A Perspective on Time That Dreaming and Age Has Taught Me

My mom had the best Cuban sayings that she would pepper in the wisdom she gave us. One of my all time favorites is, “Mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por ser diablo.” The devil knows more because he’s old than because he’s the devil. 

I was talking with a dear friend about young people contemplating suicide in our country and how it is epidemic.  It’s so distressing to witness, let alone to live that sad reality as a parent or guardian. When we’re very young, perhaps we don’t see time as changing all things as easily as we do when we’re older.  Our passion for whatever we deem to be our sorrows is overwhelming.  We can’t speak it and it seems it will never go away or get better.

 

What is causing our youth to suffer so poignantly?  We need to listen to them and then do something to alleviate that suffering. How can we better open our hearts to the young?  How can we open our ears and hearts and help?

 

Listening is a tremendous skill to develop.  One way to develop your listening skills is to listen to your dreams.   You would think something so simple and so beneficial would be taught in every home and school to our children, that we’d be telling them, here’s a simple way to connect with your inner life, your organic spirituality. Here’s what you do to understand what you’re doing in your dreams and what indeed, you can do.  Your wildest dreams, your most passionate desires can come true in dreams and perhaps, as they do, so they will in your waking reality. Fear is power in your dreams; you can learn to do much to create what you want in dreaming, despite the obstacles.

 

However, we aren’t “in control” in dreaming, we are hyper aware spirit beings with super powers, but those powers come from powers greater than ourselves.  Above all, dreaming has taught me that Love is the greatest power in the dream worlds.  That it should also reign in our hearts here on this beautiful struggling planet, I can only dream.

 

Why don’t we teach our children to dream well now?  Dreaming can help them rely on themselves as eternal spiritual beings, living for a purpose unique to each of them.  Since it wasn’t taught to us, we adults need to learn how to dream first and how to live our best dreams, as Robert Moss puts it.  Doing so can help us get our creativity back and change the things that need to be changed so that our kids don’t have to feel so overwhelmed. 

 

Only Love guides without asking for anything but love back.  God is not a man or a woman; that’s how we may manifest in the physical, but we are energy connected in every way to the source, Love.   All the confusion and constraints are man-made, literally.  Patriarchy has truly set a barrier to people feeling good about themselves and their sexual expression, an iron curtain in the psyche.   Sexuality belongs to the physical; spirituality is formless.  There are no genitals in the afterlife unless you want them, of course. It’s not God the Father or God the Mother.  It’s Love. Simple.  Love.

 

Living a spiritual life has nothing to do with joining some denomination of patriarchal religion and goose-stepping to whatever they tell you to do.  Living a spiritual life is paying attention to your constant connection to spirit, to Love.  Participating in your dream life is a way of participating in your spiritual life while living your physical one, as best you can.

 

What is the perspective on time that dreaming has taught me?  There is no “time” in my dreaming experience; dreams can take me back, spotlight the present or fly me forward to what’s coming on the river of temporal events in the physical.  

 

"Old" is another construct of the physical world.  Living a long life of dream exploration and waking experience can lend much needed perspective to any life; especially, the perspective that the end is a new beginning, one in which we can be intentional about creating.  Once I die, I will continue my work in the service of expanding dream awareness, in myself and in others.  Perhaps, I'll volunteer for dream bringer duties, part time.

 

I also plan to surf the tunnel of an amazing ocean wave unafraid and many other things, as well.  I once had a beautiful dream that presented itself as a gateway through death’s transition, if I should want it.  Yes, I want it and am gifted to have it. If I can, I will enter that landscape and be guided as I was in my dream.   

Once we really listen to the way dreams speak to us and what they consider important (it’s rarely our egos), we can let go of the self torture we’ve been taught or terrorized into making our belief system. We can begin to experience our spirituality organically, not on a merit system.  As William Buhlman, master teacher of the OBE experience says, the first thing we need to let go of in order to experience our authentic dream/energy bodies is to examine our conscious and unconscious learned beliefs and let go of them in favor of direct, experiential exploration of our uber-real inner worlds.

May we listen and learn from our dreams so that we can help our wonderful young people survive the fake world and find strength in their spirits to do what they were called to do in the physical.

Words and Reality

Words.  We give them a lot of weight; they prop up the paradigms that shape our reality.  We are given words to believe in, creeds, and we do.  And because we believe in words, we act our worst, towards others and even towards ourselves.  We theologize the words that bind us; the Word is made Flesh. 

Reality.  Should you base your definition of what is on words or on your experience?  Quantum physics assures us that we can't define reality using our five senses alone because what seems solid isn't, what appears to stand still is in constant motion.   Physicists' experiments have proven that much, though they can't explain it yet, not even to themselves.

The most precious gift over 50 years of personal and professional dream exploration has given me is the certainty that I can use my dreaming to find my center, to test my beliefs and to find my way home when I die.  There is so much power in being able to know what is true and what is right because you've lived it and not because someone tells you what to live.  

Words can be so damaging, especially when they are used to mislead and indoctrinate.  For instance, "Stop the Steal."  You know where those words led.   "Qanon", "deep state", we are awash in trigger words, words that bring out the worst we're capable of, hate and violence.  What is the basis of these words? Who is speaking them and to what end? 

Experience is different than belief.  I recognize I play a part in shaping my reality with my thoughts, words and deeds, so I want to make my experience as pleasant as possible, for myself and for others. There's much anger, vitriol and hate in the speakers of these trigger words. If I were to immerse myself in their headset, I'd be creating a dark experience for myself.  I'd rather create the best I can experience.  What is the best we can experience as humans?  Love, joy, bliss?  What words evoke these feelings?  

The most important aspect of reality is that we shape it, consciously or unconsciously.  Once you fully experience the non physical aspect of your consciousness that wakes in dreaming, and once you see how easily you can take control of your existence in dreaming, you know waking reality is just as easily, if far more slowly, shaped. Connecting to the dreaming aspect of existence puts perspective on beliefs. 

A new trigger word in Foxland USA is "woke". It's being used, like "cancel culture" was, in the most un-awake ways possible; I have to laugh.  As a dreamer, I can safely claim a woke experience is what you get when you have a dreaming practice.  One disclaimer, though, if your dreams are nothing but painful at the moment, I would suggest you get reliable help from a counselor you can trust.  Many of life's traumas can leave our psyche so wounded that we can't get through it alone.  But if you have only the garden variety neurosis born of what patriarchal culture has wrought, your dreams can be a good road to real "wokeness".

Let our words contribute to the manifestation of a wonderful reality, both in the waking and in the dream worlds.  

About Time

 It’s been a while since I’ve felt I had something I wanted to say, about dreams, about healing the wounded feminine, about smashing patriarchy. I firmly believe the patriarchy can be dismantled because it’s just a state of mind projected by the collective waking dream.  Unfortunately, judging by the current 85 percent of the global population following patriarchal religions under male dominion, god the Father, God the Son, we’re not waking up anytime soon. 

What can I possibly say I ask myself? 

 

What I’ve always said.

 

L.I.T.A. 

 

Love is the answer.

 

Love is the only cosmic force there is that can get our collective ass out of the monolithic sling that is six thousand years of Father Knows Best.

 

Despite the everyday shootings, despite the despicable men in leadership around the world, with their stone cold hearts, allowing, encouraging and perpetrating atrocities on humanity daily, there is a growing recognition in people worldwide that love is the only force that can save humanity from itself.

 

What love has over patriarchal power is that love endures beyond the moment of death and accompanies us through our journeys in the afterlife, hooking us up with people we love and who love us that have already crossed death.

 

As long as love accompanies me, fear can be overcome.  

 

Can hate be overcome?  I don’t know. I don’t know if the toxic level of male driven, father god condoned misbehavior on the part of so many can be righted.  Will the patriarchs give up their power willingly?  

 

I once had some wonderful dreams I titled Galactic Journey #1 and # 2.

 

In them I concede to uniformed guards questioning me that I am visiting here, actually, and will be glad to return from whence I’ve come.  

 

I see the dream worlds as gateways and windows to “from whence I come” and to "where I shall return.”  For that reason, I’m deeply committed to teaching about dreaming as organic spirituality.  Organic because it’s innate in each of us.  We all dream, despite the dismissal of the importance of dreaming in the prevalent paradigm of western culture.

 

I’m fond of saying that patriarchal religion is to spirituality what patriarchal pornography is to sexuality.  Spirituality and sexuality are the two libido drives Jung identified as the psychic motivational forces that propel human actions.  Patriarchal religions discourage or forbid, depending on how stringent the particular culture, individual spirituality based on one’s own lived experience or independent sexuality based on how good it feels when not demonized psychologically.

 

We can come to real truths by paying attention to our dreaming at the same time that we are paying attention, “being mindful” in our waking lives. The best thing about dreams is that you can answer many questions of importance to your waking and spiritual life for yourself.  You find friends, teachers and guides in dreams.  You are assured by the ones who love you and have died before you, that you are never, ever alone or separated when love is the bond.

 

Since hate, anger and fear are also potent energies, I think they might live on, too, but not for those who love.  Like attracts like; the rules of the non-physical aren’t rules, they’re energy.  If our energy is malevolent, we will continue in malevolence. Malevolence is not a happy place to spend eternity, especially if you get a taste of your own medicine, which is likely.

 

How do I know?  I’ve been respecting my dreams for some 50 years.  I’ve been learning what other dream explorers teach for all that time.  Dreaming is an art form like any other, it takes effort and practice, but it pays off big and quickly becomes a delight.

 

So, in the face of everything that must be done, in the face of all the ugliness in the physical environment we share, there is a reason we each are in it at present, that we are each alive.  It’s not one reason and one reason alone; it’s up to each person to open their hearts and discover it.

 

I ask myself, what have I learned in my life that I will take with me past death, and what can I do, now, while I’m still here?  When I’m dead, I know from dreaming that I can create my exit. I know from dreaming that the laws of the non-physical are all about intent, awareness and will.  Above all, they are all about love. And I know from dreaming the experience of true bliss, the wisdom of the soul, the pure light of love, that there's not much to fear of death.

 

I want to do what I can to activate love in myself and in anyone else who graces my path in life.  I want you to do what you can in the same way.  Talk about an epidemic.  What has hate become?  Why are so many people dying violently at the hands of angry guys with guns blazing?  Why is there so much self-righteous anger? Because the collective dream we’re living is deeply unbalanced; it threatens all that is good and natural.

 

The way I see it, I somehow volunteered to staff, for however long, the Love squad on this planet now, when it seems quite on the edge of implosion. I came because the answers are simple, even if the odds against enough people opening to this simplicity seem insurmountable. I came because I will, at some point be going back, when I die, and then I can apply what I’ve learned here working with the Love squads on other dimensions.

 

It’s a work in progress, as it is for you.  Maybe the 100^thmonkey is a real thing; if enough of us speak out for a liberty that transcends those tired old paradigms, maybe we can make it the new normal.  Homo sapiens have been around, conservatively for over 200,000 thousand years; what’s a mere 6,000? We can do this; we can dream a new dream; one we want to see come true.

 

And if our efforts seem futile in this life, there’s more life to come after death.   We’ll be able to use the heart we’ve gained from our physical experiences to live the life we love where physical roadblocks to living our best selves do not exist.  

Meanwhile, dreaming the ordinary little dream and the prophetic, lucid or OBE get us beyond our ego driven physical obsessions, to seeing the bigger picture, the spiritual beings we are and always will be.

 

May we all do whatever we can to strengthen our hearts and follow through with our spiritual goals so that we leave this physical dimension better by whatever scale we can, little or big.  Making a difference, or even just making the effort, in the service of Love brings us to a much better place after death.  

May we all follow Love and may Love follow each of us.

 

FREE HER!

I just read that Loujain al-Hathloul is also, while tortured and imprisoned, cyberbullied by the Saudi regime on Twitter, but thanks to her brother, Walid al-Hathloul, twitter world is fast debunking their fake story.

I wish Loujain's plight didn't remind me so deja vu of the European Inquisition, the witch trials of  several hundred years of patriarchy on steroids known as the Middle Ages and Renaissance.  After years of feminism in America, (don't forget, men are feminists, too) I thought we were done with women's inequality.  Yet, misogyny is growing around the world.  Apparently, we're not done making it clear that God is not the Father, as in a Male Supreme Deity that makes the laws and puts the men in charge of enforcing them. It's not clear yet that we, Women, are not men's property by divine default. We hold up half the sky.

We are not slaves.  Some women are born into the strictest patriarchal regimes, others are born into recently turned mild-mannered patriarchies of modern western countries (although, scarily, even these seem to be regressing badly at the moment).  Either way, we are spirit in female bodies as men are spirit in male bodies.  The absurd extremes of male and female gendering all over the patriarchal world are so unnecessary, so distracting, so harmful to our essential journey on this planet.

Look at the state we're in.  Who has been making the rules for the last 5 or 6 millennia?  How have half the human race fared (faired) under these regimes?  Today, women are either tits and ass to exploit or baby machines to harness and control for men's sake; that's the patriarchal dichotomy of women, the Virgin and the Whore.  We are spirit in a physical body.  We are here for a purpose of our own choosing, just like anyone incarnate as a man.

It's possible for us to envision and dream a much better world than the one we're rolling with at the moment.  How would I go about my dream of a much better world?  Step one; bring the patriarchal nobodaddies, in myth and politics, down to size.  Raise the Feminine Divine in our Consciousness to equal status with the Male Divine.  They are partners, creating together, even though, (as was obvious to our ancestors living before the darkness of patriarchy), She's the one Who gives Life, so she's got just a wee bit more juju than Dad. Patriarchy teaches us to think in dualities and in oppositions.  We can think creatively.  We can reason with our hearts, not just our heads, to create a world we want for ourselves and for our children for many more generations to come.

Synchronicity is when the world of matter reflects the world of the psyche; that's how Jung, the author of that term for this phenomena, explains it.  Like a powerful dream, a powerful synchronicity in waking life can help keep me on course; they can be profoundly encouraging to the spirit.

The night I wrote my previous post about Loujain and other Saudi women imprisoned and tortured for their audacity to challenge the absurd constraints of the male regime, I went in search, among my journals, for a dream I remembered that echoed this misogynist waking life event. 

My journals are all labeled with the year on their spine, but strangely, I unknowingly picked the wrong journal from a decade later than the year I intended.  In it, I searched through the appropriate month and day, but was puzzled when I couldn't find the dream I wanted. As I'm turning the pages, I'm stopped in my tracks by this fragment of a dream from 9 years ago that I don't remember ever dreaming:

FREE HER!
Somehow I'm helping make sure a woman prisoner is released.

The way I see synchronicity, this is a kindly numinous pat on the shoulder.   "Yeah, girl, you go on behalf of a sister in need; your Mama is right here with you."

 Cooperation.  Compassion.  Justice of the Heart.

Imagine what wonderful changes we could make if Love were our only religion and each one of us does the best we can to help, not control, one another.

Thank goodness for troubadours like Michael Franti who help me keep the perspective I need.

This World is so Fucked up (But I Ain't Ever Giving up on It)

Michael Franti & Spearhead

Let me tell you 'bout the situation goin' on
Up inside my head today
My mind is runnin' round in circles
Tryna make sense of the people
Who are runnin' everything today

All these politicians tweetin'
Got their message on repeat and
Try dividin' us with fear and the hate

Whey-ey-ey
I wish I could find a better way to say this

This world is so fucked up
But I ain't never givin' up on it
Never givin' up on it
Never givin' up on it
This world is so fucked up
But I ain't never givin' up on it
Never givin' up on it
Never givin' up

Whey-ey-ey
I wish I could find a better way to say this

We ain't askin' for money
We just wanna make change
We do it for all of the people who need it
'Cause they got a voice and a name
I can't believe how we livin' today
I got… 

Source: Musixmatch

Inner Resources for Challenging Times

Perhaps some of you, like me, are feeling the intense surrealism of this present time in our country. What just happened?  What is happening?  What will be happening?

What's feeding this bizarre violent nightmare playing out in our country and around the globe? It seems like a world hell bent on Armageddon.  But, it makes sense if you look at the motivating myths and religions of the battling forces.  It's like "battle of the titans"; the war Gods have demands and rules that we mere earthlings must carry out.  If we accept these myths, we are dreaming an apocalyptic consensus reality into existence.  But we don't have to.

When I feel overwhelmed by the oppression of  consensus reality, I often turn inward. I ask myself, from a much larger perspective, what am I supposed to do?  How can I contribute and what can I learn?

I write to share an organic spiritual reality with others that is ridiculously accessible and which can be a balm in these uncertain times when we may well be asking does love trump hate, or hate trump love?  If Love, the universal super glue, matters to you, dive inward.  Pay attention to dreaming. We live in our waking reality, but we also live in the dreaming reality.   If we don't know we're eternal and loved, we can be easily manipulated.

My favorite dream teacher, Robert Moss posted this quote the other day on FB; "Jung once told me that he thought the dream was always going on in the unconscious, but that it usually needs sleep and the complete cessation of outer things for it to register in consciousness at all." - Barbara Hannah, "Encounters with the Soul"  Robert post 12/19/16

There's a great tradition of spiritual literature that balks at the fetters of conventional and religious thinking, including in Jesus' own teaching, "the kingdom of god is within." Jung saw this inner kingdom (queendom) as the unconscious (which he categorized as personal and collective). He came to believe that without a relationship to our inner life, we are doomed to tragedy, personally and collectively.  Paul Levi, a Jungian scholar, writes on his blog:

Jung elucidates, “What future developments are being prepared in the unconscious of modern man…It depends on us whether we help coming events to birth by understanding them, and reinforce their healing effect, or whether we repress them with our prejudices, narrow-mindedness and ignorance, thus turning their effect into its opposite, into poison and destruction.”[xxix] We are potential spiritual midwives, who by ‘understanding’ the psychic nature of ‘future developments,’ ‘reinforce their healing effect’ and birth ‘coming events’ into incarnation through the womb of the psyche. The psyche, which is pregnant with open-ended possibilities, is the very cipher in which the history of humanity is being written. Jung writes, “The world today hangs by a thin thread, and that thread is the psyche of man."

We need a relationship to our own psyche, our soul, our own spiritual life, just like we need a relationship for our physical love life. Spirituality is the love life of the soul.  We begin, as in any relationship, by paying attention to that connection and how it makes us feel, day by day.

We have inner resources.  When people say to me, (and I wish I had a nickle...) "I don't dream." or "I don't remember my dreams" my first question is always to ask, do you want to?  Do you pay attention?  People mostly smile and shrug their shoulders; many admit that they've never really tried, but would like to. Where to start? I've explained the practicalities of beginning a dream practice on my blog before, so for that advice, I refer you to the previous posts I've linked throughout this sentence.

One thing that blocks our access to inner resources is "lemming social behavior."   For instance, the "media" is something we imbibe in huge quantities on a daily, and for some, an all night basis.  TVs blare in every room across America, especially the "living" room of many, many houses around the country, with a mind-numbing consistency.  Unfortunately, an inner life needs some time of introspection, sleep time to dream, time to meditate, dance or abide in joy.  It's accurate to depict the media as shallow, gutless, full of deliberate and manipulative misinformation, but who is forcing a person to watch it?  Nobody.

Most of us have a choice.  I've heard people say that TV is "entertainment," or" relaxation" or "staying informed."   Add the computer and cell phone, that's a lot of ersatz experience substituted for the living, direct real thing. There are several generations now who've grown up on external, vicarious stimulus far more than on their own creative play and developing imaginations. I call it the "Disneyfication of American Childhood."

Dreaming is our inner reality; waking is our outer reality. Without connection to our own inner life, it's easy to become fearful and susceptible to external controls and idiot influences that cost us not just our money, but our essential life force, our souls. Let me emphasize that by soul, I don't mean some poor spotted white spirit, sin-tinged from the moment of conception. I mean the essential collective energy that is at the core of the Self.  In each incarnation, in each physical personality or ego, we are different, but we have an indestructible core that if we care to nurture, saves us needless grief.  The Soul does not need Saving; the Soul Saves.

We have an invaluable resource we came to the planet possessing; it can't be destroyed like our bodies can, though many willingly shut it down or belittle it. Through conscious dreaming, we become independent, spiritual beings with access to individual spiritual guidance as we tune in.  It's not about the meaning of one dream; it's about creating a dialogue with your inner world.  Over many years, you come to know that the foundation of your own being is unconditional love and endless creative life. You come to know for certain, that you are here for a reason and you are never alone.

May your inner resources grow robust in the coming year and may love energize all you do.

Dream Strong Now!

The moon when it's full lights up the dark night; using our dreaming life consciously, we can lighten the darkness of this waking reality.

 I was deeply inspired by Secretary Clinton's concession speech.  Here's what I learned from listening to it.

a)  I'm not off the hook.  Four years of HRC and I could have lah-di-dahed my way around serving my community and future communities on earth by doing my civic duty of giving back in a cavalier way, confident that the ship of state is in good hands.  Now, the glow is gone and things look dire, but as she points out, this campaign, this movement was never about one person.  Get out from behind the FB posts she challenges us and do something for whatever you believe to be right and good. 

b) Watching her give her speech made me realize that HRC is even more valiant and capable than I already knew her to be. What an example of poise and states-personship!  She's an inspiration to the women's movement; I know she will continue to lead and do her part for the greater good. I loved how she reached out to the young and challenged them not to be disheartened.  More than anyone I know, I feel she leads by example in exhorting us not to lose heart; never doubt that working for what you believe is right and good is worth it, she exhorts, despite how painful the moment must have felt to her personally. 

c)  Brutishness has always been a part of patriarchy so it appears Mordor is waking once again. But,   spiritually considered, we're all going to die sooner or later; it's no big deal, we've done it who knows how many times, how many lifetimes! We can ask ourselves if it's wise to be so fearful of death and if it's not even wiser to ask ourselves for what purpose was I born this time around?  The currency of eternity is love.  The answer to our spiritual purpose is too individual to allow for the doctrines and legislation of patriarchal religions; spiritually we're all equally free and assured of deliverance, death where is thy sting? As for a life's purpose, any variation of spreading love in the world will do; it's one of the few treasures from the physical that converts to the non-physical at death.  I'm guessing spreading hate and violence doesn't sell well on a soul level and that attitude bears re-thinking. Perhaps, many of us volunteered to bear witness to this truth, at this time, in this space for the purpose of spiritual evolution. 

d)Both HRC and Pres. Obama are speaking to our hearts, calling for a mindful transition into whatever difficulty we encounter and for our powerful, loving and creative energy to transform the worst case scenario into the unexpected.

e) "Scripture tells us: Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap, if we do not lose heart."  Her message is simple and clear: Never doubt that doing good is worth it and never give up.  She's amazing.  She's not giving up and neither should we.

f) This isn't how I wanted it to be, but I am famous for my life motto: "It is what it is and it ain't what it ain't."  We have choices to make.  We live in interesting times.  We can make a difference that is far bigger than our little self.  Calling all to dream strong and all dreamers to connect deeply with what is good and kind and loving.  We are still stronger together.

"Hopeful, Inclusive and Big Hearted".

I, Ya, Yay

Let's talk about Ego.  Thanks to the teachings of contemporaries like Eckhart Tolle, one of Oprah's wunderkinds, we are becoming more aware of that pesky part of us.  The Beatles sang about it: "I, Me, Me, Mine." Ancient mystics have long known that the part of us that's eternal can't afford to completely identify with the physical experience of the soul because that experience is so temporary and fraught with fuck ups.

Yet, there are many, many people who get stuck in that physical ego identified existence and it can lead to some dismal human choices.  Those who are identified with eternity weigh their choices based on the long term good for all, as well as the short term good for me.  We keep having to live it till we get it right and the currency of the universe is Love.  Love is much bigger than Hallmark, romantic conventions or money.  Love is courage.  In French, "coeur" is heart.  That's why I say that dreams give us the courage to live from our hearts.  They connect us to our eternal soul.

Anytime we choose to love in the face of hate, to contribute as well as receive, we extend our consciousness both forward and back in time, into lifetimes we've lived and lives we'll be living.  What clogs everything up is hate.  Hate and fear, fear and hate. We're here to do something in the name of Love.  We each will die; we each will live on, perhaps to incarnate physically again.  Perhaps we choose. As I appear to be here now, I have to ask myself; what am I here to learn?  What am I here to do?  How can I more precisely align with my authentic self while I'm here?

The good news is that for over a century, Spirit has been sweeping humanity and waking us from the lethargy of false paradigms like patriarchy.  I know that dreams and the dream channels are a huge part of this revolution; that's what I love to share with you on Lita Dreaming.  We are being invited to tune in to the bigger picture.  Yes, we'll each die but we aren't extinguished.  We go on, and on, and on, and on.  So an obvious question to me is what shall I do Now?

It appears to me that I chose, as the Chinese curse goes, an interesting time to incarnate again.  The most colossal ego America has ever seen is running on the presumption that everybody loves a bully and he, in particular, can do no wrong.  He could shoot someone on a posh NYC street and still get elected.  Wow!  So who votes for Mr. All-Ego?  Mini-egos?

As Tolle loves to point out, the ego is insane.  Jung taught that if the ego becomes rigid and the person completely identifies with it, they are in the grip of whatever the unconscious sends their way.  Without the awareness of something bigger than ego/I and without the ability to dialogue with our own larger Self, a person loses the opportunity for spiritual growth that incarnation offers.  They can also make physical life extremely unpleasant for others because they see themselves as an isolated I instead of a spirit Being, whole, eternal, connected to All That Is.  The I sees no need to share, connect, understand or love because it can dominate with all the opposite forces; yet, as Wicca puts it, what goes around comes around.  Jesus stated this universal law as, do unto others as you would have them do to you.

So, what values will fuel our vote?  Are we citizens with civic responsibility or consumers looking for the best deal for ourselves, too bad about anything else?  Are we aware of our own spiritual responsibility to use this life for service as well as for gain?  Do we know that we are free from all but our own inner dictums and that dreams are our way to Skype Home?  Can we get outside of our little thinking ego personalities with its likes and opinions and connect to our hearts?  What is the best possible scenario for our future, our children's future and the future of all the world's peoples?  What will we be able to tell our loved ones on the other side about our lives, why we lived them as we did and how we feel about it all once we cross over?

I cringe every time I hear some minimally informed person proclaim they will vote for this man because he's so good in business, he knows how to "deal."  Wow, that's not even true.  Over and over, reliable sources have reported his bankruptcies, his broken promises and betrayals of honor and trust,  Trump university, beefsteaks, casinos, on and on.  He claims he'll bring jobs back and has outsourced his clothing line to the Mexican people he reviles. But, at this moment in time, he's not the real focus of my concern. It's us, the citizens of this great nation.  What is it we dream? Is it a dream worthy of eternity?  I hope so.

A Paradigm Shift: Revolution from Within

You say you want a revolution, well, you know...I agree; we need a revolution - a revolution from within, a paradigm shift.  Even though Trump is living up to the scary picture I had of him from the beginning, I propose that now is not the time to give up the ship, nor to bail on karmic duty.  The revolution that can derail the great pus pimple of world wide domination by very nasty men, (Putin, Trump, ISIL, etc.) is a revolution from within; a revolution in the human psyche.

British writer, Tobias Stone, looks at the Brexit and Trump phenomena and, based on what he believes is our innate self-destructive human behavior, predicts another huge blood bath, the trademark of patriarchal history. And who knows, Tobias muses, like at other moments of historical horrors, we resilient little devils recover and seem to do even better, (like cockroaches?).   

Stone's analysis assumes that the written "his-story" of patriarchy, a mere 6 or 7 thousand year old social structure, defines who we are as humans.  Scientific findings place humans many thousands of years earlier, based on amazing artifacts like 32,000 year old cave paintings.  "Anthropological evidence suggests that most prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies were relatively egalitarian, and that patriarchal social structures did not develop until many years after the end of the Pleistocene era, following social and technological developments such as agriculture and domestication." Wiki

The stunning fact is that humanity was not always warlike, violent and aggressive, not even the males.  Women and men shared communal power and responsibilities; most ancient ritual artifacts uncovered by archeology point to a Feminine Divine.   There was a time when hate didn't prevail or triumph, there was a time when women and men cared for each other and for young and old alike.  The patriarchal myth that human beings are naturally violent, vengeful and cold-blooded is recent. We can't look at what records remain through the lens of a false paradigm because all we'll see are our own projections, like cave men dragging cave women by the hair.  For a stunning narrative of human history and how having a bigger picture (paradigm) might help us create a better future read, Riane Eisler's book, "The Chalice and the Blade: Our Past, Our Future."

The revolutionary challenge is to think differently, quite literally outside the box, in the circle.  It's not the polemic way of thinking patriarchal paradigms teach, either this or that, yes or no, right or wrong. Patriarchal thinking is based on absolutes, on power-over models of domination, on might makes right and on righteous, extreme violence in the name of sating the Father's wrath. In Dr. Eisler's words, “In sum, the struggle for our future is . . . the struggle between those who cling to patterns of domination and those working for a more equitable partnership world." I'm not surprised that Hillary Clinton's slogan is "We are stronger together" while Trump's is "I alone can fix it?" 

We're at a human crossroads; we don't have to keep choosing a paradigm that divides and kills to conquer. A huge shift in emphasis is that women's rights are human rights, the imbalance in representation and legal protection around the world has to be corrected on every level for all humanity to thrive. It's just common Zen.  Hillary Clinton has for decades championed issues to benefit women and children around the globe; having her as our POTUS sends the absolute right message to every corner of our planet.  This is better than landing on the moon to prove how cool we are as a country.

We need a paradigm shift in which we look away from a daddy figure who can fix it (If DT saying 'who's your daddy?' doesn't scare you, I can't imagine what might.). The new approach at fixing things is to ask ourselves, what's my contribution?  Partnership, cooperation, compassion and understanding may be slower tools than shock and awe, but, truthfully, how have the blood baths been working?

A paradigm shift might take a long time to actualize, or perhaps no time at all.  I don't know.  It is, however, in process right now; each of us can have a part in growing the change we want to see happen.

In my dream of our immediate future, we come together as never before to give back in our communities and our country; we treat each other with respect, regardless of differences, and we take pride in this great rainbow nation led by our first woman president.  For those who persist in their bullying, jeering and hating, let's call them Roger:

The Big Dream Picture

I’ve had enough of the Hillary hating.  I expect it from Trump-trumpeters, but from Bernie Sander’s supporters?

Why?  Why this exorbitant degree of visceral hating for a person who has done more than most to serve her country in a variety of exceedingly demanding offices, taking on civic responsibilities that far exceed what the average Joe or Jill ever gives in service for their country. 

I once had a very special dream, a birthday present to me, as it was my birthday.  It was a few years after my dad had crossed over. He’d visited me before in dreams, but he hadn’t in a while.  Papi and I stood in front of a giant screen TV watching rebellions around the world ignite into bloody battles, the dis-empowered fighting the might of the privileged in power. 

In the dream, we both know it’s a huge uprising of clashing male ideologies; yet also that the Feminine is rising.  He says; “It’ll be a blood bath” as he looks on what this huge TV is broadcasting.  I turn my eyes from the screen to him and say; “Patriarchy has been one blood bath after another.”

I love this dream.  First of all, it was a genuine visitation, me - him, on the same side, watching and observing.  This dream came over twenty years ago, but I think of it over and over as I watch the world explode in rage and raging, on small and large scales. Patriarchy has been one blood bath after another.

Secondly, it’s palpably precognitive. The first clue for me is in the imagery  of transmission via TV, screens or other communication devices.  It’s a clever dream ploy for; “Hey, here’s some possible news of interest for you.  Now, what, while awake, will you do about it? Like it or not, here it comes.”

My waking response is to dream the future I want to see happen with all my might, while there’s still a chance we can make a difference at this important juncture in our collective human existence on the planet.  In our situation, right now, it’s up to each individual to contribute something while here in the physical. 

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the best person for the critically sensitive job of POTUS, the spokesperson for our country, at this important moment in time. Here's an excellent explanation of why written by Michael Arnovitz.  Our present POTUS, who according to most recent polls, has earned our collective respect, also thinks so.  As another dream I’ve already told you about implies, it’s up to each of us to preside over the good we do on this planet. We need a spokesperson who can navigate the current patriarchal minefield of explosive situations, here and around the world, so each of us is free do our own wee bit.

The Dalai Lama has credited western women with the potential to save the world. I believe we have the monumentally important opportunity to set an example for the world and tell everybody it’s time to start listening to their mamma.  It’s time we take women’s position in the world ultra-seriously, and what better way for us Americans to send that message than to elect this very qualified and extremely well vetted candidate? 

Ironically, the reactions I often hear from Hillary haters seem a bit hysterical and without solid underpinning in fact. I ask myself, what is this visceral reaction some people have to Hillary Clinton?  Honestly, what has she done so wrong as to merit such hostile disdain?  People say she’s a liar, but as Arnovitz points out, she is considered the most truthful of all the 2016 candidates by the fact checking organization, Politifact. She's had to endure an insane number of lies and disrespect, aimed at her by both self-described “conservatives” and “liberals" yet, she continues to win supporters and forge ahead.

Is she a person who’s changed, evolved and grown; most definitely. You can’t take on the jobs representing this country to the vast and diverse world as successfully as she has and not actually change and grow.  Been around the world lately, sitting in pow-wow with some of the most dangerous and, sometimes, misogynist men on the planet, have you?   Why do people trivialize the things this person has accomplished? 

Well, honestly, I did see it happen over and over again to President Obama.  The disrespect and dismissal from the pea-brain populace, the obstructionism of the Republican party, blatant, ignorant knee jerk racism, has been embarrassing to witness.  Interestingly, almost all of it is confined to the US.  President Obama has been highly respected around the world since his first inauguration; he is now, highly respected at home, as well. Is there, as Arnovitz points out in his excellent analysis, a strong sexist current beneath the vitriol towards HRC, as well?

Probably. It may seem hard to believe, but patriarchal sexism is a deeply entrenched psychic paradigm, perhaps more deeply entrenched than racism.  It bears examining; is it about a woman flying the plane?    Like President Obama, I think HRC, once in office, will work well with diverse groups, and, hopefully, given her strong and capable network of supporters, accomplish a great many of the social reforms listed in the democratic platform.

The voting decision of each person in this presidential election is of great consequence.  It’s an opportunity for us to carry forward a rational and heart full agenda for our planet, not just for us, for generations to come around the world.  We just have to survive our huge mistakes until we can fix them.  HRC is the best person for the presidential job at this time.  Her most vital qualifications to me are that I trust her to make good judgments in difficult circumstances that will affect me directly as a citizen of this country and to protect my civil liberties and respect my contributions, which are my civic duty to make. 

The body politic is us.  We aren’t voting for a personality, or a high school class president, we’re voting for POTUS. It’s not just about HRC, it’s about us.  We need a chance, each of us, to make things right, to work on the platform issue we feel near and dear to our hearts.  So, please, don’t make this a personality contest; check your facts.  Her service is public record; she has been the target of scandal after scandal propagated by her political enemies, but she is always exonerated and continues in public service.  

If you don’t like her, at least revue the platform she’s running on.  Why do you think Sen. Sanders endorsed her?  Does it come as a surprise; didn’t you watch the respect he showed her from the first debate?  The man likes her and will be a good ally to her.  All of a sudden you don’t respect him?  He’s a sell out?  Read the platform she will be promoting and compare it to Drumpf’s, or the Republican party's; good luck with that.  Above all, don’t abandon this country in a snit of righteous indignation. I’ve even heard some disgruntled Berners say it would serve this country right if we get Trump.  Really?  How is that going to help anything? If you can't trust Hillary Clinton, please ask yourself how we progressives will fare in a Trump presidency.  And, trust Bernie; he's the same guy he was when you supported him and he asks you to vote for her. 

This election isn't about HRC.  It’s about what a wise idea it is to keep someone level-headed and responsible in the highest office of the land and one of the most prestigious in the world.  It’s an important job.  Who is best qualified?  Wasn't she the first to courageously champion universal health care in America; that's one of the platform items Bernie and she share.    What does Trump stand for; what's his platform?  

I just hope that when push comes to shove, people vote with a deep consideration of what the outcome of that vote is likely to be.  I dream an America where a capable woman is finally awarded the most important job in the world. I dream of a world in which each of us feels free to make a positive contribution.  I envision us evolving out of bloody patriarchal mindsets, into an expanded awareness of our collective capacity to solve problems without bloodbaths.  I want the happy ending; don’t you?

The American Dream...again

Back in June, when Donald (Drumpf) Trump announced with  unprecedented vitriol, racist hate against Mexicans, and with his  noxious self-aggrandizement, that he would once again, run for POTUS, my favorite political satirists like Jon Stewart, believed his bid a joke.  So, it got me to wondering about the people and the ethos in this country that would happily see him succeed; I asked what is the American Dream?

Now, after ten months of freak show, I have to ask it again. What is the American dream - to you?  It's a question I think each American has to answer.  The consensus answer will create our future and impact the entire planet for generations to come. But before we answer, let's remember that what brought the Pilgrims here was a search for sanctuary from religious tyranny in England.  Unfortunately, they themselves projected that huge shadow of theocratic cruelty on the indigenous peoples they met in this "sanctuary," claimed for the white-skins of Europe by the  explorer, Christopher you know who.

By way of historical correction, I thought about calling Christopher a son of a bitch, because as his historians say, he was a cruel man, but it's misogynist, as the bitch here is to blame. Then I thought to use the word, bastard, but same thing.  Bastard is an illegitimate child under many patriarchal laws around the world.  Any woman who dares have a child on her own, give it her name, dooms not only herself to social disgrace, but also her child, to varying degree, depending on the strictness of the patriarchy.  So, why should I perpetuate this subtle, psychic brainwashing by using the language that these laws have coined? I'll come up with something new: let's see; what fits?  Ah, yes.  Devil; one who worships evil, i.e., himself, and perpetuates unspeakable, unbearable and unnecessary cruelty on everything that thwarts him. 

Back to my American Dream.  You see, America, today, is a place where one is free to grow; rich is only one avenue, a rather temporal, though popular one.  However,  we live in the Age of Consciousness, the age of inner-space exploration and new quantum paradigms.  Why dream the same old dream?  

We also live in a time of great crisis and great opportunity as the wise ones have said.  We will create the reality we give our energy to, our inward and outward allegiance.  "The world is as we dream it", is at once ancient shamanic knowledge and the title of a great book by John Perkins about shamanic wisdom.

As a woman, who is also an American citizen, I'm appalled that the rights our grandmothers fought for, a fight in which they sacrificed a great deal, (as did the brave men who fought with them) should be again jeopardized by religious extremists seeking to rule. Women fought a literal war with men who denied them, who governed them, in order to win the right to vote. TO VOTE for holiness sake!  (As historical review, I recommend two recent films, "Suffragette" and "Iron Winged Angels.")  It was no tea party for our women ancestors; they had no acknowledged voice or choice in government or in society. 

Voting was just one battle; they also had to fight for reproductive freedom, for rights and protection against laws that prevent her from exercising stewardship over her own body. The battle continues to this day, in this election and around the world. Patriarchal theocracies are still seeking to control her.
How can the grand daughters and sons, the great grand daughters and sons, of those brave freedom fighting forebears, (quite literally) allow this country to once again be ruled publicly and personally by authoritarian and patriarchal theocracy and corporatacracies?

Here's my dream.  In this difficult election season that has people in conflict and on edge, we take a moment to breathe, to center and realize that Never will there be as important a time as NOW.  (Just ask one of my favorite contemporary teachers in the Consciousness Movement, Eckhart Tolle.)

After that wonderful, centering deep breath, we each connect with the heart, with what your heart truly loves.  If it's money, okay, but there's so much more!  Whatever you learn and how ever greatly you love, that goes with you; the money, property and power stays.  I dream that we dare to dream a new dream, one where losing our fear of death, we see life with new eyes and find meaning through inner as well as outer riches.  I dare to dream that amassing riches will never again be literal, ugly and world destructive, just the opposite.  We'll dream ourselves into a future we want instead of waking up in one we fear.

The story we tell ourselves is supremely important.  There's the communal patriarchal story we've been immersed in for so long which promotes fear and separation, and there's the deeper story, one that promotes hope.  I AM immortal NOW.  I'm an immortal having this experience.  I've volunteered for this stint on earth, this physical reality.  (I love how when I say say, "Sheesh, what a world, my life partner, Jim responds; "It's not the world, it's the people in it.  The world is a beautiful place.") 

The world is as we dream it; life is as we dream it.  What is our dream, collectively as Americans?  What is our vision for "the future?" Perhaps, we've all got a mission to accomplish and a lesson to learn in this present reality that we can take Home with us when we die. How should that color our collective dream?

Fear of death, of what we believe about death is another hot topic in the New Consciousness movement.  For the sake of brevity, we live in a time of exploring that final frontier. It behooves a person to come out from the fug of patriarchal paradigms, especially as they envelop spirituality, and smell the coffee; we have delicious opportunities for personal and collective growth.  Dreams are our organic spirituality and our passkey to where we came from an where we're going; both sleep dreams and waking dreams.  We can learn to use them to heal ourselves, each other and our relationship to this beautiful planet.

To dream awake is to imagine from the heart; to come from the heart is very different than to come from the wallet.  To come from fear and hate is very different than to come from love and trust.  Depending on where you come from, you'll do different things, make different choices.  Each choice matters.  If you know that you'll live after death, just the way you're living now and beyond, then it colors your choices. 

As a woman on this physical plane, I don't know about you, but I don't want to go through the shit great-grand mama did, or that generations of suffering, confined, mistreated and beleaguered women before her did, ever again.  NEVER AGAIN!  I also count on other men and women, sisters and brothers, lovers and parents, not to allow fear and mistrust to obscure the dream we create for ourselves.  For me, that dream includes freedoms that go way beyond the nearsighted grab for money that doesn't see beyond these borders, these mind forged manacles, as Blake put it. 

I dream freedom to grow as my heart tells me to grow.  It's freedom to do the job I was sent here to do in the most loving, creative way I can.  If I'm a woman, in a temporal paradigm, I want to make sure ridiculous, confining and sadistic laws don't keep me from being free.

Women, some women, have only recently enjoyed, in the patriarchal 6 thousand year global paradigm we've endured, the freedom from the legal, social and moral restraints that theocratic male rule has inflicted on them.  Case in point, I think of how one of my favorite mystery authors recently wrote  about witch burning in such a way that I know she never would have done of the more well known Jewish genocide of the mid-twentieth century: jokingly.  "Witch" was an accusation in Medieval patriarchy; it was and often, it still is. Back then, it meant death to be called a witch; you remember Salem.  What made all this unnecessary cruelty to women possible?  Religious patriarchal theocracies.

It doesn't matter if that theocracy is Christian, Muslim or Judaic, the Big Three Traditions.  If a woman is not legally, socially and personally free to do, say and be as she pleases, she is a slave.  Our great-grandmas fought bitterly to give us the right JUST TO VOTE!

My American Dream is of a land where most people are waking up to the great New Reality that includes immortality NOW.  The violence that is so prevalent, and has always been in patriarchies, will give way to kindness and creativity. We'll collectively dream ways to live that aren't the way we're living now.  We'll continue to support the basic rights of sisters and brothers to not be like us; respecting each other, we'll create new communities.  We'll open our doors to what it's possible to achieve through fearless love and wisdom; we'll support each other in our best efforts and in living our best dreams.

So dream big and vote carefully! Abigail Adams once requested of her loving, Father of Independence, husband, "Remember the ladies" when you draft your legislation.  Though her request fell on mostly deaf and mocking ears among the ruling elite, let her voice ring clearly in our vote, NOW. And let's dream a world without end, forever and ever.  Amen and Awomen. 

A Toast to Dreaming 2016

I first found Robert Moss’s work in 1997. Jim and I were vacationing on wild and rocky Monhegan Island.  I took many solitary walks along the rustic paths crisscrossing the island where no cars are allowed, drinking in all the changing majesty of that place.  On some walks, I took my Walkman with me (imagine!) and listened to my first of his works, Robert’s audiobook, “Dream Gates”.  I had some wonderful tiger dreams on that island, and a new treasure trove of insights to use in my dream play.

After that, I began reading Robert’s books, taking workshops with him and happily partnering with him and my husband, Jim, to add video to his teaching outreach, (now in download formats at psycheproductions.net.)

Although I’d been teaching dreamwork for many years, I knew Active Dreaming was IT for me.  In my teacher trainings with Robert and so many amazing, gifted dreamers that are today, old friends, I dreamed myself teaching Active Dreaming, like I’m doing now, every chance I get.

I’m blessed to be a guest on the faculty of the innovative East coast graduate oasis, The Graduate Institute.  TGI has been graced with many high profile teachers, such as the ever more wonderful, Dr. Bernie Siegel.  I have the privilege of presenting my course, “Active Dreaming for Health and Healing” in the Integrative Health and Healing Master’s program.  The really wonderful thing about this is that the people who choose this program are hungry to break the boundaries of constricting old mental paradigms and move into the 21^st century of healing arts.  They recognize dreaming as one of the cornerstones.  I’m like a gopher in soft dirt!

This past December, I had the opportunity to journey with about 15 TGI dream explorers, with permission, as always, into the dream of a group member.  The second she began her detailed description of the landscape where she encountered the mother black bear and her three cubs, I was in my dream, "Bear Country".  In a post this August, I shared my experiences with Black Bears (who have been tracking me in dreams all year) and my dawning understanding that not only must I do more to educate myself and work for the benefit of our natural world, but the call is out to many, many people through the dream worlds, often in the guise of Black Bear.  

This is why I find Active Dreaming to be the most fruitful framework for personal or group dream exploration.  Things happen that you couldn’t plan if you tried in a group; we all experience the numinous thrill of recognizing that there is much more to dreaming and dream sharing than analyzing the message could possibly deliver.  Re-entry experiences fill out our dream experiences in valuable ways.

Everyone could see that the dreamer was visibly heartened by the dream, her own re-entry and the experiences of her dream shared with her by others.  I’m so often empowered by the synchronicities and the “aha” moments popping like flashbulbs around the group, whether we’re doing Lightning Dreamwork, Dream Theater or Re-entry.  I’ve learned, it’s not me, it’s us and all that comes from respecting the powers that speak to us in dreams.  

I’m taking this opportunity to thank Robert for the great gift he’s given the world in developing this approach and in his ever more expanded teaching of it.  I’d also love to hear from all sister and brother Active Dreamers about your own experience of sharing dreams through Active Dreaming.  It really works, right?  May all our doors and gates and paths be open…

And may the peace that passes all understanding be ever in our hearts.