Tag: Robert Moss

Jung and the Mysteries of Wordless Transmission

Niān huá wéi xiào – pick up flower, subtle smile

Vernal Equinox March 20, 2020 

As I lay in bed, immersed in some dream I can’t recall, my cat stirred me from my dream, while shaking his head intensely, ringing the bell on his collar. The sound and shaking effect, shuffled my dreams like a deck of cards. Each card flipping by was a thin reality of other dreams. I landed in a dream in black and white, where an old man wearing speckles held out a colorful bright pink origami lotus flower in his palm, while looking at me directly and smiling. – Dream ending.

A  lot of energy was held in that small bright pink lotus. I paused to feel the heightened crisp energy in the dream space between black and white, past and present, and the colorful seed of awakening I was being offered.

It was held in the hand of Carl Jung. I felt he was offering a symbol from the collective unconsciousness about spiritual unfoldment, synchronicity, dreams, and multidimensional reality. I woke up immediately to record my dream in a dream journaling app on my phone. But instead of writing my dream down immediately, as I would normally, I found myself scrolling through previous dream reports.

I landed on a previous dream I had recorded about Carl Jung and Synchronicity. There’s that dream shuffle again. I was amazed when I found it, because it was as if I was looking for it unconsciously. I could feel the energy of the lotus from my dream, now surrounding me in my physical space, in the form of synchronicity.  I knew I was being sent an important message.

Dream Lecture and Synchronicity News – March 8, 2020

I pull out a newspaper from the trash can, and it has a long article about synchronicity on the front page. The headline is in large bold letters, but very long sentences. I take the paper over to a group of women meeting in a building of a co-working space. I have a book on dreams by Carl Jung in one hand, and a newspaper article on synchronicity in the other. I join their meeting and begin talking about the topic of dreams and synchronicity. I do so by example of finding this newspaper article on synchronicity in the bathroom trash, right before coming to give this lecture on dreams. – Dream ending.

In the potent energy held in the Archetype, Jung reaches across time and space to send me messages in dreams and synchronicity. This is a fascinating study in consciousness. The Pink Lotus itself is an archetype associated with the Buddha and nirvana. In some Buddhist traditions paper lotus flowers are created and burned as ancestral offerings or for those who have crossed over, or as a kind of spiritual currency, offering appreciation for blessings, and invoking good fortune of prosperity and health (Shih-Mou).

Zen Buddhism is rooted in the wordless transmission of the Flower Sermon, where the Buddha holds up a Lotus Flower with a smile, and is received by a smile from Mahakashyapa, who then becomes his entrusted successor (Dumoulin, pg. 9).

Jung writes, “One day the Buddha silently held up a flower before the assembled throng of his disciples. This was the famous “Flower Sermon.” Formally speaking, much the same thing happened in Eleusis when a mown ear of grain was silently shown. Even if our interpretation of this symbol is erroneous, the fact remains that a mown ear was shown in the course of the mysteries and that this kind of “wordless sermon” was the sole form of instruction in Eleusis which we may assume with certainty” (Jung, Kereny, pg. 179).

Now this connection comes with the arrival of my dream on the Vernal Equinox, a time when the Elysian Lesser Mysteries took place, in preparation for the Greater Mysteries in the Fall, as referenced by Jung in the image of harvested grain. As the fates would have it, I did take part in journeying into the Lesser Elysian Mysteries, weeks after having this dream, when I participated in an online class series by Robert Moss on Shamanic Dreaming with the Goddess.

In my journey, it is revealed that as Demeter the Mother, I enter the underworld in search for Kore. I present her with a white flower.

Dreams are a path of direct experience, and wordless transmission, through the potency of archetypal energies. Synchronicity is the transmission of messages from the world behind the world, which may include written words, or words of speech overhead, or a song that comes on the radio, or a dream image showing up in waking life, accompanied by a larger energy of recognition that may feel other worldly. The mysteries of the collective unconscious are a place we frequent in dreams. In my dream, Carl Jung presented this to me as a pink paper lotus and a smile.

Written by Valley Reed©2020

Sources

  1.  Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005). Zen Buddhism: a history. p. 9. 
  2.  Jung, C. G. & Kerényi, C. (2005). Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis. Routledge; 2 edition.  Routledge, p. 179.
  3. Shih-Mou Kou, Shu-Chi Chao, Chi-Hsiung Tseng, “The Construct and the Symbolic Meanings of Paper Lotus in Taiwan” Department of Visual Communication Design National Yunlin University of Science & Technology.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jssd/60/0/60_67/_pdf/-char/ja

Dreams as Gateways of Sacred Activism

We all dream, and dreams have the potential to bring us together.  Active Dreaming was pioneered by Robert Moss as a synthesis of modern dream work and ancient shamanic methods of conscious dreaming. A key process is the Lightning Dream Sharing method, a quick way of sharing dreams and focusing the energy of dreams in an intentional way to reveal helpful information and potential actions. This approach to dream sharing is done in a way that respects the dreamer and the dream, where the only expert on the dream is the dreamer themselves, and helpful feedback is offered from the perspective of “if this were my dream”.

“Sacred Activism” was a term coined by Andrew Harvey as a way to cultivate compassionate action inspired by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. who engaged non-violent direct action and dialogue in confronting the violence of racism with a vision of building a loving community through “Agape”.  Mahatma Gandhi promulgated the homespun movement as a source of non-violent resistance to break the stronghold of Colonial Britain in India.  Both of these peaceful movements of social change were rooted in reclaiming who we are, with a collective vision of what we could become together. Today many of us are activated and busy fighting against the tide of injustice that is intent to turn back the clocks on social change efforts won through the struggles of many who came before us.  If ever there was a need to bring forth a vision for change it is now and it is up to us to put our attentions there together to help grow this vision and take peaceful actions for the future.

Perhaps part of the trouble we see in modern Western society today, is that we have lost touch with our dreams as a culture. This is where the practice of Active Dreaming can come into play, when we learn how to remember our dreams and share them with others, we are helping to grow a dreaming community. Modern dream work approaches such as Dream Incubation and Dream Re-Entry are key practices of Active Dreaming. These two approaches offer ways to consciously direct your intentions for dreaming and re-entering a dream to gain information directly from the dream itself. There are many things you can learn to do inside your dreams and Active Dreaming is a practice to help you delve more deeply into your dream life and recover your dreaming potentials.

Learning to live and act consciously in our life takes practice, and Active Dreaming is a way to recover authentic connections to who we are, and discover what we truly desire in life. Dreams have the potential to connect us to something more, beyond the everyday waking mind and limited vision of the individual. We may find ourselves awakening to the sacred dream, collective vision, and eternal energy which connects us all. In dreams, we may explore profound realms of experience to discover the beauty and magic that exists inside each of us.

Active Dreaming allows us to not only awaken this sacred collective vision, but can show us how to dream together consciously. Shamanic conscious group dream journeys, guided by the sound of the drum, provide an ancient technology which is highly effective at allowing one to enter into a conscious dream state. This core practice of Active Dreaming, allows dreamers to come together in a mutual dreaming experience to bring back a collective vision in as full detail as possible. We can then take individual Action to grow this collective dream and help bring it into the waking world. This is how dreams become gateways of Sacred Activism, when we can journey consciously into these deeper realms of soul and spirit, and act upon it in some significant way on behalf of the wholeness of self, family, community and planet.

Valley Reed © 2017

Valley Reed is an Active Dream Teacher, and Peace Activist Leader in Dallas, Texas.

Visit www.chrysalishealingarts.org for more information and calendar of events.

The River of Time

Magic Hour on Magic Mountain
Magic Hour on Magic Mountain

In a recent voyage to upstate New York, I  took part in an advanced shamanic gathering of students and teachers with Robert Moss. This magical mountain made of garnet has been the location for shamanic group exploration for nearly 20 years. The last time I had been part of this particular group was 13 years ago, when I attended the fall gathering following 9-11 and we opened pathways for those who had died in the tragedy of the twin towers to cross over.  This past weekend was just as powerful, only the person crossing over into a different reality this time, was me. The energy this community of Active Dreamers has grown over the years is palpable and one can feel the strength of it immediately upon entering the room where we gathered.

Over the weekend, we journeyed through the multiverse to explore the terrain Robert had set before us.  In his recent

The Boy Who Died and Came Back by Robert Moss
“The Boy Who Died and Came Back” by Robert Moss

book,  “The Boy Who Died and Came Back ~ Adventures of a Dream Archeologist in the Multiverse” he writes about his personal journey exploring other worlds in non-ordinary reality, through his connection with several near death experiences as a boy. He goes further, to explain a model of how the multiverse may be structured and that time is not linear, all things and all lives are being lived, Now! This fascinating book, is a manual for how to navigate the mulitverse. Once you are there, you may learn about how  to connect with your higher self, the double in heaven, or become aware of parallel lives playing out, where other choices were made and paths taken.  It’s ultimately about bringing more of your energy and your self into this reality.  Robert Moss shows us many pathways for doing so in his wonderful style of storytelling and exploration as a dream archeologist.

One of the places for Time Travel and exploration he describes is a location known as the House of Time. It is a location in the imaginal realm where Active Dreamers have traveled through time, exploring connections in other lives and dimensions. We went on a visit there in our conscious shamanic group dreaming and here is an excerpt from one of my journeys;

The Mongol Warrior Woman Shaman 4/12/14 Magic Mountain

I approach the steps of the House of Time and each one gives way beneath my feet to create a flat surface, I am not going up the stairs, the up is coming down to meet me. I arrive in the courtyard where I see the House of Time before me surrounded by grounds, where there is a flowering orchard of trees and a quiet river flowing through. I approach the river and see the sun light reflecting on the water, a face of light comes through the water reaching toward me like a mask of light. I find myself in a wild landscape in the steppes of Mongolia.

I am a woman warrior shaman, guardian of these ancestral lands and borders. I also protect the psychic lands and borderlands from invasion of psychic warfare. I am small in frame, but not in stature. I have long, wild, thick, black, hair and long muscular arms. My hair has many thin long braids woven with amulets and bells. My face is set against the sun.  I am tracking a small dust cloud in the distance, whipped up by the approach of many warriors on horseback, who come to invade these sacred lands.

I am a Master of the elements through my dance of power, my weapon is the weather, my duty is to protect.  I am one, standing strong, amongst many enemies who want to take these lands for their own. I have all that is needed to fulfill my duty and protect my ancestral lands.

The storm clouds are gathering.  I am moving energy and gathering the elements of water all around me and into my body. Once I have gathered this power within myself, I send it up into the clouds through my dance of power. I summon the winds as the clouds grow heavy with rain, the sky becomes dark as night as the storm draws near my approaching enemy. The lightning strikes in the midst of their thundering horde. Horses rearing up, dumping their riders, in the chaos of running frantically for shelter from the storm. The fear this storm brings upon my enemies, causes them to loose courage. They frantically seek escape from the massive storm that has suddenly descended upon them. The storm clears the air, and any psychic energy that was intended to try and defeat the powerful Mongol Warrior Woman Shaman.

I have been visited by this Mongol Woman Shaman on several other occasions, during Kundalini yoga classes. I was very glad to see her come through again in this journey. She has a very high energy field and she requires a high energy vibration, in order to meet with her.  I feel my connection with her has now strengthened and I am keenly interested in learning more from her.

Valley Reed © 2014

Mongolian Steppe Storm by Ruben D. Mascaro
Mongolian Steppe Storm by Ruben D. Mascaro

It’s Only Just a Dream

It’s Only Just a Dream….how many of us have heard this seemingly harmless phrase after sharing a dream with someone at some point in our libloodroseves?  I have heard stories from others who tell of their “Just a Dream” experiences, often in childhood, and what followed was a lack of respect for the dreamer and the dream, leaving a scar and broken trust. But what you will see in my story is a tale of caution, where labeling a dream as “Just a Dream” could spell the difference between life and death.

Back in the mid 80’s I worked for a Commercial Real Estate Developer in Downtown Dallas, Texas during the Savings & Loan Crisis, which caused many companies to go bankrupt. The company I worked for was no exception, and so I also became a casualty of the economic crisis and suddenly found myself out of a job. I was young with limited work experience and found it difficult to find work. The only job I could find was to work as a rose girl trolling through bars in the evenings selling roses to amorous couples, or some guy hoping to get lucky with that pretty girl.

One night before I was scheduled to work as a “rose girl”, I had an unusual dream that changed my life.

Belle Starr Rose Girl Shot Dead

rosegirl

I see myself dressed in my rose girl uniform in a red jacket, black shorts and fishnet nose, and I am walking around Belle Star, a popular country and western bar, carrying my rose basket. I walk slowly around the bar and it is crowded. I make my rounds through the place and head back towards the front, as I do a man bursts through the door and begins shooting. I see myself hold my neck with one hand as I fall to the ground in slow motion and the roses spilling out everywhere. I have been shot in the neck, and am lying dead on the floor surrounded by a pool of blood with roses spread all around me. EOD.

I awake from this dream terrified, my body is shaking and I know I have just seen my own death. I shared the dream, fearing for my life, with my now ex-husband, who tells me frankly, “Oh it is just a dream,……..you have to go to work we need the money.” I was almost persuaded by his goading and pressure that I needed to go to work, but I was still very afraid, and so I called into work to tell them I was sick and would not be coming in. They were very upset with me, and told me they had given me the very best route of clubs to work that night and I would make alot of money. They told me what clubs they had scheduled me to work and at what time, and Belle Star was one of the clubs on that list. They also told me if I didn’t come to work and called in sick they would have to fire me. I didn’t want to lose my job and so I somehow mustered the courage to get myself dressed for work and drove in that direction. While driving down the highway, I saw a really bad car accident that had just happened. The car was totaled and I could somehow sense that someone had died in that car wreck. My hands began to shake on the steering wheel, and I began to feel the same sensation I experienced in the dream about seeing my own death. I could not physically force myself to drive to work after that, I was too shaken by the whole experience, and my body knew the real danger I was heading toward. I turned around and drove home instead.

My then husband at the time, was very angry with me, and yelled at me for being irresponsible by not going to work. My employer was not pleased with me either and fired me for not showing up for my shift. I was feeling pretty low about the whole situation. The next day however, on the front page of the newspaper, was a story about a man who had gone into a popular country western bar called Belle Starr and began shooting, and two people were shot. http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1987_443477/man-dressed-in-black-shoots-2-in-dallas-club.html

I was astounded, that could have been me! I felt I had been touched by grace somehow, and that for some reason I was given information in a dream which saved my life. Clearly there was more to dreaming than I had previously been lead to believe. Never again would I look at any dream as “just a dream”.

My life changed after that day and I made a determination to honor my dreams from that day forward. I began to look more deeply into the messages my dreams had for me, and I started writing my dreams down in journals.  I soon realized by keeping a dream journal, that many dreams I recorded had content which connected to events in waking life. They were not as dramatic as the rose girl dream, but just normal everyday occurrences would also appear in my dreams. I discovered that deja vu experiences I had often had, were a result of having dreamt it before, rather than lived it before.  I determined that dreams are a place where we can create our life and often give us glimpses of what may come.  I also began to have out of body experiences, and once found myself hovering above my body connected to my physical body by a luminous cord of fuchsia colored light which lit up the entire room in that hue. I felt the strong loving energy of the light which enveloped the room, and was confused about why I was looking at my physical body asleep in bed as I was hovering above. I wondered how this could happen, and suddenly found myself slammed back into my body and abruptly woke up. I was having what is known as an “out of body experience”, but at the time I was unfamiliar with this, and so I began to explore lucid dreaming and astral travel.  I learned that I was not confined to my physical body but could travel in my night time excursions beyond the physical.

These experiences were a turning point in my life, which set me on an exploration of consciousness, dreaming and shamanism. I have recorded my dreams now for over 25 years and studied many aspects and approaches to dreaming. The approach that I value most is Active Dreaming, a synthesis of modern day dream work with ancient shamanic dream practices.  Active Dreaming was developed through the pioneering work of  Robert Moss and it is through his dream teacher training and depth workshops over the years that I have joined the ranks of dream teachers around the world who are helping to create a dream sharing community once again. I offer classes and workshops on Active Dreaming where we explore the many ways dreams provide guidance and healing as we travel our life path and beyond.  Dreams have the ability to lead us out of danger and onto a path of heart and soul. All we have to do to start on this path is dream, and share our dreams in a way that offers respect for the dreamer and the dream. The lightning method of dream sharing is an excellent way to share dreams in a way begins with the felt sense of the dreamer upon waking, followed by a reality check,  for clues of a possible future which may play out in our dreams. The process asks “What do you most want to know from the dream” as an important touch stone to work from and then moves to “What action do you want to take?” This process is a quick method of dream sharing that points to the important aspects to work from when discovering your dreams. Dreaming the future does not mean your waking life must play out the same way. My story exemplifies how it is possible to change the outcome of a dream, if appropriate action is taken. Conversely, if a dream is showing us our heart’s desire, we have only to gather our courage and act.

Valley Reed 2012 ©

Journey of the Soul of my Soul

By Valley Reed © 2012

I recently read Dreaming the Soul Back Home by Robert Moss and was inspired by his writing, to embark on a conscious journey given in the book, to connect with the soul of my soul.  The sound of my frame drum was my passport, as I sat ready to release to the journey, and off I went.

The Soul of my Soul Journey 5-20-12 Solar Eclipse, New Moon

I see a smoldering coal in the place of my heart, the flame grows like a ring of fire. I place my hands as a cup over my heart and begin to receive light into my body through the top of my head. I go deeper in connecting the light to my heart and the burning flame. I feel lighter, and begin to see a mist gather around my body. I enter into it and stick my head into a sunset beach scene, where a man is walking toward me from the distance. I see the sunset display a beautiful brilliant light which reflects upon his body and face, but I cannot see what he looks like clearly. A cloud shadow passes over and he steps out of the light and into the shadow. Now I can see his brilliance. He is beautiful with blond hair and blue eyes. Tall and muscular and tan. His face has a pleasant, beautiful, relaxed look and his smile is full of love. He approaches me and we begin to talk as friends. We sit back on the beach to relax, we are comfortable together, he has his arms around me and we are just listening to the ocean. He then places a mirror on the sand before me, it is large and he wants to show me something. He shows me how to enter the mirror and inside we go. It is like moving through a permeable membrane, and suddenly we are in a beautiful mysterious mountainous landscape in China. It is raining gently and we can hear the wind blowing through the forest like musical chimes. He becomes a white tiger and we move higher into the mountainous forest. We look together over a peaceful river perched high over this beautiful place. We do a shape shift dance into two beautiful White Cranes. We  take flight soaring over the river where an ancient boat sails. We find ourselves inside the boat and find a cozy bed for us to rest. We lay together in tender embrace and love-making on our journey together.

We sail to another shore, in another country, and arrive where the shore meets a desert landscape. He takes me to some horses awaiting us nearby. They are White and Black Arabian Horses. I ride upon a white one and he on the black. We ride through the desert until nightfall, when reaching a Bedouin tent campsite. We lay down with our horses gazing up at the crescent moon and the beautiful starlit sky. My appearance is now different and I have long curly dark hair and he is also dark featured and handsome and strong. He takes me to a waterfall spring coming out of an ancient mountain. We are naked and he makes love to me pressed against the mountain under the sacred spring. I feel I am becoming the mountain as he makes love to me and the mountain shakes beneath my body. It is passionate and healing. He takes me to a cave where I am told I must go in order to heal. The cave is an underground temple and I enter for sacred initiation of the ancient goddess. When I come out, I am met by a snake, which begins to talk with me. It is giving me wisdom, and it is also part of my soul. I am now given another horse to ride that is black and has a white heart on his forehead. This is my soul’s soul also, and I have a deep love for this horse. I ride with him and together we ride through the desert. I stop to gaze upon a pool of water in order to glimpse my future, I am continuing along the roads of my soul’s journey and writing along the way.

This journey was deep and beautiful for me, visiting other lives and landscapes, magical shape shifting, and connecting with ancient rights of passage in the cave of the goddess, as well as a ceremonial mating with the land to reclaim the energy of the goddess and connecting with her wisdom.

I discovered one of the places I visited in my vision, was the Yellow Mountains of China. A mystical place where  immortals are said to live. A place where white animals are said to roam, and immortals travel flying on the backs of white cranes. It is a unique landscape with interesting shaped mountains and curled up pine trees which grow upon the mountaintops, clouds rise to give the impression of a heavenly mountain island.  It is not a place I have ever known about, seen or wanted to go previously. I am so glad that now I know the way. Just look into the magic mirror of the soul of my soul.

Dream Wayfinding

I was transfixed by the images in this dream, the energy was so inviting and mysterious. The next day, I set up the space for the workshop to create a sacred ceremonial space within which to work in the basement of an airport hotel. I put out about 30 chairs and I thought I must be expecting a good crowd. I imagined all the chairs being filled for the workshop. I also decided to lure people into the space down in the basement by playing my Native American flute.

By Valley Reed

The Annual Conference for the International Association for the Study of Dreams was held last month in Chicago, Illinois.  I was there to participate in a panel on Listening to the Earth Dreaming chaired by Jean Campbell along with Wendy Panier, Jody Grudy & Teresa MacColl, a powerful group of women leaders and dreamers.  I also co-facilitated a workshop with Teresa MacColl on Dream Way Finding.   I have been a presenter at several of these conferences over the years, including last year in Montreal, Canada where I chaired a panel on Dreaming Across Borders with Indigenous Peoples.  The presentation I gave last year is listed on my blog as “The Call of Quetzalcoatl and Dancing with the Moon” which has also been published in Dreamtime Magazine.  I flew to this years conference in Chicago directly after attending a week long Dream Teacher Training with Robert Moss in Connecticut at a beautiful seaside retreat. The circle of 18 women was a powerful, grounded group that attended the training and we have all become bonded on this journey we are embarking on together.

The Dream way finding workshop seemed to pick up right where I left off from my experience in Teotihuacan, where I did ceremony with De Leon the keeper of the staff of Quetzalcoatl. It was in response to a prayer I had offered for my father two years ago, who was dying of cancer that I had the dream of an Aztec  Gatekeeper who told me he was directing my fathers death. This dream lead me to go the Teotihuacan to do ceremony in Teo at the temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Jaguar Palace.  I have been told by a Mayan friend that the name Teotihuacan means “Valley of the Reeds” and my given birth name is Valley Reed.

temple-of-quetzalcoatl
Teotihuacan The Temple of Quetzalcoatl

My father has since crossed over last fall, and during the past Summer Solstice of this year, which was also Fathers Day,  my oldest brother spread my fathers ashes over the Garden of the Gods in Colorado where my father grew up.  Teotihuacan is also known as “the place where men become Gods”,  so it seems fitting that my Father would finally come to rest in the Garden of the Gods.  I wrote about my experience as being a “Gatekeeper” in my previous blog entry and serving in the role of psycho pomp to help my father to cross over into the next stage of his journey.

I found in the workshop on dream way finding we did in Chicago that the journey was continuing.  I had a dream the night before the workshop of a mysterious princess or priestess who had a star on her forehead and wore a beautiful transparent veil in shades of blue, which just barely covered her head.  In the dream, she handed me a Crystal Skull and also a small crystal spiral.  I was transfixed by the images in this dream the energy was so inviting and mysterious. The next day,  I set up the space for the workshop to create a sacred ceremonial space within which to work in the basement of an airport hotel.  I put out about 30 chairs and I thought I must be expecting a good crowd.  I imagined all the chairs being filled for the workshop.  I also decided to lure people into the space down in the basement by playing my bamboo Native American flute I had bought at the Mohawk reservation in Montreal last year. The first person to come into the circle through the East was Dr. Tricia Torres an Anthropologist from Guadalajara. We had the opportunity to visit briefly, as she entered the circle and put her offering on the altar my colleague Teresa had set up in the center.  Dr. Torres told me she was the Dance Elder for a dance circle of women in Mexico, and they did sacred precolumbian dance.  I asked her if she knew De Leon, the keeper of the staff of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan, and told her I had danced with him and his wife as their guest in the annual Moon Dance Ceremony in Mexico City in 2007.  She affirmed to me she did know him, I then felt moved to ask her if she could tell me anything about the Crystal Skull. I shared with her that I had a dream last night of a crystal skull and it seemed to me to be from Mexico, or Central or South America.  She told me the crystal skull had to do with higher transformational energies.  I left it at that and thanked her, allowing her to take her place in the circle and continued to play the flute to help guide other dream wayfinders to our workshop. We managed to fill each of the seats we had set out for the workshop. It was a wonderful mix of bringing the ancient practice of dream way finding through the voices of the elders who Teresa MacColl had interviewed and recorded.  Teresa has her Masters through the Indigenous Mind Studies Program at Naropa University now directed at Wisdom University by Dr. Apela Colorado.  It is important to follow the protocols of honor and respect toward elders and these ancient practices by honoring the ancestors.  Within the protected ceremonial space we had created together, I was able to lead the workshop on a shamanic group dream journey with the help of the drum to dream our way forward.

In the circle, we called out the names of our ancestors and shared dreams and experiences on dream way finding.  I felt called to mention that each person in the circle had found their way there that day, and that it was also an example of way finding.  I made the connection with Dr. Torres and that she knew the gatekeeper from my dream that lead me to Teotihuacan.  She told me on June 21st during the Summer Solstice her womens’ dance circle had performed a sacred dance to help heal relations between fathers and daughters, the same day my fathers ashes were spread over the Garden of the Gods. The name of the sacred dance these women performed is called the skull dance.

Dr. Torres offered to teach the whole circle the skull dance to close the circle. We all did the dance together beautifully, picking up the steps as though we already knew the dance.  The dance was offered as a closing prayer to our dream way finding workshop and offered further closure for me on the journey of my father’s crossing over.  The workshop was so magical, and the weaving of the bigger story into the circle was overwhelming to me in the sense of how incredibly blessed I felt to be a part of this work and to be able to dance together into the realm of the ancestors.

The dance continues and the journey of dream way finding with plans to bring Dr. Torres,  director of  The Mexican Research Institute of Interdisciplinary Anthropological Studies to Dallas to begin a sacred womens’ dance circle.  I will also to travel to Mexico to dance with my sisters there.  To find out more about workshops and classes scheduled on dream way finding visit www.chrysalishealingarts.org

The Gatekeeper

The next day I determined upon reflection that I was doing exactly what was needed. I did not go through the portal, but helped keep it open, and that was what gatekeepers do, keep the space open or close spaces that should not be open. They do not go through them.

At a recent week long Dream Teacher Training with Robert Moss on the East Coast, I kept noticing an ongoing theme. I got there early to the seaside villa where we were all staying and I was making myself at home when I heard an inner prompting telling me to go to the front door. I did, and found a knock at the door and standing before me was Robert Moss pronouncing me as the “Gatekeeper” ! This theme has continued with me over the past 2 weeks, and it seems a path I am now learning to traverse.

My roommate showed up late to the training, and since I only had one set of keys to our room, I had unlock our door to let her in. I once again found myself in the service of being a gatekeeper. After we adjourned from our first nights session, I had the opportunity to reflect on the gatekeeper and what that might be trying to tell me.

I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and began to notice the lights were turning on and off, and then the sink began to look as though it were moving. I quickly removed myself from the space telling my roommate, there was something weird going on in that bathroom! She finished getting ready for bed and closed the bathroom door and it was then I noticed the bathroom door was now locked and it had a bolt lock that could only be locked from the inside.

We were beginning to feel as though there were some poltergeist activity going on in our room. We finally got into bed and were discussing what the dream intention would be for the nights dreaming. I decided mine would be “What does it mean to be a gatekeeper?” I glanced up at the picture on the wall in front of me, and noticed it was a picture of a door on a barn, another portal! It was too much, I decided it was time for bed and so I laid down to sleep. As I lay there with eyes closed, I immediately saw the image of an open portal of green light which had infinite kalpas of swirling Buddhas. The portal was in front of the locked bathroom door which had exhibited the poltergeist activity earlier.

Previously in the evening, a ceremony by my two older brothers had been performed for the release of my fathers ashes over his childhood playground at the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. I was now seeing the portal which was open for my father to cross over. I felt like there was something I needed to do to help him, but I was afraid, and I was feeling the energy of the portal and a pull on my spine as though something was trying to pull me through it. I did not want to go through this portal and kept saying “I am not ready”.

My teacher Robert Moss appeared in my dream and I asked him to help me because I was not ready to go through this portal. He told me that I was at a teacher training and that I would have to do it myself. I said thanks alot! I kept feeling afraid to do anything.
I felt bad that I was not able to go through the portal, or assist whatever was trying to go through.

The next day I determined upon reflection that I was doing exactly what was needed. I did not go through the portal, but helped keep it open, and that was what gatekeepers do, keep the space open or close spaces that should not be open. They do not go through them.

The next day upon reflection, I determined what was needed from me was for me to chant for my fathers passage as part of my Buddhist practice. I decided to meditate and chant as I entered the portal and I could feel my fathers energy move through the portal until finally reaching the other side where his parents and brothers and sisters where waiting who had already crossed over. Everyone was so glad to be reunited. I was glad to see everyone there too, but I was only there on a day pass and it was time for me to return home, back through the portal.

Dream Pathway
The Gatekeeper
May our doors and gates and paths be open,
and may the doors and  gates and paths between the worlds,
and may the doors and gates and paths of any who wish
to do us or those we love any harm be closed.
May it be so.

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