Dream Synchronicity: Fireflies

Have you ever had the experience where an object or person you just encountered in a dream turns up the very next day, or perhaps soon after, in your waking life? It's not uncommon when you pay attention to your dreams, but sometimes, it's just so lovely it feels like a gift.

I have a very dear friend, an artist by the name of Antoinette Martignoni, who sends a daily inspiration via email to all who subscribe to her good news express. (Here's the link to her wonderful website: http://www.youareseen.com/index.htm)

On the day of Christmas eve, I woke up knowing I'd been somewhere, doing something rather pleasant, but couldn't remember anything to bring the dream back. I gave up and got up and began my day. When I sat down at my computer to check my emails, there was Toni's message, as most always, a poem she finds inspiring. The dream came back to me in a flash. It was such an unusual synchronicity, I'm just going to share the email exchange.

Toni's email: Seasons
My memories of Christmas were so deeply formed in my childhood
that I went searching for an echo that would ring true other than
Babes In Toyland. I had to go very far back, not only in time but in season:

CHILDHOOD
by SHARON STRANGE

"Summer brought fireflies in swarms,
They lit our evenings like dreams
we thought we couldn't have.
We caught them in jars, punched
holes, carried them around for days.

Luminous abdomens that when charged
with air turned bright. Imagine!
mere insects carrying such cargo,
magical caravans flickering beneath
low July skies. We chased them, amazed.

The idea! Those tiny bodies
pulsing phosphorescence.
They made reckless traffic,
signaling, neon flashes forever
into the deepening dusk.

They gave us new faith
in the nasty tonics of childhood,
pungent, murky liquids promising
shining eyes, strong teeth, glowing skin,
and we silently vowed to swallow ever after.
.................
What was the secret of light?
We wanted their brilliance:
small fires hovering,
each tiny explosion
the birth of a new world."

And I wrote to Toni:

This is beautiful and what's more synchronistic. When I woke up this morning I searched my memory for dream images, fragments, anything from my night travels and nothing came. When I sat down to my computer and read this, it came back. Last night in, my dreams, I'm walking on a winter night along a river bank with friends and I exclaim in amazement. "Look. there are fireflies! Fireflies at this time of year!" The little lights danced at the edge of the water, random heights, sparkling at intervals, just like Christmas lights. How wonderful that your gift of inspiration today was so personally magical for me, as well.

And Toni responded to my email:

ADELITA, your fireflies dream makes me weep. From gratitude, from the magic of how we all are so connected that this morning I should choose a poem from a poetry book I received on Tuesday about fireflies. Hey, lady, it's real. wow.

I'm going to end with another small synchronicity; a link to a youtube music video I just now heard for the first time by Owl City titled, "Fireflies" It conveys just about everything in this post. Here's the opening line of the song:

"You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4

This is my New Year's wish for us all, to believe in the magic and keep an eye out for those winks of affirmation the universe is always sending, especially in our dreams.

Let's Not Name It

By now, most of us feel the holiday aura in the air. Much of the world is celebrating because these are high holy days in the Jewish and Christian religions. For the Christians, it means the birth of their beloved Messiah, Jesus.

Besides the religious nature of these holidays, there's a frenzy of commercial activity, the buying and selling of things to be offered as tokens of our affection and esteem to one another.

I like the feelings associated with this time of year, Hope, the promise of Peace, and unconditional Love. Sometimes I get and give some very cool presents, too, but I'd be really happy to see it all change.

I've learned from my dream life that there is a ridiculous amount of Hope, Peace and Love available to me all the time. I've learned that I'm not alone; I have guides and guardians and many teachers. I have a place to be with my beloved dead and they to be with me. Just don't ask me to name the Source. I don't want to.

In the Old Testament, the divine name for the Hebrew god, Yahweh was taboo, could not be spoken. I've noticed that some Jewish people still spell god, g-d, to avoid naming the divine. To name, whether in dark or healing magic, is to control, to have power over that which is named.

I believe in regards to the divine, to name is to limit - the divine, but especially ourselves. In dreams the divine is constantly shape shifting. Sometimes it appears absurd and outlandish, others religiously conventional and sometimes it's just a feeling of riveting awe. The lesson here is that if I don't name it, shape it to my own all too limited projections, it will surprise, inspire and deliver me from evil. It will appear as I need it to appear; it will say what I need to hear, whether I know it or not.

That Which Is exists. I accept that my mind is too limited, that it is way beyond what I can ever imagine, but also that I am safe in this dance with my divine Love and, because there will be other lives where I will see and hear differently, perhaps I'll know more of it's true Nature. Something to look forward to in death, at least.
Here and now, all I need is to feel it, live it and be delighted and surprised constantly by the experience.

I believe a change from Naming paradigms would bring about Hope, Peace and Love on earth. Who can deny that religion is at the root of most of our tragedies? When we fight with God on our side, we think we have the only truth and can justify any atrocity in god's Name. Witness now as in history, the World Trade Towers in NYC, the centuries of genocide of Christianizing colonialism or the almost world-wide subjugation of women. Muslims for Allah, Jews for Yahweh, Christians for God the Father, these patriarchal religions advocate one Truth that must be served and is only in the keep of mean old men. There's also communism and other state oligarchies where the State becomes the god, but it's still run by mean old men. ("HL Mencken once defined a demagogue as one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots..")

We give power to forces of destruction when we name the divine. It's not meant to be named, just experienced. It's the ultimate ineffable Love that we know is the only answer to everything. It will not be described by puny little humans. It will not be the crucible for those humans who want power, control, whose greed and savagery are wielded in the name of Truth. It doesn't need defending or defining; it needs to be lived. We are each on a soul journey here. We use symbols to express what we can't define, but we must know that what we seek to name is beyond and greater still. It is in perpetual revelation mode, now as it was in the beginning.

Just like dream images, it cannot be the same for you as for me; it is extremely personal. It is Mystery that goes way beyond the cognitive to ways of knowing that are often ignored. Inner knowing, inner certainty, not rational explanation is the key to knowing god.

Yet, we are naturally clannish; we crave relationship and community. Religion satisfies our need to belong to a tribe of "just like mees" and that's cool, if we can keep the doctrines flexible. If a religion teaches rigidity of belief and woeful punishments to the disbeliever, it's a dangerous paradigm.

I use largely pagan metaphors to talk about my Divine, but I hold them loosely. They are and they aren't. If you're saying Father and I'm saying Mother, that's cool, but these are, after all, anthropomorphisms. We're creating a human projection; surely, there's much more of Love to experience than that.

So the thought I'm offering for these holidays is that it's about the Feeling, no matter what the religious paradigm. I believe the experience of Love and Loving is salvific and that's what I celebrate, that Epiphany. I wish for you the certain knowledge that you aren't alone and that neither is anybody else and I invite you to join that clan, the clan of Love is the Answer.

Blessed holidays.

Music:
"I Can Hear the Angels"
Shapeshifter
Podsafe Audio

Politics or "Remind me again why I came to this planet?"

I've recently had the great good fortune to cyber-meet a wonderful author and blogger, Trish MacGregor. She and her author husband, Rob MacGregor, have a very worth reading blog titled Synchronicity, (link at the end of this post). I've found that besides illuminating discussions on "all things mystical" they also address some challenging political issues. Trish posed this question to me; "So if politics were a dream, Adelita, what would it all mean?"

A dream from May of 2005 flashed to mind. It's titled "Galactic Travels #1". It's long, so here's an excerpt.

I’m traveling through the galaxy with a group of people I know (not sure who). We’re stopping on several planets, looking for a suitable place to live. On one, we’re adopted by the people there, and after a time, we’re conferred citizenship (or whatever they called it, they made us one of them.) But then something happens, some kind of raid from another planet and we’re rounded up by these men in khaki uniforms with weapons (that look like guns)... At the end of the dream I say to a woman from the khaki army who's questioning me about my education, "I'm not from your planet."

In the dream, my dream self is somewhat passive, yet thankfully, pretty resourceful. I slip out of custody and also confront the woman with the knowledge that I'm not from this planet. Throughout the dream, I'm also interacting with the others I know aren't from this planet. I'm not alone.

"Galactic Travels #1" has stayed with me as the knowledge that we move about in the universe, planet to planet, between levels of reality, living an existence here and there. After this dream, I read some of Robert Monroe's work on astral travel and OBEs. In his OBEs he hops around all over the place, often to some less than tantalizing spots, but the key he offers to all this out of body travel is the knowledge of the power of intention. We move around in other than physical planes with the power of our focus and intention.


"Politics", the word comes from the Greek, "polis", the body of people we are. (Interesting that you add the ending "ticks" and it becomes the mess it is today.) If politics in it's contemporary manifestation is part of the dream I'm living on this planet, at this moment, I remember I'm here of my own volition. I wanted to come here. I came with a group of people I know. When I incarnated here, I had a plan, a purpose. My heart fell in love with some possibility; it's a dream that is mine to fulfill and that needs to be fulfilled here, on this planet. How I do is a crap shoot; there are significant obstacles and crazy thinking people. I'm in a militant plane where the paradigm of fear is created by the few in power and enforced by their armies of minions with brutality. But there are many aliens visiting, like me. We don't live that paradigm and we're here to make a difference.

We're a body of people who've chosen to come to this planet to live among another body of people who think crazy. But we chose to come here to see what we could do, perhaps to make a better home for ourselves and future generations on this gorgeous planet.

(Every time I slip and complain to my husband that this is a horrible world, he corrects me; it's not the world, the planet is beautiful, it's the people.)

So, we have a purpose, those of us who think Love is the answer. We came from somewhere else, but it's important that we're here and we do what we can.

Trish also commented: "Years ago, when I read Jane Roberts Seth books, I was struck by his discussions on dreaming, that in a sense, we dream ourselves into existence, that collective we could dream a better world".

Robert Moss speaks frequently about his dream of creating a dreaming culture, a people who use their night and waking dreams to shape the reality we want to live. I for one am on board with it. We know we're dreaming. We know we're here for the duration of a visit and then we're gone; it's not forever, just now. We are many. We can connect and with the power of our focus and intention, dream the body polis we want to be.

I can re-enter my dream of Galactic travels and rehearse what I want to bring about without fear of the guns; in my dream, I can do what I want. Then, I can transfer what I discover to what I do here, in this waking dream, and I can do it with others, with people like Trish and Rob who are doing it. We joked about meeting in cyber space, but that's where we are really. We are out there as well as here. Our dreams are a portal to that awareness.

When I go back into this dream, I see myself participating in all sorts of ways in the education of the citizenry already here; I want to win them away from fear and brutality. I know that I must assess each battle for its win-ability and stay close in communication with my fellow travelers. I'll do what I can, then I'll be moving on.

Here's the link to "Sychronicity"
http://ofscarabs.blogspot.com/

Photo: NASA - "Spiral and Elliptical Galaxies"

Garden Variety Synchronicity

Have you ever had the experience of finding a book, hearing a song or opening the link to a you tube video your friend has sent you that speaks to the very core need in you, that thing you've been praying for help about, and lo, here it is?

That is garden variety synchronicity. A coincidence that maybe isn't, that maybe is really an answer to our most urgent prayers, spoken or unspoken.

To me, this is my proof that I am not alone. Synchronicity is Jung's way of describing this spiritual, psychological and emotional phenomenon. It doesn't always come with lighting bolts and hair raising realizations, sometimes it's gentle and subtle and just a consistent presence in our lives that leads us to discover something, something that holds the key and helps unlock the door where love and healing can make us whole.

It's a gentle arm around our shoulders and a loving voice in our ear that speaks directly to our hearts. I'm posting the link to Brene Brown's talk in the hopes that her message just happens to be the one your heart has been longing to hear. I think her work is so liberating that my new mission is to read more of her work and listen to her many other talks.

Dream Mojo: Nightmares Big and Small

I'm still feeling the loving support of my angel dolphin guide from the dream I wrote about last Sunday; it's like the high from a great therapy session and it didn't cost any money.

Dreams are my connection to Spirit. The older I get, the more dreaming and waking interweave the experiences of my life and underscore the truth of this connection. In the Way of the Dreamer DVD series, program 2, Robert Moss says; "I know this about dreaming, it's all about soul."

After so many years of paying attention to my dreams and reaping dream rewards, I scratch my head at how dismissive or fearful some people are about their own dream life. It's understandable, but puzzling. Why dismiss direct and uberpersonal information that can benefit your mind, moods, body and spirit? How do you know it doesn't mean anything if you don't pay attention and you don't learn the language?

Some people say that all they ever remember are nightmares; these people would just as soon forget their dreams. I spend a bit of time on nightmares when I do dreamshops and presentations because I've heard this so often. I have several previous posts on nightmares, but let me reiterate my views on scary dreams and nightmares. Number one, it's extremely important to be sensitive to the source of these nightmares. Many people suffer from post-traumatic stress related dreams that require great sensitivity and knowledge of trauma in order to help the dreamer through these dreams. No one should presume one theory covers all. However, nightmares in ordinary circumstances are usually our best friends, as Robert Moss teaches in this youtube clip from the DVD program I quoted earlier:

Following his challenge to dreamers to face their nightmares, Robert gives a wonderful example from a dream re-entry in one of his workshops. In Active Dreaming there are many ways, like through dream re-entry, dialogue with dream characters, or other numerous creative approaches, to harness the energy of a nightmare image for our good and growth.

The other special consideration I take with scary dreams and nightmares is when I'm teaching children how to address their fears and get beyond bad dreams to good dreaming. I have a theory that part of the reason children are prone to nightmares is the size and power difference between their world and the adult world. Also, some children have more external supports and a higher degree of personal security than others; this is a factor to consider in guiding them concerning dreams. Here's a story that illustrates how much children can benefit from an Active Dreaming approach: (Robert asked me last week if he could post a story I had written to him a few years back on this topic, so here's the post at his blog, DreamGates on Belief Net

Dreaming with inner city kids

"Let It Be" Sung By A Chorus of Thousands

In my previous post I share a dream that was an answer to my prayers; "Angel Dolphin, Where Have You Been?" I needed that spiritual reassurance to get back on track. One of the practices of Active Dreaming as taught by Robert Moss is honoring a dream by manifesting it's energy in the waking through some tangible action. That's why I often do drawings from my dreams; I've shared with you several incidents of uncanny, unpremeditated results.

Another way to honor a dream is to journey back into it, not by falling back asleep, but by slipping into the mild trance of daydreaming and continuing or extending the dream from any point of choice. Robert calls it "Dream Re-Entry"; it's similar to journeying practices in many shamanic cultures and to what Carl Jung called Active Imagination.

Angel Dolphin was definitely a dream I wanted to re-enter and to my delight, I got to share this dream re-entry with a dear friend. Here's my journey back into "Angel Dolphin":

When I recognize that my guide is a dolphin, I lose my fear. I slip off the raft and into the sultry ocean waves. Swimming under the dolphin, I emerge on the other side of him in my Mermaid form. I'm singing the Beatles song, "Let It Be" to the music being performed by a band on shore. Everyone joins in singing the song; the dolphin, my cousin, who has also taken mermaid form, and then voice by voice, thousands of others, merpeople and dolphins everywhere. It's our anthem to our Lady. I am a small voice in this chorus, but the joy I derive from singing it is immense.

When we shared our trips, my friend's journey had many features in common with mine, and also extended to areas that I welcomed as more insight to my dream. Later that evening, along with her musician son on guitar, we sang our rendition of "Let It Be." I've learned the lyrics and sing it periodically as a centering practice and a way to honor my dreams.

Some may consider dream re-entry a frivolous flight of the imagination; I find it's an excellent intuitive tool for Self balancing through dream play.

The picture above is "Our Lady of Good Counsel" (a fitting a.k.a. for the Lady in my dream re-entry); it's a picture I took recently of the church I attended sporadically as a teenager. It's also the dream setting for one of my most treasured Big Dreams, "Howling Mary." Let It Be.

Angel Dolphin, Where Have You Been?

I've mentioned before how there's a rhythm to my dream recall and my dream play. Sometimes I experience a dream drought, a time when I'm not remembering much of what I've been living in the sleeping state. Not everybody has these dry periods; some people, who may not even be keeping track of their dreams, remember their dreams every time they wake from sleep. I do get jealous, but it doesn't really matter. One dream remembered from ten years ago can change your life now if you pay attention to it. Still, when I have a phase where my dreams slip away too fast for me to catch them, I do miss them very much.

I know many people have experienced what we're fond of calling depression. We might go through the paces of life, but there's no zeal or passion for the life we're living. Some people turn to religion to fill this void; I find my dreams are my surest source of comfort, inspiration and teaching when I feel this way. Even though I'm in a drought, I still ask for their help most every night. During a recent bout of the blues which had me adopting a rather scaredy-kitty approach to life, I went to sleep asking for a dream that would help me get back to feeling my Self again. I remembered this brief dream in the morning.

I'm floating on a raft, my cousin is with me on her own raft, and we're floating feet first out towards deep ocean. I'm relaxed and comfortable, feeling the wonder and beauty of the Caribbean blue/green ocean, looking up at the clear, beautiful blue sky. I notice that the light is beginning to go golden, signaling sunset is not far off. I tell my cousin we need to turn around and head back, I don't want to be drifting in the ocean at night. She turns on her stomach and begins swimming her raft towards shore. I stay on my back, holding her raft with my left hand and swimming the back stroke with my right. I look out to the right and see the glistening blue-grey skin of a large fish with a fin diving into the water about 12 feet away. At first I fear it's a shark and hold my breath, but quickly I see it's not; it's a dolphin. It's obviously guiding us back to shore. It continues swimming along side us till we get to the beach, then turns around and swims back out.

I drew a very fast sketch, just a few lines with colors from the dream and the quick unthinking strokes I use for dream drawings. I looked at my scrawls and judged that the shape of the fish was all wrong. The fish looked like it had wings. I thought, that's not what a dolphin looks like. Eureka! They are wings; angel wings, I realized. My dolphin is an even greater guide than I first apprerciated, so I titled the dream: "Angel Dolphin." I also wrote on the drawing, "Where have you been?"

Receiving this great spiritual reassurance that my guide is with me, in deep water and on shore, made all the difference to me. I could feel the blues evaporating and my energy increasing. I took this dream to one of my favorite dream friends to gain even greater insight by journeying back into it together. I'll post more on dream re-entry soon and perhaps share more of the insights this little dream opened to me.

Dreams can provide, in just one image, a metaphor that anchors the soul in times of trouble. They can open the door to deeper possibilities in the practical matters of life and they can lead us back to emotional Terra Firma, where we can find our footing and move on.

Finding a spiritual guide is one of the most profound gifts of dreaming. If you pay attention to your dreams, they will surprise you with allies in the most wonderful guises, bearing just the right tidings, just in the nick of time.

I Told You So

Back in March, on the 5th actually, I posted twice, writing to you about a dream I had that morning and sharing a lovely synchronicity from later that day. Today I caught up to the media storm around Anne Rice quitting Christianity and all I can say is, I told you so.

What I mean is, isn't it marvelous the way dreams prepare us for future events? If you read what I said then in both posts of this blog thread and listen to what Ms Rice is saying publicly, I believe you'll see the future glimpsing dynamic of dreams in effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Wb5CnYrmA

On a deeply personal level, I applaud her and thank her for her courageous, intelligent and articulate public statements. She's a remarkable woman opening a dialogue that has been long in coming.

I titled the dream I'm referring you to "Remember Who You Are." It's so important to stay true to my spiritual certainty in the face of organized, big business religion telling me I'm not worthy in "gods" eyes. My dreams assure me I'm worthy, as can yours. The spiritual connection to who we are at our deepest core is a dialogue within ourselves that leads us to our true Self. It is a dialogue with our Soul; we don't need the intervention of others, nor should we project our life interpretation on to others. In Active Dreaming,Robert teaches that we should be careful not to project our interpretations on others' dreams; we can play with understanding others'dreams by making them our own, a rule of Lightning Dreamwork. We can understand another soul by walking in their mocassins, not by sitting in judgment.

To give over spiritual authority to some "ordained"leader who does not consider himself or herself just as vulnerable, human and subject to error as me, to hear someone interpret the word of god for me is like hearing someone tell me what my dream means.

William Blake, that great metaphysical poet described religion as "mind forged manacles." Nothing binds like a paradigm. It's ideology that leads to what Blake lamented in his brilliant poem, "London," "and the hapless soldier's sigh, runs in blood down palace walls." That the ideology of religions world wide at the moment are leading to wars, to just such bloodshed, should be our first clue. I guess, as my dreams have taught me, giving up religion does not mean giving up your Christ. As Jesus himself encouraged, love is the answer and living it is your religion. When some shyster money lender is fleecing you in the temple or causing you undo anguish and guilt, throw the sot out. Jesus took the bull whip to organized religion; what an irony for him that he became it's shill.

I know many, many beautiful people who call themselves Christians and live as they believe Jesus would have them do. Hurray for them. I chose to leave the organized religious scene all together because I didn't want to use my talents to promote an organization I believe manipulates the basic human spiritual instinct and enslaves the human spirit. You don't need to be told how to love Jesus or how to arrive at your truth; you can find out on your own and share it without trying to convert anyone.

I think Anne Rice has done us an amazing public service by speaking out. I'm thankful that my dreams helped me arrive at the same decision a while ago, but she's chosen to use the bully pulpit of her fame at this crucial time in history to raise this issue; it makes her a hero in my eyes, a person risking all that public backlash to speak her controversial truth rather than shut up. Another great metaphysical poet, William Butler Yeats wrote in his poem, The Second Coming, "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." The airwaves are full of hate mongering rhetoric condemning people who don't fit the sanctioned paradigms of organized religions; thank goodness the voice of a good Christian questioning the madness is also being heard.

I'm happy to add my two cents and my two recent dreams. If we all dream together a future of possibilities and then take steps to act our dreams out, then maybe we can change the hateful paradigms that forge malignant ideologies that shackle us and create a world that would make Jesus proud.

Big Dreams

Across time and cultures, teachings on dreams place them in categories, or levels; most simply put,there are Big dreams and more ordinary, everyday ones.

Big dreams also have different categories. For instance, there are Collective Big dreams, like when Carl Jung, in 1913-1914 described his dreams of blood flooding Europe and of frozen barren lands. He knew a collective catastrophe might be their meaning; World War I broke out soon after.

The longer you pay attention to your dreams, the more you'll discover your own personal Big dreams. In my dream repertoire, my personal Big dreams are markers of my soul's journey. My first I had as a child of 5 still living in Havana, Cuba. My second was a dream trilogy just prior to my graduation at 21 from the University of Rochester, N.Y. Unfortunately, I only remember one of those dreams clearly. I was 27 the next time. There were a series of dreams that prefigured a future love affair that I never in a million years would have predicted. That proved a stormy time in my life, but one dream in that magical series of dreams I had stood out so much that I actually wrote it down at the time. It's probably the dream that initiated my passion for dream journaling.

The title of the dream is, "Let Me Tell You My Story."

The dream's story involves many classic Jungian Archetypes: the hero,the journey across the desert, finding sustaining waters. It's the end of the dream that's most magical to me. After enduring many tests, my dream Self, now in my own form, is walking up one side of a mountain. As is possible in dreams, I'm not scaling sheer rock cliff, I'm just slowly walking up to the flat knoll at the top. As I crest the edge, so does the man I love, from the other side, facing me. We step towards each other at the same time and I say to him, "Let me tell you my story."

To me, it's a classic Jungian individuation dream. I join with my Animus, my soul mate, on the mountaintop after surmounting all obstacles to proclaim my life story, my spiritual journey, my individuation. Remember Ecclesiastes saying, "Naked came I into this world and naked I shall return?" For me, this always means that despite all the love and connections we make in our lifetime, we will be dancing out by ourselves, one by one, naked, except for what we can take with us, which is every soul lesson we've mastered.

This Big dream became a source of strength for me, a personal parable that took me through many years of changes. When I had to make choices at that time; the dream helped me choose to care for myself, to do what was in my best interest. In showing me some of the hardships I'd have to endure while presenting the ultimate success of my journey, the dream gave me a road map and assured me I was on the right path. In the end, I didn't get my man,or at least, that man, but I came into my Self.

Each of us has a story. I wonder if when we cross over, when we die, there will be those waiting to hear our stories, not to judge us, but to acknowledge our journeys on the earth plane and welcome us Home.

Big dreams are great gifts from the dream Source, whatever you believe it to be. For me, they are the channels that all my teachers and guides on other planes use to assist and instruct me, and that those who love me on the other side of life use to stay in touch and support me.

This drawing is an awkward attempt at portraying the last scene in "Let Me Tell You My Story." I drew it now, these many years later to honor a recent dream I had where I discover many forgotten dream sketches among my journals. In my dream, I'm delighted because I can use these to illustrate my blog.

As with most dream drawings, there's an element that surprises me. In this one it's that I'm holding hands with my Love. After so many years, this makes me feel that all is well and all is forgiven. I didn't mean to draw the figures holding hands. That's what I love about dream drawing.

Big dreams don't tell me just what I already know. Big dreams are initiations into my life's true path. They become the road maps I need to stay on course and get there. They help me realize, as in the illustrious words of the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need."

The Kiss

What's in a title? In Lightning Dreamwork, developed by Robert Moss, one step along the road to dream understanding is to give each dream a title, as if it were a story.

Dream titles become like little soul tattoos that help you access a dream memory or recognize the serendipity in your life. I usually title my dreams after I'm finished relaying the dream story in writing in my journal. Most of the time, the title just wells up in my mind and I write and underline it at the top of the page. Usually the first thought is the best. When we edit our dream stories and titles, we cheat ourselves of potential healing revelations later on. Unconscious material made conscious in dreams takes time to sink in.

So a title is wonderful shorthand for the essence of a dream. The other day, one of my dearest friends was telling me her dream. She titled it, "The Kiss." I immediately felt a flutter of excitement; there's a dream whose only record I have is a dream painting I did of it on a seashell. I painted my picture, dated it and titled it "The Kiss." So we both share that little tattoo; I listen eagerly to her story.

My amazement grows as I recognize in her story, if it's my dream, the power of Divine Love,archetypal Love that is unconditional and eternal. If it's my dream, I realize that my dream self is displaying an archetypal capacity for Love in all it's dimensions: erotic and all-inclusive, non-judgmental, forgiving, all accepting - the quintessential experience of Love. There's a wonderful "Home" in her dream that reminds me of those dream locations I keep on the other side as my "Homes", my sense of center and security. Symbolically, these places speak to me of my Self; literally, they're places I can always re-enter at will, when need or desire propels me there. They are places of great comfort, wonder and Love. So, if it's my dream, The Kiss, becomes a portal to the many levels of Home in my soul and a bridge that connects me to those I love most deeply.

A great gift of listening to other people's dreams is how often they spark wonderful feelings born of my own dreams in me; dream thrills are totally re-livable any time their energy gets re-ignited. Sometimes, all it takes is a title.

The In-Between

I have a dear friend who’s been asking me wonderful questions about her wonderful dreams. She's a very strong dreamer, (I really try not to be jealous). Recently, she's experienced heightened consciousness in her dreams. She feels as if she’s in an in-between state, between waking and dreaming, just as awake as when she’s conscious. These sleep/waking experiences are new to her; she's excited and curious about them.

In one dream, she’s walking in what seems like an in-between world. She says it's as if she's walking through a bright, sunny yellow mist or fog,a place of light, very pleasant. Another person is with her, a person she likes. They’re walking side-by-side, talking. She has a feeling of great elation and joy that stays with her after waking.

I told her that if this is my dreaming and these experiences are mine, I would value them. I know I would re-enter the dream again, not by trying to go back to sleep, but rather by relaxing, closing my eyes and letting the dream replay in my consciousness. I see myself re-entering the dream and revisiting the events, letting myself dream them forward. I learned this practice from Carl Jung's Active Imagination and Robert Moss’s Active Dreaming techniques . It's similar to shamanic journeying; all it really takes is the imagination of our childhood and the willing suspension of disbelief that we regularly apply to watching movies, etc. You're entering a daydream; weren't you good at that once?

In groups, I've learned to use Shamanic drumming to help create a mild trance state that can quiet the left blabbing brain. You can use a favorite piece of music, preferably one without lyrics and with a calming effect. Neither is essential; if you come back supercharged from a dream, going back can be quite easy. My favorite time to reenter a unique dream is immediately when I wake up from it. If a dream rocks my socks,the energy is hottest right then; the dream portals may not have closed completely.

A good dream experience is like a good orgasm, except it lasts a lot longer. Physics and Metaphysics agree, we create our world through our conscious and unconscious willing. If so, it’s important to to use my imagination to will my own good and the good of others. A dream like this is a gift and I'll imagine myself back in it again and again until the energy is gone and a new dream gives me a new portal. If I don’t re-enter on waking up, then I’m going back any chance I get. (I’ve had great dream re-entries as a passenger on long trips; it’s not a recommended activity while you’re driving).

Back to my friend’s dream, if I know myself to be in an in-between world, an in between state, you can bet I’m going to look around when I re-enter and gather any details I might have missed. I listen to what the person I'm with is saying, what I’m saying; I see what we’re doing and continue in any direction I desire. A rule of the dream world is that you control everything; there's a creative way out of every dilemma and an eternity to enjoy what feels good.

Another thing that comes to mind about this in-between is that I might literally be visiting a place between life and death. I know people get the heebie jeebies thinking about their own death, but most of us have lost people and animals we love. The in-between of the dream world is possibly where we continue our relationships with them. If dreams allow me to cross back and forth and if my loved ones there share ideas with me and give me comfort, why shouldn't I rely on this in my waking life? These are gifts for the soul; it's hard to live without a happy soul.

Perhaps places we visit in dreaming will help us prepare for our own deaths. I have the memory of a very special dream that gave me an amazing script for my exit from this life. I don't know if I'll share the whole dream, but it involves a bridge of moonlight on water. What an image,right? I hope that when it's time for me to go, I can access this dream portal to soothe my journey across. So, why wouldn't I cultivate that image while I'm alive by re-entering this dream from time to time, making sure it's strong and clear for when I need it?

Sometimes dreams like my friend is having get labeled "lucid dreams" or "OBEs", (Out of Body Experiences); there's a lot of fascinating literature about it all. I don't think there's any substitute for allowing yourself to experience your own dreams intimately; eventually, portal after portal will open and shiny new experiences will thrill you.

Walk Like an Egyptian

In the practice of Active Dreaming taught by Robert Moss, waking dreams are as important as night dreams. A “waking dream” is an experience from my waking life that I choose to treat as if it were a dream. It can be recent or from long ago, the key is to play with the memory the same way I play with a dream.

First, I write down my memory of the experience in my journal. I take an objective approach, as if I were writing a news story or filing a police report, just the events as they occurred, no speculation or interpretation. I date it fully- month, date, and year - and give it a title. When I’ve finished writing it down, I can look at the experience more objectively and perhaps learn something from it.
Let me offer a recent waking dream example:


My friends and I are working together at a business event we’ve produced. We’re enjoying ourselves, as usual; talking and laughing between attending to customers. In walks a stranger, a man dressed in black, abrupt, arrogant and aloof. Throughout the event, he interacts with each of us and says things that in the guise of jovial jesting are veiled insults.

My waking dream story is much longer, but this vignette illustrates how I play with a waking dream. In this experience, which I titled "Kiss-off", I choose to look at this stranger the way I look at a shadow/animus figure in a dream.

According to Carl Jung, sometimes a character we dislike or fear in our dreams is a Shadow figure. Shadow figures for Jung are usually the same sex as the dreamer, but the opposite sex can also appear in shadow roles. I believe the shadow delivers a message I need to hear. It may upset me, insult me, or make me feel shame, but if I look beyond my defenses, the reward is always worth the effort. (For more of my musings on the Shadow see my previous post “The Shadow Knows” on 12/22/09.)

The animus/anima is an even more intriguing archetype, according to C.G.Jung, much more complex (pun intended). In my experience, my animus, the male characters in my dreams, come in a variety of personifications which I can put into two groups; good animus – bad animus. When I encounter a “bad animus” he’s usually threatening, bullying, undermining or skeeving me out somehow in the dream. He may even be threatening my life. If I face and challenge him, I'm sure to benefit because he embodies my fears and self-loathing; he comes at me menacing and it’s my job to figure out how to tame and transform this beast within me.

One caveat, dreams can sometimes be literal warnings about waking life threats. Playing with your own dreams for an extended period of time is the best way to ascertain a dream’s meaning because you become familiar with your own dream ways. (For more, see my post “When Bad Dreams Happen to Good People” 3/6/10.)

Back to my waking dream, if I use my dream sense to evaluate my experience I have to ask, is that person I so dislike a Shadow to me or what Castaneda might call, a worthy adversary? Should I look at his insults for what I might learn? Why not? There may be personal or communal benefits to be won if we’re willing to dive in, face what we fear or own what we dislike. The Shadow illuminates our blind spots, in waking or sleep dreams. That doesn’t mean I have to like the guy or be his BF. When I become the observer of my experience, an extra benefit to learning a lot about myself is that it diffuses the sting of negative energy.

Walk like an Egyptian means pay attention, as the Egyptians did, to the omens, messages and spiritual lessons that may come in my waking life, as surely as they come to me in dreams.

Dreams Are Like a Box of Chocolates

There were three of us, a niece, me and my cousin, going to a country fair and then nightclubbing. Our quandary in the dream is what to wear; should we dress for country fair or nightclubbing, I presume in the city. This is a fragment of a dream I had in January of this year. Since I didn't remember a dream this morning I opened my journal at random to this dream. As soon as I re-read this bit I was drawn to the two options, country or city? How interesting; missed that back when I first wrote it down.

One of the things I so totally love about dreams is that when you go back to one in your journal, it's like going back to a box of chocolates thinking its empty and it's actually got a lot of bonbons in it; (this if chocolate's your thing).

Why does it work that way? Perspective, for one thing. I think that's how it is in waking life, too. A little distance from the immediate drama can be just the ticket to a better understanding and a better solution to life's conflicts, like counting to ten, walking away, giving it some thought.

Here's a list of things I've learned so far from journaling my dreams for over thirty years:

How to want to know more about myself, others, life and beyond.

How to pay attention.

How to have intention, to formulate a desire and ask for what I want.

How to go with the flow.

How to ponder.

How to give up control of everything and realize there is a loving guidance available to me on my life's journey.

How to recognize dream gifts, guidance and encouragement and put it to good use.

How to have a sense of humor about all the things I think are so important.

How to enjoy myself every night.

Dreams have entertained me more than movies or tv.

Dreams have given me images, symbols and messages that have provided incredible guidance and inspiration throughout my life, not to mention intrigue and suspense.

Dreams have fueled my creativity; I've painted, written poetry and stories, made beautiful masks, made-up a song, danced like in my dream, daydreamed, fantasized and became a blogger, all inspired by my dream life.

I've dreamed about my beloved dead and feel connected still to their love for me.

Dreams have given me consolation and insight during my most difficult times.

Dreams have shown me valuable glimpses of what's ahead, in my future.

Dreams have helped me remember and heal trauma from my past.

Dreams have taken me to strange, interesting places and times.

Did I mention I can fly? Yes, you too. It's such a fun thing, isn't it?

This isn't an exhaustive list. I just want to highlight some of the reasons for playing with your dreams regularly. Once you start; you'll have your own list someday, not to mention all these benefits. If this sparks a question or a comment, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks to my dear friend and gifted artist, Rita Paradis, for giving me permission to use her pastel still life as the eye candy for this post. Aloha!

If you want to see more kick-ass art like this visit: http://www.finelineartgallery-connecticut.com/

The Evolution of Meaning in a Dream

"What does it mean?" is probably the most frequently asked question about dreams. My experience is that a dream's meaning evolves and materializes as I pay attention, as I ponder it for days, weeks or sometimes, years. Meaning dawns in my thoughts, feelings and in the sychronistic events of my waking life, but what I experience is not just intellectual understanding. I experience something like a door opening for me, a gift being given me, an opportunity to act in waking life for my own healing and pleasure, perhaps in a new and exciting direction.

In my previous post, I shared with you the image of a woman hugging a child from a recent dream, but I didn't share the dream. This is it; it's titled: Caring for The Little Girl.

Jim and I find a little girl, 3 or 4 years old, who'd been abandoned in her crib with a puppy; she's blond, blue eyed, very sweet. We have to go home because Jim needs to get up early for a gig. I insist on taking her home. We get little footie pajamas and some clothes from the room she's in. Holding her, I realize she's running a fever. I put the pajamas on her. She'll sleep with me and Jim will sleep in the guest room (with the puppy).

I often take action to honor my dream by painting it. I'm not a visual artist professionally, but since I was a small child, I've loved to draw . Perhaps you did, too? Sketching and painting my dream images or scenarios gives free expression to that little girl who once loved to draw things. I unplug my superego/critic and just let myself flow with whatever I happen to do on the paper. I hold the dream in my mind's eye and let something come out on the paper, no judgements, no over-corrections. I can always just throw it away, so no pressure.

The drawing in this post is the second one I painted from the dream. I'm always surprised, and usually delighted by what I actually get on paper, but every once in a while, I experience a visual Gestalt from the unintentional appearance of a figure I draw in this flow state.

In this picture, it's the "ghost" that appears behind the child's crib. When I first drew that figure, I was going for the baby's face. It came out the face of an older, heavy woman, wearing a not very pleasant expression. I abandoned trying to transform the face to a baby's and started again next to it. Happy, if still bewildered, with the overall sketch, I began painting it in watercolors. My charcoal pencil lines remained distinct on everything but that odd figure I drew that wasn't in the actual dream. When I painted over her, her lines blurred and flowed into the paint. She became a ghost. I know I'll be dialoguing with this figure as I explore the dream further.

This dream is equivalent to about three good therapy sessions for me. I'll be exploring it for a while longer, I'm sure; it's got good juju. The real energy and understanding of the dream began to flow after doing these drawings. I hope my sharing this with you gives you a sense of what I mean by the process of understanding a dream, the evolution of it's meaning.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

Self Love: A Mother and Child Reunion

I often hear people generalize about their dreams; "my dreams are this way, or my dreams are that way." But if you haven't kept a true dream record, then how can you say? You're only talking about those few dreams you remember.

A payoff of keeping dream journals is re-discovering a dream, from a few days ago, or from way long ago, that jumps off the page at me now. Dreams often add up, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, so following a series of dreams is another pay off to journal keeping.

Anytime I don't recall a dream, I might browse back through past month entries. There are so many times that I receive amazing gifts from dreams I thought were just little fragments.

Going through my January dreams this week, I found a dream I'd recorded on a morning I documented two dreams. This was the second, more ignored one of the series. I titled the dream, "Caring for the Little Girl." I think the dream drawing reading it again inspired me to do really captures the feeling, the gift, this dream gave me.

For many of us, the things that impede our self-love/self-esteem originate in childhood trauma. Dreams often give us images that can help us heal, images we can hold on to, meditate on and ponder for a long time.

If you don't keep a dream journal; start one. I'm happy to answer any questions or make even more comments.

When Bad Dreams Happen to Good People

I had the gestalt of asking my FB friends to pose questions; this wonderful one came right through from a good friend, yay!

"There's this one nightmare I remember bits and pieces of, that woke me up so panicked in the morning and had me calling everyone to make sure they were okay. Obviously, we all don't want horrible things happen to us in our lifetime, I wondered if the future and determining what happens, if the same applies to scary nightmares and dreams. The main focus of the nightmare was a war that I was witnessing in which I saw people who I was really close with dying all around me. Is it the metaphor of the dream, that eventually you will see someone dying or dead in front of you or that it could be I actually witness something like this? I guess, I remembered this more so today even though I had this nightmare in college, because of what happened a month ago where I found a dead body. So, I do wonder that if along with good dreams in predicting the future, that bad dreams can do the same and what kind of precautions could be taken against those."

I've posted before about nightmares and icky dreams (check the titles of older postings if you'd like to read those). If people remember a dream vividly, often it's a nightmare. Frankly, the point of a nightmare is to get your attention. It's like "I'll tell you more nicely, if you're paying attention, but if you're not, I think I can get your attention". That's why I'm fond of saying that some dreams have scared the pajamas off of me.

But I never get tired of this subject, so I welcome this friend's question: Do bad dreams predict the future, as well? Short answer, yes. Also short answer; it's not necessarily a future that will be, it can be a future that might be if warnings are not heeded. Depending on the level of importance to your spiritual, emotional or physical well being and those of others, often ones you love, dreams will come on strong with their message. That's why nightmares are a blessing.

Here's another example from my own dream experience of nightmares: I'm driving my Montero, going South on I95, going to Fairfield, I think. I crash. Next thing I know I'm looking at the Montero, frame bent in two and walking on the road where many people are milling around, some sitting at a picnic table.

I won't go into everything with this dream, but here was my feeling about it. There were many waking life similarities and it felt very "real". Walking around after the crash told me I might be dead in this scenario. I woke up agitated as from a nightmare, though I've had worse.

1. I called my mechanic and booked an appointment for the Montero, it was time anyway. 2. I asked myself pointed questions about the state of my health, could I be crashing on life's busy highway? In other words, I treated the dream message as if it could be literal or symbolic and acted in a way to honor the dream's message either way. I payed attention.

The mechanic said the car was fine, but I had the dream again a month later. I took the car in again and this time he found something, (sorry, don't remember what but I could find out if you've got to know) that warranted my staying off the highway so as not to travel those speeds until I either payed the megabucks to get it fixed or get it replaced. That's when I bought our new car. I haven't had that dream or any remotely like it since. I think it was a possible future crash that the dream helped me to avoid. Quien sabe?

So, I try to not fear my nightmares or the possible message. Sometimes someone who loves us has to say what we don't want to or can't hear without help. The biggest thing is to know, as most good dream teachers will say, that dreams come in the service of our best interests, just the way good friends do. If they've resorted to scaring us, well they've got a good reason for doing it that way. (Disclaimer: Please read my earlier post on nightmares for my view on post-traumatic dreams).

If my friend's dream were mine, I know it's important to write the dream out, as much as I remember, as vividly and with as much detail as I can discover in the process. When you set about writing a dream from memory, perhaps from many years ago, the important thing is to let the story flow. Write as it comes to you, make no judgments and have no fears; let it flow. Whatever comes is good enough, accurate enough and meaningful enough to yield dream gold.
Give this college dream a title; first one that comes to mind. Draw a picture from the dream; let that flow.

Then I might ask myself, was that dream from college preparing me for the experience of finding a dead body, (not an everyday experience to be sure)?

It might be yes; it might be no. Either way, a nightmare that makes a big impression on us is a big dream that can give great guidance, potentially. Write it, ponder it, observe your waking life. Is there something this dream is cautioning me to avoid? Is there something about relationships with these people. Is the death about transformation somehow? Does this dream use these people to say something about me. Maybe I need to continue the dream, see what happens, take control in my imagination as my dream self of the situation, dialogue with the characters, learn more.

There's so much we can do to get the message; here's a great excerpt from the dream series I produced with my husband and Robert Moss, The Way of the Dreamer, on this very subject:

Awesome Correlations

This is priceless! Today I spoke long-distance with a dear friend who shared in the adventures I described in my previous post earlier today. (Here are those adventures portrayed in these pictures I dug up taken at an early 80s Women's Ordination Conference held in Baltimore.)

She said she had lunch with a mutual friend, a sister of St. Joseph, who turned her on to the current RCWP movement, (Roman Catholic Womenpriests) and gave her the website:

Check it out: The rogues are out there, the movement is alive and well and everything is possible!

See why I love dreams? If I'd dismissed this dream (refer to previous post) as yet another off the wall, peculiar night time nonsense, I may never have uncovered this exciting new to me info. At any rate, my dream fueled the actions I took that are now cascading into bright new epiphanies. There is nothing boring about dream play.

Remember Who You Are

My dreams help me remember who I am. I love that experience, that aha moment, when an image or a scenario or something I say in a dream brings home to me the feeling of being at peace in my own core, my center.

Recently, my dream self brought home some core personal truths. It was my waking dream at one time to be a spiritual teacher via the route of ordination in the Catholic Church. Some of you may remember those heady times when women stood up even to the Pope in public and said, we want to be ordained.

In a recent Sisters of Mercy Newletter which I discovered on their website, they recount an event from Pope John Paul II's visit to the US in 1979:

"In 1979, Theresa Kane, a Sister of Mercy, was denied a conversation with Pope John Paul II in her official capacity as the then-president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. At the official welcome ceremony at the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., Sister Theresa beseeched Pope John Paul to include women as equal members of the Body of Christ. Had her request been heeded, the Church would surely be a healthier, holier institution than it is today and, more importantly, the pastoral and sacramental needs of Catholics around the world be better served today. It is time to again raise that issue."

I remember watching Sister Theresa stand up and address the pope, knowing it would be broadcast around the world on TV. I remember thinking, you go, sister! That took cojones! (Or brass breasts, as I'm fond of saying).

All this great stuff was happening during my post-grad studies in Scripture and Pastoral Counseling at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, NY., including the successful and courageous campaign that ended in official Episcopalian ordination for women in 1976. We in the Catholic church believed! Yes, we can!

Then, not so much. It took a decade but by banishing the rogue bishops who supported women's ordination and replacing them with papal clones, the RC managed to beat back the tide.

You know, I don't regret a second of that good fight, and maybe it is time, as the Sister's of Mercy are suggesting, to take it up in earnest again. But for me, what happened was a major transformation of paradigm, initiated by a dream I titled, Howling Mary, and fueled by the writings of some incredible theologians like Mary Daly with her bombshell "Beyond God the Father". The door opened for me to alternative spirituality, primarily women's spirituality. It's been a lovely trip since then; my spiritual life is rich, diverse and anchored in dreamplay.

Still, anytime you choose to live outside the primary social paradigm, you're going to feel the pull of normalcy a bit. In the western culture in which I reside, the norm is to be Christian, Jew or Muslim because these are the three big established patriarchal religions of the world. What bothers me about these religions is that they often put women outside their circle of trust. What's up with that? Even after all these years, to suggest that it's important to also see god as Mother, that we abandon the Feminine Divine to our own very great detriment is, at the least, controversial.

Here's the dream that's led me down this alley of contemplation:

Episcopal Aspirations 3-3-2010

I'm talking with a woman Episcopal priest about my application to be an Episcopal priest. She's telling me that she submitted Jim's name (my husband) thinking that it was a good idea and the committee decided that he was their choice. I'm dismayed, disappointed; I say to her; "You submitted his name? Why?" Then I started to change my mind and get behind supporting him: 1. because I really don't want the pressure of answering to the committee in an interview; 2. because I really don't want to be an Episcopal priest, or a Christian for that matter. I say to her that Jim will be a good candidate because he'll be honest, blunt and frank. She modifies it saying, "but he would never say anything inappropriate." I say I'm not so sure, rolling my eyes like, are you kidding me? At some point, she gives me an example of a question that would be asked that is about a place or historical event that is pretty obscure. I realize with relief that I won't have to answer questions like that, but Jim pops into the conversation with a lovely, accurate answer that confirms my sense that better him than me.

This dream had me laughing about what I said about Jim; anyone who knows Jim will probably find it funny, as well. I really love how my dream self is helping me center on what I want and who I am. My spiritual role as teacher is outside mainstream religious offices; teaching people to listen to dream messages is what I love to do and do best. Yet, I fully support those who in truth and courage fill those official positions, like those lovely rogue bishops, priests and women religious of the 70s; bless them every one.

Healing the Hurt

I posted about some of dad's visits recently, but as I was going through dream drawings I found this; an old dream, over 20 years ago, I remember vividly, "Rocking Mama in My Arms."

Most everyone has some parent pain to deal with; it's the stuff of therapy. My relationship with dad was, by and large, a breeze. With my mom, well it was stormy at times. Not unusual, I know, but painful, nonetheless.

Sometimes, if a parent dies, we figure we have no recourse anymore to reach an understanding, or forgiveness either/both ways. Not so. Dreams are the live channel that doesn't adhere to material rules of waking life. The dead do have access and vice-versa.

Here's where I really get pissed about Hollywood's and Religion's role in creating fear where there should be curiosity and trust. All the Nightmare on Elm Street and Hell and Damnation shit dished out creates a culture that is afraid of death and the natural, spiritual realms. Ah, well. All I can do is present my experience.

And that's the beauty of working with your dreams; it's all about your direct experience. Some dreams effect us at the gut level just like a good therapy session. They bring about a transformation of emotions or an attitude adjustment that allows us to move on and live our joy.

I dreamed that dream a long time ago: my mom and I naked, she laying across my lap like in the Pieta. Love flowed between us; something that's always been there, if sometimes undermined by each of our personalities and egos. In this dream, I experienced, I believe we experienced, a profound healing. Looking at this picture encourages me to re-ignite those feelings for her in my soul.

Dreams are a gateway, a safe gateway usually, to soul healing experiences. Yes, sometimes our soul is so tortured or exiled that professional help is a very good idea, good professional help. But for many of us; it's just there. It's available. I am so thankful for this!

May your dreams shower you with blessings.

Phases

Wow, it's been a while since I've blogged; I had to stop and think about my password.

I go through phases with dreamplay and dream memory. The drought phase with dreams is max a month, mostly less, thank goodness. But then, I always pay attention, so I catch them pretty regularly. Love that. I just don't blog as often as I dream. It is a pleasure to do, as well. I only hope it can be of inspiration to some of you who haven't tried it to engage in dream play.

And that's the subject of this post. It's really about falling in love with the dream dialogue in a way that it's not one more self-improvement, self-exploration or spiritual practice. It's fun! It pays off!

There is as much, frankly more, entertainment in dreams than there is on TV or in most movies. The big payoff is I'm the protagonist of every episode; it's about me. And even when, on the rare occassion, I see the dream as not about me, it still pays off to pay attention.

So the more you pay attention and have intention to understand the dream dialogue, the more you get from it, the easier it becomes, the more you miss it when you don't have it. You get my point; I tend to wax poetic about the experience.

Anniversaries

It's February 21st, the 21st anniversary of my dad's death. Of course I went to bed last night asking for word from him. My dad was the BEST. I always say to my brother, he was a Buddha.

My dream:
I'm traveling in a bus, sitting at the window, when I see Celia Cruz crossing the street, right by my window. I know she is celebrating her birthday. I open the window, lean out and say; "Happy Birthday, Celia. You're the best." I proceed to heap my accolades on her. She is gracious, attentive, sweet and responsive. (Just like my dad would be). I know in the dream that she dies just a short time after this encounter, but I don't feel the need to say anything about that; this is before she dies. The feeling is of amazing opportunity and privilege, celebrity encounter.

In waking life, when Celia died, I meditated and asked her to be my godmother. A dream teacher I respect said she was too high up to pay any attention to me; I don't think she feels that way. This isn't the first Celia dream for me. I am so grateful for her blessing and for my dad's.

To me the correlations are evident. I ask for an anniversary message from my dad, (what we all want from our departed loved ones); "Dad help me and are you OK? " Celia is the quintessential cool Cuban and the ultimate message is; "If I love you baby, how can you go wrong?"

That's the message I think my dad would want me to hear. I wish he were here to say it plain; he would but he's not. This dream is such a gift from him.

Synchronistically, when I spoke with my brother, he told me a dream about encountering a woman celebrity he had just had that has striking and wonderful similarities to mine. I love when that happens; I figure we each got a present from my dad. That doesn't surprise me either; he loves us both the same:-)

That's why this is how I feel about the dream dimension: OMG! THANK YOU!

Feel free to comment. I'm sending this idea into cyberspace via blog to see what I get back in this dimension.

Dream School

Last night I had a wonderful dream; one of those that I feel is worth risking losing sleep over by writing it down right away, even at 3:26 AM.

I'm in a class. I love this class; we've got a great teacher. He's passionate, learned and resourceful in his teaching. We're reading from erotica magazines he's ordered for the class. He's a maverick, risks upsetting the authorities by choosing such a risque curriculum; I admire him. He loves to teach and cares for his students. He asks 3 different women to read the same sentence on page 3, to give their dramatic interpretation of the reading. I'm ready with my reading but he doesn't call on me, which doesn't diminish what I learn from hearing the other women read. As I walk out of class I hear him sigh as he moves to his lectern by the window at the left front of the class; "Oh, the dependence of women."

I have another class with a young woman teacher next; also at the end of class I hear her sigh the same thing to herself. I turn and tell her how amazingly synchronistic her saying that is and why.

I wake up delighted to have a synchronicity experience in a dream and to hear such a loud and clear message. I title the dream "Oh the dependence of women". Dream schools are one of my favorite dream locations. They alert me to the fact that there's something I have to learn or something I am learning. I've also met some amazing teachers in dreaming that have helped me learn big lessons for my waking life. I recognize many lessons in this dream and many keys that may help me open doors that are blocking me in waking life. This is a very good dream and I'm grateful for it.

Also relevant is that yesterday I received one of those fowarded emails from a friend who thinks differently than I do; it was about how feminism has ruined life for women and reminiscing about the good old days when a woman was pampered and kept by her husband and had it made without going out in the world to work, the way our grandmothers had it made. Well, I don't know about her grandmothers, but one of mine died very young, poor, dependent on family and ill, leaving her children to fend for themselves at an early age, and the other died relatively young, maybe in her fifties, years before my grandfather, after 18 pregnancies, 13 children.

Obviously my dream source agrees with me. Yet, it touched so perfectly on my own dependency, giving me so much to think about, that I thought I'd share it with you. Any thoughts?

Some Dream Games and Meet My Cat

When I'm going through a dream dry spell, I turn to my journals from years past and play some dream games; this way I don't obsess about not remembering my dreams. Plus, the perspective that time gives me about the meaning of past dreams is one of the major marvels of working with my dreams.

For instance, I'll go through past journals and make note of the images in the dreams of a particular month. I write summaries of each under the dream dates on a new page which I then install at the beginning of that month. When I go back to that journal the next time, each month's summary page sparks more understanding for me of my life journeys. I recognize personal struggles with love and fear, my health and my spiritual development; they're tremendously relevant to me now. Often an image makes me laugh while, at the same time, it's opening my eyes to something difficult for me. This is a convincing proof to me that dream messages come from some divine source of Love.

For instance, today while perusing my 2001 journal, I opened at random to the summary page for the month of September. The first summary describes a dream where pairs of my shoes are scattered across the bedroom floor; my note reads, 'The many different paths I've walked.' I also note that one pair is 'baby shit brown' and I wrote, 'very old shit'. I think that's a wonderfully funny way to point me to childhood wounds which might still be holding me back.

As I write this I realize that I chose September, 2001, a time that shook our collective world. I remember that I had several dreams dating from July 4 of 2001 up through September featuring terrorists. Robert Moss has written about how many people from around the world reported precognitive dreams with elements of the fateful 9/11 catastrophe in them. I'll take a closer look at mine; perhaps it will give me something to share with you in a future post.

Back to dream games, though, this illustrates how re-reading old journals often uncovers dreams of the future which weren't recognized as precognitive at the time. That's just what happened with the arrival of my wonderful cat Sunny.

After the death of my cat, Lucy, in 2005 I decided I didn't want any more pets, I wanted to be free to travel, etc. My husband kindly accepted my wishes, though he'd always rather have animals around him. One early morning in August of 2007, I opened my back door on a glorious day to find a beautiful gray and white Maine Coon under my lilac bush, skinny as a rail. He looked up at me and MEOWED! I knew he was saying, "Feed me; I'm hungry," so I put out a can of tuna and he let me pet him while he ate. It's a very long story, but it was love at first sight. Now he's installed as the grand pasha of our home and we're both very happy to serve him.

What I couldn't figure out is why I didn't dream about him ahead of time; with my past cats, a dream had foretold their coming. I went back in that year's journal and, sure enough, in June I found a dream entry telling how a dear friend (who in waking life was always threatening to drop off a cat for us) had brought us a Maine Coon kitten. The last line of that dream report is, 'And I couldn't believe how much I love him.'

I often tell people this; we dream the future all the time, we just don't pay attention. If we write dreams down, we learn to pay attention. Using dream journals for self-reflection, meditation and personal growth is not only rewarding, it's fun. I hope these ideas are of some service; I'd love to hear yours.