Tag: dreams

Free Bird, Fly

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Dreams, Gaia & Elementals, Memoir, ReflectionsLeave a comment

The lyrics of Lynyrd Skynyrd filtered through my dream ruminations as I walked the dogs  earlier this morning. Often, spirit spends me messages through songs. They are a blunt, yet kind reminders of the crux of my present state.

Last night I dreamed I was in an elevator. After the doors were closed and the button was pushed, I found myself drifting swiftly towards the ceiling until I hovered there alone. Everyone else’s feet were grounded as the elevator moved towards its destination. I panicked, asking someone to pull me down. Finally, the bellhop grabbed my legs and pulled me to the floor. When my feet were back on level ground, I searched my wallet for a tip. Intending initially to give him 2, 1 dollar bills, I pulled out a 5 instead. In her book, The Hidden Power of Dreams, Denise Linn writes that the number 5 is often indicative of freedom, “the number of the free soul, of excitement, and of change.” It is “self-emancipating.” (p. 206)

The messages from spirit could not be more clear. A week ago I saw Eagle during meditation. After flying freely through the heavens, Eagle landed upon a large, white oval egg. As I watched, this symbol of freedom and the egg it clutched between its talons, it rotated upon the air as though upon an invisible pedestal. “What do you wish to tell me,” I asked. Eagle replied, “I am incubating you until you are ready to hatch out.”

When I asked my guides to bring me to the under-world for healing, I found myself on a pond with my palms turned up to the heavens. Beneath me I was sitting on a pink lotus flower, its petals in full bloom. I was Sarasvati, her energy pouring through my palms. A large, healthy fish swam around me, leaping through the surface like a dolphin.

I have a dear friend in Savannah, Georgia. My friend is a transplant of the south, having grown up in the northeast. In the south she often finds herself the outsider. She is not only a writer, she is a mom and an environmental activist. We share these traits. While I have always shirked from confrontation though, my friend shines when she is “agitating the pot.” Her powerful, beautiful soul shines through in these moments when she stands, often alone, amongst the masses to voice her thoughts regarding perceived injustices. She was an instrumental force in shutting down a polluting power plant near her home. The victory resulted in the clearing of her son’s asthma. My friend is a testament to the power of the spirit. I find her power inspirational.

Often, it takes me long periods of bubbling silence until I finally reach the point of action. The water in the pot, nearly, if not already, boiling over. I have yet to achieve comfort in standing alone – in hovering above the crowds, secure in my wisdom. There are times though, when our souls call us to action; when silence is not the path to peace. Like my friend, I am often called to act when a situation not only concerns my own health (I mean this on a soul and physical level), but the health of my family. I have to trust that sometimes my vision extends beyond those around me, to the seat of the soul. This is a sometimes troubling “gift” I have had since childhood. When I was young and opened my mouth to speak my truth, I was silenced. The same fear holds me like an invisible noose.

The challenge for many of us, I suspect, is learning to speak with compassion and conviction. Oppressors of individual freedom most often have no idea that they are oppressors, as they exist within their own environments of fear. When we oppress others, our souls are crying out for our own freedom, yet our shadow selves will often take over and use “power” or physical force to silence those around us. Often those who are silenced are the souls who have been victimized many times in the past (or in traumatic past lives that they are still recovering from). They are easy targets.

The oppressors in my life have often been people I love deeply, making it exponentially more difficult to confront them and remove myself and my family from their toxic energy.  Sometimes their true souls shine through in the white light of love, but too often they are crippled within the darkness of pain. My efforts to “heal” them with love fail, as I learn it is not my path to change theirs. Yet, people must not compromise individual health and the health of their children, spouses, etc, by allowing a toxic relationship to occur. Even if we cannot shine a light of mutual understanding on these circumstances, we must have the courage to break free while still within the place of love.

The Weight of Water

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Gaia & Elementals, MemoirLeave a comment

The weight of my mother rests inside my chest. Last night, in dream, I saw her face as it once was, young and full of beauty. Inside her blue eyes there was the light of hope and understanding. My urgent words had started breaking down a barrier and through its thinned walls I could see the beauty of her soul. I wonder does she know that we all hold pain within our bodies, but each of us has the will to set it free?

Later, I walked through a land covered in blue-gray. A still water rose with my steps, covering the earth. Together, the water and I reached a transformer station, where electrical energy is caged behind wires before it is sent to our homes. I wondered what would happen when we all met: water, electricity and me. What would my body do with the surge of power?

When I was Two #memoir #dreams #animalmessengers

On By Alethea KehasIn Animal Messengers, Dreams, MemoirLeave a comment

When I was two-years-old, my mother left my father. She took me and my sister with her, fleeing without a note of where we could be found. It was just the three of us and a duffle bag filled with our belongings. For six months, we went from one Hare Krishnas commune, to another. The first was in Seattle, then, when my mother caught wind of my father searching for us, she headed south to California. Our final stop was West Virginia, where the “Palace of Gold” was being built. My mother, when I have asked her about this time, of which I have only muted memories of landscapes stored, does not like to share our experiences in hiding.

When children are two-years-old they are learning language in the form of voice; they are learning how to control their bodies; they are learning independence.

My first clear memory was formed when I was two. It is not of a time when I was with the Hare Krishnas, but occurred just after our return.  Growing up I would sometimes replay the movie inside my head, wondering if it was an artifact of a nightmare. A few years ago I discovered this memory was created out of an actual event.

In my memory I am sitting on my Grammy’s blue and white checked sofa with my sister and our older cousin. My cousin is in the middle, reading us a picture book. Above our heads hangs my favorite print, “The Fairy Tale” by Sir Walter Ferle. The three little girls in the print could almost be us, but instead of frozen in happiness, I am frozen in a scene of terror. Outside the room I can hear the voices of my mother and my father. I imagine my mother running across the halls of Grammy’s house, my father chasing after her. I imagine he catches her and she falls. I imagine he hurts her. I want to run and save her, but I am frozen on the sofa.

The details of my memory are not a complete match of the events, which were, in part, created inside my two-yr-old imagination. This, in many ways, is irrelevant. What matters is what my mind and body decided to retain.

Last night, I dreamt I was hanging from a large boulder at the edge of a forest. Below me was a steep decline leading to the forest floor. If I looked down I could see trees through the twilight, and in between the trees I could see animals. In my dream I was wearing only a shirt, naked from the waist down.

As I clung to the boulder with my two hands, a bear appeared above me, standing on my rock. The bear was large, but not immense, with dark brown fur. The face of the bear was so close to my own, that we were peering into each other’s eyes. In that moment I knew I should be afraid, in fact there were people above me on the lawn warning me to be careful. Instead, I felt my heart open to the place of love, willing the heart of the bear to open in return. She was there to teach me something, and I wanted to learn.

Below the bear I saw her two cubs, playing among the trees. A spotted cat (a panther or a leopard), which passed nearby me while its family playing among the trees. According to Ted Andrews, Bear teaches us to go inside and find the source of our inner power and the source our dormant creation. Panther/leopard/jaguar, is symbolic of the dark, female power. Moon energy. In his book, Animal Speak, Andrews writes “…longstanding wounds will finally begin to heal, and with the healing will come a reclaiming of power that was lost at the time of wounding.” (p. 227) According to Andrews, Panther is a symbol of rebirth, “Those things of childhood and beyond that created suffering, and which caused a loss of innate power and creativity are about to be awakened, confronted and transmuted.” (p. 299)

Don’t forget your dreams.

Clot, a poem

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, PoemsLeave a comment

This morning I awoke still breathing the emotions of my dreams. In my last dream, the one I remember, I was stuffing clutter in the form of clothing and food into suitcases and bags with my family as we attempted to move our belongs out of a house. I subscribe to the dream symbolism of house as a metaphor for our bodies or an aspect of ourselves that needs attention. Clearly there is much more I am trying to purge (recall yesterday’s meditation blog).  Not coincidentally I listened to a Denise Linn replay this morning where she spoke about our dream state and how it can be used for healing (ourselves and others). I decided to pull out a poem I wrote awhile ago on this topic.

Clot

You may find your dreams
caught in your breath

Tangled inside the inhale
you forget to let them go

A snare of regret grows
covered with thorns

Each prick points to a bleed

If you follow the red trail
you will arrive at the clot

A muddy pool colored with a past
in need of thinning

Beyond flows a stream
that will slacken thirst

Remember first to empty
your cup

 

One Down

On By Alethea KehasIn Energy Healing2 Comments

Today I crossed off #14 on my List to the Universe. It was my most recently added item: “Alethea has a turquoise necklace like the one in her dream.” Yesterday a good friend gave me that necklace, along with a pair of matching earrings. I was deeply touched by her act of friendship.

About a month ago I saw myself during my dream state wearing a beautiful necklace draped with stones of turquoise. It was the only image of the dream (at least remembered), this magnificent necklace around my throat.

Throat, I realized later was the take away message. About a week after my dream I was sitting in class listening to my instructor talk about crystals and stones and how they can relate to and work with the chakra points on our body. When she got to the fifth chakra, the throat, she introduced us to turquoise.  As you might have guessed, a light-bulb clicked on. I had been given another way to work on that throat chakra.

Within a week of hearing about my experience, my friend Rachel made me a necklace much like the one in my dream. The stones, the color of robins’ eggs or a cloudless sky, now surround my neck, nudging me to create; to crack open the imagination and let new life take flight.

Thank you Rachel for your wonderful gift!

Rebirth

On By Alethea KehasIn Dreams, Energy HealingLeave a comment

Some people believe that the year 2012 is the end of the world. When the Mayan calendar ends in December, so will our world. A belief seeped in fear. But, the foundation holds truth. Spiritual leaders throughout our world speak also of this year as an ending. The ending though, is a shedding of old beliefs that drag us down; a shattering of the structure of our individual and societal foundations, so that we may rebuild and evolve at a faster, higher vibration. It includes every being on this planet, as well as the planet itself.

This upheaval is palpable. You have only to open your door, or your newspaper, to see it. You have only to open your heart.

Over the past year, in particular, I have begun to explore the seat of my spirit, my heart chakra. When I first stepped into my heart chakra through meditation I tried to design this sacred place with my mind. I’m a writer. I wanted color, texture, characters. I thought it must be green, like the energy it harbors, verdant with the elements of the natural world. It was fun to play with…but it wasn’t real.

Today, when I stepped into my heart chakra while listening to Jennifer McClean’s 1/12/12 Prayer Circle replay, http://www.mcleanmasterworks.com, I allowed my inner sight to open to my surroundings, resisting the impulse to paint my room. I saw red. I saw flesh. I saw a womb. This, I realized, was the image that comes to me first when I visit. My sacred place of birth and rebirth. My heart as a womb. It was not grand, but it was perfect, for me.

Later today I received an email from a dear friend of mine; a fellow writer/poet; an artist. She wrote to me about waking from a dream where I appeared with her and another friend of ours. It matters only to her that I was there and our other friend, as most often, characters in dreams are facets of ourselves. In my friend’s dream she drove to my home, which appeared to her as an old, red brick building in need of some TLC on the outside. When she walked inside though, wearing her bright red sweater, my friend saw warmth and texture, plants and more colors, including red. She saw me holding an infant I had just bathed.

You may notice, as I am observing with myself, that your thoughts and life events will eerily spread and seek connection, through no conscious effort of your own this year. Two days ago I was sitting at a pub in New London, NH, eating lunch with a dear friend, another fellow writer, the other woman in my friend’s dream. We spoke about the upheavals in our lives, we spoke about seeking roots to ground us back to the earth so that we could make sense of, and work through our chaos, and we spoke of the pains of our past. Red. Root chakra issues that had blocked our other energy centers.

My lunch companion was reopening her heart chakra, and in doing so, giving balance to the more masculine energies that had ruled her adult life. This was her fortress of protection, wrapped around her heart, from feeling unloved and unwanted as a child. For weeks she had been crying, releasing the dam and allowing the female side to find space. She was learning out how to love without fear. I couldn’t help but think of the 10 of Cups card I had drawn for her  a year ago in December, as well as the World card. Through her pain, I could see her destination of becoming whole. I was witnessing a part of her rebirth.

A year ago I had also done a tarot spread for my friend who shared her dream from last night. Her destination card had been Judgement. Literally, in the Rider/Waite tarot deck,  the card of awakening to new life. Rebirth. The baby, recently bathed in her dream. Self-babtism. Only she knows how she will evolve.

Later, during my meditation with the prayer circle, after I explored my heart chakra, I took a journey through my own body. I looked for the blocks, those shadows that shun the light. The shadows are always on my right, including my brain.  I played with the possibility of light and watched what it would bring for me. A landscape opened before me, textured by gentle hills. I stood tall upon one, ready to climb the next. I was so tall, I almost doubted the vision. I almost laughed. How could I be this giant who had conquered fear? Still I let it play out, and watched as I crested the next hill and took flight. My body found its form, naked, it became light. From my back I sprouted wings.

Letting Go

On By Alethea KehasIn DreamsLeave a comment

When I was in the fifth grade I had a dream that I was falling. I awoke in the early hours of the morning to the sound of my voice calling for my parents. My jaw was twisted out of shape from the impact of diving head-first into the pine floor of my bedroom from the four-foot height of my bunk-bed. Blood was already filling my mouth from the hole my tooth had left under my bottom lip. My fear of falling off my home-made bunk bed without a railing had been realized.

Last night I had a two dreams that I can remember. In the first I was walking through a foreign city in asia with my daughter. The streets were crowded with buildings and street vendors. We found ourselves passing a tall building with many stories, and stopped in awe to observe the people who lived there. Outside the large windows that faced our side of the street, instead of balconies, there were beds. As my daughter and I watched, the inhabitants of the apartments within the building were in various states of getting in and out of their beds, which were all double-sized, canopied and attached to their windows, but without any sort of railings to prevent their occupants from careening out of their sides onto the street below. I was captivated by the scene. How did they not fall? Why did they not fear?

In my second dream, I found myself inside my maternal grandmother’s apartment. I had just gone shopping for her and was unloading bags of groceries in the kitchen when my ten-year deceased grandfather appeared at her kitchen table. Instead of taking on the age he was when he died, he appeared to be in his twenties and looked like a cross between his own son and my nephew. We had a long conversation while I tried to assemble a salad.  I asked my grandfather why he was still hanging around my grandmother’s house after ten years. He seemed unaware that he could let go, and he wanted to be there for his wife who didn’t want to let him go.

The scene within the dream switched to my grandmother weeping. Still, after ten years, my grandmother was incapacitated by her grief for her deceased husband, crying on the cushions of her sofa. She was clearly holding on. I found her vulnerability frustrating. I wanted to shake her back to life. Instead, I told her it was time for her to dance. And, literally, as I watched my grandfather leave the table, my grandmother, in the other room, started dancing back into herself. Her face filled with joy, her body moved to a music all her own.

I have learned through my study of dreams that the characters we dream about our manifestations of ourselves. Yesterday, I had listened to a World Puja Network broadcast by Pippa Merivale. For more about Pippa, go to http://www.metatronic-life.com/. Pippa channels the angel Metatron, and during this broadcast the focus was on the New Year and cellular cleansing. Pippa spoke of the memories and experiences the cells in our bodies hold onto, sometimes focusing into pain within specific points in our bodies. I know where mine is held, most likely, you do as well. As Pippa said, there is no need to ignore these “shadows,” and, in fact, we should not deny their presence. What we can do though is free the trapped pains, cleanse our cells and give them a chance to renew.

So, I ask you, as I did myself, what are you holding onto? What is trapped within you that seeks the light of recognition? In this New Year, why not offer your body the chance to let go, renew, and dance into all the possibilities of your spirit?