May 2011

The medicine wheel has many meanings in shamanistic traditions and one of them is being a signpost in the dreaming reality. Together with your power animals, it leads you towards totality.

To clarify: in dreaming you learn to travel with your dream- or energy body from this reality to the boundless second reality to discover that you are the creator of your own reality. Shaman Vidar taught me about this medicine wheel ritual and you read more about this in the next excerpt from my book The Sorcerer’s Dream.

Excerpt

Tonight we will set up my medicine wheel. The medicine wheel towards the totality to be exact. I await in expectation.

By Ira Kennedy:

There is a remarkable difference between Western prophecies and those of native peoples. When Western prophets see into the future they envision Armageddon. The end of the world. When native prophets look down that same path they see the completion of a great cycle. A change of worlds.

The reason for these vastly different views is found in the way time is experienced. In the West time is history. There is a past, a present, and a future; a beginning, a middle, and an end. Like a stick. Native peoples experience time as a cycle. There are four stages, such as the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Like a hoop. Each stage is a preparation for the next. At the center of the hoop is a still timelessness; the eternal present around which the cycles revolve. The visions of native prophets occur at that center point from where the cycles of change can be seen. There is no end.

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For over a century, the American Indian shamans have prophesied the end of an earth cycle, the disappearance of the white man, and the return of all living things which had vanished under the pressures of the present world. The time, we are told, is near. As we observe governments, industries, and ourselves, we can see a system of waste and pollution so widespread as to cast a shadow across the generations to come. It doesn't take a clairvoyant to predict disaster. Forturnately, we are aware of the need for change. The question is, whether the necessary changes in our institutions and ourselves will occur faster than the production of pollution generated by our old patterns of behavior.

The ToltecPath on warriors manifesting their destiny:

A Toltec warrior is a creator, someone who consciously connects with intent and creates their reality by walking it into the world. This is why it is so important for a warrior to be impeccable with their words and thoughts. When one has enough energy to be completely aligned with intent, they are aligned with the power of the universe, the collective flow to the nature of things, and as a result, their words and thoughts begin to manifest real time.

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We have to recognize, once again, the powerful energy that exists through us and all around us and stop taking it for granted. When we awaken each day in gratitude for everything we are reinforcing our connection with intent. To continually feed old lines of energy or other people’s visions weighs those very lines down and makes them denser. Whether one can see them or not doesn’t matter, the energy that those lines hold are prevalent and easy to become attached to. These lines are illusions and illusion causes suffering because there is no connection with the creative force.

Wayne Dyer also talks about the importance of connecting with the creative force of intention in his book, "The Power Of Intention":

RealitySandwhich has a detailed post on Taoist Shamanism and Dream Yoga which 

Taoist dream practice, sometimes called true dreaming, dream wandering, or night practice, uses energy work and shamanic techniques along with traditional dream yoga. The dream state can then be used as a tool for energy development and enlightenment, while the dreams themselves can become a source of spiritual direction or guidance.

The essence of a lucid dream is recognizing that you are dreaming during the dream. The first step in this process is to begin looking at your normal waking reality as though it too is a dream. A basic principle of Taoism is that life is a dream of our own creation. Dream yoga, then, is meant to help us wake up from this dream in order to experience life completely.

So the very first exercise is to go about your daily activities reminding yourself that everything you are experiencing is a dream. As the great philosopher and mathematician, Rene Descartes wrote, "How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?

While you go through your day, try to think of all that you experience as being part of a dream. This applies to everything from thinking of your physical possessions as dream possessions and your friends as dream friends, to thinking of problems and thoughts as dream problems and dream thoughts. Then, as you're lying in bed before going to sleep, review your day as though you were recounting a dream you had.

HealingTao has a detailed post on Tao Dream work including this section on The Stages Of Tao Dream Practice: