Finding and Protecting Spiritual Gifts

Dreams are profoundly important with the voices that inform my journey, and the experiences that guide me. The visions and voices do not stop for me when the Sun rises, I have had these gifts since I was a child.

Dig Here

I would often hide in the Summer Corn Field next to our house as a child, or the hayloft in the barn. The cornfield was closer, and I could enter another world of shade and long green stalks like trees all around me. A place where I felt protected from the West Texas Sun in Summer, and the chaos of family violence that often broke out in our home.

On this day I was hiding from both. I found comfort from the spirits of the land, two native spirits came close, standing over me as I sat in the dirt brooding. One pointed at a spot in the dirt and said, Dig Here.

I scootched over and began digging. Under the Earth a glimpse of silver appeared. I uncovered a round silver treasure embossed with an Aztec Sun calendar. It had an amethyst stone lid that topped a silver dabber for perfume. I was so excited to find my treasure, that I hurried inside to show someone, and ran into my older sister at the gate to the back yard, who was angrily walking away from the house. I showed her what I found, and held out my little hand. She grabbed it from me, and said, that’s mine!

She took my treasure, but not my vision. She lied to me for years, each time I asked her to return it, saying she never had it. Not long ago, she finally admitted that she had it all this time, but when I asked her to return it, she refused. My Sister has always been envious of my gifts and treasures, and believes she deserves them more than me. One thing she can never take away are my gifts of clairaudience and clairvoyance, one who can hear and see the spirits. She is not the only one who would try to take away my gifts, if I let them. It is important to know who to share your treasures with, whether it be a dream, or a vision, a visitation, or spirit whispers. Hold these close to your heart, and cultivate your gifts in creative ways.

Run!

Another message I was given, was in 2006, during the March to Redeem the Soul of America, where I organized a 200 mile March from the Exxon Mobile Global Headquarters in Irving, Texas to the Crawford Peace House in Crawford, Texas, home to the Western White House of George W. Bush. During the course of the March over two weeks, we went on back country roads through deep red conservative communities. One road on the way to Hillsborough, we were on the shoulder of the road and I held a banner at the front of the March. I felt someone or something pull my shirt tugging me backwards and said, Run! I immediately turned around and began running fast as I could, past all the marchers, yet not knowing why I was running. I saw a white car who had just driven past us, turn around in the road and began to drive on the shoulder of the road right towards all the marchers to run us over! Luckily, I paid heed to the voice of the protective spirit who turned me around and had me running towards the vehicle that was trying to run us over! When they saw this crazy woman running towards their car, they were so surprised, they turned around and drove off down the road in the opposite direction instead!

Valley Reed and Daughter Delaney Clark at the
March to Redeem the Soul of America 2006

Turn On the TV

One day while home alone in my apartment, through my altar I clearly heard the voice of a dear friend say, Turn On the TV! When I did, I saw a terrible event playing out at the home where my friend resided. There was a shooting, and police were called. I felt helpless to do anything as the police were getting ready to send in a robot to kill the shooter inside the house. Moments later the robot entered and everyone in the hoe was declared dead. The police said my friend, Baba Ifayomi, was already dead, but there was no way to confirm this. I believe Baba wanted me to witness the injustice taking place when he reached out to me via my sacred altar.

Days after the home-going ceremony for Baba, I had a dream where he took from my hands a contract which read Civil Rights, and he gave in return a contract that read, healer. He told me you don’t have to do this anymore, this is your sacred contract. Baba was a healer himself, and a Civil Rights Activist,we had conversations about how tired he was of doing activism, and how much he wanted to grow a diverse community of healers from all Earth Based traditions. He invited me into this circle of healers, and we had big dreams for what we would create together. He handed over his dream, for me to carry on and bring together. Monday, May 19th marks 8 years since his Home-going.

Hadi Jawad and Baba Ifayomi

Months later, I attended a fire ceremony within the Yoruba community, as a new Baba was coming forth to lead. The space was celebratory and somber at the loss of their beloved Baba, and the potential leadership of the new. The night before attending the ceremony, I had the following dream,

“A seed was placed in the center of my brain, and from it grew healing and wisdom, which spread throughout my brain. This brain change, enabled me a growing understanding of the indigenous mind and the language of seeds.”

Seed of Destiny

Now I sat next to the divination tray where the divination would take place from the palm seeds. The seeds are an embodiment of Orunmilla, the Orisha who devised divination with Ifa. I was curiously drawn to the palm seeds next to me, and as I drew my attention closer, I heard from deep within me, Seed of Destiny, recreated over and over. The reading that came through honored the powerful magic that women hold, and all that is born through Women. My magic is tied up with the seed of Destiny, and continuing the circle of healers is the legacy of the dream that Baba left behind. Ase’

The Crow and the Phoenix

Crows have long been a trusted guide in waking and dreaming life, as well as conscious dream journeys, guided by the drum. I began having a series of dreams connected with Crow before my divorce in 2001 when crow helped me to navigate this challenging time in my life for me and my children.

One day, my son and I were sitting at the kitchen table drawing and my daughter was playing a game she created where she was the librarian for a dream library. She demanded that me and my son create some dream books to place in her library. I took the assignment to heart and began thinking of the Crow dreams I had been having, as well as a beautiful blue phoenix that had been showing up in dreaming. Based on these dreams, I created the story of “The Crow and The Phoenix”. I wrote the story in a miniature book I had made from construction paper, and handed the book to the dream librarian. She was pleased with the addition to her dream library, and placed it on a shelf.

Later I shared the story with an online group of dreamers devoted to dreaming up some Peace in the World Dreams Peace Bridge. I shared my inspiration from my 6 year old daughter and her imaginary dream library, and the story that came through in response to her assignment to create a dream story. The Crow and the Phoenix was the result. It goes like this…

The Crow and the Phoenix

Once upon a time…

there lived a Crow who liked to stay in darkness. Crow lived deep in the earth. When Crow was lonely, it would fly up out of the Earth and find someone to take into the underworld.

One day a girl named Anna Belle was walking in the rain with her most favorite companion, her umbrella. She loved to walk under the gloomy, wet, gray, skies protected by her faithful umbrella. Anna Bella and her umbrella were quite a pair.

Suddenly she heard a great thunder and it felt as if the ground beneath her was shaking from the sound! She wondered if the Earth were going to swallow her up, when a great Crow swooped down upon her and carried her and the umbrella into his underground laird.

She lived deep inside the earth with Crow, until she forgot who she was. Not even her umbrella could protect her from the darkness that surrounded her. She lived in the darkness of Crow.

One day in the depths of her slumbering, Anna Belle was awakened by a mysterious blue light that shone like the stars. She was frightened and could barely look into the brightness piercing through the underworld.

She caught the glimmer of light as it flashed from high above and she held tight to her umbrella. Crow tried to pull her back from the light by grabbing her umbrella just as the bright wind caught Anna Bella up in a swirling torrent, taking her up into a world of light and love. Crow was left holding only the umbrella, alone once again in the darkness underground.

The bright wind that caught up Anna Belle and lifted her away was really the wings of a magical blue Phoenix. The Phoenix took her high into the heavens to a mountain cave. There in the cave was a magical reflecting pool. The small girl looked into the water and was shocked to see a girl covered with dirt looking back at her. She had forgotten who she was in the depths of darkness.

Phoenix gently guided her into the healing waters of the pool, where she was cleansed of all the darkness that had been surrounding her life. She stepped out of the water, and looked again into the reflecting pool. She saw a beautiful girl named Anna Belle and her eyes gleamed from the light of her heart.

Phoenix knew it was time for Anna Belle to return home, and placed her in her warm bed where she slept peacefully. The Phoenix whispered gently, “You may return to the waters of remembering whenever you feel lost.”

Anna Belle awoke with a start! What was that?…a dream? She looked down and saw on her bed a mysterious feather. When she picked it up she felt a familiar light in her heart. She remembered her dream.

The End

By Valley Reed with inspiration from Delaney Clark.

When I shared the story online with a group of international dreamers, several asked for a copy to share with young family members, and one felt so inspired she thought it would make a wonderful dream dance. I shared by background as a professional ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher and was offered a stipend to create a dance based on the story and perform it in Cincinnati Ohio for a Regional conference with the Association for the Study of Dreams in 2001.

The story came to life as a dream dance, and the Crow, Phoenix, and Anna Belle danced it into being. Later at another conference in Montreal in 2008 the dream dance was performed again as an improvised performance to dream and dance the story forward.

While all of this was going on I continued to dream of Crow, and was told I am to be the keeper of “the Book of Crow”. The book of Crow is a book of Sacred Law, and bridge between worlds that enters the mystery. Human Law is not the same as Sacred Law. Crow has a shared meaning across cultures, the Book of Crow gives access to sacred law from cultures across the world and across time. Below are just a few dreams of the mysterious nature of Crow as guide.

Crow Initiation

I dream I have been given a diagnosis of a condition that will end my life. I submit to my own death and am unafraid. I have a sacred fire lit where my body will be tied to a post where I will meet the wings of crow. I see my body burn up as I surrender to the fire and become the wings of crow and fly into the spirit realm.

Crow Unfurls the Darkness

I am leading a group on a journey guided by the drum. I see crow appear within the darkness of my mind’s eye, and he pulls away the curtain of darkness and I find I am in another territory in dreaming where I stand before a great stone gateway. Crow is hopping around the ground and picks up a golden bracelet and drops it in my hand. I find the stone gateway has a circle carved into it and when I place the golden bracelet in the carved circle, it fits perfectly, and the massive stone gateway begins to open. A bright white and blue light shines through as the massive portal opens that is so powerful I can barely hold my own in the face of it. I am concerned what else may be coming through this portal I have opened.

Three Crows

I see three crows on a tree limb and one flew over to me and brought me a citrine crystal cluster. When I looked at the citrine crystal more closely, I found that part of it is a candle. I am walking through a room where a crystal skull sits on a table, and the crystal skull recognizes me and begins giving divination of what will come to pass in my future.

Three Crows in Flight

The Seed of Destiny

TreeWomanMotherEarthDream
“Dream Tree” by Alice Mason

The night before attending a Yoruba Fire Ceremony, I had the following dream.

“A seed was placed in the center of my brain, and from it grew healing and wisdom, which spread throughout my brain. This brain change, enabled me a growing understanding of the indigenous mind and the language of seeds.”

What happens when you plant a seed on indigenous land, but the the seed comes from another place? The Earth begins to speak to the seed in another language, one the seed may not understand, but it is nurtured by it never the less. The seed learns to trust and grow, wondering what it may become, knowing it is of the Earth.

The seed learns of the divine, the larger mind of our being and spiritual wisdom of “Ori” which means “head” in Yoruba.  The divine stories are whispered, delivered by this seed and planted into a consciousness designed by destiny.

What happens when the seed of spirit gets planted in a troubled mind? The ancient mind of the “Ori” whispers what is needed in order to heal the limitations, judgement, resentments, selfishness and ignorance of separation. There is no separation. The seed of divine wisdom and destiny, begins to whisper in another language and deeper knowing of the pulse of life. A deep healing presence has descended to bring peace of mind. A pulse of the universal intelligence of life, which speaks an ancient language of the balance of life and death, in connection with the patterns of the stars and the sun and the earth and the moon. The seed holds a vibration that resonates to create a change of heart, a breaking open and breaking through, into a space of remembrance and newness all at the same moment.

The Seed of Destiny

A soulful seed planted by the universal mind into the limited consciousness of the Western Modern identity, can unravel the most tangled soul. A seed which can change fate into destiny and emptiness into a receptacle for a story from another land to take root and unfurl.

I came across the seed of destiny when I attended a Yoruba Fire Ceremony. The seed had been placed on a tray with other ritual implements for a traditional oracle reading known as Ifa. I sat waiting for the ceremony to begin and next to me on a tray, were the elements of the oracle. I was drawn to the seed I saw in wait, yet not knowing it’s purpose. The seed began to whisper deep inside me, repeating over and over, Seed of Destiny. I wondered what this meant, but accepted the message as given to me. I then made my give away and wrote, “I release all that stands between me and my Destiny”. This felt liberating immediately. I set my give away aside and the ceremony began. The Babalawo began the oracle reading by summoning the ancestral spirits and offering prayers. The priest held up a Palm Nut as he spoke of the seed of destiny, and broke it open into four pieces. The reading was divined from how the pieces fell. The Ifa that came through honored the powerful magic of women and all that is born through women. The message that came through for me, was about accepting the magic that women bring. Become this magic.

My magic is tied up with the seed of destiny. In this time, I will bring through my magic and no longer be ashamed or afraid. I have heard the whispers of the seed of destiny and released all that stands in my way, both inwardly and outwardly, there is no separation.