I had a dream this morning that felt more than a little mythical.
In my dream, I got married to a beautiful, tender man who was, in reality, a knight — but he was from the future. For the best chances at a good timeline, he had to travel back in time to meet me, which would help lay the ground for him to face the steep challenges to come in his native time.
After celebrating our wedding, I was carried on a quest to solve a mystery with one of my close childhood friends. The quest took me to a monastery where I first needed to spar with an accomplished martial arts apprentice ( I was full of doubt whether I could even “rise to the occasion” of that test). I told her, however, that my quest was more of a psychic nature, and I knew that children were training at this monastery in various intuitive, mystical and psychokinetic arts. I needed to connect with those who could offer the clues I needed for my quest.
But that all screeched to a halt. I knew, suddenly and out of nowhere, that I was dying. I could see my own being divided up into “parts”: there were three soul-parts, and one part that was my body. These parts showed up as blue-green ostrich eggs. The dream showed me how I was rapidly losing all of these “eggs”, and there was nothing I could do. Finally I stood there as a naked spirit, stripped of all substance, translucent in front of my friend. Then I woke up.
Sometimes, when we dream, we dream for ourselves. Some other times, we dream for others — specific loved ones, for instance, or at times, our dreams have a collective message that applies to many people at once. In some ways, we are almost always dreaming both for self-and-other, as the mysterious fabric of the dreamworld reminds us that we are an ecosystem of brilliant, luminous connection.
It’s the eve of astrological Beltane here in the North Hemisphere (which happens a few days later than the traditional May 1st date). Beltane is one of the eight festivals of the Wheel of the Year in the Celtic, Pagan and Witchcraft traditions. The western astrological perspective also sees these days as powerful turning points in Gaia’s cycle around the Sun.
Taking time to connect with the shifting energies is a way to celebrate and weave Mother Earth’s cycles into the fabric of our beings, into the roots of our community, and into our communion with the plant, animal, spirit and land beings. Beltane in Celtic tradition is a time of fertility— the union of the Green Man and the May Queen, as representatives of sacred, wild energies of the land. It’s a time to welcome the Lover within us, the Beloved in their many guises, and of Eros as the bringer of lifeforce that renews all of nature, as well as our hearts.
Given these energies, my dream of today feels particularly potent and ripe for sharing. Built into the dream are the energies of the lovers, but also transformation through the death process. Here’s Beltane’s counterpart, Samhain, which is taking place in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. Samhain, in contrast to the blossoming of nature here in the North, is the festival of incoming Winter, the Crone face of Gaia and by extension, an honoring of the dead, the spirit world and our ancestors.
But that’s not the only death-and-transformation connection at hand. We’re also about to experience a powerful full moon eclipse in Scorpio, a sign associated with intimacy, death (literal and metaphorical), sexuality, and delving into dark, raw yet truthful places within and without. This, only weeks after one of Scorpio’s ruling planets, Pluto, God of the Underworld, changed signs for the first time since 2008, marking the start of a whole new chapter in history. (Here’s a brief overview of the themes this shift brings us as a collective).
In general, during the last months, and going forward during May, the collective energies are spelling huge changes, endings, transformations and at times, high volatility. If you’ve been feeling any of that, you’re not alone!
Many of us are facing big thresholds, dire circumstances, daunting crossroads, being at sea in an unpredictable world. And this makes sense, because as we navigate this passage of change, we’re helping create the collective future with our choices. Things are not yet set into a pattern of what they’re going to become, and they’re hard to predict based on what came before.
My dream (and the energies we’re navigating above) inspire me to share one thing that we can use as a guiding star at this time.
It is simple, though it might not always be easy.
I believe our deep heart longings — which are different from our wants, compulsions or attachment to predetermined outcomes — always carry a seed, like a little packet of DNA, or a small puzzle piece. When we attune to our heart’s dearest longings, it’s like listening to the voice of Eros, the love and desire for life itself, whispering clues about what’s ours to plant and let grow in the soul-soil of the World.
My invitation to you right now is to take some time, today, tomorrow, or over the next few days, to listen to the longings, both quiet and loud, in your heart. Put no conditions on your generous listening; no shoulds, no buts. Let yourself be with them for as long as you can: five minutes, ten minutes, an hour. Paint them, write a poem about them, and don’t worry if any of it’s cheesy, unrealistic, “worthy” or “bad”.
If there’s anything I’ve learned through a lifetime of psychic and imaginal practices, it’s that even just beholding something with openness and clarity creates positive shifts, sometimes in the most magical and unexpected ways.
Plus, look at this list below. Over years of coaching, mentoring and intuitive work, these are the top items I’ve witnessed in people’s “deepest longings” list:
- To see and be seen, to feel and be felt, to know and be known. Connection way beyond the surface, with love, respect, mutual acceptance and co-creation.
- Healing; meaning not the obsession with the goal of a pure, perfect healed self, but to feel liberated from the tyranny of bearing pain only through meager coping or putting up with abuse and exploitation. Ease in the body and heart and the adaptability to move through the whole range of human experience.
- Being in a regenerative relationship with the land we exist on, expressing our love and reciprocity with the more-than-human.
- Creating freely, with flow and play, whether that’s through an artistic medium (or several!) or through any of our skill sets. Perhaps it’s cooking, developing educational programs or models, public speaking, counseling, permaculture, coding, entrepreneurship or something else entirely.
- Inhabiting a home that’s a sanctuary, with imaginative models of family-ing and an uncontested sense of belonging and shared support.
- Stories! Shared storytelling and story-listening, and meaning-making through new stories and symbols of what it means to be a human being. Updated definitions of how to live well through grief, mystery, joy, love, relationship, the sacred and everything in between.
Can you imagine the world these longings might create? I can. I’m madly in love with it
