Building a DreamLodge

[Dakota]

Tony and I have worked together for some years. As we live thousands of miles apart, we have developed strategies for communicating with one another. One time, Tony guided us in a meditation where we verbally talked together about building an imaginary structure where we could live together. He asked me what our place would look like, and for me, having an affinity with Native American indigenous ways, I envisioned (1) a small circular lodge with a dirt floor and a fire pit in the middle. Tony kept guiding me to describe the lodge, and I continued to fill in the objects that were found inside, animal skin rugs, baskets, everyday objects for living in those simple ways. Then he was able to add some things he wanted in the lodge and we continued working together to create the space in our ‘joint imagination’. We continued building the lodge over the next few years, adding rooms or spaces for various things. There is a beautiful, calm room for healing, another place with a beautiful natural spring where we can drink or bathe in healing waters. There is a gorgeous room full of silks and pillows for intimacy. We also developed spaces outside the lodge as well. There are two beautiful tropical coves, one with a cave and white sands and another with black sands. There is a small camp on the north side of the lodge with a large fire ring leading off to a northern conifer rainforest in the distance. All of these spaces evolved over time either through guided meditations by the two of us together, or as we individually meditated and then shared what we had done with the other. It was an incredible experience building these sacred spaces together and adding to them through dreaming, and meditations over the years.

As time went on, Tony and I learned that we could take things from our dreams and give them a home in our Lodge. I have lots of dreams of animals, and so I invited many of them to come to share the spaces at our lodge with us and participate in healings as they wish and as needed. There have also been other types of spirits from dreams I have had. I had a dream encounter with a wonderful school of shimmering blue-green Sea Dragons and they now live in the sea off the coves and can be called in for any purpose. I also had a dream about a family of Red Haired Sasquatch, and they now live in the northern rainforest outside the lodge. They are available to Council with us and others at the outdoor fire ring outside of the Lodge.

Over the years then, this DreamLodge has grown into an active space in the Unseen World. Tony and I used to meet there fairly regularly, but as time passed, things changed and he was no longer as present. I still held the space for the Lodge through constant meditation, and continued building spaces and inviting the many spirits I encountered to come and share the healing space with us. I also added other things that came from dreams, like a huge cluster of tanzanite crystals which I was gifted in a dream. I knew upon awakening it was to be used for healing, and I realized, if I moved it into the Lodge it would be available for that purpose.

So then I realized, though Tony was no longer active in the Lodge, it was a real place in the Unseen World and it could be opened up for use by other Beings who wished to do healings. So, I opened it up in the Spirit World for that purpose. As there are many Spirits and Guardians there, such as the Sea Dragons and the Sasquatch, I am confident of the safety of the space. I worked there in this way on my own for close to two years before I was able to tell Tony what had been happening to our Lodge. I think he enjoyed hearing how it had evolved and now he is able to share it again as he wishes.

For me, it will forever be the sacred space in which I can enter the Unseen World and commune with my Spirits. I also do my healings there, for myself, my loved ones and the planet/Mother, etc. It is a sacred space open to all who wish to work for the good of all. I find great comfort knowing that I am secure there, surrounded by so much beauty and love.

So, my belief is that this process of Envisioneering, envisioning building a sacred space either for oneself or with another/others is an amazing tool that can be used by any of us to explore a part of ourselves working with the Unseen World. It has been a wonderful way for me to incorporate the gifts I have been given in my dreams and deep meditations into some structure where I have them accessible to me for healings. I find that these gifts/beings, whether they are animal spirits, mythical creatures, feathers, crystals, whatever, have really thrived by being acknowledged for their abilities and have responded heartily to being invited to share a healing space with all manner of others.

One of the amazing outcomes of this was the building of our DreamLodge, a sacred and safe space in the Unseen World where we can work, relax, heal ourselves and others, do ceremony and commune with our spirits, ancestors and others for the good of all. I am confident this process can be used by individuals, pairs or groups of people, to build structures in the Unseen World that can be very useful to us here as well. I hope that some of you try this process, either on your own or with a partner/partners and use this thread to share with us what you create.


Envisioneering

To envision :
to picture mentally, especially some future event or events: to envision a bright future.

Envisioneering: to build structures in the unseen world to use for exploration, communing and retreat.

DreamLodge:
A structure created in the Unseen World through envisioneering for the purpose of healing, ceremony and learning.

[Leswan]

Hi Dakota,

What a fascinating post.

I ran a similar experiment with somebody who I was very close to. We had already had spontaneous shared dreams and on one occasion met each other in the void in what was a very ecstatic experience.

We wanted to take these experiences further and have them happen at will and we tried to create a place to meet using the very technique you describe and whilst I can 'feel' that it is there when I think about it (similar to the feeling I get when thinking about home when I'm at work) we never actually made it there in dreamstate / OBE / meditation.

We did this over a period of about 6-9 months, so perhaps it wasn't long enough?

A few years before all this, I also created my own personal sanctuary which again I never managed to reach in OBE state.

Have you got any tips for doing this?

[Dakota]

Hi Leswan,

Thank you for posting your reply. How fascinating and wonderful you were able to have shared dreams with your partner, even if that did not continue.

I guess I don't worry too much about what state I am in when I visit my DreamLodge. I do, however, have a bit of a ritual or ceremony that helps me find my way to my Lodge. I have been taught to walk the Medicine Wheel in Prayer, so after grounding myself in Mother Earth, I begin my meditation in the East, the place of New Beginnings, calling my spirit animals and the Spirits of the East, then I move to the South, the place of Unconditional Love, doing the same and then move to the West, the place of the Twilight and the Dreamtime, and I call the spirits of the West, along with all of my personal Dreamtime Spirits. At this point, I enter my DreamLodge and begin working there. Sometimes I will go to the Healing Room to work on a person with The Tanzanite Crystals or working together with my Redtail Hawk who lives in the Lodge. I may go to the Campfire outside and sit in a Council Circle with the Sasquatch tribe that lives in the forest outside of the Lodge. I also sometimes visit my Lodge to invite new visitors, those whom I have met and been gifted in dreams, to come and live and work in the Lodge. Examples of that would be the Redtail Hawk from a dream I posted on the Dreams thread here (the Redtail Gifting), and also the Sasquatch tribe who I encountered in a dream a few years ago. This way, I have been able to find a way to access the spirits from my dreams and explore what they have to teach me and also share their gifts with others.

While in the West on the Wheel, I also often travel with my Spirits to the Underworld, or the Upperworld seeking guidance. Generally, things spontaneously appear. But I also have times when I don't quite connect. I try not to let that trouble me. The Unseen World is a place where I try to leave judgement behind. When I feel I am done, I continue walking the Wheel, going to the North, the Above, Below and Within, and give Thanks before coming back to a waking state.

Some of these meditations lead to experiences which are spontaneous, and others are guided, but I am comfortable with either way. What works for me is that I have found a way to get myself in sacred time and space to enter my Lodge, and to work there on Healings as well as rejuvenate myself. I find great calm after I have experienced time in Lodge, even if there have been exciting new experiences to continue to explore.

I have written a piece that describes how I personally walk the Medicine wheel which I can post if that is something you would like to see.

Blessings,
Dakota

[Leswan]

Hi Dakota,

yes, I'd be fascinated to read your peice about how you walk the Medicine wheel.

Thanks

Matt

[Dakota]

Hi Matt,

I posted my piece about walking the Medicine Wheel on a new topic in healing dreams. I love the peace it brings to me. Many traditions share their own version of this. I'd love to have you try it and see how you feel after you have done it.

I'd also love to have you explore building something in the Unseen World. This doesn't have to be done with a partner, though that can be very inspirational. And it can be done in meditation. Let me know what happens if you try it!

[Dakota]

The Tanzanite Crystal Gifting
I am posting the dream of the Tanzanite Crystals and the other wonderful dreams that followed the same night, to show how I took the gifts from my dreams and moved them into a home in my DreamLodge. I will also post something to follow about how I work with these gifts there. Hopefully some of you are experimenting with this process....


The Tanzanite Crystals

I was in some kind of institution with my husband, a university or a museum of some sort and there was a room where they were selling some old things, objects and antiques that were left behind or no longer wanted. A few adults were shuffling through a small room with stuff piled on shelves, floor to ceiling and strewn over and under a long table in the center of the room. People were eagerly and anxiously making their way around the table trying to scout out any treasure before someone else grabbed it. I spied an amazing crystal specimen from across the room high up on a shelf. It was a huge opaque quartz crystal maybe two feet across with these gorgeous single detachable lavender crystal points all over it (21? 26?). It was spectacular. I immediately wanted it, but knew it would be far too valuable for me to be able to afford it. The color was really not distinctly tanzanite, but rather that softer lavender shade that both tanzanite and amethyst share. And these crystal points were not clear gem quality, but rather slightly opaque with magnificent rainbows shimmering in each one. It literally took my breath away. I didn’t really think then that it was mine, as I knew it would be expensive and I thought that I simply could not splurge like that to make it mine. I even remarked out loud, to no one in particular, how valuable that specimen would be as the lavender points were most likely very rare tanzanite. Soon a man, who was with his wife and perhaps teenage children, climbed up on the shelf to inspect it and I realized, that surely he or someone would snatch it up soon. I kept looking around the room as we circled around the table and found nothing more to interest me. Before leaving that area, I wanted to take one last look at the Tanzanite Crystal, but it was gone, and I realized that man must have taken it to buy. I realized I really wanted it, and didn’t want it to leave this place without me at least seeing it again, so I ran out of the room hoping to be able to find whoever had taken it wherever the purchasing area for the institution was.

As I left the room, it appeared that I was in a hospital. The colored lines ran on the floor telling visitors where to go looking for specific types of medical areas. All kinds of working medical personnel, doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators were milling about. I tried to figure out where a gift store would be where someone would pay for whatever they wanted from the room the crystal had been in. Eventually I found a place with cash registers, but there was no sign of that man or his family, nor any sign of the Giant Crystal. I was a bit dejected, knowing that they had most likely bought it and already left, but again I felt that probably it was not meant to be. I wished I had acted earlier when I saw the magnificence of the crystal to recognize it was kindred to me, and had made it mine.

My husband  came out looking for me, and I told him what had happened. He asked me to go back with him to the room with all the objects in it to look for it again just in case. We were both rummaging around the room, now with no one else in it when Sam found it in a different place. It was also in a beautiful new cedar box with a gorgeous rich purple cushioned lining to protect it. It was boxed up and ready to go. My husband gave it to me and I took it with me and never had to pay for it.

And that was the end of that dream.

Later that night I found myself in another institution like setting. I had the box with my new tanzanite crystal and I was going to find a wonderful quiet space to lie down and meditate with it. I pulled out this meditation cushion to lie upon (which I don’t have and have never seen before) and was eager to lie down with my new stones, when I saw a colleague from work. I hesitated because I didn’t want to meditate in front of him, nor did I want him knowing much about my wonderful new healing crystal, but it seemed that I needed to meditate right there and then anyway. I asked him what he was doing there, but it seemed that we were in a place like a natural history museum,  but also a big box store. His wife and son were there, and I realized they were going on a family camping trip and were buying two new style dugout canoes. I thought it was great that he and his family were doing this outdoor adventure together and decided to just tried to meditate right there despite the fact they were there.

That is all I remember of that dream.

Later in the night yet, I had another Crystal Dream. I found myself in a small lecture/demonstration area at UCLA. I scientist was showing a slide show and talking about a wonderful crystal vein they had discovered somewhere and moved, in toto, back to campus to study. This was no ordinary crystal vein. It had some kind of super power that they hadn’t quite yet either fully explored, or been willing to share with the public. I was at this lecture as I had already had an interaction with this fabulous crystal vein when it had first been brought to UCLA. It had been on display briefly to the public and I had been lucky enough to hear about it and also to get to see it. Well, seeing it wasn’t quite right as it was actually a room size bit of terrain with these amazing massive crystals popping up at various places and in various configurations. When I had been to the display people were actually allowed to walk on it, and I could feel the power being exchanged into my body in the various spots where the magical crystals were clustered. The memory of that experience had been so powerful I wanted to learn more about it, only to find that now the authorities were keeping it from the public. I knew it must have some ability that was as yet uncharted by Western Science. Then they showed a short computer animation of the crystal vein as it had appeared in the wild. It was in an old gorge or rift in ancient lands, and had a tiny, crystal clear stream running down its belly ridge. It was very sweet, but you could barely see where the big crystal clusters emerged from the earth. Then I was a bit startled to see a computer generated wild animal, sort of a cross between a deer and a moose, come walking down the stream with his mechanical stick legs and body ambling towards us viewers. It was surprising and I wondered what connection that man made animal had with the amazing powers of the crystals. But the lecture ended there and I didn’t learn any more.

[Dakota]

The Tanzanite Crystal Healings

One: The Initiation Of Dakota

I took the Giant Tanzanite Crystal to my Aumakua in my tropical island home in the spirit world. Aumakua was there to receive the blessing of the healing crystal and she set it down upon the new black sands, of the pristine cove where she greets me. She bid me to lie on the warm sands beside her. My body and soul sank into the black crystal sands knowing I was being sunk into the loving body of the Mother. Aumakua nestled the Giant Crystal into the sand above my head. She blessed the stones with a chant from her Ancestors and called them all to come share with us this great gift. She took the Tanzanite Crystals from the Quartz base, one by one, and began laying them out around my body, with the points carefully pointing in towards me. Aumakua began the layout at my head and then moved around my body, inside my aura, chanting slowly, invoking both her helpers and mine to share in this initiation. The ocean tides were lapping gently along the shore of our little cove enveloping me in an aurel blanket of sounds that was like a sweet and ancient lullaby.

Aumakua used each of the Tanzanite points, having taken them out individually, greeting them and placing them with love. In the tropical sun, the crystals blazed brighter than I had seen them before, the full brilliance of their rainbows dancing with healing energy inside each one. I felt the powers of the Universe, the Ancestors, of even the Star Beings pouring energy into my being, reopening and reawakening the pathways and webs that, while hidden deep within, have always bound me to them outside of time and even space. I breathed in the power of the energy that was the Heart of the Nothingness of Long Ago.

I slept there on our sacred beach with Amakua singing low songs or chanting, and gathering shells and fragrant flowers from the lush gardens along the edge of the cove to lay beside me. The sun went down in a spectacular sunset and the stars began peeking out as twilight turned into the Black Velvet Deep of the night. A tiny sliver moon appeared just above the sunset and soon vanished over the horizon. I could see so many things in that deep tapestry, galaxies far beyond our own and spirits only waiting for our call to come and help us.

The tides rose and fell through the night, and when the dawn began to ease her light upon us, Aumakua was sleeping beside me in and we were ringed with Honu, some laying in her arms. The Tanzanite crystals had rearranged themselves in the night, some now hovering in the air above me, each moving on their own responding to the spirits and my needs. I felt so full of love, so cleansed of need, centered and whole within my body.

When a whole day and night had passed and the tides had risen and fallen twice each, Aumakua gently began lifting the Tanzanite Crystals one by one and placing each back on the Giant Quartz. Each had his or her own defined resting place on the Quartz and slipped securely back into their own home with grace and ease. Aumakua offered me papaya and mango and we ate the rich fruits together smiling on the shore. We both new she had bonded me to the Giant Tanzanite Crystal and that my work was about to begin on an entirely new level.

[Dakota]

The Tanzanite Crystal Healings

Two: Strengthening The Grey Wolf

The same morning I awoke with the gifting of the Tanzanite Crystal, I called The Grey Wolf into Lodge and took him to the beautiful healing fountain we built years ago. The space was lined with beautiful warm sand, and I bathed him in the healing waters. When he was refreshed, I lay him upon the warm sand and began to work with the Tanzanite Crystals. As Aumakua had shown me, I put the Quartz base with all of the tanzanite points on the sand just above his head. I asked the spirit of the Crystals to work with us and began laying out the individual lavender tanzanite around him, points aiming in. I gently sang some of the songs and chants Aumakua had taught me and The Grey Wolf seemed deep in repose. The waters of the spring bubbled softly in the background. I offered many prayers to the Spirits and Ancestors on behalf of him, wishing him to be strong and open as he moves forward in this life and on into the next. The crystals seemed to pulse and glow as they interacted with his energy.  We lay there for hours, and eventually I fell asleep on the sands beside him.

When I awoke, the crystals had all rearranged and were still gently pulsing. The Grey Wolf appeared to be deep in meditation, and was breathing in slow, calm low breaths. I stayed vigil over him until he finally awoke. He was very quiet and smiled gently. I began to remove the Tanzanite points one by one, reversing the order in which they had been laid out. Each again found his or her home on the Quartz Crystal Base. When all were back in their place, The Grey Wolf sat up and I gave him a drink of the cool spring water.  I kissed his head gently and left him to be with his thoughts.

[Tony Crisp]

The Grey Wolf thanks you for all you have given.

GW