Dream Into Soulstice

 Soulstice is a powerful time for personal and collective shifts.

 Soulstice is a time to heal old energies and empower what you want to manifest.

 Soulstice is a good time to meditate on your current life situation, set intentions, and pray for guidance and support. It is also a good time for building community through soulstice gatherings and rituals.

 Ask yourself: What do I want to bring into my life at this time? What do I want to let go of?

In the days leading up to Soulstice, look at your life and your dreams to get a clear picture of your successes, challenges, and needs or desires at this point in your life. Once you’ve identified the most important one(s), ask:

 How is this dream/situation serving my spiritual growth?

 What is the lesson and the gift in this dream/situation?

 What is the message for me in this dream/situation?

Next, consider what you’d like to affirm about your life, what you’d like to invite into your life, and what would you like to release.

Create a simple ritual for inviting in the energies you want to manifest, and those you want to release.

Before saying goodbye to the things you are letting go, be sure to thank them for the learning and growth they provided.

Incubate a dream to empower your intentions and gain information about your strengths and challenges in relation to them.

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In the days leading up to and following your Soulstice ritual and/or dream incubation, pay attention to dreams and synchronicities that enter your life. Write them down and be prepared to let the messages unfold over time. Remember:

 Dreams rarely give yes or no answers; they speak primarily in metaphor and image,

which can help you see multiple facets of a situation.

 In the end, the choice of what action to take is yours, and you are responsible for any actions you choose to take.

 Work from the inside out. Small energetic shifts internally can net the most satisfying and profound results. Keep checking in with your dreams to see if you are moving in the right direction and to receive “course corrections” as needed.

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Summer Solstice 2014 takes place on June 21, at 3:21 a.m. This is the most powerful time to set your intentions. Other powerful points in the day are noon, sunset and midnight.

A Dreamer’s Role in Hopeless Times

Some daunting facts

Last night I was (finally) reading last weekend’s NYT Sunday Magazine and this article about Paul Kingsnorth, an environmentalist who has abandoned hope for stopping climate change, spoke to me (click to read it). Here’s an excerpt from the piece that relates directly to our stated goal for 350 Dreamers, which I started in 2009 in response to 350.org’s call to take action to join together to stop global climate change:

… The first decade of the 21st century was shaping up to be the hottest in recorded history. In 2007, the Arctic sea ice shrank to a level not seen in centuries. That same year, the NASA climatologist James Hansen, who has been ringing the climate alarm since the 1980s, announced that in order to elude the most devastating consequences, we’d need to maintain carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at a level of 350 parts per million. But we’d already surpassed 380, and the figure was rising. (It has since reached 400 p.p.m.) Animal and plant species, meanwhile, were dying out at a spectacular rate. Scientists were beginning to warn that human activity — greenhouse-gas emissions, urbanization, the global spread of invasive species — was driving the planet toward a “mass extinction” event, something that has occurred only five times since life emerged, 3.5 billion years ago. (Daniel Smith, NYT Magazine, April 17, 2014)

I don’t agree with everything Kingsnorth says in the article, but in it he talks about about taking time to grieve, feel, and face what is happening in our world–a sentiment that strikes me as deeply true and necessary.

A dreamer’s response

The article also inspired me to put into words what I feel my role as a dreamer, and our role as members of 350 Dreamers, might be. I believe that as dreamers, we have a unique perspective that can support us and our communities as environmental changes continue to manifest at a breathtaking pace:

• We dreamers know that first and foremost, we don’t run away from the monsters in our nightmares, we turn and face them instead.
• We dreamers know that when we face a nightmare rather than shut it out, we become more than we ever dreamed we could be thanks to it.
• As dreamers we know there is healing wisdom in even the most disturbing dream image.
• As dreamers we learn to stay awake and aware in our dreams–and in daylight.
• As dreamers we learn to bear witness to, and stay present to, all of it.
• And as dreamers we know how to access guidance from our best selves–that part of each one of us that transcends the ordinary and connects us to the extraordinary.
• Our dreams teach us that internal energetic shifts manifest loving change in the outside world. Activism can be quiet and invisible, and can take root one heart at a time.

Each of these skills and awarenesses can serve us as we face the nightmarish effects of global climate change, and help us to become agents of hope and compassion–in spite of the enormity of the problems we face.

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(Sylvia…thank you for sharing your dream with me today, which crystalizes these themes so clearly, and thank you for offering to share that dream with 350 Dreamers whenever you are able.)

 

Tribute to a Dreamer: Robert van de Castle (11/16/27-1/29/14)

Robert Van de Castle

When I started 350 Dreamers in the spring of 2008, I recalled something I’d read in Robert Van de Castle’s book, Our Dreaming Mind. It was a reference to the Dream Helper Ceremony in which a group of dreamers focus their dream intention on helping an individual to heal. I wanted to apply this concept to dreaming for the environment, so I emailed Dr. Van de Castle to request permission to share this information on my brand new 350 Dreamers blog.

At the time, I only knew of Bob as a famous dream expert, and I had no connection at all to any community of dreamers. In fact, 350 Dreamers had only a handful of members at the time: My sister, my friend Molly, and myself.

Nonetheless, within 24 hours of trying to contact Dr. Van de Castle (as I thought of him at the time) I received a return email inviting me to give him a call. When I reached him by phone, he encouraged me to keep going with 350 Dreamers, and he suggested I attend the upcoming IASD conference, which would be taking place in Chicago that June—which was less than a month away.

I tried to turn him down; explaining that I had vacation plans that week. (And besides, I’d never even heard of this group). “Vacation plans?” he bellowed. “Cancel them!”

Long story short: I did. I cancelled my vacation plans, and bought a plane ticket to Chicago.

En route from Massachusetts to the Windy City, the airline lost my luggage. I arrived at the conference alone, after midnight, knowing no one, in an unfamiliar city, with only the clothes on my back. In the morning, feeling disoriented and anxious, I found Dr. Van De Castle and introduced myself. He greeted me as if I were a member of his family, and introduced me to his partner Bobbie Ann Pimm. In an instant I was transformed from a lost soul to a member of the community, all thanks to Bob and Bobbie’s warmth and enthusiasm.

In the four years since I made that phone call I have become an active member of IASD, I have become a certified dream therapist, and I now host two dream blogs, lead dream workshops, and provide individual dream consultations. The IASD community, of which Bob was a powerful leader, truly has become like family to me. Bob actively promoted 350 Dreamers, helping us to quickly reach our goal of having 350 dreamers signed up to dream for global healing.

I’ve had many wonderful dream helpers and dream teachers along the way, but Bob Van de Castle was one of my first; through his book, his encouraging emails and phone calls, and then his friendship, he helped set me on this beautiful dreamy path.

Today I learned of Bob’s death. That’s the sad news. But the best part of this story is that there are hundreds if not thousands more just like it. All of us who value dreams owe a debt of gratitude to Bob Van de Castle. I am honored to be able to add my voice to the chorus of those whose life was touched by Bob’s.

We will all miss Bob, and it’s almost impossible to imagine this year’s dream conference without him. But I know he’ll be present in countless ways, in all of our hearts and memories.

POST YOUR DREAMS HERE … as a comment! Dream & Journey with Us for Global Healing June 8

• Dream With Us What: We invite you to dream with 350 Dreamers in our quest to use the power of dreams to help heal Planet Earth! Dream, journey and/or vision for the Earth on the night of our group dream and post your dreams here in the morning! Why: Because Global Climate Change is threatening our beautiful planet and because we have the power to create positive, healing change. When: Saturday night, June 8, 2013 (The New Moon is a powerful time for setting intentions and making wishes). Where: Wherever you are … Who: We have dreamers signed up from Belgium, The Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Canada, Japan, Argentina, The United States … add your nation to the list! RSVP: Let us know you’ll be dreaming with us and spread the word. Join us on Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia) !

Related articles

• The 14th Way of Looking at a Blackbird: Dreaming Awake (Corner View) (allthesnoozethatsfittoprint.wordpress.com)

Dream With Us for Global Healing on 9/16

Suggestion: Use this image by one of our talented dreamers, Brenda Ferrimani, to help focus your dream incubation for our Sept. 16 dream for global healing. [Image Credit: “Mother Protection”, by Brenda Ferrimani http://www.brendaferrimanidreamart.com ]

On the night of 9/16/12, Join 350+ Dreamers (we’re now more than 540 dreamers from around the globe!) and dream with us for global healing. Here’s how:DREAM with us on Sunday night, 9/16, in our quest to use the power of dreams to help heal the planet Earth in the face …of global climate change.
Dream, journey and/or vision to bring healing energy to the Earth on the night of the new moon, 9/16/12.

Before bed on that night, set your intention to have a healing dream for our planet. Write this
intention down and be prepared with a pen, notebook and flashlight next to your bed to record any dreams or fragments you recall.
Then post your dreams (or dream fragment, reflection, whatever you have) here on our blog as a comment!We have the power to create positive, healing change.We have dreamers signed up from Puerto Rico, Panama, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Argentina, Belgium, The Netherlands, The United States and more … we hope you’ll add your state or nation to the list!

Wishing healing dreams to one and all!

Healing Hands

Buddha sitting in bhumisparsha-mudra posture (calling the earth to be his witness). Birmany. White marble with traces of polychromy. Gallo-Roman museum of Lyon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During a recent yoga class the teacher demonstrated a mudra, which she said was used to connect oneself to the earth.

A mudra, or a symbolic hand gesture, can be used to help strengthen the power of your intention. Mudras are traditionally used in yoga practices, and in Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies.

I’ve adapted that mudra as a part of my practice of setting a dream intention when I’m preparing to incubate a healing dream for the planet.

Here’s how:

• Place your left hand on your heart center to connect to your individual heart, your personal and unique passions and desires.
• Place your right hand palm facing down on your cushion, chair, or thigh,  facing toward the earth. Feel your connection with the shared source of all life…the Earth’s heart.
• Take a few breaths here, connecting with your individual unique heart, and our common shared source, the earth.
• When you feel connected and complete, bring your hands together in front of your heart and feel the two spheres, your personal heart and our shared earth, together.

This, in effect, is the essence of collective dreaming, and of the group I lead: 350 Dreamers.

You can use this mudra before or after a meditation, or to help set your intention for a dream incubation for the planet.

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This post is excerpted from my recent talk about 350 Dreamers given at the International Association for the Study of Dreams annual conference in Berkeley California.

Dream With Us

350 Dreamers is a group of people committed to global healing through global dreaming.

Inspired by 350.org’s initiative to raise consciousness about the urgent need for action in order to reverse the effects of global warming, 350 Dreamers is an opportunity for dreamers and visionaries to intensify our energy by dreaming together toward the same goal.

Our goal is to put our minds’ together on Oct. 23-24 2009 as part of 350.org’s global day of earth-loving actions — and dream together to heal the planet. 

Visit us on Facebook, too, and join our ranks! Everything starts with a dream, after all.