A Message From the Ancients

Part 1

Last night I dreamed of an ancient tree, magnificent yet barren, without foliage, fruit, or visible production. The tree stood alone on the fringe of a busy restaurant/produce aisle. It was the only tree visible to sight. Behind the tree was a vast barren wasteland. While the branches of the tree that faced the restaurant grew upwards and straight as they reached towards the heavens, the branches furthest from the restaurant/produce aisle, turned inward unto its core. At first I thought the tree was diseased and dead because of its deformity and lack of apparent leaves and for some strange reason I pondered the idea of chopping it down, as if ‘it was time’. I approached the tree to get a better look and was taken back by it sheer stature and size. The tree dwarfed the restaurant and everything around it. It stood hundreds of feet tall and was 30 to 40 feet across. Its trunk, though slightly twisted from years of growing pains, was taller than most ancient trees as if the tree knew that without constructing a proper base it would not be able to continue to grow tall. The tree was a survivor, able to adapt to the constant changes of harsh conditions. Its bark, which measured many feet in depth and was so thick it folded multiple times creating crevices instead of creases, revealed its ability to ward off disease and resists pests, an adaptation that developed over the past few hundred or thousands of years. From inside the restaurant it looked as if the tree was dead. Yet closer inspection revealed the tree was vital. It was not dead but merely dormant, resting and waiting for changes in conditions that would awaken it and help it to produce life. It was then I decided not to cut the tree down but to leave it alone instead.

 

June 22, 2009: Today marks the New Moon in Cancer. New moons signify new beginnings and awakenings, especially of those of intuition and the heart. Thus the New Moon in Cancer signifies a time of great introspection pertaining to all matters of home, heart, creativity, intuition, domestic life, homemakers, water, emotions, the family unit, and motherhood. The New Moon in Cancer wants to prepare you for changes in the direction of your home, emotions and family life.

The timeliness of my dream resonates the energy of the universe. Trees are symbols of family roots and spiritual yearnings whereby one reaches to the depths of the known and unknown simultaneously. Today’s New Moon symbolizes Cosmic Mother, Mother Earth, Mother Sea, Mother Intuition, the Womb, and all things related to life, healing, dormant change waiting to be awakened, emotions and birth. In representing the womb, the New Moon asks us to turn inward to that dark, watery, hidden, and protective place where life is conceived and nurtured until it is ready to be manifested outwardly into the material world. The time has come to connect deeply to emotions and delve deeply into all that has been denied, abused and neglected. Reclaim the parts of self that have been given away without value or regard. The overall underlying message of the New Moon in Cancer is change or become changed by circumstances beyond your control.

Today’s New Moon in Cancer marks the beginning of a new feminine movement that will continue to develop and grow in profound awareness over the next two and one half years. In past women fought for equality, the rights to think and act like men in a masculine principled privileged society, with great sacrifice to the feminine principle. Women of past either failed to understand or took for granted their innate feminine ability to conceptualize, materialize, and spiritualize all life. And while I certainly do not condemn my historical sisters for their efforts of wanting to be treated with dignity, reverence and respect, I feel much of the feminine principle was squashed.

Balance is not the result of diminishing one while expanding the other. Balance is discovered in the blending of opposites and learning how to relate to something greater through our relations to one another. Equality is not a sexual gender, race, or abilities issue. It is the synthesis of opposites for the purpose of wholeness. Segregation, be it self or others, results from a lack of knowledge and self-respect.

The feminine principle allows the masculine sun to reflect its emotional intuitive light upon the moon, bathes parched overworked masculine soil in cool refreshing feminine water, and gives form to emotional expression. Creation is the highest vibration of artistic expression, one that all humans should strive for, and is the material manifestation of the feminine principle in harmony with the masculine.

I believe my historical sisters longed for balance between masculine and feminine principles but were thwarted for centuries by masculine principles of supremacy and dominion. In their fight for justice and equality, my historical sisters caused the pendulum to swing in the extreme and opposite direction. Balance is the moving in and out of center. Without opposites there is no personal experience of center ground from which to draw.

As the generation that followed in the wake of the great feminist movement, I see the need for men and women to embrace their wholeness, to be fearless to fear, and allow intuition its rightful place as central compass.

On a more personal note this dream has revealed much about my own masculine and feminine principles. Like the tree I have stubbornly refused to stop growing, have struggled against my own pains causing slight deformation of character, and while one hand reaches out to connect with others while maintaining a safe distance, the other hand reaches within for self-comfort, self-healing, and self-growth. Most of my time is spent in isolation on the thread line of emotional and mental safety between separation and connection, never fully immersing or fully detaching myself but rather observing, reflecting, assessing, calculating, and measuring. Furthermore, like the tree in my dream, I grow according to my own rhythm and seasons. I retreat when the urge is strong, not because it fits into the standard curriculum of should have, could have, and would have. Years and wisdom from painful experiences has taught me to develop thick skin impenetrable to the musings of biting sarcasm, unwanted opinions, and clever wit. My seriousness demeanor looks void of flash, color, and exposition, yet serves to provide me with the necessary spiritual and human experiences for I am neither one nor the other but the combination of both. Like the tree I live in a two-way connection with the earth and universe and am home no matter where I am.

 

Part 2

Last night I dreamt my husband led me into a building that contained a secret forest of ancient trees. Intuitively I knew very few people knew of the forests’ existence. Even less had witnessed it. Like the tree from my previous dream, these trees were magnificent in size standing hundreds of feet tall. Their trunks were long and approximately 30 to 40 feet across. Their bark was exceptionally thick and folded. Yet unlike the solitary tree of my previous dream, these trees were not deformed in their growth. Perhaps because of their secrecy and because they drew strength in numbers through community, they were able to grow thick, strong, straight branches that reached up towards the heavens.

Unlike the tree in my first dream, which pre-determined its season of dormancy regardless of the weather, the trees in this dream were more aligned with reality, which is indicated by the barren branches and the fact that the fruit is on the ground. In reality, a forest is a community of similar and unlike trees, each competing for space, light, nutrients, and water. Each tree deposits and absorbs individual nutrients that help to ensure the survival of the forest as a whole. Yet this was a forest of likeness containing similar trees of males and females. Beans littered the forest floor several feet deep as these were trees that produced edible beans suitable for human consumption. And I had always been under the assumption that beans only ever grew on vines. Yet it seemed to me that the value of the trees and their produce were lost to humanity as a hill of beans don’t amount to much in the world of commerce.

In spite of the darkness that shrouded me, my vision was crystal clear. The trees were dormant, alive yet resting, resting yet active. They were preparing for potentially harmful conditions, waiting for conditions to change, and waiting for stimulation that would foster and encourage new growth. Dormancy was vital to their health, healing and continuance. While dormant, trees continue to regulate their metabolism and only slow down some physiological activities. Dormant trees continue to grow roots, respire, and take in water and nutrients. Most trees are susceptible to pest invasion while in dormancy, but these trees developed an impenetrable bark that allowed them to rest peacefully and in good health.

I stepped outside the building with the intention of feeding some wildlife. Outside I discovered a raccoon living in the hole under moss-covered stones that led away from the side entrance. The raccoon was the size of a miniature toy soldier. The raccoon took the bean from my hand and scampered quickly into its hole. I waited because I knew something was about to happen, and it did. A life-sized grizzly bear charged me from my left shoulder and forced me back inside the building. Had I not had control over the events of my dream the bear would have successfully attacked me. However, after several attempts of re-enacting the scene I was able to escape to safety.

June 22, 2009 marked the era of a new set of eclipses in Cancer/Capricorn with the intent and purpose of exposing feminine and masculine principles. From the time we are born we yearn to belong to someone or something of shared similar thoughts, emotions and values. We yearn to conform for acceptance and love. Yet somewhere between the ages of 10 and old age we rebel against those ideas, feelings and values we once shared and become anti-conformists. In the same breath we turn 360 and seek out others of like-mindedness with whom to conform. It’s not that we are opposed to conforming but have set ideas about how and when we approach it. Yet our ideas are either in a constant state of flux rendering us flighty or grow so rigid that we become stuck.

It usually takes two to three days for the energies of a New Moon to take seed and approximately 15 days to reveal the harvest at the Full Moon. The Full Moon of July 7 will fall in the sign of Capricorn and will bring about an eclipse revealing dark and hidden aspects of self. Cancer expresses its dark, secret, and hidden self as wounded emotions that control and sabotage our best intentions as well as our inability to be honest by manipulating others through sacrifice and covert behavior to get our needs met. It denies us the ability to appropriately express and use the energy of our emotions. Capricorn, on the other hand, is irresponsible, misuses authority, controls, dominates and uses shame, blame and guilt to get what it wants.

Seldom do we ever permit others to see our shadows but hide them out of fear instead. Last night’s dream revealed the unveiling of secrets and exposed the missing elements needed to establish balance between masculine and feminine principles. Unlike the solitary tree in my first dream, this forest contained many like-minded male/female trees that coexisted for the purpose of survival and continuance of a species. The fact that the trees in both dreams are ancient proves prophetic making them noteworthy of mention.

Prophetic dreams usually contain one theme that is repeated three times. In this dream, beans and trees represent connections to roots, community, and humanity. Alternately they symbolize immortality, nourishment, and fertility. Bears also represent fertility. Bears, trees, and buildings represent a fixed domain, while bears, tree bark and buildings represent protection. Fruit bearing trees provide opportunity for harvest, while beans being part of the legume family signify anything that can be gathered. Bears are notorious gatherers. Bears and dormant trees represent a time of or the need for introspection. Secrets, darkness and being chased by a bear signify an avoidance of some big issue in life that needs to be dealt with swiftly. Although omnivore, the banal diet of bears filled with sweet snacks like berries is echoed in the likeness of trees and the fruit they produced. The theme of secrecy is represented by the containment of the secret forest away from searching eyes, the forest itself, and the miniature-sized raccoon that hides in its hole under moss covered rocks (more secrecy) behind its mask.

The Message

So what is really going on in my dream? What are the ancients trying to tell me?

Often we fail to recognize unwanted aspects of our shadow self and project them instead onto others. Most relationships suffer a constant barrage of defense and attack as projections are cast out and rejected or confirmed. However, the trained mind works in unison with emotions for clarity and greater understanding. For example, when I see my partner acting dishonestly or irresponsible and feel the need to call him out of hiding to reveal his behavior, I need not look any further the mirror of self to see my own actions of dishonesty and irresponsibility.

The ancients are calling us back to our physical and spiritual roots, to a time of simplicity where males and females co-existed in harmony and reverence of creation and a creator and each other, to a time where physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sustenance was worth more than pieces of gold and silver. Like the people who belonged to Moses, we have voluntarily enslaved ourselves over the past hundred years to materialist pursuit that profits the few, dis-empowers the many, and robs us of our natural birthright.

On a personal note, Dom and I, alike in our need for community, hold secrets from each other and the rest of the world, will defend our secrets if need be, gather things to cover up our fears of having our secrets exposed, prefer and yet are stifled by routine, and spend a great deal of time in reflection and isolation. Too, we envision an ideal community, one without violence or disease where individuals self-govern responsibly with mutual cooperation for the benefit of continuance. Yet reality dictates an alternative version of human behavior born out of habit and outdated necessity. Furthermore, the fact that I was able to re-enact the final scene of my dream indicates that all reality begins in the mind and can be altered by conscious awareness, honest observation and admission of fear.

The time has come to be brutally honest, to stop hiding behind my fears, and to face the big issues I've been avoiding. Of course it won't be easy, adapting to change seldom is, but the dream promises me that if I accept the wisdom of the ancients and live according to the balance of mind and heart centered principles, new life awaits me.

No man is void of emotion yet few express his or her emotions honestly. Misdirected emotions take the shape of emotional eating, isolation, rebellion, road rage, *****, domestic violence, abuse, debasement, exploitation, gambling, addictions, war, and takeovers. The need for self exposure will continue to grow in light over the next two and one half years drawing us away from the inner darkness of fear to trust, hope, faith and love. Only then can man hope to live in balance void of shame, blame and guilt.