Several nights ago I had a dream in which a phychic offered me a reading about my past lives. She only glanced at me before announcing that I had caused suffering for others, apparently able to do so because I did not have feelings for their misery. I'm sure most of us think we were the ones being killed and sacrificed in the mayhem of ancient cultures--but what if we were the ones wielding the sword and the knife?
How do we believe our dreams about past lives? What signals their truth in our waking moments? Jeremy Taylor teaches about the Aha! moment in dream reflection, the sensation of feeling rather than knowing the truth about a dream's meaning or symbolism. Robert Moss suggests returning to the location and feeling of a dream image in order to re-enter its story with conscious intent. Certainly when I woke from this dream my feelings told me there was something to pay attention to in the psychic's appraisal.
I went into my dreams the next night asking for help about what to do next with this knowing. I received a dream in which one of my meditation teachers appears and asks me to his house for dinner. Once there I meet other people as I pass from room to room, moving ever deeper into the spaces of the house. Since this teacher was himself a student of Ken McLeod, who has written much about releasing karmic patterns, I believe this dream is giving me a clear next step to begin a meditation practice specific to this topic.
I also drew a Journey Oracle card, asking what the Oracle had to tell me and show me of my beginning focus in this work of karmic repair. I saw card # 34, which represents this time of year: the autumn equinox. The phrase Called to witness feels very strong. The image seems to really be seeing me, not as I would like to appear but as I really am. I understand that I must truly witness the pain of others in order to begin to connect with my own.
