Tag: Dream Travel

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

Songs of Creation and Dream Travel

I noticed a dream traveler standing outside my window inviting me to join him in the dream. I did not hesitate, I was not afraid. I knew intuitively this invite was safe and exactly where I needed to be. I laid down immediately and the second my eyes closed, I was dreaming.

Song Lines

Discovering the Dreamtime is a path to encounter ancient dream ways of creation. The Dreamtime is a place beyond time, where the physical world gets dreamed into being. A collective dream in collaboration with the ancient being of the Earth and creation herself. It is a place one may access in dreams if you know the right song, or dance the right dance, know the right story or dream the right dream. The aborigine people of Australia, are among those most ancient of first peoples on the Earth. They have dreaming ceremonies held in secret, as they must protect their world and access to the Dreamtime.

“They wrapped the whole world in a web of song; and at last, when the Earth was sung, they felt tired. Again in their limbs they felt the frozen immobility of Ages. Some sank into the ground where they stood. Some crawled into caves. Some crept away to their ‘Eternal Homes’, to the ancestral waterholes that bore them. All of them went ‘back in’.”

The Songlines, by Bruce Chadwick

My invitation to the Dreamtime came one night as I was preparing for bed. My bedroom lights were off. I was sitting up in bed about to lay down. Suddenly, I saw a stream of Purple Lightning across the dark. I noticed a dream traveler standing outside my window inviting me to join him in the dream. I did not hesitate, I was not afraid. I knew intuitively this invite was safe and exactly where I needed to be. I laid down immediately and the second my eyes closed, I was dreaming.

The dream traveler had taken me to another location, in the Australian Outback. There were big red boulders around the small group gathered around a small fire. I stood among them wondering why I had been brought here. The dream traveler said, “ You have been brought here as Mother, and witness for your daughter. She is receiving a spiritual naming ceremony.”

Sacred Fire

My daughter at the time was 4 years old. She was gifted several handmade tokens that hold the energy of her gifts, and then given her spiritual name. I was not privy to her spiritual name, as that must be held in secret, especially because there are those, who if known, would try to use it against her.

Then after it was complete, I found myself back in my bed. It somehow made sense to me that my daughter would have such an auspicious naming ceremony. She after all, had come to me in a dream before I was pregnant with her. She asked permission to be born through me, and then told me her name. She also had an unusual entry into the world when she was born. She was turned breech in the womb as her due date approached. I wanted a natural birth and was trying all kinds of tricks and remedies to get her to turn, to no avail. When nothing else worked, I finally sought answers in my dreams.

I set a dream intention for my daughter to turn, and immediately upon entering a liminal dream state, I see an ancient Asian Crone Healer standing bedside. She puts her hands on my womb and each time she places them, they light up. She creates a path of light for my daughter to come into the world. I feel her turn in my womb. The Crone turns to speak before leaving, she says, “One more thing you should know. Your daughter is a Faery Queen.” The Crone departed, as I tried to ask her, “Does that come with a Manuel?” No response.

Hands of Light

When I was about 6 months pregnant with my daughter I went with my sister to see a cultural performance of Aboriginal Dancers at UT Austin. They had never made public before their Dreamtime ceremonies held in secret. They played their instruments, sang their sacred songs and danced their dances and told their stories. My daughter all the while dreaming in my womb, of the world she would soon join when she became Earthside.

I feel confident she dreamed her way along those songlines in the womb, and met one of those dream travelers who would later bestow her spiritual name when she was old enough. That same dream traveler who knew how to find me riding along a song line of purple lightning for me to ride along when I would accompany him into the Dreamtime for my daughter’s spiritual naming ceremony.

Midnight Butterfly

by Valley Reed

 

Rise into infinity,

Come away with me,

Come away with me.

 

Midnight Butterfly 

wild and free,

show me possibilities.

 

Giant wings alight my crown.

My head in flight,

and my feet on the ground.

 

Enter the infinite,

beyond inhibitions.

No prerequisite

for dream exhibitions.

 

Free to roam

and wander around,

explore the mundane,

reveal the profound.

 

Dimensions of dreaming,

flooding my mind.

depths of meaning,

wise and kind.

 

Dream memories land

on fluttery wings. 

Beyond understanding 

the order of things.

 

Midnight butterfly flight

visit my dreams, 

guide me tonight…

 

Wisdom wings

of the soul kind,

open my mind.

 

Travel far 

on intentions set, 

Discovering where

you haven’t been yet.

 

Creative winds 

are expected to blow.

Remembering how 

to forget what you know. 

 

Rise into infinity

Come away with me,

Come away with me.

 

Midnight butterfly

take me dreaming

From a sight so high,

reality is streaming.

 

Butterfly flight 

in dreams tonight,

take me where

you want to go.

 

Show me your wings,

covered in all things

artful and mysterious. 

Show me places 

marvelous and curious.

 

Set course for

the upper realm.

Whisper your magic spell,

with love at the helm.

 

A place where spirit dwells 

in the unseen world,

let my wings unfurl.

A place my soul delights

and vision swirls,

let dreams take flight.

valley@awakenthesacreddream.com