether you are practicing violin, healing cancer or learning french in your dreams, the body is there in a very real sense with you.
In a meditation during a kundalini yoga class last month, I was gifted an experience with meeting with my guardian angel. In my vision, I stuck my head into a paradisaical upper realm that was lush with greenery and a sparkling stream flowing through. The sky shown a light that was other worldly in its beauty. I walked into this space and stepped into the stream and when I did the stream became like a mirror reflecting the light in the sky. The light became more intense and I walked on the mirrored stream toward the beautiful light on the horizon, and saw my reflection on the mirrored path before me. A figure emerged from the light and walked toward me on the mirrored path. It was an angel made of light. He was well defined and muscular looking in his form, but made entirely of light. He had beautiful wings pointed in the sky and he stepped onto the ground next to the stream and I followed him there. I asked him his name, and he responded Uriel. I asked 3 times all together, just to be sure, and each time he responded Uriel. He told me he was my guardian angel and that he was there to protect me. He told me that I have not felt secure in my life very often and that he would bring me security. He told me I needed to feel that security in order to be able to let my heart out. I trusted his words and felt the inner recognition of what he told me and accepted him as my guardian angel. I asked him what was my purpose in this life, and he responded, to heal. He then began to infuse me with his light and using the tip of his wings as a tool to go into my body and perform some kind of light surgery on me. He was giving me healing and I felt the light in my body.
Book of Uriel
Several day later, I dreamt of seeing a an old hardbound yellow book which said, “Book of Uriel” on the spine. I opened the book to see what it had inside and what I saw was a picture of a place that was incredibly familiar and stirred an intense longing of my soul upon seeing it. There was a river, with a bridge crossing over to a gateway, which had an outlook tower with a spire on top. A stone walled perimeter protected the castle inside. Upon opening the book in my dream and seeing the picture there, I was immediately transported to the scene in the picture. There I hovered over the bridge leading to the gate. Yet I was confused, what is this place that I seem to know so deeply, yet I do not have the faintest idea where I am? EOD.
This dream was important to me, in that it confirmed my experience in my meditation. It was also powerful and mysterious in finding the book and being transported to a place familiar and yet unknown to me. I feel the hand of Uriel opening up a mystery to me and I will continue to work with this to discover what has been laid before my path.
At a recent Dream Healing workshop I was teaching in Grand Junction, Colorado, there were themes of heart and soul interwoven with the dreams shared. I incubated a healing dream while catching an afternoon nap, prior to giving a lecture that evening on the Healing Powers of Dreams.
“Bennu Bird” by Michelle Celebrielle
During my dreaming, I was gifted with the presence of a large white bird which flew overhead. I could clearly see the huge white wings until it landed on a tall tree upon bare branches. I looked closely at the face of the bird, noticing the streaks of black coming out from the eyes and long narrow feathers reaching out from the crown. I recognized it as the mysterious Benu bird of Egyptian myth, bringer of renewal and capable of retrieving and bringing forth the energy of soul. A wonderful ally to accompany our dream journeying for the weekend.
There were themes of the heart and relationships which presented themselves over and again from our group of dreamers. One participant shared a dream which was full of opposites and polarities which gave the opportunity to dance with each of the polarities represented in the dream. The dream was brought to life through the movement accompanied with the intent of each of the polarities. The dreamer was able to reach a resolve toward wholeness through the movement and integrate the separation of loss into complete freedom. The wings of the Benu Bird were flying through the dance at the end, to bring about healing liberation. Another young woman brought through a vision of seeing a possible love relationship which culminated in the couple riding off together on black and white horses. The dream also gave counsel and warned her of the need to be willing to wait and not hurry into the relationship.
A doctor who attended was eager to see how dreams could help her better care for her patients. She journeyed with two power animals, that of the cougar and the eagle which became one creature. She was on call during the whole workshop and was indeed living in two realms at once. The bringing together of these two animal protectors will help her to better navigate the challenges of her dual life.
The energy of relationship and the balance of opposites flowed throughout the day, and in the end, the feeling of connection was the gift, like the egg of the Benu bird in the tree of life, which promises renewal for the future.
The Benu Bird according to Egyptian mythology recounts the bird as a carrier of “Ba” or soul energy. The soul energy is able to leave the physical body and travel at will, something we can do nightly in our dreams. The Benu Bird is akin to the Phoenix and bringer of renewal which comes with each era. It is a rare occurrence to witness a Benu bird, as there is only one such bird in existence. The Benu bird has no mate but continues through self regeneration. It has the capacity to integrate both polarities of Masculine and Feminine into one being. It builds its nest in the tree of life, laying a single egg to break open a new era of soul. It was the song of the Benu bird which sang creation into being. The mysterious Benu Bird is a beautiful story of how, we may each give birth to ourselves and participate in this renewal of soul and spirit. Through this transformation of death and renewal, we can bring all parts of ourselves into wholeness as a way to help heal the past and bring about a brighter future for coming generations.
Included in this healing and to honor the Benu Bird, I offer this poem of prayer;
Dream of the Benu Bird
May we walk in beauty as we step upon the earth,
and sing our lives into being.
May our souls learn to soar as the Benu bird,
and dance awake our dreams.
May we bring about more balance in connection to each other,
the Earth we all share, and all the creatures upon it.
May we honor those who came before us,
and the gifts they have given.
May we remember where we came from,
and what we each came here to do.
May we honor and protect the children,
and future generations, through our actions today.
I am in a dark mountain cave where the light of my soul hovers above dark waters. I see a white tiger emerge from the mountain and sit by the side of the water looking into the darkness. The water surface is covered with a dark, thick, sludge and a being crawls out of the water, its body covered in sludge. The tiger looks at the sludge covered creature and turns her head away, wanting nothing to do with it. The white tiger finally decides to jump into the water, and the contrast of her beautiful white fur against the deep darkness in the water is amazing to see. The tiger is a powerful swimmer and moves swiftly through the dark waters until it reaches a place of murky astral waters, where many spirits are floating. The tiger continues to swim through the murky waters of spirits until the water begins to clear and she is now swimming in the clear open sea. She finally emerges on another shore with a rope in her mouth from which she is pulling a boat from deep within the ocean waters onto the shore. Inside the boat is a woman dressed in gold trimmed and maroon colored vestments and wearing a regal shaped head dress. On the shore of the beach is a small girl of about 7 with blond hair and fair features, who runs toward the boat ecstatic to see the new visitors.
The dream shifts, and now I am back inside the mountain cave with the white tiger and the black covered creature still lying beside the sludge pond. The white tiger moves toward the creature and begins to wash it. As the tiger continues washing, it reveals the creature is actually the small girl who was seen running on the beach. The child now lays her head on the huge strong arm of the white tiger as she is lovingly being cleaned, nurtured and restored by her new protector. EOD
I returned from this experience deeply moved by what I had seen and how deeply I felt it inside my being. I understood it to be a soul retrieval, however it did not feel as though it were connected to me individually. I was later to find part of this story unfold in pictures which were shared with me from a friend and teacher who was in Kyrgyzstan at the time. She was participating in the lighting of the Sacred Fire Ceremony of Uluu Ot where indigenous elders from around the globe had gathered to light the sacred fire on the Summer Solstice under the full moon. I looked through the her pictures of the ceremony and found myself staring back at the woman dressed in traditional dress who was an Altai Medicine Woman. She was dressed just as the woman I had encountered in my dream vision who came riding onto shore in the boat pulled by the White Tiger. I thought about the dream and decided to share it with my friend to see what she thought. She was able to confirm my experience and told me that the mountains of the Uluu Ot are known as Tien Shen, home to the Snow Leopard. During the Uluu Ot ceremony, the Altai Medicine Woman I had seen in dreaming and also a Japanese Medicine Woman, both individually reported seeing the spirit of a young girl dancing around the fire. They realized she had been murdered and her soul wanted to be part of the ceremony. According to the hosts of the ceremony, a genocidal event occurred on the grounds where the ceremony had taken place. The story goes that while 100’s of men’s bodies were being buried, a young girl came upon the scene. They murdered her too and threw her in the grave along with the other bodies. She was remembered in this ceremony and her soul retrieved.
According to this account, I was connecting in my dream with the Uluu Ot ceremony going on the very same day in Kyrgyzstan, and the soul of this child was restored during the lighting of the sacred fire. She continues to be held and protected by the spirit of the White Tiger. I give thanks the White Tiger and all of my relations and teachers who share their connection with me in dreaming and the waking world. We are all connected and part of a larger story. I am grateful to participate in this journey of healing the past, while healing the earth.
The Dark Moon, Dark Dreams group which met on the New Moon, July 11th, was a lively group which gathered on the shores of White Rock lake in Dallas, Texas. The evening began as I unloaded my car in preparation for the group to meet, when two boys of about 11 or 12 began jumping around the area where I intended to set up. The boys were jumping over the area where I had begun creating the altar, and I gently let them know they would have to take their games elsewhere. They said, “Yes Ma’am” and politely left, only to return moments later with several other friends who gathered around and sat on the edge of a wall watching me continue to build the altar.
I proceeded to introduce myself to each of them shaking their hands and began asking them about their favorite kind of dream. One boy smiled and said “I like dreams where I have super powers!” I agreed, saying “Those are my favorite dreams too!” I then asked, “What is your favorite super power?” to which he responded, “I like flying dreams!” Everyone agreed as we continued around in our game of dream sharing. I invited the boys to stay for the remainder of our group but they were about to leave in a few minutes. I invited to them join us for our next group on the Full Moon if they would like to learn how to do all kinds of amazing things in their dreams. Perhaps I will see them again at our circle, or possibly traversing the dreamscape!
Our scheduled group began to arrive and once the ethics for dreamsharing were discussed we could create a safe space for sharing by prefacing any feedback with “if this were my dream”. This gives both the dreamer and the dream the proper listening and response, rather than any one person becoming the expert on any one else’s dream. The dreams shared by group members brought a deep discussion about the subject of healing dreams and dreaming with the departed. It was the perfect preface to the planned shared group dream excursion to do a conscious dream journey for the purpose of healing the oceans in response to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The discussion with the energetic group of young boys about dreaming super powers also seemed a fitting preface to the dream excursion we were about to embark on together!
I explained to the group the intention for our conscious dream journey aided by the sound of the drum, and gave the conditions for returning once the journey was concluded. I told a story of a recent visit to an artist’s studio who was creating a large beautiful painting of a mother Manatee and her baby. As I watched her work on the painting in her studio, I told her that I often dream of Manatees and how worried I am about their welfare being in the midst of the oil spill in the Gulf. My new artist friend told me that was why she was painting the Manatees because she was worried about their safety, and also because her husband was there in the Gulf helping to clean up the oil spill. She pleaded with me to send positive vibrations and mediations of healing for the creatures in the ocean. I told her I had recently incubated a dream intention to find a way to solve the oil leak in the Gulf. I dreamt of being taken deep down into the bottom of the Ocean by a blue whale where I was dropped off to stand on a cluster of huge quartz crystals from whence the sound of beautiful celestial sounding music began to emanate. I believe the Whale was showing me the solution seemed to lie in sending out a powerful vibration of healing for the ocean and its creatures. It was from this dream experience that I asked the circle of moon dreamers to embark on a conscious dream journey for the purpose of healing the ocean and stopping the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
The dreamers each brought back powerful experiences of connecting with power animals and ocean creatures who guided them in healing the ocean. One woman worked with the elements in her dream to bring about healing through the forces of nature with a tornado which caused a whirlpool causing the centrifugal force to move the oil downward back into the earth. Another dreamer also worked with the ocean but was aware of healing needed all around the world and worked on sending out energy through the earth energy grid with the assistance of 4 different power animals from each direction to bring healing to the areas most in need. Another dreamer brought through a powerful diamond energy through her crown and heart chakras sending out healing energy to the ocean. She also spoke of hearing a powerful sound during the dream excursion and wanted to send out the sound she heard but was concerned of disturbing the other dreamers. A group member suggested we end the group with the call of our collective voices to honor the call heard by her fellow dreamer. We all turned and sent out loudly our collective inner voice which wanted to be sent. In response, a group of geese nearby who had gathered at the lake shore sent out their loud calls to us. A fitting conclusion to this lively circle of dreamers. The headline news today of the Deep Water Horizon Oil leakage being temporarily stopped and capped on July 14th, brings a wonderful affirmation for the efforts of this circle of conscious dreamers. If you would like to participate in growing a dream community join us by the lake on the full moon Sunday, July 25th for the next gathering of Moon Beams and Moon Dreams at the Stone Circle at White Rock Lake.
Valley Reed is a certified dream teacher and leads dream groups and classes for both young people and adults on Dreaming at Chrysalis Healing Arts in Dallas, Texas. For class descriptions and workshop registration information visit www.chrysalishealingarts.org
I had a short dream about a month or so ago. In the dream I am shown an unusual looking tree that has a spiral like trunk. I am told, “This is your tree” by a disembodied dream voice.
That was all of the dream I recalled.
I thought the tree looked familiar somehow, that it was a tree I had somehow seen somewhere before, and that it was a real living tree, as opposed to an ethereal dream tree. I put the information away in the back of my mind and did not think about it much after that. Weeks later, while walking at the lake along the usual path that I take with my partner, I was astonished to see the exact tree I had dreamt about. It was my Dream Tree! I excitedly showed my partner my discovery and went over to make a connection with “my tree”. We then proceeded on finishing our walk, but I began to notice as I walked a pain and heaviness in my chest which was making it difficult for me to walk or breath. I returned to the tree as we followed our route back and just hugged the tree, I felt the heaviness lift from my heart and felt an infusion of healing energy into my heart.
I then felt lighter and full of energy as I finished my walk.
Dream Tree
In the picture here you can see there are light orbs appearing in the photo as I am listening to and hugging my tree.
Notice the orb over the back of my head.
In the many visits I have made with my tree since then, I have seen and heard many wonderful things.
The tree has an amazing energy field around it, and when I walk close to it I begin to see differently. I can see many colors of light coming from the tree at times and even after leaving the space as I walk back to my car I am still seeing these colors appear.
When I put my ear to the tree I have heard a woman’s voice speak to me.
For instance on one of my walks I was talking with my partner and told him,
I wanted to make the earth my teacher over the coming year. I then went over to my tree to check in, and as I put my ear to her trunk,
I heard “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
My tree was very excited to know I was “getting it”.
I will continue to visit my dream tree to listen, and learn, to heal and be healed, and share energy and make prayers in connection with other realms.
To dream with the tree as the tree is dreaming me.
In the Fall of 2007 , I was given the news that my Father has cancer. He had stage four lung cancer with a large inoperable tumor, and he is 83 years old. Death is inevitable for each of us, and so the news of my father’s illness brought me closer to the portal of death. It also brought a pain so deep within me I was doubled over as if a knife were piercing my soul. I was feeling pulled deeper into the darkness and pain of these events as if my soul were being pulled down into the underworld. My father had recently given all of his things away and moved in with his Sister in El Paso, Texas. The borderlands, El Paso means “the Pass” and these are lands where the ancient Aztec territory had once reached and ancient petroglyphs of Quetzalcoatl can still be found in the Hueco Tanks area. One night I surrendered to the pull that I felt in my soul, and I said a prayer for a dream for my fathers’ protection and healing. In response to my prayer, I had this dream;
The Call of Quetzalcoatl
I see an Aztec Mandala as a large circular structure built with Aztec Codex tiles. Each tile is connected to a person’s life and there is a tile for each individual soul. I see a spirit presence there who is the guardian of this place, which is a portal to cross into the other world. The first panel I was shown is connected to me and my life. I stepped on the panel with my awareness, and it lit up with golden light and the God Quetzalcoatl, the flying serpent came to life and flew away. Then this gatekeeper guardian spirit told me he was directing my father’s death. He told me my father would be going into the underworld when he passes.
I see a friend with me in my dream and she stays on the perimeter of the circular space that makes up this portal. She is talking with this spirit and he gives her a very large ruby that he takes out of the side of the earth that is the wall of the perimeter. It seems to be some kind of cave maybe or part of a temple or a pyramid. Another part of my dream is showing me another layer where the Aztec Codex tiles are floating up in space like an Aztec temple but on the etheric realm. The spirit offers a simple bowl and sets it on a tile and the bowl flips over to the other side and it disappears immediately. This is a place where offerings are made to the ancestors or spirit realm. I am given the information that if I put my hand on one of those tiles it would disappear just like the bowl. Instead I take out some Milagros which means “miracles” they are small metal medallions in different forms such as a hand or head or a house offered as prayers of healing and protection. The Milagro prayers are received, but they don’t disappear. It shows me the importance of making offerings of prayers in Milagros or tobacco or sage to be received in the spirit realm. The prayers for assistance offers an opportunity for the ancestral spirits to be of service from the other side. – End of Dream
I shared this dream with my friend who had appeared in my dream. She has Mayan Ancestry and speaks Spanish and I told her I felt I needed to go to the Pyramids in Mexico and make prayer offerings for healing. I asked if she would accompany me as my translator since I did not speak Spanish and also since she was one of the people in my dream with me. The next day, we were flying to meet in Mexico City on a quest to the Pyramids in Teotihuacan to explore my dream healing ceremony. We stayed very near the Pyramids where there was a small village, my friend felt she wanted to explore the village nearby that evening in search of a Toltec Elder who might know how we could participate in the annual ceremony of the Aztec Moon Dance. She asked several people in the village if they knew anyone who might help, and finally we were directed to a house where a Toltec Medicine Man lived. We knocked on the door and spoke with a delightful young woman, a cousin who explained he was not there but he could give us a tour of the pyramids in the morning if we came back then. She also explained we would not be able to participate in the Aztec Moon Dance without a written letter of referral, which had to be submitted in advance. She let us know the Moon Dance would be taking place the next day in Mexico City. We left and returned to our hotel for the evening with a plan to return in the morning. It did not look promising for us to participate in the Moon Dance from what this woman had told us, but I left it up to spirit to decide. My sights were set on doing ceremony and making offerings to the ancestors in the territory I believed I had seen in my dream, the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan.
Before retiring for the night, I realized we were actually sleeping on sacred grounds with ruins on the property located walking distance to the Pyramids. I made the intention for a dream of assistance for the quest we would embark on the next day. My dreaming was difficult and disrupted, I awoke in the middle of the night with a feeling that chilled me to the bone. It was as cold as death in our room and I could not get warm no matter how many blankets I piled on me. I looked at my companion and she slept peacefully without any signs of discomfort.
Over breakfast the next morning, I described my lack of sleep and dreams to my friend and we determined she would go and seek out the Medicine Man we believed lived in the nearby village while I waited at the hotel. She would then bring him to the hotel for me to meet him and I could tell him my dream. She returned with his wife who spoke some English and I told her with the help of my translator of the dream of Quetzalcoatl that had brought me before her. I spoke of the need to offer prayers for my father. She understood immediately and went to retrieve her husband. Upon our meeting I felt as though my dream was opening up and I was falling back into my dream. I recognized the man standing before me as the guardian spirit I had seen in my dream. This Medicine Man is the keeper of the Staff of Quetzalcoatl and the guardian of this sacred place for his people. He offered to do ceremony at the pyramids with us and asked us both to accompany him and his wife as his guests to participate in the Moon Dance in Mexico City later that day.
Avenue of the Dead and Pyramid of the Moon
Before we entered the sacred grounds of the pyramids, the Medicine Man and his wife offered me colorful stones as offerings of healing for my father and myself. They explained to me that it was through my own healing that these healing energies would be made available to my family. They also gave my traveling companion a stone that was the color of a red ruby, we both looked at one another with a knowing grin understanding this was actualizing a part of the dream. We were on the path of my dream and together we went to the pyramids and offered prayers with traditional Copal and also Sage which I had brought and offered out of respect and gratitude. It is the traditional way as I had been taught in my past years of study practicing ceremony with my teacher, a Lakota Sioux Medicine Man known as Ten Bears. The teacher before me now was an Aztec Medicine Man and he was young as was his wife, and they had nothing but smiles and concern for my well being on my healing journey with them.
We offered the prayers without the flame to burn the sacred herbs as the traditional ceremony would be done. The four of us stood in each of the four directions offering prayers in Nagual the language of the Toltec people. It was sad for me to see the indigenous peoples living in this area on the land of their ancestors forbidden by the government to practice their rituals with an open fire and so the ceremony we did was without flame. After we made prayers, we went to the temple of Quetzalcoatl to open a portal of healing energy. We climbed the steps of the temple in a zig zag serpentine fashion to connect with the energy of the feathered serpent. When we reached the top, the guardian of this portal spoke the sacred prayers and told us to concentrate our energy and open up to the power of Quetzalcoatl. We stood looking down on the ancient carved serpents that covered the temple holding our hands out over the temple breathing in the energy. I could see in my minds eye a V shaped opening occur where golden light poured fourth and then two giant golden serpent eyes were staring back at me. The energy of the feathered serpent had been released and it had made contact with me. I could still feel the energy coursing through my body as we made our way down the many steps of the temple back toward the earth in a serpentine direction.
Keeper of the staff of Quetzalcoatl
Our next destination would be the underground ruins of the Jaguar Palace. I followed my guide as he lead me to the ancient ruins and found myself in the territory of my dream. Inside the underground palace, we were led to a location that had once been a waterfall. It was obvious where the water had once run down where the sides of the earth where smooth. I was directed to stand underneath it, as if the water were flowing today. I leaned my face and body up against the earthen wall under the barren water fall, and I could imagine the once plentiful waters flowing over me washing away all of the wounds of my past. I stood taking in this energy for a long time until I felt my spirit replenished, the water was long gone, but the healing energies of it remained and I was grateful to be in this amazing place. We then went deeper inside the underground ruins known as the Jaguar Palace and I was shown what seemed to be a covering over some kind of opening. When the covering was removed it revealed a dark hole that went deep down inside the earth. My guide pointed down into it as if he wanted me to enter this portal. I looked at him like he was crazy and exclaimed, I am not going inside that! It was so deep and dark you could not see the end! He laughed and had me place my hands hovering over the opening and told me to draw the energy of Mother Earth up into my hands and through my being. I stood positioned over what was an ancient well that lead deep inside the earth and drew from the healing energy of Mother Earth.
Moon Dancers
I was feeling lighter with each step along the way of our journey and now it was time for us to travel to Mexico City. My companion and I had decided we would accompany our Medicine guides to participate in the Ancient ceremony of the Aztec Moon Dance as their guests. I was profoundly grateful to them for their generous spirit, and all the love and support they had shown me and my friend. It was here in the Moon Dance Ceremony that I was able to make my prayer offerings for my father. I had brought the Milagros with me, and put the stones that I had been given in a small bag that I carried with me. I danced with the bag during the ceremony, and I was amazed at all of the colorful costumes and the many different people from across the region who arrived for the dance. The Medicine Man and his wife who accompanied us, wore the costume of the black jaguar while his wife was dressed in the beautiful flowing colors of water. I did not come prepared with a costume for the dance, however my friend provided me with a headdress of colorful parrot feathers that she and I wore during the dance. The dance began around 2:00 in the afternoon and it went on until the Sun was down around 8:00 we danced the entire time without taking a break on concrete in the middle of the busy square in Mexico City. There were different Aztec tribes there from across the region and well over 50 dancers who participated. I was accepted as one of the tribe as if I had been there my whole life without hesitation or question. The Moon Dance was so hypnotic and yet I felt so completely alive with the sounds and smells and the movement of the dance. I thought my body would collapse in the waning hours of the dance. I could feel the energy of the dance take over and I was no longer one person struggling against the difficulty of my physical challenges but surrendered to the dance and became one with the movement of a whole community. The energy of us dancing together as one took me and lifted my exhaustion away. I felt lifted ever higher by the energy of this Sacred Moon Dance and I knew my dance was a prayer that was offered to the ancestors of this sacred place.
When the final words of the closing ceremony had been spoken, we all gathered in the square to join in a sumptuous meal of chicken mole, beans and rice with even a shot of Agave Tequila to take the edge off tired muscles. The night wore on as it was getting late and I was ready to return to my hotel to rest and asked our guides to please escort us back home. They had other plans however the ceremony and the night was not yet over! They insisted that we accompany them back to their village to join in a small group of people to do a temascales purification sweat ceremony. They insisted this was a crucial part of the day of ceremony. They had both shown such tremendous concern for my well being all along the way in the course of our journey always checking in to see how I was feeling, and if they insisted on this final step I had to trust them. We arrived at the temascales where the rocks to heat the lodge had already been well heated in a ceremonial fire and everything was prepared. I was given a simple white cotton gown to wear in the lodge. Special herbs were burned over the hot rocks and then poured with water to release the steam. In the lodge we sang songs and prayed deep in the night and into the early morning. Several of those who shared the sweat lodge with me that night kept complaining about it being cold inside the lodge. The Medicine Man whom I had come to love and trust, let everyone know the reason they felt cold was because they were experiencing the trauma they held in their body. This rang a bell for me, that must have been what I experienced in my dreaming the night before when I woke up freezing and was unable to get warm. The Medicine Man checked with me to see if I was cold, I shook my head no. He gave me a warm and knowing smile shaking is head in agreement. The healing was complete. Now I knew I had received healing through the day of ceremony and ritual. I was the only one in the lodge who was not cold.
We then finished the healing lodge and prepared to leave. I gave a donation for the services of creating the space for the lodge and I offered my faithful guides money for the healing I had received. They thoughtfully declined, knowing I was called to them by the dream and through spirit, and it was their honor to be of service. These were indeed people of beauty and faith and love and integrity. They had helped me find the miracles I came searching to find. Now I could take this energy home with me and share it with my loved ones. It was hard to say goodbye to these special people that the dream had answered in response to my prayer but I knew this was a place and a people to whom I would someday return.
My father later died peacefully surrounded by family and I feel strongly that through the dreams and ceremony and sacred dance and prayers offered a pathway that was prepared for him to travel into the afterlife. The day he passed my daughter had this beautiful dream of his death.
The Butterfly Tree
The Butterfly Tree
I see an old two story house with a front porch and grandpa is sitting on the porch in a rocking chair. The family is gathered around and everyone is coming up to speak with him and tell him goodbye. My mom and I go and speak with him and say our goodbyes. We see a butterfly land on his shoulder and then he dies. A tree in the backyard holds many butterflies who now flow around him, as they do he begins to transform from his older self to his younger self of about 40 years old. He looks happy and peaceful. End of Dream
There are stories about butterflies in Mexico that the return of the butterflies each year during the migration are the souls of departed ancestors coming to visit. The Butterfly Tree is a migration of the soul and the end of the journey we call life.
During the ongoing journey of the Kundalini Yoga series, we move through the each of the chakras rising the energy up through the lower chakras into the higher chakras. The Heart begins the first of the upper chakras. Breathing with the energy to enter the heart chakra , I could see the energy in each of the lower chakras was strong. I moved from the root chakra into the creative chakra and up into the power chakra where it became a bright ball of energy with red and yellow and orange. I could hear a sound like a deep base drum beat pulsating and as the sound moved upward towards the heart I could see a thin plate of clear glass break apart as I moved into the heart chakra. A breakthrough!
I entered and could see the energy there was neutral, I could then feel the energy in my crown chakra move down to fill my heart with white light. During one of the asanas, I could feel my right hand begin to cramp. I was aware the energy was stuck there in my body, I was trying to hold onto to it and needed to let it go. I concentrated on letting the energy release through my palm and the cramp in my hand began to ease. I became aware of a long held body stance of trying to protect myself by clenching my fist. I remembered waking up at night sometimes to find I had clenched fists. It was time to let go of the fear and anger and the need to protect myself, and trust in energy of the heart once more.
In the ending class meditation, I entered the temple of the heart chakra, in my vision I could see a flock of white doves take flight as I entered the space. I approached the temple and became aware that it looked like the white house. At first look, I thought the politics of the presidential candidates race had taken over my life! Then upon contemplation I realized the qualities of the heart chakra is a space of sacred law, truth and justice.
I entered the temple of the White House in my heart, and found a long hall where at the far end sat a man with a safron robe and bald head, and had the appearance of a buddhist monk. As I walked closer, the man turned to greet me, I was surprised to find it was my father.
My father was talking to me telling me things, that as usual, I did not want to hear. I did not trust him and I found it difficult to see him in this role as a Buddhist monk. Many times he and I had argued about religion and our differences in religious belief. He from a perspective of an Evangelist Christian and I from a perspective of Nicherin Diashonin Buddhism. My father at 83, is now at the end of his life struggling with lung cancer and having undergone chemotherapy, now has a bald head and the appearance of a shaven headed monk.
My father took me over to show me a long white marble table that had many pictures laid out, the pictures were of my ancestors. Among the pictures was a photo of my great grandmother on my grandmothers side. My father was telling me that this great grandmother carried Native American blood. Then lying next to the pictures was a large ancient book that was old and worn, and inside it carried the sacred names of all the medicine peoples of all the tribes who have walked this earth. I looked down and also found lying next to the book on the table was a medicine pipe. The pipe was being given to me and the knowledge contained inside the book was the legacy my father was handing down to me. It was here that my father and I could always meet without disagreement, it was here in the Native way of being that we always understood one another, Aho!
I know from this meeting of one another in the heart chakra, when his time comes to pass, that we will each be more at peace with one another, and I am grateful to my father for pointing to my ancestors and the legacy they have left me.
Awaken the Sacred Dream 