Visions Visions have been coming up a lot of late. Possibly because so many people are having long, vivid, frequent dreams now. In many conversations about this the question “Did I have a vision” is surfacing often. And a number of people I work with around spiritual knowledge have been asking me just what a vision is. This is another word in the spiritual lexicon that causes confusion because of the many ways people have used it. Like healer, shaman and the like. I was taught the old understand of visions by several of my teachers. So here goes - visions as I was taught and as I use the word. Take what you need and leave the rest behind. Visions and dreams. Same or different? It’s so hard when we label things, especially metaphysical things. A vision, again as I was told, is something many people never have and few ever have more then one. Some have had several - Black Elk for example. And other wise spiritual men and women over the course of history. Sometimes there are ‘follow-up’ visions, which further define the original vision. A vision is a very broad, big picture occurrence, often defining what the spiritual life’s work is to be for someone. It is what one seeks when going on a vision quest that so many cultures have. Dreams encompass the remainder of what we experience beyond everyday physical existence. They can come at night or during the day. Some are very instructive, showing the road before us for some period of time. Others are pleasant and fun and give a relief from daily living. Still others are difficult - nightmares as we have labeled them. Some people experience dreams with words spoken from the universe, others through pictures and still others through the other senses. Sometimes more than one of our senses is activated. For me, personally, I have many dreams - some I remember and some I remember later on in time. I usually experience them in pictures, but sometimes words or smells enter them. Some show me exactly what to do next - should I choose to accept them. Others I have no idea of meaning at the time, but often do later. Long ago, not too long after my teachers found me, I was put up on the mountain for my first vision quest. I had some teaching about these things, but was still relatively new to it all. In this first vision quest I had a very long, very varied, very colorful and direct vision. It was like nothing before or after it. I have had dreams of all types - many what others might call visions - but trust me, they were nothing like this. It was the vision of Sanctuaries of the Earth Mother and the four colors coming together. I travelled through space and time with my guides to take it all in and again that was like no journeying I have ever done. I describe this vision in great detail in my first book, White Man, Red Road, Five Colors. After working with this vision with a group of my elders for a period of time I was caused to completely forget it for years. Until about five years ago, when it came back and I wrote about it. Visions are definitely about timing. I have friends - Native and otherwise - who speak of their frequent visions. Ancestors connecting with them on some point. I respect this, but see the difference between this and a vision is the sense the ancestors meant it and some have experienced. Does this matter? Possibly not… but maybe so. Visions are not to be wasted or missed and I would hate to see someone miss one because they thought their dreams - no matter how powerful - were all visions. All are powerful tools for sure, but we need the visions these days. To guide us in working together - mitakuye oyasin (we are all one). Jim Graywolf Eaglewolf Healing Mirror Holders https://facebook/groups/SharonJim/
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:38:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015