Greetings, dear Winter Dreamers,
How are you today? I do hope you had a relaxing time over the Festive Season. It is such a lovely time of year to celebrate and be with family and friends. Experiencing of the joy of relationship is wonderfully nourishing to our wellbeing.
And, after the fullness of this year, we also need time to be still, go inwards, and revitalise ourselves. Like the image below, we need to let the brilliance and wisdom of Winter Light guide us into the adventure of the New Year that is beckoning.
This Winter Dreaming series of newsletters offer gentle guidance to honour and make the most of your inner seasonal cycle.
In our first week, we listened for a question that would guide this personal exploration time. Then in week two, we reviewed this year to understand what unfolded for us. We travelled through each month, revealing the highlights and lowlights of our experiences. Then we translated our insights into a beautiful image that captured our remembering. In week three, we did a little housekeeping. We discerned what we wished to give away and decided what we would carry forward into next year.
In this next part of our journey, we will enter the cave of our inner awareness to dream into 2023. All the preparations over the last few weeks bring us to the point of readiness for this beautiful experience of entering the Dreaming Time.
Our dreaming sets in motion a powerful vortex of desire out into the Universe, saying ‘I am here’ and ‘I am open to receive your wisdom and guidance’.
The Beauty of Dreaming
'Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year. For gardening begins in January with the dream.' ~Josephine Nuese
Our inner dreaming cave is a place of stillness, spaciousness, and silence to touch into the wishes for next year that are stirring within us. In the safety and darkness of the cave, we will open a powerful dreaming space where we will sense into our wishes for 2023. I love the word wishes as it captures the intensity of connecting with our deepest heart's desire. It also reminds us of the gentleness needed to nurture such wishes into their fullness.
The metaphor for this week is to see these wishes as Dreaming Seeds. Like the seeds within the earth, our wishes will be nourished in preparation for the new season coming. The 'dreaming seeds' hold all the possibilities and potential for our life. They are waiting for us in our inner cave. We just need to open and listen for them.
Below are my suggestions on preparing for and entering the inner cave to dream.
Preparation for your Dreaming Time
Pick a spot you love, set it up with a blanket and cushions to be comfortable,
Make sure you are warm and will not be disturbed for a while,
Have your notebook and pen by your side so you can journal when you come out of the cave.
Entering the Dreaming Cave
If you are at home, turn out the lights and put on an eye mask if you wish,
Settle back into your cosy space,
Clear your mind as best you can by letting ‘distracting’ thoughts float away,
Try not to grapple with distracting thoughts; just breathe into them,
When you feel settled, feel yourself expanding, opening, and opening………….,
There will be a point where you feel ready to touch into your dreaming time,
Invite insights to come to you about your wishes for 2023,
Don’t feel that you have to grasp anything, relax, and relax...
You may fall asleep, and this is fine; you will still be dreaming.
Completion
When you feel ready, slowly come back,
Feel free to write in a free-flowing manner in your notebook,
Keep going until there is nothing left to write,
Don’t review your notes. Just let them ‘be’ for a while,
Have as many rounds of dreaming time during the week as you have space for,
When we are complete with this time of Dreaming, we will begin to look for themes that we will craft into intentions for 2023 —more on this next week.
Wishing you a powerful adventure into your inner cave. I love this dreaming time, and with a smile, I say:
Prepare to be surprised at the wishes that are revealed to you’.
You are a very special manifestation of creation. No one else has your dreams, and your contribution to the wellbeing of Life is so needed in these challenging times.
As always, I would love to hear from you.
Ann
Dearest Ann,
Thank you for this clear and beautiful description of the dreaming cave and how to truly enter it fully. Your gifts writing and sharing the magic and the process of this time are balanced so well between the poetic framing of this season’s richness, and the a lovely, easy-to-follow explanations of the “how-to.”
So grateful for your following the call to reach out with your gifts.
So much love, ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Dirje