March 20: DREAM And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones of that place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, the thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither though goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. -----Book of Genesis (Hebrew Scripture) CONTEMPLATION Visionary flight occurs for each of us in our dreams. We are then in a world of reality, sometimes identical to the one we inhabit every day, sometimes vastly different. To many Native Americans, the dream life of the soul was more real and valuable than the mundane, body inhabited one. Dreams held magical power to heal, to predict good or bad fortune, to provide wise strategies for hunting or battle. Only a fool neglected a dream; the wise did their best to live out, in the village or forest, their strongest ones. This completed the circle and brought great rewards to both the dreamer and the community. So important were dreams to the Ojibway, who created new ritual dances from them, that dreams were even bought and sold. An especially powerful dream was a precious commodity indeed! All the members of the tribe were encouraged to dream. They were given great support in manifesting their dreams, and if the dream could not be enacted, sadness and disappointment followed. But the wise elders knew that more dreams, maybe even better ones, would come in time.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:16:26 +0000
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