Tag: Gila Lizard

Following the Dragon on the Turquoise Trail

turquoisequetzalcoatl
Aztec Turquoise Mosaic of Quetzalcoatl from the British Museum

 

Years ago, a series of dreams had been calling me to come and live in New Mexico. I finally decided to pay heed to these nightly dream callings and went to live at a retreat center called Garden of the Goddess, located on the turquoise trail on a scenic route between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Cerrillos is the official town where I was living, which was at one time the capital of New Mexico, a thriving center of trade and turquoise mining. Cerrillos was located along a trade and pilgrimage route between Teotihuacan, Mexico and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, where parrot feathers from Mexico and Turquoise mined from Cerrillos, New Mexico have been found in Chaco Canyon.

Turquoise became a form of monetary trade between these two spiritual power houses. Turquoise itself was believed by indigenous tribes to hold the spiritual power of the blue sky above, so it is understandable that the stone would be popular in these places of spiritual pilgrimage.

In August of 2013, when I discovered the opportunity to move to New Mexico and live on the Turquoise Trail I had this dream.

Chaco Pilgrimage

I was dreaming about the people of Chaco Canyon, seeing the immense pilgrimage that went on where people traveled to the city to take part in a harvest festival. They wore beautiful colorful clothing complete with parrot feathered headdresses. The pilgrimage came from Mexico as they walked the turquoise trail to Cerrillos and then onto Chaco Canyon where thousands of people were gathering for the festival.

I later discovered what I had dreamed into was in fact was true, my bit of dream archaeology was confirmed during a visit to the local historical museum in Cerrillos, New Mexico, which had an article about the history of the Turquoise trail.

Many of my dreams have featured the energy of the dragon or winged serpent known also as Quetzalcoatl from Mexico, and also the Gila Lizard Monster which is native to New Mexico and Arizona.

LIZARD WOMAN 12/08

I see a map of Arizona, there are rainbow colored arrows pointing from Flagstaff and Sedona southeast at an angle to a particular spot on the map and then the arrows go back up headed northeast. I can hear music playing in connection with the arrows on the map. I can also hear a woman’s voice speaking to me. She tells me it is time for you to accept your own power, it is time for you to wake up! I can see a large tree that has appeared several times in my dreams previously.  I then see under the earth in the area on the Map where I was shown, there is a huge lizard that lives under the earth. It is moving and I can feel the energy of it, I can see the scales of its skin and the design of it with red and black in an intricate woven design. The energy that I am feeling and seeing in the dream suddenly is in my throat and then into my heart. I feel my rib cage expand open and it cracks loudly. I am now feeling the energy of the Lizard Woman and she is calling me to her. She says, you need to come to this land. I feel the deep coursing energy of this place in my own body in my throat and heart. I feel the energy of this lizard that has been woven together through story and song through the centuries of the people who inhabit this place. It is a place of deep healing and a place to embody power. EOD

I was deeply touched by this dream experience and felt it was a call from the land itself to come and claim my power.

She’s Got Her Feet in the Stars and Her Head in the Universe 7-28-13

My teacher is talking about my dream and says, “She’s got her feet in the stars and her head in the Universe.” I am now huge like a galaxy spread out like the Milky Way.  A power begins to flow into my being that is like a dragon. I am feeling it in my whole being, and I begin to breath like a dragon, and make sounds like a dragon. I find that I have become a Giant Gila Monster, I have red and black designs across my being, and I am the beaded monster. I feel the power of this energy and tremendous healing energy within me.  The vastness of my being and the incredible energy of the Gila Monster, carries an intensity and vibration in tuned with a sound and vibration that resonates through me. I become conscious in my dream and notice this as a very real experience. EOD

Upon researching the healing practices of the Gila Lizard associated with the Dine and Arapaho peoples, I found that it does indeed have to do with reading the stars and consulting the star beings, as well as high vibration healing energies that come through the hands of healing practitioners. The spirit of the Gila Lizard comes through the healers, and their hands shake as they confer the healing energies.

It was after having this dream, I knew it was time for me to go back to New Mexico. It was time for me to follow the dragon who is leading me along the Turquoise trail connected to Teotihuacan, Mexico to Cerrillos New Mexico to Chaco Canyon New Mexico. Just before moving out there I had this dream,

8-20-13 Following the Dragon

A long dream where I become conscious at one point when I am there with another woman and we are talking about the dragon underground. I become aware this dragon is under the earth in Santa Fe, and it is this energy that I am connected to that is bringing me there. I am following the dragon. EOD.

Tracking the Dreamtime

My dreams have been teaching me about the indigenous mind over the years.  I have gone dreaming with Indigenous Peoples from Kyrgyzstan, Africa, Mexico, Aboriginal people of Australia, and also U.S. Southwestern and Hawaiian Native Peoples among others. The indigenous mind might say, “I went dreaming”. Many westerners like to describe dreams they share by saying, “I had a dream” it seems almost in passing, and indeed much of the dream, may pass from our memory on waking. The indigenous mind shares dreams as an experience and a real place one can visit or where ancient ancestors may come calling on you for a visit.

blue-lightning

Naming Ceremony

When my daughter was 4 years old,  I had an extraordinary experience of a visit from the powers of dreaming. I was not yet asleep, but sitting up  in bed in my darkened room, about to lay down and rest.  I saw what appeared as blue lightening, streak across my bedroom. I knew it was from someone of power paying me a visit. I was astonished by what I saw, but not afraid at all. I was calm in fact, and  somehow seemed to know what was about to happen.  I looked out my bedroom window and saw a man standing there, somehow familiar to me. He sent me a telepathic message asking permission to come inside. I knew he wanted to take me on a journey and so I gave permission inwardly and settled into to bed.  The second I closed my eyes,  I was transported to a foreign land where a ceremony was going on.  We were outside and there were a number of large boulders in a somewhat barren landscape at night. We were among a  small group of people who had gathered for this ceremony. He let me know it was a naming ceremony for my 4 year old daughter. She would receive her spiritual name during the ceremony and I was invited to participate as her mother and hold witness to the ceremony. I was not allowed to know her secret spiritual name, but there to give my permission and blessings on the ceremony.

There have been other stories I have shared here in my blog, that recount extraordinary dreams. One thing I am beginning to learn is how this plays into my life and how I can understand the dreamtime, where time and space exist simultaneously, without separation.  Indigenous peoples pass on the stories of their culture, which are interwoven and inseparable with the land where they live.  In the dreamtime, one can travel to a possible future, or the storied past, all existing in the present.  The Indigenous Mind does not think of time as linear, but circular where always, there is a return.

grandcanyon

Return of the Ancient

When my son was 3 years old, I had a dream that I was sitting on a Mesa overlooking the Grand Canyon. An ancient elder sat across from me drawing a circle in the dirt with a stick. He began to trace the circle and tell me about my son, who he is and why he is here. He let me know, that my son had not reincarnated on this plane in a very long time. I asked him how long, and he pointed at the canyon and I saw it was no longer there, but now stood as one solid land mass. That is a very long time, I thought to myself.

arizonarainbowtree

Lizard Woman

I hear music playing in my dream and suddenly, I am looking at a map of Arizona.  A journey is laid out for me on the map in rainbow colors that show a route of travel to places I must visit and tracks the path I must follow.  I am then in the landscape of a dessert terrain, with some large trees that are near a spring of water. There is one Tree in particular I am drawn toward, and as I draw nearer,  I can hear a woman speaking to me.  She is calling to me in a haunting lilting cadence, “Come to this place, it is time for you to claim your power.  It is time for you to come to this land for healing and claim your own power.”  I see her working with me, and she buries me partially in the earth, as she does a healing ceremony for me. Now I am in an underground hogan, where herbs hang from the ceiling and I lay covered with a native designed blanket and I am dreaming. In my dream within a dream,  I see a huge Gila Lizard that lives beneath the earth. It stretches giant across Arizona and lives beneath the ground.  I am aware of this ancient place where the land is interwoven with the stories of the peoples who have lived here for centuries.  The powers of the land, guard these sacred places.  Years later, I learned that the Gila Lizard is sacred to the Navajo people as a  great healing ally.  The name Gila even evokes the sound of Heal.  In this dream, my power was hunting me and singing me into being.  I once again feel this place of power calling to me inside myself.  I am ready to follow the rainbow tracks and songlines of the dreamtime, ready to discover my place of power on the path of an ancient people who have called to me.

Gila

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