Ancestral Apothecary » Dreamwork

Dreaming into 2012, Prophecy, Guidance & Healing

atava — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:47:54 +0000

Coyolxauhqui, Mexica moon goddess.

Dream group facilitated by Atava Garcia Swiecicki.

Session 1: 8 Thursdays, 2/23-4/19, 9:30 am- 11:30 am, Cost: $325

Session 2: 6 Thursdays, 5/10-6/14, 9:30 am- 11:30 am, Cost $250

Receive $40 discount if you sign up for both sessions.

“When you’re speaking English and you’ve been disconnected from your cultural, spiritual heritage and power for hundreds of years, how are those ancestors going to connect with us? What’s the way? We don’t have an intact tribal community to contain it, to hold it, to support and protect us. How’s it going to happen with integrity and safety? One of the main ways is through dreams.”

Dr. Apela Colorado, Founder of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network and the Indigenous Mind Program

This dreamgroup is dedicated to remembering our indigenous ways of knowing through community dream work. The focus of this dream group will be on receiving and sharing the important messages from the spiritual world in this prophetic year of 2012. We will work with ritual, art, tarot, guided meditation, and plant spirit medicine to enhance the dreamwork process.

Application required. Email atava@ancestralapothecary.com to receive an application to join this group.

Class size is limited. $100 deposit required to save your space. Balance due at the time of first class.

For the latest updates, find this class on Facebook.

Dreaming with the Ancestors Starts October 28th

atava — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:46:57 +0000

Calling All Dreamers!

Do you have powerful dreams that are calling for your attention?

Looking to connect to spiritual guidance from the dream world?

I am excited to announce that a new cycle of Dreaming with the Ancestors will begin on October 28th at my Oakland office.

My intention for this group is to create a safe and sacred space to explore the ways in which the ancestors and the spiritual world communicate to us both in sleeping and waking dreams.

In my experience, these dream groups have become a place for spiritual empowerment, healing, transformation & community building. I am continuously in awe at the magic & synchronicity that is experienced in each circle.

To reserve your space in this small, intimate dream group, call 510-541-2715, or emaill me at atava@ancestralapotheary.c0m

Dream Diet for Optimum Health

atava — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:32:12 +0000

Dr. Oz recently did a show on What Dreams Mean About Your Health.

I am glad this important piece about dreams has reached the mainstream. As a holistic health care practitioner, educator and dream worker, I’ve been leading Mind-Body Healing Dreamgroups in Oakland for the past few years.

A simple way to start working with your dreams to improve your health is to pay attention to dreams of food. I recently wrote an article for DreamTribe about how to examine and follow your own dream diet:

http://thedreamtribe.com/dreaming-your-diet-for-optimal-health/

How Plants Heal Us In Dreams

atava — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 19:51:20 +0000

Chapparral, larrea tridentata, one of the oldest living plants on earth

I have been observing the messages plants give to us in dreams for many years now with myself, my herbal students and my dream group members. Here is an article that I wrote for the Dream Tribe about dreaming with plants.

http://thedreamtribe.com/how-plants-heal-us-in-dreams

I also am collecting plant dreams, so if you have one you’d like to submit, you can email me at atava@ancestralapothecary.com.

Blessings,
Atava

Dreaming with the Ancestors

atava — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:58:22 +0000

Dreaming with the Ancestors
12 session series begins Friday October 29th

Do you have powerful dreams that are calling for your attention?

Looking to connect to spiritual guidance from the dream world?

For many cultures, this is the time of year for remembering and honoring our ancestors. Also, as the nights grow longer, our attention is pulled more strongly to the dream world.

In my studies and work as a graduate of the Indigenous Mind Program, I have realized that the dream realm is one of the most direct and powerful ways to reconnect and communicate with our ancestors.

In honor of this season I will commence another cycle of the dream group, Dreaming with the Ancestors. In this facilitated dream group, we will focus on how our dreams can help us connect to our ancestors.

We will dream with our own human ancestors and also practice making dream connections to the plants, animals, and guardian spirits of our ancestral realms. We will work with family stories, fairy tales and folk art to help activate our ancestral dreams and memory.

In each class, we will build an altar and create a sacred space for our dream work. Flower essences and plant spirit medicine will be incorporated to help enrich our dreaming process.

This cycle I will be joined by my good friend and colleague from the Polish Ancestral Healing Project, Maura Singer Williams. Maura, a gifted facilitator, is an interfaith chaplain who leads dream groups for people with cancer at Summit Medical Center.

This is a small, intimate dream group and space is limited. Call or email now to reserve your space.
Dates: 12 Fridays, October 29-February 4th (no class 11/26, 12/24, 12/31)
Time: 3:30-6:00 PM
Cost: $350-$450 sliding scale
Location: The Goose Sisters Healing Center, 3798 Grand Ave, Oakland

Class size limited. Register now to save your space. $100 deposit required to save a space. Call 510-541-2715; or email atava@ancestralapothecary.com.

Exciting new dreamwork website!

atava — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:44:13 +0000

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

atava — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:48:00 +0000

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!

atava — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:48:00 +0000

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

atava — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:22:43 +0000

Here are some suggestions on how to dream with the 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