Chicana Dreamer

A masculine figure shows up in my dreams from time to time with brilliant spiritual as well as practical suggestions on how to live my life. I first saw him in a dream in 1982, or so. He was somewhere in the universe–not like at a cafe, or a house, or office–just him hovering in space. He wore a beautiful zarape or poncho with geometric lines in blue-gray against a warm beige background. He didn’t say anything. He just threw me a thought form as though playing ball with me, and I caught it in my left hand. He revealed to me a secret of life. More important than anything else, he loves me unconditionally, and as my relationship with him has developed over the years, I’ve come to treasure his presence and the wisdom of his messages. He is the inspiration behind the workshop, Dancing with the Cosmic Lover,” I am presenting with Diana Marto on January 28, 2012. If you will turn to the Events Page for the details, you will see the essence of the topic of discussion and how it applies to developing your intentions for this New Year.

The intent of the workshop is to clarify what individual participants desire, and to plant the suggestion in the unconscious so that it can go about gathering the elements it needs to manifest what’s desired. We’ll create a symbol of the desired intention, and give it power and punch with guided imagery and Reiki healing energy.

The mind does not distinguish between what you think of others from what you think of yourself. In the vast pool of thoughts and feelings, there is only ONE. There is no “I” only, “they,” “them,” “you.” Only ONE, or only “One I.” Therefore, we must take caution in any thoughts we have. Period. Whatever thoughts we have of others, the subconscious takes it literally and thinks you are talking about yourself. It has no sense of humor, either. It takes you seriously on everything you say and think. Trust is very important. For, if we fear something in someone else, we hold the same fear in our body.  Daily practice of Yoga helps in letting go; exercise helps, walking, fresh air, running along the beach. Have a program and work on it every day as part of your spiritual practice.

Spirituality is where Truth Resides. In order to go beyond the mundane, we need a relationship with Spirit, and input from something bigger, beyond our own thinking. Therefore, whatever you learned from your family, take what you like and leave the rest. But, find something that resonates for you about spiritual values and beliefs about Spirit. There is tremendous healing in sharing our thoughts with someone or in a group.

We become what we believe. It takes time, it’s subtle. Our mind is like a garden, if we don’t want to have a tremendous overgrown mess, we must work on it every day. Clear out resentments, fears, rage, chronic negative thought patterns that weaken our resolve toward the things we aspire, such as being a source for healing in the community, family, work place. This requires belief in the unity of the Universe; Doing a Creative Expression that requires concentration and daily practice is also very helpful, art, music, dance; Spiritual Direction-trust in at least one other person who can help us hold to our values and Integrity; Psychotherapy can help us develop the willingness to look at our weaknesses and become the person we’d like to be; Trust is a vital component in Spirituality–the willingness at least.

Creative Expression. This is what people see and form beliefs about you. Create a platform and develop your Sacred Gifts on which you can stand and share with the world.

Career: Licenses, Certificates, Associations matter. Be congruent with your values. Don’t worry about competition. But, stand firm on what you have to offer.

Love: We need to be surrounded by people who love and trust us and who we love and trust. Today, this moment, it begins with Self Love. If we can have patience and tenderness toward those little annoying nit-picking thoughts that plague us throughout the day, then we can extend love to those that depend on us for steady support and encouragement.

It’s best to do this in a committed, open group.

These are precepts I have come to believe in matter in life. I haven’t lived them in a straight line. I’ve made tons of mistakes, of course. I’ve gathered these beliefs and values over the years from studying and reading about religions around the world and my Mexican culture. They have been tried and trusted ingredients throughout the ages.

As you think of your goals, wants, and needs list for 2012, remember that we can always tell Spirit what we would like, we can clear out the debris that stands in the way of attaining our goals, and wait for the results from Spirit. Visit the events page and call me to reserve a spot for you. Space is somewhat limited. I know there’s a lot of money laying around the house after the Holidays . Invest in yourself–you deserve it, and you are worth it. Let’s have fun, and play with serious matters.

Above the Abyss

Let’s continue to plummet to the depths, where we make conscious decisions and fly in the face of beauty without regard to danger or annihilation. This week, continuing our discussion of the Meeting the Feminine Within Dream Circle, we’re examining the work of Artist Gary Politzer, who blogs at Dream Departure. Gary has been keeping a dream journal for over forty years. As an artist, he has the distinction of being able to visually represent what he sees in his nightly adventures into the Unknown, and his dreams are rich in pictorial imagery. Gary designed and developed the Chicana Dreamer website and has been webmaster since the beginning in 2001. Gary’s website, also designed by him, has a dreamy quality to the background in which he presents his dreams. You can visit his website to have the added perspective of his work.

In the previous post discussion centered on Diana Marto’s dream Ashaia Speaks that wove in and out of her creative life over the years. This week, we examine a theme that resounds throughout Gary’s dreamscape. An aspect that strikes me about Gary’s spiritual/dream life is that of “being carried.” I’m referring to his blog entries for Hanging Crow (January, 2009), An Heroic Rescue (September, 2009), and I Will Carry You (June, 2010). This discussion addresses the theme of being guided compassionately in our dreams.

Hanging Crow

I’ll begin with Gary’s dream Hanging Crow, (January 25, 2009). The entry refers to a dream of November, 1996, during a time when his father was in the early stages of transitioning from this life to the next. During this time, Father and Son were finally becoming true friends, and Gary was on the brink of the deepest depression of his life. Gary shows a sketch of a dog carrying a crow hanging from a hook. It’s very easy to get lost in imagery, so I will just adhere to the “concrete” image Dog carrying Crow on a hook. In the Dream Circle, we would talk about the symbolism of Dog who carries the hook and Crow, Crow, and the hook. In Native traditions, our four-legged relatives play a vital role in our spiritual lives, and in our dreams, we witness them as aspects of the Creator.

An Heroic Rescue

The second image of Gary’s “being carried,” is seen in the dream An Heroic Rescue, (September 28, 2009) which surfaces in the king’s delicate descent into the abyss in his hazardous rescue of the Feminine. Even Gary is uncertain of the origins of the carrier of the box going into danger. But, there is something that is carrying the king in this treacherous mission. He succeeds, lives to tell the saga of the great rescue, and celebrates his success. This dream is rich with imagery of a greater consciousness in operation.

The third example of the theme shows up in the spontaneous vision Gary has the following morning after a late-night Photoshop session on the Eagle (I Will Carry You, June 30, 2010). While driving through the green hills of Marin County on his way to Petaluma. Gary finds himself on the Eagle’s shoulder.
The Eagle looks Gary in the eye and tells him, “Don’t be afraid. I will carry you across the abyss.” In Native Dream Traditions, the Eagle can grant Gifts of Power to the seeker. I also see this as a promise of protection and and guidance. The message is very direct and to the point: “I will carry you across the abyss.”

The appearance of this theme has at least a fifteen year span. In the depths of his being, there is a Power that has been showing Gary the way, guiding, prompting, encouraging and supporting. I don’t dare begin speculating what the internal work has been for Gary, but he has managed to clear out emotional and psychological debris that has resulted in his being able to gather his resources, restructure his view of life, recommit to his art and return to life a new man in mind, body, and spirit. Naturally, the “voice” or “carrier,” continues to bring him closer to his destiny. Imagine the power offered by this depth of experience. He’s ready to bring his deepest messages from the soul for everyone to witness and be witnessed by.

Navigating the depths is no easy feat, but one can do it in the company of others on this vast and heroic journey called Life. Slowly and cautiously, we accept that we have been privy to the secrets of the Universe and quietly bless the world with our Sacred Gifts. In our Meeting the Feminine Within Dream Circle, we seek Freedom.

In last week’s post, I committed to continue the discussion on how Dream Awareness helps us garner power and clarity for our creative and spiritual aspirations, which we will be examining in the new series of Meeting the Feminine which begins on September 9, 2011. This article features one dream Artist Diana Marto had in 1986, which serves as a beautiful example of the way dreams can weave in and out of consciousness over time, while subtly impacting our lives and creativity.

Ashaia Speaks Dream: I am walking through an airport with a roll of paper on my shoulder.–

As we worked through this dream a couple of days later, Diana and I sat in my apartment at the corner of California and Laguna in San Francisco facing each other sitting on the tan suede sectional. I asked her, “What does the roll of paper feel like?” Sometimes we just have short snippets of a dream to work with, but that can be enough. She went back in time and thought about the work she had begun in 1981.

For this article, I spoke with Diana by telephone to refresh our memories, and she gave more background about her life related to the dream: “In 1981, I was traveling between Hong Kong, Kyoto, and San Francisco, when my work with paper was just beginning.” She said. “At the time I was living in Japan, and was greatly influenced by the culture, particularly, Shinto Ceremonies I’d seen in mountainside villages above Kyoto.”

Upheaval, End Game

“The actual roll of paper was literally eight feet high, a powerful symbol in my hands. I created performances unraveling huge rolls of paper. “Be the Bird that Soars in Your Dreams, is my first Canto in the epic ‘Spirit Plays with Paper and Dance,’ which I performed in Kyoto, Hong Kong, Big Sur, and Duxbury Beach in Massachusetts.

“In Hong Kong on a mountainside I danced all over the paper, which then took on the impressions of the early morning dew of wild flowers, soft pinks, yellows, and pale grasses before the rainy season arrived. It looked like a Chinese landscape brush painting.” Later works of papermaking show the influence of these impressions.

“I would make immense sculptural shapes like magical birds which I arranged in gardens. I then became part of the garden dancing in light white silk fabrics that gracefully waved in the breeze, caressing the sculptures. In one performance piece, I carried a huge piece of paper that the wind ripped, which then came to symbolize the wing of the ‘Soaring Bird.’

“The roll of paper in the 1986 dream conveyed a vibrant message about continuation, and hope. At the time, I had just moved back to the Bay Area. My husband John had died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. My life was in ashes, but this dream brought a new light to my work and my life. I felt an acknowledgment and affirmation of my art. I felt that it was telling me, ‘Don’t give up; Don’t stop.’”

Diana took the dream to heart. Since the first Canto, She has presented sacred ceremonies in Capetown, Catal Hoyuck, Turkey, a neolithic archeological site where the Mother Goddess was worshipped, and locations in the United States. Now, some twenty-five years later, she has completed Canto XXI.

“Today, when I begin new projects or prepare for performances, the message still lingers and the Spirit World continues to whisper to me, supporting, and enlivening my creative expressions. Not having children, the dream has helped me stave off mortality and find a way to be remembered. Over the years, the dream has woven in and out of my awareness assuring me I’m on the right path; that I’m not just a consumer, but that I am giving back to life; it has given me a gift to leave future generations, an important way to contribute to human awareness.”

The image of Diana’s walking through an airport with a roll of paper could easily have been overlooked. At the time, she thought it was simply a replay of her life before her husband passed on. But, as time has shown, with the attention she paid to the dream, it continues to guide her art, providing a container of safety for her life–I’d say this dream was a life saver for her.

Diana’s Dream is an exquisite example of how we will examine our dreams in our upcoming Dream Circle. It doesn’t have to be a Big Dream; it may be, on further examination, but what’s important is to examine these images and glean from them the subtle or quiet promptings from within. We are all artists of our life, and we all dream. We bring the dream out from behind the curtain, and the Feminine does the rest.

From my dream journals

12-14-10 – Dream
I’m staying at a house like a dormitory and there is a playful atmosphere, though we are taking care of serious matters in our lives. I find myself at the top of a ladder unable to get myself down. I’m frightened, I’m high off the ground. I see a friend, a white man, who reaches up to me to kiss me, and I tell him to help me down. “Will you wait until I make it down?” I ask him. He nods happily, slowly and carefully letting the ladder tip forward and holds on to me until I reach bottom.

Notes:
I’ve been looking for information on the Anasazi and looking at pictures of their kivas. There was one picture that shows the roof of a kiva with two holes and two ladders for getting down into it.

12-16-10 – Notes:
I’m stunned at the realization that the Anasazi are amongst us. I remember hearing about them in the 60’s in an anthropology class I took at City College. It was a ho-hum class for me then. Cliff Dwellers- as though they had clawed their way into the mountainside and were a primitive people.

Through the internet, I’m finding that they thrived for a millennium, built complex cities with running water, cultural centers for worship, building complexes of 200-700 rooms, farming communities, and a highway network that connected over 1000 cities throughout the Southwest. These cities were planned and then built over several centuries. How they managed to do the planning and then carry it out over the generations is an interesting question to pause on. But I imagine it was like everything else in oral culture, passed to the next generation precisely as it was received. Of course, then there was no “Southwest,” but there have been some connections found in the linguistic patterns of the Nahua (Aztecs) amongst the Navaho, Pueblo and other descendants of the Bird People as the Anasazi were called.

In an early dream I had where I am learning to fly, my father pushes me off the top of a ladder and I sail into the air, freeze into the pose of a dead horse, and am rescued by a gentle Native American man who flies up from ground level. Then, there are these visits with the Elders in kivas.

It is because of my connection to the Elders in my dreams that I have my first book. It was they who rattled my memory and helped me put the story together. Now, they are telling me to write about the Aztec migration from somewhere “en el norte” to the Valley of Anahuac, and it’s interesting how that story is unfolding.

The reason the Anasazi are important and finding the connection between the linguistic patterns of the Aztec and the cultures of the North American Southwest, is that identity plays into this. Our identity tells us who we are, where we come from, who our people are. For people who have been colonized and then brainwashed against the very blood that flows through them, it’s important to question and challenge the assumptions of what’s been passed on. More on identity later.

Chew on identity and what it tells you about who you are.
Sweet dreams,
Ellie

I’ve been off air for a while; taking a writing class and grieving the death of a close friend. Having the blog makes me conscious of where I put my time and what I consider important. In the meantime my friend from Dream Departure set up the video on the home page of Chicana Dreamer. Click on this entry to view Dreams, Sacred Gifts and Artists as Mystics.