Tag: Ancestors

Golden Dragonfly

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 which is coming up on Friday, August 13th. 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 and who carries 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.

Valley Reed © 2021

Last Full Moon of the Decade

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.

Extrasensory Dreaming

Discovering your Super Powers in Dreams, is one of the most alluring and memorable aspects of dreaming for most of us, beginning in our childhood dreams. We learn we can fly in dreams, and travel to places near and far, in this world and the next. A place where the multiverse awaits exploration. Children are excellent dreamers, because they remember how to fly.

My childhood dream memories have eluded me for most of my life, due to repressed trauma from growing up in an environment of domestic violence and sexual abuse. I only began recalling most of my dreams after I had a pre-cognitive dream which saved my life, when I was in my mid 20’s. Something woke up inside of me from that experience, confirming something my soul already knew, that my life has meaning, and my dreams were there to protect and guide me.

One of the most important elements of dreaming, is the ability we have to dream the future, not only as individuals, but also collectively. This is of key importance in the times we now face, where dark dreams prevail and the profound challenges of global warming are revealed each day. We are truly in this together, and it is in dreams, where we may find the answers to life’s most challenging situations. The key is to have the courage to look into our deepest and darkest places, the creative impulse to soar into our brightest dreams, the discipline to remember and record dreams, the impulse to share them with others, and the inspiration to act on what we find inside.

Active Dreaming gives us tools to learn how to become a conscious dreamer and co-creator in our world, not only for our own life, in this time, but on behalf of others, in other times. We visit the ancestors and practice transgenerational healing and collective soul recovery, by recovering lost wisdom and bringing forth more soul energy into the world.

As adults, we may have left our imaginations and dreams in childhood, as a requirement of growing up. When we do so, we leave behind a vital part of our soul connection, where knowledge of our true nature can be found. Reclaiming the gifts of soul, in connection with our lost dreams of childhood, can provide profound levels of healing and the return of passion, wonder and awe that children experience in a very natural way.

Children also dream with the animal powers, and studies have shown they dream of animals 70% of the time. This connection to animals is important in developing our instinctual nature, that gives us a felt sense of what is safe or not, in our relationships and in our environment. It helps us become skilled at being guided by intuition, and share in some of the specialized skills the animal powers bring forth to help us navigate the waking and dreaming worlds, which are not mutually exclusive, one need not be asleep, to find yourself dreaming!

The powers of intuition with glimpses of possible futures, arrive in dreams as naturally as the dawning of each day, or the approaching twilight of night. The thresholds of day and night, are designed as places where one may experience the opening of one reality into another. A liminal space one can enter consciously, to experience dreaming as a place, where psychic information is readily available. It is a place one can enter, and be coaxed into a conscious dream for the duration of the night.

Spring Equinox Day and Night 2019 Credit: NOAA; NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory

Our nightly dreams can bring creative insights and protective guidance which helps us enter our waking lives from a deeper reality. Want to experience your nightly dreams and waking life on new levels of intuition, creativity and playful enjoyment? Find out more by visiting Chrysalis Healing Arts and discover how to become an Active Dreamer.

 

Return of the Grandmothers

The Grandmothers have much been with me, as of late. They whisper in my ear, day and night. They take me into the sacred territory of dreams, for ceremonies of initiation, and healing. They come from many cultures, many times, many places and lifetimes. The Grandmothers have returned, and they have work to be done. They share in their wisdom, with an embrace, that finds the deepest longings from within.

Healing the Stories of the Speaking Land

Sing me sacred melodies,

on which I am fed.

Enter the womb,

where women have bled.

Give me a sip, from the cauldron of fate,

Slip me the password, to enter the gate.

Move me closer, with hips circling round,

Invoke blessings from deep in the ground.

Calling forth blessings to remind me of who I am, and why I have come. The Grandmothers stand behind me, supporting me with their love, and whispering in my ears…You can do it. Everything will be alright. They guide me along forgotten pathways, that are no longer visible, and guide me to help open ancient pathways once again, because most have forgotten the way, or how to see.

The Grandmothers teach me to feel from the nape of the neck, protect the strength of my heart, listen to my gut, and to see with my womb. They teach me to hold beauty in a way, that neither time, person, nor secret power play, can take it away. They ask me to help heal the land, and remind me of how I know these things. I know how to heal the stories held in the land, and the body, because I know how to listen.

CirclesinWaterSky

Stories held in water,

move in circles,

Rain drops, dew drops,

Add to this recipe called “Life”.

A water symphony,

a dripping remedy,

resonates with each breath.

 

Water stories, now given to Earth,

Now soaking it in.

Now where to begin?

Buried deep underground,

Held in the presence of stones, until they are found.

 

Tree rooted stories also, gripping the darkness below,

and growing ever toward the sun, the moon and the stars.

Archival rings of wisdom, take us back,

circling through our past, while playing silent witness.

 

The breeze through trees,

whispers how love is made,

As I lay resting beneath her shade,

a dream appears, taking me inside another world.

 

I dream of a memory, when I was a tree,

and I listen to songs played inside my rings.

Like an ancient record album, I am a record keeper.

I hold inside, languages of light,

which feed me, and keep me, through the night,

where I travel in dreams, to distant stars.

This Tree rooted deep in Earth, is a Star traveler.

MilkyWayTree

Cave walls,

call in the direction

of darkness,

A place of initiation and vision,

where painted stories of earth are hidden,

I come tripping back to my destiny.

from a place of far memory.

 

Drifting clouds,

paint pictures across my mind,

bird wings build ships of time travel,

creating shapes of meaning,

across the sky.

 

Valley Reed © 2018

The Dreaming Tree

Years ago, a dream was given to me where I was told by an unseen voice, “This is your Dream Tree. Spend time here.” I knew the tree in my dream was a tree in my waking reality, I had somehow seen before. I recognized the curvy shape of the trunk resembling a snake. After the dream, I went searching for the dream tree in my memory and found it near a lake where I often walked.

I approached the tree to make an offering of gratitude to honor my dream, and as I came near, I noticed my sight became more clear and the colors around me became vivid. I felt as though I were stepping into a dream. I could feel an energy surging through my body and the presence of fairy on the other side of the veil. There seemed to be an energy field surrounding the tree that was a portal to the other world.

Trees are indeed portals into another world, and in the conscious shamanic group dream journeys I offer, we learn how to journey from the tree of life to visit the lower, middle or upper realms of experience, with the assistance of the animal powers. We enter the world behind the world, through the portal of the Tree of Life. I have seen how the trunk of the tree can be a passageway to healing energetic blocks, and a place we may even find where our dreams have been hiding, when they are not reaching our awareness each morning.

The Tree of Life is the bridge between the realm of dreams and the waking world. In this story from Brazil, we see how the accumulation of spiritual power and wisdom can take one into the dream to discover ancient paths of spiritual initiation onto the path of the healer and Shaman.

The Dreaming Tree

A folktale from the Amazonian people of Karajae and Apinaye, Brazil.

A boy named Uaica grew up as a small and sickly child, and because of this, he often found himself the target of bullies. His Grandfather would stick up for him and protect him, but he could not always be there for him. When Uaica had no one else to turn to, he would retreat to the rain forest.

In the jungle, life was teeming with the sounds of beautiful birds and creatures of all kinds, surrounded by towering trees providing shelter. Uaica felt safe and protected in the rain forest, he felt at one with everything surrounding him and he did not feel alone or afraid. He felt like it was a place where he belonged.

One day after his time in the jungle and walking back to his village, he came upon a huge tree where he saw a monkey, sound asleep at the roots of the tree. He then noticed a jaguar sprawled asleep at the foot of the tree, then noticed a huge anaconda coiled up around the roots of the tree, sleeping as well. Uaica began to notice many animals laying around the tree, sleeping peacefully.

Uacia thought, something strange is going on here!

He stepped closer to the animals to make sure they were not dead, and as he got closer to the tree, he began to feel incredibly sleepy. He could barely keep his eyes open, and he forgot about the sleeping animals, and instead lay down himself, right next to the Jaguar. He found himself entering a dream, as he entered the sleep of the animals at the base of the tree.

In his dream, he saw many different animals, some he recognized, some he had never seen before. He was visited by many people in his dream, some from his own village, some were departed ancestors no longer living, some were from places he had never been and spoke languages he had never heard, and did not understand. He found himself traveling to many places on the Earth and even among the stars.

He returned to a familiar place inside the dream, where his ancestors sat in a circle around a fire and singing songs together, which he was given to learn. In this space, an elder stepped forward to introduce himself. I am Sina-a, child of the Jaguar. Uacia had heard stories of the Jaguar Man as a great teacher. He was very happy he was there and listened to all the songs, stories and teachings the Jaguar Man brought him inside the dream.

Sina-a told stories of stealing fire from eagle, he spoke of a time when he kept the darkness of night safe, in a time of eternal daylight. He shared a story of healing and transformation, when he took the ashes of snake and changed them into plants for medicine and nurturing.

Uacia came out of the dream, and noticed the daylight barely hung in the sky and night was falling. The animals were now gone and had crept back into the darkness of the jungle, he hurried home before darkness surrounded him.

The next day, Uaica could not wait to return to the Dream Tree to have more adventures with the Jaguar Man. He curled himself around the bottom of the tree and found himself dreaming once again. He sang the songs he was given, which gave him entrance to the circle of the Ancestors. The Jaguar man appeared and gave him more stories to learn.

Uaica continued to come and dream in this way with the Dream Tree, arriving each morning and leaving as evening approached. He would return to his home after dark, always missing meal time. He began to get weary and thin from this travels into the dream world. Sina-a was concerned how the boy was looking so thin, and asked him to not return to the Dream Tree. He saw the danger the boy was in of never being able to return to his world, if he continued to visit the dream world in this way. Uaica understood and agreed to stop visiting the Dream Tree.

Once home again, Uaica was starving after not eating for many days. He sat down to a morning meal with his grandfather. “Where have you been?” he wanted to know. Uaica trusted his grandfather most of all, and he told him of the Dream Tree and all the adventures he had found inside mysterious dreams underneath the tree. He spoke of meeting Sina-a and the songs which brought him to the circle of ancestors, where he was taught stories by the Jaguar Man.

“I can show you the tree if you want” Uaica said. “Yes, this I must see for myself”, his grandfather replied. Together the two went to visit the Dream Tree the very next day. Uaica showed him the tree and told him to go close to it. When he drew near, he found himself in a deep sleep and dreaming. Uaica made sure to keep his distance this time as he had promised the Jaguar Man.

Suddenly his grandfather woke and exclaimed, “You must tell no one about this tree! This is a very powerful place and there are those who would use it’s powers for selfish reasons.”  Uaica agreed to keep the Dream Tree safe and secret.

When they returned to the village, they discovered a young boy had fallen ill and was expected to die. The boy was one of those who had bullied him before, which had caused Uaica to seek solace in the rain forest. Uaica was no longer afraid or unhappy now and he was able to offer what he had been taught in dreaming to heal the boy. The boy fully recovered and Uaica was no longer seen as a scrawny, sickly boy to be tormented. Now people came from all over seeking his healing gifts.

One night the Jaguar Man visited in his dream, “You have passed the tests put before you. You stayed away from the tree when asked, showed compassion for your enemy, and have used the lessons you were given to heal your community. Now, I will show you more so that you can help many more people.”

Uaica continued to dream with the Jaguar Man, who showed him many secret ways of healing. His grandfather built him a special dreaming hut, where he could safely go to dream. They planted a garden nearby with special herbs, which he had been taught in dreams, the many healing powers they possess.

The boy he saved, who had once bullied him, was now his best friend. He had not only healed his body, but also the hardness in his heart, and he was a loyal friend.

Uaica began to see wonderful things in his dreams and was able to create beautiful things inspired by them. He gave these gifts to those he loved most, like his grandfather and his best friend. When others noticed all the beautiful things Uaica was capable of creating, some became envious of him and his many gifts.

A few decided that Uaica thought he was better than everyone else and so they plotted a way to get rid of him. They waited to pounce on him as he sat down to dinner with his Grandfather and his best friend. Uaica stood up to them and knew they were there, because he had learned to see behind himself! Uaica and his grandfather, their dreaming hut, and healing garden suddenly vanished! His enemies were astonished and afraid as they stood there alone.

They had been transported to a new land where none could harm them. The village learned of their disappearance and was concerned to have lost the best healer in all the land, due to the envies of a few. They set out a search party to discover them and return them home again. They traveled far and wide until finally they came upon him and begged his return to the village of his people. Uaica agreed to return home once again and give them another chance.

The village prepared a great feast in honor of his return, but some in the village were not so happy and had a different plan in mind for his return. When Uaica stood to give thanks for the welcoming feast, his attacker approached from behind with a club in his hand. Uaica was able to defend himself by saying, “I can see you even though my back is turned! ”

Uaica, his grandfather, and his best friend disappeared again, only this time inside the crack of a rock, laying nearby. A voice from deep in the rock thundered to the crowd, “This time I will never return, you no longer deserve what I have to offer.”

Since that time, many stories have been told among the Jurana people of the great shaman Uraica, who could see from behind his head. It is said even today, he still dreams from inside the shaman stone, and those who have generous, kind and loving hearts, may be visited by the Jaguar Man to receive teachings of the ancients in dreams.

Blog Note; I have dreamed previously and written about the Black Jaguar and the Shaman stone.

Ⓒ 2018 Valley Reed

 

 

 

 

Refuge Mountain

Where do the dispossessed go, the refugees, the homeless, the thieves, pirates, star crossed lovers, the broken hearted, the heretics, the politically oppressed……..they go to Refuge Mountain. This mountain is hidden from the waking world, it exists in the world beyond the dream world in a location interwoven with time and space, a place where you can find your lost ancestors, their knowledge, and the places where they lived, that was perhaps swept way and taken over by their oppressors. They have not been lost, they only await your return.

By Valley Reed

Where do the dispossessed go?  The refugees, the homeless,star crossed lovers, pirates, the heretics, the politically oppressed……..they go to Refuge Mountain.  A mountain hidden away from the waking world, existing in a world beyond the dream world, in a location interwoven with time and space.  A place where you can find your ancestors or recover sacred knowledge.  You can return to the places they once lived which were  perhaps swept way by cataclysmic forces or taken over by forces of ambition.  They have not been lost, they only await your return.

Refuge Mountain is a sacred place of forgiveness, healing and regeneration. A place where you can be protected from your oppressors, and a place where you can make your home if it has been taken away.  Refuge Mountain is a place of respite for trouble makers and saints alike, but here you may find a very fine line separating the two.

I stumbled across Refuge Mountain as I drifted into my dreams one night after I had stayed up late researching my ancestry.  I had just discovered that I was connected to an ancestral line of heretics from France, the Huguenots who sought refuge in America from the oppressive forces of the Catholic Church in France in the 1600’s.  Larrabbee is the ancestral line which I was able to track back to Pau, France at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains.  I also discovered the name can also be spelled,  L’arabie which is french for Arab.  I went to bed thinking about my French Arab Huguenot ancestors and I had this dream.

Refuge Mountain

I am on a mountain which is hidden from sight, in the center of the mountain grows a huge tree that reaches deep down into the earth and stretches up through the top of the mountain. This giant tree reaching down and moving upward is a pathway one can travel to access different places within the mountain. Hidden inside the mountain there are many who have come here seeking  protection.

Mountain Prayer

Tibetan Buddhists, pirates, star crossed lovers, a pub run by monks, a French tea house run by Wise Women Herbalists where they serve lavender tea and cultivate fields of lavender to make the tea.  An Irish bard musician, outlaw cowboys living in a world with no boundaries, Spanish Sufi poets, African slaves, Jewish mystics, a Gypsy thief, a Wicca high priestess drawing down the Moon, alchemist scientists, Communist philosophers, mothers and their children, a caravan of Arabian dancers and drummers, a Siberian shaman,  Apache horse thieves.  These wanderers have all come here to find peace and safety at refuge mountain.  They know they are protected and they can pursue their lives without fear of being attacked, destroyed or imprisoned. They can practice religion, speak their mind, love who they love, make their own living, they can live in their own homes and raise their children.  But just in case of danger, the pirate ship is waiting to set sail at the drop of a hat.  This get away shoot was dug through the mountain where an escape hatch on the other side awaits your hasty exit.

Escape to Refuge Mountain in your dreams tonight and discover the hidden paths of your ancestry, or places in your life which have been dispossessed and banished from the light of day.  Set sail on a pirate ship across the seas of time, and find yourself the hero of a tale yet untold. Let your life unfold and the adventure begin, because if you get in a bind, you can always return to Refuge Mountain.

Pirate Ship Dream

The Call of Quetzalcoatl and Dancing with the Moon

The Temple of Quetzalcoatl

By Valley Reed

Quetzalcoatl Petroglyph at Hueco Tanks

In the Fall of 2007 , I was given the news that my Father has cancer.  He had stage four lung cancer with a large inoperable tumor, and he is 83 years old.  Death is inevitable for each of us, and so the news of my father’s illness brought me closer to the portal of death. It also brought  a pain so deep within me I was doubled over as if a knife were piercing my soul.  I was feeling pulled deeper into the darkness and pain of these events as if my soul were being pulled down into the underworld.  My father had recently given all of his things away and moved in with his Sister in El Paso, Texas.  The borderlands, El Paso means “the Pass” and these are lands where the ancient Aztec territory had once reached and ancient petroglyphs of Quetzalcoatl can still be found in the Hueco Tanks area.  One night I surrendered to the pull that I felt in my soul, and I said a prayer for a dream for my fathers’ protection and healing. In response to my prayer, I had this dream;

The Call of Quetzalcoatl

I see an Aztec Mandala as  a large circular structure built with Aztec Codex tiles.  Each tile is connected to a person’s life and there is a tile for each individual soul.  I see a spirit presence there who is the guardian of this place, which is a portal to cross into the other world.  The first panel I was shown is connected to me and my life.  I stepped on the panel with my awareness, and it lit up with golden light and the God Quetzalcoatl, the flying serpent came to life and flew away. Then this gatekeeper guardian spirit told me he was directing my father’s death.  He told me my father would be going into the underworld when he passes.

I see a friend with me in my dream and she stays on the perimeter of the circular space that makes up this portal.  She is talking with this spirit and he gives her a very large ruby that he takes out of the side of the earth that is the wall of the perimeter.  It seems to be some kind of cave maybe or part of a temple or a pyramid.  Another part of my dream is showing me another layer where the Aztec Codex tiles are floating up in space like an Aztec temple but on the etheric realm.  The spirit offers a simple bowl and sets it on a tile and the bowl flips over to the other side and it disappears immediately. This is a place where offerings are made to the ancestors or spirit realm.  I am given the information that if I put my hand on one of those tiles it would disappear just like the bowl.  Instead I take out some Milagros which means “miracles” they are small metal medallions in different forms such as a hand or head or a house offered as prayers of healing and protection. The Milagro prayers are received, but they don’t disappear. It shows me the importance of making offerings of prayers in Milagros or tobacco or sage to be received in the spirit realm.  The prayers for assistance offers an opportunity for the ancestral spirits to be of service from the other side. – End of Dream

I shared this dream with my friend who had appeared in my dream. She has Mayan Ancestry and speaks Spanish and I told her I felt I needed to go to the Pyramids in Mexico and make prayer offerings for healing.  I asked if she would accompany me as my translator since I did not speak Spanish and also since she was one of the people in my dream with me. The next day, we were flying to meet in Mexico City on a quest to the Pyramids in Teotihuacan to explore my dream healing ceremony. We stayed very near the Pyramids where there was a small village, my friend felt she wanted to explore the village nearby that evening in search of a Toltec Elder who might know how we could participate in the annual ceremony of the Aztec Moon Dance.  She asked several people in the village if they knew anyone who might help, and finally we were directed to a house where a Toltec Medicine Man lived. We knocked on the door and spoke with a delightful young woman, a cousin who explained he was not there but he could give us a tour of the pyramids in the morning if we came back then.  She also explained we would not be able to participate in the Aztec Moon Dance without a written letter of referral, which had to be submitted in advance.  She let us know the Moon Dance would be taking place the next day in Mexico City.  We left and returned to our hotel for the evening with a plan to return in the morning. It did not look promising for us to participate in the Moon Dance from what this woman had told us, but I left it up to spirit to decide.  My sights were set on doing ceremony and making offerings to the ancestors in the territory I believed I had seen in my dream, the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan.

Before retiring for the night, I realized we were actually sleeping on sacred grounds with ruins on the property located walking distance to the Pyramids. I made the intention for a dream of assistance for the quest we would embark on the next day. My dreaming was difficult and disrupted, I awoke in the middle of the night with a feeling that chilled me to the bone.  It was as cold as death in our room and I could not get warm no matter how many blankets I piled on me.  I looked at my companion and she slept peacefully without any signs of discomfort.

Over breakfast the next morning, I described my lack of sleep and dreams to my friend and we determined she would go and seek out the Medicine Man we believed lived in the nearby village while I waited at the hotel. She would then bring him to the hotel for me to meet him and I could tell him my dream. She returned with his wife who spoke some English and I told her with the help of my translator of the dream of Quetzalcoatl that had brought me before her.  I spoke of the need to offer prayers for my father.  She understood immediately and went to retrieve her husband. Upon our meeting I felt as though my dream was opening up and I was falling back into my dream.  I recognized the man standing before me as the guardian spirit I had seen in my dream. This Medicine Man is the keeper of the Staff of Quetzalcoatl and the guardian of this sacred place for his people. He offered to do ceremony at the pyramids with us and asked us both to accompany him and his wife as his guests to participate in the Moon Dance in Mexico City later that day.

Avenue of the Dead and Pyramid of the Moon

Before we entered the sacred grounds of the pyramids, the Medicine Man and his wife offered me colorful stones as offerings of healing for my father and myself. They explained to me that it was through my own healing that these healing energies would be made available to my family. They also gave my traveling companion a stone that was the color of a red ruby, we both looked at one another with a knowing grin understanding this was actualizing a part of the dream. We were on the path of my dream and together we went to the pyramids and offered prayers with traditional Copal and also Sage which I had brought and offered out of respect and gratitude. It is the traditional way as I had been taught in my past years of study practicing ceremony with my teacher, a Lakota Sioux Medicine Man known as Ten Bears.  The teacher before me now was an Aztec Medicine Man and he was young as was his wife, and they had nothing but smiles and concern for my well being on my healing journey with them.

We offered the prayers without the flame to burn the sacred herbs as the traditional ceremony would be done. The four of us stood in each of the four directions offering prayers in Nagual the language of the Toltec people.  It was sad for me to see the indigenous peoples living in this area on the land of their ancestors forbidden by the government to practice their rituals with an open fire and so the ceremony we did was without flame. After we made prayers, we went to the temple of Quetzalcoatl to open a portal of healing energy. We climbed the steps of the temple in a zig zag serpentine fashion to connect with the energy of the feathered serpent. When we reached the top, the guardian of this portal spoke the sacred prayers and told us to concentrate our energy and open up to the power of Quetzalcoatl. We stood looking down on the ancient carved  serpents that covered the temple holding our hands out over the temple breathing in the energy. I could see in my minds eye a V shaped opening occur where golden light poured fourth and then two giant golden serpent eyes were staring back at me. The energy of the feathered serpent had been released and it had made contact with me.  I could still feel the energy coursing through my body as we made our way down the many steps of the temple back toward the earth in a serpentine direction.

Keeper of the staff of Quetzalcoatl

Our next destination would be the underground ruins of the Jaguar Palace. I followed my guide as he lead me to the ancient ruins and found myself in the territory of my dream.  Inside the underground palace, we were led to a location that had once been a waterfall. It was obvious where the water had once run down where the sides of the earth where smooth. I was directed to  stand underneath it, as if the water were flowing today. I leaned my face and body up against the earthen wall under the barren water fall, and I could imagine the once plentiful waters flowing over me washing away all of the wounds of my past. I stood taking in this energy for a long time until I felt my spirit replenished, the water was long gone, but the healing energies of it remained and I was grateful to be in this amazing place. We then went deeper inside the underground ruins known as the Jaguar Palace and I was shown what seemed to be a covering over some kind of opening. When the covering was removed it revealed a dark hole that went deep down inside the earth. My guide pointed down into it as if he wanted me to enter this portal. I looked at him like he was crazy and exclaimed, I am not going inside that! It was so deep and dark you could not see the end! He laughed and had me place my hands hovering over the opening and told me to draw the energy of Mother Earth up into my hands and through my being. I stood positioned over what was an ancient well that lead deep inside the earth and drew from the healing energy of Mother Earth.

Moon Dancers

I was feeling lighter with each step along the way of our journey and now it was time for us to travel to Mexico City. My companion and I had decided we would accompany our Medicine guides to participate in the Ancient ceremony of the Aztec Moon Dance as their guests. I was profoundly grateful to them for their generous spirit, and all the love and support they had shown me and my friend. It was here in the Moon Dance Ceremony that I was able to make my prayer offerings for my father. I had brought the Milagros with me, and put the stones that I had been given in a small bag that I carried with me. I danced with the bag during the ceremony, and I was amazed at all of the colorful costumes and the many different people from across the region who arrived for the dance. The Medicine Man and his wife who accompanied us, wore the costume of the black jaguar while his wife was dressed in the beautiful flowing colors of water. I did not come prepared with a costume for the dance, however my friend provided me with a headdress of colorful parrot feathers that she and I wore during the dance. The dance began around 2:00 in the afternoon and it went on until the Sun was down around 8:00 we danced the entire time without taking a break on concrete in the middle of the busy square in Mexico City. There were different Aztec tribes there from across the region and well over 50 dancers who participated. I was accepted as one of the tribe as if I had been there my whole life without hesitation or question. The Moon Dance was so hypnotic and yet I felt so completely alive with the sounds and smells and the movement of the dance.  I thought my body would collapse in the  waning hours of the dance.  I could feel the energy of the dance take over and I was no longer one person struggling against the difficulty of my physical challenges but surrendered to the dance and became one with the movement of a whole community. The energy of us dancing together as one took me and lifted my exhaustion away. I felt lifted ever higher by the energy of this Sacred Moon Dance and I knew my dance was a prayer that was offered to the ancestors of this sacred place.

When the final words of the closing ceremony had been spoken, we all gathered in the square to join in a sumptuous meal of chicken mole, beans and rice with even a shot of Agave Tequila to take the edge off tired muscles. The night wore on as it was getting late and I was ready to return to my hotel to rest and asked our guides to please escort us back home. They had other plans however the ceremony and the night was not yet over! They insisted that we accompany them back to their village to join in a small group of people to do a temascales purification sweat ceremony. They insisted this was a crucial part of the day of ceremony. They had both shown such tremendous concern for my well being all along the way in the course of our journey always checking in to see how I was feeling, and if they insisted on this final step I had to trust them. We arrived at the temascales where the rocks to heat the lodge had already been well heated in a ceremonial fire and everything was prepared. I was given a simple white cotton gown to wear in the lodge. Special herbs were burned over the hot rocks and then poured with water to release the steam.  In the lodge we sang songs and prayed deep in the night and into the early morning.  Several of those who shared the sweat lodge with me that night kept complaining about it being cold inside the lodge. The Medicine Man whom I had come to love and trust, let everyone know the reason they felt cold was because they were experiencing the trauma they held in their body. This rang a bell for me, that must have been what I experienced in my dreaming the night before when I woke up freezing and was unable to get warm.  The Medicine Man checked with me to see if I was cold, I shook my head no.  He gave me a warm and knowing smile shaking is head in agreement. The healing was complete.  Now I knew I had received healing through the day of ceremony and ritual.  I was the only one in the lodge who was not cold.

We then finished the healing lodge and prepared to leave.  I gave a donation for the services of creating the space for the lodge and I offered my faithful guides money for the healing I had received. They thoughtfully declined, knowing I was called to them by the dream and through spirit, and it was their honor to be of service. These were indeed people of beauty and faith and love and integrity. They had helped me find the miracles I came searching to find. Now I could take this energy home with me and share it with my loved ones. It was hard to say goodbye to these special people that the dream had answered in response to my prayer but I knew this was a place and a people to whom I would someday return.

My father later died peacefully surrounded by family and I feel strongly that through the dreams and ceremony and sacred dance and prayers offered a pathway that was prepared for him to travel into the afterlife.  The day he passed my daughter had this beautiful dream of his death.

The Butterfly Tree

 

The Butterfly Tree

I see an old two story house with a front porch and grandpa is sitting on the porch in a rocking chair. The family is gathered around and everyone is coming up to speak with him and tell him goodbye. My mom and I go and speak with him and say our goodbyes.  We see a butterfly land on his shoulder and then he dies.  A tree in the backyard holds many butterflies who now flow around him, as they do he begins to transform from his older self to his younger self of about 40 years old.  He looks happy and peaceful. End of Dream

There are stories about butterflies in Mexico that the return of the butterflies each year during the migration are the souls of departed ancestors coming to visit. The Butterfly Tree is a migration of the soul and the end of the journey we call life.

 

Awakening The Primordial Fire

The Primordial Fire

primordial-fire.jpg

Feb. 9, 2008

I am beginning a kundalini yoga class, and we are learning fire breathing in the first class. After going through the breathing and asanas and chants, we do a relaxing meditation where I had this vision. I see myself on fire with my arms outstretched. My whole being is on fire, and I am enveloped in a leaf and am floating down a river. My life is an offering, a give away.

I see my burning body cradled in a leaf floating down the river, and then a spirit emerges from the fire. The spirit calls himself the primordial spirit of mankind, he is everlasting inextinguishable and exists within all of mankind. The spirit shows me how to take the things in myself that I want to let go of. I take my fear and doubt and put it in the fire, and as I do, I see the fire burn into a deeper place in myself. I am going deeper. I take more of the fear and doubt and place it in the fire. The primordial spirit is assisting me in this ceremony and helping me to go deeper. I see that we have reached a depth in my being where I can see my bloodlines. We have reached the level of the ancestors now.

fire_elemental.jpg

Feb. 16 Kundalini Yoga – Root Chakra

In this class we continue the fire breath, and practice asanas and chants related to the root chakra. The Chakra opens up the earth energy, and we do a difficult asana that pushes the energy of the root chakra up to the third eye that is placed on the ground.

When I try this pose, I have an experience of seeing the earth separate from the sky with a flash of golden light and I can see the shadows of the ancestors standing on the horizon in between the fabric of space and time.

During the relaxation meditation, I have the experience of feeling my body arching backwards and floating upwards. I am intrigued by this motion I am experiencing and so I go with it and find myself in a vision of my body draped across the planet earth relaxed and completely open. The earth spins in its orbit and my body is large like the earth. I become concerned about being expanded in space like this, and so I return to my root chakra and find myself entering a cave where a ceremony is about to begin. I see my face as I enter the cave and I am a man, my face is painted with a red ochre. I sit in a circle of men and there are many of us in the cave. There is a cenote in the center of the cave and it has bones near the edge. This is the burial place of the ancestors and a portal to contact the ancestors. There is a Medicine Man who is leading the ceremony and he smudges everyone with copal, and then passes out a sacred herb, ayahuaska that everyone will take together to journey in the spirit realm. We focus on the cenote, the portal to the other side for a vision. The Ancestral spirit appears surrounded with golden light and is dancing on the edge of the portal. Then the spirits of the Woolly Mammoth, and the Sabor Tooth Tiger appear in the surface of the water. These are the animals that the tribe will hunt, and animal spirits will assist the tribe and show them where to find the animals.

Now I find myself suddenly on the surface of the earth, and I am running through the jungle, I am a man, a hunter, and I am hunting a black jaguar. I look different than the man in the cave, I am alone stalking this big cat through the jungle. It is a worthy adversary, and I hold it with great respect. I am hunting the jaguar to protect my village, and to earn the respect of my tribe as a powerful leader. In hunting the jaguar, the spirit of the animal becomes my power.

moon-dance5-2.jpg

%d bloggers like this: