Tag: Healer

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’

Iatromantis: Dream Traveling Philosopher Healers

Aristeas was among those of ancient Greece who was known to be an Iatromantis, a seer healer. It is recorded in ancient stories his soul could leave his body, and return at will. This is something that an Iatromantis would be able to do, both in dreaming, and waking realities. Aristeas was a poet philosopher, who is also said to be able to take the form of a Raven.

Peter Kingsley writes the Iatromantis is part of a larger Greek and Asian shamanic tradition originating in Central Asia. A solitary practice was incubation, which was beyond the dream healing temples of the Grecco-Roman world, but enabled these seer healers to enter a state beyond sleeping, dreaming or waking, but entering a state of being described as consciousness itself. There used to be experts at incubation–masters at the art of going into another state of consciousness or allowing themselves to go if they were drawn there. They had a name that fitted them perfectly — Iatromantis

Abaras the Hyporbean, was also considered an Iatromantis, a legendary sage and healer who practiced medicine on the soul and the body. Hermotimus of Clazomenae reported to his wife the ability of his soul to leave the body during sleep, as if on a trip. She shared this oddity with the wrong person, and they came and burned his body while he slept.

Evidence of this approach to healing of body and soul is rooted in incubation practices of intention setting for dreaming for the purpose of healing as was used in the Asklepion Dream Temple practices of ancient Greece and Rome which spanned into the Thracian ( Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria) and Dacian (Romania) world. The Egyptian dream practices also included dream incubation invoking Gods such as Imhotep or Serapis, known for appearing in dreams for healing. The Serapeion in Alexandria, and Memphis Egypt were popular locations for dream incubation and dream healing practices.

The gateway to entering the dream temples were built to impress, and often devoted to the Mnemosyne, Mother of the Muses and Goddess of Memory, as gatekeeper between the realms, her presence was to help bring back the memory of the dream. Hygeia the daughter of Asclepius, brings powers of hygiene and cleansing, in preparation for the dream healing incubation ritual. After the cleansing ritual of mind, body, and spirit, is complete the supplicant may enter the abaton, a sacred sanctuary where the Dream Healing Incubation takes place, and the pilgrim sleeps overnight to incubate their healing request into their dreams. If an incubant was unable to recall a dream, a dream healing priest or priestess would dream on their behalf, and transfer the dream in the telling.

In an area in western Anatolia, south of Phocaea, in a region called Caria was a famous cave known as a Charonium or Plutonium — entrance to the underworld. Next to it was a temple dedicated to the gods of the underworld. Here the Pholarchos (masters of dreams, lords of the lair) would lead the sick into the cave and settle them down, leave them there in utter stillness. – Peter Kingsley

The Pholarchos Tarot, developed by artist, scribe and dreamer, Carmen Sorrenti, brings dreams through the portal of each card, and her alchemical writing which accompanies the deck. I met Carmen at a dream conference in Los Angeles several years ago, as she was developing the deck. She had several of her paintings in the Dream Art Gallery exhibit at the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) conference. As I stood there gazing at the paintings before me in the form of dream inspired tarot, I began to share a dream with a woman standing beside me. The previous night, I I dreamt of a Viking Goddess who emerged from out of the underworld through a doorway sized portal like a life sized tarot card, she was driving a chariot pulled by dragons.

I admired the dream tarot art before me in the exhibit and recognized the synchronicity. Little did I know, the woman with whom I shared my dream, was the artist and creator of the Pholarchos Tarot. I knew then, I would order her deck as soon as it was available. She told me she was working on creating the chariot card at the moment. When I eventually did receive her lively deck of cards, before even opening the box, I noticed the sounds of a carnival like atmosphere, coming from inside the box. The dreams interwoven inside were bursting to get out and come alive!

Indeed, the dreams realms come through in most unexpected ways sometimes, and we may have forgotten how dreams are rooted in the western modern world, but dreams have not forgotten us.