The Spiritual Mountaintop

Standing on the Spiritual Mountain June 5, 2012

I dreamt of seeing myself on a Spiritual Mountaintop, where I am a Giant among others who are present with me. I am the only Goddess among a group of several other Gods. We are all Giant in appearance and embody the presence of a God or Goddess in this spiritual terrain. From the heights of the etheric spiritual mountain, one could gaze down below to see the physical mountain.  A spiritual pilgrim throws his rope up onto the mountain peak where we stand, and suddenly everyone has the instinct to hide and not be seen. Everyone except me, ducks for cover. I stand in full view, the only one willing to risk being seen. The lone figure emerges from the side of the mountain and he is elated to have reached his destination. He stands looking back at me confused to be met by the presence of a Giant Goddess.  All the other Gods are hiding from him and the pilgrim does not know they are there. The Gods believe they cannot be seen, because he is not yet ready. I don’t agree with this perspective and stand in full view, ready to meet this spiritual pilgrim.  I  look into his eyes and see his confusion and realize, he is not yet ready to receive the wisdom he is seeking. I gaze back at him with loving compassion. He has gotten what he came looking for, but it was not what he expected. EOD.

In this dream I am experiencing my larger self, among others there with me. I experience this differently than my male counterparts who seem afraid to be seen as gods in the presence of the ascent of a seeker. I feel that religious perspective often describes this perspective, that a mere mortal cannot withstand the presence of the god/goddess. This etheric realm of the higher self is where the lower self seeks to come in contact with the higher nature of our own divine being. It is not separate from us, but a part of our true nature. The actual physical mountain top can be seen from just below this etheric realm, and it is something we have access to discovering for ourselves. It seems not only is mortal man perhaps afraid of being in the presence of god, yet compelled to climb forth as a seeker, but in my dream the gods themselves were afraid of connecting with their lower nature. Is it because if these two realms came together, we would be exposed as humans capable of becoming the gods we seek yet truly are?  Would we be afraid that others would not understand and seek to persecute us for arriving on this spiritual landscape?  In my dream, I felt the experience of being exposed, yet I was not afraid. It seemed only natural to greet this pilgrim on his journey toward reaching the spiritual mountaintop. When arriving on this terrain, it is the descent which takes the most courage, both for the seeker and for our higher self.

Perhaps it is time for the Patriarchal Gods to duck and cover, this is something the Goddess has been doing for a very long time. Perhaps it is time for the Goddess to be seen in full view in all her power for what she is, much to the confusion of modern man.

Compassion is the way down from the spiritual mountaintop, and being willing to receive those who come before us with love and compassion is the road ahead.

Footsteps of the Ancestors

Ten Bears as Earth Spirit – June  2006

I have been dreaming about Giants in many of my dreams over the past five years or so. I believe the first instance was when my first shamanic teacher, Bart Anderson “Ten Bears,” passed away in 2006. I dreamed of his crossing over shortly after hearing about his death.  In the dream, I saw him transform from his human form, into a Giant Nature Spirit that lived close to the earth.

Happy goes home with the African Ancestors  October 2009

A few years later a dear friend passed away, “Happy” Shel Weisman who was a community leader for African Drum Circles in North Texas and founder of the non profit organization, Drums Not Guns.  The night before his death, I dreamt of seeing the giant feet of the African ancestors walking upon the earth. Four sacred gatekeepers who had come to take him home.

Earth Guardian

In a dream in 2009, I saw myself as a Giant Goddess sitting upon the earth and an unseen voice tells me, “You are a guardian of the earth.” I see a golden streak of light travel the starlit sky and down into my body through my spine and into my womb. The golden light reveals an ancient labyrinth inside my earthen womb. I am firmly rooted to earth and heaven, as I sit in a sacred circle in the portal of the East as Gatekeeper and Earth Guardian.

The footprints left by these ancient beings are calling me to take my place among them. They anchor in my body and stretch my energy and awareness to grow large enough to encompass heaven and earth. They call me to other lands to remember who I am. I seek to honor the steps of the Ancestors, in my walk upon this Earth

Join me in this walk with the Ancestors  at an upcoming retreat, “Reclaiming Ancestral Wisdom ” September 2-4, 2016.  Recover Ancestral wisdom in a safe supportive circle of dreamers, as we travel our bloodlines and source our dna to recover what has been lost and release transgenerational trauma with kundalini yoga, conscious group shamanic dream journeys, exploring dreams with the lightning method of dream sharing, give away fire ceremony and a sound healing labyrinth journey. In this depth retreat we may discover hidden ancestors, but also meet our spiritual kin and guides. We may also find, just as we are seeking our spiritual guides and ancestors, they are also seeking us. Join us for this exploration of the other side, where your kin await your arrival and are ready to embark on this healing journey together with you.

Valley of the Giants

Becoming my Larger Self  June 2012

I dream of growing into a Giant being. I begin from my natural appearance and then grow into a very large version of myself.  Over and over again, I am growing larger and becoming giant. There is now, more than one of me.  I am aware inside of the dream of this transformation taking place, and my thought is, “It’s happening! I am becoming my larger self.”

I am deeply afraid of what is happening and at the same time, I know it is inevitable. My little self, lucid awareness, begins to try to control the dream and stop from growing so big, but soon I realize it is no use, there is nothing I can do to alter what is now happening. I even try to forget about it inside the dream, actually telling myself,” I won’t remember this dream in the morning, no need to worry!” (wrong) Finally, I try self deception and doubt, and tell myself this is not really happening. My larger reality however, overcomes the fears and doubts of the little lucid self in the dream.  I finally have to accept the truth of what the dream is presenting, and realize I AM becoming my larger self and growing into a larger being, on the scale of a goddess. EOD

What does it mean to become the larger self in affinity with a Goddess as big as a mountain? In one respect, it means the limits and constrictions of the little self can no longer control, nor hold the larger sphere of the soul and spirit which now reaches out to connect with the everyday world. This seems to hold a place of great fear, to be viewed on the same plane as a Goddess, and not seem like an egomaniac. The dream showed however, there is no stopping this transformation taking place anymore than one could change a butterfly back into a caterpillar.

I had a deep sense of knowing within the dream that this space of transformation was always available to me and that it would eventually come my way someday. It was as if remembering some long forgotten promise, that was finally coming true. Another part of this dream for me, is that it was not a singular event which resulted in this transformation, it seemed to be a process of learning how to shift into becoming my larger self, and indeed practicing becoming giant, over and over. Beyond that, I had the sense this replication of the larger self was perhaps creating these larger shifts of perception and being into other realms and dimensions.

Action Plan- Recall the larger self in waking reality, when I find I am struggling with fears and doubts.

Dream Re-Entry to get to know and explore the dream of the larger self.

My one liner from this dream is “Living the Larger Self!”

Valley Reed © 2012

Journey of the Soul of my Soul

By Valley Reed © 2012

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.

The Wisdom of the Body and Dreams

“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.

Valley Reed © 2011

Dancing Awake My Dreams

Over twenty five years ago,  I was lead by my dreams to join “Nine Fish Jumping” an improvisational dance performance group, made up of actors, dancers, yoga teachers, film makers, and martial arts practitioners.  We decided to make the group leader”full” where we had no one leader, but all took responsibility for creating the performances.  We built trust among each other, exploring our creative edges and stretching our creative impulses through contact improvisational movement.  One afternoon, as I prepared to leave my house to go to a rehearsal, I suddenly became really drowsy and felt the need to lay down for a minute before going to rehearsal. I lay down and closed my eyes, and suddenly found myself dreaming about a meeting taking place, at a nearby cafe, where the members of our group had gathered. One of them was trying to convince the others that they should vote me out of the group.  I woke up suddenly, and “knew” that this meeting was taking place right then.  I hurried over to the location I had seen in my dream, and found the exact scene playing out. My abrupt uninvited appearance at the meeting,  hindered their chance to proceed with the vote!  They all looked shocked that I was there and nobody said anything to me, in fact they couldn’t even look me in the eyes.  Someone suggested we proceed to rehearsal, so we all went together and began our contact improv warmup exercises. I did not participate, but decided to watch instead. I felt my trust had been broken and I was trying to determine if I could even continue to be part of the group after what had happened.  It was interesting to me, that I was not upset by what I had seen, in fact I felt quite empowered and watched as if from the perspective of an observer in a dream.  After rehearsal, the air was not clear by any means and everyone still felt uncomfortable.  I decided to sleep on it and ask my dreams for guidance about what I should do.

The next night had a dream based on my incubated intention to clarity for myself if there was still a place for me in this group. In my dream, I see myself doing a dance with the woman who was conspiring to vote me out of the group.  In the dance, I saw myself doing movements which were open and made me vulnerable, it was through this openness and vulnerability expressed in the dance, that a resolution was created. It was a dream of healing, through the dance.

In our next meeting together, I chose to share my telepathic dream of seeing the meeting taking place, and also my dream incubation question as to whether I should decide to continue to dance with the group. I suggested recreating the dream I had incubated, by dancing with the woman who had created the power play. She agreed to dance with me and together we improvised recreating the movements from my dream. We were able to move from the space of competition and jealousy toward the energy of openness and vulnerability, in the space we created together. We reached a place of healing and reconciliation, not only for our own relationship, but for that of the group as well.  It only served to deepen the connection we had with one another, and we went on to create many dance performance improvisations over a 2 year period.

The group later disbanded, and individuals moved away and went in different directions, but over the years, that experience stayed with me. It was through this experience, I was later inspired to create “Peace Moves” a program of conflict transformation with conscious movement.  It is a powerful way to deal with conflict from the perspective of wholeness, rather than the polarity of “us” and “them” thinking.  I have also found this format very powerful when working with dreams, which can often reflect the polarities we struggle with in our lives both inwardly and in our external worlds.

Exploring conflict through expressive movement, is also a very effective approach with children.  Years ago,  I taught at an Integrative Arts pilot  program at a private school with children ages 4-7. The program was developed to offer creative materials for children to explore, through their own imaginations and impulses, without someone telling them how to create a project.  They had just about anything you could imagine in the way of choices, such as an array of visual art materials, costumes, musical instruments, even a stage to put on a play or perform a dance.  One thing I observed, was that many of the boys in the class had very limited imaginations as to how they chose to express themselves creatively. They often chose to pick up some of the recycled trash materials we had made available to them, and would inevitably make some type of weapon, which lead to the boys pretending to be fighting one another.  The other teachers and myself grimaced at the sight, and complained about how sad that boys can get stuck in such roles at such a young age. I decided to take a chance, and asked the boys to follow me instead, to the dance floor, where I taught them some contact improvisation exercises. They took to it right away, and were able to dance and connect with one another without needing to resort to games of violence in order to connect.  They were no longer stuck in a “role” and found the world of their imaginations open up to other possibilities to explore.

Our dreams can provide us with doorways into the imagination, where we can transcend the limited roles we have been given and may be trying to live out without any sense of real accomplishment.  Dreams can show us new paths to move towards, if we have the willingness to look and the courage to follow them.

by Valley Reed © 2012

Dream Seed

World within a world, a drop of dew was shown to me in my shamanic dream journey as a dream seed upon my tree of life. I could choose one of many drops glistening in the light of my dream. I chose the one which lit up and wanted my attention. I was now ready to enter a tiny world of my dream seed. I entered and saw the reflection was upside down, I had to walk the side of the tiny globe to turn this world right side up. Once there, I found what appeared to me to be a castle which was presented to me in my dream of the book of Uriel. I was able to enter the castle in this tiny dream seed, perhaps planting actions that may activate something in my waking life. Dew is a magical substance highly prized by alchemists for their healing qualities. It was known to be an elixer for long life as well. The healing power of Bach flower remedies is rooted in the awareness of what can be imprinted into water from the extraction of it from flowers and plants. Science is now finding that the environment can imprint on water including the configuration of stars and planets. On sacred nights such as Imbolg, tradition says that if you leave a piece of cloth out overnight to be blessed by the goddess Brigit, she will bless you with her presence through the year. I imagine the morning dew is part of her magic.

The Book of Uriel

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.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,100 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Awaken the Dream in 2012

“At sunrise on December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the world’s spiritual traditions.” – Steve Becker

In the coming year we will continue to see changes of prophetic proportions which have been foreseen by cultures from around the world in ancient prophecy. What can we, as modern technocrats in this fast paced, materialistic, devouring, industrialized society, make of being in the midst of such changes? Even the prophecies themselves have been the subject of cultural hijacking and spiritual materialism by those who would try to speak for another culture and profit from ancient prophesy.

“Anthropologists visit the temple sites and read the inscriptions and make up stories about the Maya, but they do not read the signs correctly. It’s just their imagination. Other people write about prophecy in the name of the Maya. They say that the world will end in December 2012. The Mayan elders are angry with this. The world will not end. It will be transformed.” – Carlos Barrios member of the council of Mayan Elders.

At the heart of ancient prophesy are dreams, and that is something we can all do. Dreams can enable us to tap into our connection with timeless wisdom in order to understand our unique, individual role we each play as part of the larger community. When things fall apart and the old structures are no longer viable, it is a time to look into our dreams to envision a new world and our role in it. The tree of life is a classic shamanic entry point of dream exploration to travel into non ordinary reality.  It is here where you can connect with protector animal spirits and spiritual guides or ancestors along with the transformative energies now entering our sphere toward the cosmic alignments of 2012 .

Dream exploration through conscious group dream travel, aided by the sound of the drum, can be an entry point to the past, present and future. The tree of life is rooted in ancestral wisdom and a place where we have access to our deeper selves, beyond the workings of the trivial everyday mind, to guide us in remembering our true soul purpose.

A safe space for dream sharing 

In many indigenous cultures, dreams often held a sacred place in the community and were given a place of honor and respect. There were women and men shamans, medicine women or men, ancient priests or priestesses who were able to dream for the community. In our current minimalistic, scientific, industrialized western society dreams have been relegated to tiny bits and pieces and lost the role of importance which enabled our ancestors to survive and flourish as a community. They knew through dreams where to find game to hunt, what plants to heal, when to pack up and leave and where to move.  We need these ancient dream practices today in our own lives in a world that is rapidly changing to know where to find work and how to create communities that support life and the respect the earth.

Dreaming in Community

To enable the space for dreams to take root, we need a container to hold them. A protected and sacred space in which to dream and share in community. Setting a specific intention for what the group will dream towards while preparing dreamers in advance to bring dreams to share is an important step. Sharing dreams with respect for the dreamer and the dream is crucial to creating a safe space and this is most often done by making sure that dreams are shared in confidence and not taken outside the circle, and any feed back given to another in relation to their dream must be shared from the perspective of “If this were my dream”. We may live in a culture of experts and specialists, but the dreamer is the only expert on their dream.  Group dreaming exploration through shared conscious dream journeys are also ways to cultivate dreams for the community and the earth. Creating a dream community also requires action and determining what action to take to honor our dreams is an important way toward creating a world we can share together.

Become part of a larger dream community

Dreaming together for our community and our world is crucial to our unfoldment as we enter 2012. We can no longer approach our lives as though we are just individuals pursuing our own goals. We are on a shared journey together and dreaming can help us to navigate the way.

The Pachamamma Alliance is taking action toward Awakening the Dreamer. The non-profit organization is creating alliances with indigenous communities in South America which are under siege from globalization and multinational corporations. These  communities are struggling to maintain their indigenous ways in a world that is hungry for their natural resources. The message from the shaman’s of the Achuar people in Ecuador is to change the dream of the modern world and awaken a new dream in harmony with the Planet we share together. Ecuador has been one of the first Nation’s on Earth to enshrine into their own constitution in 2008 that the Earth has Rights.  Since then in 2010, Bolivia has followed suit and also declared into law the Earth has rights.  These efforts continue to gain momentum and expand as part of a broader movement toward the  Universal Declaration  of the Rights of Mother Earth.

Find out more about how to become an Active Dreamer in 2012 and view a schedule of dream groups, workshops or retreats, or participate in a Pachamamma Symposium visit www.chrysalishealingarts.org

Valley Reed © 2012