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Dream Gates

Catch any fish today? In many parts of Europe, an April Fools prank is called an “April fish”.  In Dutch, it’s apriivis; in Italian, pesce d’Avrile. The term poisson d’Avril first broke surface in a French poem in the early 1500s. The original, smelliest, version of such a prank was to attach a dead fish to the back…

“The Iroquois have, properly speaking, only a single Divinity – the dream. To it they render their submission, and follow all its orders with the utmost exactness.” –          Father Jacques  Frémin, S.J., 1669-70 Long before the first Europeans arrived in  Northeast America, the peoples of the Longhouse, or Iroquois, taught their children that dreams are…

We dream for our communities as well as ourselves and we can learn to do this as a conscious practice in the service of peace and healing. By bringing dreams into the lives of people around us, we can heal and revitalize our family relations, our workplace, our schools, our healthcare and our communities. We…

A dream changed the mind of one of the greatest political writers of the twentieth century. George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) reached a watershed in his thinking in the summer of 1939, when he discovered that – despite his deep commitment to revolutionary causes and ideas of the Left – he remained a patriot at…

When do you say, “What a coincidence”? You think of someone, and they call you on the phone a minute later. You dream of a bear, and a black bear walks onto the road in front of you on a country road. You are wondering how to help a friend get through a harrowing phase…

Inspiration is breathing in, as in inhalation. Drawing in the wind of creative spirit is like drawing breath down into the lungs. The Japanese speak of fu-in, “wind inspiration”. Aspiration is breathing upon, blowing, panting after something. To aspire is to send out the breath of soul. Etymology, as in these examples, can be quite…

A woman graduate of an Ivy League divinity school shared this illuminating dream with me: I am inside the Vatican, and the whole of the Vatican City is on fire. I am desperate to save priceless jewels that have been kept here. In order to save the jewels, I must release them from their settings,…

“The truth may be a walk around a lake,” wrote Wallace Stevens. When I need to get rid of the clutter of negative thoughts and everyday worries, I find there are few things better than a good long walk around a lake in the woods near my home in upstate New York. As I get…

In previous articles, I described the experience in the temples of dream healing of the ancient Mediterranean. After an encounter with the sacred healer – who might appear as a figure of living gold, or a dog or a snake, or a beautiful woman, or a radiant boy – it was customary for those who…

It may be good to start St Patrick’s Day with a Celtic blessing that has been given his name. The blessing is known as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. It is a lorica, or “breastplate-charm”, believed to offer a shield of protection as we journey through life. The translation of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate was made from the…
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