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.
The amniotic sac that surrounds the fetus is a protective boundary that holds the amniotic fluid. A watery dream realm within the uterus. When the fetus is born through the birth canal and has a face covered by the veil of the amniotic sac, it is considered to be a child protected and connected to the otherworld. One who sees with second sight beyond the veil, destined to be a healer, oracle, and seer.
When we dream from the womb, we are able to see into our matrifocal lineages, and reclaim the powers of the deep feminine. Dreaming from the womb is a portal into the past, the present, and the future, like the wisdom of the three fates who guard the cauldron at the roots of the tree of life. The womb is the cauldron of life, and when we are born, the first thread is cut from the umbilical cord between mother and child. We go from being a watery creature who breathes under water, to an Earth-side creature who breaths the air. In some traditions the umbilical cord is buried under a tree, so we remember our true mother, the Earth, and are connected always with ancestors at the roots of the tree of life.
The Selkie
The story of a Selkie Woman is known in Ireland and Scotland, and it talks of a female Seal, able to shift from a Seal under the sea, to a Woman on land. She does this by removing her seal skin, or cowl, and she becomes land bound. If someone steals her seal skin, she cannot return to her watery home below the waves.
As the story goes, a man finds her seal skin and uses this power to demand she marry him. He hides away her powers and she loses a part of herself to become his wife. She bares children with him who have webbed toes and fingers. She cannot lose who she is completely, a part of her remains in her children. After staying with him for 7 years, she discovers the hiding place of her Seal skin. She immediately kisses her children goodbye, and takes her leave. Her soul longing takes her back to the sea, where she puts on her true skin. She dives under the waves once again and is gone. She has returned to her natural state, and no longer a hostage to the ways of Man who would try to own her. She morns the loss of her Earthbound children, but is reunited with her own soul, and her Seal family under the sea.
The gift of the Selkie is the ability to live in multiple worlds, and to see beyond what others may see or accept. The lesson of the Selkie is not to allow anyone to hold you hostage for their own selfish benefit, and hiding your power away in order to do so.
Reclaiming the wisdom of the womb powers and returning to our soul gifts is the longing of the soul heard in the sounds of the waves, and call of the sea. She Dreams inside the Womb of the Mother, held by the Earth Mother. This ocean of dreams is a watery womb, and her true home.
I noticed a dream traveler standing outside my window inviting me to join him in the dream. I did not hesitate, I was not afraid. I knew intuitively this invite was safe and exactly where I needed to be. I laid down immediately and the second my eyes closed, I was dreaming.
Song Lines
Discovering the Dreamtime is a path to encounter ancient dream ways of creation. The Dreamtime is a place beyond time, where the physical world gets dreamed into being. A collective dream in collaboration with the ancient being of the Earth and creation herself. It is a place one may access in dreams if you know the right song, or dance the right dance, know the right story or dream the right dream. The aborigine people of Australia, are among those most ancient of first peoples on the Earth. They have dreaming ceremonies held in secret, as they must protect their world and access to the Dreamtime.
“They wrapped the whole world in a web of song; and at last, when the Earth was sung, they felt tired. Again in their limbs they felt the frozen immobility of Ages. Some sank into the ground where they stood. Some crawled into caves. Some crept away to their ‘Eternal Homes’, to the ancestral waterholes that bore them. All of them went ‘back in’.”
The Songlines, by Bruce Chadwick
My invitation to the Dreamtime came one night as I was preparing for bed. My bedroom lights were off. I was sitting up in bed about to lay down. Suddenly, I saw a stream of Purple Lightning across the dark. I noticed a dream traveler standing outside my window inviting me to join him in the dream. I did not hesitate, I was not afraid. I knew intuitively this invite was safe and exactly where I needed to be. I laid down immediately and the second my eyes closed, I was dreaming.
The dream traveler had taken me to another location, in the Australian Outback. There were big red boulders around the small group gathered around a small fire. I stood among them wondering why I had been brought here. The dream traveler said, “ You have been brought here as Mother, and witness for your daughter. She is receiving a spiritual naming ceremony.”
Sacred Fire
My daughter at the time was 4 years old. She was gifted several handmade tokens that hold the energy of her gifts, and then given her spiritual name. I was not privy to her spiritual name, as that must be held in secret, especially because there are those, who if known, would try to use it against her.
Then after it was complete, I found myself back in my bed. It somehow made sense to me that my daughter would have such an auspicious naming ceremony. She after all, had come to me in a dream before I was pregnant with her. She asked permission to be born through me, and then told me her name. She also had an unusual entry into the world when she was born. She was turned breech in the womb as her due date approached. I wanted a natural birth and was trying all kinds of tricks and remedies to get her to turn, to no avail. When nothing else worked, I finally sought answers in my dreams.
I set a dream intention for my daughter to turn, and immediately upon entering a liminal dream state, I see an ancient Asian Crone Healer standing bedside. She puts her hands on my womb and each time she places them, they light up. She creates a path of light for my daughter to come into the world. I feel her turn in my womb. The Crone turns to speak before leaving, she says, “One more thing you should know. Your daughter is a Faery Queen.” The Crone departed, as I tried to ask her, “Does that come with a Manuel?” No response.
Hands of Light
When I was about 6 months pregnant with my daughter I went with my sister to see a cultural performance of Aboriginal Dancers at UT Austin. They had never made public before their Dreamtime ceremonies held in secret. They played their instruments, sang their sacred songs and danced their dances and told their stories. My daughter all the while dreaming in my womb, of the world she would soon join when she became Earthside.
I feel confident she dreamed her way along those songlines in the womb, and met one of those dream travelers who would later bestow her spiritual name when she was old enough. That same dream traveler who knew how to find me riding along a song line of purple lightning for me to ride along when I would accompany him into the Dreamtime for my daughter’s spiritual naming ceremony.
Awaken the Sacred Dream 