Spirit Guide Group: Dreams, Volume Three

Elnor said:

I am in what seems to be a small antique/junk shop- my Tarot cards are on a low shelf where I've put them for safe-keeping; when I go to get them my cousin says that the box they are in is too grand for me- I can see the box is half-opened with the silk that my cards are kept wrapped in is trailing out of the box, (which is carved wood).

I open the box to find that my cousin has taken my cards and replaced them with another deck which is horrible- I shout at him to give me back my cards, and throw the imposter deck in his face.

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To me, this suggests that you are not comfortable being completely open about your beliefs with those around you. (neither do I!) The low shelf is out of the way, put under other things and hidden away where its safe. Yet you cherish them in a silk scarf and in a carved box. Basically you don't exactly hide your beliefs but you feel uncomfortable about sharing them openly with those close to you.

Elnor said:

My mum and dad say it's not surprising he's not giving me back my cards- they make me feel it's my fault for being 'bossy'(!!) and then we are in the car at a petrol station- my sister is putting petrol in the car while I am scattering rock salt out of the window, trying to get it in a circular formation, (and trying not to let my parents see what I'm doing) while asking the four quarters to help me get my Tarot cards back.

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A bit of insecurity here which is entirely normal - we all have a bit of that hidden in the background somewhere. Your sister must represent an aspect of yourself that you perhaps admire. She is putting fuel in your car or basically fueling your journey. Perhaps what you feel she represents is the way you need to tackle this problem ie, the fuel you need to help you on your path is part of what this person represents to you.

Its certainly an interesting dream which seems to be telling you to find the balance between understanding the views of those close to you and your own beliefs.

Hope this helps

A bit of Background:
As some of you might know I gained a fair bit of weight in a few months last year - around 15kg in all - I'm not overweight but I used to be skinny/slim and now I'm normal/2kgs too much. I'm unhappy because my mother repeatedly told me I should go a dietist and I started to feel guilty about food. I tried to release this - but especially when I'm late at night in bed I feel uncomfortable due to my stomach combined with my sleeping position. And the weight is all pure fat - making my fat percentage too high.
I can't exercise yet - I stopped my fitness - since I have to do medical revalidation soon. But I don't know the date it will start.

I went on a Dream Journey with a Spiritual Teacher. I started meditating on a private Healing Space I made a few months back. I then gently drifted asleep and my Spiritual Teacher told me I'd get some information on that tummy that annoyed me.

Main Dream
I dreamt that an Alien has entered my house. I owned a big white sparkly house. I am terribly afraid of him. He looks like an Obsidian Warrior, Tall and Black. I flee before him.

While Dreaming and knowing I'm dreaming I suddenly remember that this is a familiar dream setting. I remember the other dreams

Dream 1: Alien Invasion
I dream that the Alien has invaded my house for the first time. There is a Calender on the wall. I'm terrified.

Dream 2: Rest
I see the Alien resting laying in bed in my House. Even inert in the bed I qam afraid of him. I remember hearing the time being announced as 12.00.

Dream 3: Daughter
I know I have kidnapped his daughter. I put her in part of the house with a weapon trained upon her. I know I feel this is a wrong thing to do, but I am too afraid. I leave her there, whispering my apologies.

The Main Dream continues
I remember the duaghter but am unwilling to go back to her. I see myself as a woman and suddenly a man is also there. I tell him part of what was written is not correct: specifically the word 'snitched' indicates that the aliens have control over this other person who wrote it. It was not in the normal language set of that person. The man acknowledges my skills as a reporter/journalist.

Suddenly my dreamscene shifts. My lover is standing near my bed telling me that he brought food and he was sorry I was so sick. I wake up - although I know I'm still dreaming. I stand up and say: "Italian" as well as some other words I can't remember. His fater suddenly walks up the stairs and sees me. He laughs, my hair is stuck between my glasses and my face. His father transforms into my Guide, who moves forward to remove it.

It seems my weight problem has to do mainly with fear - fear that seems to be induced by what happened. The dream sequence of invasion/rest seems to indicate my Radioactive Iodine treatment, while the daughter sequence seems to indicate that I hold hostage part of myself in an effort to stay this 'monster'.
The Calendar and Time both seem to indicate that in time, things will work out and I notice that, but fear it won't happen.
I love Italian food, but haven't eaten it much since my mother has told me repeatedly it's fattening and I shouldn't eat it...

A Further Commentary on the Roman Way

My wife Lynn and I discussed this dream in some detail as it applies to our separate and collective journeys. With her permission, I can say that the way of the ascetic, using the religious vehicles of either priesthood or monastic life, was at one time Lynn's aspiration, although either would have been inappropriate for her, the vivacious Magician. In recent months she has realized that her path indeed passes through the downtown core, in service as an ordained deacon of the church, bringing the heaven's love to earth - "as above so below". As you may have guessed, my path is that of the Hermit and teacher. Life is of course not quite so simple, and we are the most effective when we partake of cyclic experiences in many different roles and modes of consciousness. But nonetheless these two paths provide our foundational focus.

Talking through this dream brought us a great sense of harmony, and a new level of understanding and respect between us. The souls of a Magician and a Hermit, like our shadow/personality energies of the Sun and the Moon, are complementary and thus highly holistic.

Perhaps you may wonder how I continue to have at least a nominal affiliation with a church that has contributed to such inner repression and tormented grief. A choice always needs to be made between working within a system or working outside of it. The fact is that within duality, we are always working within some system or another that is at odds with that fundamental sense of rightness, truth and love that we were born with. Unless all the members of this community could be bodily transported together to some idyllic and self-contained island paradise, it remains a question of deciding which structures you will decide to work within - and lovingly subvert.

More on the Orgy

Milfoil said:

This is an amazing series of dreams David.

This last one being very pertinent to the way many of us here on Aeclectic think. It doesn't seem to matter about the lineage or religious background of a person, only that we can all learn in openness and freedom.

The few conservatives who did complain about this liberal freedom of information suggests the tiny doubt that many of us still have in the back of our minds. We embrace the new freedom but still there's that doubt that we may have thrown away the very structure we need to keep it all in place. I think those conservative voices will always be there, they have to be to remind us of what was and for the need for structure.

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Yes, I agree absolutely. The challenge is to make that form or structure work towards growth, rather than to stagnate it. It is yet another illustration of the wine in the chalice, of how creative love implies and requires the containment of form. In the orgy dream, structure was implicit, and the festival was well organized. Participants were expected to be involved seriously in the sacred rituals, to actually learn how to dance, or to sing, or to drum. This was not an entertainment, but a experiential activity.

In the perennial dynamic between change and form, a related challenge consists of balancing responsibility to the collective (Piscean ethics) with individual freedom (Aquarian values). This is one that I believe that the ATF, as led by its moderators, has maintained very well.

Since I first logged my response, I note that this dream foreshadowed my experience of the Deva Premal and Mitten concert, the very next day. It was indeed an orgy in its original sense of ecstasic transformation through joyous artistic participation.

The UFO in America

October 6, 2006

In the first remembered dream of the night, I am reading about an incident that happened perhaps twenty years ago in a small American village, the type clustered along a minor highway in small strip of shops and public buildings. Two brothers had a remarkable encounter with a UFO. The brothers, Jim and Tom, now begin to relive this event, and the dream's point of view switches to that of Jim. In some unknown way, we know that a UFO sighting is going to occur this evening, although we don't quite know where. I walk out of town along the highway in an easterly direction, passing through wheat and corn fields on either side. After going for a short way, I begin to head back. Tom has done the same, going in a westerly direction out of town, and then returning.

I know that I will now see intense beams of coloured light descending for the UFOs, since I am reliving the original occurrence. But just before this happens the dream ends.

This dream is associated with a symbolic America, which recent events have caused me to associate with an atmosphere of religious and political intolerance and persecution. The flashback format suggests the reprocessing and integration of a previous event. Jim is my father's name, but also my middle name, and that of James of Chiron the inner Hermit and self-sacrificial Healer. This is James in an immature aspect, and thus his name is modified to a form more usually used by children. The only Tom that is significant to me is my Reiki guide, Thomas. We both pass beyond the safe and familiar into the fertile fields of the countryside to encounter the alien descent. The downcoming energy will be extremely beautiful, powerful and energizing. This may represent my initial encounter with the Sky Father as represented through Christianity in my early twenties.

This was an encounter with the purity of uplifting Crown energy, but later distorted by rigid, dogmatic and patriarchal Christian fundamentalism. The time has come to revisit this source, and breathe in its pristine light and glory. I have felt that the work of the last month has been energized by an infusion of Crown energy, drawn down by consistent work at the Root and to a lesser extent the Sacral, and I see this energy dynamic continuing.

The Rising Damp

October 6, 2006

In the second dream of the night, I am a small child in England. The bedroom I am sleeping in has a nasty green mold growing in the wall behind the head of my bed. This mold is sentient is some way and evil. I show the two girls, family members, that I am sharing my room with. They do not have this mold near each of their beds, but the room is quite gloomy and shabby. I know that nothing can really be done about this mold, I have seen it in the basement or cellar below and it permeates the structure of the building. It will not be long until it reaches the girls' beds too. The phrase "rising damp" comes to mind.

The scene switches and I am now an adult, talking to some male members of the Mafia, Italians in dark suits. We seem know each other, although we are not really friends. At the end of each work day, I normally stop off at the public baths, then drop by to see them for some reason. I know that I am not myself a criminal.

Then I decide to learn Italian, and when I next drop by following the trip to the bath house, I am talking in Italian to a balding Mafiosi on his front porch. We are now getting along very well. Then I sense that he is about to get shot, although I do not hear or see anything with my normal senses. Even though I may be mistaken and feel quite stupid, I push him to the floor, and just at that moment a bullet passes over our heads. I have saved his life. Clearly we are now going to be lifetime friends.

A voice says, "Construct a tomb for them, a place for the mold where they will be happy". The scene has switched to a graveyard, and I have made them a comfortable white marble crypt in the grassy ground. The dream ends.

Commentary on the Rising Damp

The "rising damp", a colourful British expression, suggests the watery energy of Sacral dualism, but a dynamic movement and libidinous energy corrupted within the abusive atmosphere of childhood. First affected is the fragile, immature and ultimately self-destructive masculine ego, then - with their masculine guardian invalidated and eventually co-opted - the feminine components of the inner psychic family are also infected by this creeping contagion.

Now the dream shifts to again encounter Sophie's relations, the Mafiosi that I have recently seen as representing the repressive and abusive aspects of Imperial Christianity. The public baths suggest Roman or Turkish baths, places of encounter with feminine revitalizing energy in a collective but contained sense. A Piscean image, but not of the free ocean, but one heavily constrained by form. This could represent the buried dynamic of goddess energy that lies dormant in exoteric Christianity.

During last week's Deva Premal and Miten concert, Miten - speaking frankly from the heart as he did throughout the event - talked of embracing all that you are, including those parts for which you are ashamed, that you think of as bad or evil. This dream represents that kind of healing outreach within the psyche, to those components that represent the repressive fundamentalist ego of the past, he that suppressed Sophie and the divine feminine. This is the slimy old man, the internalization of my father, and the rising damp of the soul's infection.

During Centering Meditation at the Wisdom School Retreat in September of last year, Sophie appeared at the grave of her abuser in mourning. I joined her in tears, accepting in compassion and love he whom I once was. In the intervening time, my understanding of this inner self-destructive force has grown, so that it no longer an object of fear or hate that I would wish to deny and destroy, so that now I even know its language, motivations and purpose. Using the inner instincts of Sophie's intuition, I save even this part of the psyche from self-destruction. But the role of these inner vampires has become obsolete, their energy draining activities are being put to rest in a white crypt where they will do no harm. Their existence continues safely tucked away in a remote corner of the psyche, to remain a reference much like that of gravity, to become a gift that is a part of being real and rooted, and actively compassionate.

Invoking Water

October 7, 2006

In an earlier dream I visualize my new riqq and am told that it will be a vehicle of integration at all chakral levels. Its circular form is seen as a symbol of inclusivity, cyclic growth and transformation, like the progression of the Moon. A voice of undetermined gender says that there is important work to be done at the Sacral level. The dream ends.

I have had similar dreams of the bodhrán. The voice of unknown or neutral gender usually indicates a message from unitive consciousness, that could be defined as the High Self, a term I am not particularly comfortable with since it may imply that dualistic consciousness is in some way inferior - perhaps "Unitive Self" is a more positive term. This message is a little surprising, since the particular gift of the tambourine is its affinity with the Air energy of the Heart Chakra.

However, in the DVD tutorial for the riqq last night I discovered that the playing of a convincing open low note or dum on an instrument that is only 8-1/2" diameter is somewhat of a challenge. Actually there was the same challenge with the bodhrán initially also, even though it is substantially larger at 18" in diameter - it is very easy to over-resonate an undampened drum so that it has that distinctive garbage can sound! Dum on any frame drum invokes the energy of Water: it would seem that there will be a continuing focus on Sacral healing before tackling the Solar Plexus and Heart.

The Rebirthing

October 7, 2006

After I woke from the dream of the riqq, I asked for more information on the UFO dream. I received this answer in the following dream:

A space craft carrying a mixed group of colonists of various ages had departed for an unknown world. But after leaving earth orbit there was some kind of disaster. All the adults and most of the children had been wiped out, but some female babies and infants had survived. Not only had they survived, but in some mysterious way they had grown up in the course of three weeks so that they were now fully functional and well adapted adults. A scientific investigation is being conducted, and these nine young women are being interviewed. But one of them is missing, completing some important work. A woman whom I recognize as Sophie is either unwilling or unable to explain how this miraculous development has happened, but it is expected that the missing woman will be able to explain more clearly.

The scene switches to the project that the missing woman has been working on. As a fund raising event for the church, she has built a connected system of three large plastic drain pipes that are large enough for even adults to crawl through. These pipes are assembled on the deck of the trailer, and the first pipe is fairly steep, used to climb up from the ground. At the end of the second pipe there is a woman called Mandala who is there to give the climbers some encouragement. Just in front of Mandala is a bag that you can drop your money in, and then you continue through the last pipe, level with the deck of the trailer, to the exit onto the deck.

This activity is particularly popular with children, who will ask their parents for money to use as a donation, to take part in the tubular journey. At this point the dream ego's point of view shifts to that of a young Sophie as she makes her way through the pipes. When I reach Mandala, she does not appear as I remember her at all, but has long curly blonde hair like Pallas. She is however very nice, and it is a lot of fun to drop the money in the bag.

As I crawl out of the last pipe, a woman called Analytica says, "After Sophie's journey of transformation she leaves the tubes, ready to go attend Christ Community Church". The last phrase is said with light sarcasm, as is typical of Analytica.

The scene and point of view shifts again. As David, I am now journeying across Prince Rupert to visit this project. The town is separated into two. There is a good highway going across the top, but to make your way across at the lower level you formerly had to make your way through a narrow road that twisted among railroad tracks at the water's edge. I was wanting to travel from the lower-middle left to the lower-middle right where the project was. But I find that a new road has been constructed across the waterfront that now makes travel easy between the two sides.

I drive across in the red Subaru and park near the project, but lower down and further right. I meet two men, workers in well-used somewhat mucky coveralls, who are also glad of this new road for it saves them a lot of time in getting things done. I start to walk up the street with them. The dream ends.

Commentary on the Rebirthing

The space craft and UFO of the earlier dream seem to be related images. The UFO seems to suggest the descent of Crown energy, seen as alien to egoic consciousness. The journey into space, with the early disaster, suggests Sophie's abortive attempts at Aquarian ascent. But although appearing to be disastrous, some important work has transpired through some esoteric magic, perhaps associated in some way with "the missing woman" who appears to be fully conscious of the transformation. The missing woman could be Eirian or Lady Death, but I am not certain of either.

The magical maturation of the nine immature feminine aspects of the self over the course of three weeks or so seems to indicate this current dream cycle that started just before the Full Moon in Pisces and continues now under the Full Moon in Aries. It is likely that there will now be a shift in emphasis from Piscean integration to Arian individuation, and a consequent shift from Sacral to Solar Plexus healing.

The number nine is that of transformation through withdrawal and contemplation, as embodied in the Hermit. But these nine feminine aspects also suggest nine entities within the psyche. I count only eight feminine constellations, of which several have been encountered only rarely. That leaves the identity of "the missing woman" a particular mystery.

Two names have been changed to protect the identities of real people who appeared in the dream in symbolic roles. These substitute names were received intuitively. "Mandala" represents the integrative healer who facilitated the shadow work I participated in at least twelve years ago. She now works as a pastor, and she has always related to children, as well as adults, in a very respectful way. Her appearance in the form of Pallas suggests to me that the integrative work of the inner drummer will have specific healing and maturing gifts for Sophie.

"Analytica" represents a female colleague who does indeed love to gather facts and analyse things, often with a degree of irony. The church mentioned would certainly not welcome Sophie as an active participant. The adult Sophie works in close communion with Inu her brother who is the analytical inner Magician. Sophie will often speak for this analytical-intuitive process, providing key information on dreams and other experiential imagery. I believe that the persona of Analytica was substituted for the adult Sophie-Inu so that there would be no confusion between her role and the child Sophie who had just crawled through the pipes.

This phase of the dream, the project, seems to refer to the initial healing work having occurred through Christian ministry, but in a hidden or esoteric aspect, one deeply feminine and integrative, a rebirthing through the fallopian tubes and birth canal of the universal soul. The encounter with Pallas could in fact be seen as occurring at the moment of sexual conception, which one might view as the event horizon of incarnation. But more generally this moment refers to an integrative awakening and an empowerment. The material burdens are at this point dropped like unneeded money into a bag. Sophie was activated by this shadow healing, but held in bondage by Christian conservatism for at least a decade longer - rebirthed, but then imprisoned.

This interpretation of the dream refers to the past, but I believe the present is equally important, that Sophie is again rebirthing, achieving a higher and more balanced form of empowerment. Birthing and rebirthing are both uncomfortable processes, and it is no wonder that Sophie's card of the week was the Queen of Cups Rx. That inversion could even be conceived of as that of a baby preparing for delivery.

The new road that has appeared across the waterfront seems quite specific to me, a mark of the healing at the Sacral level that has allowed a new path of integration. No longer does left/right brained energy and consciousness have to travel through the upper chakras to achieve a crossover, or pass through the somewhat indirect way of the Root. I note that this Sacral healing was felt as a tangible gift in my recent experience of the Deva Premal and Mitten concert. The centre of duality itself has become an open pathway. This route is inaugurated by that now familiar vehicle of transformation through egoic sacrifice, the red Subaru.

Now the male workers in the right side (left brained) portion of the body have also been empowered, and I cannot help but think of the new awakening and strength in the right arm that is caused by at least an hour's daily practice on the bodhrán. There was indeed a Monday over a month ago when I woke up and found that every last muscle in my right arm was sore, right from the finger tips to the shoulders. This was clearly related to intensive bodhrán work on the weekend, as if a sleeping giant had awoken. That high level of fatigue has never been repeated.