Ever since I was a small child (seems like hundreds of years ago) I have been fascinated with the unusual, the macabre, the twisted and the weird. This is likely why I enjoy growing poisonous plants. If there is not an element of danger involved it can easily lose my interest! I remember reading a poster once that was titled “How to be an artist” and one of the suggestions was to have tea with someone dangerous. It took me a while to realize that I was the dangerous one!
People often recoil from the dark, as though their teensy weansy light can bring them solace in dark times. It might make it seem like you are surrounded…but just beyond the light….in the shadows of everything conscious and unconscious…you will find the darkness. This is not to be feared. In many ways the darkness is simply a different color to the air around you. But what it provides is access to all that has, to date, remained hidden from you. Granted, not everyone wants to know what is there in the darkness. So if you are the type to not want to know, just stay beside your little candle and huddle away from your fears. It doesn’t change the fact that the darkness still exists.
The darkness leads us into some of the most fascinating and mysterious aspects of our world, of our consciousness and of our subconscious. When we allow ourselves to free flow with that darkness, we take a journey into the unknown. Then all things only imagined can become known to us. There is a wonderful saying that goes, “Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact.” I like that because it completely aligns with my view of the darkness. We make up a lot of things in the deep dark cauldrons of our minds. But some of those things can actually become a reality because we are not the only ones imagining them. And someone, somewhere along the way, will take the time to bring that into reality. For example, back in the late ‘60’s or early ‘70’s, Star Trek came to be. In Star Trek they had these wonderful communication devices. Those devices, later on, inspired the creation of the cell phone. Now someone could argue that this was not invented out of the darkness. Yes, you could argue that, but you would be wrong in doing so. The darkness of our imagination brings us great inventions! And this is but one of millions, if not more, examples.
Where does this darkness come from? Where does the Light come from? In Shamanic terms, it is all a part of the Dream Weave. That does not mean in any way that the Dream Weave is a result of either the darkness or the light. It means that both the darkness and the light are a result of…something else….the Dream Weave. This, I find, is a concept that unsettles most people. Humans like to have certainty in their lives. But certainty is what has led to the oppression and murders of billions of people over the last few millenia. As soon as we are certain that THIS is truth and THAT is not…we buy into the dualistic blueprint of what we have been lied to about all our lives.
So what is this Dream Weave? I have tried to describe this so many times and I have never been able to find the right words for this…and I think that this is because it is completely beyond (outside of) words and expressions. I can only come somewhat close to what it is in my descriptions and I always know that it is forever so much more than that.
If you were to be sitting in a room with me, there would be the temporal location of me in the room and of you in the room. These locations are perceived, but they are also not steadfast. Now, between you and me, there is…space. But that space is not empty. On Earth we call it air, but that is just a small part of what is inbetween you and me. That “space” is the Dream Weave. It is not just what is between you and me, it is also what runs currents through you and me. As a result, we are always interconnected. Whether you be a friend or a foe, we are always interconnected through the Dream Weave. We can release toxic energies that we pick up from one another, yes, but that does not mean that energetically we are completely disconnected. That is actually an impossibility because the Dream Weave keeps all interconnected. Releasing toxic energies and eliminating someone from our lives frees us up to move easier through the Dream Weave, but it in no way disconnects us completely. That is not a reality…only an illusion. People often confuse the release of toxic energies with complete disconnection. That’s okay in that sometimes people need to have that illusion in order to rediscover peace. But that peace does not make it any less of an illusion. We can extract ourselves from other people’s influences, and we can banish others from our lives, but that interconnection will always be there anyway. We truly are ALL ONE.
But the fact that we are ALL ONE does not mean in any way that we are identical to one another. The consciousness that we hold is forever evolving…or at least it should be. As we evolve we become less base in our nature. So the fact that someone is a rapist does not make anyone else a rapist. The fact that someone is a patriarchal pig does not mean that all others who happen to be male are also patriarchal pigs. The fact that one person is a murderer does not mean that everyone is a murderer. We get a lot of “Light Worker” rhetoric floating around these days about everyone in the world being a reflection of our selves. I call bull hunky on that. Yes, we are all interconnected. But no, we are not all just reflections of someone else’s sick and twisted ways. And those sick and twisted ways are actually a result of a conscious disconnect from the fact that we are all interconnected on an energetic and spiritual level. They are expressions of a human being’s struggle to actually integrate the darkness within with the light that is within. It is always a matter of balance and harmony. They do not have to be at odds with each other all the time.
I find that religions around the world tote all sorts of dogma about that duality between dark and light. The light is defined as whatever the teachings of that particular religion happen to be, and all others are touted as being dark (or evil). And we wonder why wars erupt! This is why I both embrace the loving teachings of all religions and completely trash the dogmatic teachings of all religions. I don’t like hypocrisy. And, unfortunately, all religions have it at one level or another. A lot of people, however, prefer to be sheep led to the slaughter instead of finding their own divine sovereignty. This allows them to be spiritually lazy. Why would one ever tie one’s own shoe laces if you have someone telling you that you shouldn’t and that there will always be a place that you can go to to get your laces tied? And, let’s face it, most humans are excessively lazy when it comes to their own spiritual ownership. The fact that their laziness is encouraged so that institutions can have power over them does not help.
Once one discovers the Dream Weave, however, the entire game changes. We become much more conscious of all that is. We become more willing to explore the darkness just as much as the light and, as we do that, we find that there are major benefits to that work of exploration. We become much less dependent upon what others think of us and care far more about how we feel about ourselves. We become much more empathic and compassionate in our approach to life and its challenges. And that compassion is directed inwardly just as much as it is directed outwardly. We become more relaxed and less stressed out by things. The world can be a crazy place as it is full of people in power who have no clue what damage they are doing, or worse…perhaps they do. But how we respond to that insanity shifts for us when we have that inner conscious connection to the Dream Weave. Yes, we can be disgusted by what goes on. But we don’t have fear. We don’t have dread. We can see what is coming down the pike and inspire the masses to stand up against the insanity. And yes, in so doing we risk being nailed to the cross. But that is a fight worth fighting. And you never know…we just might come out on the other side of all of it…ALIVE.