As a child, the veil between the dream state and other realms of existence was shimmering and transparent, becoming more so after a dramatic spiritual awakening in 1989. Saints from diverse paths and traditions entered dreams to give initiation and teachings and although I had never studied anything of the Shamanic path, Shamans suddenly appeared to lead me in unusual and elaborate rituals.In one lucid dream, I found myself with a group of Hopi Elders. Given a dark, green herbal mixture to drink, I was stretched out on the earth while the Master Shaman began walking across my chest. Breaking open the rib-cage, his foot plunged into my body, turning and massaging the heart. Then he told me, “The heart is being turned and squeezed in order to contain the message of the Blue Star, in accordance with the Hopi prophecy.”
In another initiation dream, I found myself in South America with two native women who instructed, “It is necessary to take the (second) green initiation in order to move through time and space.” Then I was taken to a wise, female Master Shaman whose face shone with a green luster. Standing together as she instructed, we began moving in an anti-clockwise spiral, chanting a song to the four directions. A few moments later on being drawn back to waking, the Shaman woman called into my waking world that she belonged to a tribe sounding like ‘I-Y-A-H-U-A-C-A.’ Her message, “There is discomfort when the great divide is being crossed,” continued reverberating throughout my being as I slowly opened my eyes.
A couple of weeks later, I was intrigued to meet a young woman who confided she had recently returned from studying with a Shaman in Peru and that her teacher was, “A Shaman from the Ayahuasca tradition.” As soon as she uttered that unusual word, I knew without question that it was the name of the tribe I had heard the Shaman woman utter in my dream.
In the years since my spiritual awakening, grace continues to flow into and through my life in the most powerful and compelling of ways and with it, I am continually brought back to a place of deep gratitude. What I have come to appreciate is whether we think we are ready or not, whether we are even consciously aware of being a 'seeker,' grace comes unbidden, entering the fabric of our lives and serving to bring us to the truth of who we really are.
Whether we are taught this in the waking or subtle states of being, all paths, faiths and belief systems ultimately bring us to the ‘Truth of the One.' And at some point in our evolution, we are destined to become the embodiment of that Truth. Eventually we will stop searching for a path. In the end, through the challenges of facing our own light and our own darkness and by being completely emptied out, we will come to know, "It is finished. I AM complete. I AM the path."
Except of a lesson on The Art of Lucid Dreaming, from the Living in Alignment online course. For details go to: http://www.livinginalignment.org
