Prelude… In preparation for our time together, Glenna asks each of us to write a bit in answer to the question: Who do I say I am? The first line of my writing boldly states that I am a dreamer of vivid dreams… The last line of my writing closes with: The dream goes ever on…
In one particularly startling dream recently, a teacher gives me a newspaper and asks me to read it aloud. Something mysterious occurs… My eyes take in the jagged reports of war and terror yet when I speak, a cascade of flowing poetry disclosing great beauty leaves my mouth and a nearly overwhelming sense of well being fills my heart. I seem to radiate light and I feel a strength flow through me that emanates from something much greater than myself… Smiling mischievously the teacher asks me what I am doing. “I am building the body of an ancestor.” The reply is made not in my voice, but rather issues forth from a Deeper Dreamer than my awareness normally encompasses. The clarity and conviction of the words and the resonant depth of this voice speaking through me carries with it a sense of awakening inside the dream itself. In the mornings since, I often ponder what it means to build the body of an ancestor… During our time together I will share this dream and this question with the circle.
…It is first evening of our Presence Walkabout. Five of us gather in a circle to string the beads speaking our intentions aloud as we each add a bead to the necklace. Among the intentions spoken is that of stepping out of Linear Time and entering into the Dreamtime, into Cyclical and Symbolic Time, to work with the energies that create and sustain the patterns that show up in, yet transcend time and space. Or, as Blake might say: to work with the love of eternity for the benefit of time’s productions.
Day Five. We are sitting in a clearing near the Pecos River. The sun is warm and a cooling breeze dances among the branches overhead. Our circle of five has grown close in these days. Our weaving together includes the threads that each of us is carrying from the deep stillness of Plaza Blanca, the mysterious teachings of the petroglyphs at Tsankawi ruins, the delicious living thread of water that is the Rio Grande and the spiraling personal inquiries from inside the labyrinths we’ve walked. We read aloud from a book containing a message from the ancestors. Our voices weave together a rich tapestry of recalled meaning that exists independently of our conception of time, yet filters into the consciousness of any age where Sacred Inquiry is engaged. We are captivated by the story we are weaving and telling…
…Grandmother speaks: “You must remember your Sacred Dream.” These words rouse the Deeper Dreamer within and evoke memories belonging to both past and future. A familiar stirring rumbles somewhere in my unconscious as images of untrammeled forests and pristine waters float to the surface of my awareness. Then a huge wave of recognition: Our Sacred Dream is inextricably woven with and tied up in the living fabric of the Earth. Could it be the task of those of us who are now alive to restore the balance and breathe life once more into this Sacred Dream for future generations? I sense the Deeper Dreamer at work, slowly building a bridge between the question of “How do I build the body of an ancestor?” and the instruction to: Remember together our Sacred Dream.
Day Eight: The final council circle… We have been in silence for some time when Glenna asks me to frame an inquiry for the final exploration of our time together. Moments before I had been pondering the instruction to remember our Scared Dream, so it is not long before a question forms in my mind. However, while it feels like the right frame, the phrasing is awkward. I speak it aloud and ask for help refining it. After a little help from the others present we arrive at the following:
How are we weaving together the remembrance of our Sacred Dream?
More silence follows as we listen individually and collectively to what this question stirs within the container of our circle. Slowly we speak to what is arising… Images, images are the language of dreams and they seem to be key to creating a record of our work together. It is agreed that we need to use words and images to record, remember and renew our time together before we part ways. I am relieved that words no longer need carry the entire burden of recalling our journey. We have fine artists in our midst and words and images can join in a dance that will be richer together than either one alone.
While Sarah and the others commence work on a mural of images, I turn my attention to the task of crafting words that might convey some meaning worth carrying forth as we prepare to leave the Dreamtime and return to the routines of daily life… I search for words that will address the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, intuitive and physical aspects of our time together. At first I try to write in my journal, but I have become so accustomed to word processing that I ask Glenna if I can use her computer. After a fitful start I tune into a stream of flowing meaning located above, behind and to the left of the usual center of thinking in my brain, almost as though listening to a remote voice…
…We are present now at the turning of the tide… The patterns of six thousand years of patriarchy are giving way to new forms of matristic unfolding. The Great Mother is marrying the Great Father and their Sacred Marriage is becoming embodied in men and women alike as they recall and create a future worth living. It is a time of both great peril and great promise.
The work we do in this council may not be known by future generations, but its importance to their existence can not be underestimated. Our work is the work of Sacred Remembering… The fruits of our labors transcend time and space as we reweave the fabric of life itself.
Our Sacred Dream is ever-renewing and as old as life itself… It awakens in us as we Remember All Our Relations… It binds us with the thread of life as it unspools from ancestors to relations to descendants. It guides our future, refining our discernment, increasing our choices, reminding us of our response-ability to create a loving, living future for our descendants by aligning our will, both individually and collectively in service to the Great Will of the Land and of Will of The Great Spirit.
Dwell upon these images from the past and make them part of our future…
We will walk once again in Beauty upon a life-giving land that brings forth nourishment that sustains and delights body, soul and spirit.
We will drink once more sweet water free from poisons and toxins.
We will breathe once again air free from the noxious fumes of industry, perfumed instead with the fragrance of flowers and trees.
We will know and demonstrate once again the meaning of respect for the four-leggeds, the wingeds, the crawlers and the swimmers, by granting them their rightful place in the web of life and ensuring that our ways of being are in harmony with theirs.
We will know once again that a good life will directly connect us to seven generations:
Great-grandparents
Grandparents
Parents
Siblings
Children
Grandchildren
Great-grandchildren.
And with this newly recalled yet ancient knowledge we will take our places around the Medicine Wheel and we will revive and practice the Sacred Art of Council. We will be mindful that our decisions affect all seven generations and we will work to honor the gifts and sacrifices of those who have gone before, while ensuring the well being of those here now and preserving and creating the conditions that will gladden and make thankful the hearts and bodies of those who will come after us. We will act with the knowledge that we who are in the middle have a Sacred response-ability for the well being and continuation of the whole.
We will remember once more that a living, growing culture will honor many different types of knowledge and that each tribe has specific gifts that when shared freely and honored rightly can lead us to a more wholesome remembrance of our Sacred Dream as we jointly mend the Great Hoop of Life.
We will preserve the wild places where the profound mysteries of nature can renew our bodies and restore our souls when we have fallen out of balance.
We will celebrate and give thanks to The Great Spirit, The Origin of All That Is and to the multiple Manifestations of Beingness in many tongues and in many ways, secure in the knowledge that each person’s understanding and participation is unique and sacred.
And we will remember that no one way can ever be the way to Wholeness for all peoples. We will remember The Whole is Ever-Unfolding, uncontainable and filled with Mystery Beyond Knowing, but which offers clues to the attentive on how to learn from the Mystery. We will remember and honor that there will always be paths open to some that are hidden from others. We will remember and honor that some paths are more meandering than others in arriving at Wholeness. And we will remember and honor that some paths leads to death and others to life, and to teach our children how to discern which is which.
We will listen deeply to the Directions and sing into being both old and new songs for the healing of ourselves, our relations and the Sacred Wholeness of All.
And it is through the Remembering of Our Sacred Dream that we will remake the dying world of today into a living world of tomorrow which our children’s children will thank us for preserving.
And the dream goes ever on…
Ho!
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