Tag: Ancestors

The Ancestors Are Dreaming

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.

Green Man and the Vernal Equinox

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

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

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

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

The Green Man – 2008

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

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

The Green Man and the Moon Goddess – 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vein of Gold

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

May 10, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Vein of Gold“
by Valley Reed
Acrylic Pour

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

Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.

Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.

-Laotzu

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. 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.

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, heretics, the politically oppressed……..they go to Refuge Mountain.  A mountain hidden away from the waking world, existing in the world behind the 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 and colonialism.  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.  Larrabee is of my matrilineal 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 later would come to know that Larrabee is a name rooted in the Basque areas of France and Spain. I went to bed that night, thinking about my French 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 German monastic brewery, 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 Romani trickster, 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, and 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