Tag: Collaborative Dreaming

White Horse of the Otherworld

Blessings as we near the cross quarter turn of the wheel at Imbolc, in between Winter and Spring. I can feel the seeds and prayers and dreams awakening underneath the soil finding room the breath. A quickening of becoming who and what we are. As it happens, these cross quarter and seasonal alignments are portals for entering deeper realities in dreaming. A blessing to remember the otherworld as among the community of beings with whom we share this world in the past, present, and future.

White Horse in the Burren
County Clare, Ireland photo: Valley Reed 2018

1/30/25 Time Jumping into the Otherworld

Last night in dreaming, I was time jumping into the past, traveling through house after house going easily through walls and windows until I reached the time I was tracking in the 1800’s to a village in Ireland. The second story building I was moving through became solid suddenly and when I went through the picture window, the glass broke and I fell to the ground. I was time tracking movements of a wild white horse, and my journey had brought to this time and place. I could see the worn deer trail alongside a railroad track and caught a glimpse of the gorgeous white horse ahead, who took my breath away, and my heart skipped a beat. I knew the path I must follow to catch up with this otherworldly horse, but first I must mark where I came through in my time travels, so I could return again to my own time. I walked back to find the broken window where I had fallen into this time in the 1800’s. There in the street looking up at the broken window was a couple, who I knew to be connected to the good folk. They said, “Yep, this is the place!” I looked carefully at the window and felt something was off about it, and decided to walk a bit further up the street, and found that the blue ornate building I had entered through was there but the window was no longer broken. Some faery mischief was afoot, the couple was trying to trick me to entering another timeline beyond the one I had travelled. I called them on their trick, and said they would need to make an offering for a dumb supper at the crossroads in order to make amends to the spirits of the otherworld.

The couple agreed, and came to the crossroads prepared to make an offering with a plate of meat and potatoes. The woman was pregnant and wore a beautiful, blue slate, silk dress, and when she went to set the plate down at the crossroads, she had a look of distress as her water had broken, and her beautiful silk gown had water all over it. Her labor was about to start. I felt the intensity of the moment, as she made offerings to the spirits her birthing had begun. I looked closely at the offering and noticed there were three pieces of coal on the plate, and asked them to be removed, the faeries won’t like that as an offering., and I certainly didn’t want to offend the faeries.

The husband removed the coal as requested and the offering was completed. Now I was free to go about my journey of tracking the wild white horse. I returned to the deer path along the train tracks and went about setting my sights on the White Horse leading me deeper inside the otherworld.

Fairy Bridge in Ireland
Photo by Valley Reed 2019

While a dumb Supper is usually held during Samhain as a silent way of communing with the spirits by offering a meal when the veil between the world thins, this ritual supper at the crossroads of Imbolc (a term meaning “in the belly” when sheep are pregnant and begin to lactate) is a halfway point between Winter and Spring, and a portal when the doors between the otherworld are open to bring through birth and new beginnings.

The story unfolds of the dumb Supper offering as that of making amends, in this world and the otherworld, and remove anything blocking that connection. It is said that coal was often left in barns to keep fairies from steeling milk. In this way, the coal must be removed so that the fairies may receive the offerings, while being respectful and honoring of this liminal sacred space and what is brought into it. The very act of making this offering at the crossroads, is a watershed moment, when the water breaks, and birth begins. This encounter frees me to carry on my journey in search of the White Horse of the Otherworld.

Enbarr is a magic white horse of Celtic lore who could travel between worlds, and the otherworld. The horse could travel across water or land and is associated with going on a mystical journey. Enbarr is connected with Niamh, the Queen of Tir na nOg (Land of the Young) an island of the Celtic Otherworld, which is a parallel universe that exists alongside this one. It is home to the Tuatha De Danann also known as the Faery Folk, Good People, Shining Ones, or Sidhe. Niamh means bright or radiant and she herself is a Faery Queen. What follows is a Gaelic lullaby, “Sleeping in Tir na Nog” by Liz Knowles inspired by the painting by Jack B. Yeats In Tir na nOg.

https://on.soundcloud.com/uP8pWZYbDXfcTFdX9
In Tir na nOg by Jack B. Yeats 1936 oil on canvas

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.

Meeting Death and Reclaiming Timelines

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

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

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

The Night King 2020

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

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

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