Ask And You Receive

     In his wonderful book, The Three Only Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination, Robert Moss offers a synchronicity game that he dreamed up, literally.  He calls it the Coincidence Card Game.  It's simple; every person in the circle gets an index card on which they are asked to write, legibly and on one side only, a saying, a line from a song, part of a dream, or absolutely anything that comes to mind.  The cards are collected and shuffled thoroughly, maintaining the blank side out at all times.  Each person gets to pick a card from this newly minted deck that they must put down without looking at the written message. Then, they must think of a question they would like to put to the universe, a question they don't mind sharing with the group.  One by one, each person states their question, turns their card over and reads the message they received out loud. I've played this Active Dreaming game in groups Robert Moss has led, as well as in my own dream groups; it never fails to bring laughter, but it also creates some undeniable synchronicities.   

The example I will share here happened in a group I led this past Saturday.  The CC Game is a great way to raise energy after some intense dream work, so before we wrapped up, I handed out the index cards, one to a person and kept one for myself to write on. I then put the rest of the cards away, so as not to confuse the deck.  Everyone wrote something and I collected those cards; I shuffled thoroughly and each person chose their response card from the deck I now held out to them, then put it down without looking at it.  We went around the circle with our questions and oracle answers and just about everyone felt that little pique of intrigue as they considered how the serendipitous message might answer their question. There was one wonderful synchronicity that I could not have anticipated.

At the beginning of our group, I gave a short introduction to Active Dreaming and the techniques of Lightning Dream Work and Dream Re-entry.  At one point, someone asked about dreams with departed loved ones and we talked about them briefly.  I made a comment like; "Well, we all have a physical body with an expiration date." as  a humorously intended aside.

In our Coincidence Card Game, the last participant, when it came her turn, said her card was blank, but that's okay, she was happy with that answer.  I was flummoxed; how did an extra card get into my deck?  I carefully handed a single card to each, took one myself and got rid of the rest.  I apologized and, realizing I was holding two written-on cards when I should have only one left for myself, I said; "Here, pick one of these", holding out the two cards.

She smiled broadly and said; "This really is the perfect card for my question which was, "What is my expiration date?"

There is always magic when we play with our dreams together in a group.  C.G. Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and dream explorer descrlibed this phenomenom succinctly as an acausal connecting principle, or meaningful coincidence.  In my experience, it often comes with goose bumps, as it did this time for the whole group.  I don't know how the blank card got in the final deck; it was probably stuck to another one, but without my knowing.  What more powerful answer could this dreamer have gotten to her intrepid question?  We don't know our expiration date, so we live our fullest life now, trusting that when the time comes, we'll be ready.  

Connecting to our dreams connects us to the deeper realities that are in harmony with our waking ones; they come through with a personalized assurance that we're not alone.  We just ask for what we want, and as the song says, we'll get what we need.

The Power of a Dream Symbol

 

In a previous post, I told you about a delightful gorilla dream as an example of how fun and funny animal dreams can be.  I didn’t fear that gorilla, but when he came back as King Kong, well then; it’s time to take stock.

When we have a dream practice, which means we pay attention to our dreams, record them, at least some of the time, and ponder them often, we recognize the power of a dream symbol. 

 

If my dream symbol grows from personal dream energy to the archetypal size of King Kong, it is an important story my dream is telling me.  This means I go on the trail of this symbol, what Robert Moss refers to as "dream archeology." First I search through my own dream recollections and written records.  In King Kong's case, this is the third instance of this energy in my dreams in the past decade.  I print out each dream and add it to my journal now because whatever this dream is signaling with this symbol, it holds healing energy available to me now.  

 

The challenge is to ponder the symbol a dream has presented for quite a while and in many ways until I have a felt sense of what the dream is saying, if not an intellectual explanation of its meaning. It’s not that dreams are never obvious. I’ve had many dreams that were decidedly unsubtle and quite verbally direct, but that’s not the way of dreams generally.  Understanding them can be like playing charades or Pictionary. 

 

Given the fact that many of the great Aesclepian temples of ancient Greece had amphitheaters for performance of plays and that the temples were places where people seeking healing came to petition the god, Aesclapius, for a healing dream, perhaps those ancient actors in Greece performed people’s dreams.  Was dream theater the catalyst for modern theater?

 

Dream language is definitely the language of pictures not of words. According to an early pioneer of modern dream studies, Dr. Ann Faraday, it’s no coincidence that our earliest ancestors communicated through drawings, some of which are magically still extant on cave walls like those of Lascaux, in France.  She also points out how most all of us, as children, loved to draw and tell stories from our drawings.  Pictorial, symbolic language is inborn in us; perhaps because it’s the language of our dreams and we are never apart from our dreaming selves.

 

To honor this dream symbol that has so forcefully called on my attention, I begin by asking various questions. What is the context of each dream adventure?  Is the location familiar, unfamiliar? What is my dream self doing and feeling; am I happy about where she’s at?  Who else is in my dream? What is my relationship to each character in the dream, and in waking life, if I know them?  

 

Another step to open the gift a dream is offering me is sharing my dream with other trusted dreamers.  A dream friend is one who honors the dream as yours but can also put her/himself in your dream shoes and give you their associations and feeling responses.  In Active Dreaming's Lightning Dreaming process, that feedback is always offered without personal projection onto the dreamer by using the preface, "If this were my dream..." 

 

Whether I share my dream in that way or not, I’m going to have fun exploring what I can find on the internet.  I’m not looking for the “meaning” of gorilla or King Kong in my searches.  I’m letting serendipity lead and just checking out various references like the King Kong movies and movie reviews for starters.

 

Wow, what an archetypal patriarchal white man shadow King Kong turns out to be!  Far out! My dreams are not playing; they are posing an important challenge for me and I am excited to give it my best effort.

 

In another post, I’ll share what this symbol teaches me, but for now, I want to share with you this understanding of the vitality of dream symbols for personal and spiritual growth, as well as for good fun.  May your dreams shine a path through the darkness. May we become strong enough dreamers to bring about a healing future for all and for our Earth.

 

May it be so.

The Bulldog and His Patriarchy

I mentioned in my previous post what fun dream archeology can be; I'm still on the trail of the bulldog.  Here's an interesting bit I found in Wikipedia:

Bulldogs have a longstanding association with 
English culture, as the BBC wrote: "to many the Bulldog is a national icon, symbolizing pluck and determination."^[6] During World War II, Bulldogs were often likened to Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his defiance of Nazi Germany.^[7] When the English settled in the Americas, their Bulldogs came with them. 

Interesting, it's definitely an English breed, but when I re-enter and check these ideas out with the bulldog in my dream, he wants me to explore further.  With a further search, I found that the reason they're called bulldogs is because back in the male fraternity of Medieval and Renaissance England, this hapless dog was bred for the sole (souless) purpose of watching it gore or be gored by a bull who was maddened beforehand by pepper blown up it's nose. It was the male sport of the day.

I digress here, but it reminds me of the story going around in my neck of the woods about people, some say the very coaches on the team, of an upscale township that shall remain nameless, (although it made the GoodWeek/BadWeek section of this week's Week Magazine), confronted with the cold reality that their kid's playing field was too wet to allow the scheduled games to commence, made the bold and mystifying decision to soak the field in gasoline and set it on fire so as to dry the field and allow the games to go on.

What planet are these people from?  How did 20 adults come to a decision so misguided and ill-advised? Yes, the field was destroyed, just for starters.  My neighbor and I were talking; he's well versed in school sports cultures, having followed his daughters teams as they grew up. We shake our heads and ask each other, how was this the decision of so many adults?

Do you see where I'm going with this?  How was bull baiting and bear baiting the decision of so many, so called, Christian adults?  

It's patriarchy.  The bulldog was bred as a symbol and a sacrifice to patriarchal insanity.  We treat patriarchy as if it's the only option we have for organizing a culture, when it's not.  Patriarchy isn't all of human history; it's a small distorted fraction. Homo sapiens (a rather ironic label for humanity as we know it, coined by an 18th century Swiss botanist) has been around for hundreds of thousands of years; "Thanks to the work of exceptional scholars like archeologist Marija Gimbutas, we know that: “The Goddess is the most potent and persistent feature in the archeological records of the ancient world, a symbol of the unity of life in nature and the personification of all that was sacred and mysterious on earth.”

Patriarchy is only some 6,000 years old! It's dualistic, focused on differences and competition; whoever pisses the farthest sets the rules for right and wrong, and uses all manner of cruelty, violence and inhumanity to enforce them.  

How can such cruelty to animals be allowed? Well, it was a sanctioned male sport until one of the first laws against cruelty to animals was passed in the mid 19th century. In patriarchy, male sports help develop the future generation of soldiers and keep the win/lose, either or mentality sharp for when war is declared.  

One of the characteristics of my dream bulldog is that he would occasionally roll his eyes, which made him look insane; then he'd resume a direct look and return to his doggie nature.  His crazy eye roll got me to pondering about the insanity of the bulldog as mascot for the patriarchal story. 


We've learned little about pre-patriarchal cultures in our history classes because history is the story the conqueror writes. In the last century, many vistas have been opened and explored.  Women have done their own scholarship and found that the male establishment's explanation of ancient artifacts and cultures has been tainted with patriarchal projection on to the ancient past, mansplaining cultures who were nothing like patriarchy in structure and function. "Goddess worshiping cultures weren’t necessarily matriarchal, they were, as Riane Eisler brilliantly presents in The Chalice and the Blade, cooperative societies." 

Ancient cultures existed that were perhaps far in advance of our own on many levels, like in using what we now call psi skills.  This internal authority of the hoi polloi was frowned upon during the brutal RC Inquisition, so we've come to be raised knowing little, discounting or sometimes fearing our dreaming.

The patriarchal paradigms reign with fear, exist in hierarchies of human worth, denigrate half the human race with misogynist rules and thinking, can only think in good/bad dualism and project their own self important image, an anthropomorphized male deity who hates women for their lack of obedience and submission, on to the Male Only Divine.

Ancient cultures weren't patriarchal.  Whatever they were before patriarchy took over with the sword, they were very interesting people, our ancestors.  And beyond a doubt, women were respected and the Goddess was revered for the gifts She gives humanity.  Goddess paradigms don't need the idea of duality, they practice the idea of the dance of life, where each person, male or female, does their best, according to what they desire to do.

But I digress, yet again. As an animus figure, Jung would have a field day with my bulldog in this dream; that's what I'm doing, too.  Just like there's a wounded Feminine Divine archetype in the patriarchal paradigm, one that Jung acknowledged, there's a wounded Male Divine archetype, too.  Actually, and fittingly so, today is the day of the international celebration of that wounding, Good Friday.

Patriarchal gods are constantly demanding sacrifice; ask Isaac how he felt about his dad's religious beliefs that almost got him killed.  Patriarchal theology is the psychic arm for the hostile takeover of  ancient spiritualities that payed great tribute to the Feminine Divine. It's easy to see how patriarchy claimed as their super power, the power to deal death.  

The Goddess is the direct giver of life.  Goddess cultures saw death as part of the cycle of a soul's journey, not an end but a new beginning. Many ancient burial sites suggest that care was taken at the body's burial to provide the soul the wherewithal to travel on. But Fear of Death is the supreme ultimate bogart in our cultural patriarchal closet; there are so many ways to mess up and the patriarchal god that rules on one's eternal continuance is demanding and hard to please.

So perhaps, as we all resurrect our way back home naturally, and quite organically, we can see in Jesus' sacrifice, not a necessary adherence to his father's terms of forgiveness for the human race, but a willing warrior for Love, who dared all by defying the strict patriarchal religion into which he was born, and paid the ultimate price to be a truly non-patriarchal man and a model for healing the wounded Male architype, the wounded Animus.  

For me, this is the day that launched my fascination with dreams, synchronicity and imagination; I call it Crocodile Friday.

Hey Bulldog

fittingly enough,
 this lovely fella is on the wine label of a wine called Paxis

Dreams have thrilled me with revelations for so many years that I put nothing past them.  Yesterday’s dream is this kind of wonderful.

A dream is so often quirky and odd, even just a fragment of a dream. I’ve wished out loud that I could collect a nickel every time someone says to me about a dream, “it was so weird.” Add a little frisson of fear or just ickiness, and you’ve got a gold mine for dream exploration.

The revelatory meaning of a dream starts to unfold as I’m writing it down. First, I rehearse it in my head, re-living my dream ego's experience visually so I get the best memory of it possible. Then I record it, either by writing it down manually or dictating it to my email via iphone, later to be printed out for my journal.    Either way, the act of recording helps the dream come into the waking world where it’s gifts can manifest.  Plus, it helps the dream story stick in my head for further pondering.  

It's when I’m pondering the dream story in my head or re-reading it in  my journal entry, that the “aha” moments come, sometime fast and furious, like puzzle pieces falling into place.  

Understanding is more than a left brain “explanation” of what the dream might mean.  Dreams work at every level of our consciousness, from the visceral to the sublime, to unlock the existential mysteries of our being. It makes me catch my breath in wonder.

Oh, I get the bulldog in this dream, big time. I've seen him before.  And I get the little girl, too.  It’s about more than interpretation. I’ve been given a dream key to unlock a door in my psyche. I can walk through that door using dream play practices I've learned and teach; Jung called it “active imagination” and Robert Moss calls it “dream re-entry.”  

My dream, The Little Girl and the Bulldog is a treasure map for new territories to explore and new soul-healing to be found. What I want to share with you about this dream is that after all these years, my dreams keep me on my toes. They are continually  evolving my understanding, revealing to me the meaning and purpose of my physical existence with firm kindness and deep humor.  This is what makes a dream practice so worthwhile; as they do for me, they can do for you.

When I write down a dream, whether it seems like a big one or not, I give myself time to “get” it.  Often, what I might have dismissed as a nothing dream, just a fragment, is actually a powerful gift to me, one I would have missed if I hadn't paid attention.  

In this dream, I meet two characters in a dreamscape that echoes a particular time and a particular physical location from my life story.  The place is so familiar, but there are differences.  These differences and all the details of the dream give me an entry point for exploring my dream further.  Then there's the relationship I can develop with these characters.  I may recognize feelings and retrieve memories by talking to them; they may tell me things my soul needs to hear. 

Jung recommend pondering a dream, mulling it over while walking or resting, or as I've found, even standing in line at the bank. (Dream pondering is not a practice I'd recommend while driving machinery of any kind.) 

When pondering, I keep the dream with me as I go about my day. Sometimes a dream has the psychic energy to stay with me much longer, unfolding it’s meaning in lazy magic like a butterfly emerging it's cocoon.  Some dreams have the power to stay with me always.

Another tool for a dream practice is what Jung called “amplification” and Robert Moss calls “dream archeology.” Exploring the internet for clues to associations I have with this dream led me to John Lennon and his inspired poem of a song: 

Hey Bulldog

The Beatles

Sheepdog, standing in the rain
Bullfrog, doing it again
Some kind of happiness is
Measured out in miles
What makes you think you're
Something special when you smile

Childlike no one understands
Jackknife in your sweaty hands
Some kind of innocence is
Measured out in years
You don't know what it's like
To listen to your fears

You can talk to me
You can talk to me
You can talk to me
If you're lonely, you can talk to me

Big man (yeah) walking in the park
Wigwam frightened of the dark
Some kind of solitude is
Measured out in you
You think you know me, but you haven't got a clue.

You can talk to me
You can talk to me
You can talk to me
If you're lonely, you can talk to me

Hey hey

Roar

Hey, bulldog (hey bulldog)

Woof

Hey,…

Dreams are marvels of revelation; they open channels for  our personal empowerment and give us the courage to live life authentically.  

Life is more interesting for dreaming. It's our organic spirituality; we're born dreaming and dreaming we'll cross the threshold to life beyond physical death.  

Let Your Dreams Guide You

One of the best things I've learned from following my dreams for over 30 years is that I'm my own authority when it comes to me. 

There is no need to give my soul into another's care; she's my responsibility. Contemporary patriarchal religions claim they will save my soul. She doesn't need saving, save from them.

I'm a spiritual being having a physical existence; dreaming is the bridge between the realm of my spiritual being and the physical realms "I" dwell in now.

Why would I give anyone authority over my soul?  So much of what these religions espouse denigrates woman, that's what's damaging to my soul, my psyche. It's damaging to the male psyche, as well. Myths we've imbibed since childhood, especially when we're parked in "church" and religious studies early on, endure at an unconscious level. 

One example is the psychically imbedded patriarchal myth that woman is the patsy of all evil, "woman born of the rib of man" (go figure), Eve; she who crossed an arbitrary line and wham, all Hell literally breaks lose.  There's also the patriarchal Greek version of this  dumb, trespassing woman, Pandora.  Those myths are a heavy burden on womankind.  

Religions like Catholicism, Orthodox Judaism and most Islamic sects from what I can tell, see women as threats to man's ultimate spiritual sanctity.  His Holiness the Man can be sullied by her unholiness, the woman, therefore justifying her pitiful place in the pecking order of His patriarchal society.

The Good News is I don't need religion because dreams teach me the most profound and the most practical lessons, in a custom tailored narrative. 

I follow my dreams in the most literal sense. In this way, I live twice as long, in both the spiritual and physical worlds at once. This allows me to replace belief with experience.  I don't believe in life after death, I know life after death is the next stage of my own and all physical adventures. I trust my own spiritual experiences in dreams to assure me and sustain me in waking life.

Dreams guide me through my experiences in waking life, too.  As I say in my bio on this blog, they've helped me, comforted me, disabused me of illusions, scared the pajamas off me and lent me strength.  They teach in amusing, often kind ways, though sometimes, they're heart thunderingly scary.

Along with dreams, there's synchronicity, dubbed that by Jung to describe the psychic phenomenon of "acausal connections." Castaneda's Shaman teacher, Don Juan, calls it "Agreement. It's that wonderful thrill of recognition we experience when life's physical events echo our inner worlds, especially the dream worlds. I see it as another bridge between waking and spiritual life. It's that deja vu feeling; or as Robert Moss has pointed out, it's probably really Deja Reve. 

When something from the dream worlds manifests in waking, it's also an affirmation that there is guidance and support available from other dimensions. I live in more than just this physical reality; I walk a path in waking life and I walk a path in dream realities.  I pay attention to both.  From my dream path, I know I'm not alone.   I know I am loved, connected and assisted; dreams allow me to explore the mystery of existence for myself, which is how I take responsibility for my own soul. My soul is an eternal reality, so it's my soul  that seeks connection to me.  It's my Soul who is saving me.  My Soul or as some teachers refer to it, my Higher Self.  I connect to my soul most strongly through my dream experiences.

Dreams bring healing with them when we pay attention and respect them. Listening to our own dreams, seeking our inner guides first hand is a great adventure.  If it seems like scary terrain, it might be worth getting a dream coach; otherwise, it should be as easy as riding a bike when we were kids.  We all dream; pay attention, why not? It's an organic avenue to self awareness and self-love

Here's a story that illustrates the dream/synchrocity connection.  I often have post dream teaching life synchros; they're like a huge hug from another world.  

I recently taught a workshop at a local university; a young woman shared a dream about seeing a dear sweet Huskie pup in desperate need of rescue and yearning to do something to save it. At the end of our Lighting Dreamwork process, she announced that she was definitely going to volunteer at her local animal shelter, as she had been wanting to do.  The next day I'm at Petco for cat supplies and see that they're running a special adoption clinic event for dogs from some awful puppy mill, mostly pit bulls or similar breeds.  The sight of those dogs in cages and numerous people there to adopt put me in mind of yesterday's dreamwork.  The synchronicity really hit, though, when, standing in the check out line, I turn to see that the man behind me has a young, beautiful blue-eyed Huskie on a leash. Immediately the dog jumps, places his paws on my shoulders and stares into my eyes.  Whoa!  Deja Reve!  I felt animal love so profound that, if that man hadn't already adopted him, that little boy would have come home with me.  I did leave the store with those physical shivers of recognition that synchronicity induces; a kind of spiritual high-five.

When I taught high school theology, I tried to apply the learning model that derives from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, (physical, security, belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization): we learn best by experience, second best by example and least best by being told.  I still find that's true.  

Dreams are experiences, just like waking events are, experiences in my life.  I don't need to be told what to believe. As Jung once cryptically said, I know.  I know what I know, what I don't know, I've yet to find out.  What you know is part of your story.  We can share our stories, we can use our imaginations to place ourselves in another's dream scenario, but we cannot live a dream or a life for another. We each have our own path to follow; our own actions to live out in lessons and consequences.  The best way to teach another how to understand dreaming is to point to the door available in their souls and show them how it opens. The worst way is to presume to tell someone else what their dream means.

By way of convincing us to pay attention, pre-cognitive dreams are one of the most compelling dream experiences we can have. When a dream weaves itself into the fabric of my lived experiences, the next day, the next month or the next decade, I realize there's more to me than meets the I.  I'm not alone; guidance is available to me through dreams.  Something beyond this physical world makes sense, help is available, if I pay attention.

So, I invite you to let your dreams guide you. All it takes is paying attention to your dreaming experiences.  Even when dreams don't manifest in waking life literally, their symbols and scenarios are often vibrant  metaphors for our waking experiences.  Giving dreams space to exist in my life, as real as any other real I can experience, broadens my perspective on existence considerably.  Most dreamers find this to be true; why not you?

Dream Whispering

So many times, someone at a party or in a chance encounter will tell me a dream; they know I love to hear them.

So many times, doors of perception open to the dreamer when I respond from my practice of Active Dreaming. Those awesome Oprah aha moments happen all the time in response to the simplest of observations on my part.  I'm not, the listener, playing Madam Medium who knows the meaning of your dream; as an Active Dream practitioner, I am trying the dream on for size without presuming to know what it means for the dreamer, only what, if this were my dream, it would mean for me.

Not only does this help the listener escape the ego laden path of answer person, it frees the imagination of the listener and the dreamer to dance with a dream and allow serendipity to offer its gifts as she sees fit.

A dream, even another's dream, with her or his permission, is a very viable, as in full of life, place to explore the extra-sensory resources available to each of us for daily living.  Dreams have existential energy and good luck.  I love being in that zone.

So, today was a two dream story Labor Day party with friends day. It only proves to me that everyone gets turned on, to some degree by their dreams.  I revel in the pleasure of opening even the tiniest of portals into someone's inner dream resources, and I am always grateful for the opportunity.

I truly get turned on by using the tools of Active Dreaming to take dream "work" out of the intellectual, cognitive realms and into the experiential realities we each inhabit.  It's a light hearted, respectful way to offer something in return for the confidence the person's had sharing the dream with me.  More, it's a primer for how to just go with your dream flow and think creatively in your waking life, using dreams for inspiration.

Bright dreams to you.

Reflection on Tanya's Dream in NPR Podcast

Have you ever been in love?  Researchers have isolated the chemical and neural pathways that light up our brains when we're in love; does that explain love to you?

I don't mean to diss science and research; for those who wish to take that left brain path, fine. It's always fascinating to keep up with theories and studies and scientific findings.  But when it comes to falling and being in love, I'll take the experience over the explanation.  The same is true for dreams and dreaming; nothing you can know about dreaming beats what you can do through dreaming portals.  Dreaming is a part of our existence. If each of us is individual consciousness in a physical body, my guess is that dreaming is meant to be our bridge, our life-line, our connection to Home.  Through dreaming we remember important aspects of who we are that help us live our waking life well.

I'd like to share a wonderful NPR podcast  relating to dreaming, a segment produced by Abby Wendel.   A young woman, Tanya Marquadt, shares her dream encounters with a little girl she knows to be herself, but full of joy and free of the pain of so much childhood trauma.  They consulted Dr. Deirdre Barrett, a dream researcher at Harvard Medical School who suggests using dream incubation to invite a re-union with Tanya's little dream girl she calls X.  As Robert Moss often says, help is always available (in dreams) if we ask.  We only need to focus on what we want to know, on what we feel we need, then articulate our dream request simply.  Tanya decided on "I'm ready for your message." and repeated it over to herself as she drifted to sleep.

She dreamed a wonderful encounter with X that went further in connecting her to this bright shadow dream character.  I loved hearing her story and how her dreaming is helping her heal in her waking life.  Still,  I was wishing I could share Active Dreaming's dream re-entry practice with Tanya. Abby commented on how quickly the feeling of being unconditionally loved that had been part of the dream experience, faded for Tanya in the waking.

An Active Dreaming practice is to consider the dream narrative as if it were my own, without projecting any of my thoughts as interpretations for the dreamer.  So, in my dream of Tanya's dream experience, I would know that this is an important dream that has much to teach me.  To re-enter the dream, I can lay back anytime I wish and, while wide awake, allow my imagination to explore any part in the dream I choose to enter again.  Do I want to continue dancing?  Shall I go back to that beautiful lake and sit with X some more?  Shall I put on the shoes and jacket and open the door to adventures, perhaps X comes, too?  Shall I go to the place where I felt that powerful love and let it wash over me again?  My dream is a portal to a location I can envision and to which I can return.  And this is a journey I can repeat, again and again, exploring further, understanding more to help my waking self.

Is this self delusional?  When what we call "waking reality" in our contemporary world seems so deluded, perhaps there's something to be had from understanding our individual and collective humanity a little better, using a different approach.  If I am a spiritual being, a spiritual approach matters.

Lately I've been listening to several podcasts on dreams and dreaming that propose to answer scientifically what dreams mean, what purpose they have in the survival of our illustrious human race.  This theory, that theory, all fascinating, but how do I use it?  I don't want to know about love in my head, I want it in my heart.  I don't care what the latest science-babble is on dreaming; I want to just do it, learning all about it from my very own source.

Active Dreaming isn't a theory; it's a set of practices.You can believe anything you want about dreams, even that they're meaningless, and still use the tools of AD to your own benefit, perhaps even to the benefit of those around you.

The NPR podcast reported on one or two dreaming theories; one, whose source isn't named, posits that dreams replay trauma and the brain desensitizes the dreamer so it hurts less in waking. Dreams are certainly powerful engines of healing, but I'm not sure this is what is happening in  recurring PTDS dreams.  I don't see the need to have a "theory of everything." I see this as left-brain thinking that's been elevated in patriarchal cultures to the status of "rational" and "right".  Reducing the machine to its parts might be fine for motorcycles, but human beings have shown themselves to be more than brains and bits of organs.

A popular dream question is "What does it mean?"  That might be the wrong question to ask.  I prefer; Where was I? What was I doing?  Who was I with?  Dreaming is a natural resource; Active Dreaming is a dream practice that helps anyone willing to use a more Right brain approach to satisfy their curiosity about dreams.  I've played AD games with kindergarten, primary and high school students, with adults of all ages; this approach never fails to produce results, so many aha moments connecting people to their own dream source. Learning to dream strong is a path in the spiritual revolution happening today.

Dreams help us keep, literally, an open mind.  We can be as rational as we want in waking life, dreaming existence isn't like that.  The rabbit (w)hole of the dream worlds is safe to explore when we take stock of both sides of our conscious existence, in the physical and in the spiritual.  Through dreaming, we have access to a spiritual lifeline, but we have to adjust our mental paradigms and relate to the language and culture of the dream world before we can truly benefit from observing our dreams.  Just like there's no theoretical way to know love, dreaming can only be known by dreaming.

What we experience in the dream worlds can be every bit as beneficial to our existence on this physical plane as what we experience in the waking life.  I love Active Dreaming because it focuses on direct experience of the dream world.  It honors the dreamer as the ultimate authority on her or his dream and it offers ancient practices mixed up respectfully with modern techniques to provide a toy chest of tools for dream exploration.   It's more like being in love with dreaming than studying it.

Precognitive and Prophetic Dreaming

What good is dreaming the future if you can't do anything about it?  What purpose do precognitive and prophetic dreams serve?

I use precognitive and prophetic to describe dreams that subsequently take place in the dreamer's waking reality.  Precognitive are dreams that cover the a-z of dreaming the future, from an object seen in a dream and then viewed in waking reality shortly after, to a person we end up meeting, a job we end up taking, a person we end up parting from in sorrow or joy.

Prophetic dreams are life map dreams, often including collective unconscious material, like what the political climate will be like, etc.  In Jungian terms, they are archetypal, they are talking about a much bigger picture than our little hobbit lives encompass.  I've written about a few of mine, Howling Mary, being especially significant to me, but also, Crocodile Friday and my 1995 visit from dad, which though I didn't get the happy ending I was hoping for then, it continues to guide my present.

One of the great gifts Active Dreaming has given me is the triple door approach to dreaming.  1. I can go through the analytical door of my Jungian fondness and dwell on symbolic meaning as it relates to my ego led waking life. 2. I can accept that we dream the future all the time, so I journal regularly and take a reality check on every dream for possible scenarios in waking life. 3.  I can enter consciously into the other dimensions, the foreign inner-space countries, where my fortunes, luck and personal satisfactions are also made. I can walk through any of these doors to a dream, or sometimes, all three at the same time, as that's the way of dreams.

For this, and other vibrant approaches to dreaming, I recommend and frequently write about, Active Dreaming, created by Robert Moss.  His work opens new vistas into how we approach dreaming; it teaches us to live our best dreams and confront our worst with courage and creativity.

But back to the psychic gifts of dreaming; what good is it knowing the shit was going to hit the fan if you can't get out of the way?

For me the best answers come from my dreams and what they've taught me.

#1.  Physical reality isn't all there is; physical laws and statistical probabilities sometimes give way to the pure intention and whole-hearted effort of heart-centered people.  So be a heart-centered person.

#2  Pay attention to what you're doing in those precognitive or prophetic dreams and reality check yourself for what you can do in waking life now.  It doesn't have to be grandiose; it does have to be kind, self-less and contributing to the good of others, as well as of yourself.  Think outside the Box!

#3  Heal you're own inner wounding because it can blind you to what your ego is really up to if you don't face your unfaceable stuff, your shadow, your fears, your pain.  Patriarchy produces emotional stuntedness; all those thou shalt nots, cruel and illogical taboos, especially if you're a woman, add up to psychic wounding for many.  It's your own job, as a spirit leading a physical life, to find your way home, to the light.  It's the job of every one who finds their way to help someone groping in the dark. So, physician heal thyself is an ongoing mandate; dreams are important guides to healing, personally and collectively.

#4. Dreams keep me focused on the alternate realities that my spirit can access for sustenance and guidance (not to be confused with alternate facts, which have no reality).   When I'm overwhelmed by fear of the future, I remember that I dreamed this already and that dreams have and will always guide me on my best path forward.  I can take strength from remembering that I volunteered for physicality in this time and this place and so I can just continue doing what I'm called by my heart to do and carry on, best I can, until I cross out of here or turn things around.  Even when I do shuffle off this mortal coil, I'll volunteer for dream duty on the other side in gratitude for all the guidance I've received myself.

#5 I've heard baby-boomers joke about the surreal nature of our present reality, why not drop some acid again and get a level playing field?  May I suggest that dreams open the same portals that LSD opens, not every dream, but once we tune ourselves to living our dream life as fully as our waking, things make a lot more sense.  Not to mention, if you're really into experimenting, try conscious lucidity and self induced OBEs.

#6 Sometimes when there are no answers, there's purpose. Our Native American ancestors knew that dreams tell us the secret wishes of our soul.

One of my fondest dad dream visits was one in which he helped me escape some evil men, saying to me before he intervened for me to run, "You have no idea how important this mission is."

Okay dad, if you say so, I'll do my best.

Dreaming it Forward

This past Tuesday I had a wonderful talk with Robert Moss on his web radio show.  Knowing that he'd ask me if I had a dream story to tell, I incubated a dream for the show; I asked my dream source to send me the dream I should share with him.   I titled the dream I received, Create the Moment.

I'm in a beautiful outdoor setting, like an emerald glen surrounded by green trees.  My focus is on listening to an inner voice that feels like an inner knowing; it's coaching me to experience the moment as it's being created by me, even as I experience it.  Somehow, I'm being challenged to participate in the flow of time differently, moment by moment, as I create it.  I know there is a subtle difference that's huge.  I have to focus on the subtlety of what I'm being taught to discern how it feels.  I woke from this dream with a sense of wonder.

Robert and I used the Lightning Dreamwork game he created and several insights opened for me then, but the illumination of many dreams is gradual and eventual; their meaning evolves out of our lived experience.  Very often, synchronicity plays a large part in this process.

The day after I shared my dream with Robert on the air, he posted an insightful description of using the twilight zone for in depth dream adventuring on his blog.  I practically smacked the middle of my forehead with my palm as I read his post, of course!  My dream is not about this level of reality; not only is time a different sensation, I'm being shown the liminal space where I can experiment with this teaching.  I was treating it as a lesson for my waking life, manifestation and all that, but my dream is showing something far more valuable.  l have a lush green dream locale where I can experience what it might feel like to relate to time without a body.  Through this portal, in twilight dreaming, I can return to learn the types of life lessons that will come in handy when I cross death's threshold. 

The synchronicity of finding Robert's post, was followed the next day with more of the same, as if the dream source was working in installments. I spent the day with a dear friend, you can meet her in my first post. She's a healer, a poet and an amazing person. We drummed together sitting on her patio.  As I drummed, I looked out and recognized the greenery in front of me; it had an uncanny resemblance to the location I experienced in my dream. I allowed the drumming to take my spirit into the landscape before me and into my dream.  I'd found another facet of wisdom from this dream, by magical coincidence.  It feels like someone is leaving sparkling bread crumbs for me to follow home.

Elizabeth created this photo art and haiku to honor our beautiful day together and as a gift to me.  It captures the entire journey, the dream, the sharing and the honoring over a period of three days perfectly.  I asked permission to share her gift with you here; you can find more of her soulful work on Instagram.

The last step in the Lightning Dreamwork game is "how are you going to honor your dream?"  I honor "Create the Moment" originally by sharing it with Robert Moss, as it seemed intended I should, by sharing it on my blog with you and by living myself into it, thinking about it and watching for it in my waking life.  Using the Active Dreaming guidelines for playing with dreams invites joy and creativity into our every day lives, especially when friends use their loving imaginations on your behalf.  I'm grateful for the many gifts I've received through dreaming this way.

The Double Your Lifetime Theory of Dreaming

If I pay attention to my dreams, if they inform my waking and enliven my sleep, I live twice the lifetime of experiences.  Not only that, I live life with one foot in physical reality and the other in the spiritual worlds, if I so choose.

So many theories about dreaming are "psychological" only, they posit mental health reasons why dreams are beneficial, or why there are social advantages to following dreams, but they neglect what the indigenous ancestors of all people knew.  Dreams are real experiences.  We visit a dream world and those from the dream worlds visit us.

This doesn't preclude other empirically provable effects of paying attention to our dreaming life; dreams can reveal to us suppressed emotions and hold a mirror up to our ego as it navigates the many relationships of the physical world.  They definitely have psychological benefits, but I'm way more than meets the I.  This I is only one of the potentially many egos I've embodied on this physical plane, lifetimes ago.  Dreams invite me to consider all the possibilities of my experiences before and after death.  Growing research and literature in many contemporary fields such as physics, medicine and spirituality increasingly points to an awareness that the material world is not what it seems, that we outlive this physical existence in non-physical form.  We no longer have to give our heads to Science (material left brain logic) and our hearts to Religion (dogma based spirituality).  Dreaming is organic spirituality; it comes from within, as in "the kingdom of god" is within, as Jesus noted. It makes us our own spiritual authorities and encourages us to live a more involved, inner life, as well as a more informed and entertaining waking life.

We are spiritual beings here to experience a physical lifetime for some purpose to be discovered through living this lifetime.  What tempers the fear and insecurity inherent in finite physical existence is a knowing, that can come from listening to our dreams, that there is much more to experience than physical reality and that Love is paramount.  Love is the coin of eternal life.

This isn't to say that mystical, magical living involves material destitution.  But as all good witches and wizards know, intent is everything.  Putting all our intent on making it here has its hazards, as does putting it all in a spiritual existence that denigrates the physical, like the patriarchal male priesthoods do.  In the best ancient spiritual practices, it is always about balance.  Domination is a patriarchal invention.  The opposite of domination is balance, sharing and mutual respect.

If we think this is all there is, just as if we're afraid of what might be when we die, we miss the freedom from bullshit that living a life with awareness of waking and dreaming, ego and spirit, can give one.  There are so many great teachers out there right now, it behooves us all to learn to dream well so that we can accomplish what our best dreams urge us to do.

Active Dreaming, created by author and teacher extraordinaire, Robert Moss, is the most versatile and accessible dreaming practice I've encountered in my thirty plus years of studying and teaching dream "interpretation" theories and methods.  I've used it with children, teens, and adults of all ages. Some important aspects of this practice are: it protects the dreamers authority regarding what the dream means as well as the dreamers privacy; it's not therapy, but it can be incredibly therapeutic; it's an active approach, whole bodied and whole-hearted, drumming, singing and lots of laughter; it fuels creativity, it offers possibilities way beyond cerebral dualities; and one of my favorite reasons for using the tools of this practice to connect people to their dreaming is that Active Dreaming is accessible, simple, direct and clean of dogmatic baggage.  The dreamer learns to depend on her or himself for all aspects of dreaming, waking and in the dream worlds; I am only the guide till the dreamer finds "that in dreams, the soul has wings." (Robert Moss, in The Way of the Dreamer.)

The reason to double my lifetime by dreaming actively is that in reality, I'm connecting to my immortal lifeline.  In essence I learn to stop seeing this lifetime as a limited time only and to not fear death.  What I discover is that I chose to be here in this physical plane now, but I'm not alone or in peril of losing my soul.  I may be challenged, but I can't be defeated.  I am loved because the essence of all that is, is Love.  Love is the energy that fuels everything.  And no particular group has the answer to how to live my life; it's up to me to figure it out with the help of dream guidance. When I learn to trust my dreams and not fear them, I've opened the door to my spiritual existence and to the help I need to get through.  I've also expanded my life experience, no longer ignoring all that happens in the night, I benefit from far more choice than mere waking experience can give me.

If you'd like to hear a lively discussion of Active Dreaming for creative and expansive living, I have the pleasure of talking with Robert Moss on his international radio show, The Way of the Dreamer, October, 10/11/2016, noon to 1pm EST. 

The Inner Child

photo by Luba Rasine; The Sparkly Water

When I'm feeling inexplicably sad or the like, I look for my Inner Child to check on how she's doing.  I use the Active Dreaming technique of journeying to meet her in a familiar place, usually a dream place.

When I journeyed to meet her today, I was surprised and deeply re-assured to meet my wonderful friend, Bear, the huge grizzly that once scared the pajamas off me in a "nightmare." It also made sense, because as Robert Moss frequently points out, the Inner Child will often feel protected and comforted by large animal guides.

To begin with, I sat in silence with my feelings of sadness to see where they traced, and yes, my little girl was sad.  As often happens in dreams and journeys, the unexpected takes over and something real happens; I know it's real because it's so unexpected.  I witnessed her tears and bent to comfort her where she sat curled into herself, and that's when I felt the presence of Grizzly Bear from that long ago dream.  After that, I had flashing images of all the Black Bear guides that have been showing up in my dreams frequently over the past few years. Each image gave me huge comfort and a true sense of being loved and assisted. Finally, I saw this wonderful scene from a card I have by Hillary Bird; a little girl in a teepee with a bear, sitting crossed legged opposite each other, obviously deep in warm conversation, though they are depicted as silhouettes against the beautifully painted canvas of the tent glowing from within.

Relief from sadness flooded me, as it became my little girl in that teepee telling Bear all she was feeling.  She wasn't talking about past stuff alone, she was talking about what "I" was feeling now, she wasn't even talking to me, the observer/big sister.  My restlessness, lack of productivity and despondency were inexplicable to me, not at all caused by anything in my environment I couldn't fix; well, most of it anyway, (what I can't fix, I choose to accept in love).  Bear listened and Bear advised.  The shift I felt is comparable to leaving a great therapy session. I am so grateful.

The Inner Child has been on my mind for another reason, too. One student I'm working with has a clear image of a five year old self from a dream of that age; thus, she has a portal to genuine interaction with that aspect of herself and is exploring what she might learn developing this inner relationship. It's fun for me as a dream guide because I can readily identify with the experience of first connecting to my own five year old self through a dream and synchronicity experience 15 years apart.  I share that with you in Crocodile Friday.

What is the "Inner Child"?  To be objective, I did a quick search and got:

 "... a person's supposed original or true self, especially when regarded as damaged or concealed by negative childhood experiences."
 

"...inner child is our childlike aspect. It includes all that we learned and experienced as children, before puberty. The inner child denotes a semi-independent entity subordinate to the waking conscious mind." (my underline:-)

I know from my own studies and practice as a counselor, that there are many good psychological theories of the gifted/wounded inner child and its effects on our emotions, behavior and self-image. In my view, no theory around will give me a better insight into my own inner child than connecting with her, just as if I wished to reconnect with any friend or relative.  I'd make the effort to see and talk to them; to listen to how their life is going and catch up. 

One of the many gifts of a dream practice like Active Dreaming is that things go from the theoretical to the poignantly personal and experiential very quickly.  You're consciously exploring dreaming locales in a spirit, energy or imaginal body.  I don't think any amount of talking, Left brain, analysis or theorizing can yield such rich results so quickly. In my experience, genuine interaction flows from Right brain, creative approaches to engaging the dream character, symbol or place. 

In Robert Moss's wonderful book, "The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse" he writes:

We are at the center of all times. The dramas of lives being lived in other times and in parallel realities may be intensely relevant to understanding and navigating our current relationships and life issues.  We can learn to reach into those other lives to share gifts and lessons.  We can dialogue with our own older and younger selves within our present lifetimes.  We must entertain the spirits, starting with our very own - the child self, the inner artist, the passionate teen, the animal spirits the creative daimon.  p. 13.

One would think that we'd welcome our little girls and boys home to us with open arms, like we might do puppies or kittens, but I've noticed in my own and others' experience that there can be quite a bit of resistance.  Why is that? What sometimes comes up is a very judgmental adult ego self, one that will not let that little kid be flawed in any way, who might want to get away from that little child and who needs to learn love and compassion for that child before that "inner child" may agree to come home for a re-union.   This was a fascinating discovery for me, one that time and again, my dreams have assisted in clarifying.  Like all inner work, depending on the degree of trauma suffered in childhood, it may require wise, compassionate counseling to undertake in highly traumatic cases.

When I encounter in myself unwillingness to embrace an aspect of myself, especially a child aspect as she manifests, I want to face my own resistance.  If she won't talk to me, it's up to me to figure out what it will take to strengthen our bond, to make her comfortable with me and me with her, to "entertain" her.  I ask myself, what am I holding back? Am I judging this child for something?  Has this child's voice gotten overlaid by an older self, inhibited, saddened or repressed?  What I want to see is her smile, her joy, her bliss and the bond of our mutual love. After my journey to meet her, I went for a walk on the beach - with her.  One seagull was screaming as they do and part of me wondered how to understand its cry, what it's trying to say, until I saw my little imaginary companion hopping after it on one leg imitating its call.  What a lesson in child vs. adult nature that was!

She isn't just an imaginary aspect of myself dominated by my waking ego ("subordinate to the waking conscious mind"), she's as "real" as "I" am. In the Dreaming, all time is NOW.  Ignoring her distress, distress that is an undercurrent of my waking ego's feeling experience, is not only unkind, it's unwise. Our soul aspects in the inner world, perhaps what Jung meant by complexes, have a life and "mind" of their own. My relationship with my inner child is that, a relationship.  The illusion of being in control which the ego perpetuates becomes evident when, like in my case, sadness would out, regardless of my ego's effort to ignore or over-ride it.  "I" prefer a sunny disposition and a good sense of humor, so I was having none of this weepy child.  My little girl "Inner-Child" was demanding and directing my attention from my external, waking world to my ever-present inner world. The minute I relented and journeyed to meet her, I witnessed Bear come to her immediately and felt awed by Bear as I recognized again, Bear's numinous nature.  What a gift to me to be reminded of something so strengthening and powerful that I experienced in a dream long ago.

What my inner child is, is less important than who she is.  Who she is harbors some of who I am that I may want to reclaim now; plus, she may need me to feel totally loved and accepted again, as every child should feel.  One of the easiest ways to do that is through the portal of dream/play.

Remembering childhood dreams or dreams featuring little children, writing them down, drawing or using any creative expression to manifest the energy they contain for our waking life, can bring our little selves back to us, helping us each feel our genuine core of joy.  Dreams don't get old; they belong to a realm where time is irrelevant.  Exploring childhood dreams and memories as if they were dreams through Active Dreaming can open floodgates of creative and caring energy blocked, perhaps, by shutting out the little person we each once were.

Here's a toast from that magical poet of the inner child, Shel Silverstein, who crossed over in 1999:

“If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If you're a pretender come sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!”