My book, Corn Woman Sings: A Medicine Woman’s Dream Map; 2008, gives more details about dreaming and how it can be helpful to you as a Curandera/Medicine Woman/Artist/Mystic. I also describe the process of defining your destiny and how it will bring Sacred Gifts to help on your earth’s journey.
Creativity is a topic dear to my heart, especially in discussing how dreams can help expand it. Therefore, I will begin by paying particular attention to the area of Destiny and how it relates to our creativity. The point of dreaming is to discover your destiny, and implement the sacred gifts that are given you. So, let’s begin with Destiny. What is it? how can we discover it?
But first, a very brief word about dreaming because so many hints and clues as to one’s destiny are revealed in our dreams. There are many states of consciousness within dreams, and destiny is just one important facet you will find in dreams–time travel, shape shifting, discovering other realities–to name just a few . For now, let’s begin by noticing our breath as we go to sleep, go into our dreams consciously (by noticing your breath) and observing what’s going on. If it helps, imagine a small flame as the center of a lotus blossom, and simply observe the flame, and notice how your consciousness is changing. There may different sensations throughout your body as you enter deeper levels of awareness.
In the morning, it will help if you write your dreams down, and observe the feelings and sensations that accompany the images you received during the night. Perhaps you have been practicing awareness in dreaming already, and can jump right into exploration of images that are related to your destiny and gifts you have.
“El Destino” is talked about frequently in my Chicana culture, and a strong belief prevails that destiny is decided by God, and is best left untouhed without judgment of how it may present itself in our lives–the death of a loved one that leaves us bereft in the world, lonely or lost. But, it is always something that is intended to make us a better person and to benefit us in shaping our lives. In my research, I found a connection to these beliefs that experiences are set into our lives that determine our destiny in The Creation Stories of the Popol Vuh which tell us that the Lord of Duality in the twelfth heaven detrmines our destiny when the child is placed in the womb.
There were other factors that entered into this belief: Another is that Destiny is so strong that it anticipates your move and can prevent you from doing something that is not part of your fate; or, it can cause you to move toward a certain experience that will have enduring consequences that were intended for you only.
Even though it may seem that there is no personal choice, Destiny is elusive and not so easily revealed. We have to dig for it to uncover the creativity that is given us to develop for the benefit of human kind. We are not just born with the dictates of Destiny, we are born with talents unique to our path, and the community participates in helping us discover the path toward our appointment with it.
I can’t actually say how it will be for you, but your creativity is expanded by taking note of a dream that reverberates within you and leaves you with a specific instruction or question. I have one dream where Grandmother, my most significant dream guide, meets me at the Empire State Building in New York. I press the button for the elevator, and take it to a woman’s office who is a writer. My feet sink into the rich dark red carpet, and while I wait to meet the author, I look through the books on her shelves. I find that I’ve written three or four books. When I am called into the writer’s office, I see that she is working on the galleys of her current book, and has a stack of others already written. When I come back down the elevator, Grandmother asks me, “Have you done what you’re supposed to do?” I intuit she is asking me if I’ve begun working on my first book. But, in the morning when I write the dream down, I ask myself, “What book?” Over the years I received further instructions that sent me into the social services field, and from there came the inspiration and direction. It seemed ludicrous at the time, but I just followed directions. I am working on my second book now. That’s why it’s important to be alert to the signals and impulses in your dreams.
I had this dream in 1982. In 1995, I received further instruction from the Elders, another group of dream guides, in 2001 I completed the formal investigation, and my first book got published in 2008. In between there were so many twists and turns in the road, it would make you car sick.
In the next segments, we will explore this topic into greater detail. We’ll examine another paradigm, how to interpret major events that impact our path with destiny. The instincts that propel us in our dreams are solid information; heed the signs. Until then, tread lightly upon the earth and be happy.
Abrazos/hugs, Ellie