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Umbilical Cords

I recently asked for some blog ideas, on our Facebook group the Medicine Wheel and Indigenous Dreaming.

Sometimes I draw a blank.

I was lucky enough to receive feedback from quite a few people. Thank you to everyone who keeps encouraging me to continue writing this blog. This time around I’m replying to Amanda’s question; but keep on reading because I’ll surely respond to the others in the following entries this month.

QUESTIONS:
Lisa, I've noticed that in the past couple of years, when I dream of you, there are always so many people around. The dream space is very crowded. It would be interesting to know how you stay connected to so many people. And how do you keep track of everyone?
Amanda

****
I quickly got inspired by Amanda’s question because it suggests that “dreaming is a lucid experience and that the people in our dreams aren’t just a figment of our imagination.”

I’ve been studying about dreams for a bit over a few decades. There are countless angles to the topic of dreaming. For example, we could explore dreaming from a scientific point of view and talk about the brain, REM sleep or neurological implications. We could speak of a psychoanalytical perspective and talk about Freud and how he approached dreaming as the secret archive of the subconscious. Then there’s Carl Jung who went out of his way to experience the dreaming first hand very similarly to our shamanic perspective and still, he carefully worded his understanding of dreams as an examination of archetypes. What about main society? It explores dreams as metaphors and looks into better understanding symbols in order to interpret dreams. Unless we are reading Urban Fantasy it is extremely rare to find discussions, articles or books written on the topic of dreams as “lucid experiences where the characters are not only real, but also lucidly inter-acting with us through our sleep.”

It all depends on YOUR experience of the Dream Time. Right?

I’ve had too many lucid dreaming experiences that were supported by incredible and phenomenal synchronicities and confirmations to doubt my perspective of the dreaming. In the end, it’s always about our personal story and what it teaches us!

One of my dreaming stories is actually related to Amanda. I took the time this week to ask Mandy permission before writing this blog entry despite the fact that she asked the question that inspired me to write this particular blog. All medicine in all stories is meant to be protected and preserved but every now and again there comes a story that surpasses other. I felt this was such a story.

Many years ago AH was pregnant with her second child and when it got close to delivery she found out that her baby had a severe case of spina bifida. AH explains in a recent e-mail that “spina bifida is when the skull of the baby doesn’t develop; the brain is exposed and being dissolved by amniotic fluid. Babies with this condition usually don’t live long enough to be born and if they do, they only survive for a few hours.” In AH’s case because of complications after the birth of her first born she was due to have a c-section for her second baby. When they found out that their second daughter had spina bifida AH and her husband had to decide if it was best to terminate the pregnancy. It was the hardest decision they ever had to make.

After the baby passed away, AH couldn’t get pregnant again. There was no medical reason for the infertility and so she decided to consult G and I. After G did some healing work on A, both GB and AH asked if I could journey into her dream space and see what was up!

Once in AH’s dream space I came across her little girl who appeared to me as a child about 5 or 6 years old.

She told me very categorically: “I was never meant to be born. I never agreed to incarnation. A is a wonderful mother; but it’s not my time or my destiny to be born now.”

Lacey explained that she was the guardian of this little boy who was definitely meant to be A’s second child. When I asked: “Where is this boy?” I was told that he was stuck in the World of the Dead and needed someone to guide him back to the World of the Living. Lacey said “she tried to get him to A but somehow hit a few limits.”

“I’m not a Keeper of the Dead,” Lacey explained “and so I can’t cross the waters or touch the shores of the World of the Dead where J still remains.”

I asked Lacey to show me where J was and she did. I followed her to the boundaries between worlds. One moment she was by my side and the other, she was gone. It was then, that I heard someone cry. Behind a bush, I came across a little boy between the age of 3 and 4 years old. I asked him if he was called “J.” He nodded and I took his hand. I guided him to a canoe and then, paddled us both back to the shore across the river. Lacey was incredibly happy to see J. She hugged him fiercely and kept thanking me. She told him that he needed to follow me back to AH and that she would always watch over him.

When I woke up from the dream and shared it with everyone. I couldn’t tell at first what A, her mother and G were thinking but I figured it would take some time to assimilate the information. Suddenly, GB, A’s mom and A decided to leave our home abruptly. They packed their suitcases in very little time and even though it was a bit after noon they were both determined to drive back home to N.B. that same day. I was worried at first.
Were they offended by the dream? I

I was soon told that it was quite the opposite. They knew after listening to my dream that they needed to complete a ritual before the full moon and there was no time to loose. AH explained that after the death of her daughter she had brought the umbilical cord to the sacred sites of the living. After listening to the dreaming she knew she had to bring Lacey to the sacred sites of the dead… She needed to help her complete her journey now. GB and AH explained how the sacred sites were divided by water just like in the dream. I had no way of knowing this…

I’m always impressed with how much knowledge the dreaming shares with me and luckily, most of it can be still be confirmed in some shape or form. There are still elders, Medicine People, teachers, Shamans or Sorcerers who can confirm the information that I receive from the dreaming. I hope there’s always a way to connect the realities and to make them “real”. If not – then maybe one day the dream time will only be a figment of our imagination…

I once I told A some children need 90 years to live a life time and others need only 9 months. One way or the other they still do what they need to do and get to where they need to get. There’s what society understands as reality and then, there’s the dreaming and how it reveals all kinds of different levels of reality. It’s all about experience and belief in the end.

As soon as A returned home she got pregnant again and 10 months later had a beautiful baby boy. Obviously, Lacey needed ME, a Keeper of the Dead to get J off the shores of the dead and onto the shores of the living. The are a few amazing points to this story but what amazes me the most is how even our actions in the dreaming have an impact on our daily, waking reality. For example, J ended up being born exactly on my birthday and we discovered soon in his early childhood that he had inherited my abilities to see the dead! I’m always incredibly fascinated with how much dreaming is crucial to living.

In response to A’s question: “How do I stay connected to people?”
I think that it’s often beyond ME. I’ve noticed that I have umbilical cords that are connected to ancestral stories, totemic realities, and are about purpose and path. I think in the end, it’s all about FAMILY. We somehow connect to people who are attached somehow to our “inner feathered serpent” (DNA). I believe that science has only touched the surface when it comes to this topic because from a dream time point of view – we are all connected somehow and when we discover how, it’s always an incredible feeling and it triggers a deep awareness that is sometimes beyond words.

As for keeping track of everyone, it’s never something that I do consciously. It seems that time and space connects me to the people I need to connect to and when I’ve done what was asked of me, it simply moves to the next and the next. Lets put it this way: “I’m never alone and I’m always busy.” What I find difficult is having to convince people that “it’s their time and that the dreaming is there fully to help them grow, learn and heal.” Resistance and denial – can have me feeling lonely and can reduce dream characters to pure imagination when in truth they are living and breathing people in our World.

It’s possible to trust the word of dreamers and dreamers can do incredible things. It can be a challenge to get dreamers to work functionally with their talents and to be accurate and un-bias with their messages or interpretations. Discipline is a big word these days and most don’t like it. It can be frustrating at times to be reduced to superficial definitions of the dreaming. I spend a lot of time in the dream time and do connect to lots of people in this realm. I’m always happy when the characters become friends, family and community in the waking. It’s hard to forget the people who recognize me and my talents. Those people are etched not only in the archives of my mind but the archives of my heart and soul.

I hope A – that I answered your question.

Comments

Lili said…
OMG....what an amazing blog entry Lisa...i felt that i witnessed all you shared with the dream. SO may thanks to AH too for allowing you to share this story,,,simply incredible.
I would love to become more disciplined to be able to help others in this way.
LOVE and GRATITUDE
Michelle said…
I hope to recognize the lessons in the dreaming Okawho and ensure I am living out the dreaming message....Thank you AH for your story its beautiful and definitely holds alot of wisdom! Discipline is defintely a theme that is coming up lately.
Thank you this blog has answered alot of questions that have come up in our home this last while in relation to the dreaming and its meaning in our lives.....

Love Michelle
Emily said…
LOVE this.

Thank you.
Rose said…
I too love this story, thank you so much for sharing it!
Anonymous said…
Hi Lisa, I love your sharings here, thank you! You take us all on the journey of understanding with you all in the same boat each with thier own paddles. :) It's the clarity of expression I love. Can't wait to read more of you, I love your voice. Loves, Deb
Anonymous said…
Lisa, one other thing, it's time to update how long you've been teaching the dreaming. You taught me directly for about 17 years and back then you said you'd been teaching 15 years.

That was back when I met you on Shaman's cave in 1992!

Loves, Deb
Lisa F. Tardiff said…
LOL Debbie,

15 years seems easy enough to say.
Maybe I should start saying 20 years.... move up by 5.
LOL I guess some of you are starting to count the years.

I guess I'm getting old.
LOL

LISA
Anonymous said…
Uh oh, If you're getting old, what does that make me? :P Loves, Deb

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