Through the blue door, into the house of the ancestors

I dream i am in an old traditional Romanian house - the type with painted walls: deep, deep blue. I enter the small door, and there is the specific smell from childhood, the smell of spending summers in the country. Wonderful. I now realize that i am in a village in Ardeal (Transilvania) - could be the one my mother was born in. An old woman, wearing white and black traditional clothes of the region, is just waking up from sleep as i enter the room. She seems older than Time itself - or better said, there is a feeling of her being Outside Time. She starts speaking "ardeleneste" - the sweet accent that my heart loves, using some "regionalisme" i thought i had long forgotten: she is actually giving me indications on some food recipes. She is speaking, she is whispering. The words transform into rhytmed chanting - like a mantra. The sounds are alive energies, floating towards me.
(November 1st, 2012)

I woke up from this dream feeling blessed. Feeling immense gratitude. Over the years, i had had several dreams connected to different traditions - this was the one connecting me with my ancestors. This was the dream that reconnected me with the IA - the traditional Romanian blouse (the blouse that inspired Matisse toward creating some of his beautiful paintings, by the way.)

There was an amazingly beautiful follow up to this dream, inspired by fellow dreamers in the Romanian Dreaming Circle: some weeks later, all of us dressed in ii, we organized a traditional women gathering, a "Sezatoare" - a circle of women telling stories, singing, dancing, plaiting hair, knitting, gatherings that used to have place not until long ago in the villages... There were hours of joy and laughter and shared dreams.

The gifts of the dreamworld are many. For me, reconnecting with the authentic, ancient Romanian tradition is one of the most cherished gifts... And i believe the dreamwork, the active dreaming does this for many dreamers, all over the planet - reconnecting them with what is authentic, for them. And i also feel that this authenticity, this treasure, this real-iness, shares a common root, all over the world.

Ana Maria

www.drumulsprecentru.ro

Follow your Heart. A story with Dreams and Lions.

Follow your Heart. A story with Dreams and Lions.

I dream i arrive late at Robert's workshop in Prague; i sit down and start telling a dream i had just had that morning, right before waking up:

I am walking on a narrow path through the thick jungle, smelling the rich greenish air, looking up in search for the colour of the sky, seeing only the endless canopy of trees. There is a solemn quietness and i am almost holding my breath. Silence, but i feel the forest alive. I walk and walk and suddenly, a "fairytale like" clearing opens in front of me: golden tall grass, intense blue sky, the smell of ripe hay, the dark green of the forest on the right and on the left of the clearing. It is like i see colours for the first time in my life - like these are the TRUE colours. Lionesses running, two or three lion cubs playing. The lanscape feels so familiar, like finding again something i had long forgotten; an undescribable feeling of easiness in my heart - i can practically feel my heart opening. I suddenly understand the feeling of familiarity - it IS family, my family. It is beyond metaphor - this place IS what it is. In the distance, i see people and lions walking together, "talking" together - actually, they are not "talking", they are "hearting". HEARTING. This is the only word that can describe the way of their BEING together. There is a comunity of humans and lions. A com-unity :) I feel intense happiness and start running towards them.

So i am telling this dream to Robert, within the workshop. I see his eyes shine with understanding - he knows this. No more words are needed, and he reminds me about the rope. "What rope ?" I look down and i see the rope around my waist, that is now pulling me out of the dream within the dream. I wake up.

For me, the path of the Dreams is the path of the Heart. I know it, i felt it, i am living it. The place of the Lion is real - it is a place in the heart, a place that is more real than reality itself. This dream, like many others, was a dream from my heart, dreamt in the images of the heart, with the language of the heart. HEARTING. How do i know it was for real ? I FELT it !

A sequence of dreams, synchronicities and more dreams led me, step by step, to working with...dreams. I mean playing with dreams :) Synchronicity led me to find Robert on the net in 2010, and then follow his training of teachers of Active Dreaming and then dream together in Romania. So for me, it is a dream come true. Some 7 or 8 years ago, i was wondering what will i do with all the dreams i had, what is the purpose, what is this ? Are they "just" dreams ? I guess i found my answer.

Why am i writing about this ? Because i now know that through dreams, my heart talks to me. I dare to say - our hearts talk to us. There is something there, in the heart of our heart, calling, waiting, inviting for remembering. Re-membering. The dream with the lions talked exactly about that - and this is a vision i hope to pay forward.

Was this dream "just" a metaphor ? NO, it was not.

You know the famous question "is this a path with heart" ? Well, it sure is !

Ana Maria

www.drumulsprecentru.ro

"There is something more on the other side"
Never before have i felt with such intensity the feeling of being in a waking dream. People walking and talking, but this reality has the consistency of the atmosphere of Alice in Wonderland. Somehow, the whole place is out the of the usual flow of things.

I see again Einstein's formula, E=mc 2, the second time in three days, this time on Robert's socks - and i suddenly remember the similarity of the words soles and souls. Funny, the souls immersed in the theory of relativity. Or is it only anout relating, or relatives. With these thoughts in mind, i hear someone talking about rabbits. Oh, yes, down the rabbit hole, that's where we were.

"There is something more on the other side" i hear myself saying, looking across the pond as we walk looking for a trail in the forest. It sure is, and the words follow me all along the forest trail and into the evening. I read of vision transfer, and i realize that this is all writers do, this is what writing is about - Vision transfer !

I think again of the intention for the night, and i remember the line in the movie called "The Golden Compass": "hold it as if it were a living creature." Hold the intention as if it were a living creature: not too tight, not too loose.

I go to sleep and dream of myself in the dreaming class, with Robert giving us a new assignment: he gives us pieces of paper, with disparate words written on, no connection between the words, and we have to make up short stories with these words. Great assignment, i love it !!! The funny thing is that every word on the paper is alive - it is like a "handle with care" message comes up from the whole organism of the living words."

Ana Maria

(photo: Mosswood Hollow)

www.drumulsprecentru.ro