Musings.9: Barbara

rabbit appeared in my yard nearly three years ago, a beautiful rabbit and a breathtaking moment when the art I was pursuing showed itself in my everyday life. Before I moved to Georgia I lived in Williamsburg, VA in a neighborhood very close to the National Historic site of Jamestown and the Jamestown Settlement. A number of streets and neighborhoods in the area bore the name of the alliance of Native Americans, Powhatan, prominent in the area when Jamestown was settled. So, although I had moved away, in the months prior to the 400th anniversary of the settlement (2007) I read a copy of Paula Gunn Allen's biography "Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat."

"Pocahontas" was basically a childhood nickname for a girl named Matoaka by her people and Lady Rebecca Rolfe by the English. The nickname, as Gunn Allen writes, "relates to a kind of vivacity, mischievousness, and quick intelligence ... at least as understood by the English." The name may also have related to the rabbit, which native peoples "recognized as a trickster," and pointed to qualities of creativity, shrewdness, and a "wild sense of humor."

One evening in the time frame when I was reading "Pocahontas" my husband called me out into the yard to see a rabbit. All that sprang to mind as I followed him out the door was the sort of brown rabbit our Boxer once loved to chase, so I was puzzled as to why my husband was so eager for me to see this rabbit. Oh, it was a beauty! It sat in the corner of the yard, nibbling something and looking so beautiful that I was afraid for it! Its coat was a silky, shiny black and white which made it stand out there among the trees and bracken. We had seen foxes only a few weeks earlier and I was instantly afraid this gorgeous rabbit with the amazingly floppy black ears would become food for the fox. It would not let me approach, of course, to pick it up and try to find its owner so I was reduced to walking up and down the street, knocking on doors. No one answered. Sigh. (I can say, however, that the rabbit remained safe for I saw it several times later foraging in its owner's flower beds.)

That beautiful rabbit stayed in my mind, always associated with Pocahontas and the trickster, so I went out and found the materials to stitch together a facsimile for myself, which you see here. Later for grins and giggles I gave the rabbit, whose name is Mina, a whimsical top hat. The top hat is the model for Uncle Joe's and the leprechauns' hat in Melissa's last two dreams. Now I see that the hat and the rabbit afford me the context to talk about a culture which centered itself around Dream-Vision.

Matoaka/Pocahontas was born into the Mattaponi/Pamunkey tribe which was part of the Powhatan Alliance who "were the People of the Dream-Vision, which is what the Native word Powhatan means." These people embraced "a tradition immersed in Dream-Vision protocols, lore, practices, and understandings that shaped and directed the course of ... life." Their world view was shaped by "the assumption that this wold we live in is by its nature a Dream-Vision ... the manito are the greater dreamers, the humans the lesser, the manito aki the location of the Dream-Vision as it takes shape and gains sufficient 'thrust' to move into our more physically dense reality."

Such a view was NOT alien to the English of the time who commonly referred to "this realm as 'Faerie' or 'the Underworld,' or sometimes Logres." Roughly 350 years after Jamestown was settled physicist David Bohm described "the consciousness form we usually engage in as 'explicate' and the other one as 'implicate.'" Whether the Powhatan term manito aki, the English terms faerie, Underworld, Logres, or physicist Bohm's terms explicate and implicate are used, the concept "implied in each of these terms is that there is a world within and beyond the one most modern people recognize."

"The state of awareness when one is in or communicating with this realm was long identified as Dream-Vision, or powa, in the Algonquin world. It is allied to the Native Australian concept of Dream Time, a way of organizing reality, including via sensory data, that brings phenomena into awareness that are absent from perceptual fields in another brain state."

"Dream-Visions are maps for navigating one's life path. Composed of messages coded in the language of the manito aki, the spirit world, Dream-Visions came accompanied by a guidebook, the Oral Tradition; and by travel guides: one's guardian spirit, or powagan."
"As the pathway to the spirit world, such dreams cross the boundaries of ordinary time and offer answers to the myriad problems that face the nation, clan, or individual." Adherence to such a world view suggests that people like this, whatever their culture or geography or era "were almost always in an 'altered' state of consciousness," with access to "the manito - the powers, beings, forces, reality, if you will, of a world that is not quite this one, but is bigger, beyond, beneath, before, behind, and above this one." I posit that Dream-Vision people understand that dreams offer clues, guidance concerning implicate forms which are journeying toward the explicit world.

In the time since I read "Pocahontas" I have read other works - "Black Elk Speaks," "The Bone Rattle," "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" - and I usually found myself trying to see the arrival of the Eurpoeans upon this soil from the eyes of the natives. So many sources mention the shock of seeing these huge ships and white, white people, but really, how did they see it? One morning I believe I was given an answer.

I dreamt I was with a native woman. We stood in front of what appeared to be a sea wall. One of those mammoth, multi-storied cruise ships was berthed on the other side of the wall. It was so big that no matter how far back I leaned I could not see the top. Between us and the wall there were bushes, about waist high, decorated with tiny white people. As I wrote out the dream I realized that, apparently, the natives initially associated the fair European skin with the white of the cotton bolls that appeared on plants in the area! I've driven past fields of cotton just across the river from Jamestown Settlement, so the association is even more vivid for me.

I like it. I like knowing the implicate order can pull images out of its hat to connect my vision with that of a people living nearly a half-millennia ago in a place I once inhabited.

[[A bibliography for this post includes:
Gunn Allen, Paula."Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat". New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.

Peat, F. David. "Blackfoot Physics: A Journey Into the Native American Universe". Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 2002.

Bohm, David. "Wholeness and the Implicate Order". London: Routledge Classics, 1980.

All quoted material is from "Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat" by Paula Gunn Allen.]]

Leprechauns Take Flight: "Melissa"

ack in my warehouse in my latest dream - Oh, how funny! I wrote 'my' warehouse instead of 'the' warehouse! - I was pleasantly surprised to see again that lovely, charming little girl from previous dreams.

There she was in her vivid blue outfit and little red Keds singing that old Madonna song "Lucky Star" as she worked at a small table. She did not seem to notice me even as I drew closer to discern what she was doing. It appeared that she had cut the front from a cereal box, a Lucky Charms box to be precise, and used cardboard pieces of various lengths to construct a labyrinth in the remainder of the box. She had cut the leprechauns from a pile of discarded Lucky Charms boxes and lined them up at the entrance to the labyrinth. I do not know how it happened, but suddenly all the leprechauns wore hats like the one Uncle Joe wore at his wedding!

While I pondered that I watched her take discarded aluminum baking dishes - pie plates, loaf pans, casserole dishes - and cut them into a number of diamond shaped pieces. When she had a stack of these cutouts she pasted the star shaped Lucky Charms onto each cutout and placed them into the center of the cereal box labyrinth wherein stood an amazing miniature bull! Amid all those cutouts lined up against the walls surrounding it, the bull stood quietly, patiently, as the child walked each leprechaun through the path of the labyrinth.

I sensed she was giving me a demonstration of her understanding, her interpretation of the myth of the labyrinth and minotaur, but my thoughts tripped over themselves when I saw her guide the leprechauns to bow before the bull and address it with the salutation "Namaste". With that address the bull then instructed each leprechaun to "take up arms" and be. I gasped when I realized that the diamond-shaped cutouts were pairs of coats-of-arms! The child affixed the "arms" to the leprechauns and lifted them in flight from the labyrinth!

It ... It seems she is combining two stories about the labyrinth from Greek mythology, changing things and omitting things, to make some point to me, but what?

Musings.8: Barbara

There are some I suppose, perhaps many, who dismiss the appearance of immortals bearing gifts at a wedding ceremony in Melissa's last dream. It does have the ring of a fairy tale about it - remember the nasty fairy who showed up uninvited to the christening of the infant princess Sleeping Beauty and cursed the babe for the slight? - but I propose that this theme has appeared in Melissa's dreams precisely because it must be seriously considered.

I confess that I was surprised to see the theme of immortality take root and unfurl as a major theme in my exploration of Melissa's background. I was guilty of thinking 'background' meant simply her experiences, wishes, goals from her birth to the time I picked up her story.

I set out to learn what makes Melissa who she is and I see some esteemed poets are stepping up to help me piece together this portrait. T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" introduces the theme, "Do I dare to eat a peach?" from the goddess Xi Wang Mu's garden, and tells us right at the top that it is a love song. In case she did not make the connection between the peach of immortality and songs of love as a result of her tea party with the goddesses, the Dreaming Universe sends her off to a heavenly wedding. There is no mistaking the peaches, the immortals, or the love songs for anything other than what they are - perfectly elegant symbols of immortal love.













Many nights before I turn out the light I open a book or two of poetry at random and read what I find. The night after I published that post about 'Uncle Joe's Wedding' Will Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 and Pablo Neruda's sonnet XLIV from "100 Love Sonnets," translated by Stephen Tapscott, opened up for me. "... Love is not love/Which alters when it alteration finds/ ... it is an ever -fixed mark/ ... Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/Within his bending sickle's compass come./ Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,/ But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom."

Melissa witnessed a bridal party spanning ages process before Uncle Joe and address him as 'husband' as he awaited his bride. Perhaps she is being asked to see that the life she thought could be measured "with coffee spoons" stretches farther than she would imagine, and encompasses a love like 'Uncle Joe', "That looks on tempests and is never shaken;/It is the star to every wand'ring bark."

Neruda's sonnet, then, gives a poignant clue to Melissa's story, I think:
I love you in order to begin to love you,
to start infinity again
and never to stop loving you:
that's why I do not love you yet.

I love you, and I do not love you, as if I held
keys in my hand: to a future of joy -
a wretched, muddled fate -

Now, just as I write this I see the references circle back to Will Shakespeare! Neruda's "I love you, and I do not love you" seem an echo of Prince Hamlet's disjointed declarations to the fair Ophelia in Act Three, Scene One of "Hamlet" (lines 125, 129 in the Folger Shakespeare Library edition) just before the "Get thee to a nunnery" speech.

I wonder if Ophelia offers a clue about Melissa, or vice versa?

I will keep you posted, as it were!









[The photos were taken at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. in Dec. 2005. Yes, that is me in front of the stage in the Library's theater. The relief of "Hamlet" is one of the many carved on the buildings exterior. The mosaic is a portion of the floor in the lobby.]

Uncle Joe's Wedding: "Melissa"

ast night - oh wow! I am still buzzing with this dream! - I went to a wedding with my Crow. A wedding! It was bizarre at first because I was at one of my father's carnivals and it was night and I was watching the lights on the roller coaster cars speed and twist above me in the starless night. Then, suddenly, my Crow was on my shoulder whispering, "We've been invited to Uncle Joe's wedding." Before I could find my voice I was following him over to the roller coaster.

Without delay a train of cars appeared with animals seated in all but one of the cars - horses, bears, swans, a few rabbits and a falcon or two - oh, and some lions and the little black cat. (It sat next to me.) There may have been more, but those were all I had the chance to identify before the ride shot off above the carnival. My Crow was obviously having a blast leaning into the turns, but I have no idea how he was able to hang on because the speed at which we traveled was amazing. The lights, too, were fantastic as they seemed to leave streaks, spiral streaks, in the darkness as we flew.

When we landed and I saw the venue for the wedding my breath caught and my heart skipped. There was a simple wooden stage set in the clearing of an ancient forest. One impossibly tall pine, almost as tall as my Crow's tree but not quite, stood center stage at the rear. A white crane sheltered and a stag grazed under the tree. We who had just disembarked from the roller coaster train found places before the stage just as the Groom, 'Uncle Joe', came to stand before the tree and a long line of bridesmaids began to process to the stage. The weird thing, however, is that all the bridesmaids were dressed in white bridal gowns! The gowns were fashioned to fit different historical periods , among them Ancient Greek, medieval, Renaissance. They could have been costume brides, nothing more, but for the fact that each blew 'Uncle Joe' a kiss and addressed him as 'husband'!

The groom himself was dressed in attire from the nineteenth century I think; very handsome attire for a very handsome gentleman I must say. I was intrigued, however, when I saw that his waistcoat was a wonderful deep forest green. Well, I should say I was intrigued until I saw the Bride. Her gown was fashioned from the same green silk as her groom's waistcoat, but her gown seemed to be a 21st century interpretation of a nineteenth century gown whereas 'Uncle Joe's' suit appeared to be genuine for the period. His boutonniere and her bouquet were of stunning white roses. They were a gorgeous couple and obviously very much in love.

It is funny when I consider it, but I do not remember the wedding ceremony at all! They just seemed so right together that all I wanted to do was celebrate. (I think everyone, even the animals, felt the same way.) There was a great buzz - oh! Bees were there, too, but they did not ride the train, just flew on their own - when four men in Oriental dress came forward to present their gifts to the couple. They carried a banner embroidered with the yin/yang symbol for the couple to hang in their doorway to prevent the entry of malevolence, or 'devils'.

I made myself wake up and write down the names of these gentlemen so I could look them up and find out why they caused such a stir. They turn out to be four immortals: Liu Hai and the 'Three Stars of Happiness' - Shou Lao (longevity), Fu Shen (luck) and Cai Shen (wealth). I also found that the pine tree, the crane and the stag are symbols of immortality. The immortal Liu Hai presented the bridal couple with a string of gold pieces (these were made to look like roses) and he murmured something about a philosopher.

The last person to present a gift was the little girl in the vivid blue dress I have seen in previous dreams. She presented each of them with a peach. As she stood before them I was stunned to see that she bore a striking resemblance to the bride. When she bowed and said, 'Namaste', all of us cheered.

Oh, and then the music began and I could not believe my eyes or ears. Angels were singing. The Faery Queen and her King were singing. The Groom and his Bride were singing. My Crow was singing. All of us danced to"Love Is My Religion" and "Have Your Really Ever Loved a Woman?"

I cannot describe how wonderful it felt to see such love. I simply drank it all in - the people, the animals, the setting, the music, the words - and I was totally content. Nothing prepared me, however, for the bridal couple's exchange with me before they departed. They had been mingling, greeting each and every guest. When they approached me 'Uncle Joe' tipped his top hat (a whimsical affair I have drawn here) to me and bowed. He thanked me for coming and then indicated his Bride and myself with a gesture before saying cryptically, and with a wonderful smile, "You and she will work well together."

The chords of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Op. 61) sounded and they turned to wave to everyone. The Bride threw her bouquet. We guests showered them with rose petals as they boarded the train.

My heart is so full when I think of this dream. I do not know any 'Uncle Joe' nor have I any idea who this Bride may be with whom he has stated I will work well. I cannot imagine anything lovelier than a wedding for such a couple who start off on their life together accompanied by music written for one of the world's best loved plays from the inimitable William Shakespeare!

Musings.7: Barbara

Here I sit with my mug of chai tea, feeling as if I have awakened in one of my character "Melissa's" dreamscapes. Fog shrouds the skyline, settling a hush around this little neighborhood. Mist drips from the leaves of the magnolia across the street. What "Dream Weaver" is responsible for this scene? I like that - "Dream Weaver" - like the song by Gary Wright sooooo many years ago. When I look at the dreams woven into "Melissa's" life I admit I am largely responsible for them, yet I also freely admit to the existence of some Creative force which, when I tune in to it, gives me some splendid threads to use in the weaving of "Melissa's" character.

The tea party with the Goddesses was a complete surprise to me, especially the way it dovetailed so beautifully with T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". I laughed when I realized the tea party was a reference to Eliot's poem because I remember Fr. Robert Boyle, S.J., back at Marquette University, telling us in one of his lectures about James Joyce that Joyce referred to Eliot (Thomas Stearns) as "Tea Stain Eliot"!

Whatever the dynamics between those avant garde early 20th century writers I am indebted to Eliot, for his poem offered a unifying structure for an encounter with all those various Goddesses. As I focused on "Melissa's" latest dream I realized I was to include the Valkyries and Xi Wang Mu, all of whom I had discovered in an encyclopedia of world mythology, as well as the Faery Queen and the Crow, of course, but how to do so?

Then, of all things, I thought of the teapot in the accompanying photo. This was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law maybe twelve years ago and I just love its combination of whimsy, beauty and practicality. Still, however, I was not certain what to do with a teapot, four Goddesses, a Faery Queen and a Crow. So, back to the books to examine what I had - Valkyries, mead, meat, Xi Wang Mu, queen of the Western Paradise, peaches. "Peaches" was the piece that resolved the puzzle and pointed to "Prufrock". The rest just fell into place.

It is a delight to discover that "Melissa" inherits my love of Guinness! Oh, I do love Guinness - so smooth and creamy - but I save it for a treat because, as the Bard wrote in Sonnet 102: "And sweets grown common lose their dear delight." (I did make a Guinness cake, but I need to tinker with the recipe as it was a little dry - good, but dry.)

One element of the dream is still a bit of a mystery to me - the magnolia. I have no idea where "Melissa" lives so I cannot say if it is a part of her life. If it is another bit of my life appearing in her dreams, I wonder why?