Exciting new dreamwork website!
I’m excited to announce the birth of a hot new website dedicated entirely to dream work! I am a part of the “dream team” of dreamwork facilitators who support the site.
The site will be a place for you to share and explore all of your dreams- your healing dreams, your plant, animal & nature dreams, your ancestral dreams, your prophetic dreams- all with the support and guidance of expert dreamworkers.
The website is going live April 27. In the meantime, check out the inspiring 45 second video by clicking here.
Let the global dream weaving begin!
Dreaming with the Ancestors
One way I have been applying my training in Indigenous Mind is to lead dream groups that focus on dreaming with the ancestors. Dream work was a central part of the Indigenous Mind experience and we were blessed to be guided by some incredible distinguished traditional elders, including Dr. Apela Colorado, Mr. Hale Makua and Auntie Mahealani Poe Poe. In much of the western world, dreams are viewed mostly from a the perspective of the individual’s psyche. In IM dream work, we also viewed dreams as a major means of communicating with the ancestors. Many of us had dreams of ancestors and were able to recover lost bits of family history through our dreams. I personally had many dreams about the Polish land and Polish people as I began to explore my Polish roots. You can read more about my ancestral dreams in a paper I wrote called “Dream Journey to Poland.”
Vasalisa the Brave, from Slavic fairy tales of the Goddess/Witch Baba Yaga
Starting on March 18th, I will lead a 8 week dream group that focuses on Dreaming with the Ancestors. In this facilitated dream group, we will focus on how our dreams can help us connect to the ancestral and spiritual realms. In each class, we will build an altar and create a sacred space for our dreamwork. The focus of our dreamwork will be first be on our genealogical ancestors and we will set our intentions to remember their stories, rituals, and healing traditions. We will also practice making dream connections with our animal and plant allies, magical beings (like fairies) and our own spirit guides. We will work with family stories, fairy tales and folk art to help activate our ancestral dreams and memory. Flower essences and plant spirit medicine will be incorporated to help enrich our dreaming process.
I have facilitated similar dreamgroups for the past few years and amazing things are occurring in them. It seems as if the ancestors are ready and eager to show up for us to do this work!
For more information, go to the Events and Classes page on my website, AncestralApothecary.com.
For those of you who don’t live in the California Bay Area…….. teleclasses coming soon! Drop me an email if you are interested.
Blessings,
Atava
Mind-Body Healing Dream Group Beginning Soon!
Mind-Body Healing Dream Group
Starts January 19th, 2010
6Tuesdays Starting January 19th, 2010
The New Year is a great time to give renewed attention to our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Dreams can be powerful allies and guides on your healing path. They tap into a wealth of imagery that can be directed towards personal healing. Dreams also can connect us to our healing guides that may take the form of a plant, animal, ancestor or other supernatural being.
In this facilitated dream group, we will focus on the healing art of dream work. We will explore our dreams to discover clues, remedies and prescriptions for health and wellness. Flower essences and plant spirit medicine will be incorporated to help enrich our dreaming process.
Date: 6 Tuesdays, January 19- March 19th
Time: 10:30-12:30 pm
Cost: $150-$250, sliding scale
Location: The Goose Sisters Healing Center, 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland
To Register: Class size limited. $100 deposit required to save a space. Call 510-541-2715; or email atava@ancestralapothecary.com.
Dreaming with Plants
1. Place a bit of the herb under your pillow at night. If I have some fresh herb, I also like to hold some in my hand as I go to sleep. If it’s aromatic like lemon balm or rosemary, I’ll sniff it during the night.
2. Take a drop dose of the tincture before bed. Drop doses help us to tune into the energetics of the plant.
3. Incubate a dream with your herb of choice. To incubate a dream, set your intention before bed to dream of this certain herb. Your intention may be general or specific. A general intention, for example would be, “I would like to dream about passionflower.” A more specific intention would be to ask the plant a certain question. For example, “I would like to ask passionflower to show me in a dream how I can help to heal my anxiety.”
When you incubate a dream, it helps to create a mantra that you say as you fall asleep and that you repeat during the night when you wake up. Your mantra may be similar to your intention, but stated as an affirmation: “I will encounter passionflower in my dream tonight.”
For extra support on your dream incubation, you may wish to write down your intention and place it under your pillow.
4. Incubate a dream of your plant ally. This time, instead of dreaming of a specific plant, you may ask your dreams: “Please show me my plant ally.” Pay close attention to which plants show up in your dream that night.
5. Incubate a healing dream. You may be working on a particular self healing project, such as a chronic illness or injury. In this case, ask you dreams for herbs may be useful in your healing process. Again, pay close attention to what plants show up in your dreams.
6. Make an offering & creating sacred space: All of these suggestions can be amplified if you create a sacred space before going to sleep. You may wish to create an altar and place on it objects that relate to your intention. Another good idea is to make an offering to the spirit of the plants and the spirits of the dreams. You may wish to offer a song, a prayer, a pinch of tobacco, some candy (flower fairies love sweets!) or whatever is part of your own spiritual tradition.
Mugwort, the Queen of Dream Plants
