Green Man and the Vernal Equinox

March 19th, 2024 is the Vernal Equinox in Aries, when the astrological wheel takes a new turn. Moving towards the Full Moon in Virgo on March 24th, we see that our seeds of intentions planted in a Pisces new moon, are coming to the surface.

A beautiful dream seed came through for me around the New Moon, after I made plans to travel to the Netherlands this Summer, around the time of the Summer Solstice, where I will be teaching a workshop on Dreaming an Ancient Future. A call for Dream related artwork is still open until April 15th.

It is significant to me that the Green Man, has showed up in dreaming as I make plans to attend the conference. The first time Green Man appeared to me was in 2008, as I was scheduled to attend the IASD conference in Montreal, Canada and was Chairing a panel on Dreaming Across Borders where I presented on “The Call of Quetzalcoatl and Dancing with the Moon”.

I had a big dream about preparing the way for my Father’s death, and was shown how to make sacred offerings to the ancestors. I traveled to the Pyramid of the Sun, the temple of Quetzalcoatl, and the Jaguar Palace at Teotihuacan, Mexico to make prayers and sacred offerings on behalf of my father, who was dying of Cancer. During the trip. I was invited by a Toltec Medicine Man and Keeper of the staff of Quetzalcoatl, to join in the traditional annual Aztec Moon dance in Mexico City.

The Green Man – 2008

In my dream, the Green Man appeared as a Man in the shape of a tree, this primordial male wildness, is something I had never before encountered, and I was afraid. I was in the pool when I saw him, and I pretended to be moonlight shining on the water so that he would not notice me. He walked right over to me and said, I am your teacher. He offered me his hand to help me out of the water.

A year later, as I prepared to present a workshop on “Dream Wayfinding” at the 2009 IASD conference in Chicago, Illinois called Listening to the Earth Dreaming. I had another dream with the Green Man picking up where I had left off.

The Green Man and the Moon Goddess – 2009

The Green Man offers me his hand and pulls me out of the water. I emerge naked covered in silvery Moonlight. I am a Moon Goddess. He offers me his sturdy back, and I climb on, and together we fly to the Moon. I am reminded of Witches on Broomsticks.

Now I am excited to get my plans in order to travel to the Netherlands this Summer to present a workshop on “Dreaming an Ancient Future” at the International Association for the Study of Dreams annual conference at the Rulduc Abbey in Kerkrade.

I took a nap after arranging my flights, and I had this lucid dream.

Green Man Ancestor 2024
I am in the twilight zone between waking and sleeping where one can easily slip into a lucid dream. I see a man with grey bushy hair, who is talking to me and I notice he takes two red candles and places them side by side on a wall shelf, and lights them both. I walk further into the space where I see an antique rug and furniture. I am standing near a green couch and I notice an ancestral spirit is sittting on the end of the couch next to me. I can see him out of my peripheral vision and realize his rather large size and tremendous presence. I can only see his feet and legs because he is so large, I also realize he is wearing green pants and shoes. I stand still to see what I can learn. I can hear a man’s voice but I am not sure if it is the man who performed the candle ritual, or this giant green man ancestor I am hearing. I am lucid in the dream, able to stay with the dream easily, and feel that I have entered a conscious dream in another time and place, that could be the Rulduc Abbey in the Netherlands where I will be staying, and is said to be haunted. It seems the ancestors are already opening the way for my arrival this Summer. My workshop, “Dreaming an Ancient Future” is on Tuesday, June 11th from 2:00 – 3:30, so mark your program.

Anyone interested in attending the IASD annual conference taking place this year in the Netherlands, can find out more information here. https://iasdconferences.org/2024/

Now, here I am yet again, dreaming of the Green Man, as I prepare to present at another dream conference on Dreaming an Ancient Future. This feels like an important time for the Green Man to appear yet again, as my workshop will dream into embodied ancestral wisdom, to help us remember how to collaborate with our ancestors and more than human relatives like the Green Man.

The Earth and the Moon also ancestors collaborating to dream us into being, and we each have a unique role to play. Our ancestors did their part in unfolding this dream through their own Earth Journey, in tuned with the ancient Wisdom of the Moon.

Like the Monarch Butterfly whose migration sometimes takes 3 generations to complete, our ancestral Legacy is embodied in our DNA, and carried forth in ancestral dreams that are multigenerational. They are here to assist us in Dreaming an Ancient Future.

Sacred Grove near Rolduc, in the Valley of the Vrouwezijp.

Kairos and Metanoia

Girolamo Da Carpi, Opportunity and Remorse, 1541 

In the Ancient Greek world, the God Kairos is known as the opportune moment, and can be evoked when making a decision or taking impeccable action. Kairos also encompasses the scope of the times in which we live, and can involve the opportune moment for collective change when Metanoia is invited into the picture.

The God of Opportunity is known to consort with Metanoia, a Goddess of missed opportunity, or regret. She is a shadowy figure who may come in the form of Maiden or Hag, and her presence causes reflection on the past, and transformation towards a change of heart for the future. Metanoia means beyond mind, she is a liminal goddess who brings us in touch with inner worlds of self reflection and mind expansion.

Dreams give us entry into liminal spaces on the cusp of consciousness. A place between waking and sleeping, the twilight between day and night, or waking moments on the horizon of what slips away, and what is dawning. These in between moments are when we may enter lucidity, or recall dreams below the threshold of consciousness.

Our dream journal is a place where we can experience both Kairos and Metanoia, through mind expansion of time arc potentials. We may encounter the wheel of life with its opportunities or misfortunes along our path, and dreams can assist us in choosing to meet the moments of our life with clearer discernment. Metanoia can also hold regrets on what we may see as not our best moment. Reflections from our past, when we were unable to act with honor, or courage of heart. Dreams can help us reframe our past, so that we are able to reorient in alignment with future opportunities and personal growth.

In collaborative dreaming, we can embrace the past, and partner with potential futures. Dreams may inspire connection and creation in deeply meaningful ways. You may discover paths of awakening taking you into the heart of healing, and learn to act from a place of more integrity by cutting away what clouds your authenticity and discernment. 

A collaboration with transpersonal dreaming and archetypal meaning, where the personal intersects with synchronicity, and psychic glimpses are interwoven within a mystical web of dreams. Here we may enter mutual dreams with each other inside a web of collective unconscious. A holistic and multidimensional awareness as part of a community of beings with our more than human relatives.

When we enter dreams each night, we can approach it in a sacred way, and incubate an intention for entering a threshold of what is slipping away and what is coming to pass. A crossroads where we may come into contact with cosmic design such as the event horizon of a black hole, or become a blazing comet. We may descend into the deepest darkest depths at the bottom of the ocean, or enter the creative matrix of galaxies being born. We can align with the sentient nature of Earth, Sun, Moon or Stars.

We may dream travel through time and space to commune with sacred sites and ancient ancestors, or become an ancestor to future generations. In dreams, we may discover guardians in the form of angelic beings, spiritual guides and teachers, fairy folk, animal spirits, elemental beings, spirits of the land, muses of genius, or Gods and Goddesses. What we are calling forth into our lives, is also seeking us. A willing collaboration in dreaming with deeper realities beyond what is known, and entering thresholds of greater understanding. Dreaming is where we can meet the moments of our lives in collaboration with Kairos and Metanoia.

Meeting Death and Reclaiming Timelines

The threads of our lives are held by a web that connects us all, woven through dreams, stories, soul memory, breath, and bone. Held in a place we have never been, yet feel a sense of belonging, or encountered in Deja vu. Heard in tacit wisdom that comes through the mouth from a deeper place within us, yet unknown to us until spoken aloud. Glimpsed in the heart when we meet a soul friend, or lover, and have infinite love and knowing of the soul before us. Felt in the gut of intuition, and telepathic flashes of information. We know more than we know. Our Dream double roams multidimensional reality, until being tucked back into the physical body upon waking. However, stories of the Dream Double are also said to appear as a precursor to one’s death.

In waking reality, most have agreed to let the intellect and personality take over for a ride on this Karmic wheel of life, where many have constructed realities without benefit of our dreams or soul wisdom. Hierarchy is the popular Spiritual design in this worldview based on power and control. A design that is crumbling and Empires are dissolving. Consensual waking reality is based on the power of the rational intellect, at the expense of the creative compassionate wisdom of the Soul as found in dreams.

We may have more than one soul, and exist in many worlds. Dreams come and go, as does the soul, when we enter the realm of sleep every night. We collaborate with our parallel selves who exist on other timelines unfolding from other choices made at different crossroads in life. When these timelines are near in dreaming, we can merge with our lived experiences to benefit from lessons learned and life mastery.

The Night King 2020

I am driving in my old neighborhood and stop to get gas on my way home. I arrive at my home, and walk into the sunroom overlooking the creekside back yard. I see a mysterious blue light moving from the creek up the path towards my house. The presence draws near enough to see before me, is the Night King (as seen in the Game of Thrones on HBO). I ask, “Who are you and why are you here?” He responds, “I am your death.” I am shocked, and look around searching for answers. I see another version of myself standing next to me. She is a mother and career woman who is pragmatic, healthy, and successful. She devotes all of her energy to her family and career, but she has little knowledge of her soul, or dreams, or mysteries, or magic. She has physical, financial, and mental energy to spare. I on the other hand have followed the path of soul, dreams, mysticism, but my financial fortune, health and mental energies, have been swallowed up in a world that does not value these realities. My parallel self and I make an exchange of energies to increase the supply of life vibrancy and soul purpose. The Night King is satisfied by this exchange of energy that has extended the life contract for us both.

This dream came in 2020 during the pandemic, when I was struggling physically, financially, mentally, and emotionally. Afterwards, I felt my physical, mental, and emotional resources restored. I was recruited to work for a community college in South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, and found a new career as a grant writer that has secured my financial future. I had sold my home in 2014, where I raised my children, and this dream visit to my prior home helped to bring closure and reoriented me to the importance of self care and strengthening my life. I had stepped onto a new timeline.

The pandemic was a time when many were faced with life or death challenges, and lost loved ones. Many lost jobs and businesses, and had to remake themselves and their livelihoods. In 2021, the housing crisis began, and prices continue to rise as the lack of affordable housing declines. Destiny may call for us to dream into new time lines, and recover resources from parallel selves as we navigate these times of great change. We face big threats of climate disasters, gun massacres, genocide, war, and authoritarian sociopolitical movements based on hatred and global power. Collaborative Dreaming includes meeting our own death, and reclaiming our destiny, in connection with our embodied multidimensional wisdom.

Embodied Dreaming

Artist: Orphné Achéron
Title: Forgotten Lands

Psychic Colonization 12/1/23

“In my dream, I was discussing with a group of people, how we have been colonized to ignore our psychic impulses, and intuitive connections which have been cultivated over generations.”

The modern world centers the rational mind and materialism, and has no use for dreams, psychic awareness, intuition, or the imagination, and deems them “not real” or meaningless.

Previously, our ancestors however, knew the importance of dreams as sources of psychic information to be able to prepare for what is coming, and thrive. They understood the importance of sharing dreams as part of their holistic view of life, and they accepted visitations of departed loved ones in dreams as a way of staying connected, and gaining guidance from a broader view.

This wisdom is rooted in the body, and the lived experience of generations before us has been passed on through epigenetics. We each hold the capacity to feel messages coming through the intuition, and our dreams hold our desire to connect, and share in a deeply meaningful way.

Our creative mind and our capacity to imagine a future, and our connection to the past and the Wisdom of the Ancestors, are the remedy for the dystopian world that surrounds us daily.

Taken together, these ancestral gifts of intuition, imagination, dreaming, and psychic awareness, bring us in concert with our ability to collaborate in creating an ancient future.

Valley Reed all rights reserved @2023
chrysalishealingarts.org
awakenthesacreddream.com

Butterfly DNA

Butterfly DNA 🦋 12/23/23

Art by Leticia Banegas Gomez

I was splicing the DNA sequence of butterflies, repairing a weak sequence, and sewing it back together with a stronger sequence.

I saw the overall DNA sequence as a fabric folded over and over and over again. A material that appeared like a dense window screen.

In the dna sequence repair, I cut the weak link with my Mother’s Sewing scissors. It was then a hyper focused look, that appeared like editing a sound recording, and mixing it together with the preferred experience.

I was aware that this process was about healing ancestral DNA, and the generational migration of the embodied soul path being supported in a stronger way.

Dream Note – Butterflies are significant in many cultures to be connected with Ancestors, Soul, Psyche, Migration, Transformation, and Healing.

Dream Collaboration – Repairing Ancestral DNA with the tools of the Motherline, to sew together a stronger sequence, that is done through sound editing and healing.

Rainbow Woman and Dragonfly

On a recent trip to the land of enchantment in New Mexico with my beloved, we were tracking Dragonflies and Rainbows, or they were tracking me. We popped into the Tranquil Buzz in Silver City for an excellent local spot for coffee, and found it to be a love vortex of caffeine heaven.

Love Lives Here

We dropped a love note to the world, and went for a hike on Dragonfly Trail where we are tracking the magic of ancient dragonfly petroglyphs on a 5 mile hike.

Dragonfly Petroglyph on the Dragonfly trail

Vibrant Rainbows appeared as we drove from a massive storm front and the Sun shown and the sky cleared. Like Dragonflies seeking sun and water, we were headed to the springs in Truth of Consequences.

Rainbow Woman

On our return from our trip, I began having difficulty with my left eye, seeing a shimmery rainbow streaming out of it. I went to get my eyes checked at the optomologist, and was told my eyes are both healthy, thankfully, but that I had experienced an ocular migraine. I began to think of Odin and his sacrifice of an eye to gain the gift of Wisdom and the sight of a seer. I wondered if it was an “Oracular” Migraine I had instead! We made friends with these two Ravens while in New Mexico.

Muninn (Memory) and Huginn (Thought)
Odin’s Ravens

It turns out, as synchronicity would have it, I am leading a monthly Women’s group online for Lady of Beasts on Friday, January 12th 7-9 CST in collaboration with Ix Chel (Rainbow Woman) and Dragonfly.

The story goes that the Mayan Goddess Ix Chel, whose name means Lady of Rainbows, she had died, and a flight of dragonflies came to sing over her for 183 days to return her to life. She returns to her luminous self and her rightful place as a Moon Goddess in the temple of night. She holds the mysteries of trusting and letting go into darkness, and the wholeness of becoming lunar light. She knows of birth, death and rebirth, and understands the flux and flow of the cycles of change.

The mysteries of light, the flight of dragonflies, the wisdom of the Goddess, and the rebirth of the light is a blessing as we enter the cold of Winter. We must recall that it is also a time of rebirth and awakening seeds, a quickening of what is ready to grow forth into the world, a time to dream with the moon and the stars and the rainbow goddess and sing with the dragonflies to bring ourselves back to life.

River of Dreams

“We all end in the ocean,
We all start in the streams,
We’re all carried along,
By the river of dreams.

In the middle of the night.”

River of Dreams – lyrics by Billy Joel

Billy Joel Dreamt of this song, and was unable to shake it. The River of Dreams flowed into his life and he was never the same. He set it to music, and let it flow out into the world. I’ve been dreaming of rivers lately and these lyrics capture the view, of where we all begin, and where we end up, and how the flow of the waters of life can be guided by dreams.

In my dreams, I’m standing beside a river on the banks of a lush green forest. I feel drawn to the healing beauty and flow of the river, it brings a calm to my soul. It’s happened several times lately, where I am just standing beside a beautiful river, feeling the powerful flow and depth of experience. It’s not the same river in my dreams, a different place and different river each time, but the feeling that draws me there is the flow of my soul, and a knowing these rivers are all connected to the source of flowing waters that brings deep peace, healing and connection.

San Marcus River

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy. “

– Rumi

“You get your light from the moon and the stars. “

This was the wisdom shared with me by the Goddess of night called Lilith. She shows up in the guise of the High Priestess. She is black on one side, and white on the other. She explains that black and white are the phases of the moon.

She sits on her throne made of stone, and owl sits on her shoulder, and snake is on the ground beside her. She shows me her lineage of babies, that surround her. At first glance the space looks barren and empty, but on another look, she shows me her lineage is made up of dreams.

She tells me I can offer healing and protection to the children in Gaza by offering prayers to the river. They will get there that way, through the waters, and rivers of dreams. I see the importance of working with rivers when doing spiritual, healing work. I feel the presence of her Lineage of Dreams.

Primordial Mothers

“The Norns – Ancient Mothers Weaving the World” Artist: Monica Sjoo

I had the following dream nearly two years ago.

Bring Up Bones and Ring that Bell – October 7, 2022

I dug into the Earth and pulled up a skeleton, all grey and ancient. This skeleton belongs to me, as an ancestor. The cervical spinal cord hangs below as I feel the weight of the skull in my hand. I hold the Skeleton up to get a better look, and notice to my right, partially buried in the Earth, is a ceremonial temple bell. I step down, deeper into the ground, to become sacred midwife in this primal act of unearthing the Temple Bell.

As I hold the Skelton in one hand, I pull the bell from the Earth in the other. Holding this massive heavy Temple Bell in one hand, the strength of the Ancestors rings the bell, as I use the skull as a mallet. A frenzy takes over me as I ring that bell, a deep sound carries forth from within the Earth, and across generations.

I am banging the skull against this sacred bell, over and over, and over again. It’s sound must be heard around the Earth. I see the grey skull crack and disintegrate in my hands. I feel my strength and my will return. I feel a freedom and liberation is heard as I sound the Temple Bell, a call to the ancestors, and a call to the sacred that has been buried, but is no longer silent, no longer unseen. I feel a spiritual power and strength in myself return that is primal and cannot be turned away from this task of bringing up the bones, and ringing the bell of the ancestors.

I feel this call of the sacred deep in my bones, and it’s sound must be heard. I feel this prayer deep in my bones with my heart and soul.

Ring them bells that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack, in everything,

That’s how the light gets in.

– Leonard Cohen

The Temple Bell calls the primordial Mothers at this time on Earth, exactly two years ago this dream came, and a year since the events that spurred a genocide in Gaza, whose fires of war have spread to Lebanon, and now Iran. These world events unfolding reflect the primordial grief and pain of this ancestral history buried underground. Yet today it plays out under the guise of privilege, where lives of the innocent are of no concern.

Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang writes in her research into Korean Temple Bells as a return to the sound of the primordial mothers. A call to the whale mothers and dragon mothers. The most wise and primal powers of Earth and Sky. “The Whale-dragon bell awakens moderns to what has been forgotten, the interspecific bond, originating from a pre-patriarchal time, between matriarchal shaman head mothers and whales.“ (Ancient Korean Whale Dragon Bell, Hwang, Helen).

The Dragon energy is one that rises in the Spring and rests in the Autumn, it is also a time when the Eclipse of the Sun and Moon can be seen with the South Node of the Tail, a time of release which we just had in Libra carrying the energy of Justice. The recent Pisces North Node Super Lunar Eclipse creates a hunger for destiny and shows up in our dreams. Now at the tail of the Dragon in the South node in Libra for this Solar Eclipse, we are at the end of this two year cycle. Perhaps now in Autumn, the dragon can rest and a ceasefire can hold.

In the Holy land there are several versions of destiny, making a nest of dragons underground.

I am reminded of the story of Merlin who became seer and guide to King Arthur. In the story of his becoming Merlin, it begins when he is but a lad when called before King Vortigen, whose castle keeps falling down, and must be repeatedly rebuilt. His council of wise men tell him, he must sacrifice a fatherless child in order to overcome the crumbling foundation.

Merlin questions the wisdom of such a proclamation, and as seer is able to see underground where the problem resides. His vision reveals dragons underground causing the crumbling tower. He recommends digging up the foundation to remedy the problem.

“ When Merlin bests the wise men and instructs them to dig below the tower, they find a dragon’s nest. The child of Matriarchy reveals the “snakes” below the foundation of the new paradigm. “ (Strand, Sophie, The Flowering Wand).

These dreams of Bell, Whale, and Dragon reveal echos of global resonance and divination into the past, present and future. They require deeper digging to find the wisdom underneath, the sounds of the Primordial Mothers are no longer silent.

  • Cohen, Leonard; Anthem, 1992
  • Hwang, Helen H ; “Ancient Korean Whale Dragon Bell: An Encodement of Cetacean Soteriology” S/He: An International Journal of Goddess Studies. Vol. 2 Number 1 98-188. Spring 2022.
  • Strand, Sophie; pg. 120, The Flowering Wand, 2022.

Vein of Gold

The way to the Vein of Gold opens in dreaming, revealed by my higher self as a path of deep creativity and spiritual energy. An alchemical energy hidden within the Earth.

May 10, 2023

I am looking at a vein of gold from above, held deep inside the Earth. I am shown a map of two pathways which lead to the vein of gold. Once I chose a path in my mind, I am standing before the way. A stone is the entry point. I move with ease into the stone surface, becoming like the osseous rock, I am able to enter the crevice where the gold is found. In the dream, I do this over and over, practicing how to traverse this pathway of stone deep inside the Earth, becoming layers of stone to reach the vein of gold. Once there, I feel a deep satisfaction and happiness within myself. I notice the destination is a large and spacious cave, and a Chinese man is there to greet me. He asks me how I knew how to get here. He says we from the East, have been coming here for a very long time, but people from the West, rarely know how to get here. I told him, I dreamed myself here!

I explained how my dream showed me two paths I could follow in order to get there. I practiced in my dreams, over and over, following the path, so I would know how to find the path to locate the vein of gold. In my case, that involved becoming rock, moving through the solid, to find the movement held inside it. Becoming like the osseous surface that can breath in and out, shifting with each breath, and by becoming one with the rock surface, my awareness became fluid movement in the direction of my destination.

“At its essence, art is an alchemical process. By practicing art, by living artfully, we realize our vein of gold.”

— The Vein of Gold: A Journey to Your Creative Heart (Artist’s Way) by Julia Cameron

The interaction with the Chinese man in the cave at the heart of the vein of gold, had me researching Chinese alchemy from a Taoist view. I discovered the vein of gold mentioned as a Taoist concept, which brings together the elements as a way of becoming one with our environment, and physical reality, and a path towards immortality. The Taoist masters taught about becoming, through receiving and letting go. Not a path to produce, accomplish, and consume, as we in the West are prone to do.

The history of the Vein of Gold in ancient Chinese Taoism identifies a vein of gold as akin to dragon lines of energy connected with an alchemical approach to longevity and immortality, which was the inward and physical goal of mystic Taoism. The vein of gold associated with the Dragon lines, known also as ley lines, are energy lines connected to Earth and Sky. A map between the worlds of inner and outer experience. Connection to this vein of gold, may also center in a cave of the ancestors, where reservoirs of spiritual power can be found, and held within the Earth, where perhaps my dream guided me.

One of its most important goals of Taoist painting was revealing qi, variously known as the “Breath of Heaven,” the “Breath of Nature” or the “Quality of Spirit.” According to one painting manual, “qi is as basic as the way [people] are formed and so it is with rocks, which are the framework of the heavens and of earth, and also have qi. That is the reason rocks are sometimes spoken of as ‘roots of the clouds.’ Rocks without qi are dead rocks, as bones without the same vivifying spirit are dry bare bones. How could a cultivated person paint a lifeless rock…rocks must be alive.”

“Vein of Gold“
by Valley Reed
Acrylic Pour

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.

Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.

-Laotzu

Iatromantis: Dream Traveling Philosopher Healers

Aristeas was among those of ancient Greece who was known to be an Iatromantis, a seer healer. It is recorded in ancient stories his soul could leave his body, and return at will. This is something that an Iatromantis would be able to do, both in dreaming, and waking realities. Aristeas was a poet philosopher, who is also said to be able to take the form of a Raven.

Peter Kingsley writes the Iatromantis is part of a larger Greek and Asian shamanic tradition originating in Central Asia. A solitary practice was incubation, which was beyond the dream healing temples of the Grecco-Roman world, but enabled these seer healers to enter a state beyond sleeping, dreaming or waking, but entering a state of being described as consciousness itself. There used to be experts at incubation–masters at the art of going into another state of consciousness or allowing themselves to go if they were drawn there. They had a name that fitted them perfectly — Iatromantis

Abaras the Hyporbean, was also considered an Iatromantis, a legendary sage and healer who practiced medicine on the soul and the body. Hermotimus of Clazomenae reported to his wife the ability of his soul to leave the body during sleep, as if on a trip. She shared this oddity with the wrong person, and they came and burned his body while he slept.

Evidence of this approach to healing of body and soul is rooted in incubation practices of intention setting for dreaming for the purpose of healing as was used in the Asklepion Dream Temple practices of ancient Greece and Rome which spanned into the Thracian ( Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria) and Dacian (Romania) world. The Egyptian dream practices also included dream incubation invoking Gods such as Imhotep or Serapis, known for appearing in dreams for healing. The Serapeion in Alexandria, and Memphis Egypt were popular locations for dream incubation and dream healing practices.

The gateway to entering the dream temples were built to impress, and often devoted to the Mnemosyne, Mother of the Muses and Goddess of Memory, as gatekeeper between the realms, her presence was to help bring back the memory of the dream. Hygeia the daughter of Asclepius, brings powers of hygiene and cleansing, in preparation for the dream healing incubation ritual. After the cleansing ritual of mind, body, and spirit, is complete the supplicant may enter the abaton, a sacred sanctuary where the Dream Healing Incubation takes place, and the pilgrim sleeps overnight to incubate their healing request into their dreams. If an incubant was unable to recall a dream, a dream healing priest or priestess would dream on their behalf, and transfer the dream in the telling.

In an area in western Anatolia, south of Phocaea, in a region called Caria was a famous cave known as a Charonium or Plutonium — entrance to the underworld. Next to it was a temple dedicated to the gods of the underworld. Here the Pholarchos (masters of dreams, lords of the lair) would lead the sick into the cave and settle them down, leave them there in utter stillness. – Peter Kingsley

The Pholarchos Tarot, developed by artist, scribe and dreamer, Carmen Sorrenti, brings dreams through the portal of each card, and her alchemical writing which accompanies the deck. I met Carmen at a dream conference in Los Angeles several years ago, as she was developing the deck. She had several of her paintings in the Dream Art Gallery exhibit at the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) conference. As I stood there gazing at the paintings before me in the form of dream inspired tarot, I began to share a dream with a woman standing beside me. The previous night, I I dreamt of a Viking Goddess who emerged from out of the underworld through a doorway sized portal like a life sized tarot card, she was driving a chariot pulled by dragons.

I admired the dream tarot art before me in the exhibit and recognized the synchronicity. Little did I know, the woman with whom I shared my dream, was the artist and creator of the Pholarchos Tarot. I knew then, I would order her deck as soon as it was available. She told me she was working on creating the chariot card at the moment. When I eventually did receive her lively deck of cards, before even opening the box, I noticed the sounds of a carnival like atmosphere, coming from inside the box. The dreams interwoven inside were bursting to get out and come alive!

Indeed, the dreams realms come through in most unexpected ways sometimes, and we may have forgotten how dreams are rooted in the western modern world, but dreams have not forgotten us.