Years ago, at a weekend Wild Women retreat I facilitated at Crescent Moon Lodge in Oklahoma, a journey was made for our group of wild women with the intention to dream onto the path of our ancestral gifts. As I drummed for the group, I was visited by an impressive Stag whose big brown eyes drew me in on a soul level. The Stag turned and walked slowly along a path where a beautiful sacred grove arched over the path. Golden pollen floated down all around and the path itself was laden with golden pollen, until it opened into a golden field where I continued to walk following the deer as I was then taken deeper into the journey by the buzzing of bees and the guidance of bees taking me in search of pollen in the field of dreams where I stood. The pollen was intoxicating and the honey wisdom of bees gave teachings on community and healing. On the return journey I found myself feeling altered for quite sometime afterwards, and wanting to just lay down and enter dreaming once again. Each person that shared their journey spoke of bees as a guide, and the feeling of wanting to take a nap and return to dreaming. This was a surprising result of our journey, together, to have so many share similar experiences confirmed our mutual dream of entering the path of pollen. Afterwards we all went and took a nap and dreamed with the bees.
Artemis of Ephesus
This journey was transformative and deer has since become a constant guide and ally in waking and dreaming realities. I discovered the connection with the bees and the deer goes back to ancient Turkey and the Goddess Artemis of Ephesus, where coins from that region show a bee on one side and a Stag on the other. The Goddess Artemis of Ephesus is known as the many breasted goddess who has appeared in dreams as an embodiment of the wild goddess. She has deer and bees carved into her statue along with other wild animals of the wood.
The potent mystery of the path of pollen speaks of an embodied gift connected with the old ways of the bee priestesses of ancient Crete. This wisdom of the Goddess lives within so many of us and many are heeding the call to return to the old ways, and dream with the potency of this path of dreaming.
Crows have long been a trusted guide in waking and dreaming life, as well as conscious dream journeys, guided by the drum. I began having a series of dreams connected with Crow before my divorce in 2001 when crow helped me to navigate this challenging time in my life for me and my children.
One day, my son and I were sitting at the kitchen table drawing and my daughter was playing a game she created where she was the librarian for a dream library. She demanded that me and my son create some dream books to place in her library. I took the assignment to heart and began thinking of the Crow dreams I had been having, as well as a beautiful blue phoenix that had been showing up in dreaming. Based on these dreams, I created the story of “The Crow and The Phoenix”. I wrote the story in a miniature book I had made from construction paper, and handed the book to the dream librarian. She was pleased with the addition to her dream library, and placed it on a shelf.
Later I shared the story with an online group of dreamers devoted to dreaming up some Peace in the World Dreams Peace Bridge. I shared my inspiration from my 6 year old daughter and her imaginary dream library, and the story that came through in response to her assignment to create a dream story. The Crow and the Phoenix was the result. It goes like this…
The Crow and the Phoenix
Once upon a time…
there lived a Crow who liked to stay in darkness. Crow lived deep in the earth. When Crow was lonely, it would fly up out of the Earth and find someone to take into the underworld.
One day a girl named Anna Belle was walking in the rain with her most favorite companion, her umbrella. She loved to walk under the gloomy, wet, gray, skies protected by her faithful umbrella. Anna Bella and her umbrella were quite a pair.
Suddenly she heard a great thunder and it felt as if the ground beneath her was shaking from the sound! She wondered if the Earth were going to swallow her up, when a great Crow swooped down upon her and carried her and the umbrella into his underground laird.
She lived deep inside the earth with Crow, until she forgot who she was. Not even her umbrella could protect her from the darkness that surrounded her. She lived in the darkness of Crow.
One day in the depths of her slumbering, Anna Belle was awakened by a mysterious blue light that shone like the stars. She was frightened and could barely look into the brightness piercing through the underworld.
She caught the glimmer of light as it flashed from high above and she held tight to her umbrella. Crow tried to pull her back from the light by grabbing her umbrella just as the bright wind caught Anna Bella up in a swirling torrent, taking her up into a world of light and love. Crow was left holding only the umbrella, alone once again in the darkness underground.
The bright wind that caught up Anna Belle and lifted her away was really the wings of a magical blue Phoenix. The Phoenix took her high into the heavens to a mountain cave. There in the cave was a magical reflecting pool. The small girl looked into the water and was shocked to see a girl covered with dirt looking back at her. She had forgotten who she was in the depths of darkness.
Phoenix gently guided her into the healing waters of the pool, where she was cleansed of all the darkness that had been surrounding her life. She stepped out of the water, and looked again into the reflecting pool. She saw a beautiful girl named Anna Belle and her eyes gleamed from the light of her heart.
Phoenix knew it was time for Anna Belle to return home, and placed her in her warm bed where she slept peacefully. The Phoenix whispered gently, “You may return to the waters of remembering whenever you feel lost.”
Anna Belle awoke with a start! What was that?…a dream? She looked down and saw on her bed a mysterious feather. When she picked it up she felt a familiar light in her heart. She remembered her dream.
The End
By Valley Reed with inspiration from Delaney Clark.
When I shared the story online with a group of international dreamers, several asked for a copy to share with young family members, and one felt so inspired she thought it would make a wonderful dream dance. I shared by background as a professional ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher and was offered a stipend to create a dance based on the story and perform it in Cincinnati Ohio for a Regional conference with the Association for the Study of Dreams in 2001.
The story came to life as a dream dance, and the Crow, Phoenix, and Anna Belle danced it into being. Later at another conference in Montreal in 2008 the dream dance was performed again as an improvised performance to dream and dance the story forward.
While all of this was going on I continued to dream of Crow, and was told I am to be the keeper of “the Book of Crow”. The book of Crow is a book of Sacred Law, and bridge between worlds that enters the mystery. Human Law is not the same as Sacred Law. Crow has a shared meaning across cultures, the Book of Crow gives access to sacred law from cultures across the world and across time. Below are just a few dreams of the mysterious nature of Crow as guide.
Crow Initiation
I dream I have been given a diagnosis of a condition that will end my life. I submit to my own death and am unafraid. I have a sacred fire lit where my body will be tied to a post where I will meet the wings of crow. I see my body burn up as I surrender to the fire and become the wings of crow and fly into the spirit realm.
Crow Unfurls the Darkness
I am leading a group on a journey guided by the drum. I see crow appear within the darkness of my mind’s eye, and he pulls away the curtain of darkness and I find I am in another territory in dreaming where I stand before a great stone gateway. Crow is hopping around the ground and picks up a golden bracelet and drops it in my hand. I find the stone gateway has a circle carved into it and when I place the golden bracelet in the carved circle, it fits perfectly, and the massive stone gateway begins to open. A bright white and blue light shines through as the massive portal opens that is so powerful I can barely hold my own in the face of it. I am concerned what else may be coming through this portal I have opened.
Three Crows
I see three crows on a tree limb and one flew over to me and brought me a citrine crystal cluster. When I looked at the citrine crystal more closely, I found that part of it is a candle. I am walking through a room where a crystal skull sits on a table, and the crystal skull recognizes me and begins giving divination of what will come to pass in my future.
Intention setting is an art in itself. It sets in motion something from within, ready to move into physical reality. There are many ways our intentions can show up, and the clearer we can be, the better. We want words of intention to ring with the truth from within. When we speak words of truth in this way, it is felt by all. We must be willing to be truthful with ourselves and dig deep.
Tuning into the body as to where intentions arise and are held, is a great way to get out of the head, and into the holistic wisdom the body. The sacred container of the body is a place where our intentions can be held in a safe and sacred way. Just holding an intention to dream in collaboration with our deeply held truths and soul desires can assist us in honing a sense of discernment and clarity as we move into creating a life of purpose.
Embodied wisdom includes an awareness of the natural rhythms of life. Dream intentions with lunar cycles, the twilight of day and night, the end or beginning of a month or year, or the turn of a seasonal wheel. These liminal thresholds are portals we can enter to slip into lucid dreaming as we embody our intentions to guide us and the dream unfolds. When we pay attention to our dreams, our dreams pay attention to us.
When rooting into our deeper intentions for dreaming and living, sometimes the truth is simple and self evident. Sometimes it comes out odd and misunderstood, because it has not been seen yet. Sometimes it comes through with a powerful wind, or and gentle breeze. However it is received, we can be sure the spirits are listening when we speak our intentions. We want to be careful of how we state our words of intentions, because words have power. We want to be clear on what we want to set in motion, in other words, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
A regular practice for me with setting intentions is before I sleep each night and enter dreaming. I usually set some kind of intention for what I want to dream about. It may be something as simple as calling in healing energies to dream with me. It may be something more specific in terms of creating a new workshop, or perhaps meeting up with my creative muse. It may be seeking more information on a particular dream I have had already.
How have your intentions manifested for you? It may be fun to start an intention setting journal and write the date of your intention, and the specific words you choose, and then see what comes through for you in the next few weeks up to the full moon.
December this year has two opportunities to dream with the new moon, one on the first, and a Black Moon on the 30th to end the year. These Lunar portals of potency set with our intentions open our dreams to unfold an inkling of what is fomenting within us and our world.
In 2009, as I returned from a vacation in Maui Hawaii, I fell asleep on the plane as I was landing in Phoenix Arizona, and I had a dream of an enchanting song playing, and a rainbow map.
Rainbow Map
I see a map of Arizona, there are rainbow colored arrows pointing from Flagstaff and Sedona southeast at an angle to a particular spot on the map and then the arrows go back up headed northeast. I can hear music playing in connection with the arrows on the map.
When I woke from the dream, I look out the airplane window to see a rainbow ached over the Phoenix airport where we have just landed.
Wake-up Call
Later upon return home, I dreamt of hearing a woman’s voice speaking to me. She tells me it is time for you to accept your own power, it is time for you to wake up! I can see a large tree that has appeared several times in my dreams previously. I then see under the earth in the area on the Rainbow Map I was shown, there is a huge lizard that lives under the earth. It is moving and I can feel the energy of it, I can see the scales of its skin and the design of it with red and black in an intricate woven design. The energy that I am feeling and seeing in the dream suddenly is in my throat and then into my heart. I feel my rib cage expand open and it cracks loudly. I am now feeling the energy of the Lizard Woman and she is calling me to her. She says, you need to come to this land. I feel the deep coursing energy of this place in my own body in my throat and heart. I feel the energy of this lizard that has been woven together through story and song through the centuries of the people who inhabit this place. It is a place of deep healing and a place to embody power. EOD
The map below tracks indigenous ancient peoples and mirrors the rainbow map I was shown. As well as the giant beaded monster located underground that traces the Gila wilderness from the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico to Pueblo Grande or Phoenix Arizona. In my dream, three locations were shown to the Northeast in Arizona as I looked at the map from Phoenix, and three locations mapped in the Southwestern New Mexico. The alluring music continued as I looked at the dream map, and I felt I was being called to visit these places, but I knew not why.
Rainbow Mapping
In 2013, I lived on the Turquoise trail, in New Mexico and had this dream.
Chaco Pilgrimage
I was dreaming about the people of Chaco Canyon, seeing the immense pilgrimage that went on where people traveled to the city to take part in a harvest festival. They wore beautiful colorful clothing complete with parrot feathered headdresses. The pilgrimage came from Mexico as they walked the turquoise trail to Cerrillos and then onto Chaco Canyon where thousands of people were gathering for the festival.
I later discovered what I had dreamed into was in fact was true, my bit of dream archaeology was confirmed during a visit to the local historical museum in Cerrillos, New Mexico, which had an article about the history of the Turquoise trail.
“Teotihuacan as the probable source of the Puebloan’s mythology of Spider Woman as world creator by way of the ancient Mogollon culture that flowered much later at Casas Grandes. Contact between Teotihuacan-to-Mogollon-to-Chaco Canyon and Cerrillos mines in New Mexico likely originated in the turquoise trade.”
In researching the ancient wisdom of Spider Woman and Great Mother of Teotihuacan, I discovered her web intersects with the ancient Mogollon peoples in the Gila cliff dwellings, and the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon, in New Mexico and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. The intersecting energies include the turquoise trail and pilgrimage between Teotihuacan, and Chaco Canyon, as well as the rainbow paths shown in my dream that marks the territory of Gila Cliff Dwellings, Hawikuh and Gran Quivira, in Southwestern New Mexico, and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico and Mesa Verde, and Canyon de Chelly Arizona. These energetic pathways marked by the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan expand to emerge in Peru at the most ancient civilization in Caral.
Caral Peru
In 2023, I had a dream that showed the overhead view of two ancient civilizations. I was told by an unseen guide that sometimes there are events that happen where a large group of people die in some kind of elemental cataclysmic event. When this happens, an entire group consciousness becomes an elemental group consciousness. I was shown this is what happened in Chaco Canyon and Caral, where no one seems to know why these civilizations just disappeared one day.
Chaco Canyon
“The image of the Spider Woman is another primary cosmological and ideological symbol associated with the Milky Way as a river of life shared with Teotihuacan by the Moche, Maya, and the modern descendants of the Chaco Puebloan”
Like strands of the web of Spider Woman or lines of a story, the energetic elemental pathways move forth as a force of sacred ritual and empowerment. My dreams are weaving me into ancient pathways of pilgrimage to reveal the mysteries of those who walked before us and whose stories are wanting to be found. Now, I have the map.
“Spider Woman weaves lightning, clouds, rainbows, and sunrays into her fabric.” – Judith A. Franke, Director, Dickson Mounds Museum.
Spider Woman Rainbow tracking me in New Mexico 2023
In a depth dream workshop today, we invited the ancestors to join us on conscious dreaming adventures, guided by the sound of the drum, and explored sacred lands of the ancestors, and entered the dreams our ancestors have for us.
Scottish Highlands Stag
Sacred Lands
My journey began with a beautiful Stag, who continues to show up more and more often in waking and dreaming realities. The stag leaped through time and space carrying me deeper into the otherworld. I found myself standing upon the Scottish Highlands with stag, and then taken into the North country of my Scandinavian ancestors and looking at the Northern Lights. I was taken deeper into the North country through deep forests and into an icy cave, where I came across a blonde haired ancestor, who I was told is related to my Norwegian Great Grandmother, Christie Kelstrom.
Norway Northern Lights
Deeper inside the cave was a man who looked Asian, and wore furs on his head and is body. He was also related, but much further back. I have seen him before in dreams and know him as one among the Siberian people. In my dreams previously, I was introduced to this lineage of ancestors who taught me how to raise the elemental energies, and stir the sea to bring up the bones of my ancestors. I was introduced to a female shaman in my dream who came to help me remember this part of my lineage. In this journey, my ancestral teacher came to remind me of my spiritual gifts that are connected with weather magic, able to raise elemental energies for protection and abundance. He showed me I am also connected to Cosmic Energies and pointed to the Milky Way. He drew upon the Cosmic energies to bring them down to Earth, able to activate underground ley lines with incredible blue light, which I could how far it spanned from my longer view from above.
The Ancestors Are Dreaming
The journey inside the Dream of the Ancestors, brought the presence of bear to guide me deeper into dreaming. The bear took to a cave and entered dreaming, and I understood this is how I may enter the dreams of my ancestors. I saw a dark haired woman who stood before a fire, and was making ritual offerings and prayers to the growing fire. I was aware she is connected to the French Basque people in my lineage through my grandmother Helen Larrabee. I saw her connection to the ancient indigenous people of Europe and how they lived close to the Earth and are known as the first witches. They have deep magic rooted in the elements, and weather magic, through which they live in harmony with nature and are able to protect their community and their crops. This is not unusual magic, it is just the way of things. I see a meadow with flowers and I am walking across looking at the bees in each flower until I come to a massive beehive hanging from the branch of a tree. As I move towards the hive, I am aware of many women ancestors who stand behind me and the dreams they have for me are held in this hive. They wish for me a sweet life. I see this honey also feeds the bear that also holds the dream, and stands around me to protect me. I see the bear will teach me about healing and plant medicine.
Ancestral Dream Hive
I hone in on the hive that holds the dreams of my matrifocal line. It is filled with a rich amber honey, and holds both sweetness and health benefits, I can hear the intense buzzing sound, and feel the vibrations in my body, An ancestor tells me, we are dreaming of a sweet and healthy life for you. I am aware inside the hive, that there are so many dreams held there, a portal into the dreams of my ancestors.
I will return to dream into this potent portal again in my night time dreams with dream incubation. As I move to return to the tree of life, I am riding on a huge reindeer, who has many following behind, flying through the sky. When I return to the tree of life, it has now grown huge and reaches up to the Milky Way. I am home.
She chose a separation from all she had known before. She chose to follow her destiny and become Queen of the Underworld.
Persephone visited me in a dream years ago, and she planted a seed within me of a Pomegranate tree. A magical tree took root and grew tall and strong, with fruit bearing branches. She told me, “If you never plant the seed, the tree will never grow.”
In planting that seed within me, she initiated me into her dark mysteries. Persephone has appeared to me in dreams and journeys a few times over the years. In another dream I recall, she took me down into her cave. She showed me a ceremony she allowed me to perform, where I would take groups of women into her cave, and there they can leave their sorrows, confusion, burdens, anguish, terror, trauma, grief, blame and shame behind. She as Queen of shades, would take from us what has passed, so that we may live. Together we came to her cave as a group of troubled women, and we laid our burdens down, and let the dead rest. We returned to our lives without them.
Underworld Cave
As we move towards the blood moon, the darkness opens and the veil thins, the season of the Ancestors is upon us. A migration of dreams awaken. It is a time to become another shade of ourselves, letting our shadows dance in the wind.
What choices will you make, what changes will break?
Persephone chose to become Queen of the dead and broke her Mother’s heart.
What can you carry, and who will you marry?
Kore picked a narcissus flower that sealed her fate with the dark King.
What charms will arise from the depths of your eyes?
Seeing beyond time and space, yet in rhythm with the seasons, she descends and rises again and yet again returns.
Can you see in the dark or must you shapeshift the part?
SHE becomes Queen of the Dark and needs no one to save her. The dark is where seeds get planted. If you never plant the seeds, the tree can never grow.
What paths may open, when your truth is spoken?
Hecate is the way opener of the crossroads and holds torches to guide the way. The Goddess requires truth spoken to enter her realms of healing and wisdom. We cannot hide from ourselves under her owl wings. She has her ear to the ground, and her eyes in all directions and carries the wisdom of the seer. These truths must also be understood and spoken. Hecate holds the keys to mystery at the crossroads of life and death.
I opened the book and saw a photo of a Roman arched bridge over a river which lead to a white stone castle with black turrets. Immediately I knew I had to find out more, and I entered the photo as a portal into another time and place. I found myself walking along the river heading towards the arched bridge leading to the castle.
A favorite lucid dreaming experience revealed surprising connections when hanging out in the twilight zone between waking and dreaming. You never know what you will encounter in this in between space, also known as the hypnopompic zone.
In my case, I was calling the dream to me in a conscious way, and far in the dark distance I saw and felt the presence of the dream coming towards me. As it travelled near, I saw a luminous pink lace like design that as it came upon me was a portal I entered through with my hands leading forth and palms open. As I did a presence on the other side within the dream immediately put a book in my hands.
The book felt heavy and ancient made from animal skin. It had a golden hue and the cover read, The Book of Uriel. I could still sense this angelic presence next to me, waiting for me to open the book. I opened the book and saw a photo of a Roman arched bridge over a river which lead to a white stone castle with black turrets. Immediately I knew I had to find out more, and I entered the photo as a portal into another time and place. I found myself walking along the river heading towards the arched bridge leading to the castle. When I arrived at the bridge to walk across the river, I found a well of emotion rise in me that was overwhelming. I stood there crying from a deep well of soul longing, wanting to step into this story, but afraid of what I will find inside this mysterious and beautiful castle.
My research brought me to Chateaux Chenonceau in the Loire Valley in France. The bridge was built in 1556-1559, by the French Architect Philbert de l’Orme, who was the principal architect for King Henry II. The Chateaux was taken over by the King and given to his longtime mistress Diane de Poitiers who had the bridge built by the King’s Royal architect. She designed and had planted extensive gardens along the banks of the river.
The history of the chateaux is an interesting one, Prince Frances heir to the throne of France, and Mary Queen of Scots, were betrothed here. Once King Henry died, his mistress Diane de Poitiers was displaced by Catherine de Medici who was married to the departed King Henry II. Both Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Medici are both known for their proclivity for the esoteric, and connection with the Goddess. This can be seen in many ways with the art on the grounds and sacred designs of the garden.
The Carytids guardians of ArtemisLabyrinth gardens
Artemis
The part of history that found me dumbstruck, is when the Chateau became in the hands of Louis Dupin, who held literary Salons durning the enlightenment period attracting thinkers such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontanelle. Jean Jacques Rousseau was her secretary who tutored her son. The Chateaux was protected during the French Revolution from being part of the destruction of the bourgeois class because the bridge was the only way to cross the river for miles.
Louis Dupin
In dreaming into parallel timelines at a dream teacher training in 2014, I found myself living in a French Palace where I organized Salons with artists, philosophers, writers, play writes, and musicians. I drew a sketch of the person I saw in my dreaming, and when I later came across the painting of Louis Dupin, I recognized the woman I had seen in my dream. Could this be part of the soul connection my dream was presenting me? Either way it is a place of beauty, mystery, and creative freedom. One day, I hope to stroll once again along the banks of the river Cher, and cross over to enter a story of my soul longing.
“Whale Songs Rising” by Valley Reed – Acrylic Pour
Whales are the sacred wisdom keepers of the planet and the cosmos. They are the largest mammals on Earth and they dream with one eye open, as lucid dreamers in the hypnogogic state, so they can be conscious to remember to rise and breathe. Something we can all do, stay conscious, don’t fall asleep, and remember to rise and breathe.
The Hawaiian people call them ancestors, and the Irish Celtic people heard music play from the winds that blew through the bones of a whale, inspiring the creation of the Celtic Harp. In my dreaming for many years now, whales have brought profound encounters and big dreams. My favorite part of the animated Disney film Fantasia has always been when whales fly into the starry seas as Cosmic travelers.
These cosmic oneironauts have appeared in this way more than once in my dreams. A prophetic dream from over 40 years ago was guided by the wisdom of whale.
Where Do You Want To Be?
I am in the ocean floating face to face with whale and her astonishing eye looking at me. Her tale points to the ocean floor, and her face pointing up towards the water surface. She looks at the water and can see stars reflecting above, she motions for me to see what she sees. Suddenly I am up among the stars of the northern cross.
From this vantage, I begin to see golden energy shooting towards the Earth. The land and water are now in a different configuration. The seas have risen and the lands are covered over. The poles have shifted. I hear a voice ask me, “Where do you want to be?” and I see a golden light appear over a tropical place where I will someday live.
The changing climate has me thinking more and more lately about finding my golden spot on this Earth, where my soul most desires to be, in lined with my destiny.
Cosmic Oneironauts
In another dream, after being given an ancient native artifact by an indigenous teacher, I time traveled into the 19th century, where I encountered a whale beached upon a boardwalk. It’s huge mouth was open and a procession of Victorian dressed women and their children entered it’s mouth. The final one being an infant who rolled her body inside the massive mouth. The massive portal closed with generations inside, and the whale launched a cosmic journey toward the stars.
Institute of Dream Archeology
In a mysterious dream, I found myself deep in the ocean, where I encountered strange aquatic creatures who generate their own bioluminescence to create their own light in the depths of the ocean darkness. I began to rise towards the surface, and as I got closer I noticed a small boat was waiting for me there. I reached my hand up out of the water, and was met by another who pulled me into the boat. I looked up from my wet stupor to see a speckled grey professor in tweeds. He pointed to our destination at the nearby shore, where a strangely unique building was seen. It was made of various architectural styles from different time periods.
The professor told me it was an institute of dream archeology, a place I could visit anytime. I stood up in the small wooden rowboat to get a better view, and as I did the boat began to rock. I attempted to gain my bearings by orienting myself to the movement of whales swimming deep beneath the waters, which I sensed through my body as a way of anchoring myself. A deep orienting to ancient collective wisdom. I now felt ready to proceed to shore, and enter the mysterious school of dream archeology.
The Gift of Whale Songs
In a recent dream, I am hovering in the ocean depths, where above the light is seen and below the dark waters pull me further down. As I slowly sink deeper into the dark waters, I can hear the songs of whales beneath me. I feel their songs carried through the waters and embodied by the sound waves moving though my body and soul, carried further through the far reaching ocean waves, across the planet. I am pulled deeper into their song and into their world, and begin to see a pod of humpback whales directly beneath me. I feel the longing of my soul to come to meet them, and understand the songs moving through me. It is a gift to feel the vibrations of the their songs under my skin, that I will forever carry with me wherever I go. I feel deeply I am one among them, and perhaps the message of their wisdom song will take shape in the life I embody.
On a recent flight to the Netherlands to attend the IASD annual dream conference, I caught a couple hours of sleep before landing in Amsterdam. I found myself in a lucid dream and flew out the airplane window, and over the clouds to see the shore emerge below. There at the Atlantic shore near Amsterdam, was a blue vortex of energy, and within it I saw Lucid Dream Teacher Ryan Hurd. He was tossing energy up into the sky as a kind of beacon, to make sure dreamers could locate him, and know where to go in the dreamsphere. I decided this looks like fun, and I joined him in the light blue energy vortex, I said, I wanna play!
I tossed the energy up as blue ribbons of energy arched in the sky. They reminded me of aurora borealis. I was surprised to see Ryan in my dreams, as he had never appeared previously, and I have not studied with him, nor do I know him very well.
When I actually arrived at my destination for the International Association for the Study of Dreams conference at Rolduc Abbey in Kerkrade, Netherlands, my first encounter was with a Jackdaw perched in an arched window. I enjoyed our interaction as we spoke to one another and he was rather chatty with me. I acknowledged this interaction as engaging with the spirit of the place. I took a photo as a fond memory, and to my surprise, I found the appearance of the light blue energy streaming like a ribbon across the photo. A synchronicity that resonates with my lucid dream of the energy vortex.
Spirit of the Place; Rolduc Abbey in Kerkrade, Netherlands Photo Credit: Valley Reed
I then found my way to my room and looked out the window to see the chapel steeple in full view with a clattering of jackdaws flying the winds. I woke to their Raven like cooing voices each morning.
Oneiroi Circling Rolduc Abbey Chapel Photo Credit: Valley Reed
During the conference a favorite presentation was on Astrology and Dreams by A.K. Katok. He shared about the three fates of the Greek Moirai, and the Goddess Ananke or Necessity. He talked about how our Lots in life are shown on our astrology chart in how we were born into this life. He began to focus not only on the Lot of the Damion, but also the lesser known Lot of Dreams. The presentation pulled my string of curiosity for sure. I spent the evening doing further research into the Lot of Dreams, the Lot of Destiny, and the lot of the Daimon. I decided to incubate a dream to be shown the Lot of Dreams. I had the following dream.
The Lot of Dreams
I see a staircase with black and white tile, and hand rail with arabesque designs swirling upwards. The staircase resembles those found at the Abbey. I see an otherworldly figure on the staircase, walking up the stairs.
She is dark with a green patina, a statue come to life. She is small in stature, half the size of a stair step. She is very pregnant, and with a hand held under her belly, she supports her baby in her womb. The other hand is on the staircase railing as she climbs each step with great effort and determination. She knows she will get there, she has no other choice, she has a baby coming soon. She stops to rest and looks over at me. She sees me, and I see her. I am seen by her round white eyes, that look so familiar.
Arabesque Stairwell Rolduc Abby
I woke from the dream and attempted to paint the image I saw for my Lot of Dreams. Her round white eyes, and her pregnant belly, the black and white tile, her small stature and the green patina as remnants of the past, stood out for me. I was curious about her eyes and how they looked at me.
Lot of Oneiroi, 2024 Rolduc Abbey Watercolor painting by Valley Reed
I finally understood where those eyes had seen me before. I recalled the Jackdaw encounter I had when greeting the spirit of the place. The eyes are the same, and in reflecting on my painting, I notice her skirt resembles a bird wing or tail. Her green black hue resembles the hidden colors of the jackdaw, and even the shape of her head is similar, and her small height is more birdlike too. This magical otherworldly creature that is the Lot of Dreams, carries the stories of old as a statue would, and is both human and bird like. According to Homer, the Oneiroi were described as a flock of dark winged spirits of dreams. The Oneiroi passed through two gates, one made of Horn as the place of prophetic or true dreams, the second made of Ivory as the gateway of illusion or false dreams.
Jackdaw
The mystery continues to unfold, as I had scheduled time with A.K. to go over my chart and discuss the Lot of Dreams and the Lot of the Daimon.
During the course of our meeting, I discovered an error in my chart, and while we went over the chart that was incorrect, I began to feel ill, like I was sinking, or drowning and there was no way out. It was then I noticed the mistake and once my chart was corrected, I felt the return of my strength and stability immediately. I wondered what was going on with this story I had been studying that was not my birth chart.
I recalled another story, where my mother had a twin in her womb with me who did not survive. In waking life, this was possible since my mother was given what was called twilight sleep to relieve the pain of childbirth. The medicine she was given means she was unconscious when she gave birth.
The twilight sleep I know however, is a lucid dreaming state. It so happens, the story of the twin had come to me by a lucid dreamer, known as PasQual, who I had never met previously, She is located in the Netherlands, and I in Texas, and were connected through a mutual friend who had emailed the dream.
We ended up collaborating on a presentation called “Stranger Dreaming” at an online IASD Psiberdreaming Conference in 2019. Around the same time the dream was initially shared, within days, echoes of this story had emerged in my waking life, where on two separate occasions, twin stories emerged. One of a twin carried in the womb of her mother who did not know she was having twins. The other was of a twin, who after the death of her mother, she found out the horror of her mother being held in a WWII concentration camp, and was made to incinerate infants.
Now that I am here in the Netherlands and exploring the Lot of Dreams, the story of the womb twin has resurfaced again, and may be showing up as two birth charts.
The story of the Goddess Nyx has also come through in connection with the figure dreamed for the Lot of Oneiroi. Nyx is the Goddess of Night, is a primordial Greek Goddess who created the Earth, the Sky and Sea from her cosmic egg. She is one of the first deities to exist. She is described as a black robed Goddess who lives at the ends of the Earth and drives through the sky in her chariot pulled by horses.
She is the mother of Moros (doom), Ker (destruction) Thanatos (death) Hypnos (sleep) Oneiroi (dreams), Momus (blame), Oizys (pain, distress), Hesperides (nymphs of evening), the Moirai (fates), Nemesis (retribution), Apate (deceit), Philotes (Love), Geras (old age), and Eris (Strife). She is mentioned as the mother of Hecate who delivers prophecies from the adyton, which can be an innermost temple, or cave.
Nyx as the mother of both fate, and dreams, seems a fitting image of how we may see the Lot of Dreams, through the Mother. In my case, the story of my own mother emerged, a story hidden from view that contains many other elements such as Thanatos, Oizys, Moirai, Apate, Hypnos, Eris, and Pilotes.
I have felt some crushing disappointments and loss in my life lately, and noticed, I could no longer find my joy, or allow myself to feel it. I recognized this as a sign of soul loss.
Today, I was at my new office space that holds so much beauty and healing energy to support my healing arts practice. When I arrived, I noticed the elevators were not working, then once inside, I noticed the electricity was off in the entire building, and most had gone home unable to work on a Friday. I even had to use my cell phone as a flashlight in the bathroom where it was pitch dark!
I contemplated what to do, and chose to createa sacred space just for me to drum and call my soul back home through my heartfelt song. I sang and let the words flow out of me as I drummed, and felt the joy of the sweet sound of my soul song, calling my Soul back home.
I sang and drummed until I felt the joy return to my heart.
When I finished, I looked out the window where a tall juniper tree stood, and perched on a branch was a beautiful goldfinch looking right at me. It sat there for quite some time, as if waiting for me to sing some more. When I tried for a photo it flew off, but I was left with the knowing that my song had been answered and my joy returned in the presence of the goldfinch.
I researched to learn more about the goldfinch, and found it is indeed connected with joy, and the soul, and singing. What a beautiful blessing I had been given by remembering to collaborate with my soul, and invite more joy and soul energy back into my life, and call the soul back home with my song.
I will be offering a Soul Return Retreat this Summer on over the Celtic Cross Quarter turn of the wheel for the first harvest festival of Lughnasadh. Save the date on Fri-Sat. August 2nd – 3rd. A time to call the soul back home, and harvest our soul gifts.
Awaken the Sacred Dream 