Dreaming

This religion is all about understanding that the world -- matter, stuff, cells, creation -- is what's divine. Unlike some xian sects, we don't see Earth as a "vale of tears" to be lived though on the way to Heaven, nor, like some Buddhist sects, do we regard it as "maya," illlusion to be "transcended." And, so, I think that the secret to this time of year, when it's dark when you wake up and dark by 4:30 in the afternoon, is to go into it, to welcome the dark, to agree to hibernate, which, if you are at all like me, is what your soft animal body really wants.

Dream some important dreams during those long dark nights that you wouldn't have time to dream during a shorter sleep. Wake up in the dark and write the dream down in your journal. Stop at lunch and daydream a different ending to the dream. One of my "regular and perpetual" dreams has me trying to find my way somewhere, but getting constantly sidetracked, lost, way-layed. And so, in this period of dark, I go back into the dream while I'm "awake" and bend down to retrieve a map that shows me just how to get to the big city. I look around and recognize the good and helpful stranger who will give me directions that I can understand, and then I thank her, and then I follow them. I sprout angel wings, as black as the black irises that i grow in the Spring, and I fly up high enough about the plains to see which direction I need to travel to reach the ice-cold spring of wonderful water.

It's dark just now for a reason. Dark is the reason for the season.