session 2: FIRE
Cead mile failte. A hundred thousand welcomes. Thank you for dreams of FIRE.
I had a difficult time “wrestling” with FIRE this week - in the Dreamtime and in waking life. The dreams I received for this oracle dream session were of epic battles demonstrating the way FIRE moves through us into the world.
As we work with FIRE, it is important to remember that FIRE does not discriminate in its alchemical transformative energies. When we stand close to the FIRE or when we dance in the Sacred Flames, we may get burned and parts of us may/will die…
we dream of FIRE: ceremonial battle sacrifice
We gather at a traditional-indigenous restaurant. The restaurant is illuminated by firelight - candles flickering on the tables, sconces on the walls, torches around the central ring. The restaurant is absolutely full of people. I feel a subtle heat rising and a tension building as sweat glistens on brow and lip.
My husband and I are chosen to fight a bull-boar together. The battle is evenly matched and we are nearly killed. I lose my spear. With a machete from above, I come down hard on the bull-boar’s back. I am feeling weak and tired, unable to get through the thick-skinned armor. My husband must intervene because my life is in danger. He makes the deciding blow, chopping through the belly. The bull-boar is dead. People are cheering. I must give the final blow - I use my hands to gently open the bull-boar’s vulva. We are given the table of honor - the women sitting there gladly give up their seats.
the FIRE oracles…
In this dream, ceremonial battle sacrifice, the “traditional-indigenous restaurant” is a tribal gathering place where we go for nourishment and celebration. We circle together around the FIRE to share stories - the stories of our days, our lives, our ancestors, our creation…
What nourishes you?
The archetypes associated with FIRE are the Lover and the Warrior. Through FIRE, we engage with intimate, initiative energies, moving from the realm of ideas to actions in ourselves and our relationships.
In Dreamtime, a marriage is a sacred contract between the inner masculine and feminine. We agree to look out for each other, no matter what. In this partnership, we can examine our strengths and weaknesses/vulnerabilities. We have a choice to fight against each other, to fight alone, or to align mind, heart, and will - wisdom, love and strength - and fight together.
The choice to align requires much skill and consciousness, and it may be the hardest choice we make, time and time again, as instinctual urges for self-preservation and survival arise. Yet, collaborating and working together is the way we will make it through the challenges and thrive.
What steps can you take in your relationships (self, other, lover, friend, foe, community, world) to create a Sacred Contract of alliance?
Life presents us with these tests and initiations that cannot be avoided or shunned, without consequence. Instead, we must engage in a soulful way…all of us is required.
So, we step into the ring of fire, ready to confront a mythic beast - a bull-boar - representing the instinctive, untamed masculine energy. Both bull and boar are difficult to control, easily irritated, aggressive and potentially dangerous.
And, “we are evenly matched.” The dream is saying that we also embody these energies. In confronting ourselves in this battle, we come into an intimate relationship with that wild instinctive dangerous force of FIRE that burns within.
What kind of tests are you facing in your life? Can you see them as initiations?
As we confront the ordeals presented to us, we choose how to make an impact with weapons (tools) of all kinds. These tools are extensions of ourselves in the world - they can be thoughts, words, actions. In this way, we are called to Sacred Activism.
We have been chosen. As a Hopi elder once said, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
How do you engage in Sacred Activism? How do you show up? How do you make an impact?
In this dream, the feminine loses her spear - a phallic tool - sharp, pointed, directive energy used to kill or injure at a distance. These qualities are associated with the tongue - a sharp wicked tongue…Yet, she carries a different weapon - the machete - one that requires her to engage in closer contact with the energy before her, to cut through the illusions and false beliefs.
What tools/skills/gifts are needed to engage with your Destiny - your sacred purpose and your wild instinctual nature?
When we fight alone, we tire and weaken easily. We will not be successful if we come to the circle with only half of ourselves - we must show up in our wholeness, consciously aware of our strengths and weaknesses, consciously engaging all aspects of ourselves.
So, the masculine part must join with the feminine in order to defeat this powerful energy. She tries to cut through the toughest skin, muscle and bone; he goes for the soft underbelly. He contributes knowledge rather than brute force, alone. He is intimately aware of the most vulnerable part of the beast.
Are you aware of your inherent strengths and vulnerabilities?
The element of FIRE is located in the belly, the solar plexus. The solar plexus is “a radiating network of nerves located in the abdominal cavity.” It is the focal point of the third chakra - our will power. In Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man, Sam Keen speaks to this FIRE: “Good men and good women have fire in the belly. We are fierce. Don't mess with us if you're looking for someone who will always be 'nice' to you. Nice gets you a C+ in life. We don't always smile, talk in a soft voice, or engage in indiscriminate hugs. In the loving struggle between the sexes we thrust and parry.”
The “final blow” is one of immense gentleness, where she turns from Warrior to Midwife. The bull-boar reveals its feminine nature, and we see what lies beneath the aggressive bullish energy. Is this the feminine masquerading as the masculine, or the reverse, or both? In any case, death reveals its secret hidden nature.
In Dreamtime, death is a symbol of profound transformation. Death is also connected to orgasm - the moment of climactic finality, la petite mort. This scene of the battle is also the realm of Sacred Sexuality where the Divine Feminine and the Sacred Masculine come together.
Inevitably, some energy or aspect of ourselves dies or is killed to make room for new life. This life comes through the woman’s vulva, through a ring of FIRE (the intense stretching of the vaginal opening during the birthing process).
What is dying in you? What is being birthed through you? What can you do to honor & celebrate both?
We are given the table of honor - Queen & King, Lovers & Warriors - celebrated for our victory - for the transformation of this energy. Women who have been sitting at the table - holding space - gladly give up their seats to the united feminine and masculine. The bull-boar has given its life force energy to strengthen this Union.
This verse from Lorin Roche’s The Radiance Sutras says it all:
radiance sutra
Desire, lust, longing -
Anger humming in your blood.
Confusion, jealousy, bewilderment,
Swirling in your head.
Catch the first hint as passion rises,
The first quickening heartbeat.
Embrace that vibrancy
With a mind vast as the sky.
Witness the elemental motion of emotion:
Fire burning, illuminating,
Water gushing, cleansing,
Air inspiring, soothing,
Earth supporting, holding,
Space expanding, embracing.
You are the temple of desire.
Go deeper still and rest in essence,
Awake to infinite spiritual energy
Surging into form.
(Lorin Roche, The Radiance Sutras, Yukti 78)
Please share your reflections/insights/musings with us through the Comment section just below this post.
session 3: WATER
For session 3, we call in WATER, associated with the direction of the West, the setting sun and isles of the Blest, Mother/Father, compassion. Ocean, river, waterfall, rain, lake. Finned creatures of the deep. diving, swimming, drowning, floating.
Share a dream of WATER (scroll down to the bottom of the page). I feel so blessed to receive your Dreams!
dream tip: lucid dreaming
Some people are naturally able to access lucid dreaming - they know they are dreaming, and they can sometimes make choices about where they go or what they do in the Dreamtime. To me, this is a merging of the elements of our soul body - AIR mental awareness, FIRE initiative/will, WATER emotional/feeling body, EARTH embodied felt sense, the physical body.
Here is a simple practice to play with: as you lie down to sleep, look at your hands. Say to yourself, “I will look down and see my hands in my dreams.” Perhaps you will, and perhaps you won’t…open yourself to all possible responses…you may be surprised.
Also, if you haven’t yet seen the previous post, introducing the dream oracle sessions, please check it out, so you know how these dream oracle sessions are organized.
a FIRE blessing
FIRE is a call to action. Connect in with this spark of desire, the eternal flame within. Then light a candle, infusing it with the energy of your inner FIRE - the Lover and Warrior aspects of your Soul.
Sit before the candle. Speak your desires into the dancing flame. When you have spoken the words of your heart, blow your love into the flame, and watch as the smoke swirls and lifts and spreads your prayer in all directions.
Blessed be.
sweet dreams…
JML
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