Tag: Labyrinth

Dreams Bidden or Unbidden

Pondering how dreams are sent and by whom? From where or when does my dreamweaver originate? What archetype, what oracle, what memory, what future, what life lived before, what ancestor, what spirit, what soul longing or loss?

When we let the thread of our dreams wrap hold of us we may find the location at the other end spinning a dream as part of the tapestry of the world story, or a galactic birth, or a far memory of the stories held in our bones. The Mothers divining fates past, present, and future, have always been rooted in the Earth Mother, from whose powers the oracle speaks and the threads of fate are spoken, interwoven with the story of the dream of the world. We are always dreaming, and connected to the web of multidimensional reality by the threads of time.

Unbidden

In 2009, I attended a dream conference in Chicago on Listening to the Earth Dreaming. I presented a workshop on Dream Way-finding and while there had this dream unbidden.

Crystal Star Goddess

In my dream, I hear a knock on the door of my hotel room, and get up from my bed and answer the door. I do not realize I am dreaming until I open the door to see in the doorway is a quartz crystal the size of the door, as a portal from another world, through which a beautiful goddess came through and stood before me. She wore a translucent light blue veil loosely over her head, and an eight pointed blue star design shown on her forehead. She held in her hands a crystal spiral which she gave to me, and in the other hand a crystal skull, which she placed in my other hand. This part of the dream repeated three times, so I would know this was real and meant to be. I accepted her gifts and she turned and stepped back through the portal. I received her unbidden mysterious gifts, wondering where they may lead me, or what gifts may unfold.

In Sumerian, Inanna means Queen of Heaven. She was known as daughter of the Moon, and morning or evening star as Venus. Her symbol is the eight pointed star.

Her initiation as high priestess is not complete until she can give up her stations of wealth and power, as she makes the journey into the underworld through seven gateways where she must release more and more of herself at each gateway and surrender to meet her death presided over by Sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the underworld.

From the Great Above, she opened her ear to the Great Below.

From the Great Above, the goddess opened her ear to the Great Below.

From the Great Above, Inanna opened her ear to the Great Below. (Kramer, Wolkstein, pg. 52).

Previous to attending the conference, I had a dream of seeing myself as a huge presence on the Earth.

Earth Guardian

I am a huge Earth Goddess sitting on a labyrinth, and my body is partially submerged. My Womb carries the design of the Labyrinth, and holds this ancient wisdom within the Earth, where my womb is also submerged. The labyrinth can also be seen on the Earth surface.

I heard a voice say, “You are an Earth Guardian”. Now, fully embodied in this huge Earth Goddess form, I can see sitting across from me a beautiful Sun God in the form of Apollo, with a golden face and bronze body that glistens like the Sun. I notice Apollo is attracted to me and moving in my direction. When he does this, he begins to move the wheel of time. I move with the wheel of the Seasons and gently tell him, no not like this. Indicating he must follow the spiral path for himself and go deeper to uncover his own mysteries, he cannot take for himself Wisdom held by the Earth Mother. I was able to guard the path of women’s wisdom held in the womb, as an Earth Guardian.

“Earth confounded the Apollonian cult by sending up dreams which revealed unto the cities of mortals the past, and the future. She brought forth the peoples of the dream, and all the tribes of Vision“. (pg. 292 Dashu)

Temple of Delphi

Bidden

Dreams of intention invite energies of Heaven and Earth, across Time and Space. These are dreams we invoke the numinous energies to visit. These are dreams we invite in to revisit dreams from before. These are dreams where we may stalk the past, or the future, with animal spirits, or connect with departed loved ones. These are dreams where we can have a travel plan for where we will go, who or what we may encounter, and what we may do when we get there.

I had heard a description of the Spirit of the Soul described by Michael Meade on his podcast Mosaic Voices, where he describes the Spirit of the Soul as a unique inner spirit or genius that life’s calling is meant to awaken. This had me curious to incubate a dream to learn about the spirit of my Soul. When I incubated my dreaming intention, the dream I had bidden, came through.

Spirit of my Soul

I see an entire wall covered in red roses, and standing before it was a nun wearing light blue and white habit. I was somewhat put off by this religious image, and told her, “You must be so disappointed in me.” Since my orientation is pagan, and animist, and which the Catholic church had burned women for being. My orientation was more as a wild woman, not devoted to a spiritual Icon or Christian beliefs.

The dream I had called upon reminded me of several past unbidden dreams I had over the years sharing my connection to the Mary Mysteries as part of my Soul Origin story. On the day of Annunciation I dreamed of the Virgin Mary, and she showed me her birthing grotto, and told me she would birth four children there, and would be staying here until she had birthed all four.

As a young woman, I encountered the Virgin in a dream where I was in California and saw it was snowing over the Ocean. I stood on a group of boulders overlooking the Bay, in order to gain a better look. It was then she approached and grabbed my arm and wrote symbols in red. One was a crescent with a dot in the center, and the other symbol was two slanted lines, close together.

I asked her who she was and what she was doing, and the Virgin, said, “I am Mary, and here to protect you” I jerked back my arm from her hold, and proclaimed, “I don’t need protection” and she said, “Yes you do”.

As a young Mother, I had a dream with Jesus as a young man, and he held a book in his hands with a dark blue cover. He spoke French when he talked to me and handed me the ancient book also written in French. I asked him to speak in English, since I don’t speak French, and he said, I don’t speak English. I took from him the book he offered, and then heard a booming voice carried across the ages, as the voice of God said, “You originated in the age of the Christos, you were among the Cult of Magdalena.”

This dream came to me sometime in the 90’s when the internet was new, and before books or films like the DaVinci Code, or the countless groups now devoted to Mary Magdalene. Having read many of these books about Mary Magdalene now, I was always left with a deep sense of remembering, and also grieving the loss of the divine sacred feminine.

In 2017, I lead a group of dreamers to journey through the portal of a painting of Mary Magdalene. Inspired by a bidden dream journey I did in collaboration with her. My intent was to ask her guidance to reveal what she wishes to be done to bring forth her energy. She revealed a group ritual, in creating a space resembling a grotto in the underground space of a cultural arts center over looking a lake. We transformed the underground space to look as revealed in the journey, featuring the painting of the Magdalene. Some who attended the gathering had been to the actual grotto sites for Mary Magdalene in France, and reflected the experience we created together, was much like the pilgrimage site. My vision of the journey I guided by the sound of the drum, showed the Magdalene coming through the portal of the painting and walking among us. A golden light from the sunset covered the painting just as the journey began. When the Magdalene moved through the portal she was surrounded by golden light which she blessed on the head of each participant as she walked through the space and walked out onto the water surface following the path of gold light unto the horizon as the Sun went down and the sky exploded into a blazing red sunset. In closing the ritual, we all gathered before the waters edge with red roses in hand and did a closing ritual with offering rose petals to the water as prayers of grace and gratitude.

This dream incubation of the Spirit of the Soul, stirs my unique spiritual essence to join with the deeper wishes of the soul to create spaces for healing, guidance, and wisdom that allows for the mysteries of the deep feminine to be remembered and revealed.

Sources

Dashu, Max. “Women in Greek Mythology, Pythias, Melissae and Titanides, Secret History of Witches Vol. II Book I. Velda Press, 2023.

Kramer, Samuel Noah; Wolkstein, Di ane. “Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth.” Harper Perennial, 1983.

Layers of Labyrinths

I have been dreaming of labyrinths, layers and layers of labyrinths coming up from underneath the ground. Each one is deeper and more ancient, uncovering more layers of wisdom coming forth to be seen, to be worn with feet walking paths of spiritual longing. Each layer of labyrinths holds a reservoir of energy released as it comes to the surface. This immense source of energy scares me, it is a lot to hold and be responsible for, with great power comes great responsibility.

The labyrinth is familiar, a seven circuit labyrinth as found in Crete where the story unwinds of Ariadne, and her magical thread from the center of the labyrinth, guides a path for her love for Theseus to find his way back to her from his quest to kill the Minotaur. Ariadne is a weaver, who rivaled Aphrodite, which is never a good idea to go up against Aphrodite.

She chose another path beyond her family of origin when she fell in love with Theseus, who was on a quest to enter the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur that was considered a hideous creature gone wrong, part beast and part human.

A sacred contract not honored with Jupiter, who produced a divine bovine from the depths of the sea in order to favor King Minos and the power he yields. The King did not honor his agreement by making offerings to the god Poseidon as a sign of appreciation. He instead chose to keep the fine specimen of a bull. Aphrodite enchanted the wife of King Minos to feel uncontrollable passion for the Bull, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a man bull monster who had a taste for eating humans. The labyrinth harbors their family secrets.

Ariadne is interested in the quest of Theseus to slay the Minotaur, and decides to help him navigate the labyrinth by providing a string to find his way back. Her bargain with him in doing so is to become his wife. They sail away together, but not happily ever after, he leaves her on the island of Naxos, where she later meets Dionysius who becomes her husband.

This story is one of betrayal, and mistruths, and how life can become distorted when we misplace our power, lack gratitude for our gifts, and betray ourselves with a bargain that does not guarantee love in return.

So what layers lie beneath this story? The labyrinth was built and designed by Daedalus, an ingenious architect and sculptor. King Minos ultimately imprisoned him and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth tower, after he assisted Ariadne and Theseus to escape the labyrinth. While imprisoned, he created wings to enable their escape from Crete. His son however, did not take his father’s advice and flew too close to the Sun and melted the wings, which caused his falling into the sea and drowning. Another layer of hubris emerges in this saga, where men with power, make errors in judgement to bring about their own demise, rather than bring about freedom.

With all of these layers to the story, one must wonder why the fascination with labyrinths have spread around the world, as a meditation on the path of the soul in connection with spirit at the center, however in the myth of the labyrinth, the center holds what is hidden, the ugly truth of what happens when we misuse our power, and how it continues to impact everyone it touches.

I have worked with labyrinths for more than ten years as part of the Women’s Retreats I offer. The labyrinth becomes a path of walking in the footsteps of the ancestors, and the seven circuits is are seven generations of the ancestors, and the return path of becoming an ancestor and how our choices impact 7 generations in the future. In the footsteps of the Ancestors we may feel the burdens carried by those behind us, and in becoming an Ancestor in the return journey we feel the responsibility of what are actions are today and how they impact future generations. In my mind, this meditation is more in line with the myth of the Labyrinth, which teaches us to be mindful of how we use our powers and to what end.

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