I have always been intrigued by the dream world and other unseen or hidden phenomena. Visiting world-wide sacred sites and working with Courtney’s photographs of sacred places began to open new thresholds into the invisible. Subsequent years of studying cross-cultural myths and ancient traditions left me with a thread of mystery running through my view of the world. Metaphysical questions became much easier to ask as I wondered at the amazing similarity of sacred stories repeated through diverse cultures, with a few variations in details such as the names of spiritual figures or the settings of transcendent experiences. Jung said it best in his Red Book: Whoever speaks in primordial images speaks with a thousand voices. All of this exploration resulted in our series of books on sacred places from all seven continents, but little did I know that a 1997 visit to Chartres Cathedral in France would be my entre` to a different level of that other world [see Portal 3].

No doubt my dream life was enriched by this spiritual journey that evolved over the years prior to my Jungian explorations. Dreams became a new kind of reflector that provided me with a more intimate navigational system that has been integral to the course of my awakening. Working with dream images became my first major shift from images facing outward -- to images generated from within, with a glimpse of the numinous.

This was my introduction to the mythopoetic – opening to the longstanding underlying patterns in a life, the world of symbol and myth, and the sense of an undercurrent pulling me deeper – through multiple ways of knowing observed in other cultures ... feeling the hidden cadence of life moving, although not always in what we consider to be ‘forward.’

My quest to understand alternate ways of knowing continued to enliven my interest in dreams but at that time there were no Jungians to study with where I lived in Saskatchewan, long before learning became available via the technology of Skype and Zoom! It was nearly twenty years before my dedicated dream study came to fruition after I moved to Victoria, BC in 2016.

What would a dream on jaywalking have to teach me? This recent dream seemed rather innocuous on first look:

Only in hindsight would I see these choices as edgy or unusual – for me, they felt normal. The final chapter (at least so far!) was moving to a new city and starting a new life at age seventy, six years after Courtney died. It was during this time that the Jaywalking dream emerged and melded with past life memories through inner vision experiences (see Portal 3) that portrayed independence and leadership roles that resonated in this current life. These images echoed the impulse that led me to explore unusual paths in this lifetime with opportunities to move through many social and business opportunities requiring formal dress, in contrast with a more comfortable casual and eccentric lifestyle I preferred to walk in my humble tennis shoes. I recently realized the word ‘eccentric’ comes from the mathematical term that means ‘off center,’ a perfect description of my hidden desire to avoid the well-trodden path of ‘normal,’ and instead, to open to a gypsy-inspired life, dancing to the rhythm of my own soul. Jungian therapist Marlene Schiwy’s compelling archetypal memoir, Gypsy Fugue, became a mirror for me to understand this part of my journey.

Although it may take months or even years to unpack the significance of a dream, this Jaywalking dream provided an instant insight that led me to a quantum leap of understanding and self-acceptance; it put a lot of my life into a new perspective, a new consciousness that continues to encourage me in this avenue of writing and exploring, and stepping my way in my tennis shoes around the spiral of life.

My appreciation of the power of such a ‘Eureka’ moment comes from a story I read in the history of science, when August Kekule had a daydream in which he ‘saw’ in his mind a ring shape of dancing atoms. This ‘ring’ image resulted in the pivotal understanding of the molecular structure of carbon, which altered the course of science, and the world. In 1890, Kekule urged his fellow scientists: let us learn to dream, and perhaps we will find the truth. It is only now, well into the 21st century, that some branches of science are creating new models of the world incorporating nonphysical phenomena and experiences portraying multiple ways of knowing.

Most of our dreaming is during sleep. Night-time dreaming comes in a variety of packages – some offer enticing fragments, while others weave more intricate and comprehensive glimpses of a world that is available to us beyond ordinary mental consciousness, leaving ghostly trails of memory for us to capture as we surface through the twilight zone from sleep.

Other dream-like hidden material may come through states of reverie, which for me melds with the present as I let my attention drift ... basking in the sun, writing in my journal, engaging in the music in a darkened concert hall, or reading a book that inspires or stimulates my imagination – anything that takes me ‘out’ of my rational mind and thinking mode.

My workouts in the gym are often a source of reverie as I drop my awareness into my body and let my mind wander. An example of the creativity that can emerge from this ‘mindlessness’ comes through this image from Courtney’s Oct. 23rd Pool of Possibilities e-calendar, which I had viewed the morning it arrived in my inbox. On my way home from the gym that day, the pool image flitted through my ‘mind’s eye,’ and then the phrase “trusting the gold” popped into my awareness. It was an ‘aha’ moment for me.

That phrase came from a book of the same name, a story by renowned Buddhist teacher, Tara Brach, about a statue with a crack in the gray surface that revealed the figure underneath was coated with pure gold. It was assumed this revered Golden Buddha in Bangkok had been covered over more than 600 years earlier to protect it from invading armies.

Tara’s lesson is to open to and trust that we have our own ‘inner gold,’ a basic sense of goodness that is hidden in the essence of our being. She suggests that we as humans often fear this power in ourselves and we shut down this goodness, but, with an open heart we can shed our protective layers and trust that our ‘gold’ is there for us to draw from.

For me the message of Tara’s gold is about believing in and facilitating the invisible world to penetrate my awareness. This unseeable nonphysical world is often compared to an iceberg that has nine-tenths of its presence concealed under water. The above photographic image of submerged gold is a waterscape. Golden sunlight on branches hanging over the pool are reflected in puddles of water below surface debris. The sun is able to penetrate through the dark pools. It portrays how the world around us can, and does, reflect our inner landscape. It exemplifies the invitation of how we might shine a light on hidden things. It reminds me that through some mysterious human porosity, psyche finds a way for our ‘gold’ to surface into awareness when the mind is at rest, not filtering, judging or blocking these precious impulses.

We can open to reverie and we can also choose to ask for information through dreams, as well as to facilitate deeper experiences of dream images through skilled analysis with a therapist or, as I do, exploration with a dedicated dream group. My group enriches my life in many ways because we trust and know each other so well, and through seeing deeply into each other, we can access different possible meanings in a dream that might not have emerged in my own exploration. My willingness to attend to a dream, and allowing others to witness my process, is also a conscious measure of honoring myself. All of these processes invite new ways of looking at the world, new possibilities of seeing oneself and one’s life in expanded and deeper ways.

This mysterious permeability of consciousness leaves me full of wonder. The dreams recorded here came in their own time, the rhythm of Kairos revealing them and their ultimate meaningfulness through that sacred flow of non-linear time.

There are times when the dream world brings something so mysterious and puzzling that I am rendered speechless, as I was while editing the final draft of this dream portal that had been written months before, and this dream came:

The persistent word sounded like gibberish. As I awoke, it stayed with me – it sounded Greek but the dictionary told me nothing. I then Googled the phonetic spelling, and was astonished to find it was a real word: enantiodromia, based on the law of opposites from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It was adopted by Jung, who interpretated it to mean that opposites always coexist, usually at different levels of consciousness, and that everything eventually makes way for its opposite to come into our awareness.

I was then further astonished as I searched my computer and found three documents that I had recorded about this word over the past five years, but I had absolutely no recognition of it, and was reminded only when I found these commentaries. An article by Jean Shinoda Bolen on the Pink Pussy Hat demonstrations was most insightful, describing the five million people who marched the day after Donald Trump’s 2017 US Presidential inauguration to protest his boasting that he could have any woman he wanted, he just had to “grab her pussy.” People worldwide were incensed, and through their actions, transformed his crass derogatory description of women as utilitarian and shameful body parts, into its opposite, the “pink pussy” power of women claiming their own identity and the sacred nature of their sexuality.

In subsequent days I was inundated with examples of such polarization. In waking life, I was daily aware of divergent political opinions and vastly different belief systems, where I was called to hold the paradox, to cradle the ‘both/and’ conundrum while being attentive to clarifying and hearing both sides of the equation. These day-to-day life situations often feel hard to hold, but there is a reward in being mindful, and a richness and clarity to be discovered when all characters are at the table, being heard -- whether in daytime or dreamtime form.

I wasn’t sure what this meant but I was literally quite shaken – my body was vibrating, telling me to pay attention – Courtney and his clothing felt tangible, and our friend’s comment “you’re here!” echoed her surprise and delight that he had not died, but was really with us in the room. At the time I had no idea what the quotes meant, or the significance of her red coat. When I returned home, I was immediately immersed in the preparation to transfer Courtney’s vast archive of work to our local university archives, a process that had commenced months before and would take a lot of time to complete (it took two more years). I realized over the next few weeks that the dream was a confirmation that the work should go to the university: we were to ‘give it to the children’. The red coat felt like a symbol of vitality, of life.

Many months later, when the archive transfer was to be finalized, I had some anxiety about the contract I needed to sign with them, and the finality of letting go of this work that had been my life for more than twenty years. I waffled, the deadline approached, and I had another dream:

This Given the License dream was an even more powerful confirmation of what was happening with the Courtney Milne Archive. In the dream our car was disappearing - it was no longer my ‘vehicle’ in life - it was making a left-hand turn, the archetypal direction of the West, symbolic of going into the darkness of the underworld, or the mythic place of the after-world ... and I had been given the license that was ‘paid for’. My guides on the third floor were young people, a reflection of the previous dream to ‘give it to the children’; in the dream they could climb the pile of earth, but I was not able to, or meant to. It was time for me to let go. It also felt a bit like a burial mound full of treasure – and it belonged to the young people on the third floor. The third floor was also significant. From a Jungian archetypal perspective; three is a time of developmental processes, signifying moving towards a constellation, bringing something into fruition. I had long seen my work and personal relationship with Courtney as what I called “The Third Note” ... a coming together of two beings to create a third creative entity, larger than both parties -- which was no longer. This dream confirmed I was doing the right thing, and prompted me to phone my lawyer to sign the contract. This dream continues to impact my life as it not only shows the power of the dream world to communicate highly specific (although symbolic) important messages, but also my ability to receive, understand, and act on what I felt to be its significance. The outcome changed the trajectory of my life.

I have hundreds of dreams I could recount, but my focus here is on dreams that convey specific images that have directed my life. Recent years of engaging in dream exploration with a dedicated group of women has not only given me new insights but has enriched my life with the deep friendship and trust that has come from sharing such intense personal material.

Another example of a significant prophetic dream came several years ago. A friend had invited me to have coffee with her to share some news. The morning we were to meet I had this dream:

When we met later that day, she told me she had been diagnosed with cancer and that she did not intend to have treatment. I told her of my dream, which for both of us seemed like an astounding reflection of the situation. She was grateful to see that in the dream she was depicted the ‘Keeper of the Keys’, confirming to her that she had the means and the ability to take charge of her life. She understood that the golden stockings were a symbol of her strong Buddhist beliefs and practices – it was significant to her that in the dream she was actually wearing the ‘gold’ of her spiritual tradition. It was significant for me to be dressed in civilian clothes ... my role was not medical, but as a witness. Much later I was to see more personal significance to the ‘keeper of the keys’ mantra. It also seemed serendipitous that she was the person who introduced me to formal dream study.

She did eventually decide to have surgery but a year later the cancer recurred. She ‘took charge’ again and finalized her affairs, including choosing to have MAiD - medical assistance in dying. The date was uncertain as she waited for a friend and her Buddhist spiritual teacher to arrive, complicated by travel constraints during the Covid pandemic. I had not met them, and did not want to disturb the stillness that was necessary at this time. Then, another dream:

I woke up startled by the certainty that this Empty Parking Lot was an important dream, but not yet understanding why. I knew I needed to share it with them, which I did in an email to her spiritual teacher. Later that day I received the response telling me that my friend had died at the appointed time that same morning, a few hours after I had the dream.

These dream images were very meaningful to me: the trail to the left indicated another left- hand turn, towards death; the lavender coat portrayed a spiritual garment of transformation in the Easter Pasque flower colour of Christianity, but also refers to Jewish Passover (which was her original spiritual tradition); I intuited her vomiting to be that she was ‘ridding herself of the world’; her dog was a symbol of instinctual knowing and of unconditional love; the assistance by a religious person echoed the spiritual nature of her journey. She had been up the hill - the metaphorical ‘going up the mountain’ for enlightenment and spiritual initiation - but she was now emptied of this physical world, descending to the vacant earthly parking lot -- no physical vehicles waiting, nowhere to go, nothing more to do on this physical plane.

Some weeks later, I listened to a Jungian lecture on the mythological return of Persephone from her sojourn in the underworld. The speaker commented that it was the Greek goddess, Hekate - the “Keeper of the Keys” - who unlocked the gate of the underworld and assisted both the descent into and later, the return of the transformed Persephone. I was very familiar with Hekate, the Crone goddess who with her dog wanders in the darkness guarding the Tri Via, the symbolic intersection of the three roads of past, present and future. For twenty years I was part of a women’s group we called the Tri Via. Hekate was our witness and guide at the crossroads, where life confronts us, where we can fall into the symbolic underworld - the abyss of the twists and turns of life and the dark nights of the soul - where we are forced to take a new direction. She holds her torch aloft for us to see the way in the dark, all the possibilities, bridging the liminal shadowy realm between unconscious and conscious. What was most impactful is that, despite my years of study of the Greek myths, I was not aware of Hekate’s designation as “Keeper of the Keys.”

This resonated with the dream elements of my ‘Keeper of the Keys’ friend in hospital. Illness is often seen as an underworld journey where one is plunged into the darkness, thrust onto the path of experiencing our deepest essence ~ all under the protection and guiding presence of the wise Crone, and, as in the second dream of my friend, the instinctual nature of the dog.

At this point the plot then thickened once again. Shortly after listening to that lecture about Persephone and Hekate, keys started to appear in tangible forms, echoing the temple guardian -- the “Keeper of the Keys” in my inner vision session.

This series of intersecting events also made clear that dream messages that appear to be for another person may also be for me, the dreamer. This was further illuminated in how the following elements dovetailed in my life.

Does the dream world provide packets of experience for us to digest or process in manageable segments? Is there something more to learn in how these whisperings happen? Perhaps it is the dreamer’s evolution and awareness that allows understanding to land at just the right time.

Here’s an example of that readiness. I had scheduled a meeting with a multi-media producer to review the programs that I offer. I was looking for direction on if, and how, to develop these presentations further and offer them publicly again, after the pandemic. I also wondered if they were still valid, or perhaps I was ‘done’ with them. I had recently read Anita Moorjani’s book, Dying To Be Me, about her near-death experience and her return from the threshold, completely cured of her seemingly dire illness. I was also listening to Anita’s webinar about how a more yin life, immersed in beauty and flow and intuition, provides more personal energy and power, compared to the “Type A” approach many of us employ to ‘get things done,’ by pushing forward with a full-speed-ahead attitude. Moorjani suggests that, conversely, the softer yin sensitivity is the “new strength.” The day before the meeting I had this Craft Show dream:

That same day I had a inner vision session:

And the next morning, the day of the meeting, this Burning Bed dream came:

Then two days later I had what I call the Frozen Egg dream, which I initially thought was for a friend who is in her late sixties:

When I told this friend of “her” dream, I presented it in the metaphorical language we both understood, asking her what she was growing/birthing at this stage of her life. She replied that she and her partner were creating a crucible of caring for many friends going through difficult times – in fact, five days after this dream, she travelled to support a mutual friend whose husband had died suddenly. I saw this as a perfect example of her ‘birthing’ her own caring as she went to help that friend to ‘birth’ her new life.

Putting aside the Frozen Egg dream (which at the time I still thought was for someone else), I realized the other dreams were telling me to question what I really wanted at this time in my life. The marital bed, a symbol of my personal life with Courtney, was transformed in a fire in an ‘exhibition’, a ‘creative’ fire ... in a ‘gas’ station, a place where fuel is provided ... but the steel frame was still intact. In reality, our bed frame was wood, and I still use it ... but this dream was a metaphor, suggesting there was a structure still in place from our life together. It affirmed to me that the time had come to give up my feeling of responsibility to continue the work we had done together, but the steel framework would allow me to continue in other ways – the foundation was still there. The inner vision session in the golden mist landed me in a familiar role of being a conduit for other worldly experiences of ‘light’ or insight, and reminded me that it was more about ‘being’, than ‘doing’ something. Telling the dream woman at the craft show to ‘follow your desire’ was also a message for me to hear. These spaces all had a sense of calm, certainty, and peace, as I have often found in this impressionistic image of a life-sized sculpture in a meadow as seen from the window of our home.

Within hours of the Burning Bed dream, I met with the producer (who had also known and worked with Courtney). That afternoon I consciously chose to focus on my personal story, the ongoing one that is still in process. This friend was very positive in his comments about my work and how I might use it. I felt encouraged to move forward again.

However, a few weeks later I gave a presentation which left me feeling uninspired, and I realized the work still had a powerful impact but the type of audience I had targeted needed to change. As I continued to ponder the options, serendipitously, I was working with the Frozen Egg dream with my dream group. They reminded me that dreams we think might be for others might also be for us. They asked: what in you might be frozen, ready to implant, grow and birth? It was a bit like the Yale key appearing at exactly the right time to enhance a knowing ... that indeed something within me needed to be warmed up, unlocked, unleashed.

And if I needed any further reinforcement, my astrology reading for that same day also said something interesting: much of daily life and social grace hinges on artifice ... and yet, here you are trying to give people something real, not something that only feels real in a transactional moment. This was a good reminder that my personal story and inspiration is what speaks to people ... that the warmth of personal transparency and intimate stories shared from a heart space during my presentations is what brings the stories ‘alive’, making them impactful and valuable to others.

These dreams show the dream world to be close at hand, a step away from this situation we call ‘reality.’ But the innuendoes and recognitions bring me much closer than I ever thought possible to the expanse of a much larger universe filled with mystery and enigmatic happenings.

Dreams are ‘alive.’ We get to re-examine them, turn them over, feel them again, and look from new perspectives as life unfolds and contributes to our understanding, and as they reappear in different forms until we ‘get the message.’ For me, this image of water and ice portrays the protective layers of psyche containing that hidden flow of awareness and experience, while also providing passageways or portals to consciousness. The landing into awareness often appears when I’m stuck or feeling overwhelmed (even if I don’t realize it!). After working with the recognition this image provided, it also appeared in an inner vision session – once again illustrating the porosity of the veil between the worlds.

The Jaywalking dream was also very timely – when my writing felt stalled - reminding me of my capability, independence and self-reliance. The Frozen Egg dream questioned what was icy in me, and what needed to thaw so I could move forward (as the blue image also illustrated). The Burning Bed dream gave me permission to let go of some things while still being held by the container of past experience and learning. This ability of a dream to be understood in that moment, to land on ‘fertile ground’ struck me as I watched a program on Arctic wildlife. For polar bears, sexual activity and fertilization happens in the spring when the weather is balmy and food is abundant. However, the fertilized egg is implanted months later, in the autumn, and only after summer gorging on bountiful food has prepared the bear’s body with the right amount of fat to nurture gestation while she sleeps through her winter hibernation. So, for new life to happen the foundation needs to be specifically prepared. If the bear is underweight – which is becoming a contemporary problem caused by global warming and loss of sea ice for bears to hunt from – then the conceptus (product of fertilization) will not be implanted. Perhaps this is also a good metaphor for human ‘weightiness’ in the world, a reminder to be grounded deep within ourselves on a fertile substrate of conscious vitality that will allow us to recognize and respond to the next level of creativity or generativity being offered to us.

So, what is at play here? What is the role of synchronicity, or of resonance? The Law of Synchronicity is attributed to Jung, illustrated best by his most famous story of the appearance of a scarab at the window while his patient reported a dream of one. Revelations from the I Ching, or from the Tarot are often considered synchronous ... it is uncanny how the right information turns up when we need it (and are open and able to see or hear it). I also find other modalities may bring forth an experience that is congruent, repeating the theme that expands my understanding, the dream echoing in an inner vision  session. What is important is that the images stick with me ... literally, the landscapes - physical and non-physical - reflect my consciousness and then guide me into the next step. See Ripple Effects for other profound examples of synchronicity with the appearance of a hawk and a Great Horned Owl.

Perhaps some dreams are also a manifestation of grace. From a religious viewpoint, grace is seen as a Divine ‘hand’ reaching down to assist us in our human need ... a gift bestowed, unexpected, not asked for (although we could ask, or have aspiration for). However we might personalize it, there do seem to be times when the way is opened, or we open to a way of being in the world that is flowing with ease, full of gratitude. Perhaps it is gratitude that opens the door to that flow. See Grace Notes for more examples of other pathways and openings.

Other dreams may feel dark and disturbing, entangled with complicated and unexplained shifts in time entwined in multilevel situations, figures and locations. They may take us into the abyss of uncertainty and fear, or, depending on our perspective, into the darkness of the underworld compost that is rich with meaning. The dream figures may be recognizable, or may be somewhat vague or unformed. Time might be altered even though the situations are recognizable from daytime life, or they may be wrapped in a metaphor offering new threads of meaning. They may contain a sense of certainty - of being directly informed, or being given clear direction - like my dream of being handed the ‘license’ which I perceived as the signal to sign the Archives contract.

When we arrive at the crossroads of the Tri Via, or when life throws us into the ‘abyss’ or the ‘dark night of the soul’, we are given an opportunity to discover new insights. As the image below portrays, it is not a smooth journey, but is storied with uncertainty and entangled with obstacles and convoluted pathways that must be navigated. It is also anointed with light. This is my experience of the ‘darkness’ ... no matter how much fear and grief it encapsulates, there is always a point of light coming through, both metaphysically, and metaphorically. I may catch it through a glance at the corner of my eye, or through a sense of permeating luminosity – and if I tune in deeply, I find it carries the mythopoetic promise of holding paradox, equanimity, and the rich medicine of mystery -- and of beauty.

And then I am reminded, once again, of Courtney’s vision for his work: to reveal the unfolding mystery, not to try to solve it  ... which can be equally applied to the work of a life.

This final dream sequence expanded into a most powerful vision and tangible knowing of where I was at in my life and with this work. Five months after the series above, I felt blocked in my writing. This Uncooked Chicken dream appeared the morning I was to attend a Jungian lecture:

My initial response that morning was ‘why am I still feeding people?’, feeling it was portraying my long-time (self-imposed) role of caretaking, and with this I recognized at some level a feeling of resentment, this feeling obliged to take care of others. But then I looked at it more symbolically, realizing that I’m still working on ‘feeding’ people, as well as myself, on a different level with my Inner Landscapes work. This sentiment echoed in the Jungian event later that morning when the presenter described her therapy with a troubled and insecure young man who dreamed of a ninja dancing on a roof ... his immediate response was “I could never do that.” The dream brought up his feelings of impotence and a lack of control in his life, and the accompanying anger and feeling like a ‘doormat’ ... she suggested he could work towards his own ‘ninja’ expression, one step at a time, reclaiming his independence and choice. This struck a chord for me, as the primary issue of my dream became obvious when I explored the fact that some of the chicken was uncooked, and was hidden under the cooked pieces. In my dream I was tempted to just serve the whole platter, but this dream indicated I couldn’t hide the fact that something was unfinished ... this spoke to my writing process, that there was more ‘cooking’ to be done; I needed to slow down, take it one step at a time, to pick what was needed and then take the first step, like the aspiring ninja did.

It seemed significant that the chicken was in a square pan. Archetypally, four is symbolic of completion at an earthly level, often echoed in expressions like ‘a square deal,’ or ‘a square meal.’ In my dream the container was complete (4-square) but some of the contents were uncooked, not yet ready to be served ... and I needed to dig underneath and bring them to the surface. As I worked with this dream, the ‘uncooked’ part resonated as a spiritual, alchemical process where it is often said one needs to be ‘cooked’ in a situation, to be made ready or to mature into the next level ie like a cauldron is needed to cook through the ‘magical’ process of alchemical transformation. I had the needed material (the chicken in the square pan), but I needed to let it ‘cook’ – one step at a time, like the ninja process ... so it could be ingested, then digested, so it could then provide the spiritual nourishment it embodied. There was also a sense of the meeting of Kairos sacred time and Chronos or chronological time – a round cauldron implies the unity of a circle created by an alchemical process, a ‘magical’ transformation – which needs another kind of heat source (compared to the 4-sided electric pan) – adding insight from another level brings completion - in Kairos time.

These next two final dream fragments provided a different kind of magical understanding through images of flight. They both portray freedom – this one Bird on a Wing ...

The color of the plumage is eerily similar to a favorite scarf I wear all the time [see final image]. In the dream I am consumed with figuring out how to safely contain this bird while I try to free it – I don’t need food (the bagel) as I concentrate on a more important problem. This dream felt like another version of the Uncooked Chicken dream, reminding me to take the steps to unleash the self but in a contained and ‘safe’ sequence. This dream came after recent connections with two friends who have multiple sclerosis, as does the wife of the friend who appears in the dream ... this realization echoes the reality of how these other friends are literally ‘stuck in the kitchen’, not able to move freely, tied down in a body immobilized by neurological constraints. I also, in reality, am dealing with a lot of physical aches and pains that have slowed me down, but they are minimal compared to the physical restrictions experienced by these women. These themes echo my own feelings of ‘stuckness’ – including my self-created mental entanglements that block me in my writing process. The left foot of the bird in the dream is also trapped by human enmeshments of wire and plastic. The movement function of the left side of the body is a right brain function, the side of the brain that also processes creative thinking - this echoes my awareness of my creative blocks that have been tethered. I am also reminded that birds are often symbolized as creatures conveying messages that transcend the ordinary world to other realms. The song, Bird on a Wing -- by my friend, Prairie songstress Connie Kaldor -- describes a woman imagining her freedom to fly away from the constraints of working in a small-town café. All of these elements resonate with my desire for my creativity to ‘fly like a bird’, and this dream shows me I know the steps to overcome my human-made limitations, while remaining empathetic to others who have different hindrances holding them down.

Some weeks later I had another dream about flight -- the Kaleidoscope dream ...

The ‘political’ situation, both in our relationship and in the setting, and my initial reluctance to accept the butterfly blouse caused me to question if I sometimes act like a bit of a dictator towards myself, unable to accept the freedom that is handed to me, as I have often found it difficult to receive other gifts. This dream culminates with the resolution of the political issues and the death of the masculine figure who has twice gifted me with a magical cape – which I finally accept and wear. This also echoes my real life in which, with Courtney’s death, I have been graced with, and have accepted the opportunity to continue my own soul work while still borrowing from him in our life together and his archive of images. I am reminded that the goddess Psyche is depicted with butterfly wings, a symbol of potentiality, self-renewal and of re-birth. In antiquity the soul leaving the body is pictured as a butterfly. This suggests it is time to open, to lighten up, and – with the evolution of time and my awareness since the Uncooked Chicken dream - perhaps the ‘cooking’ is done and I am ready to don the butterfly essence, along with the power and softness of the receptive nurturing feminine.

It feels like I have been given both permission as well as the means to move forward, which is also reflected in the untethering in the Bird on a Wing dream.