What’s on your key ring? Keys to house and car you use every day, and maybe a few whose exact use you’ve forgotten. A quick-scan card for the supermarket checkout, maybe one from your insurance company. Maybe a lucky charm or a souvenir a friend sent you from her vacation in Alaska. A miniature Eiffel tower, symbolic of your hopes of a spring romance in Paris.
Maybe more exotic or magical items .A hamsa hand to avert the evil eye that a gypsy persuaded you to buy in a street market…A little Ganesh, who you hope will help you open the doors and the roads of life…A St Christopher medal, invoking a patron of travelers acknowledged by the church…A heart less fragile than the one in your chest…
A key ring is a great place to carry a personal amulet, something that connects you to an energy, a love, an intention. I carry a little silver stag, forged by a craftsman I know on a mountain where the Deer energy is strong and has brought through extraordinary healing. At its heart is a red garnet, from the garnet heart of that same mountain.
Here’s a thought. A key ring is a great place to carry a dream amulet, something that holds the energy of a powerful dream or vision. We want to do something with our dreams, or we do not dream well. In many cultures, objects are fashioned or found to embody the energy of a big dream, and of the powers that work through that kind of dream. I’m in favor of this practice. I’m also in favor of improvisation, of coming up with fresh ways to honor and celebrate the ever-expanding repertoire of our dream lives.
In every Active Dreaming circle that I lead or inspire, the last step is to ask a person who has shared a dream and received feedback from the group to come up with a one-liner that captures the dream message, and an action plan. We ask: what action will you take to honor the dream?
In the past week, two dreamers I know have come up with the same Key Ring Solution, independently. They have written their one-liners on tags and attached those tags to their key rings. In one case, the line on the tag was something spoken by a wise figure inside a dream: CONFIDENCE IS KEY.The other was a familiar phrase that came into clarity in a dreamer’s mind as the central lesson from a dream she related to a difficult divorce and her need to stop being a team player for a while: IT’S ALL ABOUT ME.
Neither tag is meant to stay on the key ring forever, or even for more than a few days. New dreams will come, with new messages that also need to be honored, But as long as the dream message is on the key ring, it will be visible to the dreamer many times a day, as she opens doors. And it will remind that dreams themselves are keys to the doors of life.
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