The Pool of Bethesda – A Place of Remembering and Healing
In dream archeology, we are called to dig deeper into our dreams, and into the earth itself, where layers of past cultures lay asleep and dreaming of our awakening. In my dreaming of the Well of Human Kind, I determined the healing pool with troubled waters by the light of angels, could in fact be the place known as the Pool of Bethesda located in Jerusalem. In my research of this sacred place, I discovered it was indeed a crossroads of many layers of cultures who have used these healing pools. Many interesting correlates exist with elements of my dream and the different cultures that came to rest there.
Troubling the Waters is associated with the Jewish perspective of intervening angelic powers of healing, as was reflected in my dream previously shared in Part One of of the Well of Human Kind. Troubling the Waters is also spoken of in the bible and the pools of Bethesda are one of the locations where Jesus is reported to have performed healing miracles. The tradition of healing goes even further into the Greek and Roman Ancient traditions of Asclepians, as the healing pools were known, as well as a temple devoted to the Greek God of Healing, Asclepius and also the Greco-Egyptian God – Serapis. This cross cultural pool of humanity is indeed the Pool of Human Kind. It was later during the Byzantine era changed toward Christian leanings, and then during the reign of the Ottoman Empire held Islamic influence where the pools are still held today in the Muslim part of Jerusalem. The Ottoman Empire gave away a part of the pools to the French Anglican Church where St. Anne Cathedral was constructed, next to the location believed to be the grotto and birthing room where the Virgin Mary was born to her Mother Anne. It is interesting to note how this relates to my dream, in that I was flown by angels to meet a woman named Anne Light, who claimed to have adopted me at age 13, and was in effect my spiritual Mother. If these correlations are followed through the dream with the ancient bees as guide along with the angelic light, it would in fact take me to the place of the goddess, and into the ancient virgin cult of the goddess. This tradition is embodied in Anne and onto her daughter Mary, but it was a much older tradition connected to the lineage of the ancient goddess.
This connection to St. Anne and the Birthing Room of the Virgin Mary brings me to another dream which I had this past December 12, the feast day of the Santa Maria de Virgin De Guadalupe.
Birthing Room of the Virgin Mary – Dec. 12, 2013
Last night I dreamt of seeing the Virgin Mary. She was showing me her birthing room, that was a small space carved out of 3 earthen walls, with the fourth wall absent and open to the waters of the grotto. She was preparing to birth the child she was carrying, whom she had just conceived. She also told me she would give birth to 4 children and would be staying here in the birthing room until she had conceived and given birth to all 4 children.
I feel deep gratitude for my connection to the Goddess, in all her forms and her guidance in dreams and waking life, guiding toward healing, protection and birthing new life.
Valley Reed © 2014
Awaken the Sacred Dream 