Dreaming Future Events

In the beginning days of the pandemic, prior to everything shutting down, I had several dreams that alerted me to the dangers coming.

One was while teaching a dream retreat in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where we went crystal mining, and deep beneath the land where I was standing, I felt and heard a crystal from beneath reaching out to me. The experience was so strong, I had to sit down and just listen to the information the crystal was sending me. It was choosing to come with me, and its energy was embodied in me. I was not looking to dig up any crystals that day, but I brought back the energy of this one. When we returned to our lodging, I found that I was feeling very groggy, like a dream was coming over me. I asked to lay down a few minutes before we went to dinner that night. When I did, I saw a crystal cluster, like a castle growing from within my abdomen. I was told that this was to protect me from the virus. What virus I wondered? I soon found out a few weeks later as Covid spread and everything shut down.

Around the same time, on February 17th, 2020, I had another important dream, where the ancestors came to warn me of what was coming, and many would die.

Ulysses S. Grant

Lineage of Ulysses

I find myself in a dream, as a young girl, with her younger brother, we are between 7 and 9.  We are walking down a path, past an ancient grove of trees, heading toward a graveyard. There are Union Soldiers accompanying us. I can sense the departed spirits of thousands of soldiers who died in the Civil War, and they are telling me what is coming now, as many people will die from it.

We are told that the two of us are actually part of another lineage. I was told we are connected to the lineage of Ulysses. The estate we are walking actually belonged to him.  Here there are doors opening to rooms to where the children played. I am shown into the nursery, and when I enter I say, “it smells like breast milk in here.” I notice the presence of a spirit of a Grandmother in this space. She was kept in here with the children, and went a bit crazy. I walk around and see a young girl covered in a blanket, who has been sleeping there. She has longer blondish brown hair, cuddled up in a grey blanket shivering in her sleep. She was being haunted by the spirits in this place. I felt bad she had to sleep there. I could feel so many spirits there. I picked up another blanket to wrap around her, and realized even the blanket was haunted. Haunted by the spirits of confederate soldiers. She woke up shortly after, and I took her out of this place. I have had several follow up dreams re-entering this dream, to enter the body of the girl sleeping in the nursery, haunted by spirits surrounded by death, and grief.  In doing so, I was able to track the traumas passed on through generations in dealing with the tremendous losses of the war. Generational healing and soul recovery along the mother line. Healing the sadness, grief, and depression that has been passed down through the generations, eventually breaking through to a place of freedom and thriving.

So many people died during the Civil War that people were desperate to connect with loved ones, which gave rise to the Spiritualist Movement, a progressive spiritual and social movement that was primarily comprised of the abolitionist, and women’s suffrage movements. A similar movement is now going on, in terms of Social Change and Spiritual not Religious, while the Religious Right seeks to destroy Civil Rights and Women’s Rights.  This was before knowledge of the current pandemic, which gives a deeper understanding of the departed spirits wanting to get a message across, it was a warning about how many may die, like in the Civil War.

In my actual lineage research, I found that Ulysses S. Grant and his wife were very much in tuned with dreams as a glimpse of coming events, and also in communication with departed spirits.  I was not able to locate any ancestral lineage connected with Ulysses S. Grant, I did find however, I am related to Abraham Lincoln, who dreamed his own death.  Grant’s wife, Julia Dent was a also a prophetic dreamer and intuitive psychic. She alerted her husband, they would decline the invitation to accompany Abraham Lincoln and his wife to the theater that night. (Burch, p. 21)

Mark Twain appeared as a presence in one of my dream re-entries of ancestral healing. Historically, he played a role in the life of Ulysses near his end. He helped him publish his memoirs, and his recovery from financial ruin after a stock market crash. It was a synchronicity which alerted Twain in a conversation he overheard that the President, was writing his memoirs for another publisher, who was being greedy. Twain stepped in to remedy the matter forming an alliance with the President to help him finish his memoirs before he died, and then publishing and promoting to the public, becoming a huge seller (Moss p. 198). These signposts of synchronicity to tell us we are on the right track, and dreams from history being mirrored in important ways, can offer timely messages to navigate our lives and our world.

Now 5 years later, in the current political climate, we are facing the loss of history and degrading of our hard won civil rights, we are being pulled as a nation back into the darkest of histories. It is my sense that it is an opportunity to heal the past, and reclaim liberty. A time to heal the stories of the land, and divisions rooted in place and power.

Layers of Labyrinths

I have been dreaming of labyrinths, layers and layers of labyrinths coming up from underneath the ground. Each one is deeper and more ancient, uncovering more layers of wisdom coming forth to be seen, to be worn with feet walking paths of spiritual longing. Each layer of labyrinths holds a reservoir of energy released as it comes to the surface. This immense source of energy scares me, it is a lot to hold and be responsible for, with great power comes great responsibility.

The labyrinth is familiar, a seven circuit labyrinth as found in Crete where the story unwinds of Ariadne, and her magical thread from the center of the labyrinth, guides a path for her love for Theseus to find his way back to her from his quest to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne is a weaver, who rivaled Aphrodite, which is never a good idea to go up against Aphrodite.

She chose another path beyond her family of origin when she fell in love with Theseus, who was on a quest to enter the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur that was considered a hideous creature gone wrong, part beast and part human.

A sacred contract not honored with Jupiter, who produced a divine bovine from the depths of the sea in order to favor King Minos and the power he yields. The King did not honor his agreement by making offerings to the god Poseidon as a sign of appreciation. He instead chose to keep the fine specimen of a bull. Aphrodite enchanted the wife of King Minos to feel uncontrollable passion for the Bull, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a man bull monster who had a taste for eating humans. The labyrinth harbors their family secrets.

Ariadne is interested in the quest of Theseus to slay the Minotaur, and decides to help him navigate the labyrinth by providing a string to find his way back. Her bargain with him in doing so is to become his wife. They sail away together, but not happily ever after, he leaves her on the island of Naxos, where she later meets Dionysius who becomes her husband.

This story is one of betrayal, and mistruths, and how life can become distorted when we misplace our power, lack gratitude for our gifts, and betray ourselves with a bargain that does not guarantee love in return.

So what layers lie beneath this story? The labyrinth was built and designed by Daedalus, an ingenious architect and sculptor. King Minos ultimately imprisoned him and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth tower, after he assisted Ariadne and Theseus to escape the labyrinth. While imprisoned, he created wings to enable their escape from Crete. His son however, did not take his father’s advice and flew too close to the Sun and melted the wings, which caused his falling into the sea and drowning. Another layer of hubris emerges in this saga, where men with power, make errors in judgement to bring about their own demise, rather than bring about freedom.

With all of these layers to the story, one must wonder why the fascination with labyrinths have spread around the world, as a meditation on the path of the soul in connection with spirit at the center, however in the myth of the labyrinth, the center holds what is hidden, the ugly truth of what happens when we misuse our power, and how it continues to impact everyone it touches.

I have worked with labyrinths for more than ten years as part of the Women’s Retreats I offer. The labyrinth becomes a path of walking in the footsteps of the ancestors, and the seven circuits are seven generations of the ancestors, and the return path of becoming an ancestor and how our choices impact 7 generations in the future. In the footsteps of the Ancestors we may feel the burdens carried by those behind us, and in becoming an Ancestor in the return journey we feel the responsibility of what are actions are today and how they impact future generations. In my mind, this meditation is more in line with the myth of the Labyrinth, which teaches us to be mindful of how we use our powers and to what end.

Cross Cultural Ley Line Connections

Many years ago, I recall a big dream which had me looking at the ground from above. I could see Stonehenge as a sacred site from which energy lines were connected to other sacred sites across Europe and around the world. At the time, I did not know anything about ley lines, but did a research paper on labyrinths and ley lines in college, inspired by the dream to learn more.

I also researched about mandalas and the collective unconscious model of Carl Jung, within a mythopoetic lens of mapping culture which includes ties to Navaho Sand Painting Rituals and Tibetan Sand Mandala Rituals of impermanence and healing, and how tracing language across centuries found roots of similar language between Asian and Dine. Ley lines of language perhaps, and ley lines of migration. All these dreams and studies had me looking to my dreams to tune into the bigger picture.

Medicine Buddha Sand Painting

Mystic Valley Cathedral

This theme of dreaming with sacred sites and tracking ley lines in dreaming has been an ongoing experience for me in dreams. A class I took on art history had a project where we had to design from sacred architecture from any time and place we wished, and write our own story about the history of the place. My project was based on the Chartres Cathedral, which I chose because of the labyrinth held inside. My project design called Mystic Valley Cathedral, involved not only the Architecture of the Cathedral, but the stories of the land that existed there from Druids prior to the Cathedral being built on top of it, and how it is a sacred site connected to other sacred sites through Ley lines and water lines or springs. I wrote of an ancient grove of trees that still resided there as the original sanctuary, and standing stones that remain nearby as portals to an ancient time and place. I included in my design the natural spring that feeds the cathedral chapel to mother Mary as a place of healing connected to the healing spring beneath. I discovered later, much of the story I wrote of Mystic Valley Cathedral, was a remembering of the stories of the land which were in fact true, unbeknownst to me at the time. For instance, the Druid connection, and colonizing sacred sites for the Catholic Church, and the underground spring as a source of healing waters for the chapel of Mother Mary. The 7 circuit labyrinth in the main cathedral dates back to Crete and Egypt, and is a mystic design held in those cultures, as pathways of initiation through the underworld as pathways of rebirth, or transmigration of the soul. This wisdom was taken over by the church as a path to God in the center, however the original meanings for a mystic otherworldly journey of the soul still remains held deep within the design.

Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth

Dreamtime Visit

I was visited in waking reality, while sitting up in bed preparing to go to sleep, a stream of purple lightning flashed through my bedroom and an aboriginal dream traveler stood outside my bedroom window looking in. He was asking permission to take me into the Dreamtime. I was willing and when I lay down and closed my eyes, I immediately found myself transported to another location in dreaming. I stood before a small group of red boulders, with red dirt all around and a small fire was burning. The dream traveler who invited me into his dream, stood beside me. He said we were there to do a spiritual naming ceremony for my four year old daughter, and I had been invited there as her mother and witness. She was offered gifts that had been made for her, including a dreaming web woven between a forked branch with shells inside. I was not privy to her spiritual name, as it was known only to her and kept secret for her protection. When the ceremony completed, I was returned back home.

Aborigine Dreamtime Painting

Reflecting back upon this experience, I can see the presence of energetic ley lines as sources of dream travel, and the destination as Uluru, a site sacred to the aboriginal people in Australia. This journey of awakening the sacred dream has me traveling to many places around the Earth in waking and dreaming realities, and those who visit me in dreams by tracking sacred energies.

Another instance occurred when a lightning storm was right over our home, and as I was going to sleep, I felt the tug of the lightning storm overhead, and a presence within was reaching out to me. I felt the pull of this energy bring me right into the center of the storm where a portal of blue energy was circling. I waited to see what was coming through the portal and saw a small nerdy looking man step forth. It was Nikolai Tesla, and he began to share information with me about the storm, as a transfer of energy from sacred sites, to this location. He explained that the energy on the planet is shifting in terms of sacred sites and where they are held. I certainly agreed that would be transformative if sacred energies were held in Dallas as a sacred reservoir of energy.

There is in fact a place in downtown Dallas that holds archetypal energies at a place called Pegasus plaza park. The location has a stream flowing through that originates in a spiral, and a huge quartz crystal cluster is nearby. There are sculptures that embody the nine muses, in a boulder like shape. The project was created by archetypal psychologist Gail Smith who was among the founders of the Dallas Institute for Humanities. The Pegasus is the symbol for Dallas, and the story of Pegasus that when he lands his hoof on the Earth, is the spot from which a spring flowed and the nine muses emerged. In mythic fashion, when they broke ground for building the park, they found a spring was flowing underneath which continues to feed the waters flowing forth from the spiral.

The ley lines and dream lines that intersect in physical reality and mythic realms or Dreamtime, are a crossroads we can visit to bring forth inspiration, healing, and collaboration to create within the dream of our community that is happening right now and intersects with the past, present and future. We have only to enter the dream to bring it forth, and embody our dreams with the abundant gifts of the muses.

The All Seeing Eye

I woke this morning of my birthday with the remembrance of a dream. Birthday dreams are special, showing me a glimpse of how this solar return will shine in my life, and this dream felt like a gift. A visit with the Muse.

She was assisting with a writing project that my partner was working on, and in the process he shared with her about my work as a healer. She was keen to meet me when I arrived. We sat down across from one another and she asked me about my work as a healer. She is a beautiful young woman of South Asian Indian descent. Her black hair is short, and she has big black intelligent and inquisitive eyes. She wears a black leather jacket from which her big breasts bulge out, and a mini skirt with knee high leather boots. She is a sexy bad ass muse, and not afraid to show it. I kinda like her, and also feel intimidated at first, but when she asks about my healing work with such genuine interest, I knew we would be connecting on a deeper level.

I was a bit perplexed by her inquiry at first, how to explain it, when there are so many ways it shows up. I thought for a moment on what I wanted to share and recalled a healing story. I told her of a young man I had seen, who his mother had sent to me for an energy healing session. When I did an energy scan of his body to see what needed healing, I discovered a gun in his pocket. I asked him about it and he began to tell me about his fear for his own safety at school, and his plans to bring it to school and shoot everything up. We tracked into his story deeper beyond the bullying and his fears, and into his soul wisdom to see his potential and he was able to give up the gun, and saw instead possibilities for his life.

This healing journey was about healing violence through being able to access our deeper stories, and bringing them into the world. The gift I received was the vision of what is possible, when prompted by my badass muse. I was able to acknowledge more deeply my healing gifts, and how they can be put to use to engage the bigger story focused on my healing work, writing, and community activism. When our conversation ended I got up from the table and showed her my peacock feather earring on one ear and said, What do ya think, not bad for 63! She agreed wholeheartedly 💙🦚💚

“The All Seeing Eye” Artist: Valley Reed – Acrylic Painting

Elvish King Grants a Dream Request

Many years ago, I had a dream visit from a young Elvish King, I was sound asleep and felt someone poke me in the back. I thought it was one of my children wanting to climb into bed from a scary dream, but when I opened my eyes, I saw no one. I thought it strange because I felt the poke in my back, where did it come from? I decided it must be from a dream visitor, so I looked inwardly to see if there was anyone there. I saw a shining elvish King who had poked me awake! He was incredibly beautiful with fair features and a golden crown and luminous threads of clothing adorning him. We did not exchange any words or messages, he was showing himself to me, and letting me know he was there.

I later began dreaming with my Grandfather Hans Pedersen, who is Danish. We only met once when I was a young child, but I remember his kindness. In dreaming he stood before an ancient stone, and said some words over it and beings like lightning bugs appeared flying in a circle over the top of it. The ceremony went n for what seemed like along time in the dream, and I knew I was in the company of an ancient magic, that was part of my lineage.

In a more recent visit over the Christmas Holidays in 2024, the Elvish King came into my dream following a request to assist me with a big grant project I had been toiling over that was due the next day. I incubated an intention that the grant would go through and be awarded. When I closed my eyes, I immediately saw his presence coming through an ancient tree with spirals in the roots and trunk. The tree opened and the Elvish King emerged into my dream. He stood within two pillars of blue light streaming forth on either side of him. His crown held four pillars of the same blue light. He had a long white beard and hair, and his ears were pointed as well. He was reaching out to me with this energy, and when he did, I could see behind my closed eyes the flash of blue energy that was flitting about my physical space. I opened my eyes to see a luminous blue light streaming around the airstream trailer (called the Dream Stream) where I was staying near the Dragonfly Trail in Southern New Mexico. I took this visitation as a sign that my dream request had been answered.

Dream Stream Trailer in Southern New Mexico

Today, when I woke, the first thing I read was a story about an Old Norse language called Elfdalian spoken by only 3000 people in a small providence in Sweden. I later learned that the grant had been awarded that was submitted from the Dream Stream trailer on the Dragonfly Trail, and then discovered today is National Dragonfly Day. The synchronicities and messages just keep coming to remind me of my good fortune and to honor the ancestors and more than human relatives collaborating in this world, and the otherworld. Today, I honor the Blessings of the Ancestors, and I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with them in dreaming and waking realities. I’m eternally grateful for the gifts they share!

Dragonfly Trail Petroglyph

5 Ways to Embody Your Super Powers

As a child growing up in the 60’s Batman and Robin were my favorite dynamic duo. Today, the growing list of villains we see are the likes of Mr. Freeze, (ICE agents) separating families and deporting migrants, and legal status immigrants to the darkest foreign prisons. Holy Fourth Amendment Batman! We seem trapped in Gotham, by Mr. Cheese, the Orange One. The Convicted Felon is in charge of the penitentiary. Where is Batman when you need him?

360 Degree View 4-29-25

I see Batman in his black superhero outfit, driving his black batmobile, and suddenly, I drive up alongside him, driving super fast in a red Batmobile wearing a red superhero suit and cape. I look over at him and nod, Batman looks surprised to see me. As I am driving, I notice I can see in a 360 degree vision through a rotating globe that circulates over my head, and recognize this as my Super Power. It reminds me of how dreams can provide that way of seeing.

Red Batmobile

In the Marvel Universe, Nightwing is the name that Boy Wonder goes by once he has grown into his own power and works independently of Batman. He wears red and black and focuses on working in a neighboring city that is very poor, and occasionally consults with Batwoman, who is also known as Oracle. 

The shocking events unfolding daily, makes it clear, no one in government is protecting our most vulnerable communities. The powerful get more powerful by hook or by crook. The rich get richer on the backs of the poor. 

The current challenges we face daily as our rights are slipping away and Democracy is in decay, has me longing for the Bat Signal, but instead we see park rangers hanging the U.S. flag upside down in Yosemite National Park.

It’s clear we are the ones we have been looking for, and we must become our own hero. We must tap into our own super powers, and team up with other super heroes to fight back against fascism, and protect ourselves, and each other. We must consult the Oracle of our Dreams.

Batman was a billionaire, and Robin came from a family of circus performers, (not my circus, not my clown car) both lost their parents to violent crimes. Becoming a hero from our personal stories and traumas, is the place where our super powers are revealed to fight for justice and protect the vulnerable in our community. Stories of survival are embodied through generations of ancestors, where our superpowers are revealed.

Perhaps it is time to unmask the Billionaire Batman as a hero, and instead write a new episode. Get in, an independent Woman driving a red hot Batmobile is dreaming with a 360 degree view of the past, present, and future tracking us towards Democracy and Human Rights.

Yosemite National Park Rangers hang Distress Symbol of the upside down U.S. flag.

Here are five ways to embody your Super Powers:

  1. Body Postures – When you are afraid, or lacking confidence, strike a Superpower Pose beforehand. Want to invite your Super Powers into Dreaming? Strike a Super Power pose before bed, and then picture yourself posing this way inside your dream. Shamanic body postures written about by Felicitas Goodman, reveals stances by ancient figures, produced altered trance states when mirrored, “If one adopts such a posture, one will have such an experience”.

If you wake up from an important dream in the middle of the night, you can slip back inside your dream, by finding the body posture you were in when you woke, and there you will find your dream waiting for you.

  1. Embodied Dreaming – The body remembers in dreaming and waking realities. Scientific research has shown that when we dream or imagine an experience, the body translates this as a lived experience. This has been tested in areas of Imaginal Healing for Cancer patients, Sports psychology for heightened performance, as well as Academic performance improvement through dream study test preparation. Embodied dream discovery does not limit us to our physical body, but translates in a physical way as an embodied experience. This opens possibilities for timely actions in response to the biggest challenges we face collectively today. Our most brilliant scientists like Einstein and Tesla knew this, using their mindscapes and dream scapes as place of invention. Leaders like Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed the path ahead to change the world. On a personal level, dreams may take you to find the perfect place to live, the love of your life, your dream job, creative inspiration, or the community where you feel you most belong. Imagine yourself slipping under covers and into your dreams tonight, where your bed sheets become a cape, and your dream body takes flight. Dream into your super powers and see where it takes you! (Children already understand this).
  1. Problem Solving – We can problem solve in our dreams, by sleeping on it, when we have a big decision to make, and can’t decide, we instinctively know to sleep on it, and the answer comes in the morning. An embodied knowing in our bones, or a dream we recall provides a clear answer. This tacit wisdom is dream incubation. The practice of sleeping on it for a particular purpose. In dreams, we can see the problem from a holistic view, and explore every angle, such as looking in the mirror, or tracking ahead for a possible future, or traveling paths untaken to integrate lessons unlearned. We can enter into the unknown, and pull back the curtain of darkness to find innovation.
  1. Intention Setting – Dream incubation is a dreaming practice known widely in the Ancient Greco Roman World, as well as today in modern dream work. It is simply a way to invite into your dreams whatever you wish, for instance, a healing dream, as was the focus in the Ancient Dream Temples of Asclepius, or perhaps a flying dream to travel through space and time, beyond the confines of your fears, and the limits of the everyday mind, or your physical body. Intention setting charts the path for the directions our energy flows. Dreams open us to receive more than we know.
  1. Inspired Collaboration – Our dreams have the power to bring forth the world we desire to create. Finding ways to bring our dreams into the waking world, requires us to suspend belief about “the way things are” or refrain from deciding “it was just a dream” and can’t be real. We learn instead to engage the body as a portal into dreaming. An embodied oracle, providing us a glimpse of a possible future, and becoming a bridge between the worlds. We embody our Super Powers when facing our fears, and seeking out powerful allies of collaboration in dreaming and waking realities who will support our vision and our mission. Together we can dream, and take inspired action on behalf of the Earth, Community, and each other.

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing“ – Arundhati Roy

Finding and Protecting Spiritual Gifts

Dreams are profoundly important with the voices that inform my journey, and the experiences that guide me. The visions and voices do not stop for me when the Sun rises, I have had these gifts since I was a child.

Dig Here

I would often hide in the Summer Corn Field next to our house as a child, or the hayloft in the barn. The cornfield was closer, and I could enter another world of shade and long green stalks like trees all around me. A place where I felt protected from the West Texas Sun in Summer, and the chaos of family violence that often broke out in our home.

On this day I was hiding from both. I found comfort from the spirits of the land, two native spirits came close, standing over me as I sat in the dirt brooding. One pointed at a spot in the dirt and said, Dig Here.

I scootched over and began digging. Under the Earth a glimpse of silver appeared. I uncovered a round silver treasure embossed with an Aztec Sun calendar. It had an amethyst stone lid that topped a silver dabber for perfume. I was so excited to find my treasure, that I hurried inside to show someone, and ran into my older sister at the gate to the back yard, who was angrily walking away from the house. I showed her what I found, and held out my little hand. She grabbed it from me, and said, that’s mine!

She took my treasure, but not my vision. She lied to me for years, each time I asked her to return it, saying she never had it. Not long ago, she finally admitted that she had it all this time, but when I asked her to return it, she refused. My Sister has always been envious of my gifts and treasures, and believes she deserves them more than me. One thing she can never take away are my gifts of clairaudience and clairvoyance, one who can hear and see the spirits. She is not the only one who would try to take away my gifts, if I let them. It is important to know who to share your treasures with, whether it be a dream, or a vision, a visitation, or spirit whispers. Hold these close to your heart, and cultivate your gifts in creative ways.

Run!

Another message I was given, was in 2006, during the March to Redeem the Soul of America, where I organized a 200 mile March from the Exxon Mobile Global Headquarters in Irving, Texas to the Crawford Peace House in Crawford, Texas, home to the Western White House of George W. Bush. During the course of the March over two weeks, we went on back country roads through deep red conservative communities. One road on the way to Hillsborough, we were on the shoulder of the road and I held a banner at the front of the March. I felt someone or something pull my shirt tugging me backwards and said, Run! I immediately turned around and began running fast as I could, past all the marchers, yet not knowing why I was running. I saw a white car who had just driven past us, turn around in the road and began to drive on the shoulder of the road right towards all the marchers to run us over! Luckily, I paid heed to the voice of the protective spirit who turned me around and had me running towards the vehicle that was trying to run us over! When they saw this crazy woman running towards their car, they were so surprised, they turned around and drove off down the road in the opposite direction instead!

Valley Reed and Daughter Delaney Clark at the
March to Redeem the Soul of America 2006

Turn On the TV

One day while home alone in my apartment, through my altar I clearly heard the voice of a dear friend say, Turn On the TV! When I did, I saw a terrible event playing out at the home where my friend resided. There was a shooting, and police were called. I felt helpless to do anything as the police were getting ready to send in a robot to kill the shooter inside the house. Moments later the robot entered and everyone in the hoe was declared dead. The police said my friend, Baba Ifayomi, was already dead, but there was no way to confirm this. I believe Baba wanted me to witness the injustice taking place when he reached out to me via my sacred altar.

Days after the home-going ceremony for Baba, I had a dream where he took from my hands a contract which read Civil Rights, and he gave in return a contract that read, healer. He told me you don’t have to do this anymore, this is your sacred contract. Baba was a healer himself, and a Civil Rights Activist,we had conversations about how tired he was of doing activism, and how much he wanted to grow a diverse community of healers from all Earth Based traditions. He invited me into this circle of healers, and we had big dreams for what we would create together. He handed over his dream, for me to carry on and bring together. Monday, May 19th marks 8 years since his Home-going.

Hadi Jawad and Baba Ifayomi

Months later, I attended a fire ceremony within the Yoruba community, as a new Baba was coming forth to lead. The space was celebratory and somber at the loss of their beloved Baba, and the potential leadership of the new. The night before attending the ceremony, I had the following dream,

“A seed was placed in the center of my brain, and from it grew healing and wisdom, which spread throughout my brain. This brain change, enabled me a growing understanding of the indigenous mind and the language of seeds.”

Seed of Destiny

Now I sat next to the divination tray where the divination would take place from the palm seeds. The seeds are an embodiment of Orunmilla, the Orisha who devised divination with Ifa. I was curiously drawn to the palm seeds next to me, and as I drew my attention closer, I heard from deep within me, Seed of Destiny, recreated over and over. The reading that came through honored the powerful magic that women hold, and all that is born through Women. My magic is tied up with the seed of Destiny, and continuing the circle of healers is the legacy of the dream that Baba left behind. Ase’

Heretic

Heretic by Valley Reed

In this painting and process on Easter Sunday, April 20th, 2025 I feel an intensity of a story trying to come through me. Today waking to learn the passing of the Pope, I feel the energy of my painting connected to his story. A dream from a previous night seemed to be a place for gathering creative power and practice to enter the story that was tracking me.

Artist Studio 4/20/25

The night before, I dreamed of living in an art studio, where I had plenty of room to paint, and ample light to see through the windows of the skylight overhead. I felt empowered to create and supported by the space and vision to do so.

Today, I am seeing many elements included in the visionary painting I created. Pope Frances has chosen to be buried in the church of Mary Major, (the first Pope to do so) as well as his adding the feast day of Mary Magdalene to the liturgical calendar as resonate with the restoration of spiritual power to women.

The meaning of the word heretic is rooted in Greek for hairetikós, that means choice. Since the 13th century, the catholic inquisition weaponized the word heretic in their genocide of Women, who were the healers and Wise Women of their communities. In choosing Mary as his dying wish, Pope Frances chose Women.

The painting interweaves the story of the rebirth of Jesus, with a focus on the three Mary’s who attended, Mary Magdalene, Mother Mary, and Miriam, cousin of Jesus. The visionary powers of women are interwoven with generations going back to the Oracular powers of the Goddess.

The flow of waters coming down the mountain is connected with troubling the waters with the healing powers and intervention of an angel. Mary Magdalene is the first to enter and receive the healing powers of the waters.

The Christian priest is Peter who is kneeling staring at his shadow, where his lust for power created the base for many to abuse people around the globe in the name of God.

The cedar on the hill is a humble resilient tree that endures. In my mind I thought of generations of Palestinians who have survived, and those who have not, and how Pope Frances was a voice for the voiceless. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, reflects a refugee whose life was endangered. The hope in the message in the rebirth of Christ, carries also to the Palestinian people of Gaza.

The death of Pope Frances the day after Easter, brings a spiritual message of his station in life and death, as someone of integrity and spiritual meaning. May the doors, and paths, and gateways be open for us all, where no one is turned away due to gender, religion, nationality, tattoos, wealth, sexuality, political party, or education level.

People of the Land

It’s Personal

In February 2020, about a month prior to the pandemic storm, a dear sister and healer invited me to try her newly created float tank, and knowing my connection with dreams, she was keen to have me try it to see how it might be a helpful modality for conscious dreaming. I was also keen to try it and the liminal space created by floating in salt water, providing a primal womb of dream incubation. I focused my intention in my float session on personal healing and gaining any insights that would be helpful for me at this time. I had been doing a lot of private healing sessions on individual clients, and knew the salt waters would be restorative for my energy field as well.

As I floated in the tank in a conscious dream state, that place between waking and sleeping reality, I saw images come and go, then suddenly, dropped deeper into a dream, which opened before me from the core of my being. I was now inside a conscious dreaming reality with an Oracle Goddess, who emerged from a mountain. Her face, her hands, and her breasts became visible. Her strong voice was heard inside my dream. She said, I have not been seen in a very long time. It is time for me to emerge. I tell her I had set the intention to work on personal work, and not focused on collective energies right now. It is personal! She snaps back! Alright then, I am paying attention! I then see a volcano next to her, with lava flowing down, and molten lava erupting from the top, as the face of the Goddess Pele is reflected in the fires of the Earth. I feel her powers of destruction and creation. Suddenly, I hear cows mooing and see them grazing in a peaceful green pasture, and the Blue Faced Goddess Hathor descends from the Pleiades, with her nurturing and peaceful, loving energy. Finally, I see the Three Goddesses before me, a blazing fire beneath HER feet. I am human sized, standing before them, but in the body of Kali Ma, Black Mother Earth, Treasure House of Compassion, Giver of Life to the World. I run toward the sacred fire with fierce love and compassion and lunge my ceremonial knife (truth) into the Sacred Fire (Life). The Oracle Goddess says, It is done, and it is good.

These days I am opening myself to deep dreaming as a guide through the tumultuous times we are facing. I seek guidance in this world, and the otherworld, in this time and other times, everywhere and everywhen.

People of the Land

February 13, 2025

In the Dreaming, I am on a quest to return to the old ways and people of the Land. I found a community of people living in connection with the land and the ancestors. It was through an eruption of a volcano, that the return of the ancestors came to be, and I came to know myself more than ever before. I was sacrificing myself for future generations.

I found myself in the Dreaming, where two separate realities were before me. I had a home in two different places.

I held in my hands two swords from ancient times. One was Persian, and engraved with calligraphy, the other was the shape and make of an Egyptian Khopesh Sword, first appearing in Sumer in the third century until making its way to Egypt. The sword represents power and authority held by deities such as Sekhmet. I crossed the blades slicing against the steel, and when I made contact it opened the dreams, rituals and stories held in the blades, and brought out the secrets held inside.

Zulfiqar sacred sword of the Prophet Muhammed

As the dance went on, mud was rising to the surface of the Persian blade over the carved calligraphy and the stories of the land were revealed. The memories held inside the ancient blade came forth as dreams hovering before me within the dream. Portals of pilgrimage for the Pele Volcano, A sacred waterfall, Uluru Rock, and the Egyptian pyramids. Visiting one of the houses on my multidimensional timeline, I open the door to the backyard and see the dream portals hovered before me as entry points to the Everywhen.

Everywhen

Uluru Rock is located in Australia, and considered the place of creation and sacred to the aboriginal peoples. “The Dreaming is used to represent Aboriginal concepts of “Everywhen“, during which the land was inhabited by ancestral figures.” It is considered the Navel of Creation.

Uluru Rock, Australia

The Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano is home to the Goddess Pele, her name in hawaian is ka wahine ai honua, which means “the woman who devours the earth”. It is a place of destruction and Creation.

Kilauea Volcano

The waterfall may be from the Big Island of Hawaii where beautiful waterfalls are found around Hilo. The Rainbow Waiānuenue waterfall is a sacred place where the Goddess Hina is connected.

Rainbow falls in Hilo Hawaii, home to the Goddess Hina.

The great Pyramid of Giza is considered a gateway to the otherworld, and the mysteries of the afterlife and ongoing journey of the Dua, or soul.

The Pyramids of Giza

Myth

My research indicates the deeper story of the Sword dance is connected with myth and prophecy. The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet known as the one before whom evil trembles, is a warrior and healer. She was known to wield the Khopesh sword associated with protection, justice, and disarming enemies. As healer she was known to cure all ills, even plague and pestilence. The Khopesh Sword has been traced beyond Egypt to Mesopotamia and Ancient Sumar.

Prophecy

The Persian sword known as Zulfiqar is believed by early Shiʿites to be brought down from heaven by the archangel Gabriel and given to the prophet Mohammed. The sword disappeared and is considered occulted in the unseen until the time when the world is in a state of complete tyranny. Recently a sword with calligraphy as being identified as the Zulfiqar sword has been identified and confirmed from 1500 years ago, and within the language of the time. In the 13th century, the great Sufi poet Jalāl-al-Dīn Moḥammad Rūmī portrayed Zulficar as the incarnation of al-Ḥaqq, or Divine Truth.

Dreaming Pilgrimage

Taken together these 4 portals of pilgrimage contain a formula of ancient wisdom from ancient peoples whose mystery traditions may be a remedy or map for the times we are encountering now. A Map of Creation, Rebirth, Healing, and Soul Flight. Dreaming can help us in all of these areas, and while it may be more difficult to make a physical pilgrimage at this time to each of these sights, we can visit in dreaming through entering each of the hovering portals.

Embodied Prayer

The sword dance holds a powerful energy at the intersection of sharpening truth and discernment. One blade holding prophecy of the people of the land coming forth, at the cross section of a powerful warrior goddess Sekhmet, who cleansed the Earth of the darkness of men. This sword dance is a gathering and reclaiming of power, able to defend the vulnerable, and a return to truth and justice. An embodied prayer of the land, and the people of the land.

I invite you to join me on this dream pilgrimage, to enter portals of Creation, Rebirth, Healing, and Soul Flight, to dance into myth and prophecy and heal the stories held in the land, and join in solidarity with the peoples of the land, to bring justice to the vulnerable and protect the peoples of the land.

Please visit www.chrysalishealingarts.org to learn more.

White Horse of the Otherworld

Blessings as we near the cross quarter turn of the wheel at Imbolc, in between Winter and Spring. I can feel the seeds and prayers and dreams awakening underneath the soil finding room the breath. A quickening of becoming who and what we are. As it happens, these cross quarter and seasonal alignments are portals for entering deeper realities in dreaming. A blessing to remember the otherworld as among the community of beings with whom we share this world in the past, present, and future.

White Horse in the Burren
County Clare, Ireland photo: Valley Reed 2018

1/30/25 Time Jumping into the Otherworld

Last night in dreaming, I was time jumping into the past, traveling through house after house going easily through walls and windows until I reached the time I was tracking in the 1800’s to a village in Ireland. The second story building I was moving through became solid suddenly and when I went through the picture window, the glass broke and I fell to the ground. I was time tracking movements of a wild white horse, and my journey had brought to this time and place. I could see the worn deer trail alongside a railroad track and caught a glimpse of the gorgeous white horse ahead, who took my breath away, and my heart skipped a beat. I knew the path I must follow to catch up with this otherworldly horse, but first I must mark where I came through in my time travels, so I could return again to my own time. I walked back to find the broken window where I had fallen into this time in the 1800’s. There in the street looking up at the broken window was a couple, who I knew to be connected to the good folk. They said, “Yep, this is the place!” I looked carefully at the window and felt something was off about it, and decided to walk a bit further up the street, and found that the blue ornate building I had entered through was there but the window was no longer broken. Some faery mischief was afoot, the couple was trying to trick me to entering another timeline beyond the one I had travelled. I called them on their trick, and said they would need to make an offering for a dumb supper at the crossroads in order to make amends to the spirits of the otherworld.

The couple agreed, and came to the crossroads prepared to make an offering with a plate of meat and potatoes. The woman was pregnant and wore a beautiful, blue slate, silk dress, and when she went to set the plate down at the crossroads, she had a look of distress as her water had broken, and her beautiful silk gown had water all over it. Her labor was about to start. I felt the intensity of the moment, as she made offerings to the spirits her birthing had begun. I looked closely at the offering and noticed there were three pieces of coal on the plate, and asked them to be removed, the faeries won’t like that as an offering., and I certainly didn’t want to offend the faeries.

The husband removed the coal as requested and the offering was completed. Now I was free to go about my journey of tracking the wild white horse. I returned to the deer path along the train tracks and went about setting my sights on the White Horse leading me deeper inside the otherworld.

Fairy Bridge in Ireland
Photo by Valley Reed 2019

While a dumb Supper is usually held during Samhain as a silent way of communing with the spirits by offering a meal when the veil between the world thins, this ritual supper at the crossroads of Imbolc (a term meaning “in the belly” when sheep are pregnant and begin to lactate) is a halfway point between Winter and Spring, and a portal when the doors between the otherworld are open to bring through birth and new beginnings.

The story unfolds of the dumb Supper offering as that of making amends, in this world and the otherworld, and remove anything blocking that connection. It is said that coal was often left in barns to keep fairies from steeling milk. In this way, the coal must be removed so that the fairies may receive the offerings, while being respectful and honoring of this liminal sacred space and what is brought into it. The very act of making this offering at the crossroads, is a watershed moment, when the water breaks, and birth begins. This encounter frees me to carry on my journey in search of the White Horse of the Otherworld.

Enbarr is a magic white horse of Celtic lore who could travel between worlds, and the otherworld. The horse could travel across water or land and is associated with going on a mystical journey. Enbarr is connected with Niamh, the Queen of Tir na nOg (Land of the Young) an island of the Celtic Otherworld, which is a parallel universe that exists alongside this one. It is home to the Tuatha De Danann also known as the Faery Folk, Good People, Shining Ones, or Sidhe. Niamh means bright or radiant and she herself is a Faery Queen. What follows is a Gaelic lullaby, “Sleeping in Tir na Nog” by Liz Knowles inspired by the painting by Jack B. Yeats In Tir na nOg.

https://on.soundcloud.com/uP8pWZYbDXfcTFdX9
In Tir na nOg by Jack B. Yeats 1936 oil on canvas