Dreamtime Has Many Names

Winter Snow Melting on Plaster Creek

I was invited to be the speaker for an online community based in Australia, hosted by Andrea Weber. Andrea is an Intuitive Writer and Founder of Expansive Happiness®. Her posts and articles inspire curiosity and reflection with a focus on mindfulness and wellbeing. Recently Andrea asked me a series of questions about dreams and the Dreamtime. 

Here is one of the questions she asked. I love the analogy you’ve given here about Plato’s Solar Consciousness and what we can and can’t see. It’s so very true. So, if our bodies are always dreaming (as you mentioned author Stephen Aizenstat is fond of saying), how can we access our dreams when we’re not waking from being asleep?

This is a great question. I understand this question to mean…how do we access the Dreamtime, not just the dreams which emerge from our sleep cycle.

I’d like to mention first that I am loosely borrowing the term Dreamtime from Australian Aboriginal mythology. If you’d like to delve into what Dreamtime means more deeply, I invite you to read Journey into Dreamtime by Munya Andrews, Aboriginal Elder. She says in part, “While dreams are a part of the Dreamtime, it is by no means limited to this. Rather, it [Dreamtime] is an expansive consciousness….”

Dreamtime has many different names when cultures and languages express it. This deep connection between people and the land especially when we think of place as sacred, is communicated through story, ritual, and creative voice. In my own Irish cultural heritage, their understanding of Dreamtime is significantly expressed in myths and practice. I always think of the On Being with Krista Tippett interview in 2008 with Irish poet, theologian, and philosopher John O’Donohue. In it he talks about a connection to the land with expanded awareness. He says its knowing you are in another state of being when you’re, “emerging out into a landscape that is just as much if not more alive as you.”

How do we access the Dreamtime

Assuming we believe our bodies have a desire to communicate with us as we’ve discussed earlier, then it’s easier to see that night dreams are only one way, one kind of portal, to tap into messages from our intuitive, sensitive natures.

There are certainly other ways to tap into this realm. Sometimes these are referred to as waking visions or glimmers of deeper understanding. This kind of a shimmering inner knowing is illuminated when we let go of control of the outcome; those times when we notice that we are stuck in our heads trying to figure things out. We let go from thinking that we have all the answers. In these illuminated times our senses are a portal. We are in a state of being of openness and curiosity.

It’s a kind of a peripheral vision that allows us to see or feel the unknown - as well as - allow what’s unknown to notice us. We are called to be open to the shimmering around us. When we let go of control and the need to figure things out we sense the otherness around us, and the otherness senses we’ve arrived.

You know, when someone says that they can see auras, they will often describe they have learned to look off-center instead of looking squarely at a subject. In that off-centered moment the brain doesn’t seem to be overwhelmingly in charge…telling us what it thinks we are seeing.

Creatives will “get lost” in the flow, a flow of energy from which a spark of

inspiration arises. Athletes speak of this flow too. What about walking in nature. You notice something in a tree or on the ground and you stop to pull out your iPhone and take a photo. In the liminal space between noticing and the click of camera there’s a moment of instantaneous connection.

Have you ever experienced an unsuspecting déjà vu moment or a synchronicity, something that makes you suddenly step out of the rational mindset into a memory or a feeling of awe? Shamanic journeying or an active imagination practice allows us to press the pause button on the present moment, enter a liminal space, and glimpse those hidden planets and stars behind our strong solar consciousness.

These are all legitimate dream moments. They are just a few of the ways that we sense the Dreamtime, a sacred space of connection offering us a dream-like presence. All of us have in our own way tapped into the other realm that glimmers with its own energy. I passionately believe that dream exploration helps us remember those precious moments. It helps us rewire our brain to see the shimmering, the auras, and to experience the fleeting moments of awe. Dream exploration is just one portal into the Dreamtime.

What’s Happening in March

First, I am launching a new monthly free Dream Conversation – beginning Sunday, March 15. For one hour each month I will offer thoughts on various dream topics. In March we’ll talk about…When I don’t remember dreams how else does my intuitive inner wisdom communicate? I’ll suggest ideas on how to go deeper into your dream exploration and then I’ll open the zoom call to everyone for a conversation.

(Note: You can find the latest dates and times here on my website. Or register right now for the March 15 dream conversation here.)

Also, I am offering a shorter 4-session Spring Dream Circle beginning Sunday, March 22. In my area of the world the approaching warmer weather and longer days encourage other types of exploration. So, the Spring Dream Circle series is four sessions with March through May dates. Like the longer Dream Circle series, the sessions are scheduled every 3 weeks, 1.5 hours per session. Lots of time in-between sessions to remember and record your type of dream experiences.

Click here for more information on dates and cost. Or, if you’re ready to register for the Dream Circle click here.

I hope you will join for one or both of these opportunities.