Tag: Dine

Cross Cultural Ley Line Connections

Many years ago, I recall a big dream which had me looking at the ground from above. I could see Stonehenge as a sacred site from which energy lines were connected to other sacred sites across Europe and around the world. At the time, I did not know anything about ley lines, but did a research paper on labyrinths and ley lines in college, inspired by the dream to learn more.

I also researched about mandalas and the collective unconscious model of Carl Jung, within a mythopoetic lens of mapping culture which include ties to Navaho Sand Painting Rituals and Tibetan Sand Mandala Rituals of impermanence and healing, and how tracing language across centuries found roots of similar language between Asian and Dine. Ley lines of language perhaps, and ley lines of migration. All these dreams and studies had me looking to my dreams to tune into the bigger picture.

Medicine Buddha Sand Painting

Mystic Valley Cathedral

This theme of dreaming with sacred sites and tracking ley lines in dreaming has been an ongoing experience for me in dreams. A class I took on art history had a project where we had to design from sacred architecture from any time and place we wished, and write our own story about the history of the place. My project was based on the Chartres Cathedral, which I chose because of the labyrinth held inside. My project design called Mystic Valley Cathedral, involved not only the Architecture of the Cathedral, but the stories of the land that existed there from Druids prior to the Cathedral being built on top of it, and how it is a sacred site connected to other sacred sites through Ley lines and water lines or springs. I wrote of an ancient grove of trees that still resided there as the original sanctuary, and standing stones that remain nearby as portals to an ancient time and place. I included in my design the natural spring that feeds the cathedral chapel to mother Mary as a place of healing connected to the healing spring beneath. I discovered later, much of the story I wrote of Mystic Valley Cathedral, was a remembering of the stories of the land which were in fact true, unbeknownst to me at the time. For instance, the Druid connection, and colonizing sacred sites for the Catholic Church, and the underground spring as a source of healing waters for the chapel of Mother Mary. The 7 circuit labyrinth in the main cathedral dates back to Crete and Egypt, and is a mystic design held in those cultures, as pathways of initiation through the underworld as pathways of rebirth, or transmigration of the soul. This wisdom was taken over by the church as a path to God in the center, however the original meanings for a mystic otherworldly journey of the soul still remains held deep within the design.

Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth

Dreamtime Visit

I was visited in waking reality, while sitting up in bed preparing to go to sleep, a stream of purple lightning flashed through my bedroom and an aboriginal dream traveler stood outside my bedroom window looking in. He was asking permission to take me into the Dreamtime. I was willing and when I lay down and closed my eyes, I immediately found myself transported to another location in dreaming. I stood before a small group of red boulders, with red dirt all around and a small fire was burning. The dream traveler who invited me into his dream, stood beside me. He said we were there to do a spiritual naming ceremony for my four year old daughter, and I had been invited there as her mother and witness. She was offered gifts that had been made for her, including a dreaming web woven between a forked branch with shells inside. I was not privy to her spiritual name, as it was known only to her and kept secret for her protection. When the ceremony completed, I was returned back home.

Aborigine Dreamtime Painting

Reflecting back upon this experience, I can see the presence of energetic ley lines as sources of dream travel, and the destination as Uluru, a site sacred to the aboriginal people in Australia. This journey of awakening the sacred dream has me traveling to many places around the Earth in waking and dreaming realities, and those who visit me in dreams by tracking sacred energies.

Another instance occurred when a lightning storm was right over our home, and as I was going to sleep, I felt the tug of the lightning storm overhead, and a presence within was reaching out to me. I felt the pull of this energy bring me right into the center of the storm where a portal of blue energy was circling. I waited to see what was coming through the portal and saw a small nerdy looking man step forth. It was Nikolai Tesla, and he began to share information with me about the storm, as a transfer of energy from sacred sites, to this location. He explained that the energy on the planet is shifting in terms of sacred sites and where they are held. I certainly agreed that would be transformative if sacred energies were held in Dallas as a sacred reservoir of energy.

There is in fact a place in downtown Dallas that holds archetypal energies at a place called Pegasus plaza park. The location has a stream flowing through that originates in a spiral, and a huge quartz crystal cluster is nearby. There are sculptures that embody the nine muses, in a boulder like shape. The project was created by archetypal psychologist Gail Smith who was among the founders of the Dallas Institute for Humanities. The Pegasus is the symbol for Dallas, and the story of Pegasus that when he lands his hoof on the Earth, is the spot from which a spring flowed and the nine muses emerged. In mythic fashion, when they broke ground for building the park, they found a spring was flowing underneath which continues to feed the waters flowing forth from the spiral.

The ley lines and dream lines that intersect in physical reality and mythic realms or Dreamtime, are a crossroads we can visit to bring forth inspiration, healing, and collaboration to create within the dream of our community that is happening right now and intersects with the past, present and future. We have only to enter the dream to bring it forth, and embody our dreams with the abundant gifts of the muses.

The Weaver

Since the Spring Equinox of 2021, I’ve been dreaming with the Weaver. She paid me a visit in my dreams on that night, and I’ve been tracking her wisdom in myth, stories and dreams.

The Weaver – 3-21-21

I woke this morning from a mysterious dream of an older woman who was tall and slender and learned as a weaver. She was there to teach me her skill at weaving, and told me it was time for me to learn what she had to teach me, I can no longer put it off. I knew it was true, but I did not feel a desire to learn from her, whose energy seemed harsh to me, and I felt weaving is not a skill I am prone to naturally. I could see by learning this skill, it would set my path to a crossroads where I would have to make a choice about the direction of my life, but without this skill, I would not make it to this crossroads. The deeper teachings being transmitted through the practice of weaving include connection, discernment and inclusion. The ability to see the threads of fate and destiny and make choices. I knew internally I need the teachings of the weaver, but I do not want these lessons to be harsh. The weaver teacher has a need to share her wisdom, and if the student does not choose to weave, then she cannot share her life’s work and her gifts go to waste. She carries both a sadness and resentment about this, that weighs on her slight frame. She is a Crone and guide, able to teach me about the strands of my life, that can be woven into a beautiful path and sacred container.

Waking – Aware of the struggles of being at the beginning of something, and learning something new that will affect my life journey, leading me to a crossroads.

Action – Invite the weaver into my dreams open to learning and practicing her gifts.

Spider Woman of Teotihuacan, Mexico

There are many stories and myths about the Weaver, she is the ancient wise woman who weaves the world. The Mayan Goddess Ix Chel brought weaving to women, was a midwife and psychopomp who oversaw all phases of life and death, fate and destiny as measured by the moon and the stars. The Spider Woman of Teotihuacan, Mexico predates the Aztec culture, and is also called the Great Mother Goddess. Similar stories of Grandmother Spider as Weaver can be found in by indigenous people of the Anasazi (Pueblo), Hopi, and Dine’ (Navajo) Southwestern Native Indian stories. Canyon de Chille, AZ in the four corners area holds a site sacred to Na’ashje’ii Asdzaa (Grandmother Spider). Spider Woman Rock is a red rock spire rising over 800 feet from the canyon floor like a giant needle. Spider Woman was said to have woven a web from this place that covers the vast area of the Navaho lands.

Spider Woman Rock in Canyon de Chille, AZ

Baba Yaga of Slavic origin, Athena and Arachne of the Greek Myths and Ariadne of the Labyrinth in Crete are all weavers. There is the well known western fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, who pricks her finger on a needle from a spinning wheel to fulfill her fate. There are the 3 Fates also called the Norns in Scandinavia, and the Moirai in Greek myth known as Clothos (spinner), Lachesis (allotter) and Atropos (unturnable). The Primordial Greek Serpent Goddess Ananke is said to have created herself, before weaving the world. The Egyptian Goddess Nuit is another Cosmic Weaver and one of the oldest weavers of the Universe. So many stories of weaver, so many webs to unfurl.

Web Walker 4-15-21

I am conscious in this dream, suddenly transported to a dark desert canyon, where a woman stands dressed in a sheer white cotton blouse and skirt. She has black hair with a few white streaks. She has a round sweet Native face. The narrow canyon she enters is in striated grey tones. She walks in her bare feet on a sandy path deeper into the narrows of the shadowy canyon. She steps into a circle of moonlight shining on the path. She makes eye contact with me, and looks down at her feet, showing me the layers, upon layers, of webs loosely wrapped around her ankles. The webs carry stories, and she walks with ease and keeps a slow and careful steady pace. They do not constrict her movement, but her stride is small, and she must walk with intention in every step she makes, to be sure and safely carry the many folds of webbing draped around her ankles. Deeper she goes into this ancient sacred place. She carries the dreams and stories of her people to awaken them in the deep womb of the Great Mother.

“Web Walker Canyon” by Valley Reed
in watercolors all rights reserved.
Valley Reed © 2021