The first line in my podcast is almost always “Hey dream weavers and plant lovers, and welcome back to the Herbs and Dreams podcast where we explore how to weave our lives with the wisdom of dreams, in alliance with the healing plants of Mother Earth, on behalf of all of life.”
On behalf of all life.
Today I want to explore what I mean by that and how it is that we can plant our dream weaving practice within the soil of that orientation. When we do that, it magnifies the healing that grows from our dream weaving practice and also wakes us up more and more to the truth of our interconnection with the whole web of life, the lands where we live, and with our interconnection with ourselves as timeless beings existing in multiple times simultaneously. It really wakes us up to how close our ancestors and future generations are to us here and now.
This post, and its corresponding episode on the Herbs and Dreams Podcast, is going to dive deep into exploring all of that, as well as how important our values are when it comes to our dreaming. When we filter our dreams through our values, we make meaning that is beneficial and supportive to all life beyond just our own individual healing.
So how we can weave with the wisdom of dreams on behalf of all life?
How can we actualize that what we weave, which of course is what we do, what we create, what we show up to, what we embody, what we Incarnate… how can that be so on behalf of all life? Well, this lesson, perhaps like many of the lessons, is really in its essence very simple. (So much of the dreamweaving practice is actually very simple.) If we ground into a simple structure and show up with diligence and effort on a daily basis, then we really create the container within which we can dreamweave with purpose, power, love, juice and resonance on behalf of All Life.
Firstly, the way that we weave with dreams on behalf of All Life is quite simply by holding this intention in our hearts and our minds as we go about making meaning of our dreams: May the meaning that I make from my dreams be in service to All Life. This is really important because it touches on the importance of our personal values, that which we honor and hold our decisions up against as we navigate a complex world and figure out where we stand in it. Our values, what we believe about life, dreams, this world and what we stand for really do become the container that we filter all the potential meanings of dreams (which, remember, are infinite) through.
Our values are the filter for all the infinite meanings of our dreams.
If you grow a personal value that everything that you do, everything that you choose, everything that you say, everything that you take action on and create be in service to all life, then that energy or prayer, as I conceive of it, becomes so.
This is truly one of the reasons I love dreams so much, is that they so regularly and effectively blow the lid off of the myth of separation that, in my opinion, so many of us modern ones are under the spell of and are trying to break out of.Dreaming becomes our ally in remything ourselves out of the myth of separation and into the myth of interconnection, into the belief that we are all related.
All of us humans are related, but it's more than that. We are related to everything and everyone who we share this beautiful, blessed world with. We are related to the lands where we live. We are related to all of the members of life of the lands where we live. We are related to the trees, plants, stones, animals, birds, elements and the ancestral memories of the places that we find ourselves on. We are interconnected, interrelated, interwoven…intrinsically so with all of this. Dreaming will wake us up to that fact.
This is one of the ways that my approach to dream work and dream weaving might deflect just a bit from more modern Western approaches to dream work. I love the modern Western approaches to dream work, truly. It's woven in very much into the cosmology of how I approach dream work, but I also take it a step further. In the modern Western approach to dream work, you will often find and hear the meaning of dreams, the interpretation of dreams, that everything or everyone in the dream is an aspect of yourself. You’ll hear that dreaming's function is that it comes to expand and heal us, help us to repair and restore ourselves on the individual level. Dreaming absolutely does that. And they do so much more.
Dreams come for so many more reasons, for infinite reasons. Something that dreaming does, in my experience, is that it opens us up into deeper remembrance of our connection and our interconnection with all of life. It’s more than just the individual journey. It's more than just the heroes and the heroine's journey. It's the journey of remembrance. It's the journey of restoring our membership within the web of life. The way that we can allow dreams to mean that is by first believing that it is so.
When we turn in the direction of a dream to decipher its meaning, we of course look from the perspective of “Everyone in this dream is an aspect of myself” to see if there is resonance, juice, opening, blooming, blossoming. But that's just the beginning. We also look from the perspective that this dream might have come from the land where we live, the community that we are a part of, the family system that we are a part of, the ancestral system that we are a part of. This dream might come from the dream of the whole earth Mother herself, the Dream of the Earth. If we believe that this is possible, and if we value this meaning, then those potential meanings become available to us.
Hopefully you can sense and feel how when we hold that belief and that value, that it does expand the meaning making of our dreams to include not just me and my own journey, but me as an integral part of all of the systems that I am a part of. I like to call these systems in my dreaming work the circles of kinship that I am a part of. I am a part of the circle of kinship that is my family, the people that I live with. I am a part of the circle of kinship of the land where I live. I am a part of the circle of kinship of the communities that I am a part of. Each of these circles of kinship is in a way its own microorganism, its own system that is governed by its own greater dream, that is governed by its own destiny, that is governed by its own goal for itself. Because I am a part of the circle(s), I am hooked into that dream that the circle has for itself. That circle will inform me, through my dreams, about what it needs from me, what my role is within it and my instructions for my job within it. Again, this just naturally arises from believing that it is possible and trusting that it is so, if it does indeed have resonance for you.
As a review, my suggestion on how to figure out the most potent, powerful, important, helpful meaning for any given dream, which of course there are infinite meanings, is to follow the resonance. We call this the “Aha!” When our bodies respond with energy in the presence of a potential meaning, that is the meaning that we might be wise to follow. In your meaning making, turn toward a dream with the belief that you are not just you, you are not just an individual, but you are ALSO an individual. That is very, very important.
Our individual healing journeys are absolutely essential because the more parts of ourselves that we call back in, welcome back home heal, the more helpful we can be as a member of the circles of kinship that we are a part of. We also would be wise to hold on to these more expanded meanings, and that we can be informed through our dreaming about how we can help and the role that is ours to play. By holding the belief that we are all interconnected, related and in this together, we allow ourselves to receive instructions about how we can be more helpful within that interrelation.
It also grows the energy of “we are all related on behalf of All Life” into this world.
Remember, it's the filter that we trickle our dreams through and then weave from. Starting at the individualized meaning-making process: If you are seeking to make meaning of a dream and the meaning that you are considering puts you, in any way, above (or below) anyone else, that might be a tip that you are not quite on track. That might be a tip that you are on a path of what might be called ego inflation or ego deflation. Ago inflation is when, of course, you put yourself above everyone else or anyone else. Ego deflation is when you put yourself below anyone or everyone else. Dreaming, when considered wisely, in my opinion, will not do that.
Dreaming will not elevate us above others, nor will it beat us down below others.
Rather, what dreaming, when done wisely and well, will do is to inform us better about what it is that is our unique job. To do what it is that we are uniquely designed for and called to, the job that we are to play in the circles of kinship that we are a part of, including of course, the circle of kinship that is the entire world. A very obvious caricature example of this: let's say you have a dream and none other than Jesus Christ shows up in your dream. What does that mean? Well, if you were to look at that dream and consider the meaning and even perhaps follow the steps of meaning, that “Oh my gosh, here is Jesus and I knew it.
I was the second coming of Christ and now I should definitely go start that cult and everybody should follow me.” That's a caricature example of an ego inflation where you are choosing to follow a meaning that puts you above others, that puts you above everybody else. A more balanced meaning would be, “Oh, Jesus Christ is here. That means that the potential of awakening and embodying and incarnating the open Sacred Heart of Christ consciousness is here. It's here for me and it's here for all of us. I'm going to go ahead and open up my heart and welcome in that loving Sacred Heart energy of Jesus Christ and Christ consciousness into me so that it can ground into this world.” I might even take steps in my waking life to help ground that consciousness into my life by placing a picture or an image of Jesus or somehow bringing him into my inner spiritual circle, etc. That will help to ground that energy into you in a balanced way, in a way that helps, serves and renders you more open hearted, compassionate, kind and service oriented. That would be a wise and, in my opinion, well done way to make meaning of that dream featuring Jesus Christ.
You can hopefully sense and feel that so much of the “meaning making job” of the dreamweaving is to wisely filter the dreams through our values. For me, one of the foundational bedrock beliefs that all of my decisions, all of my dreams are filtered through is this:
Does this serve all of life?
Does it help honor and centralize that all that I am choosing to do and create?
Does it honor that I am a part of the web of life?
Is it fueled by a prayer that what I do and what I choose help all of life?
When I hold that belief, that value, then it does shift the resonance of the weavings that I make, informed by dreaming's wisdom.
Of course, sometimes I fall and stumble, and you will too. We're human after all. But overall, it's about the prayer, and it's about the intention. So, toss a prayer, reflection, or contemplation out in your morning: “May all that I do today serve all of life. May everywhere I go I be a blessing to all of life. May all that I create help all of life.”
And perhaps the next time you remember a dream and you're considering the meanings, you can toss in this consideration at your counsel table of dream interpretation: “If this dream did come to help me be a stronger, better, more helpful member of the Web of Life, what would it be?” What would the dream say? How is the dream instructing me on how to help? Can you filter the dream through that perspective and see where it takes you?
We're so blessed to be here to be members of this web of life. We're so blessed to dream.
We're so blessed to create an alliance with dreaming's wisdom on behalf of all life.
Blessed be your dream weaving. May it serve all of your relations.
