Meaning of a party in a dream

Have you ever gone to a party in a dream?  How did you feel in the swirl of laughing people and  constant movement?  I have had to put aside my work on the Journey Oracle divination deck to  organize with my partner John, the oyster festival here on Cortes: SEAFEST 2013.  What a party!  It was just like a good dream of everything flowing smoothly, and yet also flowing beyond our control--which is also what happens in a party in a dream.

Having the opportunity to organize such a fun experience for so many people feels like lucid dreaming. During the first hour before the cooks started cooking and the line started moving, everything had a dream-like confusion.  It was hard to find where to be, just like in those dreams when we can't find our class at school or our car in the parking lot.  And then one cook begins, and so everyone begins cooking, and suddenly the party moves beyond us. Now the festival day takes it's own form, and all we can do is watch in amazement at what unfolds.

I think the meaning of a party in a dream is asking us to let go into what we can affect but cannot control.  We are being asked to see that we are part of a larger force of energy, and that while particular faces and moments may emerge to our awareness, the whole is so much bigger than the plans that originated it.

Like the layers of vibration in a great booming shamanic journey drum--SEAFEST 2013 created a harmonic islanders are still talking about.  What a humbling gift to be the drum maker!

New frame drum brings the sunshine

I  am calling this new frame drum from the Journey Oracle, the Sunshine Drum.

It is Cortes Island blacktail deer stretched on a 14" BC Spruce wood hoop. 

The 9 pointed interlacement pattern was finished last night in yet another coastal rain shower, and I did not imagine that the sun would come today to participate in the drum's birthday portrait.

Perhaps it was the 9 Muses singing in the smoke-tanned strands of hitching that wrap the star.

Perhaps it was the clear, thin hide of the young deer whose skin created this smooth drum face.

All I know is that I stepped outside with this drum and my camera and the sun appeared, bringing a warm glow to this new sunshine drum.

If this is your drum click on this link to purchase my journey drums and read the details.  

A new reading from Journey Oracle

This is a Journey Oracle card in its new format.    Pure image--without text.  Suddenly the force of spirit shines through; like seeing something clearly for the first time.  As I am working to redesign the Journey Oracle deck, I thought I would do a reading about this very effort.  I begin by looking at the card I drew--Card 6 in the Full Moon suit: the Hunger moon of February, my birth moon.  This is an image of my situation.

I see the most ancient sense of smell dominating. This means to me that the oldest wisdom is directing this revision.  The color of this old knowing is yellow, the vibration of the third chakra and its connection to personal power.   I see that the eyes are yet blank, without a means of focusing.  I interpret this to mean that I do not yet see where I am going.  Yet the entire image is suffused with a radiating movement: so keep moving.

I next asked "how did I get to this decision of remaking the Journey Oracle deck" and so turned to this revised text.  Rarely have I been so stunned by the perfection of words.

HOW  THINGS  GOT  TO  BE  THIS  WAY

THE  SITUATION

This situation began by making an old song new.

The prevailing energy of this situation is picking up.

The core energy pattern of this situation is shattering.

The Mother of this situation is growing beneath your feet.

The Father of this situation is finding a way home.

 ALIGNMENT  TO  THE  SITUATION

Your perception of the situation is dreamy.
The impact of your perception is imaginary.

Your relationship to the prevailing energy is reaching toward the blue.

The connection between the core energy pattern and the situation

 is felt as a touch of spider webs.

The momentum of this situation is fed by staying ahead.

I surely think this new form of the Journey Oracle is finding its way home.  The new interactive website is planned for launch in October of 2013...the month of harvest.

The meaning of ice breaking up

My recent stay in Edmonton teaching shamanic workshops on speaking with stones has given me a more  beautiful understanding of the meaning of ice breaking up.  I was staying on the shores of Pigeon Lake as the first leads of water began opening along the edges of the frozen expanse.  What does it mean in my spiritual practice when something starts to thaw?  

This means to me that new ways of being with these teachings from the spirit world are opening.  I discovered that sharing my ability to speak with stones also taught me about new possibilities in my ways of helping others.  Even though there is much still to learn and experience--just as there is a great distance of ice still to thaw--I discovered that hiding my relationship with stones was also hiding a gift I feel I am meant to share.

Sometimes the structures and protections I build around what I do become a way of stranding what I know and how I can be of service.  I believe shamanic art and work in all forms is a bridge between this world and the world of the sacred--which of course are the same world from another view.  But to be effective the bridge must connect this shore of daily life with that great flowing lake of mystery.

All the life surrounding Pigeon lake is also breaking out.  Catkins drift the surfaces with yellow wonder while pussywillows shimmer in the first soft breath of a northern Canadian spring.  I am reminded and emboldened by the novel I have been recently reading, The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens.  Apparently for dreams, for shamanic work, and for ice in the spring, the law is, "keep moving."

How not to write a blog

When is a post not a post?  No time, no images, good work happening in all directions but not yet here on the web. I am excited to share insights about dream work,  and more about talking with stones, and eventually a new interactive Journey Oracle Cards website where you can do free readings about puzzling situations...but not ready yet.  Sometimes patience is more than a virtue, it's just an ordinary necessity.