I’ve always been fascinated by what my sleep dreams can reveal. I have a long time practice of keeping a dream journal and for the past 3 years, for my own personal development, I have focused on the study of dreams blended with shamanic methods. I have learned that dreams are an incredible way to reclaim vital energy for healing, to expand the imagination for creativity and to explore a possible bigger story for my life.
For me, dreams are the way my soul whispers to me with fresh, insightful guidance for living my life fully and wisely.
Recently, I had this dream not once but twice. I’ve learned that if something shows up for me more than once in my experience that is the Universe tapping on my shoulder and I might want to pay attention.
I call this dream “The Phoenix and the Wolf”.
In the dream, a large grey wolf is stalking a somewhat large bird. Initially I can only see the back of the bird who seems to be unaware of the wolf. But I can feel in the air the wolf’s palpable anticipation of up-coming victory and the certainty of nabbing his next meal. It’s a tense situation.
Then suddenly the bird turns and stretches out to it’s full magnificent height of 7 feet with wings outstretched revealing itself to be an awe-inspiring golden Phoenix. It moved coolly toward the now cowering wolf and kissed it almost tenderly and firmly on the snout. The wolf immediately calmed, breathed deeply and relaxed onto the ground. A lethal situation had been turned around by an act of love.
I have been taught in my dream work to notice upon waking what I’m feeling about a dream. Both times I had this dream I felt a mix of wonder and relief at witnessing something so simply transformational.
I have also been taught that dreams require understanding and practical action to leverage how the dreamtime is endeavoring to support you.
With regards to the understanding of this dream it reminded me of the Cherokee teaching story about the two wolves.
For those of you who are not familiar with this parable, here’s the story:
A young boy goes to his grandfather to tell him about the anger he is feeling toward a friend who has mistreated him. The grandfather replies with compassion that he too has felt anger toward someone who does harm out of narrow-mindedness, greed or ego.
The grandfather goes on to say that he realized however that nursing that kind of hate wore him down and did not resolve anything with the person he now considered an enemy. It was like to taking poison and wishing the other person would die.
The old man continued by saying “it was as if there were two wolves inside me”. One is good and does no harm living in harmony with all around him. This wolf only takes action regarding an injustice when it is right to do so and in the right way with the intent to create a beneficial outcome for all concerned. The other is full of anger fighting everyone. He can’t think because his anger is so great. It is useless anger for anger that rages in that way will change nothing.
The boy looks his grandfather in the eyes and asks: “Who wins?” The grandfather replies: “The one I feed.”
With this take on the deeper meaning of my dream, here’s how I will take action on it’s message of love and compassion. I feel called by my dream to honestly ask myself in any challenging situation which “wolf” am I feeding? Further, I want to align with the Phoenix and it’s powerful act of courageous love to subdue devouring hate. By first cultivating peace in myself….like the Phoenix, I aspire to take fearless regenerative action to bring about peace.
A mentor of mine used to say…beyond giving into rash reactivity…how we mindfully respond to anything is everything.
So this is my commitment to this dream…to be love in action. The wisdom flowing to me in the dreamtime confirms for me that these days how we deal with our fears to attain what we most want is becoming the effective measure of what defines us as a person and, collectively, as a people.
