Tracking my ancestral trails in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado for a tale unfolding that wants to be told. Like ghost trails of history resurfacing, the stories of the land are alive.
I gave a workshop recently, on Dreaming on the Otherside, where we journeyed with the stories of the land, and a dream resurfaced for me from many years ago.
Spirit of the Wind
I see a Native Spirit hovering over the land with a rainbow streaming through his hair. I am on the prairie where fields of oats grow touching them with my fingers as the winds blow. The spirit tells me the legacy of this land will be mine one day.
Prairie Lands
In the journey, I see a herd of wild horses and am told this heard is from the lineage of Spirit of the Wind, the mustang my Grandfather Frank Reed bought from Native horse traders in the areas around Southeastern Colorado where he had a homestead along horse creek in Lincoln County. I then see a herd of buffalo on the plains who are also part of this lineage story.
Tracking Synchronicity
Last night, I came upon a story of Molly Goodnight in the Texas Panhandle who together with her husband owned the Goodnight Ranch in Caprock Canyon. Molly is known to history as a conservationist who was able to save buffalo calves and eventually raised 250 Buffalo on their land, during a time when they were being shot and killed toward extinction, she was quietly saving them. The herd in Caprock Canyon Tx. still remains today from her efforts and is said to be through DNA testing the only original Buffalo herd left in the world. This story reminds me of my dream and journey.
Buffalo herd at Caprock Canyon
Goodnight Cattle Trail
I felt a tug from this story to research the land where my Grandfather Frank Reed and Grandmother Nellie Reed were homesteaders in Colorado along Horse Creek, and my Grandfather was a cowboy along cattle trails in the days of no fences.
I found the cattle trail running along horse creek out of Texas was the Goodnight Cattle trail, which I had just read about Molly Goodnight, known to history as one of the first conservationists for her efforts at rescuing Buffalos.
Goodnight Cattle Trail along Horse Creek
“The Goodnight cattle trail is easy to find because it follows Horse Creek. Entering from the south, Horse Creek parallels SH 71 for a distance. Just before the mesa, Horse Creek turns west Climbing up the hill. It soon turns into a small stream with groves of trees lining the stream bed. It Crosses SH 94 west of Punkin Center. In the spring the prairie is ablaze with the red and yellow blooms of the cacti. It is a small valley the creek has curved out with cool and inviting shade from the trees in the summer heat.”
Tracing the cattle trails of history and dreaming with the Spirits of the land, has driven me into the lands of my ancestors, where lineages include more than human ancestors of Mustang and Buffalo, along the storied trails of the cowboy. It seems fitting this tale comes through the Goodnight Cattle Trail, where dreams surface to reveal ancestral legacy where the stories of the land are alive.
In the beginning days of the pandemic, prior to everything shutting down, I had several dreams that alerted me to the dangers coming.
One was while teaching a dream retreat in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where we went crystal mining, and deep beneath the land where I was standing, I felt and heard a crystal from beneath reaching out to me. The experience was so strong, I had to sit down and just listen to the information the crystal was sending me. It was choosing to come with me, and its energy was embodied in me. I was not looking to dig up any crystals that day, but I brought back the energy of this one. When we returned to our lodging, I found that I was feeling very groggy, like a dream was coming over me. I asked to lay down a few minutes before we went to dinner that night. When I did, I saw a crystal cluster, like a castle growing from within my abdomen. I was told that this was to protect me from the virus. What virus I wondered? I soon found out a few weeks later as Covid spread and everything shut down.
Around the same time, on February 17th, 2020, I had another important dream, where the ancestors came to warn me of what was coming, and many would die.
Ulysses S. Grant
Lineage of Ulysses
I find myself in a dream, as a young girl, with her younger brother, we are between 7 and 9. We are walking down a path, past an ancient grove of trees, heading toward a graveyard. There are Union Soldiers accompanying us. I can sense the departed spirits of thousands of soldiers who died in the Civil War, and they are telling me what is coming now, as many people will die from it.
We are told that the two of us are actually part of another lineage. I was told we are connected to the lineage of Ulysses. The estate we are walking actually belonged to him. Here there are doors opening to rooms to where the children played. I am shown into the nursery, and when I enter I say, “it smells like breast milk in here.” I notice the presence of a spirit of a Grandmother in this space. She was kept in here with the children, and went a bit crazy. I walk around and see a young girl covered in a blanket, who has been sleeping there. She has longer blondish brown hair, cuddled up in a grey blanket shivering in her sleep. She was being haunted by the spirits in this place. I felt bad she had to sleep there. I could feel so many spirits there. I picked up another blanket to wrap around her, and realized even the blanket was haunted. Haunted by the spirits of confederate soldiers. She woke up shortly after, and I took her out of this place. I have had several follow up dreams re-entering this dream, to enter the body of the girl sleeping in the nursery, haunted by spirits surrounded by death, and grief. In doing so, I was able to track the traumas passed on through generations in dealing with the tremendous losses of the war. Generational healing and soul recovery along the mother line. Healing the sadness, grief, and depression that has been passed down through the generations, eventually breaking through to a place of freedom and thriving.
So many people died during the Civil War that people were desperate to connect with loved ones, which gave rise to the Spiritualist Movement, a progressive spiritual and social movement that was primarily comprised of the abolitionist, and women’s suffrage movements. A similar movement is now going on, in terms of Social Change and Spiritual not Religious, while the Religious Right seeks to destroy Civil Rights and Women’s Rights. This was before knowledge of the current pandemic, which gives a deeper understanding of the departed spirits wanting to get a message across, it was a warning about how many may die, like in the Civil War.
In my actual lineage research, I found that Ulysses S. Grant and his wife were very much in tuned with dreams as a glimpse of coming events, and also in communication with departed spirits. I was not able to locate any ancestral lineage connected with Ulysses S. Grant, I did find however, I am related to Abraham Lincoln, who dreamed his own death. Grant’s wife, Julia Dent was a also a prophetic dreamer and intuitive psychic. She alerted her husband, they would decline the invitation to accompany Abraham Lincoln and his wife to the theater that night. (Burch, p. 21)
Mark Twain appeared as a presence in one of my dream re-entries of ancestral healing. Historically, he played a role in the life of Ulysses near his end. He helped him publish his memoirs, and his recovery from financial ruin after a stock market crash. It was a synchronicity which alerted Twain in a conversation he overheard that the President, was writing his memoirs for another publisher, who was being greedy. Twain stepped in to remedy the matter forming an alliance with the President to help him finish his memoirs before he died, and then publishing and promoting to the public, becoming a huge seller (Moss p. 198). These signposts of synchronicity to tell us we are on the right track, and dreams from history being mirrored in important ways, can offer timely messages to navigate our lives and our world.
Now 5 years later, in the current political climate, we are facing the loss of history and degrading of our hard won civil rights, we are being pulled as a nation back into the darkest of histories. It is my sense that it is an opportunity to heal the past, and reclaim liberty. A time to heal the stories of the land, and divisions rooted in place and power.
I have been dreaming of labyrinths, layers and layers of labyrinths coming up from underneath the ground. Each one is deeper and more ancient, uncovering more layers of wisdom coming forth to be seen, to be worn with feet walking paths of spiritual longing. Each layer of labyrinths holds a reservoir of energy released as it comes to the surface. This immense source of energy scares me, it is a lot to hold and be responsible for, with great power comes great responsibility.
The labyrinth is familiar, a seven circuit labyrinth as found in Crete where the story unwinds of Ariadne, and her magical thread from the center of the labyrinth, guides a path for her love for Theseus to find his way back to her from his quest to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne is a weaver, who rivaled Aphrodite, which is never a good idea to go up against Aphrodite.
She chose another path beyond her family of origin when she fell in love with Theseus, who was on a quest to enter the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur that was considered a hideous creature gone wrong, part beast and part human.
A sacred contract not honored with Jupiter, who produced a divine bovine from the depths of the sea in order to favor King Minos and the power he yields. The King did not honor his agreement by making offerings to the god Poseidon as a sign of appreciation. He instead chose to keep the fine specimen of a bull. Aphrodite enchanted the wife of King Minos to feel uncontrollable passion for the Bull, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a man bull monster who had a taste for eating humans. The labyrinth harbors their family secrets.
Ariadne is interested in the quest of Theseus to slay the Minotaur, and decides to help him navigate the labyrinth by providing a string to find his way back. Her bargain with him in doing so is to become his wife. They sail away together, but not happily ever after, he leaves her on the island of Naxos, where she later meets Dionysius who becomes her husband.
This story is one of betrayal, and mistruths, and how life can become distorted when we misplace our power, lack gratitude for our gifts, and betray ourselves with a bargain that does not guarantee love in return.
So what layers lie beneath this story? The labyrinth was built and designed by Daedalus, an ingenious architect and sculptor. King Minos ultimately imprisoned him and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth tower, after he assisted Ariadne and Theseus to escape the labyrinth. While imprisoned, he created wings to enable their escape from Crete. His son however, did not take his father’s advice and flew too close to the Sun and melted the wings, which caused his falling into the sea and drowning. Another layer of hubris emerges in this saga, where men with power, make errors in judgement to bring about their own demise, rather than bring about freedom.
With all of these layers to the story, one must wonder why the fascination with labyrinths have spread around the world, as a meditation on the path of the soul in connection with spirit at the center, however in the myth of the labyrinth, the center holds what is hidden, the ugly truth of what happens when we misuse our power, and how it continues to impact everyone it touches.
I have worked with labyrinths for more than ten years as part of the Women’s Retreats I offer. The labyrinth becomes a path of walking in the footsteps of the ancestors, and the seven circuits is are seven generations of the ancestors, and the return path of becoming an ancestor and how our choices impact 7 generations in the future. In the footsteps of the Ancestors we may feel the burdens carried by those behind us, and in becoming an Ancestor in the return journey we feel the responsibility of what are actions are today and how they impact future generations. In my mind, this meditation is more in line with the myth of the Labyrinth, which teaches us to be mindful of how we use our powers and to what end.
Many years ago, I had a dream visit from a young Elvish King, I was sound asleep and felt someone poke me in the back. I thought it was one of my children wanting to climb into bed from a scary dream, but when I opened my eyes, I saw no one. I thought it strange because I felt the poke in my back, where did it come from? I decided it must be from a dream visitor, so I looked inwardly to see if there was anyone there. I saw a shining elvish King who had poked me awake! He was incredibly beautiful with fair features and a golden crown and luminous threads of clothing adorning him. We did not exchange any words or messages, he was showing himself to me, and letting me know he was there.
I later began dreaming with my Grandfather Hans Pedersen, who is Danish. We only met once when I was a young child, but I remember his kindness. In dreaming he stood before an ancient stone, and said some words over it and beings like lightning bugs appeared flying in a circle over the top of it. The ceremony went n for what seemed like along time in the dream, and I knew I was in the company of an ancient magic, that was part of my lineage.
In a more recent visit over the Christmas Holidays in 2024, the Elvish King came into my dream following a request to assist me with a big grant project I had been toiling over that was due the next day. I incubated an intention that the grant would go through and be awarded. When I closed my eyes, I immediately saw his presence coming through an ancient tree with spirals in the roots and trunk. The tree opened and the Elvish King emerged into my dream. He stood within two pillars of blue light streaming forth on either side of him. His crown held four pillars of the same blue light. He had a long white beard and hair, and his ears were pointed as well. He was reaching out to me with this energy, and when he did, I could see behind my closed eyes the flash of blue energy that was flitting about my physical space. I opened my eyes to see a luminous blue light streaming around the airstream trailer (called the Dream Stream) where I was staying near the Dragonfly Trail in Southern New Mexico. I took this visitation as a sign that my dream request had been answered.
Dream Stream Trailer in Southern New Mexico
Today, when I woke, the first thing I read was a story about an Old Norse language called Elfdalian spoken by only 3000 people in a small providence in Sweden. I later learned that the grant had been awarded that was submitted from the Dream Stream trailer on the Dragonfly Trail, and then discovered today is National Dragonfly Day. The synchronicities and messages just keep coming to remind me of my good fortune and to honor the ancestors and more than human relatives collaborating in this world, and the otherworld. Today, I honor the Blessings of the Ancestors, and I welcome the opportunity to collaborate with them in dreaming and waking realities. I’m eternally grateful for the gifts they share!
As a child growing up in the 60’s Batman and Robin were my favorite dynamic duo. Today, the growing list of villains we see are the likes of Mr. Freeze, (ICE agents) separating families and deporting migrants, and legal status immigrants to the darkest foreign prisons. Holy Fourth Amendment Batman! We seem trapped in Gotham, by Mr. Cheese, the Orange One. The Convicted Felon is in charge of the penitentiary. Where is Batman when you need him?
360 Degree View 4-29-25
I see Batman in his black superhero outfit, driving his black batmobile, and suddenly, I drive up alongside him, driving super fast in a red Batmobile wearing a red superhero suit and cape. I look over at him and nod, Batman looks surprised to see me. As I am driving, I notice I can see in a 360 degree vision through a rotating globe that circulates over my head, and recognize this as my Super Power. It reminds me of how dreams can provide that way of seeing.
Red Batmobile
In the Marvel Universe, Nightwing is the name that Boy Wonder goes by once he has grown into his own power and works independently of Batman. He wears red and black and focuses on working in a neighboring city that is very poor, and occasionally consults with Batwoman, who is also known as Oracle.
The shocking events unfolding daily, makes it clear, no one in government is protecting our most vulnerable communities. The powerful get more powerful by hook or by crook. The rich get richer on the backs of the poor.
The current challenges we face daily as our rights are slipping away and Democracy is in decay, has me longing for the Bat Signal, but instead we see park rangers hanging the U.S. flag upside down in Yosemite National Park.
It’s clear we are the ones we have been looking for, and we must become our own hero. We must tap into our own super powers, and team up with other super heroes to fight back against fascism, and protect ourselves, and each other. We must consult the Oracle of our Dreams.
Batman was a billionaire, and Robin came from a family of circus performers, (not my circus, not my clown car) both lost their parents to violent crimes. Becoming a hero from our personal stories and traumas, is the place where our super powers are revealed to fight for justice and protect the vulnerable in our community. Stories of survival are embodied through generations of ancestors, where our superpowers are revealed.
Perhaps it is time to unmask the Billionaire Batman as a hero, and instead write a new episode. Get in, an independent Woman driving a red hot Batmobile is dreaming with a 360 degree view of the past, present, and future tracking us towards Democracy and Human Rights.
Yosemite National Park Rangers hang Distress Symbol of the upside down U.S. flag.
Here are five ways to embody your Super Powers:
Body Postures – When you are afraid, or lacking confidence, strike a Superpower Pose beforehand. Want to invite your Super Powers into Dreaming? Strike a Super Power pose before bed, and then picture yourself posing this way inside your dream. Shamanic body postures written about by Felicitas Goodman, reveals stances by ancient figures, produced altered trance states when mirrored, “If one adopts such a posture, one will have such an experience”.
If you wake up from an important dream in the middle of the night, you can slip back inside your dream, by finding the body posture you were in when you woke, and there you will find your dream waiting for you.
Embodied Dreaming – The body remembers in dreaming and waking realities. Scientific research has shown that when we dream or imagine an experience, the body translates this as a lived experience. This has been tested in areas of Imaginal Healing for Cancer patients, Sports psychology for heightened performance, as well as Academic performance improvement through dream study test preparation. Embodied dream discovery does not limit us to our physical body, but translates in a physical way as an embodied experience. This opens possibilities for timely actions in response to the biggest challenges we face collectively today. Our most brilliant scientists like Einstein and Tesla knew this, using their mindscapes and dream scapes as place of invention. Leaders like Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed the path ahead to change the world. On a personal level, dreams may take you to find the perfect place to live, the love of your life, your dream job, creative inspiration, or the community where you feel you most belong. Imagine yourself slipping under covers and into your dreams tonight, where your bed sheets become a cape, and your dream body takes flight. Dream into your super powers and see where it takes you! (Children already understand this).
Problem Solving – We can problem solve in our dreams, by sleeping on it, when we have a big decision to make, and can’t decide, we instinctively know to sleep on it, and the answer comes in the morning. An embodied knowing in our bones, or a dream we recall provides a clear answer. This tacit wisdom is dream incubation. The practice of sleeping on it for a particular purpose. In dreams, we can see the problem from a holistic view, and explore every angle, such as looking in the mirror, or tracking ahead for a possible future, or traveling paths untaken to integrate lessons unlearned. We can enter into the unknown, and pull back the curtain of darkness to find innovation.
Intention Setting – Dream incubation is a dreaming practice known widely in the Ancient Greco Roman World, as well as today in modern dream work. It is simply a way to invite into your dreams whatever you wish, for instance, a healing dream, as was the focus in the Ancient Dream Temples of Asclepius, or perhaps a flying dream to travel through space and time, beyond the confines of your fears, and the limits of the everyday mind, or your physical body. Intention setting charts the path for the directions our energy flows. Dreams open us to receive more than we know.
Inspired Collaboration – Our dreams have the power to bring forth the world we desire to create. Finding ways to bring our dreams into the waking world, requires us to suspend belief about “the way things are” or refrain from deciding “it was just a dream” and can’t be real. We learn instead to engage the body as a portal into dreaming. An embodied oracle, providing us a glimpse of a possible future, and becoming a bridge between the worlds. We embody our Super Powers when facing our fears, and seeking out powerful allies of collaboration in dreaming and waking realities who will support our vision and our mission. Together we can dream, and take inspired action on behalf of the Earth, Community, and each other.
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing“ – Arundhati Roy
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.
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.
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.
I have been dreaming about the color gold in many dreams over the past several years and it always leaves me feeling that something magical is at work in my life. Alchemy is a magical approach of turning lead into gold. Alchemists believed that gold was a spiritually pure metal, and the journey of the soul to was transmute lead into gold. The Arabic term al-khimia means ‘the art of transformation’ which just happens to be the tag line for my business Chrysalis Healing Arts. Like butterflies, dragonflies are also connected with regeneration, immortality and rebirth.
Dragonfly Dream Catcher
A giant golden dragonfly entered my dream and flittered before me. I turned with a sense of awe as I followed in the direction of where this giant golden creature had gone, and saw it had landed on a golden circle held in the hands of an artist weaver who was creating a dream catcher with golden thread. The giant golden dragonfly was large enough to cover the entire center of the dream catcher, and so the weaver had to work underneath it to create her dream catcher with her golden thread.
It turns out the dragonfly is an ancient creature, and actually dates back 300 million years, when it arose in giant form with 2 foot wings and 4 feet across. There are many tales of the dragon fly from many cultures around the world.
Prehistoric giant dragonfly fossil
Ancient mythology reveals the original name for Japan is “Akitsushima” meaning dragonfly island. Dragonflies are known to be returning ancestors and celebrated in the Summer Festival known as Obon. Samurai warriors identified themselves with dragonflies as a symbol of power.
In a Mayan legend, dragonflies hold the power to heal and rebirth the Moon Goddess Ixchel by humming over her and filling her up with their life force.
Zuni Native tribal peoples see dragonfly as having supernatural powers who carry prayers to the spirit world. The indigenous people of the southwestern tribe of the Hopi, also believe the dragonfly has supernatural powers and are shamanistic. They assisted the ancient Hopi in migrating to find their permanent home, and helping them to locate water and to grow corn. The Hopi have lived in their permanent home in Arizona for over 2000 years, but they are rooted in much more ancient cultures from which they migrated from South America, Central America and Mexico. They are considered one of the oldest cultures living in documented history.
These are just a few of the tales of dragonfly from around the world, and in my dream the dragonfly got my attention appearing as a giant ancient ancestor and pointing me to a golden web of dreams giving protection and vitality to the dream catcher being woven by an artist weaver. My dreams are woven from the transformative process inside my being. Blessed by the presence and protection of the golden dragonfly, big dreams are being created in the center of my circle.
On this final Full Moon of 2020, I am taking time to reflect on the dreams of the last decade and those which arrived in 2010. Here are some, and how they took root in my life.
Photo by Carolina Teteris
The White Tiger and the Cave of Innocence – Summer Solstice 2010
I am in a dark cave where the light of my soul hovers above dark waters. I see a white tiger emerge from the mountain and sit beside the water looking into the darkness. The water surface is covered with what looks like oil, and a creature crawls out covered with the black tar. The tiger looks at the creature covered in oil and wants nothing to do with it. She turns her head away. The White Tiger jumps into the water, its white fur contrasting with the deep darkness is amazing to see. The tiger swims through the dark waters and reaches a place of murky astral waters where many spirits are floating. The water begins to clear as the tiger swims further out to sea and into the clear waters. She emerges on another shore with a rope in her mouth and she is pulling a boat. Inside the boat is a royal looking woman with maroon colored clothing and gold trim, and wearing a regal shaped head dress, a man sits behind her wearing dark blue clothing with gold trim. On the shore is a small girl of about 7 who runs toward the boat to meet the visitors. I am now back inside the cave again, where the black covered creature is still lying inside the cave. The White Tiger begins to wash the creature and reveals it to be the small girl seen previously running to greet us on the beach. The child lays in the arms of the white tiger as she is lovingly cleaned, nurtured and protected.
I was sent photos the next day by a teacher, revealing the two people I saw in my dream. My teacher was at a ceremony in the Altai Mountains in Kirgizstan, where many shamans had gathered from places around the globe. The woman in my dream, and in the photo was an Altai elder. She later revealed when she lit the ceremonial fire, she saw the spirit of a small girl released.
This dream confirms for me the cross cultural nature of dreams, and the ability to transcend borders and bilocate to another physical location. I have seen this occur in my dreams and shamanic journeys many times over the past decade, and continue to learn how to bring forth my healing gifts in service to others and the planet.
Bringing Up the Bones 9-11-2010
A wealthy, older white man wearing a burgundy and gold smoking jacket, will host a social gathering at his private residence. He escorts me into his office, which is in disarray. There is a beautiful old Asian desk made of antique bamboo. I am walking around in his space looking at how to organize it, and I walk over the top of the desk in my bare feet. I am wondering if he really wants this desk, he obviously is not using it, and I really like the way it feels under my bare feet. I am thinking about asking him if I can have it, although I already have a new desk. I really like this one, it is very ancient and regal. I hop down from the desk not saying anything, thinking if I am meant to have it, it will come. The wealthy owner takes me outside and we arrive at his private home. There is an Asian woman who lives there with him. She greets me, leaving the door open as we enter the house. Suddenly, there is a commotion while some kind of creature escapes through the front door. I am thinking it is a family pet like maybe a cat, but when I look more closely, I see what appears to be a bat or maybe even a phoenix. I can’t quite make it out. It moves very fast, and has such unusual energy. There are many birds flying after it that look like doves. The wealthy man and the Asian woman move quickly and immediately fly out the door after the creature.
I am left standing in the house and I walk outside to see there is a lake, and a boardwalk by the sea. I am looking at the water and am now joined by two shamanic teachers. One tells me there are bones at the bottom of the sea, and that the bones are my ancestors, and they are Buryat. I am told this is the line of shamanism which I am connected through my ancestors. We must awaken the bones, and bring them to the surface. I can see in my minds eye the bottom of the ocean, and the sediment of salt and minerals that make up the bones of the ancestors. As we focus on raising the bones of my ancestors, I can see a white circle forming on top of the lake. Nearby huge waves are rising from the ocean. The more we focus on raising the ancestors, the more the waves become very high and come crashing down on the boardwalk. The energy I am raising is through my ancestors, and my teachers are helping me.
A week after having this dream, a Turkish friend in Istanbul sent me a photo of a white circles floating on water. They were reported being seen appearing in different places, and no one knows what they are, or why they are showing up.
When I saw her picture I almost fell out of my chair because it looked just like the circles in my dream, that were from the bones of my ancestors. I have been very focused on honoring the ancestors and working with their energy over the past decade. I am also called to assist others in reconnecting them with their ancestral gifts and lineages, and bringing forth their collective energy for wisdom and healing.
Faery Joy 11-14-2010
I dreamt of hearing strange beautiful music and seeing lovely faeries with white lilies and orchids, with yellow and orange sunlight, feeling complete joy and beauty.
The otherworld is a place like home for me, a place of joy and beauty, wisdom and healing. The good folk are my other than human relatives, and my connections there have continued to grow. I was fortunate to visit Ireland in 2018 and 2019, guided and invited by my dreams, where I met up with my Faery Kin.
Persephone Planting Her Seeds 12-20-2010
I dreamt of an encounter with the Goddess Persephone. She offered me a Pomegranate which she held in her hands and told me. “If you never open the Pomegranate, you can not plant the seed and the tree will never grow.” She then took a single seed from the open Pomegranate and planted it from which a beautiful tree grew tall, full and strong like magic.
This dream planted many seeds for me, including continuing to grow my connections with Persephone. I began offering monthly Women’s Dreaming Groups on the Full Moon, and later facilitated biannual Women’s Retreats over the past 7 years. I went on to become involved in Women’s activism and organized several International Women’s Summits, including one in Sarajevo in 2019 with the Kolo Women’s Cross Cultural Collaboration, where I was Executive Director for 5 years. Part of our work involved trauma informed care and training, and collaborating with the MMIWTX for No More Stolen Sisters!
As this decade comes to a close and another begins to open, I will keep my dreams focused on what seeds wish to be planted at the New Moon of 2021 for the coming year and decade. I have some Moon Flower Seeds ready.
Awaken the Sacred Dream 