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Dream Gates

The world’s great divinatory systems – I Ching, Ifa, Tarot – are more than tools for fortune-telling. In their design, the hexagrams, the odu and the cards bring together symbols representing all the forces and processes at work in the world, including those that emanate from a deeper world. The magnitude of the design is…

I used to do very well in high school exams. One of the reasons was that I frequently previewed the exam questions in my dreams. When I mentioned this at a talk to the Bermuda Rotary some years ago, a former minister of education in the island government stood up and announced, in a fine…

I have not obstructed water when it should flow. Today, I find inspiration in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.  The statement above is one a soul traveling beyond this world was expected to be able to make when it reached the Hall of Truth. In this ancient guide to afterlife transits, recorded in the…

If you are a Muslim in need of quick guidance on a decision, you can now order an app for your cell phone that gives you the Istikhara prayer. As described here yesterday, Istikhara is a method of praying for a “true dream” of guidance.  Dream incubation has been a preferred way of seeking life…

I am reading a wonderful contribution to the anthropology of the imagination by Amira Mittermaier, a professor of religion at the University of Toronto. She has spent many years studying the way that Egyptians today dream and interpret dreams and invite visions and visitations. The result is her book Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of…

If you were looking for your own life story in a bookstore, what section would you go to first? If you are stumped for an answer, think about a movie or a story that struck a chord in you. It might be a fairy tale from childhood, or something from mythology. It might be tragedy…

“I don’t see why we can’t go on seeing each other after I die,” a thoughtful elderly New England woman called Dorothy told her daughter Meg. “We’ve always enjoyed each other and I’d like to stay in touch and help you in any way that I can. But I don’t want to be hanging on…

In Praise of Black Dogs I am in favor of personal superstitions. Not the kind Granma mumbles Or the stuff of fright-night moves But the ones that grow on you When you notice which incidents in a day Are shadows cast by something ahead And get to know which clues from the world Are reliable…

When we honor our dreams through poetic acts, we put ourselves on a path of natural magic. Let’s get clear about magic. Real magic is the art of reaching into a deeper reality and bringing gifts from it into this world. This is a poetic act. Traveling from the surface world to the Real World…

Poetry sometimes comes dancing out of dreams, in fully-formed words. My life was changed in 1987, during a visit to Maya country, when I woke with these mysterious, cadenced lines echoing in my mind and (it seemed) in the room: I am from such as those by whom the worlds are shaken I was not…
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