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Impressions.


Every day G and I walk the dogs around the neighbourhood.  I love looking at homes.  There are beautiful homes in many of the cities around and within the Montreal area.  Actually, no matter where you go on the planet – it’s interesting to explore people, their stories, and the places they live in. 

Often when I speak about dreaming I mention the importance of “impressions.” In our modern society we often depend on sight to dictate what we observe and understand of our environment and ourselves.  Too many people actually believe they can’t dream if they can’t perceive pictures in their minds as they sleep.  My students are always somewhat surprised when we spend the better half of a year working on developing our senses including the 6th sense.  The notion of “impressions” is crucially important in the journey of an indigenous dreamer.

Before we even begin to explore “night dreams” and what they may mean, we have to practice the skill of observation and identify how our personal bodies (emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and energetic) relate to internal and external realities. 

I’ve often spoken of Shamanism as an intimate experience of nature and the stars; but what does that mean exactly?

Many years ago I had a discussion on “phenomenon” with two of my physicians at the Hospital.  They said that even though most doctors depend on a scientific perspective the notion of “phenomenon” is not unfamiliar territory.  For example an Oncologist once explained to me how rare spontaneous healing actually is; but in his career he was blessed enough to have seen it twice. Gynaecologists will agree that a great percentage of babies are born on a Full Moon.  I’ve spoken to physicians who tend the emergency ward and they’ve admitted that there are often clusters of people with the same ailments who appear as if some days or evenings are more prone to heart patients or cancer patients or broken bones.  As far as the scientific experts can attest: Who or what decides these miracles is still a mystery.  Yet, from a Shamanic point of view it shows how inter-related we are to natural and cosmological realities. 

When I was growing up my mother would often say it was normal to get tired during the Fall season.  The same way that it was normal to be sad on rainy days.  “Normal” implied that it was a given.  When my children were growing up they too would frequently ask questions about “impressions” they picked up off of seasons or the weather.  At the time since I was learning how to be more disciplined as a dreamer, I decided to emphasize these impressions by connecting them to stories.

Basically if you sit long enough with an impression it will grow into a story.  Kids are fabulous at doing this.  They aren’t programmed with feelings, thoughts and opinions like adults are.  Even before they have enough vocabulary to adequately share their stories they can convey incredible scenes accompanied by sounds and body movements.  At age 2 – CT could already correctly predict storms just by the sound the wind made through the leaves.  In the house, CT would often throw the empty plastic diaper pail over his head and march around; bumping against walls; and rolling on the ground. 

He would giggle and tell us: “It’s just like a thunder storm.” 

It was with the help of my children that I was able to understand the concept of “impressions and their stories;” and how they connect to the art of dreaming.  It took me a few decades of exploring my own impressions and their stories to finally become conscious of my own inner world.  We all react and understand life from different perspectives.  Self-discovery in my experience is much more then about psychology. 

If you want to truly connect to your basic nature you need to be open to it without judgment and expectation. 

Everyone wants to be accepted and loved.  For most people this means approaching others with a smile; being willing to be generous, polite, and respectful; and having a friendly attitude.  Yet, as we all know it takes more then a recipe of kindness to belong.  If you’re not genuine, confident, and capable of listening and sharing intimate parts of yourself most relationships will end almost as soon as they started.  What’s sad is that too many of today’s relationships are focused on filling holes or fears rather then building a strong future with others.

When we start learning about “totems” we often gravitate around animals we either love or hate.  I remember dreaming about wolves when I was a toddler.  I knew really nothing about the animal and yet, felt a strong kinship to it.  The strongest impression that I had about the Wolf was that of a growl.  For over 40 years I’ve explored this totem from different empirical perspectives; but I can fairly say that its connection to me is no doubt through its growl.

I need to growl to find balance and to feel whole; at the same time, I’ve come to understand that the people in my life respect and even seek out my growl as if it brings in their life some kind of balance and wholeness.  Every impression reveals a story that is crucial to explore, experience and understand.  Not only does it reveal parts of us; part of our Wheel / our personal story; but it also speaks of how we relate to the World and where we fit in it. 

Dreaming is a journey of impressions rather then a world of pictures.  This isn’t to say that “we shouldn’t look forward to what we see in our dreams;” but it does imply that there’s more to dreaming then the shapes and forms on the canvas. 

Pay attention to the vibes! 

Comments

Lili said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lili said…
LOVE your latest blog Lisa,
So many things you share are similar to what I have shared today with a friend...The cosmological world we live in and how I believe we are inter related to it...
My dreams of you the past few nights, straight forward and telling me to share certain things with you, which I will, were good, great even(...in the sense that no interpretation was needed and no figuring out necessary as to what they were saying.)
Yet one part was leaving me curious last night, the images and actions in the dream seemed out of character of how I usually dream with you and then I sat with the impressions and realised that I was feeling and seeing the energy of the WOLF. Because you had been in human form it didnt quite click, until I recalled you speaking about impressions...

Great synchronicity for me. Love your blog. THANK YOU xxxx
LOVE
Leanne xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Michelle said…
I am looking at totemic impressions with my kids two of them were at eachother yesturday and I got this long winded phone call on my way home from work..There was remorse from both of them getting in eachothers face and losing their tempers and I said Deal with it this is not my issue I hung up the phone and resisted the urge to jump in and play devils advocate or argue and nag.
When I got home I asked them how they dealt with it...it was interesting to hear them talk because I listened and looked at their body language. I told them to get on all fours and tell their story. They were laughing at first but as they talked about what they did and how it made them feel I saw them in animal form. I was smiling and I asked them how they felt on all fours they said kind of silly but I said in animal form you two are communicateing, when you get up in eachothers faces you are losing your temper not steping back and explaining what you need. we all eneded up on the floor talking about how to better communicate but I am seeing us more of a pack. I want to see the impressions I notice them also in the hospital when I visit my mother in law. Patients in the hospital stare at me as I walk in, I see a spark in their eyes and then almost saddness when they see I am not there to visit them. I wave at them and say hi when I walk past but it does give me a sense of saddness because I feel their lonely. Great Blog Lisa Thank you.
Unknown said…
Interesting how we all here picked up on the same themes. I was thinking about impressions and totems the past few days. I wanted to be more aware of what I sense and feel... as well as looking at myself and others from a totemic perspective.

Cool!

MaryRose
Wind Watcher said…
As a massage therapist, I have experienced the phenomenon of having a day packed full of clients with the same issues. This can go on for weeks...one day it will be people with right hip and low back pain, the next it will be everyone having headaches and neck tension. I have noticed that this seems to come and go in cycles, although I am not certain how long they last. I'm not surprised that emergency rooms also experience this sort of thing. There are days when what I am feeling in my body is what I draw to me to work on...and days when my clients complaints have nothing to do with mine. I'm sure there is a pattern in there somewhere, but I can't see it yet.
- WW
Lisa F. Tardiff said…
Loved your comments.
Thank you for taking the time to write.
It's great to hear that many of you are seeing some compatibility between my blog entries and your personal experience.
Great stuff.

LISA

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