May We Be Dreamt
By Lauren Morgan
“We are the Weavers, we are the Woven ones.
We are the Dreamers, we are the Dream.”
- Song lyrics by Beverly Fredrick
It could be said that humanity is standing in the threshold, that space in an initiation or rite of passage that is betwixt and between. This time in the rite is when the self as it has known itself has shed its old skin, but does not yet know what form the new skin will take. Standing in this place betwixt is, in every sense of the word, unknown. The sacrifice of an initiation is that we do not know who or what will emerge from the other side... We don't even know, in a very literal sense, if we will emerge at all.
What does an individual (or a community, a nation, a human race) do at such a juncture? What creates the medicine bridge out of the threshold and into the light of rebirth?
The only guarantee is that the medicine bridge will NOT be built from anything previously known. Anything that the old, now dead, self has relied upon; any knowledge, mental faculties, or resources that it has used previously; are not the building blocks of the medicine bridge leading to rebirth. Albert Einstein said, "a problem cannot be solved with the same consciousness that created it." The initiate must tap into a new source of resource, a new place of wisdom, a new energy from the Earth herself.
How does the initiate accomplish this feat? From what source of wisdom and power should the initiate pull, if it cannot rely upon its old ways of knowing itself and gathering information?
Peoples from around the world and across time have developed ways of accessing this place of mystery. The use of plant medicines, trance-inducing percussion and fasting are a few of these ancient and new technologies.
And, often overlooked, there is another gateway to mystery and higher wisdom, accessible to all of us, 4-7 times every night... our dreams.
Dreams are inherently transformative and initiatory in that they always come, as my late mentor Jeremy Taylor would say, just at the edge of our conscious awareness. "No dreams come to tell you what you already know. They always break new ground and open access to new layers of
consciousness," he said. For this reason alone, though there are many others, directing energy towards improving access to the dream state and cultivating skillful means for understanding them (what some call "dream interpretation methods") is an endeavor very much worthy of one's time and efforts.
Efforts made towards developing dream proficiency are worthwhile for supporting one’s own personal evolution and journey of wholeness. Though in a time like this, a time of collective initiation, the fruits of those efforts are rendered more imperative for the healing and whole'ing of the collective.
We are in need of a new story. For this initiation to succeed, we need to source from something more than we've been, something greater than we've known ourselves to be, something higher than our current vantage point. This is true at the individual, relational, communal, global, and cosmic level. (And some might say, all are the same.)
There are many names for that something which is dreaming us into evermore layers of wholeness and interbeing with All Things. The term Great Dreamer resonates for me. Perhaps there is a calling within each of us to place ourselves, humbly and prayerfully, at the feet of this Great Dreamer. Perhaps we might make efforts in our waking lives to weave beauty into this world from the insights we receive each night in our dreamtime.
May we be the dream weavers the future generations need us to be.
May we be dreamt into re-membrance of our wholeness and thus our
kinship with All of Life.
Through the dreams, may we make sacred contact with that new source of wisdom and power. And from there may we build a medicine bridge out of whatever threshold we might be in the throes of, whether individually or collectively, for I do believe they are one in the same.
May a blessing be upon all the dream weavers of this world, which is all of us.
Join me in dreaming the good dream of the future.
We invite you to join Lauren Morgan and Katy Pavlis in our upcoming community program, Dreamweaving March 19-20, as well as our monthly Dream Council facilitated by Tamara Walker.
References:
Concept of “Medicine Bridge” adapted from Pam England’s groundbreaking work on Birth Story Medicine. www.birthstorymedicine.com
Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press, 2019 2nd edition.
Taylor, Jeremy. The Wisdom of Your Dreams. NY: Penguin Publishing, 2009.
Lauren Morgan
Lauren Morgan lives, loves and dreams in the heart of the Olympic national forest. She is a dreamworker, herbalist, ritualist and mother dedicated to listening deeply to the Dream of the Earth and weaving beauty in service to all life from that listening. She teaches classes and facilitates ceremonies that seek to foster belonging within the web of life through exploring folk herbalism, dreamweaving techniques and bringing ceremony into daily life.
