To Remember Why You Came, Dream the World
The best way to learn about the power of dreamweaving is with a dream. Here’s one I received only a few years ago.
In it, I was deep in a forest in the middle of the night, when I saw a man standing alone, yelling from the depths of his soul,
“TELL ME WHY I CAME HERE!”
The dream man’s agony was primal as he shook his fists in desperate longing at the night sky, the searing pain of separation coursing through his every pore.
Perhaps you recognize the anguish in this dream man. I do, of course, for he is me. An aspect of me that took form as this man in order to wake me up from the slumber of this world, as all dreams yearn to. Perhaps you, too, have shouted up at the stars, or down to the Earth, or to the graves of your ancestors, or to the deities on your altar, or to the hollow-feeling air.
Why have we come here? What is this world? What is our purpose here?
The dream proceeded. As the man continued his tormented supplications, the night sky began to morph, the stars to move and take shape. A bear made of starlight, coalesced and seemed to step out of the sky. The dream shifted then, as dreams are wont to, and became less visual, instead becoming a transmission of the following intel that poured into my dream mind : this was the Great Bear, the man had come down from the Great Bear to this world. He had come to remember why he came here. His purpose was simply this, to remember why he came, and he was to write a children’s story on the matter.
I awoke from this dream with a dual sense of frustration and reverence. The frustration the man felt in the dream is one I know well. That insistence, born from an agonizing longing, to understand what this world is and why we have come - is a feeling that’s haunted me since my first formed memories. The reverence, though, I have had to develop over the years of being a devoted dreamer and teacher of dreams.
I’ve learned in the crucible of experience that dreams like this are precious. We all have them, these big dreams, but not every night, year or even decade. A part of the dreamer's job description is to always give great thanks to dreams, especially when they resonate at the vibration of holy.
The next thing I did with this dream is what I hope you, too, will do after learning about the power of dreamweaving - I set about weaving it into the world. The path has been winding, there have been many mini meanings made along the way that have opened up new channels of energy within my life and I. For example, I didn’t know before follow-up research that the constellation known as the Great Bear is identified in original cultures spanning from North America to India to Australia to the Arctic. With all due respect to the Great Bear, using just my physical senses and rational mind, I never would have identified that cluster of stars as a bear. But people across the entire world, ancient ones who retained a capacity for inner sight, connection and dreaming, saw the same thing. A Great Bear.
Most importantly though, I sat in earnest with the bear, bringing and breathing bear’s energy and being-ness into my body. Feeling what it feels like to be bear, seeing where bear would like to take my body and I. From these reflections, two essential qualities emerged and coalesced, stepping out of my unconscious just like the Great Bear stepped out of the night sky in my dream.
Bears are herbalists and bears are dreamers.
Tradition upon tradition tell stories of how bears are the source of medicinal knowledge, bringing the medicine of healing plants to the healers and herbalists - often, of course, through their dreams. Bears are the teacher, totem and guardian for healers in many traditions. By observing the bear, our ancestor-healers learned which healing plants to take to heal themselves and the circles of kinship they occupied and served.
Bears are dreamers. Spending half their life in hibernation, bears are the dreamers of this world. Tucked away, often inside the caves of Mother Earth, bears enter into total immersion with the Dream of the Earth for the duration of fall and winter - the dreaming times. They emerge in spring, seeded by the dreams the Earth sent them during those winter hibernation months, on behalf of us all.
Bears dream the world.
As my dream suggests, perhaps the Great Bear has been dreaming me and all of us tasked with such missions all along, sending healing plants in our dreams at the times that we, our communities and our world need those medicines. Bear is after all, the teacher of herbalists, and it’s the job of herbalists to ally with the plants to bring healing to the people, on behalf of all life. Great Bear just may have sent this dream at this time because the current task, yours and mine, is to re-member our interconnection and our kinship within the web of life. That is the healing we need now.
Blessed be your dreaming and weavings, dear ones.
May the Great Bear watch over your every thread.
